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So, as usual, I have a new interest. It will probably last another week or two before I find something else to focus on, but for now I'm suddenly very into learning about opera. For a couple of months now, in the back of my mind, I've been thinking that I would really like to be able to distinguish between the voices of Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras (the famous "Three Tenors"). There's no practical reason to be able to do this, it's just something that sort of entered my brain as a kind of 'bucket list' addition several months ago and is still there. I've decided to act upon it. (Sort of like in high school when I decided I really needed to be able to sing all the words to the Barenaked Ladies' song "One Week" without having to have the lyrics in front of me. Ten years later, that one is still in the works.)

But, last night I had a bit of a breakthrough on the opera bucket list item. I can officially pick Pavarotti's voice out on "Nessun Dorma" from the opera "Turandot" as compared to Carreras or Domingo. It's a beautiful song and I had no trouble listening to it over and over and over last night. (Plus I have it on a mix cd that's in my car right now, along with "La donn' e' mobile", which has gotten me some interesting looks as the weather has been nice lately and my windows are down with the opera music blaring as I drive through campus.)

But, I love hearing it. My whole body turns into one big ear when I hear this voice and I just sort of sit as quietly as I think I ever have and just listen:

(How lucky are we to be able to pull up a video of him singing and hear this voice at a moment's notice? I sometimes really do marvel at the times we live in.)

I think I might be very close to being able to single Pavarotti's out from the other two. I think I just prefer it to the other two, also. This little task has also made me really want to see some operas. I've not really seen that many and I understand the story lines of fewer than I've actually seen. I took a music appreciation class in college as an arts requirement and was introduced to some opera, but mostly I am ignorant of opera as a genre. I plan to remedy this! I can't figure out which opera I want to see first, but I have a feeling it will hinge upon what I can find at the library. But, as a bucket list addendum, I think this is a good one that is making me slightly more informed of a genre of music in which I am mostly ignorant. I own the movie version of "The Phantom of the Opera", but that's such a new opera and it's in English...I don't really feel like that's much of a challenge. It's beautiful music, but I want more of a challenge than that. I don't know if my interest is because most operas are in a foreign language, or if it's just that I never paid attention, but I am going to try to pay attention while my interest is focused on it and see what happens. I figure if I can come out of this little foray into the opera world with even a smidgen of a better understanding of at least one full opera in a language other than English, it will be good.