Mexican tenor Javier Camarena is the preeminent Mozart and bel canto specialist of his generation.
Praised for his burnished tone, gleaming high notes, flawless coloratura, and veracious portrayals, he regularly appears in leading roles alongside today’s foremost stars at the world’s top opera houses, and was the face of Opera News’s 80th anniversary edition this past January. Last season, as Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, he became only the second singer in Metropolitan Opera history to perform encores in multiple productions at the house, after the audience demanded a repeat of his aria “E se fia che ad altro oggetto.” This followed his triumph in 2014, when he became only the third singer in 70 years to give an encore on that stage, having stopped the house in consecutive performances of Prince Ramiro’s aria “Si ritrovarla io guiro” in La Cenerentola. Camarena went on to repeat the same feat in The Daughter of the Regiment at Madrid’s Teatro Real, marking only the second time that a singer had given an encore there since its reopening.
In the 2021/22 season, he performs Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera. His appearances for the 2022/23 season include Nemorino in L'Elisir d'Amore with the Metropolitan Opera.
Javier Camarena started off his 2018/19 season at the Gran Teatro del Liceu as Arturo in I Puritani before returning to the Metropolitan Opera for The Pearl Fishers – which he also performed in Bilbao later that season – and The Daughter of the Regiment. At the Opéra National de Paris he performs Ernesto in Don Pasquale and stars at the Bavarian State Opera in Lucia di Lammermoor, having been highly acclaimed after his role debut at Teatro Real in June 2018. He ends the season at the Royal Opera House with The Daughter of the Regiment.
He continues his run of recitals with Ángel Rodríguez in great houses such as the Zurich Opera House or the Dallas Opera and will be seen on the concert stage in major cities in Spain and Mexico, as well as in New York and Paris.
In 2017/18 Javier Camarena sang his debut at the LA Opera as Nadir in The Pearl Fishers, followed by his role debut as Fernando in La Favorite and as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Madrid’s Teatro Real. He then returned to the Metropolitan Opera for his role debut as Idreno in Rossini’s Semiramide. The 2016/17 season also brought a number of key firsts: he launched the season with his house debut at London’s Royal Opera House, singing Almaviva in The Barber of Seville, before reprising the Rossini role at the Met and Zurich Opera. At Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, he gave his first performances as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto. He made his house debut at Spain’s Opera Bilbao as Don Ramiro, and made further house role debuts as Arturo in I Puritani at the Met and in Andreas Homoki’s production for the Zurich Opera. While in Zurich, he gave his recital debut on the house’s main stage, where recital partner Ángel Rodríguez joined him for a pairing of Donizetti and Rossini arias with Mexican song.
