One of Mazatlan’s homegrown sing ers is making it to the Big Time. Adán Pérez, 34, who admits his parents got him into music “to keep me off the streets,”  has developed over the years into an up-and-coming opera star. And to emphasize that fact, next spring he’ll be singing a leading role in the New York City Opera production of “Elixir de Amor.” In Mazatlán on a vacation visit with his family, he recently told a group of  reporters what is going on with his career. Adán Pérez is widely known hereabouts for his appearances before and since he became a local celebrity.  He started out taking guitar lessons as a youngster and while studying engineering at the Tech de Monterrey, he joined the Angela Peralta Chorale. Director Antonio Gonzalez recognized his talent and so did Enrique Patron de Rueda, Mazatlán-born conductor of the opera orchestra at Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
Eventually, with some basic vocal training, he won scholarships for two consecutive years at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts and later became a protégé of Placido Domingo. Pérez has just graduated from the Thornton-Domingo Young Artists’ Program of voice training in Los Angeles.  He told the press that on Aug. 1

he was slated to appear at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a production of “Carmen.” He called it “a great honor” to be singing on that stage under the baton of the celebrated Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel, who was featured this past season on a segment of the TV show “60 Minutes.”  Then on Sept. 19 he’ll be sharing the stage at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, home of the Los Angeles Opera, with Placido Domingo. They will be appearing in “Il Postino,” a new opera by a Mexican composer about the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. Domingo will sing the leading role.  But despite the spotlights on all that, it is his appearance next March in New York that has Pérez the most excited. “Placido started at the New York City Opera,” he said. “It is just one step away from the Metropolitan Opera, and that is one goal every singer aspires to”. Pérez has taken time out from his studies and performances elsewhere to sing here on various occasions. He will be remembered for his 2008 appearance in the title role of “The Barber of Seville.” Mazatlán can no doubt look forward to future appearances of this loyal home town baritone, no matter how high his star rises.