Pavarotti dies at 71

By Gilles Castonguay Reuters - 14 minutes agoMODENA, Italy (Reuters) - Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti, hailed by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, died early on Thursday after a long battle with cancer, his manager Terri Robson said.

"The great tenor Luciano Pavarotti died today at 5 a.m. at his home in Modena," Robson said in a statement. He was 71.

"The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer which eventually took his life.

"In fitting with the approach that characterised his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness."

The rotund, black-bearded tenor known as "Big Luciano" helped bring opera to the masses and performed to vast stadium audiences round the world.

He shot to fame with a stand-in appearance at Covent Garden in 1963 and had soon had critics gushing about his voluminous voice.

His last public singing performance was at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Turin in February 2006.

In July last year, Pavarotti underwent surgery in New York for pancreatic cancer and retreated to his villa in Modena. He had to cancel his first planned public reappearance a few months later.

Pavarotti was taken to a hospital in Modena last month and treated for more than two weeks. He was released on August 25, and spent his final hours at home with family and friends nearby, the statement said.

A Modena television station reported on Wednesday that Pavarotti had lost consciousness and suffered kidney failure towards the end of his life.

Perhaps Pavarotti's biggest gift to the music world was when he joined forces with Spanish stars Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras at the 1990 football World Cup and introduced operatic classics to an estimated 800 million people around the globe."

awwww, that's very sad

Very sad.

RIP to one of the greatest singers that will ever live.

Very sad, he was possibly the best opera singer in the world

RIP Luciano Pavarotti.

It's a lie. The dude's not dead. He's fucking immortal.

Heard on the news last night that he was critically ill in hospital and it shocked me!

Hoped he'd pull through, but then woke up to the sad news this morning.

He was a legend in the music world!

FUCKING LEGEND!

I usually avoid these 'omgz he died and he was noice kimmy' type of threads but this one is different.

He was such a big figure, and a great character to have. He also did a lot of work for charities which i think i remarkable.

His legacy will live on forever.

Read about him being close to death in The Sun this morning, and then I put the TV on and Channel 4 news were reporting his death. Felt pretty sad. Gonna download Nessun Dorma later methinks.

Very sad, RIP to one of the greatest of all time.

R.I.P

he will always be rememberd hes a legend

Saddened to hear the news of the death of an opera legend and tireless charity supporter

Luciano Pavarotti, resto nella pace.

Cracking singer, although I'm a bit annoyed at the fella for popping his clogs now seeing as how he's cost me 2 pints cos 2 of my mates have them in their death pool.

Luciano, o inventor do Tiger No Pacote?

R.I.P Big Man

I feel bad for the Italians, lossing Pavarotti like that. I know just how it feels, i lost a tenner last week...

Bit soon? Someone at work told me that one, ranks second on the insensitivity meter to one of my other mates going to a haloween party last year dressed Steve Irwin (complete with Sting-Ray)

On a serious note, rest in piece big man! You'll be much missed

R.I.P. Big Lucy

ginger chris' comment on the locked thread about this made me lol hard.

......RIP.......