Villazón's return a huge success

Rolando Villazón made his highly anticipated return to the stage on Monday 22 March, at Vienna State Opera.

The Mexican tenor sang Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore, one of his favourite roles. It marks the first time in over a year that he has sung a complete opera on stage, since surgery to remove a cyst on his vocal chords.

The audience gave Villazón a six-minute ovation following his performance of the opera’s most famous aria, ‘Una furtive lagrima’, and conductor Daniele Gatti had to wait to continue. At the end of the performance, the curtain calls lasted for 20 minutes as the audience clapped and cheered.

Villazón's next performance will be as Lenski in Tchaikovsky's Eugen Onegin at the Berlin State Opera, conducted by Daniel Barenboim.  He will then embark on a European concert tour with Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Players, stopping in London and making his Royal Festival Hall debut on Monday 3 May.