The "Fat Man" and his great art

The passing of Pavarotti made me want to put on my La Traviata recording and just glory in his voice. I have yet to do this, but will probably do it today.
His voice, so warm and huge and thrilling, is one of the few "voices" that are instantly recognizable. He was always a joy to listen to. In fact when I go to buy opera recordings I almost always pick the one he's on, just because I know that at least his role will be a fine, wonderful, technically brilliant rendition of whatever the role happens to be.
Singing is one of the things that got a lot better after transplant (well, OK, we're still messing with the CI, but I have hopes for that). Can you imagine basically doubling your lung function? Because that's what happened (I'm at about 61% now, and I was 28% pre-tx. So you do the math). Karen, the transplant coordinator, told me that basically only the center of my lungs (closest to the trachea) were working; the rest was scar tissue. But these new lungs are really happy, and music is so much better. Especially in the realms of Opera--breath support sort of important, there. :)
Now if the ears would just catch up...