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Lourdes Ambriz

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Lourdes Ambriz
Ambriz in 2016
Born(1958-07-20)20 July 1958
Mexico City, Mexico
Died28 August 2025(2025-08-28) (aged 67)
Mexico City, Mexico
Occupations
Years active1982–2024

Lourdes Ambriz Márquez (20 July 1958 – 28 August 2025) was a Mexican operatic soprano and opera manager. She was a leading singer of the national Ópera de Bellas Artes de México, and became the company's artistic director in 2017. She became widely known for creating the singing of Belle in the Spanish version of Disney's Beauty and the Beast. She appeared internationally, in a wide repertoire from Baroque opera to world premieres, with a focus on Mozart roles.

Life and career

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Ambriz was born in Mexico City on 20 July 1958.[1][a] She took part in the 1980 Concurso Nacional de Canto Carlo Morell, achieving 4th place.[3] She first appeared in June 1980 in a concert version of Verdi's Don Carlos with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, as Tebaldo and Voice from Heaven alongside Roberto Bañuelas, Malcolm Smith and Eva Dobrowska.[3] She performed beginners' roles such as the First Boy in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and the Page in Verdi's Rigoletto.[3]

She made her professional stage debut with the National Opera Company of the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) in 1982 with the role of Olympia in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, conducted by Enrique Diemecke.[3] Her voice was described as crystal.[1] She performed as Gretel in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, Suor Genovieffa in Puccini's Suor Angelica, Nannetta in Verdi's Falstaff and Oscar in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera.[3] In 1985 she portrayed Najade in the Mexican premiere of Ariadne auf Naxos by R. Strauss, conducted by Eduardo Mata. She performed the title role of Gounod's Roméo et Juliette in 1987, as part of the Festival Cultural Sinaloa at the Teatro Pablo of Villavicencio, Colombia. She appeared as Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni for the opening of the 1991/92 season at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. She performed as a guest at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara as both Despina in Mozart's Così fan tutte and as Musetta in Puccini's La Bohème. She repeated Zerlina at the 1997 Festival Internacional Cervantino in Guanajuato. In 2003 she portrayed Woglinde in the Mexican premiere of Wagner's Das Rheingold, adding in 2003 and 2006 the role of Ortlinde in Die Walküre.[3]

She also appeared as Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice and as El trujamán in de Falla's El retablo de maese Pedro.[3] Her roles included Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Servilia in Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, Leila in Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles, Micaëla in Bizet's Carmen, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Lauretta in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi and Miss Jessel in Britten's The Turn of the Screw. Her partners on stage included Francisco Araiza, Alfredo Daza [de], Justino Díaz, Plácido Domingo, Fernando de la Mora, Ramón Vargas and Rolando Villazón.[3]

She performed with a number of the orchestras in Mexico and also sang with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the National Centre for the Arts Orchestra of Canada, the Simón Bolívar Orchestra of Venezuela and the German Deutsche Kammerakademie.[4]

In 1990 she toured Spain with the group of soloists from Mexico directed by Eduardo Mata. The same year she dubbed the songs from Disney's Beauty and the Beast as the voice of the character Belle.[5] The following year she made her operatic debut in Europe singing the title role of Emilio Arrieta's Marina at the Málaga Opera.[1] In 1992 she toured twelve European countries, in 1993 and 1996 in South America and in 1995 in the United States, with the early music group Ars Nova.[6]

In 1993 she was invited to represent Mexico at the Europalia festival in Brussels.[1] In 1980 and 1981 she was awarded in the Carlo Morelli Competition and in 1987 she received the National Youth Award and the diploma of the Mexican Union of Theater and Music Chroniclers.[1] In 2006 she was awarded the Mozart Medal by the Austrian Embassy in Mexico.[1][7]

In 2010 she sang the role of Eupaforice in the staging of Graun's opera Montezuma, presented by the Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes Company under the musical direction of Gabriel Garrido and the stage direction of Claudio Valdés Kuri.[3] She premiered the operas Aura by Mario Lavista, Víctor Rasgado's El coyote y el conejo and Paso del Norte, Dunaxii by Roberto Morales, Malinalli by Manuel Henríquez Romero and The Seventh Seed by Hilda Paredes.[1][8]

From September 2014 she began to collaborate as deputy artistic director of the INBA's National Opera Company. From October 2015 to December 2017 she was artistic director of the Ópera de Bellas Artes de México.[1][9][10]

Ambriz died on 28 August 2025 in a Mexico City hospital, aged 67.[1] Media reported the cause as cancer.[1][11][12][13] El Universal also noted that the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL) publicly confirmed her death on its social channels.[14]

Notes

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  1. ^ Other sources give 1961 as her birth year.[2]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Civita, Alicia (29 August 2025). "Lourdes Ambriz, Famed Mexican Soprano and Voice of 'Beauty and the Beast's Belle, Dies at 67". Latin Times. Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  2. ^ "Muere Lourdes Ambriz, soprano mexicana y voz de Bella en Disney, a los 64 años". Mundoclasico.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 4 September 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Sosa, José Octavio. "In Memoriam—Lourdes Ambriz (1961-2025)". proopera.org (in Spanish). Retrieved 31 August 2025.
  4. ^ "Lourdes Ambriz". d1f.com. Archived from the original on 2010-04-18. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  5. ^ "Fallece la prestigiosa soprano mexicana Lourdes Ambriz, la bella voz de Bella". Codalario (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  6. ^ Sosa, José Octavio (2004). 70 años de ópera en el Palacio de Bellas Artes: investigación documental, hemerográfica, iconográfica, fichas biográficas y textos adicionales (in Spanish). Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. ISBN 978-970-9703-14-6.
  7. ^ "Naturheilkunde ist Naturkunde ist Naturwissenschaft", Naturheilkunde ist Naturwissenschaft, Basel: Karger, pp. 73–75, 2003, doi:10.1159/000074770, ISBN 3-8055-7620-X, retrieved 29 August 2025
  8. ^ "Artistas reciben Medalla Bellas Artes". Cuarto Poder Chiapas (in Spanish). 2024-08-23. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  9. ^ "La soprano Lourdes Ambriz recibió la medalla Alfonso Ortiz Tirado 2023". El Sol de Hermosillo (in Spanish). OEM. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  10. ^ "La soprano Lourdes Ambriz y el arpista Emmanuel Padilla participarán con recital en el Festival de Música de Morelia". Secretaría de Cultura (in Spanish). Government of Mexico. Retrieved 29 August 2025.
  11. ^ Vargas, Ángel (29 August 2025). "Falleció la soprano Lourdes Ambriz, figura esencial del arte lírico en México". La Jornada (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  12. ^ "Fallece a los 64 años la soprano mexicana Lourdes Ambriz". La Jornada (in Spanish). 28 August 2025. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  13. ^ Salazar, Francisco (31 August 2025). "Obituary: Mexican Soprano Lourdes Ambriz Dies at 64". OperaWire. Retrieved 1 September 2025.
  14. ^ Cabello, Cristopher (28 August 2025). "Muere Lourdes Ambriz, soprano mexicana y representante de la lírica mexicana". El Universal (in Spanish). Retrieved 1 September 2025.
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