Rolando Villazon celebrated 50s in Salzburg
On the eve of his milestone birthday, Villazon stood on the stage of the Salzburg House for Mozart on Monday – together with companions such as Placido Domingo or Regula Mühlemann at a benefit gala in aid of the Mozarteum Foundation. Individually or in different groups, together with the birthday child, they performed the concert with excerpts from operas by Mozart, Rossini, Verdi and Giordano, but also with pieces from musicals, operettas and zarzuelas – the Spanish version of the operetta. The sold-out gala evening ended with minutes of applause and a “Happy Birthday” from around 1,600 people.
“Of course I’m very happy here in Salzburg – and to give it as a great gift to the Mozarteum Foundation,” Villazon told ORF III after the concert. “My wonderful colleagues – it is fantastic. They did so much to be here.”
State decoration for “Salzburgues” Villazon
Of course, the fact that he is celebrating in Salzburg of all places also has something to do with his connection to Salzburg, Villazon emphasized to ORF Radio Salzburg: “I really feel like I belong to Salzburg. I’m ‘Salzburgues’.” After the concert, Villazon was presented with the Salzburg State Governor’s Badge of Honor by Governor Wilfried Haslauer (ÖVP).
Villazon has been the director of the Mozart Week for five years – which had to be canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. Nevertheless, Rolando Villazon came and still comes to the state capital on a regular basis. At the 2005 Festival he experienced the rise to superstardom in La Traviata alongside Anna Netrebko.
Benefit gala for Roland Villazon’s 50th birthday
program notice
ORF III is showing the benefit gala concert for Rolando Villazon’s 50th birthday from the Haus für Mozart on Sunday, February 27th at 8.15 p.m. as part of “The Stage Experience”.
“I’m a stranger everywhere”
Rolando Villazon lives in Paris with his wife and two sons. He was born in Mexico City. Where does he feel at home? “The correct answer has to be: I’m a stranger,” says Villazon. “I am a stranger everywhere – even today in Mexico. I speak with an accent and so many grammatical errors in every language I speak. I’m an opera singer, I’m a director who writes books. I’m not an artistic director like all other artistic directors – I’m the artistic director of the Mozart Week, basta! That’s what I am Because I love Mozart. It’s so authentic and I just think about that. I’m someone who’s a stranger and yet belongs everywhere.”
Spotted singing in the shower
The young Rolando Villazon was actually discovered in the shower – by a keen-eyed singing expert: “That was the director of an art institution. My neighbor had dinner – and he was a guest at that dinner. I was in my shower singing the song of Balu (the bear from the ‘Jungle Book’ – ed.) and I think also the ‘Man from La Mancha’. And the hat heard and knocked. My mom opens the door and he asks her, ‘Who’s that singing in the shower?’” Villazon says his mother wanted to apologize for her son singing so late – but instead he was invited to the audition.
As a child, Villazon attended the Colegio Aleman Alexander von Humboldt and later the music conservatory. He made his international debut in 1998 when he moved to San Francisco to join the Pittsburgh Opera’s Young Singers program. Around the turn of the millennium, the first appearances in Europe followed, where Villazon quickly gained a foothold from Genoa via Paris and Munich to Vienna. Then came the legendary appearance with Netrebko at the Salzburg Festival and the media hype that stylized the two into a dream opera couple. This rapid ascent to the opera olympus also had health consequences that were just as rapid, and Villazon had to step back vocally from 2006 onwards. Between great successes, downtime and surgeries were a consequence.
director’s bed 2011
At the same time, the tenor began early on to establish a second mainstay and made his debut as a director at the Opera de Lyon in 2011 with Massenet’s “Werther” – the first of numerous different works at houses including the Vienna Volksoper, where he directed Donizetti’s “Viva la Mamma” in 2015. colorfully staged. The literary work then became a third pillar, so to speak, as Villazon’s first novel “Malabares” was published in 2013, which was followed by others, most recently “Amadeus auf dem Fahrrad” in 2020.
Villazon is not only director of the Mozart Week in Salzburg, but since last year also artistic director of the International Mozarteum Foundation.