Acclaimed tenor releases 'foreclosure CD'

Written by steven hall on Thursday, September 03, 2009 at 12:40 PM

Emmanuel di Villarosa, internationally acclaimed tenor, sings against foreclosure while trying to bring opera to a larger audience.

09.01.2009 – (Temecula, CA) Internationally acclaimed American tenor, Emmanuel di Villarosa, is on a campaign to sell 1,000 CD's in order to save his Southern California home from foreclosure.

During the first four weeks of the campaign, 150 CDs were sold from the website, Music for a Home, to many far reaching places in the world. Orders have come from Germany, Austria, Denmark, the UK, Poland and Singapore - all primarily sold through viral marketing. The website saw its launch last month and has generated nearly 3500 unique views.

Di Villarosa hopes to gain the attention of a major news source in order to make his campaign a huge success. His talent speaks for itself.

"I am thrilled with the way the album has progressed. It's full of arias and Neapolitan love songs that are very close to my heart. I hope to save our home but to also bring opera to a starving culture," quoted the Metropolitan Opera veteran.

As a principle artist at the Metropolitan Opera, di Villarosa has shared the stage with Placido Domingo and other world renowned artists. Additionally, he has performed on the stage of the New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, Caramoor Summer Festival, Dallas Opera, Stuttgart Staatstheater, Opera Narodowa Warsaw, Poland and the Mannheim National Theater, Landestheater Linz, Austria.

Of his performances, The New York Times said, “As Alvaro, Emmanuel di Villarosa sang passionately, with plenty of ringing top notes.” The Financial Times commented, “Emmanuel di Villarosa was exciting in Alvaro's taxing Act Three aria, cut in the revision, and elsewhere his thrilling high notes and firm tone never faltered.”

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About Emmanuel di Villarosa


This internationally acclaimed tenor has been thrilling audiences in the United States and Europe for the past 15 years. He is in such high demand that he sings an average of 65 performances a year and is contracted into 2011. His vast repertoire, Italianate style and amazing technique will leave you breathless. His recent performance of Verdi’s original version of La Forza del Destino was a grand success. Performed at the renowned Caramoor Summer Festival and under the baton of noted conductor Will Crutchfield, Emmanuel skillfully negotiated the difficult passages set forth by Verdi in this masterpiece. Before Verdi’s death in 1901, he had to revise this opera discovering that the role was far too difficult for the average tenor.

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Please visit Emmanuel di Villarosa's websites for more information:

Music for a Home

Emmanuel di Villarosa, Official Site

Press:

North County Times Feature: Sun shining through mist for Big Apple Tenor

For media inquiries, please contact:

Jill Hatzioannou
jill@divillarosa.com

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My Repsonse:

I guess this has touched me because he’s in my field, but also because when I first started tracking the posts about this from one of the members on the facebook “Opera Singer Network”, I was touched by how passionately was voicing on facebook and twitter his needs and that of the family. Then I found out that was his wife. Seems like as a family they are doing all they can to avert this tragedy.

I’m purchasing at least one of the CDs. If you have any enjoyment of listening to this music form yourself, I would encourage you to purchase one too for your own enjoyment, knowing it will be helping the family keep their home hopefully.

If you’re feeling philanthropic, buy more and give them as gifts. Every little bit is going to help!

Press Release: http://www.pitchengine.com/free-release.php?id=24106

Website: http://musicforahome.com/

Direct link to purchase: http://twurl.nl/80iejp


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Protected tweets in Twitter & viewing the social media landscape

Written by steven hall on Thursday, August 06, 2009 at 10:38 AM

I was reading an article this morning, and while the author does make some good points regarding prudent paths of adult supervision, she also presented a large inaccuracy in the technology of Twitter. She quipped, “At the forefront is Twitter, a social platform with no privacy settings that instantly updates followers…” Twitter actually has a sizeable privacy setting – you can turn everything “off” or “invisible” to everyone, save those individuals you have accepted as followers. The technical term is having “protected tweets”. Do I think that would have made a difference in the scenario she presented? Probably not, because the 100 people were most likely following each other on twitter.

It’s also unfortunate that she chose sensationalistic wording like, “"It might seem cool to tweet that you're having a party, or to put it on Facebook, but it's a 100-per-cent guarantee that it will get out of control.

100%? Really?

Because I’ve utilized both these regularly on a number of events, both personal and corporate, without it ever going “out of control”. I would dare say it’s not twitter or facebook that does it – it’s the person using it. A little moderation in chosen words and technical accuracy would have helped this article greatly. And with 14 million twitterers (“tweeps” or “twitterati”) in the U.S. alone (Nielson Online, March ’08), accuracy should be especially paramount. There’s probably no need to bring up the 200 million facebook users….

In today’s world I can appreciate anyone who puts themselves on the line journalistically. I simply ask them to do so accurately. And leave the sensationalism at home. I need to read what things actually are, not what they could be in every possible worst scenario; offered as the probable.

Anyone who has delved – really delved – into the social media landscape should have discovered this: Social media networking sites of significance are a microcosm of the entire world wide web. In early internet days it was frequently “fire and brimstone” talk about all the dangers of going on line because one can encounter distasteful material. But we got used to it. And we learned that “we go over here where the content is good and safe, and not over there where the perverts may be…”. Sound familiar? Like the internet, social media is a tool. It needs to be dealt with in the same fashion we have become accustomed to employing with the larger world wide web. Go here, not here. Simply calling out the evils that lurk is, to me, only a part of the story.

7 things to know about Twitter

52 Years: The Dallas Opera Finale at the Music Hall at Fair Park

Written by steven hall on Sunday, March 15, 2009 at 2:57 AM


I'm a little restless and I'm having difficulty falling asleep, even after the celbratory champagne and cuba libres.

After 52 years, the Dallas Opera is no longer performing at the Music Hall at Fair Park, pictured above. Tonight we closed the 2009 run of "L'Italiana in Algeri" (Italian Girl in Algiers). Interestingly, this was also the first opera performed by the Dallas Civic Opera all those years ago.

My journey with the company began in 1999 with performances of "La Clemenzo di Tito" and has now included more than 40 productions with the them; making my solo debut in 2000 with the controversial "Wozzeck" by Alban Berg.

But tonight was not so much a collection of memories of what has been. It was a sponge-like effort to observe the formidable amount of Capra-esque qualities of the night that seem to lurk around every corner. Probably never again will I look out over the hall during a performance and see the faces of the 1000's in attendance looking up at us as we sing. It is a sobering thought. Not as a finality--but as a nostalgic step towards the new Winspear Opera House; the vision of Bill Winspear.

At the conclusion of the show and subsequent cast bows, Maestro Graeme Jenkins took a microphone and uttered a few lines regarding the history of the place, and beckoned the great singers of the past to move along with us to the Winspear.The culmination of this public portion of events was the invitation for everyone present to link hands and sing Robert Burns' Auld Lang Syne:

"Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and never brought to mind ?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old times since ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my dear,
for auld lang syne,
we'll take a cup of kindness yet,
for auld lang syne."

It was quite a poignant moment to hear the audience - a packed house seating 3400 -- join us in song; throaty, hearty voices joining in a historic moment.

After the bevy of cast hugs, kudos and photos were taken on stage, the festivities moved to backstage for a champagne toast and word of thanks from the President of the Dallas Opera, Dr. Kern Wildenthal. The backstage festivites lasted easily another 45 minutes as more photos were taken, company members not in this production joined in, drinks were had; and general merriment washed over the hall. It seemed almost like the last day of school when everyone signs yearbooks and the seniors look at the halls of the school they have come to rule. For us the yearbooks were actually season posters and the seniors were the company members.

History has unfolded a little more tonight. And it shall not be easily forgot.

The Dallas Opera opens the 2009-2010 season in The Winspear Opera House, below, with "Othello".