'New Pavarotti' tenor Salvatore Licitra dead at 43

Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra, once heralded as the "new Pavarotti" by many in the opera world, died Monday at age 43.

Licitra was in a coma for days following a motor scooter accident Aug. 27 in Sicily where he suffered severe head and chest injuries. Doctors have said the singer crashed into a wall apparently after suffering an interruption of blood to the brain while driving.

During his career, Licitra performed at many of the world's top opera houses and concert halls, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago where he played the Egyptian general Radames in a 2004 revival of Verdi's "Aida" and the title role in a new 2009 production of Verdi's "Ernani." Licitra was scheduled to sing Radames again at the Lyric for a March 2012 revival of "Aida."

Licitra's final Chicago-area performance was in Highland Park on July 30. He appeared as Cavaradossi in a Ravinia Festival concert staging of "Tosca."

The Swiss-born son of Sicilian parents, Licitra grabbed world headlines when he made his New York debut at The Metropolitan Opera in 2002 as a substitute for world-famous tenor Luciano Pavarotti in a gala performance of Puccini's "Tosca." Licitra's performance as the artist and political prisoner Cavaradossi wowed the audience and won long ovations for his two big arias. The audience's response brought tears to his eyes.

In a statement, the famed Italian opera house La Scala praised Licitra as a "dramatic tenor, with strength."

"Licitra represented the school and tradition of Italian song, in his natural relationships to words," the Milan opera house said. "A decade of his personal history was interwoven with our theater."

Doctors at Catania's Garibaldi Hospital said Licitra's family agreed to make the opera star's organs available for transplant.

"This is just heartbreaking," wrote Wheeling native and sometime co-star soprano Deborah Voigt in comments emailed to The Associated Press. Licitra appeared alongside Voigt in a new 2010 San Francisco Opera production of Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" ("Girl of the Golden West").

"Salvatore was a great singer, but he was also just a really lovely guy," Voigt wrote. "Always ready for a laugh, always light in spirit,"

<I>The Associated Press contributed to this report. </I>