San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 Season Continues With Ailyn Pérez And Joshua Guerrero In Recital

San Diego Opera's 2019-2020 season continues with a special one-night-only event on Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at 7:30 PM when soprano Ailyn Pérez and tenor Joshua Guerrero perform in concert at the Balboa Theatre.

They will be accompanied by pianist Abdiel Vázquez. Ailyn Pérez is no stranger to San Diego Opera, having made her Company debut as Juliet in Romeo and Juliet in 2010, returning to sing Marguerite in Faust in 2011, and in recital in 2014. In demand at all the major opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, and Opéra National de Paris, Ms. Pérez is the winner of the 2012 Richard Tucker Award, the 15th annual Plácido Domingo Award, and the 14th annual Opera News Award. As Opera News observed "The phrase 'an embarrassment of riches' might have been invented to describe the combination of talents that belong to Ailyn Pérez, ... who truly seems to have it all."

She will be joined by tenor Joshua Guerrero in his house debut. Mr. Guerrero is a second prize winner at Plácido Domingo's Operalia Competition in 2014, and is the recipient of the 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant. Proclaimed a "gifted young tenor" by the New York Times, the Grammy-award winning tenor has made recent notable appearances at Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company. They will be accompanied for pianist Abdiel Vasquez for an evening of opera arias, duets, zarzuela, and popular showtunes.

Pre-production photos can be found online at: https://sandiegoopera.smugmug.com/2019-2020-Preproduction-Artwork

About at the Artists

Ailyn Pérez, soloist

Soprano Ailyn Pérez made her Company debut as Juliet in 2010's Romeo and Juliet, returning as Marguerite in Faust in 2011, and was last heard in recital in 2014. She is in demand at the world's leading opera houses and cultural capitals. She has won both the 2012 Richard Tucker Award, becoming the only Hispanic recipient in the award's 35-year history, and the 15th annual Plácido Domingo Award. Career highlights include Violetta in La traviata for Opernhaus Zürich, Hamburgische Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, San Francisco Opera, La Scala, and the Royal Opera Covent Garden. At Covent Garden she has appeared in the title role in Massenet's Manon and Liù in Turandot. Other highlights include Musetta in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, Adina in The Elixir of Love for the Bayerische Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Vienna Staatsoper and Washington National Opera, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro for Houston Grand Opera, Violetta and title role of Manon on a tour of Japan with the Royal Opera, Tatyana Bakst in the world premiere of Jake Heggie's Great Scott and Manon for The Dallas Opera, the Bolshoi Theatre as Mimì in La bohème and at Glyndebourne as Alice Ford in Falstaff; the Countess and Marguerite for Hamburgische Staatsoper, Marguerite for Santa Fe Opera, and Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra at Teatro alla Scala, the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and Opernhaus Zürich. In concert Ailyn has performed Verdi's Requiem with the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Mozart's Requiem with Antonio Pappano and the Accademia Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, and Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with Essen Philharmoniker. In recent seasons Ailyn has sung opposite Carreras, Bocelli and with Plácido Domingo in gala concerts at the Royal Opera Covent Garden, and has made guest appearances at several gala concerts for the Metropolitan Opera. Ailyn has also appeared in recital at London's Rosenblatt Recitals, at Philadelphia's Kimmel Center and for Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Her debut album, Poème d'un jour was released to rave reviews. Ailyn has made recent notable appearances at the Metropolitan Opera as Mimì, Violetta for La Scala and the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, as well as recitals at the Three Palaces Festival Malta, Wolf Trap Foundation USA and an outdoor opera gala on Margaret Island, Budapest. Other notable appearances include a return to the Metropolitan Opera as the Countess, the title of Thaïs, and Juliette. She has also appeared at the Bayerische Staatsoper for Micaëla in Carmen, and Hamburgische Staatsoper, Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and the Opernhaus Zürich as Violetta. She is a graduate of Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts and Indiana University.

Joshua Guerrero, soloist

San Diego Opera debut. Notable appearances for the Grammy-award winning tenor Joshua Guerrero include Alfredo in La traviata at Washington National Opera, his house debut at Houston Grand Opera as Arcadio in Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas and Rodolfo in La bohème at the Canadian Opera Company. He made his Glyndebourne Festival debut as Pinkerton in a new production of Madama Butterfly and returned to the Santa Fe Opera in the same role. He was seen as the Duke in Rigoletto for his debuts with the Canadian Opera Company and Michigan Opera Theatre, as well as his first performances of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Florida Grand Opera. Mr. Guerrero returned to the Los Angeles Opera in his role debut as Macduff in Macbeth. He debuted in the same role in Barrie Kosky's production at the Zurich Opera and made his London debut at the English National Opera as the Duke in Jonathan Miller's Rigoletto. In concert, he toured Europe with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolivar Orchestra singing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and sang Haydn's Creation with Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic. He made his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debut with Marin Alsop in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and was a featured soloist at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala at Carnegie Hall. He was heard in a concert of opera arias and duets with soprano Joyce El-Khoury and the NDR Radiophilharmonie, which was broadcast on television throughout Germany. He has sung Greenhorn in Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick and a new production of John Corigliano's Ghosts of Versailles at LA Opera. He made his European operatic debut as Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra at Opéra National de Bordeaux and then was seen as Nemorino in The Elixir of Love at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville. He made his Santa Fe Opera debut as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette. In concert, Mr. Guerrero has been seen with Gustavo Dudamel in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with both the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Simón Bolivar Orchestras, as well as Verdi's Requiem with the Santa Fe Symphony. He made his role debut as Rodolfo in La bohème with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Caracas. Mr. Guerrero appeared at a special gala honoring Plácido Domingo at the Salzburg Festival. As a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera, his appearances include his mainstage debut as Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor, followed by the role of Steve Hubbell in A Streetcar Named Desire. He also appeared in the Cathedral production of Jonah and the Whale and made his debut at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Conlon singing the role of the Messenger in Aida. Mr. Guerrero was the second prize-winner at Plácido Domingo's Operalia Competition in 2014 and the recipient of the 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. He is a Grammy award winner for Los Angeles Opera's recording of Corigliano's Ghosts of Versailles (Best Opera Recording).

Abdiel Vázquez, Pianist

San Diego Opera debut. Abdiel Vázquez is a pianist and conductor born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1984. He has performed close to 100 concerts as soloist with orchestra in all of Mexico and in the U.S., Europe, and South America. His repertoire includes the concertos of Beethoven, Liszt, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Gershwin, Ravel, Ricardo Castro, Manuel Ponce (of which he did the New York premiere), Samuel Barber (of which he did the Mexican premiere), Leonard Bernstein, and Juan Pablo Contreras (of which he did the World premiere). He has played in major cultural capitals such as New York (Carnegie Hall), Chicago (Dame Myra Hess Piano Series), Paris, Madrid, London (Guildhall), Tokyo, Shanghai, Buenos Aires (Teatro Colón), Lima, Bogotá, Caracas (Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra), Mexico City (Palacio de Bellas Artes), and Guanajuato (International Cervantino Festival). He is the winner of the First Prize at The World Competition, New York's Shining Stars Debut Series, and WPTA Argentina International Piano Competition. In Mexico, he received the President's National Youth Award and won the most important piano competitions. He currently resides in New York City where he is the president of the World Piano Teachers Association chapter Mexico, founder and director of the music school Little Chopins in New York, and a principal guest conductor for Manhattan Opera Studio. His first solo album, "Love & Death: Piano transcriptions of Wagner and Verdi Operas", was released by the British label Piano Classics in 2015 and received rave reviews internationally.

Get to know the artists and operas of the season. These insights into the singers and productions can be enjoyed by opera fans as well as those who are new to the art form. Casual and fun, this is a great way to learn about our artists and the operas they star in. Watch online at http://www.sdopera.org/Company/Education/Podcasts. These videos are also available on our YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/SanDiegoOpera

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