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ROME - Opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, diagnosed with cancer last year, is in a satisfactory condition after being admitted to hospital, doctors said today.
Pavarotti, regarded by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, was taken to hospital with a fever in his home town of Modena. Italian media reported that he was being treated in the hospital's cancer ward.
A hospital spokesman said he was likely to be discharged in the next few days.
The hospital declined to comment on a newspaper report that the singer, who had surgery to remove a pancreatic tumor in July 2006, was suffering from pneumonia. The spokesman said there would be no further announcements on Thursday.
Pavarotti's wife Nicoletta Mantovani paid him a visit at the Policlinico hospital yesterday. She declined to speak to reporters waiting outside.
Cancer surgery forced Pavarotti to cancel the remaining dates of his 2006 farewell opera tour.
The 71-year-old had vowed to return to the stage this year, but he has not been seen in public since the operation and called off a number of appearances in the past few months.
Il Resto del Carlino, a daily newspaper serving the region around Modena, wrote that Pavarotti's condition had deteriorated in the past few days and he was suffering from a bout of pneumonia.
Since his operatic debut in 1961, the rotund, black-bearded tenor has become one of the most recognized classical musicians in the world, regularly gracing the stage at New York's Metropolitan Opera, London's Covent Garden and Milan's La Scala.
His fame grew when he sang the Nessun Dorma aria from Giacomo Puccini's opera Turandot at the soccer World Cup in Italy in 1990 alongside Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.
Pavarotti's London-based manager, Terri Robson, last month denied his condition had worsened. She said he was working on a recording of sacred songs and also teaching students daily.
- REUTERS
