Rolando Villazón is the veritable definition of a modern-day renaissance man.

The Mexico City, Mexico-born tenor, who came to international acclaim after winning the Operalia competition in 1999, may make most headlines for his exploits as a singing-actor, but he has steadily built an attractive resume as a stage director, recording artist, novelist and has made appearances in wide array of media ranging from documentaries to reality TV to hosting the prestigious ECHO awards for Classical Music.

Villazon has achieved all this and is still in his prime at age 42. And, by all accounts, he has no interest in slowing down his output in any of his diverse creative outlets.

The tenor, who has sung in every major opera house in the world including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House, the Salzburg Festspiele, the Vienna Staatsoper, Baden-Baden and the Bayerische Staatsoper among others, is currently singing a production of Verdi's "Macbeth" in Berlin alongside a superstar cast that includes Placido Domingo, making his role debut as the eponymous character, Liudmyla Monastyrska as his murderous wife and Rene Pape as the ill-fated Banquo. At the helm is legendary conductor Daniel Barenboim, who Villazon notes is a close friend.

"I am so happy to be a part of this wondrous cast," stated Villazon during a recent interview with Latin Post. "It was the first role I did in Germany and it opened many doors for me.

"To be able to do it with Maestro Barenboim, a close friend of mine and my idol Maestro Domingo is a true joy," he added. "If you look at every role in this opera, there is a major star attached, so for me it is truly exciting."

"Macbeth" runs through Feb. 15 and two days later, Villazon will join forces again with Domingo in a concert in Berlin before heading off to La Scala to take on Mozart's "Lucio Silla." That production goes through mid-March but in-between, Villazon takes off his actor-singer hat and turns into a director for the fourth time in his still-burgeoning career.

Villazon made his directorial debut in 2011 when he took his vision of Massenet's "Werther" to the stage in Lyon. But he stated that his journey into directing actually started 12 years ago.

  

"I was singing La Boheme in Bregenz and during a conversation with the great director Richard Jones, I told him about upcoming projects and how I saw certain scenes," Villazon revealed. "And he told me that I should just become a stage director. I thought to myself that I was only a singer and that they were only ideas and little more.

"Years later we talked again and he insisted. He even got another English director to talk to me about it. And then I started to reconsider."

"Werther" came first and then a year later he took on "L'Elisir d'Amore" by Donizetti at Baden Baden. However, there was a twist. Not only did Villazon direct the production, but he also sang the lead role of Nemorino.

Then, a few months ago, he presented a production of Donizetti's "Viva la Mamma" in Vienna.

And now he will take on Puccini's "La Rondine" which opens at the Deutsche Oper on March 8.

"For La Rondine, I am going to push it up a century and will use some surreal imagery," he noted about his idea for the work before elaborating on how he feels about directing. "The job of a director is to create a visual world that has specific and clear rules that everyone constructing it can understand. That includes the set designer, the light designer, the costumer. And then of course I have to make it clear for the singers who are ultimately interpreting it.

"Consistency is everything. We should know where we are going and why. Clarity in the direction of the dramatic movement and characters is the most essential element."

He noted that it helps to be a singer while directing because he knows and understand the needs of a singer when on stage.

"Where do we like to sing? What challenges do we face? So I try to make their lives as easy as possible. I try to avoid making them interpreters and simply tell the story of their characters from the soul of those characters," he explained.

After Rondine, he brings his interpretation of Verdi's "La Traviata" to the stage in Baden-Baden and has his next directing gig set for the 2016-17 season. He is open to any new directing opportunities that come his way. He stated that he has no preference for directing any particular work, though he would "love to do Mozart or the Shakespeare operas by Verdi such as 'Falstaff.'

"But honestly I am excited for whatever comes and ready for anything."

Anything of course also includes writing another novel, which Villazon has already completed. His first work "Malabares" was published in 2013 and told the story of a clown who suffers an injury and rediscovers a story he had been writing about an alter-ego clown who is adored by the public but is also going through his own rough patch in his career.

While some might associate the work directly with Villazon's own career, which featured some moments of adversity (he had to take breaks from the stage in 2008 and 2009 due to health problems; in 2009, a congenital cyst was removed from one of his vocal cords), the work is at large an encapsulation of the challenges of being an artist in general.

The new novel is not a direct sequel but more of a spiritual one as Villazon notes that some minor characters from the early work reappear throughout.

"The [two novels] are parts of the whole, but you do not need to read them both to understand them independently," he added. "I am also working on a third part that will fit in the same way."

The novel is currently being edited and has no title, according to Villazon.

The Mexican tenor is also the host on the hit German TV show "Stars of Tomorrow," which showcases the talent of young artists. This is just his latest endeavor in the medium as he possesses a resume that includes diverse documentaries on the arts as well as the popular "Pop Star to Opera Star." That program was a reality TV competition akin to "The Voice" and "Dancing with the Stars" in which European pop singers would take their turns at trying to learn to sing opera. Villazon was one of the show judges and mentors on a roster that included the likes of Simon Callow, Vanessa-Mae and Meat Loaf, among others.

 

Villazon states that part of his aim is not so much to bring opera to the mass audiences, but to make it present to them.

"I don't think opera needs to go to the people, but the people need to come to the opera," he stated. "More than making opera popular, I think the objective [with these shows] is to make it present for all generations. But to do that we need to show it off and I think that these shows give us that opportunity.

"I think that it is essential that the youth not hear the word and think of it as an abstract, strange world beyond their comprehension," he elaborated. "We want it be a part of their everyday world. So if they turn on the TV and hear a singer doing opera or a CD announcement or a classical music concert, they think of it as another part of who we are, not some abstract world that they cannot enter into. That if they say 'I'm going to the opera to see La Traviata,' it should not be a big deal."

Opera is certainly more present in Latin America, as there are a plethora of artists making international careers in the modern day opera landscape. Aside from Villazon, one can look to such names as Juan Diego Florez, Ramon Vargas, Ana Maria Martinez, Erwin Schrott and Javier Camarena among many others making major careers internationally in opera.

Villazon names two major factors for this growth of Latin American presence in the opera world.

"The first is the motivation and hope that a young singer gets from knowing that someone else has already made it," he said. "I think that when you are a young singer and you see someone from your country or hometown making an international career, then you start believing that you can do it also.

"When there is no Latin American singer on the international stage and you are the first, then things are a bit more difficult. But when I was young, Ramon Vargas was having a tremendous career and Francisco Araiza was already a legend."

He stated that the second factor was having these established artists open doors for the future generations.

"These people pave the way because other audiences around the world are now willing to listen to Latin American singers because they have examples of successful careers," he noted. "They start paying attention."

Everyone is certainly paying attention to Villazon and his upcoming exploits. Aside from his work on stage, which includes performances in Verdi's "Don Carlo," Offenbach's "Hoffmann", and Mozart's "Don Giovanni" among others, he will also be releasing a new CD with Deutsche Gramophon at some point in 2015.

He revealed that the album will include orchestral arrangements of songs for voice and piano by Bellini, Donizetti, Verdi and Rossini. He has an extensive discography both with Erato (formerly Virgin Classics), including "Gitano" which featured Zarzuela, and his current exclusive label, Deutsche Grammophon, where he has released a large number of complete operas both on CD and DVD and six solo albums including "Mexico," which showcased a wide range of songs from his homeland.

 

This all beckons one major question - how does he manage it all? One might immediately guess that's a result of his own individual strength and determination, but the singer does not take all the credit.

"It is essential to have a great manager, which fortunately I have, who helps me organize my time to learn roles and sing, the time to do these shows, the time I need to write and the time I need to spend with my family," he stated. "It is a tough job, but fortunately she does it wonderfully and it allows me to have the time to do everything I want."

But, of course, there is one more vital element to the formula for Villazon personally.

"I always engage my imagination. I am always looking for new ideas, dreams, images and I never ignore or discard them," he added. "I try not to conform to the ideas that I shouldn't do certain things because I'm an opera singer and there are certain limits. I think it is essential to take risks and be ready to lose, because it will happen sometimes. But at the same time, I can enjoy the unexpected triumphs because I took the risk and allowed my imagination to flourish."