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By Matthew Westphal
03 Aug 2006
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| Walter Fraccaro |
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| photo by CAMI |
Nicola Rossi Giordano, the tenor who was to have sung the title role of Manrico in a new staging of Verdi's Il trovatore this fall at Lyric Opera of Chicago, has withdrawn from the production, the company announced yesterday.
Replacing him for the first five performances (November 4-16) will be Walter Fraccaro in his company debut. A specialist in the romantic leading roles of Verdi and Puccini, Fraccaro first came to major attention in 1993, when he took second prize (the top honor awarded that year) at the Francisco Viñas International Voice Competition in Barcelona, where he also won the Plácido Domingo Prize (for the best tenor) and the Montserrat Caballé Prize (for the best performer of Verdi). Since then he has sung at major houses throughout Europe and the Americas, with especial success as Cavaradossi in Tosca, Radamès in Aida and Don José in Carmen.
Vincenzo La Scola, who was already scheduled to sing Manrico in the final five performances of the run (through December 8), will replace Rossi Giordano in the November 22 performance.
Fraccaro and La Scola join soprano Sondra Radvanovsky (Leonora), mezzo Dolora Zajick (Azucena), baritone Mark Delavan (Count di Luna) and bass Andrea Silvestrelli (Ferrando) in the new staging — a joint production with the Metropolitan Opera — by David McVicar. Bruno Bartoletti, Lyric Opera's artistic director emeritus, will conduct.
Information and tickets are available at www.lyricopera.org.
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