Biography
Through his uniquely compelling performances with leading international opera companies and orchestras, Rolando Villazón has firmly established himself as one of the music world’s most critically acclaimed and beloved stars. He is among the most versatile artists alive today, maintaining successful careers as a stage director, Artistic Director of the Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation’s annual Mozart Week, TV/radio presenter and novelist, in addition to his on‑stage activities.
Recent and forthcoming highlights of the 2025–26 season include his directorial debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, with a new production of La sonnambula; Pelléas in Marco Arturo Marelli’s staging of Pelléas et Mélisande at the Vienna Staatsoper; and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus at the Bayerische Staatsoper (December/January). He also directs new productions of Die Zauberflöte, at the Mozart Week in Salzburg (January), and Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (March/April).
Villazón marks the 270th anniversary of Mozart’s birth with a nine-city European tour alongside PRJCT Amsterdam and Maarten Engeltjes (March/April), as well as performing Mozart arias with the Kammerakademie Potsdam and François Leleux (May). He gives recitals in Germany with pianist Sarah Tysman (April/May/June) and harpist Xavier de Maistre (June); is reunited with lautten compagney BERLIN for their Viaggio dell’anima programme in Linz, Fürth and Iserlohn (May); and headlines a zarzuela gala night directed by Christoph Loy at the Deutsche Oper Berlin (July).
Rolando Villazón became an exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon in 2007 and renewed his contract in 2012. His first solo album for the yellow label, Cielo e mar in 2008, was followed by Handel Arias and, in subsequent years, discs entitled Mexico! and La Strada/Songs from the Movies. In 2012, DG named him its Verdi ambassador and he recorded Villazón Verdi, a homage to the great Italian composer in his 200th-birthday year (2013). 2014 saw the release of an album of Mozart concert arias for tenor, recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Antonio Pappano. In 2015 DG released Treasures of Bel Canto, a vivid exploration of the little-known song repertoire of four great Italian opera composers in orchestrated arrangements, with guest artist Cecilia Bartoli.
For his next studio album, Duets (2017), Villazón joined forces with bass Ildar Abdrazakov to record a selection of French and Italian opera duets, accompanied by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain. Released in 2018, Feliz Navidad features carols, folk songs and ballads in the five languages in which he is fluent. It was followed in 2020 by Serenata latina – a collection of new arrangements for voice and harp of Latin American songs on which Villazón is accompanied by Xavier de Maistre.
Rolando Villazón’s operatic discography includes complete recordings of La traviata, La Bohème and Werther, and, on DVD, Manon, Roméo et Juliette and L’elisir d’amore. In 2012 he embarked on a project to record Mozart’s mature operas with Nézet-Séguin. The first in the series, Don Giovanni, was released in 2012, and was followed by Così fan tutte (2013), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (2015), Le nozze di Figaro (2016), La clemenza di Tito (2018) and Die Zauberflöte (2019).
His latest DG album is Orfeo son io, recorded with L’Arpeggiata and its founder-director Christina Pluhar. Villazón sings excerpts from Monteverdi’s Orfeo and other works about Orpheus by Gluck, Peri and Sartorio, as well as 20th-century songs by Carlos Gardel and Luis Bonfá. Orfeo son io is released on 21 November 2025.
Born in Mexico City, Villazón studied at Mexico’s National Conservatory before winning places on the junior programmes of Pittsburgh Opera and San Francisco Opera. In 1999, he burst on to the international music scene after winning several top prizes at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition. He went on to star on all the world’s most important opera stages, his signature roles including Alfredo in La traviata, Des Grieux in Manon, the Duke in Rigoletto, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore and the title role in Werther, along with Gounod’s Roméo and Faust, Offenbach’s Hoffmann, Puccini’s Rodolfo (La Bohème), Tchaikovsky’s Lensky (Eugene Onegin) and Verdi’s Don Carlo.
Both on stage and in the recording studio, Mozart has occupied a central place in Villazón’s career. The singer’s Mozart performances have included the title role in Lucio Silla; Alessandro in Il re pastore; Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Ferrando in Così fan tutte. His Festspielhaus Baden-Baden performances as Don Ottavio, Ferrando, Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Basilio (Le nozze di Figaro), the title role in La clemenza di Tito and, in a first foray into the baritone repertoire, Papageno (Die Zauberflöte) were all recorded live for release on Deutsche Grammophon.
Other highlights of Villazón’s work in the opera house include his creation of the role of Robert Falcon Scott in the world premiere of Miroslav Srnka’s opera South Pole in Munich (2016), and his appearances as Michel in Martinů’s Juliette in Berlin (2016). Since then, he has also made acclaimed role debuts as Orpheus in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Bremen, 2016), Ulysses in the same composer’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse (Paris, 2017), Pelléas in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande (Berlin, 2018), Loge in Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Berlin, 2022), Gabriel von Eisenstein in Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (St Gallen, 2024) and as Mozart’s Idomeneo (Berlin, 2025).
An acclaimed concert artist and recitalist, Villazón has performed with leading orchestras and conductors on concert stages all over the world, including Plácido Domingo, the Münchner Rundfunkorchester and Gianandrea Noseda at the Salzburg Festival; Cecilia Bartoli and Orchestra La Scintilla at venues around Europe; and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and his Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal. He has given recitals with Gerold Huber in Germany and Austria, with Daniel Barenboim at La Scala, Milan and the Berlin Staatsoper and with frequent collaborator Carrie-Ann Matheson at the Salzburg Festival, Paris Opéra and the Salle Gaveau, and Munich’s Prinzregententheater, among many others.
Villazón made his debut as a stage director in 2011 with a critically acclaimed production of Massenet’s Werther with the Opéra de Lyon. He went on to direct Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at Baden Baden in 2012 (he also sang the role of Nemorino) and made three further debuts in the 2014–15 season: Donizetti’s Viva la mamma in Vienna, Puccini’s La rondine in Berlin and La traviata in Baden Baden. Further additions to his directorial repertoire include Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (Düsseldorf, 2017), Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (Berlin, 2018), Rameau’s Platée (Dresden, 2019), Bellini’s La sonnambula (Paris, 2021) and Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia (Salzburg, 2022).
As further proof of his versatility, in 2010/2011 Villazón served as mentor and juror of the UK’s Popstar to Operastar. He has presented TV programmes for the BBC and ZDF, for whom he co-hosted the ECHO Klassik Awards for four years running, as well as fronting a number of cultural programmes, and was the host of ARTE’s Stars von Morgen. He has also presented programmes on France’s Radio Classique and hosts Furioso! Die Rolando Villazón Show on Germany’s Klassik Radio. His debut novel Malabares appeared in Spain and Mexico in 2013 and in German translation a year later. This was followed by Lebenskünstler (2017), and Amadeus auf dem Fahrrad (2020).
Rolando Villazón has been awarded the prestigious French title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and in 2024 was presented with the European Cultural Prize. He is also an ambassador for RED NOSES Clowndoctors International, an artistic organisation bringing humour and laughter to people in need of joy.
11/2025