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It was I, in accord with my mother, who selected a bit of la Bohème for my father's funeral ceremony. The reasons were 1) that he was fond of this opera, mostly because Puccini had respected its literary source, Scènes de la vie de Bohème, by Henri Murger (as he was fond of Bizet's Carmen for its relative faithfulness to Prosper Mérimée); and 2) because it was the opera in which I had made my official début (in the role of Colline), with my friend Luciano Pavarotti. We were the winners, each in his vocal category, of the Reggio Emilia Competition for Young Opera Singers, and the first prize was a début, in Reggio and in Modena, in la Bohème. My parents came from Montreux for the occasion, accompanied by my Aunt Hélène and my Uncle Kiril, and it remained a fond family recollection.

My parents lived at the time at the Hôtel Montreux-Palace, but my father died, in Mother's presence and mine, at the Nestlé Hospital, a part ot the CHUV (the University Hospital Center of the Canton of Vaud), in Lausanne. He is buried, with Mother, at the cemetery in Clarens, a part of Montreux.