PEOPLE WATCH

Opera Star in the O.R.: Opera star Luciano Pavarotti was a guest in the operating room as a Portland, Ore., doctor performed open-heart surgery on a 60-year-old man. Afterward, the Italian tenor used musical terminology to describe what he had seen--likening the surgical team’s work to “a perfect orchestra with perfect pitch.” Pavarotti had been invited to watch the operation by Dr. Albert Starr, inventor of an artificial heart valve, who met him at a private dinner party. Pavarotti scrubbed with the doctors, put on a surgical mask and gown and watched with interest as Starr implanted an artificial valve in the patient’s heart. Hospital officials say Pavarotti, 54, has a family history of heart disease and his grandfather received one of the first pacemakers.