Growing up, Julio Frenk was instilled with a love of music. His mother was a classical pianist; one of his sisters is also a classical concert pianist, while another is a cellist. Although he himself does not play an instrument (“I think my sisters took all the talent,” he says), he does have an incredible passion for — and knowledge of — opera.
His formidable music collection boasts more than 400 recordings. “Among the performing arts,” he says, “opera is the most comprehensive because you have the music, you have the theater. And when they come together in a masterpiece, it’s just an amazing experience.”
Here, his bucket list of the operas everyone should see.
The Marriage of Figaro
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
“It’s a comic opera, so it’s not a very deep reflection on the human condition. But musically, it’s absolutely, to my mind, an example of perfection — and Mozart is one of the few human beings who did achieve perfection.”
La Bohème
Giacomo Puccini
“Apart from the absolutely beautiful music, it’s a statement about social conditions and a tragic opera surrounding huge societal inequities. It’s a deep portrayal of the human condition in extreme circumstances of deprivation.”
Rigoletto
Giuseppe Verdi
“A tragic opera of great irony, about a jester who has a double life: cruelty in his public life as a jester in the court of a nobleman, and incredible tenderness as a single parent of a beautiful woman. It’s a tragedy; he’s cursed. But it’s just so musically beautiful.”
The Barber of Seville
Gioachino Rossini
“Probably the epitome of comic opera, with spectacular music, the most famous of which is the aria by Figaro — an iconic opera to almost everyone.”
Read more about Julio Frenk in “A New Chancellor, A New Era.”
Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Winter 2025 issue.
