Ponchielli: Cielo e mar! (from La Gioconda)

"There are a lot of people who do not go to the opera because they think you need to have special knowledge for that. I believe that you need a heart and sensibility, and everybody has that." Rolando Villazón

Remember this name - one of the world's leading tenors, Rolando Villazón, is set to become a UK household name in early 2010. Alongside a prime-time ITV show in which he will star, he also releases an exclusive UK album 'Tenor', giving the UK public the opportunity to sample some of the best-loved tenor arias sung by a consummate professional.

Appearing on ITV's new prime-time show Popstar to Opera Star, hosted by Myleene Klass and Alan Titchmarsh, Mexican Villazón will be both a mentor and panellist, lending his operatic expertise to the pop singer students throughout the series. Can eight singers from the world of pop transform their voices and master the art of opera? Coronation Street star Kym Marsh and McFly singer Danny Jones join a glittering celebrity line-up preparing to warble their way into the nation’s hearts. They've already conquered the pop world - but will they hit the high notes en route to operatic success? Villazón has been one of the most in-demand singers on the international opera circuit for almost a decade now, and has firmly established himself in the A-list opera-houses of Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, Vienna, New York and London.

On ‘Tenor', Villazón showcases some of the best-known tenor arias popularised by operatic legends including the 'Three Tenors' Pavarotti, Domingo and Carreras. The greatest tenor arias on this disc vary from sophisticated Handel and emotional operatic greats by Verdi and Puccini through to 20th Century classics from Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’ and Lloyd Webber’s ‘Phantom of the Opera’.

Villazón's enormous personality and charisma shine through every inflection on both the TV show and on this album. He is sure to win over the British audience when he brings musical cheer to our winter evenings.

Plácido Domingo had just turned twenty-six when Rudolf Bing, the Met’s then general manager, invited him to audition in 1967. The young Domingo chose Enzo’s aria from La Gioconda, “Cielo e mar”, as his audition piece. Only a short time later, on the very day on which he made his debut at the Vienna State Opera as Verdi’s Don Carlos, he received a telegram from Bing, asking him to sing Maurizio in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur on 2 October 1968. For every singer, calm, concentration and, above all, ample time to prepare are indispensably necessary before they appear on stage. None of these prerequisites was to be granted to Plácido Domingo before his important first appearance at the Met. On the afternoon of 28 September 1968, four days before his planned debut — he had just completed an extra rehearsal of Turandot at the Met as well as appearing in several performances at the New York City Opera in the course of the previous days — Bing telephoned Domingo and told him to report to the Met at once in order to take over from an indisposed Franco Corelli as Maurizio in Adriana Lecouvreur. The performance was about to begin. In short, Domingo had no time to prepare for such a major event or even to get nervous. He had to jump straight into a car, drive at high speed through New York’s notoriously dense traffic and do vocal exercises at the steering wheel. Although the performance began twenty minutes late, Domingo’s premature Met debut still proved a triumphant success. Only a few weeks before his legendary debut at the Met, another important event in Domingo’s career had taken place in the Great Banqueting Hall at the Johannesstift at Spandau in Berlin, where Teldec recorded the young tenor’s first solo recital. A unique historical document, this recital is here re-released.