Opera singer Bruscantini dies

Bruscantini was well known to opera lovers in the UK

Italian opera singer Sesto Bruscantini has died at his home in southern Italy at the age of 87.

Bruscantini specialised in Mozart and Rossini during his accomplished career from the 1950s to the 1970s.

He dominated opera festivals across Europe with his masterful singing technique.

He was known for his ability to adapt his technique to dramatic and lighter roles without losing his precision.

Bruscantini was particularly well known to festival goers at Glyndebourne in the UK and Salzburg, Austria.

He was a bass-baritone who took voice lessons in Rome and arrived on the international scene in 1948 with Cimarosa's The Secret Marriage at the Scala in Milan.

His most celebrated roles included Figaro in Rossini's Barber of Seville, Alfonso and Galileo in Mozart's Cosi fan Tutte, and Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale.

Bruscantini performed until 1986.

His death was announced by officials at the Champs-Elysees Theatre in Paris.

Born in 1915 in Porto Civitanova in southern Italy, he died in Civitanova Marche.