Vienna: Tributes poured in today for Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti as the opera world mourned "one of the finest singers of our time," with a black flag that was flown over the famed Vienna Opera House. From his native Italy to Japan, London and beyond, fans and fellow musicians lavished praise on the world-famous singer, who died today at his home in northern Italy at the age of 71.

"I am shocked and very sad," said Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa, music director of the Vienna State Opera, in a statement released in Tokyo. "He was a decades-long friend of mine." He said, "His tenor was so distinguished that I could immediately recognise it whenever I heard his songs at places like restaurants."

Operatic legend Pavarotti, whose showmanship and crossover celebrity turned him into a global superstar, died during the night at his villa near the city of Modena after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.

Emotion was high in his homeland. "We have lost a great tenor, a great singer, but I have lost a great friend," said renowned soprano Mirella Freni, who is also from Modena and who visited Pavarotti in hospital last month. "It is a very difficult and very sad moment," she told Italian radio.

Italian film director Franco Zeffirelli said: "There were tenors and then there was Pavarotti," adding: "It is thanks to Luciano Pavarotti that the culture of opera spread to new generations."