The opera world was on Tuesday mourning the premature death of an Italian tenor regarded by many as the heir to Luciano Pavarotti.

The announcement that Salvatore Licitra had died came nine days after the 43-year-old suffered severe head and chest injuries after a scooter accident in Sicily. As is common in southern Italy, he was not wearing a helmet.

Licitra's voice turned him into an overnight sensation when he made his international debut in 2002, standing in for Pavarotti at short notice at the New York Met. Pavarotti, who had been booked for two performances of Tosca, pulled out citing illness and Licitra was rushed across the Atlantic to take his place.

Licitra's powerful top notes brought him a prolonged standing ovation and comparisons with Pavarotti. Anthony Tommasini, a New York Times critic, described his performance that night as the "starry anointing of a potential successor".

The American soprano Deborah Voigt said on Monday: "This is just heartbreaking. Salvatore was a great singer, but he was also just a really lovely guy. Always ready for a laugh, always light in spirit."

In an email to Associated Press she recalled that when they sang together in Puccini's La Fanciulla del West at the San Francisco Opera last year he "held my hand every moment as I stumbled along, slaughtering his language!"

Born in Switzerland to Sicilian parents, Licitra grew up in Milan and initially worked as a graphic artist. He studied at the music academy in Parma and with the tenor, Carlo Bergonzi, who passed on to the young singer an appreciation of the works of Verdi.

After gaining experience in choirs, it was in a Verdi opera, Un Ballo in Maschera, that Licitra made his stage debut in 1998 at the Teatro Regio in Parma. His first real break came later that year when the same work was put on at the Arena in Verona and the then 29 year-old tenor stood in on the opening night.

The following year Riccardo Muti brought him to the revered Teatro alla Scala in Milan, for a production of another Verdi work, La Forza del Destino. He went on to perform at many of the world's great houses including the Vienna State Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Royal Opera in London, the Opera Bastille in Paris as well as most of the leading venues in Italy.

In 2000 Licitra sang on the soundtrack of The Man Who Cried, a film starring Christina Ricci, Johnny Depp and Cate Blanchett.

Doubts emerged in recent years about whether he would fulfil his early promise. A review by MusicalCriticism.com of his performance with Voigt in San Francisco in 2010 found Licitra "lacks the sheer puissance (power) of Voigt. He showed some uncertainties at the top of his voice and his portamenti (the slides from one note to another) were at times too exaggerated".

However, one of his last notices, in the Chicago Tribune on 1 August, found his voice still ringing "with clarion focus".

At the time of the fatal accident, the tenor was on his way to a restaurant with his girlfriend. A message posted to his website said his doctor had "previously indicated that Salvatore Licitra may have had a bleeding inside the brain, [a] cerebral haemorrhage, immediately before the accident. This could have caused him to lose control of the vehicle."

The scooter he was riding careered off the road and into a wall at Donnalucata, near Ragusa. His girlfriend was unhurt. Licitra was flown to hospital in Catania where he underwent surgery. But he never emerged from a coma. He died on Monday morning.