Rolando Villazón the YouTube Maestro

Rolando Villazón, currently appearing as a mentor on the ITV1 celebrity talent show Popstar to Operastar, shares some of his favourite music on YouTube!

Despite admitting to the fact he hardly ever watches TV and rarely has the time to browse the internet, the opera tenor exclusively revealed to Classic FM last week that he was planning to  bring some of classical music's most memorable performances ever captured on camera to the attention of a wider audience on the video sharing website.

"What an opportunity for classical music, to have the whole page dedicated to classical music."

Most of the content on YouTube is user-generated amateur footage such as video blogs and short videos which have been uploaded by individuals, but viewers can also watch the latest film trailers, music videos and TV show clips.

Villazón should have plenty of footage to chose from, with over 500,000 videos of classical music and peformances, including some of the great performances in the video archives including The Three Tenors singing Nessum Dorma at the Italia 90 World Cup,  Bernstein conducting the Beethoven's Symphony No.9 at the fall of the Berlin Wall and even a series of masterclasses on Beethoven piano sonatas given by great pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. 

"Just imagine how great it will be for classical music to show the audience these pieces," champions Villazón.

Below Rolando talks you though his YouTube picks and you can watch them all on YouTube today...