pancreas cancer : Pavarotti wants to complete tour

Tenor recovering from cancer op, hopes to be back early '07

(ANSA) - Rome, July 24 - Luciano Pavarotti hopes to be back singing next year to complete his farewell tour, which was interrupted by surgery for pancreas cancer earlier this month .

"I want to finish my tour," said the superstar singer, who turns 70 in October .

"I can't give precise dates because I have to consult my doctors but I think I'll resume it at the beginning of next year". Speaking to La Stampa daily over the phone from his New York home, Pavarotti said he had taken the tumour "philosophically" .

"You see, I've had everything from life. If everything is taken away, the Good Lord and me are quits" .

Pavarotti said he was hoping to be back in Italy, where his wife Nicoletta and baby girl Alice are anxiously waiting for him, in about ten days. The singer's doctors found the tumour at the beginning of July .

He had a successful operation to remove it at an unspecified New York clinic a few days later .

Pavarotti is making a strong recovery .

The legendary singer has had a number of health problems in recent years .

He had to cancel a number of concerts in his open-ended farewell world tour because of back pain earlier this year .

The dates included Sarajevo - which gave him the freedom of the city for his work on behalf of war orphans - in April .

Vienna was another April casualty, followed by several US and Canadian performances and seven English and Scottish dates earlier this month .

Pavarotti's last appearance was at the Turin Winter Olympics when he sang his signature Nessun Dorma aria at the opening ceremony .

In retirement he intends to dedicate his time to teaching and opera direction .

He may still occasionally perform with his Three Tenors' partners Jose Carreras - himself a cancer survivor after a battle against leukemia in the '80s - and Domingo Placido on special occasions .



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