Opera's Luciano Pavarotti Hospitalized In Italy

Opera's Luciano Pavarotti Hospitalized In Italy

(CBS) ROME Opera star Luciano Pavarotti has been hospitalized for tests in his hometown of Modena, in northern Italy, hospital officials and his manager said Thursday.

Pavarotti, who underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer last year, was brought to Modena's Polyclinic two days ago, said manager Terri Robson. Earlier, a hospital spokesman had said Pavarotti was admitted Wednesday.

Robson and officials at the hospital declined to give the reason the 71-year-old tenor was hospitalized, but local daily Il Resto del Carlino reported that it was pneumonia.

Robson said she would issue a statement later.

Il Resto del Carlino reported that Pavarotti was diagnosed with pneumonia as he was vacationing with his family at his villa in Pesaro, a seaside resort on the Adriatic some 125 miles southeast of Modena, where he was born.

In July 2006, Pavarotti had been preparing to leave New York to resume a farewell tour when doctors discovered a malignant pancreatic mass, Robson said at the time. He underwent surgery in a New York hospital, and all his remaining 2006 concerts were canceled.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most dangerous forms of the disease, though doctors said the surgery offered improved hopes for survival.

Pavarotti's wife said in a newspaper interview last month that her husband was "fighting like a lion" against his cancer and was reacting well to radiotherapy.

"I can now say he is doing well," Nicoletta Mantovani told Italian daily La Stampa in that interview. "He's reacting well to a fifth cycle of radiotherapy. He's fighting like a lion and he has never lost his heart, also because a family he adores is by his side."

According to Mantovani, the tenor was considering resuming the "Pavarotti and Friends" benefit concert that used to take place annually in Modena.

Robson, Pavarotti's London-based manager, said in a telephone interview earlier in July that the opera great was teaching and working on a recording of sacred music.