Justino Díaz

Justino Díaz born January 29 1940 is a Puerto Rican operatic bassbaritone In 1963 Díaz won an annual contest held at the Metropolitan Opera of New York becoming the first Puerto Rican to obtain such an honor and as a consequence made his Metropolitan debut in October 1963 in Verdis Rigoletto as Monterone Díaz was born in San Juan Puerto Rico the capital of the island but lived and was raised in the town of Cataño He attended Robinson Elementary School where at the age of 8 he started to participate in the schools activities as a singer In his first school play when he was 10 years old he sang the song Old Black Joe which became his favorite After finishing his primary education Díaz attended the University of Puerto Rico High School in Río Piedras While in high school he took singing classes and participated in various presentations around the island Díaz joined the choir of the University of Puerto Rico under the direction of Augusto Rodríguez where he sang solo His operatic debut was in 1957 as Ben in Gian Carlo Menottis The Telephone or LAmour à trois It wasnt long before Díaz enrolled in New England Conservatory in Massachusetts One of his professors was Boris Goldovsky who would be very influential in his career Díaz made his professional debut as an opera singer at the Opera Theater of New England In 1960 Goldovsky asked Díaz to join his opera company on a 20state tour After the tour he entered and participated in a competition celebrated at the Metropolitan Opera House winning third place in the New England region Díaz moved to New York upon finishing his studies at the conservatory Goldovsky recommended that he be represented by Hans J Hoffman a talent agent Soon Díaz was singing alongside other artists at the American Opera Society He also sang with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra On March 29 1963 Díaz won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions becoming the first Puerto Rican to obtain such an honor As a consequence Díaz made his Metropolitan debut in October 1963 in Verdis Rigoletto as Monterone He went on to sing 400 performances in 28 roles at the Metropolitan Opera his final appearance there being Baron Scarpia in Tosca in 1994 Among the opera houses in which Díaz has performed are Paris Opera The Vienna Staatsoper the Opera House of Salzburg the Opera of Spoleto the Opera of Rome The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires the Zarzuela Theater of Madrid Barcelonas Gran Teatre del Liceu and others In 1966 he helped to inaugurate the Lincoln Center in New York City by starring opposite Leontyne Price in the opening night performance of Antony and Cleopatra by Samuel Barber The bassbaritone was seen at La Scala in two operas of Rossini Lassedio di Corinto with Beverly Sills and Marilyn Horne 1969 and La pietra del paragone at the Piccola Scala Arturo Toscanini 1983 and 1983 He first appeared at the New York City Opera in Ginasteras dodecaphonic Beatrix Cenci opposite Arlene Saunders in 1973 Source Article Justino Díaz from Wikipedia in English licensed under CCBYSA