Juan Pons

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Joan Pons Álvarez (Ciutadella, Spain, August 8, 1946), Spanish dramatic baritone, known internationally as Juan Pons.

[edit] Career

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With his outstandingly successful international début in 1980 at the Teatro La Scala of Milan with Falstaff, staged by Giorgio Strehler and conducted by Lorin Maazel, Juan Pons has revealed himself as one of the most famous baritones worldwide. Since then, he has been a constant guest of the most important theatres all over the world, from La Scala of Milan to the Metropolitan Opera House of New York, from the Vienna Staatsoper to Covent Garden in London, from the Opéra of Paris to the one in Zurich, from the Liceo in Barcelona to the Arena of Verona.

His repertoire includes all the main baritone roles. Besides Falstaff, a role he played in 1993 at the La Scala under M° Muti on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of its first performance, he has interpreted many of Verdi’s most important baritone roles in Il trovatore, Ernani, UN BALLO IN MASCHERA, RIGOLETTO, LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, La Traviata, SIMON BOCCANEGRA, and MACBETH. Among the works by other composers that he performed we can mention PAGLIACCI, TOSCA, GIANNI SCHICCHI, IL TABARRO, LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST, CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, ANDREA CHENIER and MADAMA BUTTERFLY.

Besides the mainstream repertoire, Juan Pons has also sung less well-known works such as AROLDO, HERODIADE, GEMMA DI VERGY, ROBERTO DEVEREUX and O. Respighi’s LA FIAMMA.

He has interpreted the leading role in many season openings at the New York Met, where he has been a constant guest for more than 15 years.

In the 97-98 season he was highly acclaimed in a production of Sly by Wolff-Ferrari alongside José Carreras, as well as in Giordano’s LA CENA DELLE BEFFE, both productions presented at the Zurich Opera. Furthermore, he sang AIDA at the Teatro Real of Madrid. In the summer of 1998 he sang in a production of Pagliacci staged by Liliana Cavani and conducted by Riccardo Muti alongside Placido Domingo at the Ravenna Festival, where he came back with Falstaff under M° Muti in 2001.

In 2002 he appeared in Sly and Rigoletto at the Met Opera House, in Madama Butterfly in Tokyo under the baton of Myun-Wun Chung and in SIMON BOCCANEGRA at the Opéra Bastille of Paris. His commitments for 2003 included: Madamma Butterfly at the Teatro Comunale of Florence, ANDREA CHENIER and SIMON BOCCANEGRA at the Teatro Regio of Turin, LA GIOCONDA and DON CARLOS at the Zurich Opera, OTELLO at the New National Theatre of Tokyo, AIDA at the Liceo of Barcelona.

During 2004 he sang AIDA, RIGOLETTO, CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA and PAGLIACCI at the New York Met, MACBETH at the Liceo of Barcelona, MADAMA BUTTERFLY at the Arena of Verona, at the Torre del Lago Puccini Festival and on a tour in Japan with the same Festival, LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST and LA TRAVIATA at the Zurich Opera and finally AIDA, NABUCCO, and TOSCA at the Vienna Staatsoper.

In 2005 he recorded Puccini’s EDGAR with Placido Domingo with Deutsche Grammophone.

Among his future commitments, until 2008: GIANNI SCHICCHI and FRANCESCA DA RIMINI at the Opernhaus in Zurich, RIGOLETTO, ANDREA CHENIER and TABARRO at the Met in New York, TOSCA in Rome and later on in Vienna, as well as AIDA in Barcelona and TOSCA in Berlin.