The charismatic man who made the world a more beautiful place with his unique voice passed away Thursday at age 71, leaving Italy in deep mourning.

Italian star tenor Luciano Pavarotti passed away Thursday morning at his home in Modena, Italy. He was 71. On October 12, he would have turned 72.

The tenor’s manager, Terri Robson, announced the Associated Press in an e-mail statement that Pavarotti had passed away, after months of suffering from deteriorating health. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last year.

“The Maestro fought a long, tough battle against the pancreatic cancer, which eventually took his life. In fitting with the approach that characterized his life and work, he remained positive until finally succumbing to the last stages of his illness,” the statement said.

After being diagnosed with the terrible illness in the summer of 2006, Pavarotti never quite recovered completely. He underwent medical treatment and cancelled scheduled appearances.

His final public performance was at the Turin Winter Olympics in February 2006, five months before he underwent his cancer surgery.

In early August this year, Pavarotti was hospitalized in his hometown of Modena, in Northern Italy and worrisome reports that his health was rapidly failing surfaced. He was admitted for two weeks with a lung infection before being released August 25.

Vienna’s State Opera mourned the loss of Luciano Pavarotti Thursday, with its artistic director, Ioan Holender, suffering over “the loss of the most beautiful tenor voice of my time.”

Holender’s feelings were echoed by Pavarotti’s friend and colleague Placido Domingo, who confessed Thursday he had 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.”

“I also loved his wonderful sense of humor,” Domingo said in a statement. “On several occasions of our concerts with Jose Carreras - the so-called Three Tenors concerts - we had trouble remembering that we were giving a concert before a paying audience, because we had so much fun between ourselves.”

The enjoyment Pavarotti and his two friends and colleagues had during these memorable concerts was mirrored by the audiences’, enthralled and wrapped in the beauty the three were creating.

Pavarotti has doubtlessly made many a person happier and more grateful to be alive.

The tenor, famed for his unique high C’s, was born on October 12, 1935 in Modena, a town in north-central Italy. He initially considered a career as a professional football player and eventually turned to teaching, working as an elementary school teacher for a couple of years.

By his mid-20s, Pavarotti decided to pursue his passion for music and made his opera debut in 1961, in the role of Rodolfo in Puccini’s “La Bohème.,” in Reggio Emilia.

Five years later, Pavarotti performed for the first time in the US, with the Greater Miami Opera. In 1966, he took the stage for the first time at Milan’s prestigious La Scala, again as Rodolfo in “La Bohème.”

In the following years, Pavarotti steadily gained a loyal audience, increasing as time went by, and became a star of the opera.

Active for some 45 years, the Maestro performed in all the major opera houses in the world from La Scala to the New York Metropolitan Opera and London's Covent Garden to the Vienna State Opera.

The world’s most famous sopranos joined him on stage, such as Joan Sutherland, with whom he made his American debut in 1961, Montserrat Caballe, Fiorenza Cossotto and Ileana Cotrubaş.

Pavarotti was grateful for his voice and called it a gift from God. He even compared a tenor’s high notes with a bullfight. “You are not allowed one mistake,” he said. “I suppose there is something undeniably exciting about a grown man singing full out those difficult, unnatural high C’s. It creates a wild, almost animal excitement.”

Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras became The Three Tenors in 1990, when they debuted on the eve of the World Cup final in Italy in 1990. They performed in the ancient Baths of Caracalla in Rome. Pavarotti’s rendition of Nessun Dorma, the glorious aria from Puccini's “Turandot,” became the World Cup's theme song that year.

The Three Tenors were hugely successful and the recording of the concert sold more than 10 million copies, making it the best-selling classical album of all time.

Pavarotti was also involved in humanitarian projects. He hosted the Pavarotti and Friends benefit concerts in Modena, performing with international rock and pop stars. In 2001, Pavarotti received the Nansen Medal from the UN High Commission for Refugees for his efforts raising money on behalf of refugees worldwide.

The Maestro had three daughters during his 35-year marriage to Adua Veroni and one daughter from his second marriage to his assistant Nicoletta Mantovani. He and Nicoletta were married in 2003, after several years of being together. Daughter Alice is now 4. Pavarotti is also survived by one grandchild.

Singer Andrea Bocelli considered Big Luciano to be “the last charismatic figure of our time.”

“Those who love beautiful singing experience a sort of unbounded admiration for him,” Bocelli once said.

Pavarotti himself loved sharing his God-given gift with the world. “I want to bring people good music and make them happy,” he said. “Music, like sport, should be for everybody.”

As a tribute to the great tenor, the State Opera in Vienna displayed black flags of mourning, an honor usually reserved for honorary members of the house.

The mayor of Modena has announced that the town’s theater will be named after Luciano Pavarotti. “A great artist has left us, a good man. Luciano Pavarotti brought glamour to Modena,” Giorgio Pighi said.