Tenor Rolando Villazón almost became a priest, but the church’s loss is opera’s gain, says Neil Fisher
[Times Online, 11 March 2006]

I love you! I defy you! You’re a bastard!” Rolando Villazón may have spent the last hour of a long day in a Russian lesson, but there’s no denting his enthusiasm for his latest role on stage. The bushy eyebrows twitch with infectious energy, and even his richly coloured speaking voice seems to reach operatic heights when he starts to describe the emotional highs and lows of his latest role: the tragic poet Lensky in Tchaikovksy’s Eugene Onegin. “His life in the opera,” beams Villazón, “is just the way life should be.”