Music colleagues pay homage to a legend

By ARIEL DAVID

ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

ROME — Friends and admirers of Luciano Pavarotti joined in a chorus of grief as the world paid homage to the thrilling voice and exuberant personality of the great Italian tenor who died Thursday.

Amid an outpouring of tributes, the Vienna State Opera raised a black flag in mourning and his northern Italian hometown of Modena, where he died at age 71 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer, said it would name the city’s theater after its native son.

Newscasts and Web sites across the globe, from Israel to the U.S. to Europe, led with news of his death. Radio stations aired his unmistakable recordings in tribute to his memory.

“The whole world will be listening today to his voice on every radio and television station. And that will continue. And that is his legacy. He will never stop,” said conductor Zubin Mehta, who directed Pavarotti in Rome and Los Angeles for his “Three Tenors” concerts with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras.

“I always admired the God-given glory of his voice — that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range,” Domingo said in a statement from Los Angeles. “They threw away the mold when they made Luciano. He will always be remembered as a truly unique performer in the annals of classical music.”