Rolando Villazón

Charismatic performances at leading opera houses and with major orchestras worldwide have made Rolando Villazón one of the most celebrated and beloved stars in the music world. In addition to his stage career, the versatile artist is also successful as an opera director, writer, and television personality. The beauty of his voice and his captivating stage presence have drawn rave reviews from critics worldwide: The Times calls him "the most charming of today's divos," and The Guardian remarked, "his artistic skills are as astonishing as ever, when sound, feeling, and gesture merge in an uncompromising search for truthfulness." In 1999, Villazón won several important prizes at Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition, becoming an overnight sensation on the international music scene. Since then, he has performed at all major venues worldwide. His most important roles include Alfredo in La traviata, Des Grieux in Manon, the Duke in Rigoletto, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, and the title role in Werther, as well as Gounod's Roméo and Faust, Offenbach's Hoffmann, Puccini's Rodolfo (La Bohème), Tchaikovsky's Lenski (Eugene Onegin), and Verdi's Don Carlo. On stage as well as in the recording studio, Mozart has now taken a central position in Villazón's work. He has sung the title role in Lucio Silla in Salzburg and Bremen; Alessandro in Il re pastore in Zurich, Salzburg, Vienna, Barcelona, Lucerne, and Paris; Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni in Berlin, Vienna, and at Covent Garden (as well as on tour to Japan); and Ferrando in Così fan tutte at La Scala in Milan. At the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, he sang Don Ottavio, Ferrando, Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Basilio (Le nozze di Figaro), the title role in La clemenza di Tito, and, in a first foray into the baritone repertoire, Papageno (Die Zauberflöte) – these performances were all recorded live for release on Deutsche Grammophon. In 2017, Villazón was appointed Artistic Director of the annual Mozart Week of the Mozarteum Foundation Salzburg. His contract initially runs until 2023. This year's highly successful festival was the second under his direction and featured over 50 events. Further highlights of his work in the opera house include the role of the great explorer Robert Falcon Scott in the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka's opera South Pole in Munich alongside Thomas Hampson and Mojca Erdmann (January 2016), Michel in Martinů's Juliette in Berlin (May/June 2016), and his debuts in the title roles of Monteverdi's L’Orfeo in Bremen (September 2016) and Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria in Paris (February 2017), as well as appearances as Lurcanio in Handel's Ariodante at the Salzburg Festival 2017. In March 2018, he was heard in a concert performance of Monteverdi's L’Orfeo in Budapest, and in May 2018, he made his role debut as Pelléas in Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the Berlin State Opera under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. Celebrated for his concerts and recitals, Rolando Villazón collaborates with leading orchestras and conductors, including Plácido Domingo, the Munich Radio Orchestra, and Gianandrea Noseda at the Salzburg Festival; Cecilia Bartoli and the Orchestra La Scintilla in various European cities; as well as Yannick Nézet-Séguin and his Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal. He has given recitals with Gerold Huber in Germany and Austria, with Daniel Barenboim at La Scala in Milan and the Berlin State Opera, and with his frequent musical partner Carrie-Ann Matheson, among others, at the Salzburg Festival, the Opéra de Paris, the Salle Gaveau, and the Prinzregententheater in Munich. In 2011, Rolando Villazón caused a stir with his first directorial work, Massenet's Werther at the Opéra de Lyon. This was followed by his staging of Donizetti's L’elisir d’amore at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus in 2012 (where he also sang the role of Nemorino), and three further directorial debuts in the 2014/15 season: Donizetti's Viva la mamma in Vienna, Puccini's La rondine in Berlin, and La traviata in Baden-Baden. His most recent productions include Donizetti's Don Pasquale in Düsseldorf in spring 2017, Strauss' Die Fledermaus at the Deutsche Oper Berlin in spring 2018, and Rameau's Platée at the Semperoper in Dresden in April 2019. In the British television series Popstar to Operastar, Rolando Villazón appeared as a mentor and judge in 2010 and 2011. He regularly works on television programs for the BBC and ZDF, where, from 2012, he co-hosted the ECHO Klassik Awards for four years, among other things, and he is the presenter of the show Stars von Morgen on ARTE. Rolando Villazón has also made a name for himself as a writer: in 2013, his first novel, Malabares, was published in Spain and Mexico, with the German translation Kunststücke appearing a year later. His second novel, Lebenskünstler, was published in German in 2017, and his third, Amadeus auf dem Fahrrad, was released in German in June 2020. Rolando Villazón became an exclusive artist for Deutsche Grammophon in 2007 and renewed his contract in October 2012. His first solo album for the yellow label, Cielo e mar in 2008, was followed in subsequent years by Handel Arias, as well as the albums Mexico! and La Strada/Songs from the Movies. In 2012, Deutsche Grammophon appointed the tenor as their Verdi Ambassador, and he recorded the album Villazón Verdi, a tribute to the great Italian composer for his 200th birthday in 2013. In January 2014, an album of Mozart concert arias for tenor was released, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Antonio Pappano. In October 2015, Deutsche Grammophon released Villazón's Treasures of Bel Canto, a collection of lesser-known songs by the four great Italian opera composers Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, and Verdi in orchestral versions, featuring Cecilia Bartoli as a guest artist. For his next studio album, Duets (September 2017), Villazón teamed up with bassist Ildar Abdrazakov to record French and Italian opera duets, accompanied by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain. The singer then fulfilled a long-held dream by recording a Christmas album. Feliz Navidad, released in November 2018, offers a mix of traditional Christmas carols, folk songs, and ballads in the five languages Villazón masters. Villazón's latest album, Serenata latina, will be released in October 2020. It is a collection of Latin American songs in new arrangements for voice and harp, a diverse mix of indigenous, European, and African influences. Villazón is accompanied by the renowned French harpist Xavier de Maistre. The two artists will present pieces from this program in a recital streamed on DG Stage, the yellow label's new classical online concert hall (July 17). His other recordings include La traviata, La Bohème, a duet album (all with Anna Netrebko), and Werther, plus the DVDs Manon, Roméo et Juliette, Das Waldbühnen-Konzert, and L’elisir d’amore. In 2012, he began a project to record Mozart's mature operas with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The first in the series, Don Giovanni, was released in 2012, followed by Così fan tutte (2013), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2015), Le nozze di Figaro (2016), La clemenza di Tito (2018), and Die Zauberflöte (2019). His engagements this season included an appearance at the Barenboim Festival in Buenos Aires (August 2019); Pelléas et Mélisande at the Hamburg State Opera (November 2019); directing L’elisir d’amore at the Leipzig Opera House (Autumn 2019/Spring 2020) and Bellini's I puritani in Düsseldorf (December 2019/January 2020); a recital with Xavier de Maistre at the Zaryadye Concert Hall in Moscow; and the opening gala of the Kurt Weill Fest in Dessau (both in February). For the 2020/21 season, plans include presenting the Serenata latina program on tour with Xavier de Maistre, with performances scheduled at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival as well as in Prague, Munich, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Hamburg, and Frankfurt. Further highlights include Monteverdi's L’Orfeo at the Semperoper in Dresden (Spring 2021) and his first directorial work in Paris: Bellini's La sonnambula at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées (June 2021). 6/2020