Rolando Villazón

In the new production of the Return of Ulysses at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées all the ingredients were gathered for a successful show: the music of Monteverdi, a mythological story, a wonderful orchestra on period instruments, baroque specialists like Magdalena Kožená, Isabelle Druet and Katherine Watson, and finally the exuberant Rolando Villazón.

O Come, Little Children features classic Christmas songs beloved by children and adults everywhere. Performed by the world-renowned Mormon Tabernacle Choir, accompanied by the Orchestra at Temple Square, and featuring the singularly beautiful voice of acclaimed tenor Rolondo Villazon, this album takes the listener on a joyful journey through timeless classics that celebrate the season. Rolando's powerful tenor voice shines on classic carols "I Saw Three Ships," "Deck the Hall," and "We Three Kings." Delightful renditions of "Christmas Children" from Scrooge and "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" are performed by the Orchestra at Temple Square, followed by Rolando's tender reading of the celebrated short story "The Little Match Girl," by Charles Dickens. This album will whisk you away to once again see the childlike wonder of Christmas.

La Rondine (The Swallow) is possibly the least performed of Giacomo Puccinis later operas, but is still just as much a masterwork as its more performed counterparts. Originally conceived as the composers first operetta, the work is an artful blend of opera and operetta, with a lighter mood than Puccinis other works. This live production filmed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin stars Dinara Alieva and Charles Castronovo in the lead roles. Renowned stage director Rolando Villazon sets this rendition, and the Orchestra and Chorus of the Deutsche Oper Berlin is conducted here by acclaimed Maestro Roberto Rizzi Brignoli.

Olga Peratyatko and Atalla Ayan star in Rolando Villazón's scintillating production of Verdi's La Traviata at the Festspielhaus in Baden Baden, Germany. Supported by the Balthasar-Neumann-Chor and the Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble.

Rolando Villazon's Baden Baden version of the Donizetti's opera set as an early Hollywood shoot of a western.

Live performance, Bayerische Staatsoper, 2011. The Tales of Hoffmann (French: LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN) is an opéra fantastique by Jacques Offenbach that combines three short stories by E.T.A. Hoffmann into a haunting whole: a melancholy poet reflects on three women he loved and lost in the past: a mechanical performing doll, a Venetian courtesan, and the consumptive daughter of a celebrated composer. One of the questions this opera poses for any director is how to link the 'tales' of Hoffmann's three lost loves together and knit them satisfactorily into the Prologue and Epilogue. In this production, Richard Jones solves the puzzle by turning it into an autobiographical journey which ends with a grand meet-up of all the characters Hoffmann has encountered: for once, Hoffmann is not presented as a rollicking kind of drunken story-spinner, but rather a sad-eyed, sobered-up depressive, who reaches for the bottle only because his disastrous love life has gone wrong yet again.

Popstar to Operastar is a British television programme singing competition based around the training of current pop stars to be able to sing opera. The show began airing on ITV on 15 January 2010 at 9pm. The show is repeated on TV3 Ireland on Saturday evening. The programme is produced by Renegade Pictures. With the show being a singing competition, it featured appropriate judges: Rolando Villazón, Katherine Jenkins, Meat Loaf and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Villazón and Jenkins also mentor the contestants giving them the songs to sing during the live shows. Meat Loaf and Bowen were critic-judges, who talked about their performances. However, after the first series, it was announced that Meat Loaf and Bowen would not be returning as judges. Their replacements were confirmed to be actor and opera-director, Simon Callow and classical singer/violinist, Vanessa-Mae. The presenters of the show were confirmed to be Alan Titchmarsh and Myleene Klass with the non-operatic "Dies Irae" from Verdi's Requiem as the theme tune. However for the second series, Titchmarsh did not return to the show. The winner of the first series was Darius Campbell and winner of the second season was Joe McElderry.

Live performance at the Grand Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in 2009. When Donizetti s comedy, updated to the mid-20th century by the Uruguayan-born director Mario Gas, was mounted at Barcelona's magnificent Liceu opera house in 2005, Opera News wrote that: The absolute hit of the production was . . . Rolando Villazón, a commanding, vulnerable and hilarious Nemorino.

Rolando Villazón Triumphantly Returns To The Stage As Don Carlo In The 2007/2008 Royal Opera House'S Producton Of Don Carlo. National Theatre director Nicholas Hytner's new staging of Verdi's grandest-- and arguably greatest -- opera, Don Carlo, was the highlight of the 2007/2008 Royal Opera House season. This new production marked Rolando Villazón's much anticipated and triumphant return. Set amidst the political, religious and sexual intrigue of the 16th century Spanish court, this epic work tells the tragic story of Don Carlo, a virtuous young prince who is pitted against the powers of a dominant, corrupt society. First staged at The Royal Opera House in 1886, this new production is the first new version of the 5-Act complete opera to be staged at Covent Garden in 50 years. With sets and costumes by Bob Crowley, direction by Nicholas Hytner, and an enviable cast, this production of Don Carlo is worthy of the greatness of Verdi's original, masterful work.

Giacomo Puccini's immortal opera, in a high budget feature-film version directed by Academy Award nominee Robert Dornhelm, stars opera's 'Golden Couple', Rolando Villazon and Anna Netrebko as the protagonists, Rodolfo and Mimi. The chemistry between them is electric, unrivalled in the theatre today. Russian soprano Anna Netrebko is not only beautiful but has a marvelous voice and technique; Mexican tenor Rolando Villazon, has a wonderful voice and an incredible charisma. The director not only wanted to remain steadfastly faithful to Puccini's design but also document two of the leading singers of the modern age rather than embarking on a 'trendy' contemporary re-creation.

Director Vincent Paterson creates an energetic staging with dramatic visual magnificence of Jules Massenet's opera "Manon," which is set in France and Louisiana in the early 18th century. Soprano Anna Netrebko and tenor Rolando Villazón deliver mesmerizing performances in a story about two lovers finally brought together, but ultimately torn apart. Conductor Daniel Barenboim leads the Staatskapelle Berlin in a passionate melodic presentation.

The sensational hit of Salzburg's 2008 festival season arrives on DVD! Starring tenor Rolando Villazón in a stunning performance, this was the must have ticket of the season. Soprano Nino Machaidze, only 25 years old, burst upon the Salzburg stage with an emotionally vulnerable and vocally spectacular performance. With movie star good looks and a large, warm voice, Machaidze wowed the press and audiences alike. Tony Award winner (South Pacific) Bartlett Sher directs this production of Gounod's classic opera. With sets by Michael Yeargan and costumes by Catherine Zuber, the visually vibrant production is sure to become the benchmark. Bonus materials includes "Salzburg Impressions--Behind the Scenes of Roméo et Juliette," "Love and Death in Verona" and Villazón giving an introduction to the opera.

Natalie Dessay and Rolando Villazón bring Jules Massenet's classic opera to the stage in this dazzling production. In 18th-century France, Manon (Dessay) faces life as a nun, despite catching the eye of many men. When she meets the handsome but penniless des Grieux (Villazón), she falls deeply in love. The pair elopes, but their future together is threatened by outside forces.

Massenet's opera centres on its charming but contrary heroine, the vivacious young Manon who longs for luxury and excitement. We first encounter her en route to a convent, where her family are sending her to be educated. Along the way, she falls in love with the young student Des Grieux, and, impetuously, runs off with him. She soon leaves him, however, to become the mistress of a rich nobleman. Thus begins her descent into criminality and depravity, all too soon dragging the besotted Des Grieux with her, until she is imprisoned. Despite its tragic story, the opera is full of French charm and vitality – typified by the ambiguous Manon herself. Her plight is touching because of the subtle play of innocence and calculation in her character. The score contains many sparkling arias and ensembles, moving rapidly from moods of exuberance to tenderness, with perfect dramatic timing. Recorded live at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, Berlin, April/May 2007.

Sparks fly in this video of the all-star concert from Berlin's equivalent of the Hollywood Bowl in July 2006, part of the World Cup festivities. The electricity is generated by the all-star trio of tenors Placido Domingo and Rolando Villazon and soprano Anna Netrebko in a program of operatic and vocal favorites. The crowd estimated at 20,000 eats it all up, and so will home viewers who'll relish the prospect of great singers performing great music.

Martin Kušej's brilliant 2006 Carmen represents a landmark interpretation of a truly timeless opera. Led by Rolando Villazón as Don José and Marina Domashenko in the title role, the virtuoso cast joins forces with the celebrated Staatskapelle Berlin under the direction of the legendary maestro Daniel Barenboim.

This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins the ranks of the elite handful of sopranos whose vocal and acting talents make their portrayals memorable. Her Violetta Valéry is a vulnerable figure torn between self-indulgence and love, sacrificing personal happiness to become a victim of the social mores of mid-19th-century bourgeois France. Fleming's acting captures the complexity of the character and her vocalism is flawless. She negotiates the wild coloratura of Act One with aplomb, and is stunning in the lyric passages that pervade the opera, and touching in her scenes with her lover, Alfredo, and his father. She's blessed with Rolando Villazón as Alfredo. He brings fiery passion to the role of the impetuous lover, convincing in his anger at what he thinks is her betrayal, and in his regrets in their last-act deathbed reconciliation.

This superb 2006 production of the Los Angeles Opera's La Traviata stars Renée Fleming, who joins the ranks of the elite handful of sopranos whose vocal and acting talents make their portrayals memorable. Her Violetta Valéry is a vulnerable figure torn between self-indulgence and love, sacrificing personal happiness to become a victim of the social mores of mid-19th-century bourgeois France. Fleming's acting captures the complexity of the character and her vocalism is flawless. She negotiates the wild coloratura of Act One with aplomb, and is stunning in the lyric passages that pervade the opera, and touching in her scenes with her lover, Alfredo, and his father. Her singing is free of the mannerisms that have sometimes crept into her work and at the same time she brings countless personal touches to the role, phrasing and verbal emphases that shed fresh light on the character.

Violetta, a courtesan much wooed by Parisian society, organizes a grand party that is attended, amongst others, by the young Alfredo Germont. He confesses his feelings to Violetta, who is already suffering from consumption. She vacillates between genuine affection and a realistic assessment of her situation as a "fallen woman", which precludes any lasting relationship with a man. The Willy Decker production of La Traviata, recorded live at the Salzburger Festspiele in August, 2005. Anna Netrebko stars as Violetta Valéry, with Rolando Villazón as Alfredo Germont and Thomas Hampson as Giorgio Germont. Carlo Rizzi conducts the Wiener Philharmoniker.

Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore is one of the staples of the comic opera repertory. The plot hinges on whether earnest but dim-witted Nemorino will snag Adina, the flirtatious heroine. She's a tease who takes up with Belcore, an army sergeant, to make Nemorino jealous. After numerous (and humorous) plot twists that include a phony love potion, it all ends happily. Adina and Nemorino declare their love for each other, Belcore is dumped, and the fraudulent Dulcamara does a landslide business in love potions. It's all a fast-moving bundle of fun, especially with the star-filled cast of this 2005 Vienna State Opera performance.