Tenor Francisco Casanova Heralds Start of Verdi Bicentennial Today, 10/7

Today, October 7, 2012 at 2:45 in the afternoon at Christ and St. Stephen's Church (NY, NY), VeraMusica, Ltd. will present Tutto Verdi, great ensemble scenes of the celebrated Italian composer and father of modern Italian opera.

Tutto Verdi will feature tenor Francisco Casanova, an internationally renowned artist and specialist in the music of Verdi. Jump starting the celebration of the Verdi bicentennial year with him will be sopranos Jennifer Furst and Sandra Mercado; mezzo-soprano Sara Murphy; tenors Benjamin Clark, Ubaldo Feliciano-Hernández, Paul Joseph Mayon and Byron Singleton and baritone Stefanos Koroneos. Maestro BrIan Holman will accompany the cast at the piano.

Tickets may be purchased in advance for $20 (http://tuttoverdi.eventbrite.com) and at the door for $25 (cash only).

Having sung more than 50 operatic leading roles, ranging from Haydn to Montemezzi—22 from the pen of Giuseppe Verdi—Dominican tenor Francisco Casanova is a frequent guest artist of the major opera houses of the world.

Casanova began his career in Bilbao, Spain—with ABAO in Verdi's Nabucco as Ismaele—after having won the First Grand Prize for Male Voices and the Special Prize La Traviata at the XXVIII edition of the Francesc Viñas International Singing Competition of Barcelona, November 1990 and the Second Prize for Male Voices of the III International Singing Competition of Bilbao, December 1990.

Casanova's interpretations have been hailed around the world in tones of praise. Worthy of mentioning are the review in the German magazine ORPHEUS (February 2000) of his interpretation of the Jew Eleazar, as well as Il Corriere della Sera's review (May 2003) of his debut at Milan's La Scala in Verdi's I Due Foscari.

Spain also praised him generously for his interpretations of Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera (San Sebastian, 2004), as well as for his Carlo Moor in I Masnadieri (Bilbao, 2004), both operas by Giuseppe Verdi.

For the greater part of his vocal development, Maestro Pier Miranda Ferraro took Casanova under his wing and prepared him to start his career. Maestro Ferraro was Casanova's mentor until the moment of his death in January of 2008.

Shortly before Ferraro's death, he extracted a promise from Casanova to pass on his vocal, musical and dramatic technique for operatic singing. Combining Ferraro's method with the accumulated knowledge of his own experience, Casanova opened Vera Musica, Ltd., his vocal studio and Production Company based in the United States. The young artists who will appear with Casanova on the October 7 Tutto Verdi program represent the beginning of this project.

For tickets and complete information on the Tutto Verdi concert, visit http://tuttoverdi.eventbrite.com.

Pictured: Tenor Francisco Casanova as the Jew Éléazar, in the opera La Juive (Fromenthal Halévy) (top). Tenor Francisco Casanova (as Arrigo) in a scene of Battaglia di Legnano (Giuseppe Verdi) (side).