Italian Tenor Giuseppe Di Stefano Dies at 86

Giuseppe Di Stefano, a celebrated Italian tenor who was a singing partner of soprano Maria Callas, has died at his home near Milan. He was 86.

Di Stefano died Monday morning from injuries he sustained in Kenya in November 2004, according to his wife, Monika Curth.

He had been disabled since unidentified assailants struck him on the head at the family villa in Diani, Kenya.

He was returned to Italy after the attack and had been in a coma for much of the intervening period.

From the late 1940s to the early 1960s, Di Stefano sang at the world's top opera houses, including Milan's La Scala and New York's Metropolitan Opera and was known for roles in operas such as Faust and Tosca.

He performed and recorded frequently with Callas and was romantically linked with the great soprano. He sang with her first in 1951 in a performance of La Traviata in Brazil and went on to perform on many of her recordings, including Il Puritani, Rigoletto and La Boheme.