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When Pavarotti died, people said his voice had the sun of Italy in it.

I think a big reason UD (and much of the country) is crying on Day Two over Dolly Parton is that her voice had the sun of America in it. Not just Tennessee; if it were just that, they’d only be crying in Nashville. Singers like Pavarotti and Parton – the great, rare, singers who make many of us cry – carry something spectacularly, miraculously, expressive in their voice.

Obviously both were technically perfect vocalists; as with Yuja Wang at the piano, you never have a moment’s anxiety about the slightest slip, the smallest dip in energy or sostenuto. The high notes were always there. Big powerful Pavarotti even did falsetto.

There are many wonderful vocalists who sing with these qualities. But I ask you: When did you last shiver listening to Renee Fleming? People like Parton had something more. Immenso giubilo, “the douceur, if that is the word,” the brilliancy of being in the world — somehow Dolly Parton had the heft to make this existential lift. In two notes I always knew Parton and no one else was singing because everyone else lacked this intense infusion of joy, conveyed with super-ringing tonal clarity. It took nothing from religion or romantic love or nature worship or whatever. It was itself, the thing itself, the human capacity for earthly delight. Motiveless mirth.

Her death ends, at least in real time, the pure dance she let us dance with her.

Margaret Soltan, August 26, 2026 1:45PM
Posted in: be still my heart

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One Response to “When Pavarotti died, people said his voice had the sun of Italy in it.”

  1. Matt McKeon Says:

    She also was an extraordinarily kind, generous and compassionate person. And with a great sense of humor

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