Originally from Cuba and established in Mexico, pianist and composer Ángel Rodríguez began to study music when he was just five years old. They recently engaged in a highly acclaimed recital tour throughout Spain and landed an outstanding coup with their solo recital debut at the Los Angeles Opera. Javier Camarena and pianist Ángel Rodríguez have been musical partners for many years and perform recitals all over the world. Last season, as Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, he became only the second singer in Metropolitan Opera history to perform encores in multiple productions at the house, after the audience demanded a repeat of his aria “E se fia che ad altro oggetto.” Camarena went on to repeat the same feat in La fille du régiment at Madrid’s Teatro Real, followed by his recent triumph there in his debut as Gualtiero in Bellini’s Il Pirata. Praised for his burnished tone, gleaming high notes, flawless coloratura, and veracious portrayals, he regularly appears in leading roles alongside today’s foremost stars at the world’s top opera houses and was the face of Opera News’s 80th anniversary edition this past January. Mexican tenor Javier Camarena, the preeminent Mozart and bel canto specialist of his generation, returns to Chicago for the first time since his “sensational” ( Chicago Tribune) debut at the Harris in 2016.