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Tamino, The Magic Flute
The Metropolitan Opera 2024, 2022, 2019
"Portillo - an accomplished recitalist - did more with shaping words and voiced the part with liquid sound and admirable dynamic span."
OPERA NEWS
"Tamino is the straight man against this, with the danger of seeming dull and square. But Portillo’s vibrant tenor, with the fine Mozartian balance of youth and the confidence of maturity, was excellent, with a steady and compelling nobility that nicely balanced Liverman."
NEW YORK CLASSICAL REVIEW
"This was also Portillo’s reprisal of the role. His Tamino is refreshing and reinvigorating to experience. Portillo’s voice is crystal clear while singing the English diction, making it possible for young listeners in the audience to follow along. He also exuded grace in his delivery, literally in every note he sang and word he spoke. There were high levels of beauty that he brought to this production through his voice, demeanor, and overall presence. I must also mention that while he elevated this role immensely, never once did he detach from his audience or cast. He stayed right in the mix of it all, having fun and truly enjoying his art and colleagues on stage.
Portillo’s voice, especially as he sang the aria “This image is enchantingly lovely,” sparkled as he spun his warm tenor into the Met’s grand hall. He held Pamina’s image in his hand and admired her beauty while singing in perfect alignment with the orchestra’s beating pulse. Other notable moments of true bliss were when he sang “Pamina? I hear her calling,” leading into his duet with Pamina during “Tamino, mine, welcome at last,” and especially magical was “The fiery furnace could not harm us.” Portillo’s voice was consistently even-toned and articulated. Even during his most physical moments while running about the stage in his adventures with Papageno, Portillo sang from his core and his voice carried in volumes."
OPERAWIRE
"The tenor David Portillo, who was a standout at the Met last spring in Poulenc’s “Dialogues des Carmélites,” was wonderful as Tamino: a rich sound, melting phrasing during moments of lyrical reverie and impressively crisp diction."
NEW YORK TIMES
Bénédict, Béatrice et Bénédict
Irish National Opera 2024
"Tenor David Portillo is an impeccable light tenor with plenty of charm, moving off-score to join the other men just as O'Sullivan moved closer to Devin. His buoyant aria was as much a joy as anything in this box of delights."
THE ARTS DESK
"The tenor David Portillo sings Bénédict with youth and charm and with the required disdain for marriage in general and Béatrice in particular."
THE IRISH TIMES
"The American tenor David Portillo was a fine Bénédict."
OPERA WITH OPERA NEWS
Bajazet, Tamerlano
Haymarket Opera 2024
"David Portillo brought his vibrant and powerful voice to the role of the imprisoned, resentful Bajazet, one of the first major tenor roles in opera. Portillo sang with consistent strength as well as impressive agility and was dramatically credible throughout, even in Bajazet’s interminable expiration in the final act."
CHICAGO CLASSICAL REVIEW
"Title notwithstanding, the opera belongs to Bajazet, the Turkish sultan imprisoned by the cruel Tartar emperor Tamerlano along with Bajazet's daughter Asteria, whom Tamerlano intends to wed over the objections of his betrothed, Irene, the young princess of Trebizond. Agility over a wide range, clear diction and supple tone were the tenor David Portillo's to command as the proud, defiant Bajazet. His bright tenor soared splendidly over every vocal and dramatic hurdle-from the deep, fatherly affection expressed in his opening aria 'Forte e lieto a morte andrei and his duet with the soprano Emily Birsan's Asteria, through the vengeful fury of 'Empio,per farti guerra' which precedes Bajazet's suicide."
OPERA WITH OPERA NEWS
Hades, Eurydice
Boston Lyric Opera 2024
"The cast was rounded out by high-flying tenor David Portillo, who brought both high notes and stag presence to the verdant-bearded, greedy Hades in his BLO debut."
THE BOSTON GLOBE
"The spectacular lurid get-ups for Hades may have contained a political riposte to the American right's obsessive demonization of drag queens, and David Portillo worked them with the same flair and skill he brought to the part's murderously high tenor range. "
OPERA NEWS
Italian Singer, Der Rosenkavalier
Santa Fe Opera 2024
"David Portillo was a bit of deluxe casting, his resonant, pure tenor confidently encompassing all the high flying demands scored for the Italian Tenor."
OPERA TODAY
"In a keenly imagined freeze-frame moment, the Marschallin heard David Portillo's nicely limned 'Di rigori' outside a stage-right window and responded visibly to the text: the Italian Tenor proved to be a flower seller."
OPERA WITH OPERA NEWS
Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni
Santa Fe Opera 2024
"Tenor David Portillo’s Don Ottavio was as classically refined as his Italian singer in the previous evening’s Der Rosenkavalier was Italianate. The role and his voice were perfectly suited. Portillo has many of iconic tenor Fritz Wunderlich’s qualities in voice, timbre and interpretive skill. The second of his arias, the hugely difficult Il mio tesoro, has defeated many a tenor. Portillo’s rendition was achingly beautiful and an unqualified pleasure to listen to."
LA OPUS
"David Portillo made a musical, characteristically forthright Ottavio; his arias, beautifully sculpted in flowing lines, were in vocal terms the evening's highest points, along with the Mask Trio."
OPERA WITH OPERA NEWS
Tonio, La fille du régiment
Minnesota Opera 2023
"Complementing her perfectly is David Portillo as Tonio, her bumbling love interest, employing an elastic face and a pure-toned tenor voice that does wonders with every challenge it encounters, most notably the role's famous series of high C's near the end of the first act."
MN STAR TRIBUNE
Pirro, Ermione
Washington Concert Opera 2023
"David Portillo’s imperious Pirro soared commandingly over the role’s extraordinary two-octave range. His dulcet tenor sweetened the slow pieces with mellifluous legato, which nearly overshadowed the authority of his spitfire accuracy in rapid figuration. At the end of the Act I duet with Meade, Portillo hit a soft high note, growing in volume with consummate control to a polished finish."
WASHINGTON CLASSICAL REVIEW
"David Portillo delivered an exceptionally peevish Pirro, his powerful voice nimble and gleaming, especially his Act I aria ("Balena il man del figlio*) and his Act Il duet with the reluctant Andromaca ("Ombra del caro sposo!")."
THE WASHINGTON POST
"Portillo deployed his golden-edged tenor with exquisite control throughout Pirro's music, realizing intricate passages with remarkable consistency of tone. Despite the heavy demands of the role, Portillo maintained an unflagging sense of elegance and laser-focused fidelity to the figurative writing, perhaps most impressive in his execution of Piro's bravura Act I refusal of Oreste's demand to kill Andromaca's son."
PARTERRE BOX
"David Portillo was Pirro. His strong, attractive and very versatile voice smoothly conveyed the character’s vital magnetism, with matching musical flair, giving expressive meaning to each of his forthright interventions."
OPERA WITH OPERA NEWS
Jephtha, Jephtha
Music of the Baroque 2023
David Portillo, a superb David in Lyric Opera’s 2013 Meistersinger, is a singer we don’t hear nearly enough in Chicago. Portillo may not have physically represented the bearded biblical patriarch, but he brought first-class vocalism and searing dramatic intensity to the title role.
Portillo sang with luxuriant tenor tone, daunting power and striking flexibility, with every word crystal clear. He conveyed the roiling pain of Jephtha’s conflicted soul in his late soliloquy (“Deeper and deeper still”) and delivered the oratorio’s most indelible aria, “Waft her, angels, through the skies,” with utmost delicacy and refined depth of feeling.
He also put across Jephtha’s emotions with apt theatricality, as with his violent outburst (“Fly, begone!”) at Iphis for greeting him and inadvertently becoming the victim of his promised sacrifice.
CHICAGO CLASSICAL REVIEW
"David Portillo is presented with charisma, self-confident, with a spectacular vocal dexterity in the role of Jephtha."
SOGNORAMA
Nemorino, L'elisir d'amore
Calgary Opera 2023
"David Portillo as Nemorino, the love-smitten, gullible country bumpkin who in the end is rescued from his many gaffes and achieves his romantic goal through simple sincerity. Portillo gets the most famous aria in the opera, “Una furtiva lagrima,” Pavarotti’s signature tune. Portillo made the most of it, his voice perfectly suited to the nuances of the beguiling melody and with the needed heft at the end. Portillo was also effective on stage and, like Osborne, able to suggest his transformation to a man worthy of Adina."
CALGARY HERALD
Nadir, Les pêcheurs de perles
Austin Opera
"Portillo’s beautiful voice brings depth to the character of Nadir. It highlights the priestess’s vulnerability and makes it clear how effortlessly she could be captivated by him."
TRIBEZA MAGAZINE
Jonathan Harker, The Lord of Cries
Santa Fe Opera, Odyssey Opera
"David Portillo delivered a haunted Harker, musically eloquent even when raving; sign this tenor up for Lear's Edgar, which demands similar flights into haute-contre territory.
OPERA WITH OPERA NEWS
"Her husband Jonathan Harker is given a tour-de-force performance by the tenor David Portillo, replete with plenty of howls, shrieks and sobs to punctuate his madness."
OPERA WITH OPERA NEWS
Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni
Hyogo Performing Arts
"David Portillo como Don Octavio, un verdadero maestro del estilo. (David Portillo as Don Octavio, a true master of the style.)"
OPERA ACTUAL
In Recital with Craig Terry, piano
Vocal Arts DC
"His intriguing program focused on two sides of the singer’s identity, featuring gay composers on the first half, followed by Hispanic composers on the second.
Religious sentiment pervaded the opening set of three songs, beginning with Aaron Copland’s ebullient setting of “Zion’s Walls,” from Old American Songs. This joyous paean of welcome set up the more reflective “Simple Song,” excerpted from Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. At the keyboard, Terry caressed the accompaniment, providing a soft veil of sound for Portillo’s sweet, crooning high range.
Benjamin Britten’s “Canticle 1: My beloved is mine, and I am his” provided a weightier counterpart. The poem, “A Divine Rapture” by Francis Quarles, paraphrases the Song of Songs to describe the poet’s relationship to God, but Britten heard it also as a more earthly love song. Portillo’s solid intonation made tuning the dissonant clashes with the piano quite clean, opening up into broader volume in the faster middle section.
The rest of the first half delved into even more eclectic territory. Roger Quilter’s “Fair House of Joy,” from Seven Elizabethan Lyrics, tested the bolder, more forthright side of Portillo’s voice, which remained secure and pleasing into higher territory. In “Susie Asado,” both musicians gave earnest sincerity to the surreal words of Gertrude Stein, set ingeniously by Virgil Thomson with musical nonsequiturs that matched the inscrutable literary style.
Without a pause, Portillo dove into the much darker world of Samuel Barber’s “I hear an army,” an agitated expression of wartime anxiety, on a poem by James Joyce. Terry summoned up a maelstrom of sound at the keyboard, driving Portillo into howls of anguish at the stark conclusion of the piece (“My love, why have you left me alone?”).
Lee Hoiby’s light-hearted “Where the Music Comes From” countered these menacing clouds. Terry spun a charming lilt from the sing-songy piano part, its rolling rhythms a backdrop for Portillo’s whimsical head voice on the composer’s sentimental poem, skirting the boundaries of doggerel.
... in songs of a more popular turn, like the tender “Del cabello más sutil” by Fernando Obradors and the broad “Aleluya” of Manuel Ponce, the latter crowned by some impressive, ringing high notes. Dance rhythms enlivened “El dia que me quieras,” by Carlos Gardel, with Terry providing an emotional musical backdrop as Portillo read one of the verses in a melodramatic tone.
More crowd-pleasing high notes gleamed over pulsating dance rhythms in closing songs by Maria Grever and Miguel Sandoval. The final selection, Agustin Lara’s “Granada,” felt like the first encore, a big-boned reading from the singer matched by dramatic escapades for the accompanist. The actual encore, a stately and jazz-tinged arrangement of the Shaker song “Simple Gifts,” brought the recital back to the Bernstein item at its start."
WASHINGTON CLASSICAL REVIEW
Steuermann, Die fliegende Holländer
The Metropolitan Opera
"The young Steersman, charged by Daland with keeping watch, was the youthful tenor David Portillo, wonderful in the role as he sweetly sings a love song to the girlfriend he soon will see.
NEW YORK TIMES
Henry, Die Schweigsame Frau
Bard SummerScape Festival
"David Portillo, as Henry, wielded a tenor sound that was pleasing and unforced."
OPERA NEWS
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