Venezuelan tenor AQUILES MACHADO made his U.S. debut as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with the Washington National Opera in 1998; he has performed as Rodolfo in La bohème with LA Opera in 2000 and sang the same role with the Washington National Opera in 2002 and for his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2003.

Past performances for Machado include the title role in Les contes d’Hoffmann in Seville, L’Opéra de Nice, and Rome Opera; Rodolfo in Luisa Miller in Bussetto; Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore in Macerata (DVD); Werther in Tenerife; Faust at the Teatro Real Madrid; Verdi’s Requiem in Geneva; La bohème in Tokyo; Les pêcheurs de perles in Naples; Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at the Teatro Liceu, Barcelona; and the Duke in Rigoletto with the Israel Philharmonic.

Recent engagements include Luisa Miller at the Liceu, La bohème in Madrid, Hoffmann in Bilbao, Madama Butterfly at La Scala, I due Foscari in Carnegie Hall, La Gioconda at the Met in 2005 and 2007, Macbeth in Florence and Rome, Ernani in Bilbao, Attila in Peru, Norma opposite Edita Gruberova in Budapest and Bratislava, and La bohème in Naples. He debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel as tenor soloist in these performances of Cantata Criolla.

Other performances for Machado include Rodolfo in La bohème at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Barcelona, Florence, Naples, Strasbourg, Valencia, Tenerife, and Cagliari, Macduff in Macbeth in Las Palmas and Strasbourg, the Italian tenor in Der Rosenkavalier at the Vienna State Opera and at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper and Staatsoper, Rodolfo in Luisa Miller at the San Carlo in Naples (telecast throughout Europe), Le Villi with Radio France, Verdi’s Requiem in Lisbon, Santander, Bilbao, and Caracas, L’amico Fritz in Genova, The Merry Widow and Rigoletto at the Arena di Verona, Lucia di Lammermoor in Zurich, Bilbao, and Las Palmas, La traviata in Bilbao, Tenerife, and Naples, Rigoletto, Faust in Nice, and Gianni Schicchi in Santander, Nice, and Amsterdam (at the Concertgebouw).

Machado has recorded Rigoletto at the Arena di Verona with Inva Mula and Leo Nucci, L’elisir d’amore in Macerata, Gianni Schicchi at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Riccardo Chailly, and Norma with Edita Gruberova in Paris. He has collaborated with such conductors as Plácido Domingo, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Oren, Leopold Hager, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Friedrich Hayder, and Semyon Bychkov.

Machado attended the Simón Bolívar Conservatory, after which he became a member of the National Opera of Venezuela in 1989, going on to receive a scholarship to study at the Reina Sofia School of Music in Madrid in 1996. He has also won prizes at the Francisco Viñas Competition, the Operalia in Tokyo, and the Cardiff Singer of the World, among others.