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\u2019s foremost stars at the world\u2019s top opera houses.<\/p>\n
In the 2026\/27 season Javier Camarena continues to expand his repertoire with the highly anticipated role debut of Pollione in Bellini\u2019s Norma<\/em><\/strong> at Madrid\u2019s Teatro Real, in Justin Way\u2019s production under the musical direction of Francesco Lanzillotta. Camarena also reprises his acclaimed portrayal of Alfredo in Verdi\u2019s La Traviata<\/em><\/strong> at ABAO Bilbao Opera under the baton of Francesco Ivan Ciampa and once again takes on the role of Nadir in Bizet\u2019s Les P\u00eacheurs de perles <\/em><\/strong>at the \u00d3pera Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Concert highlights include a performance in Mexico City and recital appearances in Costa Rica and Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n In recent seasons, Camarena showed his great versatility in opera roles and as a concert performer. \u00a0He sang one of his signature roles as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore<\/em><\/strong> at the Metropolitan Opera, at the Staatsoper Munich, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, at the Gaetano Donizetti Theatre (Bergamo), at the Teatro Col\u00f3n in Buenos Aires. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera, to the Op\u00e9ra national de Paris and to the Deutsche Oper in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor<\/em><\/strong> (Edgardo di Ravenswood), sang at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona the role of Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute <\/em><\/strong>and in Massenet\u2019s Manon<\/em><\/strong>. His performances continued to dazzle audiences as he debuted as Alfredo in La traviata <\/em><\/strong>at the Op\u00e9ra de Monte-Carlo. At the Paris Opera, after his great success as Ernesto in Don Pasquale<\/em><\/strong>, he sang Arturo in I Puritani<\/em><\/strong> and starred in highly appraised performances of La fille du r\u00e9giment<\/em><\/strong>. He made his longed-for debut at the Teatro Real Madrid as Gualtiero in Bellini’s Il pirata<\/em><\/strong> in one of the most difficult tenor roles ever. He returned to the Zurich Opera House as Don Ramiro in La cenerentola<\/em><\/strong>, before also performing this role at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.<\/p>\n As part of the Met Stars Live in Concert<\/em> series, he joined Angel Blue, Pretty Yende and Matthew Polenzani for the New Year’s Eve Gala, live from the Parktheater at the Kurhaus G\u00f6ggingen (Germany). Together with Pl\u00e1cido 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\u2019s centenary of death at the Sala Cecilia in Rome. Further concert engagements brought the tenor to Zurich’s Opernhaus, \u00a0the Op\u00e9ra 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, Teatro Colon among others.<\/p>\n It was at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City that Camarena made his professional debut, as Tonio in a 2004 staging of\u00a0La fille du r\u00e9giment<\/strong><\/em>,<\/em>\u00a0and 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\u2019s Il barbiere di Siviglia<\/em><\/strong>, which is one of the signature roles for which he is best known. Others include the same composer\u2019s La cenerentola<\/em><\/strong> (Don Ramiro) and Le comte Ory<\/em><\/strong>; Mozart\u2019s Die Entf\u00fchrung aus dem Serail<\/em><\/strong> (Belmonte) and Cos\u00ec fan tutte<\/em><\/strong> (Ferrando); Donizetti\u2019s L\u2019elisir d\u2019amore<\/em><\/strong> (Nemorino) and Lucia di Lammermoor<\/em><\/strong> (Arturo); Verdi\u2019s Falstaff<\/em><\/strong> (Fenton) and Rigoletto<\/em><\/strong> (Duke); Bellini\u2019s La sonnambula<\/em><\/strong> (Elvino); Gounod\u2019s Rom\u00e9o et Juliette <\/em><\/strong>(Romeo), Bizet\u2019s Les p\u00eacheurs de perles<\/em><\/strong> (Nadir). Equally celebrated for appearances at San Francisco Opera, Paris Opera, Barcelona\u2019s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Dresden\u2019s 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 Pid\u00f2 and Franz Welser-M\u00f6st.<\/p>\n Camarena\u2019s discography includes three solo titles for Sony:\u00a0Recitales<\/em>\u00a0(2014),\u00a0Serenata <\/em>(2015), and a Latin pop album titled\u00a0Javier Camarena Canta a Cri Cri<\/em>\u00a0(2016). In August 2018 Decca released his highly anticipated and acclaimed Album Contrabandista<\/em>. Further albums include award-winning recording of Il Pirata<\/strong> (2021), Pentatone\u2019s widely praised Signor Gaetano<\/strong> (2022) and a recital album Sogno \u2013 Tosti Songs<\/strong> (2024). He also appears on numerous operatic DVD\/Blu-ray releases (e.g. at the Zurich Opera with Mozart\u2019s\u00a0Cos\u00ec fan tutte<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0in 2010, Verdi\u2019s\u00a0Falstaff<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0in 2012 and with Cecilia Bartoli in Rossini\u2019s\u00a0Le comte Ory<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0in 2014).<\/p>\n Born in Xalapa in Mexico\u2019s 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\u2019s Carlo Morelli National Singing Competition, and the following year he won the Juan Oncinas Award at Barcelona\u2019s Francisco Vi\u00f1as Competition, after which he was invited to join Zurich\u2019s International Opera Studio under the mentorship of fellow tenor Francisco Araiza. In 2021, Javier Camarena was awarded with the International Opera Awards as \u201eMale Singer of the Year\u201c.<\/p>\n <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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\u2019s foremost stars at the world\u2019s top opera houses.<\/p>\n In the 2026\/27 season Javier Camarena continues to expand his repertoire with the highly anticipated role debut of Pollione in Bellini\u2019s Norma at Madrid\u2019s Teatro Real, in Justin Way\u2019s production under the musical direction of Francesco Lanzillotta. Camarena also reprises his acclaimed portrayal of Alfredo in Verdi\u2019s La Traviata at ABAO Bilbao Opera under the baton of Francesco Ivan Ciampa and once again takes on the role of Nadir in Bizet\u2019s Les P\u00eacheurs de perles at the \u00d3pera Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Concert highlights include a performance in Mexico City and recital appearances in Costa Rica and Bogot\u00e1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7633,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tenor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12745,"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions\/12745"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centrestagemanagement.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}