Rolando Villazón

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Rolando Villazón is internationally recognized as one of the leading lyric tenors of our day and has been acclaimed for performances at leading theatres across the world including the Metropolitan Opera, Opera National de Paris, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Berlin State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Hamburg State Opera, Opéra de Lyon, Opéra de Nice, Berlin State Opera, New York City Opera and many others.

Rolando Villazón was born in 1972 in Mexico City, Mexico. At the age of 11, he joined the Espacios academy for the performing arts, where he studied music, acting, contemporary dance and ballet. In 1990 Villazón met baritone Arturo Nieto who introduced him to the world of opera and became his voice teacher. Two years later, he entered the National Conservatory of Music to continue his vocal preparation with Enrique Jaso. There, he sang Dorvil from La Scala di Seta, Florville from Il Signor Bruschino, and Alessandro from Il Re Pastore. After winning two national contests in Mexico City and Guanajuato, Villazón became a student of baritone Gabriel Mijares, with whom he continued his studies before launching an international career.

In 1998 he became a member of the Pittsburgh Opera's Young Artists Program where he appeared in productions of I Capuleti Ed I Montecchi, Lucia di Lammermoor and Samuel Barber's Vanessa, the latter directed by the legendary Regina Resnik. He subsequently entered the Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera where he performed the role of Alfredo in La Traviata and also participated in master classes with Joan Sutherland. Rolando Villazón won the second prize in Placido Domingo's 1999 Operalia competition as well as the first prize for Zarzuela and the Prize of the Public.

He made his European debut as Des Grieux (Manon) at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, and immediately after came his first appearance in France, appearing as Rodolfo for the Opéra de Lyon in December of 1999, the role of his subsequent debut in Rome. He made then his debut at the Teatro Verdi in Trieste in La Traviata and was then invited to replace an ailing colleague in the same work at the Opera Bastille in Paris. These performances in May 2000 brought the artist to international attention.

Among his engagements for the season 2006-07 are La Boheme in New York and Vienna, Les Contes d' Hoffmann in Paris, Manon in Los Angeles, Berlin and Barcelona. He will also perform numerous recitals and concerts including appearances in New York, Miami, Vancouver, Tokyo, Liège, Paris, Toulouse, Monte Carlo, Moscow, Prague, Baden-Baden, Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Munich, Regensburg, Vienna, Zurich, Madrid, Peralada, Copenhagen, Faenol and London.

The Artist’s discography includes for EMI/Virgin Classic a recital of Italian arias, a recital of Gounod & Massenet arias and the third one “Opera Recital”, all of which have won unanimous international critical acclaim.

Recent releases include for EMI/Virgin Classic Monteverdi’s Il Combattimento di Tancredi under Emmanuelle Haim and a DVD from the Vienna Staatsoper Elisir d’Amore production.

Rolando Villazón has recently signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon which has already released the recent Salzburg production of La Traviata in both CD and DVD and which has been one of the most successful complete opera recordings in recent times. Also for Deutsche Grammophon a DVD of The Berlin Concert: Live from the "Waldbühne" was recently released.

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Rolando Villazón singing "La Danza" by Rossini at the "Waldbühnenkonzert" in Berlin at the 07.07.2006 - Just great and unbeatable!!!