THE widow of Luciano Pavarotti has flown to America, angered by Italian media reports about the state of her marriage to the opera star and threatening legal action to defend her reputation.

Nicoletta Mantovani, the opera star’s 37-year-old second wife and the mother of his daughter Alice, 4, became the focus of controversy after last Saturday’s funeral when some of his friends claimed that he had been on the verge of leaving her.

Lidia La Marca, a doctor and a close friend of the tenor, said that Pavarotti, 71, had told her three weeks before his death from pancreatic cancer that he and Mantovani had rowed frequently and he had felt isolated.

According to La Marca, whose husband Leone Magiera performed as a pianist and conductor with Pavarotti, the tenor vented his frustration during a visit to him in hospital in his home town of Modena. “Either I shoot myself in the head or we separate,” he was said to have declared.

These and other comments so distressed Mantovani that she flew to New York, where she was staying this weekend at the largest of Pavarotti’s three flats in the city. Overlooking Central Park, it is worth an estimated £5.5m.

Last Friday Mantovani’s friend Michele Centonze, 44, a music producer, hit back at the rumours.

“Nicoletta has gone to New York to be as far as possible from these people who are taking pleasure in saying nasty things,” he said.

“She isn’t interested in gossip from crazy people who say they were close to the maestro. I’ve worked with him for the past 10 years and I didn’t see them.

“Right now Nicoletta has withdrawn into her grief. She’s busy doing her job as a mother. She wants to be with Alice and help her get through what’s happened.”

A composer and guitar player, Centonze helped to produce the Pavarotti & Friends concerts from 1998 to 2000, which paired him with pop stars including Elton John, Sting, Bono and Sheryl Crow.

In late 2003 Centonze wrote and produced most of the 13 songs on Pavarotti’s album Ti Adoro (I Adore You). The tenor described the album as a wedding gift to Mantovani, who had helped to choose the music.

Centonze went on to write the music for the opening ceremony at last year’s Winter Olympics in Turin, which Mantovani helped to produce. Pavarotti gave his last public performance there.

The tenor himself is understood to have teased Nicoletta about her friendship. He was once heard by a fellow artist to remark to her, “Nicoletta, call your amichetto [little friend]”, a reference to Centonze.

According to Pavarotti’s entourage, Centonze was among those who received the mourners at the singer’s home in Modena on the day of his death.

From New York, Mantovani issued a statement through three Italian lawyers. It denounced “a campaign of gossip” and threatened legal action if “defamatory” comments continued.

However, there is little sign of the criticism abating in Italy. The Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted a source close to Pavarotti’s three daughters from his first marriage to Adua Veroni as saying they did not expect much from the will: “The daughters never put any pressure on their father, not even in his final days, to change his will. There’s no doubt that Pavarotti and his ex-wife were much closer than before.

“Things don’t seem to have been as calm on the other side,” the source added pointedly.

Pavarotti last revised his will on July 29, said Luciano Buonanno, his lawyer. At stake is an estate worth an estimated £136m, including two villas in Italy, the three flats in New York, a flat in Monte Carlo and a villa in Barbados. The estate also includes royalties from his albums which have already sold more than 100m copies.

While Italy eagerly awaits the opening of the will, Mantovani is apparently in no hurry to face her countrymen. Asked when she might return, Centonze replied: “She hasn’t got any deadlines to meet. She’ll come back to Italy when she feels her daughter is ready.”

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