NEW YORK (AP) – A rising opera star who gained fame by subbing for Luciano Pavarotti suffered an accident on a Manhattan street. But tenor Salvatore Licitra was ready to take the stage Thursday with his entire arm in a sling, singing the role that was Enrico Caruso’s trademark.

“The pain was unbearable,” tenor Salvatore Licitra said after the mishap. “But I hate not to sing this role that was made for my vocal cords. I promised people that I’d sing.”

On Tuesday night, the 38-year-old Italian ended up in a hospital emergency ward, instead of a Manhattan party thrown by Sony Classical in celebration of his latest recording, “Forbidden Love.”

He had stepped out of a taxi on West 44th Street and headed toward the sidewalk, between two parked cars.

“It was dark, and the space was narrow. One of the cars had an iron bar under the bumper, and my foot got caught in it,” said the tenor, who went flying to the ground, left shoulder first.

He entered the restaurant bleeding profusely from his leg and was rushed to Roosevelt Hospital, where the wound was bandaged. “I felt some pain in the shoulder, but didn’t pay much attention” – until the next morning, when he woke up in tremendous pain.

Licitra spent all of Wednesday at Manhattan’s Hospital For Special Surgery, where an MRI and X-rays determined that he had torn two tendons in his rotator cuff – an injury more often suffered by baseball players, not opera stars. He must now undergo physiotherapy, and if that doesn’t work, surgery.

“But, how do the Americans say? ‘The show must go on,”‘ the tenor told The Associated Press by telephone, speaking lightheartedly in Italian.

When he got off the phone, he said, he’d have to quickly call his parents in Milan, Italy. “They don’t know about this yet.”

With arm in sling, he also went grocery shopping on Thursday, buying steak and vegetables – “something that’s easy to cook with my arm” – for a pre-opera dinner in his apartment near the Met.

And then, on Thursday evening, Licitra was to appear in Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci” – as Canio, the clown who sings despite a broken heart. At the end, the role demands that he get very physical with his cheating wife, whom he stabs to death along with her lover, after kicking a table and throwing it.

Some changes were made in the stage directions to accommodate Licitra’s arm.

He made his Met debut – and international headlines – as a last-minute substitute for Pavarotti on May 11, 2002. After singing “Pagliacci” at the Met through Nov. 3, Licitra is headed for a concert tour of Japan.

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On the Net:

Licitra official Web site: http://www.salvatorelicitra.com