I agree with everything you've said. When I was a child, my father helped a friend who was broke by purchasing as many records as he could from his collection (not that my family was well-off, but the poor guy deserved some help). Two LPs by Lanza were included in the lot and that's how I discovered him, back in the mid 60's. I was fascinated by his E lucevan le stelle, Furtiva lacchrima and so on. As it happens with Pavarotti, one may think that this is not really opera, but Pavarotti's Turandot remains unchallenged, or so I think.