Born in Cuba probably in 1950, César Antonio Suárez (often just Cesar Suarez) came to Miami in October 1961 with his (just
slightly) elder sister. Fostered by Cuban-born and Miami-based mezzosoprano Marta Pérez, he studied voice at Juilliard School and with
Rosa Ponselle, and used to be credited with winning a prize that doesn't exist (a "Verdi Prize" in Milano, or in another version in Parma
1976). I suppose this is meant to be the Voci Verdiane contest in Busseto, where he may have won a prize, though definitely not a First Prize
(the list of all First Prize winners is accessible on the Voci Verdiane website).
He made his debut (or at least his US debut) in Elisir d'amore in Hartford, with Roberta Peters, and sang a lot, and utterly
unsuccessfully, in San Francisco in the late 1970s (Puritani, Norma). He went on to sing in Mexico City (Alfredo, about 1980), in Edmonton
(Puritani, 1983), Dallas, Dayton, Seattle, Toronto, Las Palmas or Barcelona. He eventually became one of the dreaded tenor
protégés of Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge, and sang with them in several places: Vancouver, Stockholm, Costa Mesa (Opera
Pacific), Detroit (Michigan Opera), in Don Giovanni, Puritani and Norma. An early example for a singer with a
comprimario-type voice, cast in the heroic role of Pollione... nowadays, we've become acquainted to this cruelty, but in the 1980s, the
incongruence must have been blatant. In December 1989, he sang Ruodi in Guillaume Tell at La Scala as the second cast after Vittorio
Terranova (with Chris Merritt, Cheryl Studer, Giorgio Zancanaro and Giorgio Surjan, Riccardo Muti conducting).
What seems like his only commercial recording is also Ruodi, in a complete Italian Tell under Riccardo Chailly, and with Luciano
Pavarotti, Mirella Freni and Sherrill Milnes; it shows that Suárez was not exactly an awe-inspiring singer even when he didn't produce
a complete disaster like in the above Puritani snippet.
In the 1990s, he taught voice (although I don't know whether he exclusively taught by then, or also continued to sing). He didn't from a
heart attack as early as 1998.
Reference 1;
reference 2; reference 3: Deseret News, 26 February 1989; reference 4: Michigan
Opera 1988/89 Season prospectus; reference 5: Los Angeles Times, 23 February 1989; reference 6: La Scala archives; reference 7
