By host Tom Ashbrook:

Luciano Pavarotti, the most widely popular singer in opera history, is dead at 71.

The son of a baker and a cigarette maker, he was a joyful, exuberant tenor heard by millions — many of whom may never have paid attention to opera before.

He was the glorious “King of the High C,” and also a rascal, a media star who was known to lip-sync and cancel performances by the dozen. But he was great.

This hour On Point: Luciano Pavarotti’s operatic legacy.

Guests:

Tim Page, Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic for The Washington Post and former artistic advisor and creative chair for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra

Anne Midgette, classical music critic for The New York Times and co-author, with Pavarotti’s longtime manager Herbert Breslin, of “The King and I,” a tell-all book about Pavarotti’s career

Martin Bernheimer, music critic at the Los Angeles Times for 31 years, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1982, now a critic for The Financial Times and Opera magazine.