Juan Arvizu

His father was a telegraph operator and Arvizu himself learnt that job and worked as in it for some time. He moved to Mexico City in 1922 and studied with José Pierson who prepared him for an operatic career as a tenor and gave him free lessons.

In 1925 Arvizu married Ms. Amalia Romo. The couple had three children.

Juan Arvizu made his opera debut at the Teatro Esperanza Iris in Mexico City on 13 April 1927 as Elvino in La sonnambula with the soprano Consuelo Escobar (Amina), the bass Luis G. Saldaña (Rodolfo), Amalia Isauri (Lisa) and conductor Alberto Flachebba. His second role at the same theatre was Corentin in Meyerbeer's Dinorah. He sang two performances on 3 and 12 April, with the soprano Consuelo Escobar (Dinorah), the baritone Eduardo Lejarazu (Hoël) and the bass Luis G. Saldaña (Hunter). The conductor was again Alberto Flachebba.

After some recitals in Mexico City and Guadalajara (Teatro Degollado), Arvizu sang his last operatic performance at a gala organized by the "Compañía de Opera María Romero", on 4 March 1928 at the Teatro Colón, in Mexico City. The program included the first act from Don Pasquale, the second act from Massenet's Manon and the last act from Thomas' Hamlet with the Spanish soprano Angeles Ottein, the baritone Eduardo Lejarazu, the basses Luis G. Saldaña and Ignacio Rufino. The conductor was Jesús M. Acuña.

In 1928, Arvizu sang with the "Compañía de Revistas de Pepe Campillo" at the Teatro Lírico, and also recorded for Brunswick his first disc, "Varita de Nardo" by Joaquín Pardavé.

"I wanted to be a lyric tenor and an opera singer. But I soon realized that to stand out in that field it was necessary to have extraordinary vocal conditions, and so I accepted the proposal of Mr. Pepe Campillo who needed a tenor for a tour to Havana. As my teacher told me, I chose quantity instead of quality."

Arvizu started singing on radio programs in 1929 on the XEB "El Buen Tono" radio station. He was an immediate success singing romantic songs, boleros and tangos that were popular throughout Mexico. That same year he called the composer Agustín Lara to become his pianist in his presentations. The following year, on 30 September 1930, Arvizu was invited to the inauguration of the XEW "La Voz de América Latina desde México" radio station. The other guest artists included the tenor Alfonso Ortiz Tirado, the tenor Néstor Mesta Chayres, the mezzosoprano Josefina "Chacha" Aguilar and the composers Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, Jorge del Moral and Agustín Lara.

He obtained a contract to make records in New York for the Victor Company.

In 1935, he made his first tour to Venezuela and Argentina. He arrived in Buenos Aires in November with a contract to inaugurate the Radio El Mundo (LR1). Though he was not an immediate success, after two months he was so popular that he was forced to stay in Argentina for long seasons.

Also, in October 1935 Arvizu visited Chile for the first time and sang at the Teatro Imperio, in Santiago.

In 1939, he sang for six months at the Teatro Monumental in Buenos Aires, and there also his film "Ahora seremos felices" (Now we'll be happy) was premiered, which he had shot in Cuba with the Puerto Rican star Mapy Cortés.

In January 1940, he was again in Chile, singing on SNA Radio Agricultura and in Valparaiso at the Teatro Valparaíso. He also made some records in Santiago for the Victor Company of Chile.

In May 1942, he was called to New York with a contract offered by the Columbia Broadcasting System to inaugurate the CBS programs, and thus his fame spread to the entire American continent.

In 1944, he returned to Buenos Aires and was received as "a hero", making triumphal presentations and many records for RCA Víctor and Columbia. He decided to live in Argentina and remained there for nearly ten years.

He came back to Chile on three more occasions, in 1943, 1945 and 1950, singing on the radio, in night clubs and theatres.

Arvizu acted and sang in four films: "Santa" (1931, with Lupita Tovar), "Reír llorando", "Infidelidad" and the already mentioned "Ahora seremos felices" (1939).

He returned to his native country, Mexico, in 1953; but there his name had been forgotten, which meant great bitterness for Arvizu.

Juan Arvizu has been considered a pioneer and, at the same time, one of the greatest interpreters of the "bolero", a musical rhythm enormously popular during the 1940s and 1950s. It derived from the lyric song to the romantic songs of the 1930s with authors like María Grever, Jorge del Moral and Agustín Lara. In the early '40s, those songs took a rhythmical form known as the "bolero". Juan Arvizu was unrivalled in that field.

Juan Arvizu died in Mexico City on 19 November 1985, at 85 years old.

Discography

Several sources inform us that Arvizu recorded more than 2000 songs. It may be true or not, who knows? His first recordings were made for the Brunswick label and included Mexican folklore songs (yucatecas, tabasqueñas), some of them in company of the baritone and composer Mario Talavera and Pepe Gomez (singing the second voice), and under the orchestral direction of the Mexican composer Alfonso Esparza Oteo. His first record for that company was the song "Varita de Nardo"(by Joaquín Pardavé).

On 26 December 1929, he made his first record for the Victor company: "Tú, tú y tú" (by María Grever) and "Por unos ojos" (by Jorge del Moral). It was for Victor that he made his most famous records, including some duets with Margarita Cueto, Ana María Fernández, Josefina Aguilar, Margarita Carvajal, Juan Pulido and Héctor de Lara. As we have already said, in the '40s he also recorded in Chile and in Argentina, both for Victor and Columbia. In 1953, he made an LP in Mexico with his friends and colleagues, the tenors Alfonso Ortiz Tirado and Pedro Vargas. Arvizu was one of the first Mexican artists to introduce the Argentinean tango in Mexico and other Latin American countries. He recorded more than 40 tangos.

Those who hear Arvizu's voice for the first time will be surprised by the similarity with Tito Schipa's. Undoubtly the Mexican singer had a great admiration for the Italian tenor and was influenced by his style and sound.

Though he did not have the opportunity to record much classical music, his operatic roots can be appreciated in the famous "Berceuse" from Godard's "Jocelyn", the waltz "Sobre las olas" by Juventino Rosas (that Mario Lanza recorded in the '50s as "The loveliest night of the year"), "La paloma" by Sebastián Yradier, "La golondrina" by Narciso Serradel and the beautiful tango by Eduardo Bianco, "Plegaria" (Prayer) in which the second voice is sung by the Spanish baritone Juan Pulido.