Ricardo Bernal
Ricardo Bernal (born March 30, 1970 in Mexico City) is a Mexican lyric tenor. Biography. Lyric tenor born in Mexico City started his vocal training at the early age of 16 years at the National Conservatory of Music of Mexico under the direction of soprano Irma Gonzalez and posteriorly by the professor in lyric singing Enrique Jaso. Later on he became a member of the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco Opera House (USA) and the Opernstudio of Zurich (Switzerland). He also was trained by the mezzo soprano Viorica Cortez in singing repertoire. At 18 years old he  made his debut as "Beppe" in the opera “I Pagliacci” at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City. At the beginning of his career the fact of having easy top notes led him to successfully undertake Rossini's repertoire. However, later on his voice developed an ample tessitura which enabled him to sing roles as a strong lyric tenor. Thus he was the winner of several contests where among those were "Pacific voices" (San Francisco), "Kaffe Peters" (Viena), "Operalia" (México) and Francisco Alonso (Madrid). In 1996 became the first soloist of the group of professional singers at the Zurich  (Swiss) and in the next year at the Teatre of Bonn and Trier until the year 2000 where he, at the same time, was invited to sing in famous Theatres located in Berlin, Köln, Hamburg and Baden-Baden interpreting many diverse roles. Presently he is continuously performing in outstanding opera theaters located in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Argentina, Panama and Mexico. He also has sung in the Covent Garden, Copenhagen Opera House, “La Fenice” in Venice, Teatro Filarmonico (Verona), “Teatro di San Carlo” (Napoles), Teatro Politeama (Palermo), Teatro Massimo Bellini (Catania), San Francisco Opera House, Washington Opera, Opéra de Marseille  and Montpellier among others. In Spain has sung in “Las Palmas de Gran Canaria”, Tenerife, Valladolid, "Teatro Español" of Madrid, Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall of Bilbao, the Liceu of Barcelona, and the Madrid “Teatro Real”. He has sung next to well known singers such as Mariella Devia, Sonia Ganassi, Dolora Zajick, Isabel Rey, Inva Mula, Patrizia Ciofi, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Juan Pons, Justino Díaz, Carlos Álvarez, Carlos Chausson, among others. Also he has performed under the baton of directors such as Nello Santi, Pinchas Steinberg, Fabio Luisi, Pier Luigi Pizzi, Jean-Louis Pichon, among others. Ricardo Bernal