Luigi Alva, the Peruvian tenor who was a prominent interpreter of Mozart and Rossini roles that emphasized his light-lyrical voice, elegant phrasing and subtle acting during a career of three decades on the world opera vases, died on Thursday in his house in Barlassina, Italy. He was 98.
His death was confirmed by the Peruvian tenor Ernesto Palacio, a good friend and the intendant of the Rossini Opera Festival In Pesaro, Italy.
Mr. Alva did not have the flourishing, resonant voice needed for dramatic tenor performance in the largest opera houses. But he triumphed in Opera Buffa – Rolls – such as Graaf Almaviva in Rossini ‘The hairdresser of SevillaAnd the love jerseys in Donizettis “Don Pasquale” – That fine comic timing and a rating for absurd situations demanded without resorting to slapstick or robbery.
In more serious roles, such as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s ‘Don Giovanni’, Mr. Alva showed a warm timbre and a graceful line that received an enthusiastic supporter. Little Tenors can match his ability to deliver long coloratura passages with a single breathing, such as Mr. Alva did time and again “Il Mio Tesoro,” The famous aria of “Don Giovanni.”
“The real trick is not just to sing the passage, but to make it sound easy,” the critic Alan Rich From the New York Times, on the occasion of the New York of Mr. Alva Recital debut In Judson Hall in 1961. “And this was the way he sang all evening – beautiful and with a certainty that was literally breathtaking.”
Luís Ernesto Alva Y Talleedo – Professionally known as Luigi Alva – was born on 10 April 1927 in Paita, a Pacific Ocean port in Noord -Perpu. His father, Augusto Alva, an employee of a railway company, and his mother, Virginia Talledo, moved to Lima, the capital, then Luís, their only child, was 6.
The boy studied at a Catholic primary school and an English -language private school, where he was popular with teachers and fellow students for his vocal versions of Argentinian tango music. He registered with the Naval Academy of Peru who was planning to become the captain of a ship, but after singing in a musical production while he was a student, he was approached by Rosa Mercedes Ayarza de MoralesThe leading Peruvian classical vohanking teacher, who had been to the audience. She told him that his destination was on the operapodium, not on the high seas.
Mr. Alva joined Peru’s Conservatorio Nacional de Música as the student of Mrs. Ayarza. After various versions in Zarzuelas and Operas on stage and on radio, and to observe the advice of Mrs. Ayarza, he moved to Italy in 1953 for more voting lessons, in Milan, and to promote his career.
Success came quickly. In 1954 he made his European debut as Alfredo in Verdi’s “La Traviata” in Milan’s Teatro Nuovo. A year later he won compliments for his performance as Paolino in Cimarosas “Il Matrimonio Segreto” in Milan’s La Piccola Scala. And in 1956 he first appeared on a large stage, in La Scala, as Count Almaviva in ‘The Barber of Sevilla’, with in the lead role next to the soprano Maria Callas.
In the next eight years, Mr Alva will commute between La Piccola Scala and larger houses in Europe and the United States. In the larger institutions of La Scala or the Metropolitan Opera in New York, he embraced a limited repertoire of roles that were suitable for his slender voice. But in the smaller Milantheater he took roles in 18 operas, including unexpected, including the title role in Handel’s “Xerxes” (with his famous Aria “Ombra Mai Fu”) and Bacchus in Strauss’s “Ariadne Auf Naxos.”
“The career of Mr. Alva was enriched and the audience had the opportunity to hear an intelligent and interesting artist in roles that he could never have undertaken – or operas that could not have been mounted – in the Oudhuis,” wrote Will Crutchfield, critic of Times Music, in 1985.
When he withdrew from the Operapase in 1989, Mr. Alva, who started permanent stay in the Milan area, devoted himself to promoting young singers, especially in his native Peru. They include a different Peruvian tenor, Juan Diego Flórezwho achieved even greater fame than his predecessor.
His survivors are his wife, Anita Zanetti, and their two sons, Juan and Pedro.
Among the most popular role of Mr. Alva were Almaviva, Don Ottavio and Ernesto. To that, he added FentonThe sincere freer of the love interest Nannetta, in Verdi’s ‘Falstaff’, which he carried out in March 1964 for his debut in the Metropolitan Opera in a production performed by Franco Zeffirelli And led by Leonard Bernstein.
Mr. Alva had bittersweet memories of that implementation. “We were all very sad, because the closure of the ‘Old’ approached,” he remembered in an interview in 2017 with Opera Magazine and marked his 90th birthday. “The destruction of it was already decided when, it seems to me, it would have been possible to restore it.”
(The cast included Gabriella Tucci as Alice and Rosalind Elias as a Meg; Mrs. Tucci died in July 2020 and Mrs. Elias two months earlier.)
Mr. Alva played the role of Fenton a total of 33 times at the, most in the new house. “His soft voice is perfect for the innocent Fenton,” wrote David Salazar, editor -in -chief of Operawire, in 2017. “After having heard him and Anna Moffo together, you will find most other tenors too heavy for these most delicate roles.”
In addition to performing Almaviva often on stage, including 21 performances on the with in that role, Mr. Alva made four recordings of ‘The Barber of Sevilla’. The most famous contained Mrs. Callas as Countess Rosina and Tito Gobbi as Figaro.
“He was perfect for the Rossini,” the mezzo -soprano Shirley Lovewho was often linked to Mr. Alva, Operawire told in 2018. “He had a great sense of humor that always came out in his singing.”
Ash Wu contributed reporting.
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