Full Biography
Mexican tenor Javier Camarena is the preeminent 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.
Camarena begins the 2023-24 season with performances of Elvino in La sonnambula at the Vienna Staatsoper, staged by Marco Arturo Marelli and conducted by Giacomo Sagripanti. He appears at the Staatsoper Munich in his signature role of Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, alongside soprano Pretty Yende as Adina, and joins Opera de Monte Carlo as Tonio in Jean-Louis Grinda’s new production of La fille du régiment conducted by Ion Marin. In this season, Camarena thrice returns to Spain: for Miguel del Arco’s new production of Rigoletto (Duke) led by Nicola Luisotti at Teatro Real de Madrid, as Romeo in Roméo et Juliette opposite Nadine Sierra at the Palacio Euskalduna in Bilbao, and Barcelona’s Liceu welcomes him once more for performances of Ramiro in La cenerentola.
In addition to his operatic engagements, Camarena embarks on a concert tour of South America with performances in Chile and Uruguay. He also brings his captivating recitals to Europe: in Barcelona’s Palau, Girona’s Auditori Palau de Congressos, Zurich’s Opernhaus, Valencia’s Palau de les Arts, Zaragoza’s Auditorio-Palacio de Congresos de Zaragoza, and Oviedo’s Auditorio Príncipe Felipe, where he will star in an orchestral Gala concert. He sees additional Gala performances at Teatro de La Maestranza in Sevilla and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, and tours Japan under the auspices of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he appears as the Duke in Rigoletto with Nadine Sierra as Gilda.
In the previous season, Camarena once again displayed his remarkable versatility both in opera roles and as a concert performer. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore and took on the role of Edgardo Lucia di Lammermoor at the Opéra national de Paris. His performances continued to dazzle audiences as he debuted as Alfredo in La traviata at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo alongside Plácido Domingo and Aida Garifullina. He was Fernand in La favorite for the Gaetano Donizetti Theatre in Bergamo, where he collaborated with Maestro Riccardo Frizza and director Valentina Carrasco. Camarena also graced stages at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona for Massenet’s Manon, the Deutsche Oper in Berlin for Lucia di Lammermoor, and the Opera House in Zurich as Nadir in Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles. He concluded the season with a grand gala concert at the Teatro Real in Madrid, accompanied by the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada.
In recent seasons, Camarena showed his great versatility in opera roles and as a concert performer. He sang the role of Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the Gaetano Donizetti Theatre (Bergamo) and performed in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo di Ravenswood) at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, he sang the role of Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona and gave 4 performances of one of his signature roles as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. At the Paris Opera, after his great success as Ernesto in Don Pasquale, he sang Arturo in I Puritani and starred in highly appraised performances of La fille du régiment. He made his longed-for debut at the Teatro Real Madrid as Gualtiero in Bellini’s Il pirata in one of the most difficult tenor roles ever. He returned to the Zurich Opera House as Don Ramiro in La cenerentola, before also performing this role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. As part of the Met Stars Live in Concert series, he joined Angel Blue, Pretty Yende and Matthew Polenzani for the New Year’s Eve Gala, live from the Parktheater at the Kurhaus Göggingen (Germany). Together with Plácido Domingo he sang a gala concert at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow and travelled to Spain for a gala concert at the 35th Festival Castell de Peralada and gave a concert in homage to the great Enrico Caruso’s centenary of death, together with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, conducted by Riccardo Frizza at the Sala Cecilia in Rome. Further concert engagements brought the tenor to the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Oviedo, Murcia, San Sebastian, to the Auditorio Principe in Oviedo, the Palau in Valencia, the Harris Theater in Chicago and to the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid.
It was at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City that Camarena made his professional debut, as Tonio in a 2004 staging of La fille du régiment, and he has since returned to the house for three further productions. In 2007, he joined the ensemble of the Zurich Opera. Four years later, he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, which is one of the signature roles for which he is best known. Others include the same composer’s La cenerentola (Don Ramiro) and Le comte Ory; Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Belmonte) and Così fan tutte (Ferrando); Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore (Nemorino) and Lucia di Lammermoor (Arturo); Verdi’s Falstaff (Fenton); and Bellini’s La sonnambula (Elvino). Equally celebrated for appearances at San Francisco Opera, Paris Opera, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Dresden’s Semperoper and the Vienna and Bavarian State Operas, the tenor has collaborated with such eminent conductors as the late Claudio Abbado, Marco Armiliato, Maurizio Benini, Bruno Campanella, Giuseppe Finzi, Daniele Gatti, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Evelino Pidò and Franz Welser-Möst.
Camarena’s discography includes three solo titles for Sony: Recitales (2014), Serenata (2015), and a Latin pop album titled Javier Camarena Canta a Cri Cri (2016). In August 2018 Decca released his highly anticipated and acclaimed Album Contrabandista. He also appears on numerous operatic DVD/Blu-ray releases (e.g. at the Zurich Opera with Mozart’s Così fan tutte in 2010, Verdi’s Falstaff in 2012 and with Cecilia Bartoli in Rossini’s Le comte Ory in 2014).
Born in Xalapa in Mexico’s State of Veracruz, Javier Camarena studied with mezzo-soprano Cecilia Perfecto at the Universidad Veracruzana before completing his musical studies with honors under Hugo Barreiro and Maria Eugenia Sutti at the University of Guanajuato. In 2004, he took first prize in Mexico’s Carlo Morelli National Singing Competition, and the following year he won the Juan Oncinas Award at Barcelona’s Francisco Viñas Competition, after which he was invited to join Zurich’s International Opera Studio under the mentorship of fellow tenor Francisco Araiza. In 2021, Javier Camarena was awarded with the International Opera Awards as „Male Singer of the Year“.
