Rolando Villazón

Rolando Villazon, Xavier de Maistre – Serenata Latina (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 13, 2023 · Comments off

Rolando Villazón and Xavier de Maistre present Serenata latina, a rich and varied programme of Latin American songs

Album features vocal works heard for the first time with harp accompaniments, including iconic pieces by Carlos Guastavino, Ariel Ramírez and Alberto Ginastera

Serenata latina to be released by Deutsche Grammophon in October 2020

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Rolando Villazón – Treasures of Bel Canto (2015) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 11, 2023 · Comments off

Rolando Villazón, one of the world s favorite tenors, returns to the very roots of the Italian romantic vocal tradition, with a selection of exquisite melodies of simple beauty and passion by the greatest of Italian opera composers.

Following journeys through the music of Mozart and Verdi in recent years, Rolando now brings us a stunning collection of songs from the Romantic bel canto period – miniature gems penned by Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini and Verdi – originally scored for piano accompaniment and presented here for the first time in new arrangements for orchestra.

The album features popular hit tracks such as Rossini s “La danza”, Bellini s “Malinconia, ninfa gentile” and “Vaga luna”, as well as a delightful Rossini duet (Les Amants de Séville) with none other than 5-time Grammy award-winner Cecilia Bartoli.

Undoubtedly one of the finest, most charismatic and recognisable tenors in the world of opera, Rolando continues to go from strength to strength. His varied and rich recording career has brought rave reviews for performances within all sorts of styles – from traditional opera aria repertoire to Baroque, Mexican and, more recently, noted collections of arias by Verdi and Mozart. All of this whilst holding down a top international opera house career in some of the finest venues of the world.

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Rolando Villazón – Feliz Navidad (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/44,1kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 8, 2023 · Comments off

Rolando Villazón’s latest album, Feliz Navidad, shares the magic of Christmas!

He follows the critically acclaimed Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with his first Christmas album for the Yellow Label.

Feliz Navidad extends the great tradition of seasonal albums by Fritz Wunderlich, Luciano Pavarotti, Plácido Domingo and Bryn Terfel. Further, Villazón records famous Christmas classics in each of his five languages, including White Christmas, O Tannenbaum, Tu scendi dalle stelle, Petit Papa Noël and Los peces en el río.

Heart-warming tracks include duets with German singer-songwriter Sasha and French pop star Julie Zenatti.

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Rolando Villazón – Mozart: La clemenza di Tito (Live) (2018) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · August 7, 2023 · Comments off

Recorded in July 2017 in the sumptuous Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, this La clemenza di Tito follows albums which had come out previously in the Mozart series with Nézet-Séguin, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and tenor Rolando Villazón, who is the only singer to appear in all these productions. It should go without saying that the music is extremely finely-chiselled: none of the singers take the slightest liberty with either the score or the style – there are no unruly Italianisms like glissandos, individual showing off, clownish high-Cs, parasitic ornamentations, warbling, trilling, sobbing – which means that we are left with one of the purest and finest performances of this work. Note that this was Mozart’s final opera, first performed just two months before he passed away; and that the recitatives were written by the faithful Sussmayr, who would go on to “complete” the Requiem. In the same period Mozart was also putting the final touches to his Magic flute and only had a few weeks to finish the work; and yet, what perfection in the arias, ensembles and choruses! And that in spite of the fact that the subject probably was not a source of tremendous interest to the composer, especially since his explosive collaboration with Da Ponte. But when given a performance like this, the work absolutely passes with flying colours.

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Rolando Villazón – Serenata Latina (Bonus EP Edition) (2020) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 31, 2023 · Comments off

Rolando Villazón and Xavier de Maistre present Serenata latina, a rich and varied programme of Latin American songs.

Album features vocal works heard for the first time with harp accompaniments, including iconic pieces by Carlos Guastavino, Ariel Ramírez and Alberto Ginastera.

Serenata latina to be released by Deutsche Grammophon in October 2020.

We present the release of Serenata Latina (Bonus EP) to mark the DG Stage concert stream from Rolando Villazón partnering with French harpist Xavier de Maistre at the beautiful Théâtre des Bouffes Parisiens, for a concert of intimate arrangements of Latin American songs for tenor and harp. Latin American song-writing, where indigenous, European and African cultures meet, offers a tantalising collage of sounds, rhythm, melody and narrative.

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Luca Pisaroni, Christiane Karg, Sonya Yoncheva, Thomas Hampson, Angela Brower, Anne Sofie von Otter, Maurizio Muraro, Rolando Villazón, Jory Vinikour, Vocalensemble Rastatt, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin – Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, K.492 (2016) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · June 6, 2023 · Comments off

Luca Pisaroni, Christiane Karg, Sonya Yoncheva, Thomas Hampson, Angela Brower, Anne Sofie von Otter, Maurizio Muraro, Rolando Villazón, Jory Vinikour, Vocalensemble Rastatt, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Yannick Nézet-Séguin – Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro, K.492 (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 02:53:23 minutes | 3,35 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

After “Don Giovanni”, “Così fan tutte” and “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” this is the fourth of DG’s series of seven Mozart operas conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and initiated by Rolando Villazón, in collaboration with U-Live, Festspielhaus Baden Baden and with the generous support of ROLEX.

Recorded with a stellar cast, one of the brightest and most insightful conductors of our day and a specialist handpicked orchestra playing at their best in the stunning venue of Festspielhaus Baden-Baden (July 2015), Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s “completely gripping, high-contrast” Figaro is “a brilliant triumph”, wrote Badische Zeitung of the July 2015 concert performance recorded here, while heaping praise on Luca Pisaroni’s “thrilling” Figaro, Thomas Hampson’s Count “illuminating every word”, Sonya Yoncheva’s Countess “recalling Callas’s vocal colours”, Angela Brower’s “fascinatingly delicate, sensitive” Cherubino and Anne Sofie von Otter’s “wonderfully perceptive, charming Marcellina”, all in a performance “crowned” by Christiane Karg’s “enchanting” Susanna and Rolando Villazón as Basilio, who “had the audience at his feet”.

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Rolando Villazón – Feliz Navidad (Extended Edition) (2018/2022) [Official Digital Download 24bit/48kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · December 18, 2022 · Comments off

Rolando Villazón’s latest album, Feliz Navidad, shares the magic of Christmas!

He follows the critically acclaimed Deutsche Grammophon recording of Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito with his first Christmas album for the Yellow Label.

Heart-warming tracks include duets with German singer-songwriter Sasha and French pop star Julie Zenatti.

(more…)

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rolando Villazón, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, Ildar Abdrazakov – Duets (2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Studio Masters By admin · July 17, 2022 · Comments off

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rolando Villazón, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal, Ildar Abdrazakov – Duets (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:01:22 minutes | 1,02 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Deutsche Grammophon (DG)

Three exceptional artists join forces for an operatic treat! Star tenor Rolando Villazón, who was just named artistic director of Salzburg Mozart week, Ildar Abdrazakov, one of the most sought-after young basses in the operatic world (Vanity Fair), who is debuting on Deutsche Grammophon with this album and the in-coming music director of the Metropolitan Opera Yannick Nézet-Séguin – a conductor full of vim and vigor – with Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal.

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Rolando Villazón – Verdi (2012/2013) [High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray Disc]

Blu-Ray Audio By admin · May 31, 2018 · Comments off

Rolando Villazón – Verdi (2012/2013) [High Fidelity Pure Audio Blu-Ray Disc]

LPCM 2.0 and DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 & Dolby TrueHD 2.0 | 24bit / 96kHz | Time – 00:56:34 minutes | 6,4 GB

“Welcome to this musical journey through some of the many beautiful works that Verdi wrote for tenor. We start with an aria from his very first opera, Oberto. Then you will listen to other arias from his early years, from his most popular operas and from his mature period, as well as to a selection of songs orchestrated by Berio, to the solo tenor part from his great religious oratorio, all the way to the very last aria he composed for tenor.

“To perform Verdi is to perform variations on the eternal melody of the human soul. Verdi was a man who came from the people and composed for the people, a genius who never lost contact with the basic forces of the human heart. Verdi was indeed the least pretentious of all composers. When critics of his time said that he who thinks that great music is an expression of love, pain etc, is wrong, he simply replied: “And why should one not believe that music is the expression of love and pain and etc?” For Verdi, “art that misses simplicity and naturalness is not Art. An idea must stem from the simple.”

“It has been an immense joy to sail through Verdi’s rich musical sea – with its limpid blue waters, tremendous tempests, caressing waves and sunsets red as blood – in the company of the Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino and the great Gianandrea Noseda. It is also a pleasure to welcome my dear colleague Mojca Erdmann on this wonderful musical odyssey. We hope you enjoy the journey with us and that, after having listened to it, you feel an absolute need to dive into the vast ocean of the great Maestro Verdi’s complete works.” – Rolando Villazón

“Tenor roles in the operas of Giuseppe Verdi require vocalism of exceptional beauty and power, combined with a blazing sincerity of expression. That is abundantly clear in Rolando Villazón’s all-Verdi recital, finely balanced between popular pieces and significantly less familiar ones. The feeling of discovery will surely be as thrilling to Villazón’s listeners as it has been to the singer himself. Verdi has been integral to Villazón’s international career and, in continuing his exploration of Verdi via this disc, the tenor has created a fascinating journey through the composer’s very long life.

“Villazón cherishes, above all, the emotional pull that gives him a universal and timeless appeal. “Verdi was able to translate the main emotions of humanity into music,” says Villazón. The operas repeatedly depict “jealousy, love, sadness, moaning for death, craving for what you cannot have.” But, whatever the dramatic situation, Verdi “connects directly to the essence of what makes us human beings.” – Roger Pines, dramaturg and broadcast commentator at Lyric Opera of Chicago (more…)