Raffaele Tudisco, baritone
Philadelphia
What have your career highlights been, up until now?
I have sung the lead roles in almost 80 operas … [including] Franchetti’s Cristoforo Colombo, Giordano’s La cena delle beffe, Wolf-Ferrari’s Jewels of the Madonna, and Leoncavallo’s Zaza. In one season alone, I sang the lead roles in three operas set to Shakespeare: Verdi’s Macbeth, Otello, and Thomas’s Hamlet. All have been thrilling.
What are your goals for the next five years? The next 10 years?
November 2006 I will be singing the lead in Donizetti’s Torquato Tasso. This will be the first time this opera has ever been given in the United States. In one year from now I will be the only singer in history to have sung lead roles in all 26 Verdi operas and the Reqiuem.
Who is your mentor or the most influential person in your life as a singer?
My mother.
What is your dream role, and why?
All the roles that I haven’t sung yet.
How do you handle the inevitable rejection that is part of a singer’s life?
I found that when this happened earlier in my career, it made me want to sing and improve even more. I wasn’t going to let anyone or anything get in my way to do what I was born to do.
What is your favorite article you’ve read in Classical Singer, and why?
The articles on acid reflux have been eye-openers.
Who is your favorite singer?
Enrico Caruso is without a doubt the most influential singer of all time—his incredible voice, with the phrasing, heart, and soul. He is the reason I am a singer. I was singing tenor arias at 3 years old.
What is your favorite techno tool that you use as a singer?
I still use my Victrolas, record player, and CD, VCR, and DVD players.
Anything else you’d like to say during your moment in Center Stage?
As the impresario of The Amici Opera Company, I have been very fortunate to be able to give singers from all over the country a place to sing fully staged operas 11 months out of the year, for the past seven years. We are consistently growing and adding new venues to sing. It is a great company now and I am working diligently
to find funding to make it an even better company.
