About

Named 'a born bel canto tenor' by the New York Times, Guatemalan tenor Mario Chang has built an international career on the lyric and bel canto repertoire, bringing to it the vocal elegance and dramatic intensity of a singer equally at home in the Italian and French traditions — an artist whose appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, and the leading opera houses of Europe have confirmed him as one of the most distinctive voices of his generation.

The 2026–27 season marks a decisive moment in Mr. Chang's artistic evolution, as he makes his role debut as Don José in Bizet's Carmen at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago, conducted by José Miguel Pérez-Sierra in Rodrigo Navarrete's production — a return to a house where he has previously appeared as Cavaradossi, and his first encounter with the great French dramatic tenor repertoire. The role signals a natural and deliberate expansion of his artistic development, following recent role debuts as Pollione in Norma and Cavaradossi in Tosca.

The 2025–26 season brought Mr. Chang to two new companies in the British Isles. He made his house debut with Scottish National Opera as Rodolfo in La bohème, touring to Glasgow, Aberdeen, Inverness, and Edinburgh, before returning to Irish National Opera for his role debut as Pollione in Norma, conducted by Maurizio Benini, touring to Dublin, Wexford, and Cork. Orchestral engagements included Verdi's Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony and a recital at the Festival Internacional Alfonso Ortiz Tirado in Álamos, Sonora, Mexico.

The previous season saw Mr. Chang make his debut at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City as Rodolfo in La bohème, return to Palm Beach Opera for his signature Alfredo in La traviata — a role he also sang at the Seiji Ozawa Music Festival in Japan — and appear as Cavaradossi in Tosca at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago.

Among the defining engagements of his career, Mr. Chang has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera as Arcadio in Mary Zimmerman's new production of Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas — broadcast worldwide as part of the Met's Live in HD series — and in multiple seasons as Nemorino in L'elisir d'amore, the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier, and Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor. At Los Angeles Opera, he made his house debut as Rodolfo under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, returning as Ismaele in Nabucco. His house debut at Santa Fe Opera came as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and at Oper Frankfurt he built an extensive guest repertoire encompassing the title roles in Werther and Roberto Devereux, Lenski in Yevgeny Onegin, the Duke in Rigoletto, and Rodolfo in La bohème. His house and role debut as the title role in Massenet's Werther at Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier, conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni and recorded for OperaVision, established him as a significant interpreter of the French lyric repertoire. Further house debuts include Norwegian National Opera as the Duke in Rigoletto, Ópera de Oviedo as the title role in Ernani, and Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville as Cavaradossi in Tosca. His Alfredo in La traviata has been heard at Washington National Opera, Atlanta Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Irish National Opera, Hong Kong Opera, and North Carolina Opera.

On the concert stage, Mr. Chang made his Hollywood Bowl debut as Cassio in Verdi's Otello with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and has subsequently appeared with the same forces in Verdi's Requiem. He has performed Verdi's Requiem with the San Francisco Symphony and at Washington National Cathedral, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Orquesta Sinfónica Centroamericana, and Mozart's Requiem with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Guatemala. He made his Carnegie Hall debut with the Musical Olympus Foundation, and returned in recital as part of the Marilyn Horne Song Foundation.

A winner of First Prize, the Zarzuela Prize, and the audience prize at the 2014 Operalia Competition, and First Prize at the 2011 Francisco Viñas Competition at the Teatro del Liceu in Barcelona, Mr. Chang is a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera and the Advanced Diploma in Opera Studies at The Juilliard School. He is the founder and director of Querido Arte Opera de Guatemala — the first opera company in Guatemala — as well as a Center for the Development of the Arts and a youth orchestra and chorus program supporting hundreds of young musicians in his home country. In recognition of this work, he has been appointed ambassador of peace and culture in Guatemala by the Ministry of Culture and Sports, receiving both the Medalla del Quetzal and the Cambio de la Rosa de la Paz."

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