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Luciano Pavarotti dies at 71

Pavarotti had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year. Photo courtesy of Karim Jaafar/Agence France-Presse | Getty Images

BBC story

Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti has died, his manager has announced.

The singer, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year, died at his home in the northern city of Modena, at the age of 71.

He had been admitted to hospital there with a fever on 8 August. He was released two weeks later following diagnostic tests.

Pavarotti had cancer surgery in July 2006 in New York, and had not made any public appearances since then.

His farewell tour was interrupted then to remove a malignant tumour. He underwent five bouts of chemotherapy in the past year.

Luciano Pavarotti gives a concert marking the 40th anniversary of his debut, in Modena, Italy, in 2001. AP photo

'Long, tough battle'
Although his wife had told papers he was fighting like a lion, it had been feared, seemingly correctly, that he had gone home to die among his friends and family, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Rome.

Manager Terri Robson said in a statement that the tenor died at 0500 local time (0300 GMT) on Thursday.

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

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

Pavarotti enjoyed 40 years on the world stage and became one of the world's biggest-selling artists.

He brought a new audience to opera, particularly with his signature tune Nessun Dorma, from Puccini's Turandot, which became associated with the 1990 football World Cup.

Nessun Dorma was part of his final performance, at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Turin in February 2006.

Pavarotti has supported the Tibetan cause and the education of thier children. — Ed.