Bravissimo/Dec 28/RTH

BRAVISSIMO! The Greatest Hits of Opera!

Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 2:30 PM /Roy Thomson Hall

Tickets $155 - $75 - 416-872-4255 or visit the Roy Thomson Hall Box Office

www.roythomson.com / www.masseyhall.com

Bravissimo! The Greatest Hits of Opera! is a dazzling performance of beloved arias, duets and overtures from the world’Äôs most popular operas. Opera aficionados and newcomers to the world of opera enthusiastically embraced this innovative opera extravaganza last year as it premiered in Toronto’Äôs acoustically perfect Roy Thomson Hall. This year Bravissimo! returns to Toronto, followed by a debut performance in the renowned Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center in Chicago.

Featuring an all-star international cast, Bravissimo! offers opera lovers an afternoon of irresistible melodies from such favourites as Carmen, Madame Butterfly, The Barber of Seville, Samson and Delilah, La Bohˆ©me, The Pearl Fishers and many more. Leading this stellar cast will be the famous Italian Maestro, Giovanni Reggioli, with Japanese star soprano Akiko Nakajima, star mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera from Spain, an exciting new tenor, Darˆ‚o Schmunck, from Argentina, and Canada’Äôs own prominent tenor, Marc Hervieux. Completing this impressive line up of international singers will be a young and already leading baritone, Lucas Meachem, from the United States. To complement the cast will be Narrator Rick Phillips, a well-known Canadian broadcaster, writer and lecturer in the world of opera.

’ÄúElegant phrasing, intense, eloquent, disciplined, incandescent’Äù are but a few of the words used to describe the conducting of the young Italian maestro, Giovanni Reggioli. Throughout his impressive career he has led many world-acclaimed orchestras, worked with celebrated conductors including Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Chailly and Bruno Bartoletti, conducted Washington’Äôs ’ÄúOperalia Gala’Äù featuring Placido Domingo, as well as the Washington Opera Gala, televised for PBS, working alongside Valery Gergiev. For Bravissimo! Maestro Reggioli will be conducting the 75-piece Opera Canada Symphony in Toronto and in Chicago a 75-piece orchestra assembled from the Chicago Philharmonic, featuring members of Lyric Opera’Äôs orchestra.

For artist bios and more information, please visit www.glatzconcerts.com.

Co-presented with Attila Glatz Concert Productions

Bravissimo! The Greatest Hits of Opera!

Sunday, December 28, 2008 at 2:30 PM / Roy Thomson Hall

60 Simcoe Street, Toronto

Tickets $155 - $75 - Call 416-872-4255 or visit the Roy Thomson Hall Box Office

www.roythomson.com