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Leading opera singer dies following a scooter accident

Leading opera singer dies following a scooter accident

LEADING opera singer Salvatore Licitra has died after suffering head injuries in a scooter accident last month. He was 43.

Mr. Licitra had crashed on August 27 in the Sicilian town of Ragusa and had been on life-support since then.

The Tenor was affectionately known in Italy as the ‘new Pavarotti’. He got his big break in 2002 when he stepped in for Pavarotti in Puccini’s Tosca at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

Mr. Licitra, who was born in Switzerland to Sicilian parents, made his debut at La Scala in Milan in 1998 in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino (The Force of Destiny). 

Among the many tributes was one from Peter Gelb of the New York Met who said: “Salvatore Licitra was one of the greatest natural tenors of his generation.”

Antonio Pappano, Music Director of the Royal Opera House in London also paid tribute to Mr. Licitra.

He said: “Salvatore sang with an open throat and and an open heart and for him to be taken in this way before he could reach his full potential is such a shame.”

A statement from the hospital in Sicily where Mr. Licitra died said his family had agreed to make his organs available for transplant.

To see Salvatore Licitra sing Nessun Dorma click here.

 

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