Italian tenor Gianni Raimondi has died at age 85

Raimondi, who sang with diva Maria Callas and other opera legends, has died aged 85, Milan's La Scala opera house said Friday. Raimondi died on Sunday, 19 OCT 2008, at his home in Pianoro near Bologna in central Italy. La Scala said in in a statement that he had requested that his death not be announced until after his private funeral. La Scala described Raimondi, who was born in 1923, as having "one of the biggest voices of his time." Raimondi gave 270 performances, including a standout display in Luchino Visconti's 1956 version of Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata". He appeared in Vienna, Berlin, London and New York and worked with Callas and orchestra great Herbert von Karajan at La Scala.

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Neal Hefti

Neal Hefti (born October 29, 1922, Hastings, Nebraska Died October 11, 2008)

...American jazz trumpeter, composer, tune writer, and arranger. He began arranging professionally in his teens, when he wrote charts for Nat Towles. He became a prominent composer and arranger while playing trumpet for Woody Herman; while working for Herman he provided new arrangements for "Woodchopper's Ball" and "Blowin' Up a Storm," and composed "The Good Earth" and "Wild Root." After leaving Herman's band in 1946, Hefti concentrated on arranging and composing, although he occasionally led his own bands. He is especially known for his charts for Count Basie such as "Li'l Darlin'" and "Cute". The wikipedia bio goes on...In the 1960s and later he composed and arranged mainly for movies and television. He wrote the background music for movies such as Sex and the Single Girl, How to Murder Your Wife, Synanon, Boeing Boeing, Harlow, Lord Love a Duck, Duel at Diablo, Oh Dad Poor Dad Mama's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad, and Barefoot in the Park. His best-known contributions of this period are the themes for the TV series Batman and The Odd Couple.

WEB - IMAGES - SHOP Neal Hefti