Luciano Pavarotti - 20th Century Masters: The Best Of Luciano Pavarotti (2007)

Universal's ubiquitous Twentieth Century Masters series is mostly oriented toward popular music, offering no-frills but generally reliable greatest-hits collections for artists whose catalogs may often present a variety of compilations, confusing for the buyer. There's nothing really wrong with this group of Luciano Pavarotti selections, but the great Italian tenor is not especially accurately represented here. Nearly half the selections are Neapolitan songs or come from related semi-popular genres. Pavarotti has a good time with these, but he is less noted for singing them than are other operatic figures. There are no texts, booklet notes, or materials of any kind that identify when or where Pavarotti sang the music performed or who is accompanying him (indeed, the packaging proudly proclaims its biodegradability); from the sonic and stylistic evidence these are older recordings. For the buyer looking for a Pavarotti CD to quickly pop in the player for an Italianate commute, this will fill the bill at an attractive price. But Decca's A Portrait of Pavarotti provides a better choice for buyers wanting an introduction to the greatest opera star of our times, with selections drawn from the heart of the Verdi and Puccini repertories.