Through his uniquely compelling performances on the world’s most important stages, Rolando Villazón has firmly established himself as one of the music world’s most critically acclaimed and beloved stars and as one of the leading artists of our day. Heralded as “the most charming of today’s divos” (The Times) with “a wonderfully virile voice…grandezza, elegance and power” (Süddeutsche Zeitung), Rolando Villazón versatility is peerless as he maintains successful careers as a stage director, novelist, artistic director and radio and TV personality next to his on-stage career.
Born in Mexico City, he began his musical studies at the national conservatory of his home country before joining the junior programs at the opera houses in Pittsburgh and at the San Francisco Opera. Rolando Villazón quickly made a name for himself on the international music scene after winning several prizes at Plácido Domingo’s “Operalia” competition in 1999 (including the Zarzuela Prize and the Audience Prize). This was followed in the same year by his European debut as Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon in Genoa and debuts as Alfredo in La Traviata at the Opéra de Paris and as Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth at the Staatsoper Berlin. Since then, Rolando Villazón has been a regular guest at the State Operas of Berlin, Munich and Vienna, La Scala in Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York and the Salzburg Festival, frequently working with leading orchestras and renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Antonio Pappano and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. He has appeared at London’s Barbican Hall, the Philharmonic Halls in Paris, Berlin and Cologne, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Accademia Santa Cecilia in Rome and New York’s Carnegie Hall, among others. In 2011 Rolando Villazón made his directing debut at Lyon Opera and since then has directed for the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, the Vienna Volksoper, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées, and most recently, the 2022 Salzburg Festival, where his production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia with an all-star cast led by Cecilia Bartoli received widespread critical and public acclaim.