Fernando del Valle

Since 2011, due to health issues, he does not perform in large scale staged productions, concentrating on benefit and charity events instead..

In 2003 his portrait was realised by Ricarda Jaccobi protégé of Oskar Kokoschka.

In 1997, del Valle appeared as 'don José' at the Gran Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Isaac Karabtchevsky, conducting 'Pinkerton' in Madama Butterfly with the Palm Beach Opera, Anton Guadagno, conducting and 'Faust' in Colmar, France. He made his German debut in 1998 as 'Rodolfo' with the Frankfurt Opera, under the direction of the venerated pedagogue/conductor, Klauspeter Seibel, immediately following he appeared to critical acclaim, at the Wexford Festival in Ireland as 'Paolo' in Fosca (opera) by Antônio Carlos Gomes. A series of important engagements followed, and since 1999, del Valle has appeared around the world, including performances in Frankfurt Alte Oper, Strasbourg (Beethoven 9th Symphony, op. 125, with John Storgards conducting), Maastricht, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Theater Augsburg, Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Theater Dortmund, Teatro Carlo Felice, Bremen, Bergen, Costa Rica, Munich Gasteig, Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, Belo Horizonte in Brazil, the HIFA Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe, Malmö, Sweden, New Symphony Orchestra of Sofia, Bulgaria, Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, Torino, Baveno, Inaugural concert of the Umberto Giordano Festival with the RAI National Symphony Orchestra, Paolo Vaglieri conducting,National Theatre Mannheim, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe, Staatstheater Kassel, Hamburg and Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden.

Del Valle's European operatic debut took place with the role of "Don José" in the Hugo de Ana production of Carmen at the Teatro Comunale di Treviso under the vocal direction of Regina Resnik and conducted by Peter Maag. In 1996, he appeared as Rodolfo in La bohème, at the Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Vladimir Jurowski, conducting.

In 1995, he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 31 years old, and treated at Parkland Memorial Hospital. Legally blind, he suffers from diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, macular degeneration, ocular ischemic syndrome, cataracts, macular edema, diabetic cardiomyopathy and diabetic neuropathy.

He continued his career as a concert tenor with a repertoire that included Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, and the Requiems of Verdi, Britten and Lloyd Webber. The tenor's Carnegie Hall debut occurred in 1993, with Mozart's "Great" Mass in C minor with the American Symphony Orchestra. He performed the tenor solos in George Frideric Handel's Messiah for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in 1994. He made his European debut in 1995, singing in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Alun Francis, conducting.

He is an alumnus of the San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program and Western Opera Theater in 1992 and 1993.

In 1986 he won the "Bel Canto" competition of Chicago, under the direction of the legendary tenor Carlo Bergonzi. He remainied in Busseto, Italy and subsequently relocated to Europe where he studied for years with Regina Resnik and later Nicolai Gedda.

The next year, after advice of his Tulane professor, Deborah Drattell, he became tenor soloist in Bach's "St Matthew Passion" with the New Orleans Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, Andrew Massey, conducting. In 1986, he made his Boston debut in that composer's Christmas Oratorio in Jordan Hall as the winner of the Boston Premiere Ensembles Young Artist Competition. The following spring, his New York debut took place at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, with the Beethoven Society of New York, Lorna Cooke deVaron conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Del Valle made his operatic debut at the age of seventeen (1981), as the First Shepherd in John Blow's Venus and Adonis (Blow), at Loyola University followed by roles in La rondine, conducted by Maurice Peress, Brigadoon, Shenandoah and The Merry Widow.

Fernando del Valle (né Brian Stephen Skinner; February 28, 1964) is an American operatic tenor. He is the son of Edward King Skinner II, a Korean War veteran and Concha Marina Meléndez del Valle. The grandson of Aranka Bischitz great great granddaughter of Baroness Johanna Bischitz von Heves and cousin of Hungarian radiochemist and Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate George de Hevesy and Fernando Melendez del Valle-Parker. He is the nephew of the Architect Manuel Roberto Meléndez Bischitz.

In 1880, he was appointed to first district court after the Civil War. A year after his retirement attorneys gave civil district court a portrait in oils of Judge Skinner.

He is the great-great-grandson of Andrés del Valle President of El Salvador in 1876 and a direct descendant of Colonel José María San Martín, President of El Salvador (1854–56) and founder of Santa Tecla, El Salvador.

On the occasion of the 150th (1854–2004) Anniversary of Santa Tecla, El Salvador, Mr. del Valle was invited by former Salvadoran Ambassador Ernesto Rivas-Gallont to present 2 Concerts. A devotee of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, the Tenor requested that the first performance take place on September 23, the feast-day of Saint Thecla, the Saint for whom the city is named.