BBC Two is dedicating an evening to the life and legacy of Luciano Pavarotti
The Three Tenors opera singers in December 2000(Image: BBC)
The BBC is celebrating the life of Luciano Pavarotti tomorrow night on what would have been his 90th birthday. Four programmes will air back-to-back, and will celebrate life, career, and enduring legacy of the operatic legend.
The tribute begins at 8.40pm with Pavarotti at the BBC, a curated collection of memorable performances from the broadcaster’s archives. At 9.45pm, the 2004 documentary Pavarotti: The Last Tenor follows, chronicling the singer’s rise from his childhood in Modena, Italy, to international superstardom.
At 11.15pm, viewers can experience Pavarotti in London, a concert featuring works by Verdi, Puccini, and more, performed with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra before a distinguished audience that included Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.
The evening concludes at 12.15am with Pavarotti: King of the High Cs, an intimate documentary filmed in Modena, Pesaro, and Verona. In it, Pavarotti reflects on his life and artistry while performing under the direction of conductor Leone Magiera.
When did Pavarotti die and what was his cause of death?
Pavarotti died on September 6, 2007, at the age of 71, at his home near Modena in northern Italy.
His manager, Terri Robson, confirmed the cause of death as pancreatic cancer. He had undergone surgery for the illness in New York in July 2006 and made no public appearances thereafter.
He was hospitalised again in the summer of 2007 and discharged shortly before his passing.
Widely considered the defining tenor of his generation, Pavarotti became known as the “King of the High Cs”, thanks to the power and clarity of his upper vocal range.
Opera star Luciano Pavarotti and Nicoletta Mantovani smile as they leave the Teatro Comunale at the end of their wedding in 2003(Image: Franco Origlia/Getty Images)
He rose to international acclaim in the 1960s and 70s with his traditional recitals. From the 1980s onwards, he helped bring opera to global audiences with the Three Tenors – a project alongside Plácido Domingo and José Carreras.
Their concerts, including those staged around the FIFA World Cup, attracted millions of viewers worldwide.
In the 1990s, Pavarotti further expanded his reach with the Pavarotti and Friends concerts, where he shared the stage with artists from across the pop and rock spectrum, including Elton John, Sting and Bono.
His final years were marked by illness, which forced him to cut short a planned worldwide farewell tour that began in 2004.
Where are The Three Tenors now?
The Three Tenors were an operatic supergroup formed by Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo, and José Carreras. The trio first performed together on July 7, 1990 at the FIFA World Cup Final in Rome – a landmark concert watched by millions worldwide. Their unique blend of operatic arias and popular classics introduced opera to a global audience.
Following the enormous success of their debut, the Three Tenors continued to perform together throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, staging concerts in Los Angeles (1994), Paris (1998), and Yokohama (2002), among others. The trio’s final show together was in 2003 at the Schottenstein Center in Columbus in Ohio.
The Three Tenors’ signature songs included “Nessun Dorma”, “O Sole Mio”, “Granada” and “My Way”. Luciano Pavarotti died in 2007, and as of 2025, Plácido Domingo and José Carreras continue to perform individually.
What happened to José Carreras and when was he diagnosed with leukaemia?
In 1987, world-renowned tenor José Carreras was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia while filming La Bohème in Paris. Doctors gave him just a 10 percent chance of survival. Carreras told the Express in 2019: “It was shocking. You go to the hospital for a check-up and they say: ‘I’m afraid you have to stay.’ And I said: ‘No, I cannot stay, they are waiting for me to perform. I have to go.'”
What followed was 11 months of gruelling treatment, including chemotherapy, radiation, and a bone marrow transplant. Against all odds, Carreras made a full recovery, eventually reclaiming his place on the world’s leading opera stages.
His triumphant return was marked by the launch of the legendary Three Tenors concert series, alongside Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. The collaboration became a global sensation, introducing opera to new audiences and cementing all three as household names. Despite Pavarotti’s death in 2007, Carreras and Domingo continued performing individually, and even reunited on stage in 2025.
Opera singer Jose Carreras(Image: Getty Images)
Determined to give back, Carreras founded the José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation in 1988. Since then, the foundation has raised millions for research and treatment, helping to dramatically improve survival rates. While Carreras once faced a 90 percent likelihood of death, today around 85 percent of children and 60 percent of adults diagnosed with leukaemia survive – thanks in part to medical advancements supported by his foundation.
Born in the working-class Sants district of Barcelona, Carreras was the youngest of three children. His family briefly emigrated to Argentina in search of a better life, after his father was forced to take work as a traffic policeman for siding with the losing faction in the Spanish Civil War. They returned to Sants within a year, and the area remains close to Carreras’ heart.
By the age of 28, he had already performed leading tenor roles in 24 operas across Europe and North America. But it was his resilience, not just his voice, that would define his legacy.
Today, with more than 85 million records sold, José Carreras stands as one of the greatest operatic talents of his generation.
BBC schedule:
8.40pm – 9.45pm: Pavarotti at the BBC9.45pm – 11.15pm: Pavarotti: The Last Tenor11.15pm – 12.15am: Pavarotti in London12.15am – 1.00am: Pavarotti: King of the High Cs
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