Born in Cordoba (Argentina), Marcelo Alvarez made his debut in 1995 as Elvino (La Sonnambula) at La Fenice, Venice. Since then he has sung at many international opera houses (the Metropolitan Opera, New York; La Scala, Milan; Covent Garden, London; the Bavarian State Opera, Munich; the Vienna State Opera, the Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires and the Verona Arena), where he has sung the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto) – the role in which he made his French debut at the Capitole de Toulouse in 1997 –, Alfredo (La Traviata), Tonio (La Fille du régiment), the Italian Tenor (Der Rosenkavalier),the title roles of Werther and Faust, Arturo (I Puritani), Carlo (Linda di Chamounix), Fenton (Falstaff), Des Grieux (Manon), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amore), Gennaro (Lucrezia Borgia), Rodolfo (La Bohème and Luisa Miller), Riccardo (Un Ballo in Maschera), Roméo (Roméo et Juliette), Cavaradossi (Tosca), Manrico (Il Trovatore), Don José (Carmen), Hoffmann (Les Contes d'Hoffmann), and Maurizio (Adriana Lecouvreur).
He made his debut as Radames (Aida) at Covent Garden in April 2010. More recently he sang Enzo (La Gioconda) at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin, Manrico at La Scala, Milan, the title role of Andrea Chenier at the Metropolitan Opera, Canio (Pagliacci) at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and Cavaradossi at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich. He has recorded several albums for Sony Classical: The Tenor’s Passion, French Opera Arias, Bel Canto, Alvarez Sings Gardel, Duetto (with the tenor Salvatore Licitra), Manon (recorded at the Paris Opera), Tenorissimo, a CD of Verdi opera arias with Decca, and numerous DVDs (including Tosca and Il Trovatore with the Metropolitan Opera, and Adriana Lecouvreur with the Teatro Regio in Turin).