'History may well end up ranking him as one of the great 21st century opera singers." These are pretty bold words, written by a music critic in The Daily Telegraph after Villazon's Covent Garden debut in Les Contes d'Hoffman January 2004. Just more PR gimmick? -Perhaps not. After hearing Villazon, I certainly would like to believe the Daily Telegraph.

Rolando Villazon was born in 1972 in Mexico City. 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 the baritone Arturo Nieto heard him sing in one of the school plays, and impressed by the Villazon's voice, he went backstage offering to couch the young artist. Villazon, torn between the call of becoming a priest and his singing, was eventually talked into taking his singing career seriously and auditioned for the Conservatory after an end-of-term concert in 1992. His mentor, a Catholic priest, told Villazon that his destiny was not priesthood, but that of an opera singer. He "bought me a tequila," Villazon told the Telegraph's Rupert Christiansen in an interview in January 2004¹, and said "When you make your debut at the Met [...] I shall be there." "And he was," Villazon addded.

Villazon auditioned for the Conservatory the very next day, and was admitted. His studies commenced under Enrique Jaso, but he was soon led astray by the teaching of history, an activity he had engaged in to pay for his classes. He was now convinced that he should become a full time teacher, and was about to abandon his singing, when his wife to be persuaded him into continuing. She said she would not marry him unless he pursued his dream.

After winning two song contests in Mexico City and Guanajato, Villazon became a student of baritone Gabriel Mijares, under whose guidance he launched an international career.

In 1998 he was admitted to the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco, where he sang the role of Alfredo in La Traviata and participated in master classes held by Dame Joan Sutherland. In Pittsburgh he took part in the city opera's Young Artists Program, and sang in Bellini's I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor and Barber's Vanessa. The following year he was successful in Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition, winning the Prize of the Public, the Zarzuela Prize and second prize overall.

1999 was also the year in which he made his International debut. It took place in Genova in March, when he sang Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon. A series of important opera venues followed throughout Europe in the following years, counting the Rome Opera, the Bregenz Festival, the State Opera of München, the Berlin Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper, the Glyndebourne Festival, the Paris Bastille Opera and the opera of Trieste, to name a few. In the US, he sang with the Los Angeles Opera and the New York City Opera, and in 2004, he made his Met debut as Alfredo in La Traviata, as well as his debut with the San Francisco Opera. In Europe, he debuted the same year at the Covent Garden as Hoffman in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, which was also his debut in the role of Hoffman. He first sang at the Wiener Staatsoper in 2004, as Romeo in Romeo et Juliette.
           For Villazon's future schedule, check operabase.com.

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Villazon is perhaps the most exciting tenor to currently make a name for himself. He is often likened with the young Domingo, but Villazon's instrument is warmer and imbued with a sentiment that is lacking in Domingo's voice. Villazon's upper register is also more secure than that of his idol. Villazon is resonant and sonorous, with a dark burn, and the registers are finely knit together. He is currently singing in the lyric repertory, but the spinto qualities of the voice may soon permit him to move into heavier roles.
           Proof of his artistry can be heard on two recital discs for Virgin Classics, with whom he is now an exclusive recording artist, firstly his Italian Opera Arias under Marcello Viotti, released in 2003, and then his second solo album containing opera arias by Gounod and Massenet, under Evelino Pidò, released in January 2005. For his first solo album, he was awarded the German Echo Classics Award in München in 2004. In February 2003 he received the award of "Best Newcomer" in France's Victoires de la Musique, and he was recently awarded with the "Plácido Domingo 2005" at the Mexican consulate in Los Angeles.

- Interact: Check out Rolando Villazon in the Forum
- Curent schedule: check operabase.com