An obituary appears here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/5158416.stm

RIP.

Absolutely, and many of them are benchmark recordings of their kind.  For the rest of it - he retired from the stage when it seemed reasonable for him to do so, and if he spent his later years enjoying himself and raising a lot of money for charities in the process, then it seems to me that no-one was really inconvenienced too severely

Rest in Peace, Luciano, and Thank you

Tommo

It is very sad news indeed. I know that some winced at his 'pop' activities. However, I would much rather have had the Big Man as an advocate for opera than Russell Watson, Katherine Jenkins and their ever proliferating ilk. I found it sad when watching BBC Breakfast to see Mr Watson's cliche ridden attempt to eulogise Pavarotti. I don't doubt his sincerity. What I find sad is the assumption that Mr Watson is somehow 'equivalent' to Pavarotti and therefore best qualified to speak about him. By contrast, the tributes from Placido Domingo and an evidently moved Rosalind Plowright were so much more eloquent.

Anyway, I'll get off my soapbox. At his best in the 60s and early 70s, Pavarotti was an incomperable lyric tenor. His impeccable legato never precluded his superb diction and word colouring. And his range up to high D in full voice was matched by few. By way of a small tribute, when I returned home this evening I played him singing 'Che gelida manina' from Karajan's La Boheme . I hadn't heard this for a long time and I found myself marvelling at all the things noted above, as well as the ease of tonal production and (something sometimes missed in discussions of the tenor), a Gigli-esque 'face' to the characterisation that is utterly charming.

I remember reading a number of years ago about the young Pavarotti attending a Gigli recital. He met the older tenor after the concert and asked him how long he had to practice to become a great singer. Gigli replied: 'I've just finished practising'. I find it both moving but somehow apt that Pavarotti died in 2007, some 50 years after Gigli in 1957. For all their faults, these were two masters of bel canto style who gave and will continue to give millions of people great pleasure. 

Sadly, it's events like this that bring out the very worst in the media.  Maybe we notice it particularly with the BBC, because some of us remember when an opera singer's operatic colleagues would have been called upon to lead the tributes.  The fact that Radio 4 is prepared to wheel out some part-time Irish political activist to give his two pennorth is a sad sign of the times.

Yes, of course, it's only right that his charitable work should be remembered.  But how about wheeling out some of the beneficiaries of his Modena competitions to talk about it, instead? When you add Bono to the roll-call of Jenkins, et al, it becomes obvious that the Beeb are a bit too keen to show familiar faces to Joe and Joana Public.