Tenor Luciano Pavarotti, 71, one of the greats dies

TENOR Luciano Pavarotti, 71, has died. He had been gravely ill after his operation for pancreatic cancer last year and return to hospital last month.Pavarotti was taken to hospital with a fever on August 8 in Modena in the north of Italy. He was discharged on August 25 after diagnostic tests were completed. Hailed as one of the greatest tenors of his generation, Pavarotti underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer more than a year ago and has since had at least five rounds of chemotherapy. Following his surgery Pavarotti cancelled subsequent concerts, sparking fears that he may never perform in public again. He was forced to abandon a 40 concert farewell tour that began in May 2004. This summer during a ceremony in honour of the singer on the island of Ischia near Naples, his wife said that Pavarotti had been feeling well and was preparing a new album. "We can never be sure with this illness, but I think that Luciano will pull through," she said. "He is doing well. He is finishing the fifth chemotherapy cycle. He has not lost a hair and he hasn't lost weight." The same day, July 10, Pavarotti called the ceremony's organisers and concluded by saying he was preparing another Pavarotti & Friends album. Overnight, Pavarotti had expressed his "emotion" following the establishment of a "cultural excellence" prize in Italy that he had been the first to receive. He said he was "full of emotion and gratitude ... because it gives me the opportunity to continue to celebrate the magic of a life spent in service of art". Pavarotti broke into the world of opera when he won the top prize in a competition in 1961, for which he was rewarded with the role of Rodolphe in Puccini's La Boheme in nearby Reggio Emilia. He went on to perform across Europe before crossing the Atlantic in February 1965 for a production of Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in Miami, Florida, with Australia's Joan Sutherland as Lucia. It was with Sutherland in February 1972 that Pavarotti truly came of age, taking Covent Garden and the New York Metropolitan Opera by storm with a sparkling production of another Donizetti favourite, La Fille du Regiment. But he managed to shock purists with his appearances in live concerts, sometimes alongside pop musicians. In 1991 a crowd of 150,000, including the Prince and Princess of Wales, braved the rain and cold in London's Hyde Park to hear him sing. The previous year Pavarotti had hit an even wider audience, when his performance of the aria Nessun Dorma, from Puccini's Turandot, was chosen as the theme music for the 1990 Football World Cup, hosted by his native Italy. Among his best-known initiatives in recent years have been his appearances with two other leading singers, Jose Carreras and Placido Domingo, as the Three Tenors, and the annual Pavarotti and Friends concerts in Modena.

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