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Vocal treats

A retired Metropolitan Opera tenor and an up-and-coming student are among those performing two hours of classics.

TARPON SPRINGS - Retired Metropolitan Opera tenor Enrico Di Giuseppe will perform along with 14 members of St. Petersburg College Opera Summer Vocal Institute on Saturday at the Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center.

The show, called "Enrico and Friends," features more than two hours of classics, with singers playing parts from operas such as La Traviata, La Boheme, Madame Butterfly, Carmen and Die Fledermaus.

"It's a great finale for them," said Marilyn Michael, director of the five-week program, now in its closing days. "Mr. Di Giuseppe has been here for two weeks coaching them, working on their vocal technique and giving them a nice professional flair. He will be singing. I will be singing. The entire (company) will be singing."

Michael said hers is the only opera training program of its kind in the state, drawing high school-age students just starting out in the profession, as well as those in regional opera companies who want to polish their voices.

The program is grueling. Members spend up to three hours a day learning French diction and rehearsing in Italian.

"To sing opera requires a lot of stamina," Michael said. "They are athletes. They don't want to be babied. They want to be pressed to the limit. They want to go to the Met (someday)."

Michael has high hopes that one of her students, 25-year-old Margaret Atkinson of Brandon, who will perform a duet from La Traviata with Constantine Grame on Saturday, will achieve that goal.

"Her voice has been characterized as another Joan Sutherland," Michael said. "Within a year, she may be ready for the Met."

Dame Joan Sutherland is an acclaimed Australian soprano who ranks among the greatest singers of her time for her range and the resonance of her voice. She made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1961 in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Michael, herself a contralto, performed at Carnegie Hall in 1997 as an alto soloist in Handel's Messiah, among many other engagements.

She has been a full-time professor of voice and opera at St. Petersburg College since 1994.

Di Giuseppe graduated from the Juilliard School of Music and spent several years with the Metropolitan Opera National Touring Company before debuting on its main stage in New York City.

He went back to Juilliard to teach and later held the Sheifer Chair at Florida State University before retiring.

Now he only works on projects that interest him, such as helping up-and-comers at the institute, part of the fine arts and humanities program at the college.

"Our school is one of the best-kept secrets," Michael said. "We're really dedicated."

- Eileen Schulte can be reached at 727 445-4153 or schulte@sptimes.com