Italian tenor Pavarotti is doing better, wife says

MODENA, Italy, Aug 10 (Reuters) Opera superstar Luciano Pavarotti, diagnosed with cancer last year, is doing better after being admitted to hospital two days ago, his wife said today.

Pavarotti, 71, regarded by many as the greatest tenor of his generation, was taken to hospital with a high fever in his home town of Modena day before yesterday. He is being treated in the hospital's cancer ward.

''He is doing better, thank you,'' Pavarotti's wife, Nicoletta Mantovani, who is 34 years his junior, told reporters as she left the cancer ward today morning.

Asked whether the singer, who underwent surgery in July last year to remove a pancreatic tumour, would be discharged soon, she said: ''Certainly in the next few days.'' A hospital spokesman said yesterday his condition was satisfactory, and he was likely to be discharged in the next few days.

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