Opera Star Critical After Attack in Kenya

The Italian tenor Giuseppe di Stefano was critically ill in a Kenyan hospital yesterday after a brutal beating by unknown attackers.

The 83-year-old was reportedly ambushed in his car with his wife as they prepared to drive from their villa in Diani, a coastal resort near Mombasa on the Indian Ocean.

The retired opera singer suffered severe head injuries and has been in intensive care in a Mombasa hospital for five days where he "hovers between life and death", the Italian news agency Ansa reported.

The attackers were thought to be a gang of robbers who ransacked the house after the assault and escaped with some household possessions, it added.

Alex Rono, a senior police official in Coast Province, confirmed there had been an attack last week but declined to give further details.

Di Stefano, famous for his duets with Maria Callas, was a role model for tenors such as Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo.

He was considered one of the best singers in the world in the 1950s and 1960s.

Diani is about 270 miles south-east of Nairobi, close to the Tanzanian border, and popular with expatriates because of its picturesque fishing villages, luxury hotels and coral reef.

However violent crime is an increasing problem in Kenya. Gangs armed with assault rifles have stormed houses and compounds in tourist resorts such as Arusha. Their strikes in the capital prompted it to be renamed Nairobbery.

Di Stefano was born in Catania, Sicily, and studied singing in Milan with Luigi Montesanto. He made his La Scala debut in 1947 in Massenet's Manon.

The following year he sang in Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera, vaulting him into an international career during which he won a gold Orfeo, an Italian musical award similar to America's Oscar.