Marcelo Álvarez

I wish to thank Roberto Falcone for the recording.

I would like to thank Thomas Silverbörg for the recordings.

As a teenager, Álvarez studied to become a choir master and music teacher, but then changed his mind, opted for business studies, and worked in the furniture industry until he was 30. Then he took voice lessons, and sang his first opera roles in his home town (notably Almaviva in 1994). The Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires would not accept him, but Giuseppe Di Stefano in a 1994 masterclass greatly encouraged him. His participation in the "Pavarotti International Voice Competition" in Philadelphia in February 1995 earned him no prize, but a contract for a production of Marina in Menorca, and in fall 1995, he dared following Di Stefano's advice, sold all his belongings and moved with his family to Italy. He won a singing competition in Pavia, and got hired by the Fenice in Venice and the Carlo Felice in Genova.

He was successful, and in 1998, he made his debuts at La Scala, the Met and the Vienna Staatsoper. From then on, his was a world career of the first order.

Originally, he sang mostly lyrical roles: Elvino, Tonio, Edgardo, Arturo (Puritani), Massenet's des Grieux, Duca, Alfredo, Werther, Italienischer Sänger, Hoffmann, Rodolfo. From 2003, he switched to a more spinto repertory: Riccardo, Manrico, Cavaradossi, Don José, later even Radames. While he certainly didn't himself a favor with that switch, it was, on the other hand, not his fault that there were no Manricos anywhere around, and while his voice was definitely better suited to Roméo or Werther, he was at least able to sing most of his new repertory without desaster.

He was not exactly an exciting interpreter (neither musically nor as an actor), but vocally much superior to most other tenors of his generation. For a certain period in the early 2000s, I enjoyed his performances greatly, although I wouldn't consider hearing him today (2024!) as Pollione, which he is still singing in Hamburg.