The Canadian Opera Company regrets to announce that Romanian tenor Bogdan Mihai, who was scheduled to perform the role of Count Almaviva in Rossini's The Barber of Seville this May, has had to withdraw for personal reasons. Mihai was scheduled to sing three of the production's 12 performances. In his place, the COC has cast Argentine tenor Francisco Brito, who will make his Canadian debut. Brito shares the role of Count Almaviva with American tenor Alek Shrader who has been performing the role since the COC's production opened on April 17, 2015.
Francisco Brito is an exciting young singer, praised for "his considerable vocal agility, [ability] to slide through his range rapidly and holding his high notes with ease," (Seen and Heard International). A Rossini specialist, Brito made his operatic debut in Il viaggio a Reims at the 2006 Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy, with subsequent guest engagements of L'Italiana in Algeri at the Teatro Municipale di Piacenza and Teatro Pavarotti di Modena in 2008; Zelmira in Pesaro in 2009 and, in 2011, Il viaggio a Reims at the Teatro Argentino de La Plata in Buenos Aires and La gazza ladra at the Semperoper in Dresden, where he also appeared in Donizetti's Anna Bolena. He's also performed with the Festival della Valle d'Itria and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. In recent seasons, he has appeared with Oper Frankfurt in performances of Adriana Lecouvreur and L'incoronazione di Poppea, as well as in Carmina Burana and La scala di seta with Nationaltheater Mannheim and Il signor Bruschino with Teatro La Fenice. Brito can be heard in the role of Count Almaviva in the COC's The Barber of Seville on May 9, 19 and 21.Tickets are available online at coc.ca, by calling 416-363-8231, or in person at the Four Seasons Centre Box Office (145 Queen St. W., Toronto). Ticket prices for The Barber of Seville range from $49 - $424 (includes applicable taxes).
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