The international tenor Pedro Lavirgen was regarded in his homeland as the equal of Domingo, Carreras, Aragall and Kraus. Abroad, he sang at the Met, Covent Garden, La Scala and, for 16 years running, at the Vienna State Opera.
photo: Rafa Martin/Scherzo
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Pedro Lavirgen also sang in Hartford, Connecticut when I was in college there. He was an excellent Manrico.
At the Edinburgh Festival’s superb Fagioni production of Carmen in 1977 and 78, Lavirgen took over from Placido Domingo for the second series of performances. I seem to recall he sang well but his stage movement was hampered which rather affected the overall performance. Rumour was that he had lost a leg. How true this was I have no idea but it would certainly be one explanation.
In my five years in Barcelona I heard him a few times at the Liceo and he was good, but not as appreciated by the Catalan audience as Domingo and Aragall. Jaume Aragall was on home ground and untroubled by the nerves that plagued him abroad. I shall never forget the last act of Don Carlo that he sang with Caballe, seemingly mezza voce. Kraus and Carreras never sang at the Liceo in my time .Although Carreras is a Catalan he was making his career elsewhere and Kraus came from the Canaries and may not have had much time for Barcelona
The house was run by an empressario and ticket prices were low (2000 PTAs max for the stalls) so one assumes the fees were in proportion. All credit to Domingo who appeared every season,as did Caballe. I was told that they both had children in school there .Both were in their prime and must have been able to earn much more in the leading houses, which the Liceo was not, in those days at least.
Lavirgen was one of several jobbing tenors who took the Liceo stage mostly singing Verdi in a season of barely rehearsed shows, 22 in a four month winter season. Exhausting if you had a season ticket, but fun