Araiza, (José) Francisco

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Araiza, (José) Francisco

Araiza, (José) Francisco, Mexican tenor; b. Mexico City, Oct. 4, 1950. He was a student of Irma Gonzales at the Univ. of Mexico City, where he sang in its choir. He made his concert debut in Mexico City in 1969, where he subsequently appeared for the first time in opera in 1970 as Jaquino. Following additional training with Richard Holm and Erik Werba in Munich, he was a member of the Karlsruhe (1974–77) and Zurich (from 1977) operas. He appeared as a guest artist in Munich, Paris, Vienna, Salzburg, Bayreuth, San Francisco, Chicago, and other opera centers. On March 12, 1984, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. as Belmonte. He scored remarkable success as Lohengrin in Venice in 1990 and as Walther von Stolzing at the Metropolitan Opera in 1993. In 1997 he portrayed Faust at the Zurich Opera. He also had fine success as a concert and Heder artist. Among his other distinguished operatic roles were Tamino, Ferrando, Gounod’s Faust, Massenet’s Des Grieux, Alfredo, and Rodolfo.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire