San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Returning to his roots
Mexican-born tenor Arturo Chacón-cruz will sing opera arias, Italian songs, mariachi and zarzuela at concert in Escondido
Over the past 15 years, opera tenor Arturo Chacóncruz has performed more than 60 roles in more than 30 countries, and virtually everywhere he goes, critics praise his emotional connection with the words and music he sings.
Chacón-cruz is grateful for the good reviews and says what critics are seeing onstage is no act. Since he was a boy growing up in Sonora, Mexico, music has been the pathway to his heart. On Friday, he’ll share some of the mariachi and zarzuela songs from his childhood, as well as Italian songs and arias from his international opera career, at a San Diego Opera recital at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido.
Chacón-cruz, 44, said he’s grateful for the opportunity to sing for live audiences again after spending a big chunk of the pandemic quarantining at home in Miami with his wife and son. After many years of living out of a suitcase, performing in up to 10 international productions a year, he said the extended break rejuvenated his passion for singing.
“The pandemic helped me reconnect with my purpose as a singer, a father and a husband, and definitely as a musician as well. When you’re so busy you’re going from one job to the next, you can become an automated machine,” he said.
“I can tell you the appreciation I’m feeling for every performance now reminds me of my first few years as a singer. The whole reason I went into singing was to feel this connection to my soul, and my soul needs it. Every time I’ve been onstage since the pandemic has been a gift that I get to unwrap again and again.”
Chacón-cruz’s recital — which will feature accompaniment by pianist Jeremy Frank in the first half and a mariachi ensemble in the second — is the third in a series that San Diego Opera has hosted this fall at different locations around the county. Mezzosoprano Stephanie Blythe performed at the Balboa Theatre in October, and soprano Michelle Bradley performed at La Jolla’s Baker-baum Recital Hall last week. Friday’s concert marks not only Chacón-cruz’s San Diego Opera debut but also the company’s first season production at the Escondidio arts center’s 400-seat concert hall.
The concert program that Chacón-cruz will present Friday is one that he has been performing all over the world, including in London, Budapest and Madrid. He likes to keep details of the program secret to ensure an element of surprise for the audience, but he said there will be some famous arias by one of his favorite composers, Giacomo Puccini.
“Puccini has a heart-wrenching way of writing,” he said. “He exposes the emotions so well. You don’t need to go digging for it because it’s right there on the surface.”
Unlike at formal voice recitals, Chacón-cruz said he enjoys talking to the audience before each song. He learned the gift of gab from his grandfather, a part-time concert promoter who brought some of Mexico’s most famous singers to Sonora and enjoyed telling stories about the singers and the meaning of their songs.
Chacón-cruz said he can’t remember a time that music wasn’t a part of his life. Both of his parents played instruments, and Mexican and Latin songs — mariachi, zarzeula, boleros, tango — were part of their everyday family life.
“It was there all the time, and it was also a refuge for me when I was having a hard time at school,” he said. “Music was always there to take me to another place. For some people it’s books, for some people it’s TV, for me it was music, a guitar or my mom’s piano.”
In his mid-teens, Chacón-cruz formed a mariachi ensemble with a group of young friends. Hopeful young suitors would hire the teen band to serenade young ladies. He loved the work, but his parents wanted him to go to college rather than spend his time singing on street corners late at night. So at 18, he enrolled in college to study engineering. Then a series of what he calls “no-brainer events” happened that led him to opera.
Six months into his engineering studies, he placed first in the entrance exam for the bachelor’s in music program. A few months later, he earned a full-ride scholarship to a music school in Mexico City. And a few months after that, he had the opportunity to sing for the world’s most-famous Latino tenor, Placido Domingo, who awarded him a scholarship for young singers. Chacón-cruz went on to win Domingo’s international Operalia competition in 2005 and was selected for graduate singing programs at Boston University, San Francisco Opera and Houston Grand Opera.
Because he is in such demand at opera houses worldwide, Chacón-cruz has adjusted his career to spend most of his time on the road. His wife of 17 years, Canadian soprano Venetia-maria Stelliou, gave up her own career to focus on traveling with her husband and homeschooling their 10-year-old son, Arturo Jr. Both Chacón-cruz and his son have celiac disease, a genetic autoimmune disorder. Since 2019, he has served as as spokesman for the Beyond Celiac foundation, which is dedicated to finding a cure for the disease.
Chacón-cruz said his wife has been a great coach, partner and teacher to their son, and their son — who plays violin — has flourished in their artistic life on the road. One conductor handed Arturo Jr. his baton to lead an orchestra, and a violinist let the boy hold his priceless Stradivarius.
After Friday’s concert, the family will take a Christmas break, then head to Europe for a series of opera productions in Germany and Italy, including “The Tales of Hoffman,” “Carmen” and “Werther.” In 2022, Chacón-cruz will debut in two new roles, his first Don Carlo in Verdi’s “Don Carlo” and his first Calaf in Puccini’s “Turandot.” But beyond new roles, Chacón-cruz said one of his major goals is to keep Mexican mariachi music alive for younger generations with concerts like the one Friday in Escondido.
“It gives me a lot of joy to share this music,” he said. “The Latin music has been in decline because of what makes money and what doesn’t. Latin and bolero music has been taken over by reggaeton and rap. The moment a young person doesn’t recognize ‘Bésame Mucho,’ you’re in trouble. Kids don’t hear it anymore, and teaching them this music is a very important task.”
“The whole reason I went into singing was to feel this connection to my soul, and my soul needs it. Every time I’ve been onstage since the pandemic has been a gift that I get to unwrap again and again.” Tenor Arturo Chacón-cruz, above, as Arcadio during a rehearsal of “Florencia en el Amazonas” at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.