Italian opera star Luciano Pavarotti, hailed by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, died yesterday after a long battle with cancer, his manager Terri Robson said.

"The great tenor Luciano Pavarotti died today (Thursday) at 5 a.m. at his home in Modena," Mr 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 London's Covent Garden in 1963 and 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, singing Puccini's aria Nessun Dorma.

In July last year, Mr 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.

Mr 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.

"He remained optimistic and confident that he would overcome the disease and had been determined to return to the stage to complete his Worldwide Farewell Tour," the statement said. He is survived by his wife, Nicoletta, their four-year-old daughter, Alice, as well as three daughters from Mr Pavarotti's first marriage. The news saddened Italians, particularly those in Modena, Mr Pavarotti's hometown. Police stood watch outside Mr Pavarotti's villa as television crews gathered.

"For Modena, it is a enormous loss. Modena is known to the world thanks to Mr Pavarotti," said Antonio Dibiccari, 39.

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

Earlier in his life, Mr Pavarotti's parents wanted him to have a steady job and for a while he worked as an insurance salesman and a teacher.

He started singing on the operatic circuit and his big break came thanks to another Italian opera great, Giuseppe di Stefano, who dropped out of a London performance of La Bohème in 1963.

Covent Garden had lined up "this large young man" as a possible stand-in and a star was born.

In 1972 he famously hit nine high C's in a row in Daughter of the Regiment at New York's Metropolitan Opera, which he referred to as "my home".

Thirty years later, Mr Pavarotti was still one of the highest paid classical singers even though his public performances were fewer and further between.

Mr Robson said that up until just weeks before his death, Mr Pavarotti gave several hours each day to teaching his pupils at his summer villa in Pesaro, on Italy's Adriatic Coast. Mr Pavarotti launched an academy for young singers in Modena two years ago.

"He was also planning to complete a recording of sacred songs and unveil the next phase of the Mr Pavarotti International Voice Competition," the statement said.

Factbox

Mr Pavarotti was born in the Italian town of Modena in October 1935. Sports occupied much of his time and he earned his first local fame as a member of the town's soccer team. He first sang in the Modena chorus with his father, a fervent opera lover and gifted amateur tenor.

Debut and rise to fame
His debut came in April 1961, in Puccini's popular opera La Boheme, at the opera house in Reggio Emilia. That success led to engagements throughout Italy and the world, where he conquered audiences in Amsterdam, Vienna, Zurich, New York and London.

His big break came in London thanks to another Italian opera great tenor Giuseppe di Stefano, who dropped out of a performance of La Bohème in 1963. His American debut came in February 1965, in a Miami production of an opera by Gaetano Donizetti, Lucia di Lammermoor with Joan Sutherland, the beginning of what would become an historic partnership.

The high C's
In 1972, in a production of Donizetti's La Fille du Regiment Mr Pavarotti sang an aria containing nine effortless high C's. The audience erupted in a frenzied ovation, and the young tenor's reputation soared beyond the confines of opera and classical music.

The three tenors
In 1990 Mr Pavarotti joined Spanish stars Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras at the soccer World Cup and introduced operatic classics to millions of football fans around the world.

Sales of opera albums shot up after the gala concert in Rome's Baths of Caracalla was beamed to 800 million people, and strains of Puccini's Nessun Dorma from his opera Turandot became as fixed a feature of football mania as the usual more raucous chants.

A new family
While Mr Pavarotti's stage star faded in his sixties, he found new personal life, leaving his wife of 37 years for an assistant 34 years his junior and younger than his three daughters. The black-bearded singer married Nicoletta Mantovani after an acrimonious divorce.

Medical problems beset "Big Luciano" in the final years of his career, forcing him to cancel several dates of his marathon worldwide farewell tour. He underwent surgery in July last year to remove a pancreatic tumour and was not seen in public after that.

Moments from Luciano Pavarotti's life in pictures.