Luciano Pavarotti is much more than a decade of the Three Tenors, the charity concerts and discs "Pavarotti & Friends" and not so charming duets with a variety of pop stars. He is one of the most compelling tenor voices this century, a name mentioned in the same breath as Caruso, Gigli, Björling or Corelli. From the searching 1960s, he was launched to stardom in the 1970s and has since marked the pace of modern operatic history.

He passed away in his native Modena on 6 September 2007 after a long battle against pancreatic cancer.