The Peruvian tenor Luigi Alva (Luigi Ernesto Alva y Talledo) died yesterday at the age of 98. His focus was on operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioacchino Rossini. His interpretations of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia were particularly appreciated.
After initial vocal studies in his native Peru, Alva moved to Milan in 1953, where he made his debut in 1954 at the Teatro Nuovo as Alfredo in Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata and was accepted into La Scala’s vocal academy.
Alva’s breakthrough came in 1956 with his engagement as Count Almaviva alongside Maria Callas. He subsequently sang at all the major festivals and in the great European opera houses. He made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1964.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Luigi Alva was one of the undisputed stars of the international opera scene. He worked with the greatest conductors of the time such as Otto Klemperer, Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini and Claudio Abbado.
Alva returned to Peru in 1982 to devote himself to teaching. He took his final leave of the stage in 1989. Until his death, Alva worked as a singing teacher at La Scala in Milan and organized opera performances in his home city of Lima.
