Described by Opera News as having a “resonant bass-baritone”, Phillip Lopez is generating great acclaim in new and established repertoire across the United States. Mr. Lopez recently made his house and role debuts as Emil de’Beque in South Pacific with the Orpheum Theatre and as Don Parmenione in L'occasione fa il Ladro with Opera Southwest. He also sang Bartolo in Opéra Louisiane's production of Il barbiere di Siviglia, and joined West Edge Opera portraying Cesar Chavez in the opera Dolores, a new work by Nicolás Lell Benavides outlining the farmworkers’ rights movement in the 1960s. In concert, Mr. Lopez recently appeared as a soloist in a Spanish-language version of Handel’s Messiah with the Phoenix Symphony, and as a soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra.

 

Mr. Lopez has interpreted several roles in the operatic canon. Mr. Lopez joined Florida Grand Opera singing Geronimo in a bilingual version of El matrimonio segreto, Betto in Gianni Schicchi/Buoso’s Ghost, and the Jailer in Tosca, as well as covering the Sacristan in Tosca and Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Other highlights include Masetto in Don Giovanni (Wichita Grand Opera) and his Central City Opera debut as Monterone in Rigoletto, as well as Angelotti in Tosca and Zuniga in Carmen with Opera Colorado.

 

No stranger to new music, Mr. Lopez made his Chautauqua Opera Company debut as the Father in Kamala Sankaram’s Thumbprint and Ulysses S. Grant in Virgil Thompson’s The Mother of Us All. Also with the company, he workshopped Derek Bermel's The House on Mango Street as the Bum Man and Pregon. He premiered the song Learning the Grammar of Animacy by Mary Prescott with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and appeared with Opera Colorado as The Senator in Paul Moravec’s The Shining, and in his first professional recording as Guard #2 in Gerald Cohen’s Steal a Pencil for Me with conductor Ari Pelto. Additional performances with the company included the Sergeant of Police in The Pirates of Penzance, and an American Song Concert in Denver, CO.

 

While at the Yale School of Music, Mr. Lopez performed in excerpts as Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress and Sancho Panza in Don Quichotte, sang Winterreise at Sprague Recital Hall, debuted the role of Riolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas, and sang as the bass soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra. He also covered Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with Opera NextGen.

 

Mr. Lopez spent three summer seasons with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where he made his professional debut as Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly. Additional roles performed there include Traffic Cop and Peach Checker in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath, Major Rose and Specialist Austin Haldemann in the world premiere of Huang Ruo's An American Soldier, and Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro. He has also performed as the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Frank Maurrant in Street Scene, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro and Dr. Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore with Wichita State University Opera Theater; sang Nardo in Die Gärterin aus Liebe with Middlebury College; and performed as the bass soloist in Handel’s The Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem with The Wichita Choral Society and Southwestern College, respectfully.

 

In January 2022, Mr. Lopez won the Denver District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and subsequently received an Encouragement Award from the Rocky Mountain Region of the Laffont Competition in February 2022. Mr. Lopez holds degrees from the Yale School of Music (MMA ‘21), Wichita State University (MM ‘19) and Millikin University (BM ‘16).