Villazon refunds for his seven-minute concert

It's come to light that the star tenor Rolando Villazón did the decent thing and refunded his fee after singing for only seven minutes at a concert in the Tivoli Gardens, Copenhagen 10 days ago.

Norman Lebrecht reports that the management say that two days after the concert - which caused a furore of protest - the Mexican tenor returned his fee, which enabled them to refund fans between 500 and 1,250 kroner per ticket (that's £138 for the top price).

Villazón, who has had serious throat problems over the past two years, sang three short songs before pulling out of the two-hour concert, leaving it to his two leading ladies to carry on without him. Tivoli’s music director, Henrik Engelbrecht, had informed the audience that the opera star had a bad cold. However he had cancelled at Tivoli twice before and did not wish to disappoint a third time.

After the show Engelbrecht had insisted there would be no refunds, but a change of heart followed. Villazón returned his fee.

• Original news story from The Copenhagen Post
• Read theartsdesk Q&A with Rolando Villazón
• Villazon's recent Handel concert reviewed on theartsdesk