I’ve been attempting to track down the entirety of Luciano Pavarotti’s Pavarotti and Friends, a 2002 benefit concert for Angolan refugees, ever since I saw his brilliant duet with Lou Reed on “Perfect Day.” There’s just something so absurd and charming about this classical operatic tenor with a pop culture presence, using that leverage to reach out to such an erratic assortment of musicians for charity. I haven’t found the whole show on YouTube yet, but there’s video of his duet with Grace Jones, and it is phenomenal.

In a fantastic moment of grand drama, some members of the audience break into laughter upon Jones’ entrance—whether it’s nervous, derisive or joyous I cannot tell. Ever the gracious stateswoman, Grace radiates… well, grace, and blows them away with the strange and powerful performance. Pavarotti is characteristically brilliant, and I’m not sure if he picked his guests for the special, but he pairs with Jones beautifully.
 

 
This Pavarotti and Friends special from 2002 was actually a benefit for Angola, and while it was performed and filmed in Modena, Italy, it got some pretty big international names. Andrea Bocelli was obviously there (the other really, really famous opera singer), as well as Grace Jones (cool!), James Brown (wow!), and Sting (eyeroll). And out of all those weird pairings Luciano and Lou is still the weirdest, but honestly, I’m so happy this exists. I love opera, and I love that Lou made a daring choice with the song.

Maybe the execution is a little unwieldy, but really, the song is a perfect choice for Pavarotti! Dramatic delivery, romantic swells—the song is perfectly primed for operatic pathos. Plus, Pavarotti’s stage makeup here could totally hold its own to glam-era Lou Reed. That brow pencil work is some expert-level shit.