Opera Philadelphia's season comes to a close with a new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro starring barihunks John Chest and Brandon Cedel from April 28-May 7. This is a new co-production, which premiered last year at Lyric Opera of Kansas City and next travels to San Diego Opera and Palm Beach Opera.
John Chest will be performing with his wife soprano Layla Claire, both of whom are making their company debuts. They will be singing the bickering Count and Countess Almaviva. Joining them as Figaro is bass-barihunk Brandon Cedel, whose last appearance on the Academy of Music stage was in the East Coast premiere of Kevin Puts's award-winning Silent Night.
Brandon Cedel
Chest and Cedel will be joined by Cecelia Hall as Cherubino, Patrick Carfizzi as Dr. Bartolo, Lucy Schaufer as Marcellina, Jason Ferrante as Don Basilio, Ashly Milanese as Barbarina, Ying Fang as Susanna and Thomas Shivone as Antonio. Tickets are available online.
Chest will represent the United States at the Cardiff Singer of the World Competition in June 2017.
The Dallas Cowboys were a pretty mediocre 8-8 last year, causing many fans to grumble that a better team needed to be assembled at Cowboys Stadium. That has happened, as the Dallas Opera has put together a winning team for the April 28 live simulcast of Mozart's The Magic Flute starring the always entertaining Patrick Carfizzi as Papageno. Devotees of low voices will also be treated to the resonant low notes of Raymond Aceto as Sarastro.
The opera will be simulcast on the massive high-definition video-screens at Cowboys Stadium beginning at 7:30 PM with doors opening at 6 PM. Over 30,000 tickets have been requested, leaving about 1,500 for the performance. You can reserve your tickets by clicking HERE.
The show will be seen on four viewing screens (the
largest is 72 feet tall and 160 feet wide) above the stadium's playing
field. The opera also stars soprano Ava Pine as Pamina, L'ubica Vargicova as the Queen of the Night, Angela Mannino as Papageno and tenor Shawn Mathey
as Tamino. Listen to Raymond Aceto below (don't miss this voice!).
If you'd rather see the opera at the Winspear Opera House, it opens on Friday, April 20 and runs through May 6. Visit the Dallas Opera website for tickets and additional information.
Luca Pisaroni joins Adriana Kucerove (L) & Ellie Dehn (R) for a curtain call at HGO
In an age when most opera companies are cutting back performances, it was refreshing to see that the Houston Grand Opera had to add a performance of the Marriage of Figaro. Of course, this was the debut of barihunk Luca Pisaroni in the role of Count Almaviva, so we can understand the buzz. Pisaroni has made the other baritone role in the opera, that of Figaro, virtually a calling card role. He's sung it all over the world, including recent perfromances in Vienna, San Francisco, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Salzburg and Madrid. He turned over the role to the talented Patrick Carfizzi for the run in Houston.
Performances run through April 30 and you can click HERE for additional cast and performance information.
Here is Pisaroni singing Figaro's aria "Aprite un po quegli occhi" in Amsterdam.
We couldn't find a video of Pisaroni singing the Count's aria "Hai gia vinta la causa," but here is his father-in-law Thomas Hampson performing the aria in Salzburg. How would you like to be sitting around the piano at one of their family get togethers?
