The lineup of tenors that Spanish opera presented in the sixties, seventies and eighties of the last century included such illustrious names as those of Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Jaume Aragall… And Pedro Lavirgin. The Cordovan singer (born in Bujalance on July 31, 1930) shone in the lyrical-dramatic tenor repertoire (‘Il trovatore’, ‘Aida’, ‘Carmen’, ‘Pagliacci’, ‘Turandot’…) with a vigorous and energetic voice, a vehement and expressive singing line and brilliant high notes, which led him to sing in the main theaters around the world.
Pedro Lavirgen died on Sunday in Madrid at the age of 92. Just five years ago, the Teatro Real -on whose stage he was only once, and when it was a concert hall, not an opera house- dedicated its performances of ‘Aida’ to him, one of his workhorses. «’Aida‘ -the Cordovan tenor said then- was one of my favorite works since I was eight or nine years old. I knew it by heart before I even learned music theory. It has been an emblematic work for me ».
The one who, according to Joan Matabosch, artistic director of the Teatro Real, was “one of the most extraordinary Spanish tenors of his generation” made his opera debut precisely with ‘Aida’ at the Teatro Bellas Artes in Mexico. Since he was a child he had shown his musical aptitudes, but an accident suffered when he was seven years old led him to have to be admitted for another three years in the Hospital de Hermanos de San Juan de Dios: there he discovered the singing of the hand of Ladislao Senostain, the parish priest of his hometown, who formed a choir and made him a soloist. After finishing his studies and with the title of national teacher in his pocket, he moved to Madrid, where he alternated teaching with music. He joined the National Radio Chamber Choir (he can be heard in the role of the first brother in the number of the Brotherhood of the Bulla in the recording of ‘Doña Francisquita’ which starred Alfredo Kraus).
After passing through the Choir of the Teatro de la Zarzuela, Pedro Lavirgen trained with Miguel Barrosa. Led by him, he managed to make his debut in Zaragoza in 1959 as Jorge in ‘Marina’, by Arrieta. After several years interpreting this repertoire, jose tamayo he hired him as first tenor in his Amadeo Vives Lyric Company (years later he often participated in his well-known ‘Antología de la Zarzuela’, a genre that the tenor always defended).
In those years, as he himself revealed at the Teatro Real in 2018, he auditioned for opera houses. “He always sang ‘Celeste Aida’ on them.” He did it at La Scala in Milan; «they didn’t hire me then, but the Bellas Artes de México theater did, precisely to sing ‘Aida’; it was my operatic debut». Antoinette Stella and Robert Merrill were his co-stars in that performance on September 12, 1964.
Barely two months later, Pedro Lavirgen made his debut at the Barcelona Lyceum -where he would sing nearly a hundred performances over nineteen seasons- with the opera ‘Carmen’, sung in Italian; the tenor would later sing it in the original French… and in Spanish, in a version of Fernando Quinones that José Tamayo staged in 1980 in the Las Ventas bullring. It was the opera that he sang on the greatest number of occasions: 151.
In the following years there were their debuts at the Vienna Opera, London’s Covent Garden, the opera season of the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, the Colón in Buenos Aires, the New York Metropolitan or the Scala in Milan (on February 3 from 1976, with ‘Aida’ and next to Montserrat Caballé).
On April 29, 1976, Pedro Lavirgen was supposed to sing ‘Il trovatore’ at the Municipal Theater in Caracas but, just like Alfredo di Stefano had done a few years before, he was kidnapped along with the orchestra director Michelangelo Veltri and his wife, Suzy. According to his captors, it was a mistake and the three were released.
After leaving the stage -his last opera was ‘Carmen’ in Córdoba and Murcia in 1990, and three years later he announced his retirement during a tribute paid to him in Madrid-, in 1998 he created the International Competition ‘Pedro Lavirgenfrom Priego de Cordoba. He was also a professor at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid until 1995 and continued his teaching activity, as well as giving recitals sporadically.