Pavarotti Passes the Torch - Will Paul Potts Carry it On?

Luciono Pavarotti is a name synonymous with opera singing - effectively bringing the sounds of long past to modern, 20th and 21st century audiences with his brilliant voice and simple love for the genre. Tragically, on Wednesday September 5, 2007, after a year long battle with pancreatic cancer, the renown opera singer succumbed to his illness and left the great throne of opera king vacant. The immediate question is who can fill this great gap?

Perhaps the answer lies in the former Welsh salesman Paul Potts - the "little lump of coal that turned into a diamond" on England's Got Talent in early 2007. With a performance that rocked the audiences and brought one of the show's judges to tears he transformed over night from obscure cell phone salesman with heavy debts to a world recognized singer with internationally sold out albums after his performance of Nessun Dorma.

As was reported in a previous article the "plebeian" performance of Paul Potts was explained - how he did a great service by breaking the social barrier of opera and bringing it down to the "unwashed masses", something that many opera fans detested. The quality of his voice was entirely unimportant - he was not "one of them", and so he was not welcomed.

The people, as it were, would hear none of this however, and Potts has become something of a sensation - maintaining a very popular MySpace and continuing to sell CDs.

Pavarotti has been referred to as "the king of high C's" for the notes he was able to hit - and sold a remarkable 100 million albums, almost unheard of in the opera genre. His death comes as he was hoping to return to his "farewell tour" - which was cut short due to his ailing health. After a number of surgeries that doctors hoped would stem the cancer's growth - which is considered one of the most dangerous forms of the illness - he was attempting to recuperate in his Italian home. It was reported early Wednesday that his situation had become "very grave", before it was finally announced by the Associated Press that the opera star succumbed to the cancer.