Described by Opera News as a “resonant bass-baritone”, Phillip Lopez is generating great acclaim in new and established repertoire across the United States. Last season, Mr. Lopez joined Riverside Theatre as The Commentator in Scalia/Ginsburg, returned to Florida Grand Opera to sing the role of Zuniga in Carmen, and to cover the role of Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, and made his St. Petersburg Opera debut as Escamillo in Carmen. In the 2025-2026 season, Mr. Lopez made his premiere at West Edge Opera portraying Cesar Chavez in the opera Dolores, a new work by Nicolás Lell Benavides outlining the farmworkers’ rights movement in the 1960s; he returns to Wichita Grand Opera as Chino in West Side Story, and returns to St. Petersburg Opera to sing Curio and cover Achilla in Giulio Cesare. In the 2023-2024 season, Mr. Lopez made his house and role debuts as Emil de Beque in South Pacific with the Orpheum Theatre, Don Parmenione in L’occasione fa il Ladro with Opera Southwest, and Bartolo in Opéra Louisiane’s production of Il barbiere di Siviglia. In concert, Mr. Lopez appeared as a soloist in a Spanish-language version of Handel’s Messiah with the Phoenix Symphony, and as Baritone soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra. In the 2022-23 season, Mr. Lopez joined Florida Grand Opera singing Geronimo in a Spanish language version of Il matrimonio segreto, Betto in Gianni Schicchi/Buoso’s Ghost, and Angelotti/Jailer in Tosca, as well as covering the Sacristan in Tosca and Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Other highlights include Masetto in Don Giovanni (Wichita Grand Opera), his Central City Opera debut as Monterone in Rigoletto, as well as Angelotti in Tosca and Zuniga in Carmen with Opera Colorado. No stranger to new music, Mr. Lopez made his Chautauqua Opera Company debut as the Father in Kamala Sankaram’s Thumbprint and Ulysses S. Grant in Virgil Thompson’s The Mother of Us All. Also with the company, he workshopped Derek Bermel’s The House on Mango Street as the Bum Man and Pregón. He premiered the song Learning the Grammar of Animacy by Mary Prescott with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and appeared with Opera Colorado as The Senator in Paul Moravec’s The Shining, and in his first professional recording as Guard #2 in Gerald Cohen’s Steal a Pencil for Me with conductor Ari Pelto. While at the Yale School of Music, Mr. Lopez performed in excerpts as Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress and Sancho Panza in Don Quichotte, sang Winterreise at Sprague Recital Hall, interpreted the role of Riolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas, and sang as the bass soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Waterbury Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Lopez has twice won 1st place at the District Level of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and subsequently received 2nd Place and an Encouragement Award at the Regional Level of the same competition. Mr. Lopez holds degrees from the Yale School of Music (MMA ‘21), Wichita State University (MM ‘19) and Millikin University (BM ‘16).
