Hailed by Opera News as “utterly loveable, with an expansive sound and easy stage presence”, Bass-Baritone, Jesús Vicente Murillo, has been performing Opera, Musical Theater, Concerts and Art Song across the United States and Canada since making his debut at with Michigan Opera Theater as The Android in The Very Last Green Thing at the age of eighteen.
In the 2022-23 season, Jesús has several highly anticipated debuts, including his Metropolitan Opera debut as a Flemish deputy in the company’s fall production of Don Carlo. He also makes his Opera San Jose debut as Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro and then returns to Opera Theatre of St. Louis as Papageno in an abbreviated production of The Magic Flute. In the summer, Jesús makes his West Edge Opera debut in an orchestra preview of a new work titled Dolores by Nicola Lell Benavides and Marella Martin Koch, as well as his Opera Middlebury debut as Don Fernando in Fidelio. He also joins Opera Neo in San Diego as Doctor Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia.
In 2019 he completed a two-year residency with Utah Opera where he sang over 450 performances with the company. Since then, he has gone on to cover Dr. Bartolo in The Barber of Seville at Santa Fe Opera, perform Figaro in ¡Figaro! (90210) with Chautauqua Opera, Dr. Bartolo in The Barber of Seville with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Betto in Gianni Schicchi/Buoso’s Ghost with Michigan Opera Theater, and Masetto in Don Giovanni with Bare Opera. He has also made numerous appearances with Opera Saratoga, Opera Louisiane, Charlottesville Opera, Caramoor, Opera in Williamsburg, Salt Lake Choral Artists, Seagle Music Colony, Arbor Opera Theater, Thompson Street Opera, Main Street Opera, and many others.
Recent projects include Leporello in Don Giovanni with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, the Bass Soloist in Faure’s Requiem with The Church of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, the Bass Soloist in Basses and Beer with The Penn Square Music Festival, Guillermo Kahlo/Rockefeller/E.G. Robinson/Petate Vendor in Frida with Michigan Opera Theater and El Paso Opera, The Professor/Used Car Salesman in the world-premiere of Lisa Despain’s That Hell-Bound Train through a generous grant from The National Endowment for the Arts, Il Prince di Bouillon in Adriana Lecouvreur with Baltimore Concert Opera, and Kassandra in Iannis Xenakis’s Kassandra with The Chamber Cartel of Atlanta.
He received his Bachelor of Music: Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan, and a Master of Music: Opera and Voice Performance from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He is currently based out of Philadelphia.
