Italian tenor Salvatore Licitra dies at 43

ROME — Salvatore Licitra, a tenor known in his Italian homeland as the "new Pavarotti" for his potent voice and considerable stamina, died Monday at age 43 after spending nine days in a coma following a motorscooter accident in Sicily.

Catania's Garibaldi Hospital, announcing the death, said Licitra never regained consciousness after suffering severe head and chest injuries in the Aug. 27 accident. Doctors had said Licitra crashed his scooter into a wall near the town of Ragusa, apparently after suffering an interruption of blood to the brain while driving.

The hospital said Licitra's family agreed to make his organs available for transplant.

"So very sad to say goodbye to Salvatore Licitra. I will miss you," soprano Deborah Voigt, a frequent onstage partner, wrote on her Facebook page.

'Housewives' break silence on suicide Three "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" spoke out about Russell Armstrong's death and the show's future in an interview on TODAY.

Best bets: Television remembers Sept. 11 September movies Kate Gosselin freaks out over pizza on 'Plus 8' Controversy? Casting Bono is a win for 'DWTS'

In separate comments emailed to The Associated Press, Voigt wrote: "This is just heartbreaking. Salvatore was a great singer, but he was also just a really lovely guy. Always ready for a laugh, always light in spirit."

The singer recalled that Licitra was her "first Dick Johnson," referring to the tenor role in Puccini's "La Fanciulla del West" at the San Francisco Opera in 2010. Voigt sang the role of Minnie in the opera, and she reminisced how Licitra had "held my hand every moment as I stumbled along slaughtering his language!"

"His passing in the fullness of his career hurts," the La Scala opera house wrote in its own announcement of the tenor's death.

La Scala noted that Licitra debuted in the famed Milan venue in the 1998-1999 season, with maestro Riccardo Muti conducting him in Verdi's "La Forza del Destino."

But it was on the stage of Metropolitan Opera in New York, that Licitra, the Swiss-born son of Sicilian parents, grabbed the world's attention. He subbed for mega-tenor Luciano Pavarotti in a gala performance in 2002 of Puccini's "Tosca," wowing the audience and winning long ovations for his two big arias. The audience's response brought tears to his eyes.

Italian state TV, giving the news of his death, said Licitra was considered "Pavarotti's heir."

Peter Gelb, the Metropolitan Opera's general manager, hailed Licitra as "one of the greatest natural tenor talents of his generation. His premature death is tragic for his family, friends and loved ones, and his legions of admirers around the world, which include his many fans at the Met."

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."

The tenor made his debut in Parma, Italy, in 1998.

He had traveled to the Ragusa area in late summer ahead of a September ceremony to receive a local music prize. Licitra's web site, which carried the news of his death, still listed upcoming engagements, including an appearance later this month in Tokyo.

During his career, Licitra also performed at the Vienna State Opera, Munich's Bayerische Staatsoper, London's Royal Opera, Paris' Opera Bastille, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago and several other prestigious venues.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Read More

Italian police defend their Knox murder probe

PERUGIA, Italy — The police official who conducted the original investigation in the Amanda Knox case defended her standards Monday, after an independent review harshly criticized the evidence used to convict the American student of murdering her British roommate.

Patrizia Stefanoni took the stand as Knox's appeals trial resumed after the summer recess. A verdict is expected by the end of the month.

Knox and her co-defendant and one-time boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were convicted of sexually assaulting and killing Meredith Kercher in the apartment that Knox and the 21-year-old Briton shared while studying in Perugia. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison; Sollecito to 25. Both deny wrongdoing and have appealed the Dec. 29 verdict.

An independent review of DNA traces in the case found that much of the evidence collected in the original investigation fell below international standards and may have led to contamination of the samples. The review especially focused on some traces of DNA linking the defendants to the crime, and concluded that due to the risk of contamination and the low amounts of DNA used for the testing it was impossible to extract a genetic profile with any certainty.

In the first trial, prosecutors maintained that Knox's DNA was found on the knife's handle and Kercher's DNA was found on the blade. They also say Sollecito's DNA was found on the clasp of Kercher's bra, mixed with the victim's.

Carla Vecchiotti, one expert questioned Monday over the extraction of DNA profiles from the bra clasp, said the data was so mixed that a very high number of genetic profiles could be extracted, depending how one combined the data.

"I could find yours, too," Vecchiotti told the presiding judge. "I'm there, too," she said, adding that some data was compatible with her own DNA. She said Kercher's profile was the only certain one.

The findings have boosted the defendants' efforts to be cleared and gain freedom after almost four years in prison.

Curt Knox, the defendant's father, said he was hopeful that the case was turning in his daughter's direction.

"The independent experts have done a very good job evaluating the information," he said. "I don't see it breaking down at this point. I see it's been good for Amanda and Raffaele."

Giulia Bongiorno, a lawyer for Sollecito, said DNA can be "formidable evidence" but not with such a mixed, confusing trace.

Perry gets set to meet his GOP competition Palin rails against Obama, mum on 2012 plans Perry pushed bill that could boost doctor's firm US, big banks play chicken over mortgages Blue Origin's experimental rocket ship crashes 49 in Florida charged in IRS tax scam Romney: My plan ‘radically restructures’ economy

"Poorly collected DNA can lead to an error of justice," she told reporters during a break in the proceedings.

The two independent experts were appointed by the appeals court at the defense's request. Over two sessions of fierce cross-examination, both the prosecutors and a lawyer representing the Kercher family have sought to undermine the experts' testimony and insisted that the evidence could stand.

Stefanoni, the forensic police officer, countered some of the points made in the review, saying that DNA analyses were carried out from behind a glass wall to avoid the risk of contamination. She also said some of the standard protocols cited by the experts were published after she finished her report in May 2008.

Using some of the 119 slides she said she had prepared, she challenged the experts' finding over DNA quantity, analysis and evidence collection techniques. Her testimony will continue Tuesday.

The DNA review has dominated recent hearings in the 10-month appeals trial.

Just before the trial resumed, Kercher's sister issued a letter asking the appeals court to assess "every single (piece) of evidence" so justice can be done. The Kercher family insisted they still had faith in the Perugia police, investigators and the court, but also expressed worry over the evidence review.

"We find it extremely difficult to comprehend how the evidence that was so carefully developed and presented in the first hearing was valid, yet how it now seems to carry a slight chance it will become irrelevant," Stephanie Kercher said in the letter.

"We ask that the Court of Appeal assess every single (piece) of evidence, both scientific and circumstantial, as well as any witnesses who have taken the stand independently of any other information or media," she wrote.

The Kercher family has kept a low profile throughout the headline-grabbing case. The letter, released through the family's lawyer Francesco Maresca, represented a rare break in their silence.

"Meredith has been forgotten because she is no longer with us, yet this should be about her and what really happened on that tragic evening," Stephanie Kercher lamented in the letter.

Knox has been the center of attention since her arrest on Nov. 6, 2007 — four days after Kercher's body was found in a pool of blood at the apartment. Knox has been described both as an angel-faced ruthless killer and as an innocent girl caught in an Italian judicial nightmare.

Both Knox, 24, and Sollecito, 27, attended the session Monday.

A third person, Rudy Hermann Guede of the Ivory Coast, also has been convicted of Kercher's murder in a separate proceeding. Italy's highest criminal court has upheld Guede's conviction and his 16-year-prison sentence. Guede denies wrongdoing.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

View the original article here

Read More