On May 15, 2025, Legendary tenor Luigi Alva died at the age of 98.

Alva was born in Paita, Peru, on April 10, 1927, Alva never had plans of being a singer. In an interview with OperaWire back in 2018, he said, “I wanted to be a marine. I entered navy school in Peru, but singing was always there inside me.” He had studied at an English school until he finished at 18 and while in navy school, he was heard singing by Rosa Mercedes Ayarza de Morales from the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Lima. She told the young man point blank: “Son, your future is not in the navy, but in your voice!”

He went on to study at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Lima under Ayarza de Morales and made his operatic debut in Federico Moreno Torroba’s “Luisa Fernanda” in Lima in 1949.

In 1953, he went to Milan and studied under Emilio Ghirardini and Ettore Campogalliani, and in 1954 ,he made his European debut at the Teatro Nuovo in Milan as Alfredo in Verdi’s “La Traviata.”

In 1956, he went on to make his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” as the Count Almaviva. It would be the role that he would become most famous for and the one that he would record on several occasions. At La Scala he would go on to perform 330 times.

He went on to perform in the U.S. and many of the most important European theaters. At the Metropolitan Opera, he made his debut in 1964 in “Falsaff” and went on to perform 101 performances. Among the operas he performed at theaters include “Don Giovanni,” “Don Pasquale,” “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” “La Traviata,” “L’Italiana in Algeri,” “L’Elisir d’Amore,” and “Die Zauberflöte.”

He went on to perform with many of the leading singers of his generation, including Maria Callas, Teresa Berganza, Fernando Corena, Fiorenza Cossotto, Victoria de los Angeles, and Tito Gobbi.

In 1980, he founded the Asociación Prolírica del Perú in Lima, and in 1989, sponsored the Premio Luigi Alva for young singers.

Alva also taught at La Scuola di Canto at La Scala in Milan, and in 2005, the Peruvian postal service issued a stamp in his honor. In 2012, he was awarded the Personalidad Meritoria de la Cultura medal by the Peruvian Ministry of Culture.

The tenor left several recordings of “Il Barbiere di Siviglia” with Teresa Berganza, Victoria de los Angeles, Maria Callas, and Fiorenza Cossotto, “Don Pasquale” with Edita Gruberova, and “Il Re Pastore” alongside Lucia Popp.