Although I don’t listen to opera that much now, there was a time when I was younger that it was a part of my daily ritual. La Boheme and fresh pasta. Tosca and fresh pasta. Carmen and fresh pasta. (We bought a pasta machine around that time. Man, did it get a workout. I’m so sick of pasta now that I don’t care if I never see a strand of spaghetti again.) Judging by his size, Pavarotti never lost his linguini love. Enjoy Part One of the big guy. Part Two will be coming next Friday.

Jamie: Big guy. Big guy here.

Me: Yes, he was big.

Jamie: He’s the—

Me: Opera dude. Amazing voice.

Jamie: He’s got a beard and a larger forehead.

Me: That’s him. Luciano, how are you?

(Pause)

Jamie (to Luciano): Oh, speak English!

I chuckle.

Jamie (laughing hard): C’mon! I know you speak English!

(Pause)

Jamie: The way he speaks is, um. (To Luciano) Excuse me; am I going to be rude if I say this?

Luciano: Please, go ahead.

Jamie: The way he talks to you is like he’s about to slide his hand inside your shirt and cup your breast and give you a kiss.

We both giggle.

Jamie: His voice is incredible. It’s very full.

Me: Yes.

Jamie: So, it’s very wooing, like, “It won’t matter if I just cup you and hold you and caress you,” but it’s not aggressive or rude.

Me: You’re describing his voice perfectly! Very seductive.

Erik (leaning in): I can learn a lot from this guy.

Jamie and I laugh.

Jamie (to Erik): First of all, you’d have to change your voice.

Luciano: My love, where are we going in this interview?

Interview? Oh, yeah.

Me: First of all, I want to tell you how much I love your voice. Rune and I have listened to your music many times in the past.

Luciano (placing his hand on his chest): Thank you.

Me: What was your spiritual mission this past lifetime?

Jamie (chuckling): He’s just talking away. I totally missed it, so I asked him to start again! He’s very round and firm. He’s not one of those fat people who wiggle when they talk. Solid, big, stocky.

Luciano: In my lifetime, my spiritual mission was to be with inside myself and follow my heart. Everyone must know that their heart and their dreams are different. Dreams sustain us and keep us moving forward, but the heart tells us where to step. As a child—

Jamie: He talks with his hands. His arms are just flying.

Luciano: As a child, I had great dreams of playing sports, but my heart kept moving me towards music and harmony and variations of songs, bars—

This technical musical term confuses Jamie.

Jamie (to Luciano): Can you say it another way?

Jamie laughs.

Jamie: I don’t know what he called me, but it sounded very sweet! “Oh my little, bu-bu-bu,” whatever that word was! He patted me on the shoulder. He’s very touchy!

Me: Italians, you know.

Jamie (to Luciano): Oh, are you Italian? Of course you are!

Luciano: I could take a short song and change it in so many different ways. So I had to learn how to follow what was inside me and not my dreams.

Me: So that was what you were here to learn, then?

Luciano: Yes. (Cupping his fingers together and putting the left hand on top, then the right and so on) That was the mission and the learning go hand in hand for me.

Me: Were you here to teach anything?

(Pause)

Jamie (frustrated): The way he goes with it. I don’t know why I’m getting lost. I’m just going to do this in “Jamie words.”

Me: Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead.

Jamie: Because he’s cruising.

Me: Oh my god.

Jamie: He was saying that he was teaching those who came across his path that everybody has a purpose whether they see it in a grand way like the public eye or the political eye or if it’s very small like the design of a product or being a mother or a father. He always encouraged people to do exactly what they saw fit for themselves. In his life, he didn’t make a lot of sacrifices. The family that he chose to be in supported what his spiritual mission and lesson was. So he didn’t have a lot of fighting to do. He didn’t have to struggle, so the way that he taught people is to let them know that there didn’t need to be a fight or struggle. He was very happy to move with ease. He says it’s very important to stay completely honest with your own heart no matter what everyone else is pointing you toward, no matter what everyone else is telling you.

Luciano: That’s very, very important.

Here’s a YouTube that shows off his masterful voice.