Javier Camarena

Camarena studied voice at the university of his native state of Veracruz, and then at the Guanajuato University. After winning the Mexican "Carlo Morelli" singing competition, he made his debut in 2004 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, as Tonio (La fille du régiment), and went on to sing Belmonte, Nemorino, Ernesto and and Dorvil (La scala di seta) there.

From April 2007, he was a long-term member of the Zürich opera theater, and appeared at many important houses: Covent Garden, Munich, Barcelona (Teatre del Liceu), Vienna Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Paris Opéra, Salzburg Festival, Madrid (Teatro Real), Dresden, Düsseldorf, Köln, Brussels. He built his repertory almost exclusively on belcanto: Arturo, Almaviva, Lindoro, Elvino, Giacomo (La donna del lago), Don Ramiro, Comte Ory, Osiride (Mosè in Egitto), Gualtiero (Il pirata); plus Nadir, Ferrando, Duca and Fenton.

A good career, and a potentially very good singer, in spite of employing Francisco Araiza as his vocal coach. Araiza may be the reason why Camarena is just potentially good: all too regularly, he is unable to maintain his level throughout an entire performance, and will spoil one piece or another even on otherwise happy evenings. But as long as all goes well, he is certainly one of today's better singers: the voice is large, so (in marked difference to most of his belcanto colleagues) he doesn't need a microport on stage; and he is a captivating interpreter that never bores, although he is a really lousy actor, so how he captivates is by musical means only, which is more than you can say about most other contemporary singers (not only tenors). However, be always prepared that in the next act, he may crack the odd note...

Reference 1, reference 2 and picture source