Tenor Eduardo Villa, a native of Santa Barbara, California, has passed away at the age of 70. Originally interested in musicals, he appeared in productions of Oliver!, West Side Story, and Paint Your Wagon before deciding to develop his voice further by studying at the University of Southern California, where his teachers included such luminaries as Martial Singher and Margaret Harshaw.
Upon winning the Metropolitan Opera Auditions in 1982, alongside Hei-Kyung Hong, Sylvia McNair, and Nancy Gustafson, Villa departed for Switzerland, where sang with Basel Opera Theater between 1983 and 1987. In 1986, he made his debut at the Paris Opéra as Verdi’s Don Carlo, and from 1987 to 1991 he appeared at the Munich State Opera.
When Villa began getting offers in the USA and Canada, he left Munich. Among his many contracts were appearances with Connecticut Opera at The Bushnell in Hartford, where I first heard his warm, passionate singing in BALLO IN MASCHERA, and later as an ardent suitor to Mary Dunleavy’s captivating Lucia di Lammermoor.
In 1992, Eduardo sang Jacopo in a concert performance of Verdi’s I DUE FOSCARI given by Eve Queler’s Opera Orchestra of New York. It was a very exciting evening, with soprano Martile Rowland and baritone Vladimir Chernov sharing enthusiastic ovations with the tenor.
Mr. Villa joined the Metropolitan Opera in 2002, debuting as Don Carlo and going on to make two dozen Met appearances (thru 2008) as Pinkerton, Don Jose, Calaf, Turiddu, Rodolfo in LUISA MILLER, Cavaradossi, Enzo Grimaldi, and Ernani.
I saw him at The Met as Radames in 2002 opposite Michelle Crider, and he was really impressive: a Met-sized voice with a nice Italianate ring to the tone. In my diary, I praised his vocal generosity, his ability to cut thru ensembles, and his sustained “Sacerdote! Io resto a te!!” at the end of the Nile Scene.
There is not a lot of Eduardo Villa’s singing on YouTube but there is an OTELLO duet with baritone Mark Rucker that gives a you a good idea of what kind of singer Mr. Villa was…watch and listen here.
~ Oberon
Oberon's Glade 