Arias and ankle taps. Bel canto and blindside. Cadenzas and choke tackles. Singing and scrummaging.
It’s likely that this nonsensical epigraph wouldn’t mean much to many people. But San Diego native Alexis Alfaro would immediately appreciate that this silly ditty represents two very different worlds.
And he knows both intimately: opera and rugby.
While his 12 years as a rugby player — and the subsequent black eyes, broken nose and torn ACL — ended in 2012, Alfaro is now a rugby referee, coach and educator.
“Opera and rugby have developed side by side in my life,” Alfaro said, speaking from his Escondido home. “Both demand technical skill, preparation, resilience, teamwork, physical awareness, decision-making under pressure and continual improvement.
“I think of my career less as two competing identities than as one lifelong artist-athlete education.”
A longtime member of the San Diego Opera Chorus, Alfaro also sings regularly at Westgate Hotel, La Jolla’s Opera Wednesdays — which he cofounded — and at several other Southern California venues.
After he stopped playing rugby, Alfaro’s role in the sport gradually expanded.
Alexis Alfaro is a San Diego singer who is a member of the San Diego Opera Chorus and regularly performs in opera productions. For his day job, he is a professional rugby coach and official for regional and world teams. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
He is a referee for USA Rugby/Southern California and has also worked as a World Rugby certified coach educator, assistant television match official. Alfaro has also had Major League Rugby experience and is sometimes flown around the country — and occasionally the world — to lend his skills to different rugby competitions.
His next major opera gig is Oct. 23-25, when he will perform in San Diego Opera’s “Rigoletto” at the San Diego Civic Theatre. He will also perform with the chorus in two more productions in 2027, “Susannah” and “The Marriage of Figaro.”
According to San Diego Opera Resident Conductor and Chorus Master Bruce Stasyna, Alfaro’s dual commitment to music and rugby has enhanced his contribution as a chorister.
“I’ve always appreciated the breadth of Alexis’ interests and the different perspectives they bring to his work,” Stasyna said via email. “His energy and sense of joy clearly carry across both realms.”
“Alex’s collegiality and positive nature make him a valuable presence in the rehearsal room. That generosity of spirit carries through to his work on stage,” Stasyna said.
In addition to singing, refereeing and coaching, Alfaro also does administrative work for both rugby and arts organizations. In 2025, he received paychecks of varying sizes from 18 different organizations.
To most mere mortals, keeping track of his schedule would be mind-boggling.
“It’s a learned skill set,” Alfaro said. “I’m like: ‘Who can help me do this? I’m the only one that can put this together.’ I’ll ask ChatGPT sometimes because it organizes my thoughts. But I’ve been doing this now for about 14 seasons at a professional level. So, I know how to balance opera and rugby.”
Alfaro’s Mexican-born parents were educators who met while working at different San Diego schools. The family lived in Chula Vista before moving to Scripps Ranch.
“Living in Scripps Ranch in the 1980s was like living in Temecula in the 1990s,” Alfaro said, with a laugh. “It was way out there back then. I have nothing but happy childhood memories of running around, singing and being with friends.
“I’m a proud Mexican, a proud San Diegan, a proud and, well, skeptical American. I understand how I’ve benefited from all the opportunities of being bicultural, binational, and to be able to live right on a border that caters to both my heritages.”
Athletics and singing were inseparable parts of Alfaro’s life from a very young age.
He joined the choir in elementary school and was active in baseball, soccer and tennis. It was in 2000, as a student at the University of San Diego, that he fell hard for rugby.
“It immediately offered friendship, cultural diversity, international and national travel, and a strong ethic of respect on and off the field,” said Alfaro, who received his master’s degree in opera from the University of Kansas, which — like USD — he attended on scholarship.
Alfaro frequently uses the phrase “standing on the shoulders of giants.”
He credits many people — from his choir leader at Jarabek Elementary in Scripps Ranch, who told his parents he had a gift — to his many teachers, coaches and mentors along the way for his successful dual-career life.
One especially important mentor and friend to Alfaro was Nicolas Reveles, San Diego Opera’s esteemed director of education and community engagement. Reveles — a pianist, an opera composer and long-distance cyclist — retired in 2018 and died from cancer in 2023.
Alfaro, 45, recalls being a teenager and watching Reveles on his popular UCSD-TV program, “Opera Talk.”
“Years later, I had the privilege of knowing Nicolas personally and training with him,” said Alfaro, who also worked with Reveles on San Diego Opera’s “Words and Music” program.
“We’d go on a great bike ride and then work on music. Going from watching someone who helped introduce you to the art form to becoming his friend and student is one of the cherished parts of my journey.”
An ardent advocate for combining the arts and athletics, Alfaro believes rugby refereeing helps his singing by keeping him in excellent shape. As he puts it: “Tux to jersey. Jersey to tux.”
“My responsibility is to take what extraordinary teachers, coaches and communities continue to give me, develop it to the best of my ability, and give it forward,” he said.