International Opera Career
Araiza's operatic stage debut came in 1970 when he sang The First Prisoner in a concert performance of Beethoven's Fidelio by the Compania Nacional de Opera de Bellas Artes. A few months later he graduated to the role of Jacquino in the same opera and went on to sing De Grieux in Massenet's Manon and Rodolfo in Puccini's La bohème with the company. In 1974 he went to Munich to compete in the ARD International Music Competition, where he received Third Prize. Although the pieces he sang for the competition were from the Italian lyric tenor repertoire, the judges told him that he would make an ideal Mozart tenor and offered him a contract with the Karlsruhe Opera. He decided to remain in Munich for further training with Richard Holm and Erik Werba before his debut at Karlsruhe in 1975 as Ferrando in Così fan tutte.
Araiza became a member of the Zurich Opera in 1977 and began appearing as a guest artist with major European and North American opera companies and festivals. He debuted at the Bayreuth Festival in 1978 as Steersman in Der fliegende Holländer, the Vienna State Opera in 1978 as Tamino in The Magic Flute, London's Royal Opera House in 1983 as Ernesto in Don Pasquale, and San Francisco Opera in 1984 as Ramiro in La Cenerentola. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Belmonte in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail on March 12, 1984. He went on to appear at the Met another 54 times between 1984 and 1995. During that period his guest appearances also included the Bavarian State Opera, Paris Opera, La Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, La Fenice and the Salzburg Festival. He was made a Kammersänger of the Vienna State Opera in 1988 and was awarded the Mozart Medal in 1991.
Araiza initially specialised in the Mozart and Rossini repertoire—in 1986 he was described as the leading tenore di grazia of the day. However, in the mid-1980s he also began taking on Italian and French lyric tenor roles and the young Wagnerian heroes such as Lohengrin and Walther von Stolzing, sometimes with considerable success, especially his De Grieux in Manon (San Franciso Opera, 1986) and Lohengrin (La Fenice, 1990). He also ventured into the spinto tenor repertoire with performances at Zurich Opera in the 1990s as Alvaro in La forza del destino, Don José in Carmen and the title role in Andrea Chenier.
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