LOS ANGELES – “I’m preparing myself to be focused on the evening, because when we sing we sing without a microphone for three hours, it’s a lot of hard work and you need to be focused on diction,” said Saimir Pirgu.

Pirgu is practicing for his last performance as Rodolfo in LA Opera’s production of La Boheme.

“It’s a beautiful story to know, it’s about humanity and it’s about two people that love each other, they get a lesson from life,” says Pirgu.

He is a world-renowned tenor and is nearing the end of his two-month stay in city of angels.

“The show on Sunday is the last one and usually that’s when we are waiting to leave from the city, but I don’t want to go from L.A., I love this city,” says Pirgu as he walks, sun in his face, to a nearby café.

He was born in Albania in 1981, and started singing at a young age.

“I’m doing this dream for 18 years and I’m happy, I’m continuing this way,” says Pirgu who always dreamed of being an Opera singer. “One day I saw the concert with three tenors and from that moment I decided to be one of them.”

Not only did he become a tenor, he became one of the best in the world. His talent took him to places he had never been, and introduced him to his mentor Luciano Pavarotti, as well as the tenor, Placido Domingo.

“Actually, I have sung with Domingo in metropolitan and around the world,” said Pirgu.

Domingo helped bring a young Pirgu to L.A., 11 years ago for his Southern California debut. So, the news of Placido’s departure from the LA Opera has affected him.

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“Everything [that] happens right now is sad for me, sad for everyone, sad for [the] opera world,” said Pirgu.

But the show must go on, and Pirgu is focused on using the lessons he learned from those great tenors, in order to have a magnetic last performance on Sunday October 6.

“You can see public enjoying that, and they’re not so far form the lighting. As soon as they see the duet, they grab each other because it’s the most romantic duet in opera world,” says Pirgu.

And that’s one his biggest satisfactions, bringing art and beauty to everyday life.

“This isn’t a job for me, it’s my life, being an opera singer,” said Pirgu.