When my dad came in to say good night, he excitedly handed me a program from the concert in which he and the rest of my extended family sat front row. My parents were invited to a private dinner party and performance of Aida by Pavarotti at the Michigan Opera House following the concert.

"The setting was very formal, the food and wine excellent and we got to spend some time with him simply conversing," said my father. "I remember a very soft spoken guy, very gracious as one might expect."

On the inside cover of that program were personal messages and autographs from all three of the tenors; Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, and Luciano Pavarotti, one of my grandpa’s closest friends.

Luciano Pavarotti, arguably one of the greatest opera tenors of all time, passed away last week from pancreatic cancer at 71. He performed with many music icons including Aretha Franklin, Bono, Sting and Elton John and sang for both the 1990 World Cup and the 2006 Winter Olympics.

He successfully made the crossover from the opera world to popular mainstream artist and philanthropist. He raised over $1.5 million from benefit concerts for the United Nations Refugees, helped Princess Diana raise money to eliminate land mines, and was even initiated into Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, a music fraternity with an active chapter at Albion, as an honorary member in 1978.

Pavarotti began his professional career in the 1960s, but had been training since 1954 when he was 19. It was then that his instructor discovered that Pavarotti had perfect pitch.

This perfect pitch and his great tone in the higher range formed the basis of his trademark "high C", or his capability of reaching the higher notes in his range with ease and grace.

The Three Tenors began in the 1980s and together they made millions in album and recording sales. According to the New York Times, he once received a standing ovation for fifteen minutes and ten curtain calls in a 2004 performance.

My grandpa, Frank D. Stella, met Pavarotti through mutual friends in Modena, Italy. My grandpa was at his 25th wedding anniversary and the orchestrator behind getting Pavarotti to come sing in Detroit to help raise funds for the increasingly debt-ridden Michigan Opera House. He was also there in New York City at an Italian restaurant called San Domenica when Pavarotti was out with his mistress, Nicoletta Montovani; just one memory of many good times together.

Needless to say, I never fully appreciated the depth of my grandpa’s friendship with the opera icon until I was older and realized Pavarotti’s impact on music, something I tremendously value.