Francisco Araíza
Francisco Araiza is considered to be one of the most important tenors of our time. He was named "Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera" in 1988.
Since 1977 he has been a permanent member of the Zurich Opera House. He has performed in all the main opera houses of the world i.e. Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Leipzig, Dresden, La Scala Milan, Florence, Parma, Rome, Covent Garden London, Bastille Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, San Francisco, Houston, Chicago, Metropolitan Opera New York, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Buenos Aires and in Japan. He has also participated in all great international festivals like Bayreuth, Salzburg (where he had his debut in 1980 under Herbert von Karajan), Bregenz, Aix-en-Provence, Edinburgh, the Prague Spring Festival, Verona, Macerata, Rossini Festival in Pesaro, the Schubert Festival in Hohenems and the Festival Cervantino in Guanajuato, Mexico.
From 1983 on this most versatile singer who was already known as the best interpreter of Mozart and Rossini became a leading tenor of the Italian lirico-spinto, the French and heavier German repertory with roles like Edgardo, Alfredo, Duke of Mantua, Riccardo III., Don Alvaro, Des Grieux, Faust, Hoffmann, Werther, Romeo and Max. Expecially however his roles as the young Wagner hero with Lohengrin in 1990 at the Teatro La Fenice in Venice and recently Walter von Stolzing in the Metropolitan Opera's new production in 1993, which highlighted this vocal and artistic development equally, were acclaimed by public and press.
Besides his operatic engagement, Francisco Araiza is also a highly esteemed concert and lieder-singer which can be shown by his nomination «Best musical event of the year 1988» for his Tokyo recital.
He has worked with all the great conductors and stage directors like Karl Böhm, Herbert von Karajan, Carlo Maria Giulini, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Neville Marriner, James Levine, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Patane, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Jean-Pierre Ponnelle, Harry Kupfer, August Everding, 0tto Schenk, Giorgio Strehler, Franco Zeffirelli and Roman Polanski which has been documented in almost 100 recordings for labels such as Philips, DGG, EMI, RCA, CBS, Teldec, Orfeo and Atlantis as well as in lots of video productions for which he was awarded with the «Deutscher Schallplattenpreis» and the «Orphée d'Or».
An illustrated monograph called «Voices of the World: Francsico Araiza» was published by Atlantis in 1988 as well as his own chapter in the books named «Great Interpreters» published by Westermann and «Divo» published by Harper & Row. In 1992 the German televison station ZDF presented a personal portrait with the title «Francisco Araiza. I am a romantic».
Born and educated in Mexico City, Francisco Araiza studied voice with Irma Gonzalez in the Conservatorio Nacional de Música and German repertory with Erika Kubacsek. He took masterdasses with Richard Holm and Erik Werba at the College of Music and Theatre Munich after having won the Bavarian Broadcasting Voice Competition. He also holds a Business Administration degree from the University of Mexico City.
