Baritone Paulo Szot to Play 'Henry Higgins' in Brazil's MY FAIR LADY

Baritone Paulo Szot is set to play Henry Higgins in MY FAIR LADY with Jorge Takla directing. It will debut in Brazil where Szot became popular as an opera singer.

The role of Eliza Doolittle will be revealed next week.

Stephanie Mayorkis, coordinator of theatrical events and family entertainment of IMM company, said on Szot's abilities, "It was this versatility we think to invite Paul to My Fair Lady. As this is a structurally classic show, his experience in South Pacific proved that he is very qualified for the role."

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Paulo Szot made his opera debut in 1997 and his international career has included performances with the Metropolitan Opera. In 2008, he made his Broadway debut as Emile De Becque in a revival of South Pacific, and for his performance in this musical he won the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical, the Drama Desk Award, the Outer Critics Circle Award, the Theatre World Award. In 2012 he was nominated for a Laurence Olivier Award for best actor in a musical and in 2014 was nominated for the MAC Award for best Celebrity Artist becoming the first Brazilian to receive such honors.

Szot studied at Jagiellonian University in Poland. He began singing professionally in 1990 with the National Song & Dance Ensemble "?l?sk". Later, he made his professional opera debut in a production of Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo in 1997. Since then, he has performed with the New York City Opera, the Palm Beach Opera, the Canadian Opera Company, Opéra de Marseille, and Vlaamse Opera, among others, in such operas as L'elisir d'amore, La bohème, Don Giovanni,Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, Carmen, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Maria Golovin. In March 2010 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Kovalyov in Dmitri Shostakovich's The Nose. Szot returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Escamillo sharing the stage with the French tenor Roberto Alagna and as Lescaut in Manon along with Anna Netrebko. Szot returned to the Met in 2014 as the Captain of the Achille Lauro in The Death of Klinghoffer. He sang the role of Guglielmo in Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Palais Garnier, and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in Le nozze di Figaro. In 2013 he sang in The Nose at Teatro dell'Opera di Roma and at La Scala in the role of Filip Filippovich, the protagonist of the contemporary Russian opera A Dog's Heart.