Praised by Opera News for “high notes with ease, singing with a luxuriant warm glow that seduced the ear as he bounded about the stage with abandon,” American tenor David Portillo has established himself as a leading classical singer of his generation. In the 2021-2022 season, Mr. Portillo will perform Lurcanio in Handel’s Ariodante with the Palau des les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Opéra de Lille, and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with Pittsburgh Opera.
Cancellations due to the Covid-19 pandemic included appearances at the Metropolitan Opera as the title role in Roberto Devereux and as Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, the Bayerische Staatsoper as Pasquale in Haydn’s Orlando Paladino, Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Mr. Rodriguez in what would have been the world-premiere of Tobias Picker’s Awakenings, and Minnesota Opera as Lensky in Eugene Onegin. In concert, he had been scheduled to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Indianpolis Symphony Orchestra, Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with the Kansas City Symphony, and Handel’s Messiah with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.
In the 2020-2021 season, Mr. Portillo performed the title role in a filmed version of Albert Herring with Minnesota Opera, originated the role of Jonathan Harker in the world premiere of John Corigliano and Marc Adamo’s Lord of Cries with Santa Fe Opera, gave a virtual recital for Valhalla Media Live with pianist Yasuko Oura, and was the tenor soloist in Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal, conducted by Yannick Nézet–Séguin. In the 2019-2020 season, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for his role debut as Steuermann in a new production of Der fliegende Holländer, conducted by Valery Gergiev, and as Tamino in the English-language version of The Magic Flute, a role he then reprised with Washington National Opera.