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September 15, 2007

An opera purist speaks out

On Wednesday Aidan Lang sat in his office and listened to Paul Potts singing Nessun Dorma. This is the aria from Turandot which Pavarotti, who died last week, made famous as the Italian soccer anthem. It is also the aria Paul Potts sang on Britain's Got Talent, which made him, sort of, famous.

Lang is the general director of the NBR New Zealand Opera, whose production of Turandot opens on Thursday. It seemed a good week to go to see him. He agreed that it was, down to the unlikely idea of the opera man listening to Paul Potts sing the aria in his office.

He said he would, and he did. He would not, you could guess, usually be listening to a CD made by a bloke who got famous on a naff telly show, but I gave him the Potts album as a present.

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