While quite how excited an artist can get about an award after their demise is debatable (at best), perhaps depending on one's religious views, the U.K.'s Classic Brits have announced that they will bestow a posthumous award on Luciano Pavarotti.
It honors the impact he made globally for the cause of classical music.
There's no denying that, and as the timing chimes rather nicely with Decca's 50th anniversary celebrations of the tenor's first performances, it should help sell some CD box sets as well.
In a statement, Pavarotti's widow, Nicoletta Mantonani-Pavarotti, said, "It is wonderful that the music industry is honouring Luciano in this way...it is beautiful that the Classic Brits are helping to keep his memory alive."
Pavarotti was to have received the Brits' Lifetime Achievement Award but died before it could be given to him.
At the October 2 ceremony at London's Royal Albert Hall, Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja will perform in tribute to him. Other artists performing at the awards include Lang Lang and Nicola Benedetti.
The composer Ludovico Einaudi will also put in an appearance, it has been announced.
And another composer, Hans Zimmer, will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Music award. There will be a tribute to that film composer, too, on the night--though presumably without gladiators fighting live tigers or anyone dressed as a bat.
The ceremony will be televised at a later date.
