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Hailed by the New York Times as “a beautiful woman who commands the stage” and “a major soprano,” Ailyn Pérez is in demand at the world’s leading opera houses and cultural capitals. She won the 2012 Richard Tucker Award, becoming the first Hispanic recipient in the award’s 35-year history. As Opera News observes, “The phrase ‘an embarrassment of riches’ might have been invented to describe the combination of talents that belong to Ailyn Pérez, … who truly seems to have it all.”
Career highlights include Violetta in La traviata for the Zurich Opera House, Hamburgi State Opera, German State Opera Berlin, Bavarian State Opera, San Francisco Opera, Teatro all Scala Milan, and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, where she was hailed as “an ideal Violetta” (Observer, UK). Pérez then went on to appear at Covent Garden in the same season as the title role in Massenet’s Manon, and for her role debut as Liù in Turandot. Other highlights include Thaïs, Mimì and Musetta in La bohème and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera; Adina in L’elisir d’amore for the Bavarian State Opera, German Opera Berlin, Vienna State Opera and Washington National Opera; Countess in Le nozze di Figaro for Houston Grand Opera (having made her house debut as Desdemona in Otello in 2015); Violetta and title role in Manon on a tour of Japan with the Royal Opera House; Tatyana Bakst in the world premiere of Jake Heggie’s Great Scott, and Manon for Dallas Opera; house debuts at the Bolshoi Theatre as Mimì in La bohème and at Glyndebourne as Alice Ford; Countess in Le nozze di Figaro and Marguerite in Faust for Hamburg State Opera; Marguerite in Faust in Santa Fe and Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra at Teatro alla Scala and the German State Opera Berlin, and opposite Leo Nucci at the Zurich Opera House.
In concert Ailyn has performed Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Mozart’s Requiem with Antonio Pappano and the Santa Cecilia Academy Orchestra in Rome, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 with the Essen Philharmonic. In recent seasons Ailyn has sung opposite Carreras, Bocelli and with Plácido Domingo in gala concerts at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and has made guest appearances at several gala concerts for the Metropolitan Opera. Ailyn has also appeared in recital at London’s Rosenblatt Recitals, at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, and for the Santa Fe Desert Chorale. Her debut album, Poème d’un jour (a program of French and Italian songs on the Opus Arte label), was released to rave reviews with the UK’s Independent newspaper awarding it five stars, while International Record Review confessed, “Every so often, a singer comes along who completely bowls you over.”
