Villazon returns for jubilant performance

VIENNA, Austria – They clapped before Rolando Villazon sang a single note.\nAfter all, it was the star tenor''s first performance since he suddenly canceled all engagements more than three months ago, for what his manager said were health reasons.\nSo for the audience cramming the Vienna State Opera on Saturday, it didn''t matter what Villazon sang – or even whether he sang. The first sighting of the Mexican tenor in the opening minutes of Jules Massenet''s "Werther" set off a ripple that within moments grew to waves of thunderous applause interspersed with shouts of "bravo."\nIt was an almost unnerving outburst of warmth from what is known as one of the world''s more reserved audiences.\nBut then, Villazon isn''t just any tenor.\nMany critics consider him as the heir in waiting to the likes of Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras. His performances with Russian diva Anna Netrebko sizzle, and the pair has been hyped up as opera''s new "love couple." At its best, his voice is a mixture of silver and honey. And even if it isn''t, his masterful theatrics are worth the price of even a better seat in any opera house.\nSo news in September that he was canceling his performances until at least early this year after a series of missed performances sent out shock waves beyond the reaches of the opera world.\nHis return Saturday set the stage for huge expectations that were mostly – but not completely – met.\nWhile wonderfully supple, and surprisingly strong at times, Villazon''s voice was occasionally lost in the more powerful orchestral passages - and it wasn''t the fault of conductor Marco Armiliato.\nAlthough he appeared to be hitting his high B''s, it wasn''t always apparent – because when trying too hard to be heard, Villazon''s lyric tenor just seemed to top out among all those potent brass passages of the second and third acts.\nVillazon himself appeared to be less than completely satisfied. Miguel Perez, who described himself as a friend of Villazon from Barcelona, said the tenor told him between breaks that he was "very happy" with the first act but "not very happy with the second."\n"It''s a very emotional evening for him," Perez told the AP.\nIf so, Villazon put those emotions to wonderful use. On Saturday, his theatrics made him the quintessential Werther, the emotionally vulnerable, brooding young man who obsesses over a woman he cannot have, shoots himself - and dies happily in her arms after she confesses her love \nfor him.