Lourdes Ambriz

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 was the company's deputy artistic director from 2015 to 2017. Her work in opera spanned four decades, with a repertoire ranging from classical to contemporary, portraying many Mozart roles. She performed as a guest on stages in Europe and the Americas.

Her stage debut in Mexico took place in 1982, as Olympia in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. Ambriz made her European debut in Spain almost a decade later, creating the title role in Arrieta's Marina in 1991. She became more widely known for her singing role as Belle in the original Spanish-language Disney film Beauty and the Beast.

Throughout her career, Ambriz was dedicated to performing and recording works by Mexican composers. She later also worked as a professor at Panamerican University and helped assist public outreach efforts to expose new audiences in Mexico to opera for the first time.

Life and career Lourdes Ambriz was born in Mexico City on 20 July 1958. She took part in the 1980 Concurso Nacional de Canto Carlo Morell, achieving 4th place. 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 , Malcolm Smith , and Eva Dobrowska.

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 (1991) as the singing voice of the character Belle. The following year she made her operatic debut in Europe singing the title role of Emilio Arrieta's at the Málaga Opera.

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. 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.

In 2014 she became deputy artistic director of the Compañía Nacional de Ópera. From 2015 to 2017 she was artistic director of the Ópera de Bellas Artes de México. Media reported the cause as cancer. The Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura publicly confirmed her death on its social channels.

Awards Ambriz won twice in the Carlo Morelli Competition, first in 1980, followed by the second in 1981. She received the National Youth Award and the diploma of the Mexican Union of Theater and Music Chroniclers in 1987. She received the Alfonso Ortiz Tirado Medal in 2023, followed by the Bellas Artes Medal in 2024, one of the highest honors in the arts in Mexico.

Legacy Upon her death, Mexican flautist Horacio Franco described Ambriz as one of the greatest opera singers in Mexico's history, next to Ángela Peralta, Fanny Anitúa, and Irma González. Ambriz was also known as an accomplished actress, with journalist Raúl Díaz reviewing her acting skills favorably after seeing her perform in Mozart's Bastien und Bastienne. Notable roles include Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann, Susanna in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, Pamina in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, and Gretel in Humperdick's Hansel and Gretel.

Ambriz was devoted to performing and recording the music of Mexican composers throughout her long career. Her performance on Misa Mexicana (2009), an album of liturgical music by Mexican composer Jesús Echevarría, is rooted in the European baroque tradition, but also fuses together with and evokes traditional Mexican styles of music such as huapango and son mexicano. Music critic Juan Arturo Brennan estimates that Ambriz recorded and promoted works from at least 19 composers in Mexico.