American tenor David Portillo, winner of the 2024 Sphinx Medal of Excellence by the Sphinx Organization, and praised by Opera News for “high notes with ease, singing with a luxuriant warm glow that seduced the ear as he bounded about the stage with abandon,” has established himself as a leading classical singer of his generation. In the 2024–25 season, Mr. Portillo sang Tamino in The Magic Flute holiday presentation at the Metropolitan Opera; the roles of Natura, Pain and Furia in La Calisto at Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; Dr. Richardson in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves at Houston Grand Opera; Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival; Bénédict in Béatrice et Bénédict with Irish National Opera; Bajazet in Handel’s Tamerlano with Haymarket Opera in Chicago; and in concert, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the San Antonio Symphony and Septimius in Handel’s Theodora with Dame Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque.