Arias and ankle taps. Bel canto and blindside. Cadenzas and choke tackles. Singing and scrummaging.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s likely that this nonsensical epigraph wouldn\u2019t mean much to many people. But San Diego native Alexis Alfaro would immediately appreciate that this silly ditty represents two very different worlds.<\/p>\n
And he knows both intimately: opera and rugby.<\/p>\n
While his 12 years as a rugby player \u2014 and the subsequent black eyes, broken nose and torn ACL \u2014 ended in 2012, Alfaro is now a rugby referee, coach and educator.<\/p>\n
\u201cOpera and rugby have developed side by side in my life,\u201d Alfaro said, speaking from his Escondido home. \u201cBoth demand technical skill, preparation, resilience, teamwork, physical awareness, decision-making under pressure and continual improvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think of my career less as two competing identities than as one lifelong artist-athlete education.\u201d<\/p>\n
A longtime member of the San Diego Opera Chorus, Alfaro also sings regularly at Westgate Hotel, La Jolla\u2019s Opera Wednesdays \u2014 which he cofounded \u2014 and at several other Southern California venues.<\/p>\n
After he stopped playing rugby, Alfaro\u2019s role in the sport gradually expanded.<\/p>\n
![\"Alexis](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sut-l-fall-arts-alexis-155a.jpg\")
Alexis Alfaro\u00a0is 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)<\/p>\n
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 \u2014 and occasionally the world \u2014 to lend his skills to different rugby competitions.<\/p>\n
His next major opera gig is Oct. 23-25, when he will perform in San Diego Opera\u2019s \u201cRigoletto\u201d at the San Diego Civic Theatre. He will also perform with the chorus in two more productions in 2027, \u201cSusannah\u201d and \u201cThe Marriage of Figaro.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to San Diego Opera Resident Conductor and Chorus Master Bruce Stasyna, Alfaro\u2019s dual commitment to music and rugby has enhanced his contribution as a chorister.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve always appreciated the breadth of Alexis\u2019 interests and the different perspectives they bring to his work,\u201d Stasyna said via email. \u201cHis energy and sense of joy clearly carry across both realms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAlex\u2019s collegiality and positive nature make him a valuable presence in the rehearsal room. That generosity of spirit carries through to his work on stage,\u201d Stasyna said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
To most mere mortals, keeping track of his schedule would be mind-boggling.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a learned skill set,\u201d Alfaro said. \u201cI\u2019m like: \u2018Who can help me do this? I\u2019m the only one that can put this together.\u2019 I\u2019ll ask ChatGPT sometimes because it organizes my thoughts. But I\u2019ve been doing this now for about 14 seasons at a professional level. So, I know how to balance opera and rugby.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alfaro\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cLiving in Scripps Ranch in the 1980s was like living in Temecula in the 1990s,\u201d Alfaro said, with a laugh. \u201cIt was way out there back then. I have nothing but happy childhood memories of running around, singing and being with friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a proud Mexican, a proud San Diegan, a proud and, well, skeptical American. I understand how I\u2019ve 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Athletics and singing were inseparable parts of Alfaro\u2019s life from a very young age.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt immediately offered friendship, cultural diversity, international and national travel, and a strong ethic of respect on and off the field,\u201d said Alfaro, who received his master\u2019s degree in opera from the University of Kansas, which \u2014 like USD \u2014 he attended on scholarship.<\/p>\n
Alfaro frequently uses the phrase \u201cstanding on the shoulders of giants.\u201d<\/p>\n
He credits many people \u2014 from his choir leader at Jarabek Elementary in Scripps Ranch, who told his parents he had a gift \u2014 to his many teachers, coaches and mentors along the way for his successful dual-career life.<\/p>\n
One especially important mentor and friend to Alfaro was Nicolas Reveles, San Diego Opera\u2019s esteemed director of education and community engagement. Reveles \u2014 a pianist, an opera composer and long-distance cyclist \u2014 retired in 2018 and died from cancer in 2023.<\/p>\n
Alfaro, 45, recalls being a teenager and watching Reveles on his popular UCSD-TV program, \u201cOpera Talk.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYears later, I had the privilege of knowing Nicolas personally and training with him,\u201d said Alfaro, who also worked with Reveles on San Diego Opera\u2019s \u201cWords and Music\u201d program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019d 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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: \u201cTux to jersey. Jersey to tux.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMy 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arias and ankle taps. Bel canto and blindside. Cadenzas and choke tackles. Singing and scrummaging. It\u2019s likely that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":470076,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,7974,967,184939,181,6682,74,84,76,75,420],"class_list":["post-470075","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-classical-music","tag-entertainment","tag-fall-arts-preview-2026","tag-latest-headlines","tag-music-and-concerts","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470075","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470075"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470075\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470076"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470075"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470075"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470075"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}