Through his uniquely compelling performances in leading opera houses and with orchestras around the world, 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 tenors of our time. Rolando Villazón is among the most versatile artists of today, maintaining successful careers as a stage director, novelist, 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 programmes 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 Berlin State Opera. Since then, Rolando Villazón has been a regular guest at the State Operas of Berlin, Munich and Vienna, La Scala Milan, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera New York and the Salzburg Festival, working with leading orchestras and renowned conductors such as Daniel Barenboim and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. In 2011 Rolando Villazón made his debut as a director in Lyon and since then has directed for the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf, the Vienna Volksoper and the Semperoper in Dresden.

In the 2021-22 season he is returning to the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the role of Papageno in Mozart’s “Magic Flute” and is touring throughout Europe with the harpist Xavier de Maistre and their recital programme “Serenata Latina”, with performances at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Musikverein in Graz, the Konzerthaus in Freiburg and the Liederhalle in Stuttgart. Rolando Villazón celebrated his 50th birthday with a high-profile benefit gala concert on 21 February 2022 at the Haus für Mozart in Salzburg. He will end the current season by directing “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” at both the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and the 2022 Salzburg Festival.