Born in Paita in 1927, Alva studied at Peru’s Navy Academy before training as a singer, initially in Lima (where he made his debut aged 22 in Torroba’s zarzuela Luisa Fernanda) and subsequently in Milan, singing his first Count Almaviva in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia at La Scala in 1956 opposite Maria Callas’s Rosina.
Alva’s elegant, easy stage presence, natural sense of comic timing and small but perfectly formed voice (combining lightly-sprung agility with a distinctive sweetness of tone) proved eminently suited to the role, and he quickly found himself in great international demand for Rossini and light lyric assignments such as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore (which he sang for his Glyndebourne Festival debut), Mozart’s Don Ottavio and Ferrando, and Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff.
It was in the latter role that he made his first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1964, with Leonard Bernstein (also making his house debut) conducting and Franco Zeffirelli as director: reviewing the performance, The New York Times noted that Alva ‘acted well, sang with style and proved a real asset to the production’. Alva returned to the Met more than a hundred times over the course of the next decade, singing roles including Ernesto in Don Pasquale, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, many more Fentons and Almavivas, and Alfredo in La traviata – one of his few excursions into fuller lyric territory. His repertoire also included Handel’s Serse (in an era where castrato roles were often assigned to light tenors), Scarlatti’s La Griselda, relative rarities by Haydn, and cameo roles in verismo such as the Ballad-Seller in Puccini’s Il tabarro and Beppe in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
Alva’s neat, agile tenor and crystal-clear diction came across beautifully in the studio, and he recorded virtually all of his major opera roles in the most illustrious company: his discography includes three recordings of Barbiere (with Callas, Teresa Berganza and Victoria de los Ángeles as his Rosinas), Don Ottavio on Carlo Maria Giulini’s celebrated Don Giovanni (with Joan Sutherland as Donna Anna and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf as Donna Elvira), and a live recording of L'elisir d'amore from the 1962 Glyndebourne Festival (with Mirella Freni as Adina).
Alva retired from the stage in 1989, devoting much of his energy to working with young singers through masterclasses, competitions and his teaching practice at the Scuola di Canto in Milan; he was particularly committed to supporting emerging artists from Peru, including the Lima-born tenor Juan Diego Flórez who went on to build a stellar career in many of the roles which Alva had made his own during the 60s and 70s.
Alva’s artistry was acknowledged by an award from the Peruvian Ministry of Culture in 2012 and (perhaps more unexpectedly) by the Peruvian postal service, who issued a stamp in his honour in 2005. He died on 15th May and is survived by his wife Anita Zanetti and their two sons.
Luigi Alva - a selected discography
Maria Callas (Rosina), Luigi Alva (Almaviva), Tito Gobbi (Figaro), Fritz Ollendorf (Bartolo), Nicola Zaccaria (Basilio), Gabriella Carturan (Berta), Mario Carlin (Fiorello)
Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, Alceo Galliera
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Teresa Berganza (Cenerentola), Luigi Alva (Ramiro), Renato Capecchi (Dandini), Paolo Montarsolo (Don Magnifico)
London Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Opera Chorus, Claudio Abbado
Available Format: 2 Presto CDs
Teresa Berganza (Isabella), Luigi Alva (Lindoro), Fernando Corena (Mustafà), Rolando Panerai (Taddeo), Giuliana Travolaccini (Elvira), Miti Truccata Pace (Zulma), Paolo Montarsolo (Haly)
Orchestra e Coro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Silvio Varviso
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Rosanna Carteri (Adina), Luigi Alva (Nemorino), Giuseppe Taddei (Dulcamara), Rolando Panerai (Belcore), Angela Vercelli (Giannetta),
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro Alla Scala, Tullio Serafin
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Margaret Price (Fiordiligi), Yvonne Minton (Dorabella), Luigi Alva (Ferrando), Geraint Evans (Guglielmo), Lucia Popp (Despina) & Hans Sotin (Don Alfonso)
New Philharmonia Orchestra, John Alldis Choir, Otto Klemperer
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Eberhard Wächter (Don Giovanni), Joan Sutherland (Donna Anna), Luigi Alva (Don Ottavio), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Donna Elvira), Giuseppe Taddei (Leporello), Gottlob Frick (Il Commendatore), Piero Cappuccilli (Masetto), Graziella Sciutti (Zerlina)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini
Available Format: 3 CDs
Tito Gobbi (Falstaff), Luigi Alva (Fenton), Rolando Panerai (Ford), Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (Alice Ford), Anna Moffo (Nannetta), Nan Merriman (Meg Page), Fedora Barbieri (Mistress Quickly)
Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus, Herbert von Karajan
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Luigi Alva (Serse), Mirella Freni (Romilda), Rolando Panerai (Arsamene), Irene Campaneez (Amastre), Fiorenza Cossotto (Atalanta), Leonardo Monreale (Ariodate), Franco Calabrese (Elviro)
Orchestra e Coro del Teatro alla Scala, Piero Bellugi
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Luigi Alva (tenor), New Symphony Orchestra of London, Iller Pattacini
Available Formats: MP3, FLAC/ALAC/WAV
Hermann Prey (Figaro), Teresa Berganza (Rosina), Luigi Alva (Almaviva), Enzo Dara (Bartolo), Paolo Montarsolo (Basilio), Stefania Malagù (Berta), Renato Cesari (Fiorello), Luigi Roni (Un Ufficiale)
London Symphony Orchestra, The Ambrosian Opera Chorus, Claudio Abbado
Available Format: 2 CDs + DVD Video + Blu-ray Audio
