Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives

Baritone Hector Vásquez is a native of California and has appeared throughout the United States as a soloist in concert repertoire and opera. Recent engagements have included Aba in the world premiere of El Milagro del Recuerdo, Benoit/Alcindoro in La bohème, the Forester in Janácek’s The Cunning Little Vixen, and George Benton in Dead Man Walking with Houston Grand Opera; Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas with Colorado Opera and Utah Opera; and his San Francisco Symphony debut in Manuel de Falla’s El Retablo del Maese Pedro under Charles Dutoit. Current engagements include El Milagro del Recuerdo with Arizona Opera.

Vásquez has performed for ten seasons with the Metropolitan Opera since his debut in 1995 as Beaumarchais in The Ghosts of Versailles. He has appeared in subsequent MET seasons in Carmen, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly, Capriccio, La traviata, and The Merry Widow. Other performances have included Martinu’s A Soldiers’ Mass with Houston Ballet; Blitch in Susannah with Cedar Rapdis Opera Theatre; the world-premiere of Don Davis’s Rio del sangue with the Los Angeles Master Chorale; Scarpia in Tosca with El Paso Opera; scenes from La bohème and Carmen with the Southwest Florida Symphony; the title role in Rigoletto with Festival Opera; Vidal in Luisa Fernanda with Orlando Opera; the title role in Don Giovanni with Bard SummerScape; Escamillo in Carmen with Opera Omaha; Malatesta in Don Pasquale with Cleveland Opera; Blitch in Susannah with Festival Opera; his debut with Cleveland Opera as Marcello in La bohéme; a critically-acclaimed European debut as Germont in La traviata with Festival en Plein Air; performing in Brussels, Liege, and Ghent, Belgium; and Escamillo in Carmen with Opera Santa Barbara.

Vásquez has performed leading roles with many opera companies in the United States: Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, San Diego Opera, Opera Omaha, Cleveland Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. He has performed under the batons of many of the world's finest conductors: Pierre Boulez, Richard Bonyage, Valery Gergiev, James Levine, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Simon Rattle, Nello Santi, and Patrick Summers.

In demand as a teacher, clinician, and adjudicator; he has given Master Classes at California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo, California State University Bakersfield, El Paso Opera, the Astoria Music Festival, and Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. He has also served as adjunct Professor of Voice at the University of Southern California, and California State University, Los Angeles. Vásquez was Program Director for the Houston Grand Opera Studio from 2006 to 2008.