By Sebastián Spreng, Visual Artist and Classical Music Writer

Michael Fabiano, a 27-year-old lyric tenor on the brink of mega-stardom, is making his debut with the Florida Grand Opera. To hear Fabiano in the upcoming production of Verdi’s Rigoletto, singing the arias of the libertine Duke of Mantua – the famous “La donna e mobile” above all –is an opportunity not to be missed. He is one of the hottest properties of the new opera singer’s generation and has been acclaimed at Milan’s La Scala, Paris, London, Berlin, Dresden, Vancouver, LA, the Met and recently at the San Francisco Opera along Renée Fleming in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia.

“God gave me this wonderful gift and I am going to use it at the fullest I can” he said in an interview between rehearsals for the Miami premiere next Saturday, January 28. Passionate, ebullient and opinionated, opera runs through Fabiano’s Italian-American blood. His ancestors came from Apulia, Italy, the land of silent-movie icon Rodolfo Valentino and opera composer Umberto Giordano.

The public discovered Fabiano in Susan Froemke’s film The Audition, a journal about the struggles and triumphs of the six winners in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. In the movie, Fabiano appeared fiercely competitive, intense and challenging. He plays himself.  “I believe in competition,” said. “Some people were shocked with my personality in the film, but the fact is it was just a competition. Singing on the stage is a totally different thing.” He burst into laughter when I suggested that he would play Marlon Brando’s character if there would be an opera based in On the Waterfront.

The son of a successful businessman (also a tenor), Fabiano was born in New Jersey, grew up in Minneapolis and currently lives in Philadelphia.  He was raised in a home where classical music was a key presence. Music was not his passion in high school. Instead he became a champion debater, a baseball umpire for nine years and a dedicated student with a passion for cars and airplanes.

How did you discover you would be a singer? I went to Michigan University to get a degree in Business Administration. My idea was to work in the auto or airplane industry. At the university, I started taking voice lessons with George Shirley [head of the Musical Staff and an illustrious retired Metropolitan Opera tenor]. I was happy studying, but much happier taking lessons with him. The turning point arrived at the end of the semester. I recorded a disc with ten songs for my parents as a Christmas present. When my mother listened to it, she started to cry and said: “This is what you are a meant to do”. They both are singers and could recognize the spark and the talent. I realized that was the path to take. I have incredible supporting parents. After getting my degree in vocal performance in Michigan, I attended four years at the Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia.

The last five years have been a rollercoaster, a meteoric ascent I am humbled by the opportunity that I am having now. To step back and look at what I have done in four years is just humbling. I went through big ups and downs and I am grateful as much for the ups as I am for the downs, they taught me to have an “iron spine.”

In Miami, you will be the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Is it a role you have sung often?

It’s the one I’ve performed most. I like singing the Duke, it’s an interesting character; sometimes suffers from “bad press,” but I don’t think he is such a bad guy. He is oblivious of what’s going on. In the last act, he doesn’t have a clue Gilda is trying to save him. To me, the four male characters in Rigoletto are all bad, each have different degrees of blackness inside of them.

To be an opera singer today, you not only must to be able to sing well. Acting and looks are more important than ever. It’s s a good thing the market has shifted this way; it is part of life and my job. I don’t have to be a muscle man but I need to be fit. Personal health is necessary, the healthier I am and the better I sleep, the better I feel. There are still exceptions to the rule. We have large singers that people admire and embrace because they are good. Beautiful singing must always comes first, rule number one.

What is the most exhausting role you have performed? Incidentally, the two roles that I like to sing most, the Duke and Edgardo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. The baritone scene [the Wolf Crag scene] makes the evening difficult.

You had a great success singing it in Bilbao, one of the most difficult opera audiences in the world, along Diana Damrau Before the performance they warned me how difficult that “cold audience” could be. At the end of the show I got this incredible ovation. It was an unforgettable night.

What other roles do you sing and what would you like to sing in the future?

I am a lyric tenor and I want to keep myself into the Bel Canto repertoire: Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux, La Favorita, Elisir, Verdi’s I Lombardi and Alfredo and Rodolfo in Luisa Miller. Also the Massenet’s Des Grieux and Werther (if you sing it as the great Alfredo Kraus did), Gounod’s Romeo and Lensky from Tchaicovsky’s Evgeny Onegin.

Who are your roles models and favorites singers? Great tenors like Aureliano Pertile and Franco Corelli. I also love Carlo Bergonzi and Jose Carreras, and of course Pavarotti. Tebaldi, Olivero and Elena Obraztsova, my favorite mezzo-soprano. So much fire and passion!  I love to sing and I work very hard, but then I can listen to my favorite tenors and operas and compare and learn. For instance, I listen to Renata Scotto, she had a way with words that no other soprano had. Just paying attention to her art helped me immensely with my way of communicating. It’s all communication: every word has an inflexion; even a passing word matters.

My role models and my personal icons are my family. My father and my grandfather, they taught me how to maintain my personal drive for success, to keep my positive attitude and to be always there for other people even when I am struggling. It gives you a sense of humanity and makes you a better person.

Is there any one of these characters that you sing that’s very close to the real Michael Fabiano? I could say Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor. He is strong, idealistic, passionate and loyal. I am the type of guy who likes to have a sword in an opera; those are the roles that really drive me on stage.

Have you ever been in a production completely contrary to what you think the character should do?

Sure, many times.

How do you adapt? It takes a lot of mental stamina. Sometimes you have an agreeable direction team that is willing to listen to what you have to say and incorporate your ideas. When you don’t, you have to do what they ask. At the end of the day it’s just a job, it’s not all about me. I am part of an entire experience and if the director has a concept, I have to agree.

When you sing, are you conscious of the audience? Not really. I am so much into the role. It’s my responsibility to make a beautiful evening for the people that come to my performance. They are there because they want to live and breath what I live and breath. If I think about them, then I am not doing my job. At the end of the night, my goal is not a communitarian goal; it’s an individualistic goal. I want to be able to elicit as much emotion from as many people I can. But, if I do it even with one person I have done my job.

In opera, how much is entertainment and how much is art? The two go hand in hand. Opera is high art and it’s entertainment too. Where else you see people singing, laughing, dying and bleeding? Maybe at the movies, maybe in Broadway, but in opera for sure!

Are you optimistic about the future of opera? Absolutely. Opera is a wonderful art form still somewhat undiscovered by the American public because of poor dissemination of information. It all starts with education in children. There are studies proving that when children have access to classical music and are exposed to singing or playing an instrument, more of their brain is activated and they more effectively complete their academics. Music stimulates the brain in a positive way that allows kids to study more effectively. If we educate our children well, we will have an entire new generation of people with an affinity for classical music and they will participate when they become adults. As young musicians, we must be definitive about this and make sure that the government is protecting and mandating that art and music be a part of the educational process. If we don’t do that now, we are going to be in trouble.

And the role of technology? We have the advantage of technology taking over in the classical music realm, which some conservative people in the business criticize. We have to start with the Golden Era, making sure we respect what happened then but adapt it to our time. A great example is how the Berlin Philharmonic is using the Internet with the Digital Concert Hall. Orchestras and opera companies should do that all over the country, in homes and schools. The Met is doing it and when kids see the billboards, I am sure at least 5 percent are intrigued to see what it’s all about.

Sounds great. But, how can a small regional company without the means to compete manage? That’s a fair point. But I think every city has something that defines itself. For instance, Miami has a unique and vibrant Latin community and it has to capitalize on with people that patronize the music institutions. Regional opera companies can play for their audiences, even if they do not have the means or the money to do it. Unfortunately not many are doing that because they have a narrow view of how opera should be. I hope the leaders of these opera companies are visionaries that will think about 50 years ago and 50 years into the future, not just now.

What other things you love? I love cars, football, tennis and the Yankees – I’ve been a die-hard fan all my life! Then, I ask myself: Isn’t opera singing your job? Yes, it’s my job but is my love and my passion. I choose classical music.

Rigoletto in Italian with projected translations in English and Spanish: Jan 28-Feb 11 at The Ziff Opera House at the Adrienne Arsht Center and Feb 16 & 18 at  the Fort Lauderdale Broward Center of Performing Arts. Tickets start at $11 and can be purchased online at www.FGO.org or by phone 1800-741-1010 at the FGO Box Office.