American tenor Stephen Gould has announced he has been diagnosed with incurable cancer.

The 61 year old, who withdrew from this summer’s Bayreuth Festival in Germany, says he has bile duct cancer with complications and is fatal within several to ten months.

Gould was born in Virginia and has sung in many of the world’s major opera houses.

According to the Mayo Clinic, biliary tract cancer often doesn’t cause any symptoms in the early stages.  It’s often discovered by accident – through routine blood tests or imaging done for an unrelated reason.