Aquiles Machado

Biography

Born in Barquisimeto (Venezuela), Aquiles Machado studied at the Simón Bolivar Music Conservatory with William Alvarado. He was awarded with a scholarship by the Banco de España and the Istituto Mozarteum de Venezuela, which allowed him to move to Madrid to study at the Escuela Superior de Musica “Reina Sofia” under the guidance of Alfredo Kraus, Suso Marjátegui and Eldemiro Arnaltes. He was chosen to perform at the final concert at the Royal Palace at the presence of Queen Sofia. Winner of many international competitions (Viñas, Barcelona, Alonso, Madrid, Operalia, Tokio, Cardiff), he made his debut with L’Elisir d’Amore in Caracas and Macbeth in Las Palmas. Important debuts followed on numerous important stages: Teatro Teresa Carreño in Caracas; Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon; Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Washington National Opera; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona; Teatro Real de Madrid; Staatsoper Berlin; Wiener Staatsoper; and Metropolitan Opera in New York.
Mr. Machado regularly worked with prestigious conductors, such as Daniel Baremboim, Maurizio Benini, Semyon Bychkov, Riccardo Chailly, Jesús Lopez Cobos, Placido Domingo, Rafael Frubeck de Burgos, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Leopold Hagger, Friedrich Hayder, Daniel Oren and Mstislav Rostropovich, just to name a few.

Highlights of his successful career include: La Gioconda at the Metropolitan Opera in New York; La Traviata in Bilbao, Cagliari and Valladolid; Rigoletto in Madrid, Nice, Klagenfurt and at the Arena in Verona; Macbeth in Strasbourg and Valencia; La Bohème in Tokyo, Los Angeles, Washington, Madrid, Strasbourg, Nice, Naples and Florence; Gianni Schicchi with Riccardo Chailly in Amsterdam; Madama Butterfly in Barcelona and Florence; Lucia di Lammermoor in Las Palmas, Bilbao and Parma; Faust in Nice; Der Rosenkavalier (at the Wiener Staastoper; Les Contes d’Hoffmann in Seville, Cordoba, Nice, Rome and Giancarlo del Monaco in Bilbao; Luisa Miller in Naples, Barcelona and Berlin; Les Troyens with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis in London; Ernani and Un Ballo in Maschera (Riccardo Conte di Warwick) in Liège and Bilbao; Roméo et Juliette in Strasbourg and Nice; L’Elisir d’Amore in Parma; and Simon Boccanegra (Gabriele Adorno) in Barcelona and Berlin; Gianni Schicchi with Riccardo Chailly and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam; Norma opposite Edita Gruberova under the baton of Friedrich Hayder; Le Villi with Marco Guidarini live recorded in Paris.
His concert activity includes several performances of Verdi’s Requiem in Madrid, Segovia, Toledo, Caracas, San Sebastián, Bad Kissingen, Parma, Copenhagen, Moscow, Bologna, Cincinnati, Leipzig, St. Luisand Oslo.

He recorded Rigoletto with Inva Mula and Leo Nucci at the Arena di Verona.   
Among his past commitments was: Mario Cavaradossi in Tosca at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples and Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino at the Teatro Regio in Parma under the baton of Gianluigi Gelmetti with great success of both public and critics; La Gioconda in Palermo and Rome; I Due Foscari (Jacopo Foscari) and Carmen in Las Palmas; Lucia di Lammermoor in Trieste; La Bohème in Torre del Lago and in Florence; Norma in Taormina and at the Teatro regio in Turin; Verdi’s Requiem in Copenaghen, Caracas, in Moscow at the Rostropovich Festival and in Bologna and after that in Cincinnati, Leipzig and St. Luis; Madama Butterfly in Torre del Lago; I Masnadieri in Naples; La Traviata in Florence, Oviedo and in Valencia - Zubin Mehta conducting and Willy Decker directed; La Tabernera del Puerto in La Coruña; Norma at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna and in Palermo; Tosca in Beijing, Leipzig, Festival Puccini in Torre del Lago, Terme di Caracalla and Vienna and Il Trovatore at the Macerata Opera Festival.

Aquiles Machado most recently sang: Roméo et Juliette in Liège; Cantata Criolla in Berkley and New York (Gustavo Dudamel conducting); Carmen, I masnadieri, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria in Bilbao; La Bohème and revivals of Tosca at the Terme di Caracalla in Rome; I Due Foscari in Toulouse beside Placido Domingo in Barcelona; Don Carlo and Traviata at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow; Cavalleria Rusticana and Rigoletto in Pamplona; Madama Butterfly and Carmen in St.Petersburg and again Madama Butterfly in Vienna; Carmen in Minorca; Un Ballo in Maschera in Tel Aviv (under Zubin Mehta); La Forza del Destino in Génève, Basel and Las Palmas; La Vida Breve in Cincinnati; Liederabend in Tokyo; Simon Boccanegra and Werther in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; Madama Butterfly at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; Verdi’s Requiem in Trento and Bolzano with the Haydn Orchestra; Don Carlo in Genoa; Werther in Las Palmas; Aida in Bari; Il Trovatore in Oviedo and in Helsinki; Tutino’s La ciociara in Cagliari; Damnation de Faust in Lisbon; Verdi’s Requiem with Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi on tour in Spain; Tosca in Liège; Cantata Criolla with the Boston Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Gustavo Dudamel).