TWELVE TOP VOICES ADD THE SPARKLE AND GLAMOUR TO OPERA PROVIDENCE’s

“OPERA SPECTACULAR!”

ON APRIL 1^ST AND APRIL 2ND

PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, MARCH 23, 2006:  Opera Providence proves that the young vibrant and exciting talent of our region will bring opera to a higher level here in Providence! Twelve of the area’s top classical vocal talents comprise the ensemble cast of the Opera Providence production of “Opera Spectacular!” at the Columbus Theatre in Providence on April 1^st and 2nd.

Sopranos Mara Bonde, Amanda Forsythe, Noune Karapetian and Patrice Tiedemann will be joined by mezzo sopranos Sarah Austin, Aimee Bordes and Valerie Nicolosi for the production.  Their male counterparts will include tenors Joseph Holmes, Heath Huberg and Frederic Scheff along with bass-baritones Winfield Ford and T. Steven Smith.  

TWELVE amazing voices (7 women and 5 men) of Opera Providence will perform non-stop operatic favorites in an event destined to thrill audiences with soaring melodies and compelling passion and drama.

The twelve will pull out all the stops by showing off their talents in their signature operatic roles from famous operas.  Among the pieces to be featured in “Opera Spectacular!” are selections from Die Fledermaus (Johann Strauss), Das Rheingold (Richard Wagner), La Boheme (Giacomo Puccini), Cosi Fan Tutte (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), Rigoletto (Giuseppe Verdi), Faust (Charles-Francois Gounod) and Candide (Leonard Bernstein).

“Opera Spectacular!” will be presented at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 1^st at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, April 2^nd at 3:00 p.m.  Single tickets are available online www.ArtTixRI.com or by calling 401-621-6123. 

Ticket prices range from $15 to $50.

Call Opera Providence for group discount rates. 401.331.6060.

$10 Student RUSH Tickets - 30 minutes prior to curtain with valid ID.

Ms. Bonde has performed throughout the United States and Europe.  She made her Boston Pops debut under the direction of Keith Lockhart in “Brush up your Shakespeare” which was nationally televised on PBS’s Evening at Pops.  She performs regularly with Boston Musical Theater, both here and abroad and has toured with them in Russia and Belgium.  Ms. Bonde has performed with a number of symphony orchestras and opera companies as well as with the Handel & Haydn Society and Boston Baroque.

Amanda Forsythe has been a winner of the George London Foundation Award and was sponsored by them in January of this year in her New York recital debut.  She sang in Purcell’s Fairy Queen with Boston Baroque in March.  For that ensemble, she has also performed the roles of Bastienne in Mozart’s Bastien und Bastienne, Ninfa/Proserpina in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, Amore in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse, Oberto in Handel’s Alcina, Lieschen in Bach’s Coffee Cantata and Serpina in Pergolesi’s La Serva Padrona.  This Spring, she will sing The Angel in the North American premiere of Peter Eotvos’ Angels in America.

Armenian-American Soprano Noune Karapetian’s recent engagements were the roles of First Lady in Magic Flute and Mimi in La Boheme for Granite State Opera as well as the title role in Opera Providence’s production of Suor Angelica.  She also performed the roles of Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Livia in Game of Cards, Iolanta in Iolanta, Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Anna Maurrant in Street Scene and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi.  Her most recent oratorio engagement included the soprano solos in Schubert’s Stabat Mater, Brahms’ Gypsy Songs and Ottorino Respighi’s Laud to the Nativity with the Greater New Bedford Choral Society. She is the founder and director of Bell Music School in Boston.

Ms. Tiedemann recently made her Boston Symphony Hall debut with the Boston Pops for their Holiday concerts conducted by Keith Lockhart.  She also made her debut with Boston Lyric Opera in 2005 as The Water in the East Coast premiere of The Little Prince, and as the Foreign Woman in The Consul with Opera Boston.  She has also appeared with the Rhode Island Philharmonic as Gertrude in Hansel & Gretel and with the Claflin Hill Orchestra, Salem Philharmonic and New Bedford Symphony in programs of opera and musical theatre.  She is a graduate of the Indiana University Master’s Degree Program in Voice.

Ms. Austin will complete a Master of Music Degree in Vocal Performance at the New England Conservatory of Music in May.  She has performed internationally in Mozart’s Mass in C Minor in Wimborne, England and Handel’s Messiah in Brussels, Belgium.  Other roles have included Alma March in the New England premiere of Little Women and the lead role in L’enfant et les sortileges at the Opera North Young Artist Program.

A graduate of Rhode Island College, Ms. Bordes has a great deal of ensemble experience, having spent four seasons with Ocean State Light Opera and the Bel Canto Opera workshop of Boston.  In addition, she spent nine years as an Artist-in-Residence at St. Ignatius of Loyola Church at Boston College.  She has been presented repeatedly in recitals throughout Boston, including at the French Library, Boston Public Library, the Dante Aligheri Society, the Harvard Club and as a featured soloist with the French Symphony of Boston as part of the WCRB radio concert series.  While living and performing in Venice during 201-2002, she studied with Spanish mezzo-soprano Stella Silva of the Conservatorio di Benedetto Marcello. 

Ms. Nicolosi received her Bachelor’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the Eastman School of Music and has since enjoyed a rising and dynamic operatic career.  In September 2002, she debuted in the title role of Rossini’s La Cenerentola.  In the Spring of 2003, Ms. Nicolosi received has Master’s Degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville where she participated in the Knoxville Opera Studio.  This past season, she debuted with the Raylynmor Opera in the title role of La Cenerentola as she also did with Opera Providence in 2003 and made her first two appearances as Rosina in The Barber of Seville with Commonwealth Opera and Florimezzo Opera in St. Petersburg, FL.   She has appeared as a soloist with the Indian Hill Symphony, Knoxville Symphony, Chattanooga Symphony, Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Eastman Chorale and the University of Tennessee Symphony as well as the St. Alban’s Symphonia. Ms. Nicolosi is well known for her inventive song recital programs that make the classical song repertoire more accessible to contemporary audiences.  Her thematic song recitals are popular on a wide variety of venues around the United States.

Joseph Holmes has performed with numerous opera companies.  A recipient of the Handel and Haydn Society’s Barbara E. Maze Award for Vocal Excellence, he was a 2006 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Regional Semi-

Finalist.  Upcoming engagements for Mr. Holmes include performances with the Colorado Symphony and Opera Boston.

Heath Huberg received his Bachelor of Music degree from Simpson College in Iowa in 2005 and is currently pursuing his Master’s degree at the New England Conservatory of Music.  Recent roles include Laurie (Little Women) and Ferrando (Cosi Fan Tutte).  He will return to Iowa this summer to cover the role of Tamino in the Des Moines Metro Opera’s production of The Magic Flute.

Tenor Fredric Scheff is a familiar face to southeastern New England music and theatre fans.  He has appeared with many local organizations including the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, Beavertail Productions, Ocean State Lyric Opera and Theatre-by-the-Sea.  Nationally, Fredric has appeared from coast to coast in Andrew Lloyd Weber’s The Phantom of the Opera.  He most recently appeared in the role of Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana and as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, both Opera Providence productions.  Upcoming concerts include Beethoven’s Mass in C and Schubert’s Schwanengesang as well as numerous recitals in Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts and Connecticut.  In addition, he continues his ongoing work in the field of Sacred Music as well as teaching at Rhode Island College.

Mr. Ford recently appeared as the Four Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffman, Colline in La Boheme, the Father in Hansel & Gretel, Specher in Die Zauberflote and as Escamillion in Carmen.  For the latter role, he was praised for his “larger-than-life physical presence…that is matched only by his full-throated, robust voice.”  An accomplished oratorio singer, Mr. Ford has sung the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah, the bass solos in Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem and his Liebslieder cycles, Verdi’s Requiem Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C and Handel’s Messiah, among others. Mr. Ford is currently preparing the role of Klingsor in Parsifal for an upcoming performance with the Boston Wagner Society for whom he has already performed selections from Parsifal (Amfortas), Der Fliegende Hollander (Hollander) and Siegfried (Wanderer).

T. Steven Smith is establishing a reputation as a sensitive and intelligent interpreter of a wide variety of operatic roles.  He appeared as Zuniga in Carmen in 2000 at the Opera Festival of New Jersey and made his debut with Austin Lyric Opera in 2001 performing Hunding in Die Walkure.  That same year, Mr. Smith sang Dr. Bartolo in The Barber of Seville with Boston’s Opera Aperta.  In 2003, Mr. Smith sang the role of the Commendatore in Don Giovanni at the Pine Mountain Music Festival in Michigan.Other engagements have included debuts with Portland Opera as Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, with the Cleveland Opera in the title role of Don Pasquale and with the Canadian Opera as the Bonze in Madama Butterfly.  In Spring 2004, Mr. Smith made his Atlanta Opera debut singing the role of Il Bonzo in Madama Butterfly and also returned to Cleveland Opera, also for performances of Madama Butterfly.

Mr. Smith is a two-time regional winner of the MacAllister Awards and was named a regional finalist by the Met National Council in 1998.

For interviews and more information please call Opera Providence, 401.331.6060 or go to www.operaprovidence.org

The 2006 Opera Providence season is sponsored by NBC 10, The June Rockwell Levy Foundation, Providence Business News, The Rhode Island Foundation, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Sovereign Bank, Axion Business Technologies, Bank of America, Anonymous Family Foundation, Citizen’s Bank Foundation, The Dexter Fund, Gencorp Insurance Group, Shaw’s Supermarkets, Hasbro Inc., BankRI, Citizens Bank, Lifespan, The Providence Journal Bulletin, and The Winkler Group Ltd.