Spotlight on Ailyn Pérez

Ailyn Pérez has a heartstoppingly beautiful voice. It’s a glowing, full-toned lyric soprano, produced with sovereign technique and abundant artistry, so that it seems to draw every person who hears her into an embrace. She combines that sound with a warm, gracious, utterly natural stage presence that illuminates every character she plays.

Chicagoans first had the opportunity to get to know the American soprano when she made her Ravinia debut in the summer of 2010 as a memorably gracious Countess in The Marriage of Figaro. When she returned in 2016/2017, it was to debut at Lyric in a gala performance, for which she sang Violetta in Act Two of La traviata. Then, two seasons later, she was back on Lyric’s stage for her first full-length role with the company. The occasion was the premiere of the company’s new production of Faust, in which her deeply touching Marguerite broke every heart in the audience. No one who saw and heard that portrayal will forget her captivating Jewel Song, her exquisitely soulful declaration of love, or the dramatic impact she brought to the opera’s final scenes.

Pérez next brought Nedda to life in Lyric's 2021 film of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, which went on to win two Midwest Emmy Awards. Just a few months later, she enchanted Chicago audiences as Adina in The Elixir of Love (2021/22). The Chicago Sun-Times praised the "stellar" cast, calling out Pérez, saying "Her powerful, agile soprano is bright and clear, but with a burnished sheen. She navigated Donizetti's wide leaps and plunges with aplomb and flung his virtuoso flights into the air like so much golden confetti."

The internationally renowed soprano has been in high demand at the Met, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Europe's biggest stages in recent seasons. This spring, she returns to Lyric as Mimì in Puccini's La Bohème — a signature role she has performed to great acclaim at The Metropolitan Opera, London's Royal Opera House, Staatsoper Berlin, Paris Opéra Bastille, Wiener Staatsoper, and other major theaters over the past decade. Now, she brings her "musically ravishing Mimi" (New York Classical Review) home to Chicago audiences.

Like many of the most outstanding American opera singers of the past four decades, Pérez’s ascent to prominence was recognized with the highly prestigious Richard Tucker Award. When she received the award in 2012, she was its first Hispanic recipient. Pérez is intensely proud of her Hispanic heritage, which she celebrated in her 2020 all-Spanish-language album entitled Mi Corazón.

In the years since receiving the Tucker Award, Pérez has gone from one triumphant engagement to another. It’s been thrilling to watch her add exciting new roles to her repertoire, which encompasses portrayals as formidable as Leonora/il Trovatore (Houston Grand Opera), Liù/Turandot (Royal Opera House), the title role/Florencia en el Amazonas (Met), Violetta/La traviata (La Scala, Royal Opera House), Elvira/Ernani (La Scala), the title role/Manon (Royal Opera House, Dallas Opera), the title role/Thaïs (Met), Desdemona/Otello (Houston Grand Opera), Antonia/The Tales of Hoffmann (Opéra National de Paris), and the title role/Tosca (Hamburg State Opera).

See Ailyn Pérez onstage at Lyric during the 2024/25 Season as Mimí in Puccini's touching and tragic opera, La Bohème March 15 - April 12.