Pons, Juan
Pons, Juan
Pons, Juan , Spanish baritone; b. Ciutadela, Aug. 8, 1946. He received his training in Barcelona, where he commenced his career as a tenor at the Teatro Liceo. In 1979 he made his first appearance at London’s Covent Garden as Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana. On Jan. 4, 1983, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Conte di Luna in Il trovatore, and also appeared that same year as Massenet’s Hérode in Barcelona and as Donizetti’s Tonio at the Paris Opéra. After singing Amonasro in Vienna in 1984, he appeared as Rigoletto and Sharpless at Milan’s La Scala in 1985. In 1987 he portrayed Verdi’s Falstaff at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and in 1988 sang Germont at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. He again appeared as Falstaff in 1989 at the San Francisco Opera and at the Rome Opera. In 1992 he sang Tonio in Philadelphia and Conte di Luna in Madrid. He was engaged as Tonio in Los Angeles in 1996.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire