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.