Biography
Dramatic Mexican tenor Luis Chapa makes his Metropolitan Opera debut as Pinkerton in Anthony Minghella’s production of Madama Butterfly in the 17-18 season. Praised for his “mellifluous, stupendously-powerful” voice, Chapa studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, U.K. In addition to singing Pinkerton, in the 2017/18 season Chapa covers Roberto Alagna in Cavalleria rusticana at the Metropolitan Opera; sings the title role Otello for the Croatian National Opera and Radames Aida for Teatro Wielki Poznan. Recent successes include title role Otello in Calixto Bieto’s production at Theater Basel, his US debut as Don José Carmen and return as Calaf Turandot for Seattle Opera, Des Grieux Manon Lescaut in Catania, Don José Carmen in Hong Kong, and Radames Aida at the Teatr Wielki Poznan; as well as covering Manrico Il trovatore and Pollione Norma for the Metropolitan Opera. Other recent engagements include Tannhäuser for the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in Austria, Karlsruhe and Manaus; Erik Der fliegende Holländer in Austria; title role Otello at Theater Freiburg, in which he was lauded as “a heroic tenor of the first-rate” (Badische Zeitung); and Otello in Bonn. In Freiburg Chapa also made his debut as Hermann Pique Dame. Chapa has performed Pinkerton Madama Butterfly in Essen; Calaf Turandot with the Polish National Opera in Warsaw; Pollione Norma in Christopher Alden’s new production for Opera North; Turiddu Cavalleria rusticana and Canio Pagliacci, title role Don Carlo, Manrico Il trovatore, and Radames Aida all for Welsh National Opera; Samson Samson et Dalila in Darmstadt; Il trovatore in Hong Kong, Pagliacci and Aida in Poland, a new production of Il trovatore in Wiesbaden and Cavaradossi Tosca in Bern, Switzerland. For Croatian National Opera Chapa has performed Luigi Il tabarro, Alvaro La forza del destino, Don José Carmen in a new production by Philipp Himmelman, Maurizio Adriana Lecouvreur, and Andrey Mazeppa. Chapa has worked with many notable conductors and directors, including Alexander Joel, von Dohnányi, John Copley, Christopher Alden, Calixto Bieito, Mariusz Trelinski, and David McVicar. Chapa's concert engagements have included Verdi Requiem with Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra; a Verdi gala with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra; Puccini concert with the BBC Concert Orchestra; Verdi gala with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Pamplona, Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Orquesta Sinfonica of Nuevo Leon; and a gala with the Orquesta sinfonica Nacional de Bogota.