Rolando Villazon

Rolando Villazón Mauleón, a Mexican tenor who has lived in France since taking citizenship there in 2007, has built a career that runs well beyond the opera house. He grew up in Fuentes de Satélite on the edge of Mexico City, where a chance encounter set his path: a baritone friend of his neighbour heard him singing in the shower and urged him to train. Alongside singing he directs productions, has published novels including Malabares and Paladas de sombra contra la oscuridad, and works in radio and television.

His breakthrough came in 1999 when he placed second at Plácido Domingo's Operalia competition, and he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2004 as Alfredo in La traviata. Through the 2000s he sang at houses from Berlin and Munich to Salzburg, including L'elisir d'amore with Anna Netrebko in Vienna. After announcing surgery in 2009 to remove a congenital cyst from a vocal cord, he returned in March 2010 as Nemorino. Since then he has turned increasingly to Mozart, and in 2018 he became artistic director of Mozart Week in Salzburg; his contract there was extended until 2028.