Ronald Naldi Will Celebrate His 50th Anniversary Season With A Solo Recital At The Bishop Janes Tabernacle

During his extraordinary career, Ronald Naldi, an internationally acclaimed lyric tenor, has brought his art to the stages around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Verona Opera, Opera da Camera of Rome, L'Opera Francais, New Jersey State Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Salzburger Landestheater, to name a few. For 30 years, he performed at the Met, where he sang 347 times in 23 different operas including three Met premieres, five world premieres and the American premieres of three other operas, no doubt one of longest tenures of any opera singer on the Met roster.

On Sunday, July 23, Mr. Naldi will celebrate his 50th anniversary season, with a special solo recital at the Bishop Janes Tabernacle. Showtime is 3 PM, and the recital is free. Bishop Janes Tabernacle is located on Auditorium Square in Ocean Grove, NJ.

Naldi will perform works by Grieg, Rachmaninov, Hageman, Youmans, Foster, plus early Italian and Neapolitan songs. He will be accompanied by esteemed jazz/classical pianist Sean Gough.

So how did he get from Lincoln Center to Ocean Grove? In a recent interview, the NJ native recalled that as a young performer his agent sent him to Philadelphia in 1974 to audition for what he assumed was a "church gig," not knowing that OGCMA's Musical Director Lew Daniels was looking for a full-time tenor who could sing in a choir, and perform in other musical concerts such as the annual choir festival and solo and group recitals. When he was hired, along with his salary, he was offered a tent in Ocean Grove's historic tent community. 50 years later, he and his family still occupy the same tent! And the rest, as they say, is history!

Naldi has appeared at numerous festivals around the world, and has sung with over 25 symphony orchestras and has an extensive repertory of more than 30 oratorios. He has worked under the baton of the world's most famous maestri, including James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Charles Mackerras, Nello Santi and James Conlon, and has been a colleague with such artists as Placido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti, Leo Nucci, James Morris, Samuel Ramey and Renee Fleming. His repertory comprises over 100 operatic roles in six languages, as well as an extensive song repertory in the American, English, French, German and Italian literature. He was inducted into the Italian-American National Hall of Fame, (which includes such illustrious individuals as Enrico Fermi, Mario Lanza, and Joe DiMaggio), the Bound Brook Hall of Fame and Who's Who of Italian-Americans. He has also sung in many commercials, most notably for Olive Garden and Bertolli. His CDs include 'O Sole Mio and Torna A Surriento (Neapolitan and Italian Songs) with John Colaiacovo which garnered praises including Gramophone Magazine's "Critics' Choice" Award for 2005.