Michael Travis Risner in Le nozze di Figaro in Greeley, Colorado

Michael Travis Risner working out and backstage for Marriage of Figaro

Michael Travis Risner, who has appeared on our site in Boulder Opera's productions of Rossini's The Barber of Seville and Mozart's Don Giovanni, will be performing Figaro in the University of Northern Colorado Opera Theatre production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro on April 15th in Greeley.

The company will be performing on both April 14 and April 15 with separate casts. He'll be joined by Alberto Beltran as the Count, Meggie Moyer as the Countess, Katie Warner as Susanna, Zecheriah Oswald as Bartolo, April Phillips as Marcellina, Margaret Siegrist as Cherubino and Sean Stephenson as Basilio.

Risner received his Masters in Music in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from Colorado State University. He has been appearing on the stages of Colorado's Front Range for the past 20 years as a singer, actor, director, and stage combat instructor and choreographer (his resume even lists "fitness model").  He has performed the title role in Monostatos in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Dancaire in Bizet's Carmen, Sondheim's Sweeney Todd, Eddie/Dr. Scott in Rocky Horror Live!, Lancelot in Camelot, Anatoly in Chess and the Pirate King in The Pirates of Penzance, Footloose (Chuck).

A bit of trivia about Greeley, which was was named after Horace Greeley, editor of the New-York Tribune, who came to Colorado in the 1859 Pike's Peak Gold Rush. His trip popularized the phrase "Go West, young man"