Courtesy San Antonio native David Portillo performs with soprano sensation Renee Fleming in ‘La Traviata.’

David Portillo, 27, knows that opera isn't exactly the most popular form of music among people his age.

“It is kind of a dying art form,” he said.

Portillo, a San Antonio native who graduated from Holmes High School and UTSA, is a tenor in residence in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's professional artist-development program.

On Monday, April 21, he will perform at his alma mater for the first time since he graduated.
“I think the best way to keep (opera) going is giving more exposure to younger audiences and making it more accessible via productions and educational outreach through companies,” he said.
At UTSA, Portillo will be performing a range of pieces, including an aria by Handel and art songs by Schubert, Poulenc, Benjamin Britten and other composers.

Portillo grew up singing choral music in school and as a 14-year-old freshman, he discovered he had a talent — and love — for opera technique and repertoire. He performed with the UTSA opera program and with the Lyric Opera of San Antonio (now the San Antonio Opera).

“It's such a grand way of singing,” he said. “It's very emotional. It comes from somewhere else.”
Between finishing his bachelor's degree in music education and earning a graduate degree in performance at the University of North Texas, Portillo performed in small understudy roles across the country and in Italy. He also trained at the San Francisco Opera and the Florida Grand Opera.

His favorite roles? Nemorino in “The Elixir of Love,” a “country bumpkin that gets to sing a whole lot,” and Alfredo in “La Traviata,” who Portillo said “spans the character realm of being really lighthearted, young, boyish, in love with this courtesan, but has to become vengeful and upset. By the end he's devastated by the death of his love.”

Jessica Belasco | 210SA Contributor