Salvatore Licitra: Tenor who made his mark standing in for Pavarotti and went on to specialise in Verdi and Puccini roles

Salvatore Licitra's international career began in May 2002 when he took over from Luciano Pavarotti in the role of Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca on the last night of the season at the Metropolitan Opera.

In the four years before his dash across the Atlantic on Concorde, he had already sung at La Scala and at many other Italian opera houses. In the nine years since, he had appeared in Paris, London, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vienna and Munich, in a repertory almost exclusively devoted to Verdi and Puccini.

The Italian tenor was only 43 when he died; on 27 August, trying to find a parking space for his motorbike (and not wearing a helmet), he had a black-out and crashed against a wall in Modica, Sicily. He died in hospital nine days later. His girlfriend, riding pillion (and wearing a helmet), was unhurt.

Licitra was born in Bern of Sicilian parents and was brought up in Milan. He trained as a graphic artist and worked for Italian Vogue. At the age of 19 he began singing lessons, and studied at the Music Academy of Parma and with Carlo Bergonzi at Busseto. He made his debut in 1998 at Parma as Gustavo in Verdi's Ballo in maschera and was engaged by the Verona Arena to cover three Verdi roles, Gustavo, the Duke in Rigoletto and Radames in Aida, all of which he did in fact sing. He made his La Scala debut in 1999 as Don Alvaro in Verdi's Forza del destino.

On 7 December 2000, the opening night of La Scala's season, Licitra sang Manrico in Verdi's Trovatore. The conductor, Riccardo Muti, had forbidden him to sing the interpolated high Cs in "Di quella pira" and the audience went into uproar, booing Muti at the end of the opera. The following summer the tenor got his revenge: when singing Manrico at Verona he inserted two high Cs in each verse and then gave an encore. His Metropolitan debut had been planned for 2004, but his appearance as Cavaradossi in 2002 gave an enormous boost to his career.

After singing Manrico in Naples and Paris, Licitra made his Covent Garden debut in 2004 as Don Alvaro: it was one of his finest roles and showed off his warm-toned, resonant voice to best effect. He was not a "finished" singer, but was, when in form, a very exciting one. He sang the title role of Giordano's Andrea Chénier as well as Cavaradossi in Washington; Radames in Chicago and at the Met, where he also sang Don Alvaro; and Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci. In 2006 at Los Angeles he took on the title role of Verdi's Don Carlos, while in 2007 he returned to Covent Garden as Cavaradossi and sang Gustavo at the Met.

During the last three years of his life, Licitra repeated Luigi in Los Angeles, Don Alvaro in Vienna, Canio in Florence and Radames in Munich, then took on two new interpretations, the title role of Verdi's Ernani in Chicago and Dick Johnson in Puccini's La fanciulla del West in San Francisco.

Salvatore Licitra, opera singer: born Bern, Switzerland 10 August 1968; died Catania, Sicily 5 September 2011.