Texas tenor David Portillo is in his second year in the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago for the 2007-2008 season. Mr. Portillo is an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera and young artist programs of Florida Grand Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Tulsa Opera and Opera North. The San Francisco Classical Voice said about David as Paulino in Merola Opera's Il Matrimonio Segreto, "Portillo's sweet lyric tenor and his fine stage presence make a winning combination." Operatic roles at the Lyric Opera of Chicago include Gastone in La Traviata, the Sailor in Tristan und Isolde, and the Sergeant in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Other roles performed and covered include Nadir (Les Pecheurs de Perles), Il Conte Almaviva (Barbiere), Alfredo (La Traviata), Fenton (Falstaff), Dr. Wilson (Dr. Atomic), Stiva (Anna Karenina), the title role of Albert Herring, Sam Kaplan (Street Scene), Don Basilio (The Marriage of Figaro), Goro (Madama Butterfly), and Spoletta (Tosca). David will debut with Opera Company Philadelphia in the spring of 2009. David's concert repertoire includes Mendelssohn's Elijah, Handel's Messiah, and Ariel Ramirez's Misa Criolla. He was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition regional finalist, winner of the men's prize of Union League of Chicago Competition, and has been a finalist in many other competitions including those sponsored by the Dallas Opera Guild, Fort Worth Opera's McCammon Competition, The Young Patronesses of Florida Grand Opera, Mobile Opera, and Opera Birmingham, and the El Paso Opera Competition. Portillo holds a bachelor's degree in music education from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a master's degree in music from the University of North Texas.