He is the whirlwind of the opera business, a charming conversationalist with the speaking speed of Speedy Gonzales: Rolando Villazón. The tenor, director, writer and festival director turns 50 today, Tuesday. The native Mexican has particularly close ties to Salzburg, where he made his international breakthrough and rose to become the head of the Mozart Week. It was only logical that he threw the birthday party on the Salzach last Monday.
On Monday, for example, Villazon held a gala evening with many stars in the House for Mozart as a benefit evening for the Mozarteum Foundation. Next door, in the Grosses Festspielhaus, he experienced the rise to superstardom alongside Anna Netrebko as Alfredo Germont in “Traviata” in 2005 – a career path that began in Mexico City in 1972.
As a child, Villazón attended the Colegio Alemán Alexander von Humboldt and later studied at the music conservatory. The young Mexican then made his way onto the international stage in 1998 when he moved to San Francisco, which joined the Pittsburgh Opera’s young singers’ program.
Around the turn of the millennium, the first appearances in Europe followed, where Villazón quickly gained a foothold from Genoa via Paris and Munich to Vienna. Then came the legendary appearance with Netrebko at the Salzburg Festival and the media hype that stylized the two into a dream opera couple. However, this rapid ascent to the opera olympus had health consequences that were just as rapid, which meant that Villazón had to step back vocally from 2006 onwards. Between great successes, downtime and surgeries were a consequence.
At the same time, the tenor began early on to establish a second mainstay and made his debut as a director at the Opéra de Lyon in 2011 with Massenet’s “Werther” – the first of numerous works at various houses, including the Vienna Volksoper, where he performed Donizetti’s “Viva la Mamma” in 2015. colorfully staged. The literary work then became a third mainstay, as Villazón’s first novel “Malabares” was published in 2013, which was followed by others, most recently “Amadeus auf dem Fahrrad” in 2020.
Villazón had already been artistic director of the Mozart Week in Salzburg for three years – one of those cultural institutions that had recently suffered badly from the corona pandemic. The soon-to-be jubilarian has also been artistic director of the International Mozarteum Foundation since last year. So there is still a lot to do for Villazón in Salzburg after today’s birthday.