Aught Seven, Act Last, Scene: The Cemetery

Legendary tenor Luciano Pavarottie died on September 6th. He was 71. During the spring of 1988, when I was living in Vienna and bought standing room tickets for operas at the Staatsoper (see photo at left) on dozens of occasions, I got a chance to hear all the greats. Pavarotti was, hands down, the best.

Jazz pianist Oscar Peterson died on December 23rd. He was 82. Got to know him first through one of Mom's records (Was it Oscar Peterson Plays the George Gershwin Songbook?). Saw him play at the Ravinia Music Festival a few years back. I'm not a big jazz fan, but I dig Oscar, mostly, I suspect, because the Montreal native played standards and never gave up on the melody.

The video below features Oscar playing Gershwin's "I Can't Get Started."