Luciano Pavarotti

Luciano Pavarotti, born in Modena on 12 October 1935, was the operatic tenor who did the unthinkable and took arias to the masses. He began his professional career in Italy in 1961 and made his name in bel canto operas, the Verdi roles before Aida, and Puccini works such as La bohème, Tosca, Turandot and Madama Butterfly, with a tone so golden and a top so secure that they called him the "King of the High Cs". He recorded complete operas and arias by the armful, with Decca as his label.

Then he broke out of the opera house entirely. As one of the Three Tenors, he sang their first concert at the 1990 FIFA World Cup in front of a worldwide audience, and the first Three Tenors album became the best-selling classical record ever. Televised concerts and a steady stream of media appearances followed, and he crossed over into popular music late in his career. Over it all he sold more than 100 million records, and fittingly, his final performance was "Nessun dorma" from Turandot, at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.

He poured energy into charity work for refugees and the Red Cross, and he received the Nansen Refugee Award in 2001 among a stack of honors, from Italy's Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit in 1988 to the Grammy Legend Award in 1998. He died of pancreatic cancer on 6 September 2007.

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