Lima, Luis
Lima, Luis
Lima, Luis, Argentine tenor; b. Córdoba, Sept. 12, 1948. He was trained in Buenos Aires and at the Madrid Cons. After taking prizes in the Toulouse (1972) and Francisco Viñas (1973) competitions, he took first prize in the Lauri-Volpe competition (1973). In 1974 he made his operatic debut as Turiddu in Lisbon, and then appeared throughout Germany. He made his U.S. debut in a concert performance of Donizetti’s Gemma di Vergy at N.Y.’s Carnegie Hall in 1976. In 1977 he sang for the first time at Milan’s La Scala as Donizetti’s Edgardo. On March 16, 1978, he made his N.Y.C. Opera debut as Alfredo, which role he also chose for his Metropolitan Opera debut in N.Y. on Sept. 20, 1978. He appeared as Cavaradossi at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires in 1982. In 1984 he made his debut at London’s Covent Garden as Nemorino. He sang Cavaradossi at the Salzburg Easter Festival in 1988. In 1992 he appeared as Don Carlos at the San Francisco Opera. After singing Rodolfo at Covent Garden in 1996, he portrayed Don Carlos at the Metropolitan Opera in 1997. In 1999 he portrayed Pinkerton at the San Francisco Opera. Among his other roles were Berlioz’s and Boito’s Faust, Verdi’s Riccardo, Bizet’s Don José, Gounod’s Faust and Roméo, and Puccini’s Rodolfo.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire