Among the events in preparation for the memorable Verdi’s Requiem coming up on October 25th at the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco, Italian Tenor Pasquale Esposito, sponsored by the Consulate General of Italy, the Italian Cultural Institute, and Com.It.Es., will perform Opera Arias and Neapolitan Songs to benefit Teatro San Carlo in Naples.
In fact, the proceeds from the Esposito’s concert will enable the artists of Teatro San Carlo to join the San Francisco Opera, and perform the Requiem, marking the 200th anniversary of Giuseppe Verdi’s birth.
Esposito moved to the Bay Area fifteen years ago, and obtained his degree in “Lyric Sing” at San Jose State University. He started touring to perform the bel canto all around the U.S. He told us how special this upcoming event is for him:
“This benefit concert is the result of a team effort between the Consulate of Italy, the Italian Cultural Institute, and my Artistic Director Antonio Massa, with the purpose of collecting funds to help musicians from Naples to come here in San Francisco.
“Thanks to the presence of Nicola Luisotti, music director of both the Teatro San Carlo and San Francisco Opera, it was possible to establish this partnership which makes me very happy, because it exports the good side of Naples, in conjunction with a city like San Francisco.
“I immediately gave my availability for this fundraiser concert, that I will do absolutely for free, which can be an inspiration to promote the beauties we have in Italy.”
The “Pasquale Canta Napoli” performance will take place next Sunday, October 20th at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in San Francisco, featuring favorite popular music songs, known both by opera experts and amateurs alike.
“For this concert I invited a pianist from Italy, because if we want to celebrates our beautiful Naples and the nearly two hundred musicians who will come from the Teatro San Carlo for Verdi’s Requiem, we need a real Neapolitan touch.
“We will perform the most beautiful classical songs from Canzone Napoletana, such as O sole mio, Torna a Sorrento, Marechiaro, and we will, of course, cover opera pieces by Puccini, Verdi, Rossini. It will be a beautiful recital with the celebrated pieces; we are not going to present pieces less known, but only the most loved by the public. It will be nice to listen to all fifteen songs in a simple, acoustically appropriate church. The aim is to give funds to the Com.It.Es and the Italian Cultural institute, which will help the Teatro San Carlo come to San Francisco.”
To read more about Pasquale Esposito’s promotion of Neapolitan music, and his project on legendary tenor Enrico Caruso, check out the San Francisco Italian section.
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