The Argentinean tenor Eduardo Ayas was born in Buenos Aires on 11 November 1957 and studied piano with Alberto Villanueva
and singing with Jascha Galperyn. In 1983, Ayas graduated as a singer at the Instituto Superior de Arte del Teatro Colón.
His professional debut was at Teatro Argentino in La Plata in 1985 in the role of Ferrando in Così fan tutte. In
1986, Ayas made his debut at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, singing a small role in La zapatera prodigiosa by
Juan José Castro. In 1987, Ayas was one of the winners at Luciano Pavarotti's International Singing Competition in
Philadelphia (USA). In 1988, he made his European debut at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome as Elvino in La sonnambula.
At the Teatro Colón, Ayas sang: Věc Makropulos/The Makropoulos affair (1986), Faust (1990 and 1998),
Cenerentola (1993), Les contes d'Hoffmann (1994 and 2001), Madama Butterfly (1994), Werther and
La bohème (1995), Roméo et Juliette (1996), Gianni Schichi, Il barbiere di Siviglia
and Rigoletto (1997), Don Pasquale, Faust, Goyescas and Carmina burana (1998), Il turco
in Italia (2000).
At the Teatro Argentino in La Plata, Ayas sang: L'italiana in Algeri (1986), Madama Butterfly (1989), La
bohème (1990), Rigoletto (1991), Les pêcheurs de perles (1992), La traviata and Lucia
di Lammermoor (1994), Il barbiere di Siviglia (1996), Manon (1998).
He also sang chamber music and concerts: at the Teatro Colón for instance, Oedipus rex by Stravinsky in 1988,
Les noces by Stravinsky and Petite messe solennelle by Rossini in 1990, Coronation Mass and Requiem by Mozart in
1991 and Mahler's Eighth Symphony in 1998.
Further appearances: Persephone by Stravinsky at the Comunale in Bologna and the Regio in Parma (1990), L'italiana in
Algeri at the Teatro Nacional in Costa Rica (1990), Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Teatro dell'Opera in Rome (1992),
L'elisir d'amore (1996) and Don Pasquale (1997) at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile, Barbiere at
the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro (1992), Verdi's Requiem at the Regio in Parma under conductor Romano Gandolfi. In
Montevideo, Ayas sang La bohème (1994), L'elisir d'amore (1995) and Zauberflöte (1996)
at the Teatro Solís, and Verdi's Requiem, La Cenerentola and Stabat mater by Rossini at the Teatro del
SODRE in 1998.
In 2001, he was Arturo Talbot in I puritani at the Teatro Avellaneda in Buenos Aires, in the original complete edition
of this opera given for the first time in Argentina. At the Teatro Avenida in the same city, Ayas sang Arnold in October 2005,
Abate de Chazeuil in Adriana Lecouvreur in May 2007, and Carlo in I masnadieri in May 2008.
Ayas was a brilliant "coloratura" tenor with an even register and could reach the highest notes in the tenor tessitura without
problems. I beg to differ. He was an excessive exponent of the justly dreaded Spanish
quiver and produced a narrow, whining sound that is really tough on the ears. And his coloratura? Oh well... He was an
excellent actor and a versatile artist. He sang in Italian, Spanish, French, English, German, Russian and Czech.
Eduardo Ayas died in Buenos Aires at 52 years old, on 26 August 2010.