Just a couple of years ago, acclaimed tenor Emmanuel di Villarosa was living in Germany and singing in beautiful European opera houses. He was being paid per performance, a measure of professional respect that is extended only to a select group of singers.

For someone on the outside looking in, it might have seemed as if the New York City native was living la bella vita, "the beautiful life."

But there was something missing, di Villarosa, 41, explained during an interview at a park near his new home in Temecula.

His wife, Jill di Villarosa, a Southern California product, and his two young children were growing up thousands of miles away from her parents and the children's grandparents.

His wife had enjoyed living in Austria where di Villarosa had worked as a fest singer, a sort of house singer who works exclusively for a particular opera house.

But in Germany, she did not have the social support system that she had in Austria. She was alone for long stretches of time while her husband traveled to Poland, or some other European outpost on the opera circuit.

Also, and this was a big consideration, the school system of Germany awaited for his New York-born son Adrian, who was nearing the age for kindergarten.

While the U.S. system is derided by some, there are also passionate critics of the European school system, which is generally considered less structured.

After tallying up the positives and negatives of his European life, di Villarosa, a full lyric tenor who has performed at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, made a decision last year that might seem odd to some people. He left behind the cobbled streets and the crowded cafes of Europe and settled down in southern Temecula.

"It wasn't that hard of a decision," di Villarosa said, adding that he was motivated less by his needs and desires and more by his dreams for his children.

Both he and his wife wanted the children to be near their grandparents and they wanted them to go to U.S. schools.

"They don't push children as far as they push them here," he said.

As for why Temecula in particular, di Villarosa said he was and is attracted to all of the qualities that have made the area explode in size in the last couple of decades.

"It's community-oriented and great for the kids, very safe," he said. "People here take pride in their town."

As part of his transition into suburban life, the singer, who majored in voice at the Manhattan School of Music in the late 1980s, is working on some new ventures that he hopes will help him afford to stay in Temecula.

One of the ventures is a CD of recordings that will be titled "From the Bottom of My Heart." The CD ---- which will be offered at musicforahome.com ---- will feature arias, Neapolitan love songs and classics such as "Nessun Dorma" and "O Sole Mio."

Di Villarosa also is working to find more students interested in taking singing lessons, which he is offering at a Los Angeles studio and at his Temecula home.

One of the noncommercial ventures that he is most excited about is a nonprofit organization he is putting together that will expose special needs children to classical musical performances.

Di Villarosa said he has a colleague who has already agreed to participate, so the initial concert will be relatively easy to stage. After that, di Villarosa hopes to bring in other classical artists to perform for area children.

Looking to the future, di Villarosa said he would love to teach for half the year, perform for the other half and work on his charity.

That formula, however, has been complicated by the global recession, which has sapped much of the funding that had gone to the arts.

There are still jobs here and there, but finding those performances has become more difficult, di Villarosa said. And those that he is finding are generally shorter in duration.

"Every opera singer is experiencing this right now," he said.

In some cases, instead of bringing in performers such as di Villarosa to sing, the opera houses are tapping the local fest singers instead.

Had he stayed in Austria, di Villarosa would have been one of those singers, but he said he doesn't regret his decision to move back to the United States.

He loves Temecula and he is confident that sales from his CDs, his teaching gigs and his upcoming schedule of performances in the fall will allow him to stay here for a long time.

"I love what I do; it's what I've always wanted," he said. "I don't want for anything except for a little more work."

Call staff writer Aaron Claverie at 951-676-4315, ext. 2624.

For more information on di Villarosa and his projects:

http://musicforahome.com (CD sales)

http://classicalconcerts4charity.com

http://divillarosa.com