LeRoy Villanueva: From Met to Music Center

LeRoy Villanueva doesn’t like competitions, but they have been good to him. The young baritone capped a series of competition victories recently by winning the Western Region of the Metropolitan Opera Auditions, to become one of 26 finalists.

“At this point, I don’t think I ever want to do another one,” Villanueva says of competitions. But then, he adds, “I think I got a very good experience out of this one.”

Indeed. Villanueva survived the March 27 cut to become one of the final 11 co-winners. Last Sunday he joined the others in a nationally broadcast concert from the Met, singing Dandini’s Cavatina from “La Cenerentola” and “Vision fugitive” from Massenet’s “Herodiade.”

“I was very nervous,” Villanueva says, “but there is something very warm about the Metropolitan Opera House. Once you open your mouth, the sound is just drawn out. It’s an amazing feeling.”

He is not getting much chance to savor the feeling. The day after the concert, Villanueva was auditioning for a role in a concert opera. This afternoon, he sings his first “Elijah,” with the combined choirs of the First United Methodist churches of Glendale, North Hollywood and Pasadena, the Burbank Chorale and the Pasadena Community Orchestra. Next Sunday at the Music Center, he sings the baritone solos in Faure’s Requiem with the Los Angeles Master Chorale.

“It’s quite an undertaking,” the singer says. “I know it’s going to be very tiring--or trying.”

Most of Villanueva’s $5,000 Met prize will be devoted to his professional development, in which he includes particularly coaching in acting and drama.

“My goal in performing any piece is to make it somehow extend from a dramatic sense. I think that’s even more difficult in recital than in opera.”

In June, Villanueva will enter the Merola Opera Program of the San Francisco Opera. Then, from September to March he will be touring with Western Opera Theatre--the performing arm of the Merola program--as Sharpless in “Madama Butterfly.”

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” he says. “The only way you can keep a performance fresh is to set a new goal for each performance.”

Villanueva, 25, was born in Los Angeles and trained at USC. There he was specializing in music theater.

“In my last year in college, all of a sudden my voice came out. When I came across classical singing, it was so much of a stretch. I thought if I stopped my vocal development then, I would be stifled. I plan to concentrate on opera, but now and then I run across something a little different. I can’t deny that part of me.”

Does he believe he made the right decision now? “Definitely. I think I have a lot farther to go--and that’s exciting--but I think I have the ability to get there. That’s one of the good things about these competitions--that they gave me confidence.”

GRAWEMEYER WITHHELD: The University of Louisville’s $150,000 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition will not be given this year. The judges--Lawrence Smith, music director of the Louisville Orchestra; Michael Walsh, Time magazine music critic, and British composer Harrison Birtwistle, winner of the last award--could not unanimously recommend any of the 118 scores submitted as meeting the criteria of the award. The call for scores for next year will go out in June. The previous winners of the award, begun in 1985, were Witold Lutoslawski, Gyorgy Ligeti and Birtwistle.

CONDUCTORS: Jerome Kessler, music director of the Topanga Symphony, has been named music director of the Beach Cities Symphony, starting this season with a concert June 10 at El Camino College featuring the six winners of the Music Teachers Assn. of California “Artists of the Future” Competition. . . . Yehuda Gilad, music director of the Santa Monica Symphony, has been appointed music director of the Colonial Symphony in New Jersey, to which he will commute. . . . Czechoslovakian-born Zdenek Macal, music director of the Milwaukee Symphony, has been given a two-year appointment as artistic director and principal conductor of the San Antonio Symphony. . . . Sian Edwards has signed a three-year contract with the Royal Opera. When she makes her debut April 29, conducting Michael Tippet’s “The Knot Garden,” she will be the first women to conduct at Covent Garden.

NEW GLASS OPERA: The Metropolitan Opera has commissioned Philip Glass to compose a work for October, 1992, celebrating the 500th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America. The composer describes the work, entitled “The Voyage,” as an allegorical opera in three acts. Casting and production details will be announced later.

BALLET RECOVERY: The Dallas Ballet, which suspended operations in January, is resuming work after restructuring its debt and reaching a new agreement with the company dancers. The 1988-89 season, which will list three repertory programs and the “Nutcracker,” begins in October.

CHOIRS: The spring concert of the South Coast Choral Society, next Sunday in Rancho Palos Verdes, features the prize winners from the society’s 1987 composition contest: Ronald Jeffers’ “Roethke Songs” and Walter Saul’s “Recognize Him” (both composers live and teach in Oregon). Orff’s “Carmina Burana” completes the program. Information: (213) 377-7447.

The Ellis-Orpheus Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles is celebrating its centennial this year with concerts May 6 at the Wilshire Ebell Theater and May 10 at the Norris Theater. Maralin Niska will be the guest soloist, in selections from operas and musicals, and Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody.