TIME Goes to the Opera

1979: Luciano Pavarotti
"The Pavarotti voice inspires some opera buffs to evoke the pre-World War I Golden Age, and others to proclaim a new one. "It's a phenomenal instrument, one of those freaks of nature that come very rarely in a hundred years," says Conductor Richard Bonynge. Clear and penetrating, it has a brilliant, metallic timbre and yet remains warm, with a gorgeous romantic sheen."
From: Opera's Golden Tenor, Sep. 24, 1979

• Lincoln Center's New Design