After making his debut in 1988 at the musical May in Bordeaux and at the Ossiachersee Festival in Austria, he was hired by Herbert von Karajan for the role of Silvano in Un ballo in maschera by Verdi, along Plácido Domingo, Josephine Barstow and Sumi Jo, recorded for Deutsche Grammophon (1989).
During a first and only audition for the role of Figaro at the Vienna State Opera, director Eberhard Wächter immediately gave Chaignaud a multi-year contract, propelling him into a career on major international stages.
The first French national daily newspaper Le Figaro described Jean-Luc Chaignaud as a "stage prodigy", "dazzling with humanity and tenderness" and praised his voice "marvellously conducted, iridescent with beautiful colours".
His recordings include an exceptional recital at the Louvre of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen by Mahler with the Quatuor Arditti under the direction of Michel Béroff on the occasion of the reopening of the museum in 1989, Adriana Lecouvreur by Cilea with Mirella Freni (La sept Arte/Opéra national de Paris, France Musique, 1994), Massenet's Manon with Renée Fleming (Arthaus, 2009), Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore with Rolando Villazón (Virgin Classics, 2010) and a tribute to the Franco-Monegasque poet-songwriter-performer Léo Ferré at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo (OPMC Classics, 2014).
He has collaborated with conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Sir Georg Solti, Riccardo Muti, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Richard Bonynge, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Valery Gergiev, Jeffrey Tate, Christian Thielemann, Daniel Oren, Charles Dutoit and Christoph Eschenbach.