"David Portillo, a superb David in Lyric Opera’s 2013 Meistersinger, is a singer we don’t hear nearly enough in Chicago. Portillo may not have physically represented the bearded biblical patriarch, but he brought first-class vocalism and searing dramatic intensity to the title role.  Portillo sang with luxuriant tenor tone, daunting power and striking flexibility, with every word crystal clear. He conveyed the roiling pain of Jephtha’s conflicted soul in his late soliloquy (“Deeper and deeper still”) and delivered the oratorio’s most indelible aria, “Waft her, angels, through the skies,” with utmost delicacy and refined depth of feeling.He also put across Jephtha’s emotions with apt theatricality, as with his violent outburst (“Fly, begone!”) at Iphis for greeting him and inadvertently becoming the victim of his promised sacrifice."