ANTHONY LEÒN
upcoming wco appearance
Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers (3/14/26)
American-born Cuban and Colombian tenor, Anthony León, has rapidly emerged as one of today’s leading young tenors. His voice has been lauded by Stage and Cinema as possessing “beauty, freedom of tone, and outstanding breath control.” Anthony has received some of the most prestigious honors in the opera industry including being a finalist for the Rising Star award at the 2024 International Opera Awards and a winner of the 2024 Richard Tucker Career Grant. He has also won the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition winner and received the First Prize and the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Zarzuela Prize at Operalia, 2022, the most important opera competition in the world. Additionally, he has been awarded a Career Development Grant from the Sullivan Foundation. Other accolades include being featured in Opera News magazine and being named “Best up-and-comer” in the Inland Empire Magazine’s “Best of the Best 2019” list, among other important awards.
In 25/26, Anthony makes a house and role debut at the Teatro Regio di Torino singing Belmonte inDie Entführung aus dem Serail, a role he will sing as well later in the season for his house debut at Glyndebourne. He also makes another house debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, singing Ferrando in Così fan Tutte, and returns to LA Opera for his role debut as Fenton in Falstaff. On the concert stage he sings Estévez's Cantata Criolla with the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel as well as a run of Handel's Messiah with the Toronto Symphony.
Anthony's most recent engagements in the 2024/25 season include singing Nadir in Bizet’s Les pêcheurs de perles for his debut at the Berlin Staatsoper, Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan Tutte at LA Opera. Previously Anthony appeared as Nadir at Cologne Opera, sang Telemaco in Il ritorno d’Ulisse at the Aix-en-Provence festival, and made debuts with symphony orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony at the Ravinia Festival and the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl with Maestro Gustavo Dudamel. Other recent notable performances include creating the role of The Consumer in the world premiere of Ellen Reid’s opera The Shell Trial at Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
During the 2022/2023 season, Anthony was contracted as a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at the Los Angeles Opera. Anthony’s engagements at LA Opera included opening the 2023/2024 season with his role debut as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. At LA Opera, he also sang Aldeano #1 and Young Man in the world premiere tour of El último sueño de Frida y Diego by Gabriela Lena Frank, Roderigo in Verdi’s Otello, Pelléas in Impressions de Pelléas, Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia, Spoletta in Tosca, and Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor.
Beyond Los Angeles, during the summer of 2023, Anthony made debuts both at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festival, singing the roles of the Teapot, Frog, and Mathematician in Ravel’s Das Kind und die Zauberdinge (L’enfant et les sortilèges). He has also recently been on tour performing the roles of Giove and Amphinome in Monteverdi’s opera, Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, with the ensemble I Gemelli. On tour, Anthony performed at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, France; Arsenal Theater in Metz, France; and Victoria Hall in Geneva, Switzerland. A recorded album of the opera with Ensemble I Gemelli was released in September 2023 on all music platforms and has won international awards.
In the fall of 2021, Anthony also presented the role of Count Almaviva in Opera Theatre St. Louis’ production of The Barber of Seville. During the summers of 2021 and 2022, Anthony was an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera, covering the role of Lysander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, and performing Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen. In addition to these contracts, Anthony has performed other leading roles in various stages around the world such as Le Chevalier in Dialogue des Carmélites, Agenore in Il re pastore, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Tamino in The Magic Flute, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance.
Anthony holds a Bachelor of Music from La Sierra University and a Master of Music degree concentrating in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was awarded the Wendy Shattuck ‘75 Presidential Scholarship for Vocal Studies studying under the tutelage of Bradley Williams.
Anthony León’s appearance in The Pearl Fishers is sponsored by the Guild for Washington Concert Opera.