Arturo Chacón Cruz
Arturo Chacón Cruz (August 20, 1977) is a Mexican operatic tenor. A winner of the Operalia competition in 2005, he went on to sing leading roles at many North American opera houses, including Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, and Houston Grand Opera. He has also appeared in many European opera houses, including the Teatro Real in Madrid, La Fenice in Venice, the Theater an der Wien in Vienna and the Berlin State Opera.
Career
Chacón Cruz was born in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, and raised in Navojoa, Sonora. A graduate of the prestigious Houston Grand Opera Studio, he also graduated from other institutions like SIVAM workshops, the Boston University's Opera Institute, and San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program.
His Palacio de Bellas Artes debut (Mexico City) was in 1999, in the "III Gala Latina", and he has returned several times to that stage for concerts and Opera. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in March 2002 singing in Mozart's Coronation Mass. He returned to Carnegie Hall in June 2003 to sing Beethoven's Mass in C major and Charpentier's Te Deum with the New England Symphonic Ensemble. He performed at the Halla again in 2006, in a concert with The New York Pops.
He made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in July 2004, as part of the "Summer in the City" concert series. In September 2005 he sang a concert of Mexican songs and Spanish music with the Houston Symphony Orchestra. He debuted with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in 2008, under the baton of Maestro Kent Nagano, performing the tenor solo in the Verdi Requiem during the Lanaudière Festival in Joliette. In 2010, he made his Chinese debut in Beijing, under the baton of Maestro Lorin Maazel, singing Alfredo in La traviata.
He made his Teatro alla Scala debut in 2012, singing the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann, by Offenbach.
Reception
Chacón Cruz has received many awards, including the Antonio Davalos Award in Mexico's Carlo Morelli's competition, first place and the Audience Choice Award at the 2003 Eleanor McCollum Competition in Houston Grand Opera, winner of Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in the New England Region, Plácido Domingo's Operalia 2005. He was also the recipient of the Ramón Vargas Opera Grant given by Vargas and Pro Ópera in Mexico. In 2006, he was named Artist of the Year by El Imparcial Cultural Organization in his hometown of Hermosillo, Mexico.
He has been acclaimed for his portrayal of Rodolfo in La Bohème, due to the youthfulness, beauty, and power of his voice, as well as his sincere interpretation of the role.
Repertoire
Some of his tenor roles include:
- Arcadio in Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas,
- Rodolfo in La bohème,
- Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly,
- Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi,
- Ruggero in La Rondine,
- Lensky in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin,
- Alfredo in La traviata,
- Il Duca di Mantova in Verdi's Rigoletto,
- The Tenor solo in the Verdi Requiem,
- Romeo and Faust in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette and Faust,
- Christian in Alfano's Cyrano de Bergerac,
- The title role in Mozart's Idomeneo,
- Tamino in The Magic Flute,
- Marcello di Bruges in Donizetti's Il duca d'Alba,
- Nemorino in Gaetano Donizetti's l'Elisir d'Amore,
- Des Grieux in Massenet's Manon,
- the title role in Werther,
- the title role in Les Contes d'Hoffmann,
- Uriel in Haydn's The Creation.
- Sir Edgardo di Ravenswood in Lucia de Lammermoor
- Rigoletto Rigoletto by Verdi Aix en Provence July 2013
Venues
- Teatro alla Scala, Milano
- Washington National Opera,
- Houston Grand Opera,
- National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China,
- Opera Pacific,
- Berlin Staatsoper Unter den Linden,
- Detroit Opera,
- The Keller Auditorium with The Portland Opera,
- Los Angeles Opera,
- Grazer Oper, Austria,
- Oper Köln, Germany,
- Hamburgische Staatsoper, Hamburg, Germany,
- Teatro Comunale di Bologna,
- Teatro di San Carlo,
- Connecticut Opera,
- Cincinnati Opera,
- Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Spain,
- Palacio de Bellas Artes, in Mexico,
- Teatro de la Ciudad, in Mexico City,
- Sala Nezahualcoyotl, in Mexico City,
- Teatro Real in Madrid,
- Teatro La Fenice in Venice,
- Teatro Regio di Torino, in Turin,
- Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall, Zagreb, Croatia,
- Opéra National de Montpellier and Festival de Radio France,
- the National Theatre of Miskolc in Hungary,
- Carnegie Hall, New York City,
- the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in Salt Lake City,
- Le Corum: Montpellier France,
- Opera de Lyon, Lyon, France,
- Opera Royal de Wallonie, Liege, Belgium,
- National Centre for the Performing Arts (China),
- Aichi Triennale Festival, Nagoya, Japan
- Teatro Campoamor, Oviedo, España
Recordings
- Marcello di Bruges, "Il duca d'Alba"
- Christian, Cyrano de Bergerac, DVD Release by Naxos Records
- Featured in Renée Fleming's Verismo CD
Sources
- Anabitarte, Ana (June 10, 2005). "Llega a final de Operalia tenor mexicano". El Universal
- Kennicott, Philip (November 6, 2006). "A 'Madama Butterfly' With Pipes, if Not Legs". Washington Post
- Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2003). Biography: Arturo Chacón-Cruz
- Midgette, Anne (September 15, 2008 ). "'Traviata': It's a Start". Washington Post
- Westphal, Matthew (September 11, 2007). "Tenor Pulls Out of LA Opera's Verdi Requiem at Short Notice as Replacement Jets Cross-Country". Playbill Arts.