Micaele Sparacino General Director and Conductor

Marje Palmieri
as Leonora di Gusman

Ms. Palmieri has a rare dramatic coloratura voice of remarkable beauty. She has sung frequently in Opera Bel Canto's productions this season, most recently as the principal soprano in Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle in March. As Violetta in Verdi's La Traviata last November she sang with “intelligence and expressive power,” said Washington Post critic Joseph McLellan. After her performance at the Kennedy Center in Donizetti's Maria di Rohan, conducted by Maestro Sparacino, Judy Gruber wrote in the Post: “She acted as well as she sang, which was very well indeed.”

Her roles include the title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, Cio-Cio-San in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and the Queen of the Night in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte.

Later this season she will appear as Verdi's Leonora in Il Trovatore with the Maryland Opera Society. She will return to Opera Bel Canto next season as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto.

Antonio Giuliano
as Fernando

Sgt. First Class Giuliano, a member of the U.S. Army Chorus since 1988, has represented his country worldwide, performing as a soloist to packed houses and standing ovations. He has performed for heads of state around the world and recently served as soloist at services for President Ronald Reagan.

Off-duty, he has excelled in lead roles with Opera Bel Canto, serving as principal tenor in its March production of Petite Messe Solennelle, for instance, and starring in our benefit gala “Be My Love: A Tribute to Mario Lanza” in May. He will perform a duet concert May 29 in Washington, Va., including excerpts from La Traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor and Puccini's Tosca and La Bohème.

He has appeared with nearly every instrumental ensemble in the Washington region, most recently the McLean Symphony, under the direction of Dingwall Fleary.

He performed his tribute to Mario Lanza with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra and the City of Fairfax Band after taking it on tour in Florida in 2001-02. The late tenor Franco Corelli compared the young Giuliano with Lanza. When SFC Giuliano made his Italian recital debut in Como, Italy, in 1992, he was invited to study voice with Corelli at his home in Milano.

SFC Giuliano has sung leading operatic tenor roles, such as Rodolfo in La Bohème, Il Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto, Alfredo in La Traviata, Manrico in Il Trovatore, Alfred in Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus and Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. In New York he sang Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the National Lyric Opera, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with the New York Repertory Opera, and Rodolfo in Verdi’s Luisa Miller with Opera Nova.

In 1995, SFC Giuliano performed the lead tenor role Giovanni in the European operatic premiere of La Contessa Dei Vampiri by American composer David Clenny, under the musical direction of Stephen Simon, founder of the Washington Chamber Symphony. He later sang Giovanni in the Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C., and at the Conservatorio De Música in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1999, the CBS Evening News featured SFC Giuliano as an opera singer in the U.S. Army.

SFC Giuliano has represented the Army by singing the National Anthem before nationally televised Monday Night Football games, at the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in New York, and during a presidential ceremony rededicating the National Archives exhibit of the Charters of Freedom.

He has sung tenor solos in the Verdi and Mozart Requiems, Bach Magnificat, Bach Cantata BWV 140, “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme,” Handel’s Messiah, Orff's Carmina Burana, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Mozart’s Mass in C. SFC Giuliano took leave from the Army Chorus to make his operatic debut with the Romanian National Opera in Bucharest, singing lead tenor roles in Rigoletto, La Traviata and Lucia di Lammermoor. He performed a recital at the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest.

The tenor received his musical education in vocal performance and opera at the Loyota University School of Music in New Orleans.

John Samuel Garofolo
as Don Gasparo

Mr. Garofolo, a native Washingtonian, is equally at home singing oratorio and light opera repertoire. His oratorio repertoire includes Petite Messe Solennelle, which he performed with Opera Bel Canto in March, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Mass in Time of War, the Mozart and Verdi Requiems, Schubert’s Mass in G, the Saint-Saëns Christmas Oratorio and an extensive repertoire of missa brevi.

In opera, he has performed King Kaspar in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Vasek in Smetana's The Bartered Bride and Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus. He has performed with Maestro Sparacino in productions of Opera Camerata of Washington and Opera Bel Canto, the Vienna Light Opera Company and the Friday Morning Music Club. He is a frequent soloist at several Washington area churches and is a regular soloist at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Washington.

He studied with the great tenor Franco Corelli at the Bel Canto Italia School of Opera in Florence, Italy, and with Maestro Aldo Moroni of the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

Ms. Kiemel, who has given recitals here and abroad, is making her Opera Bel Canto debut. She appeared as a soloist in the Concerts at Kirkwood series and at the Renata Babak Memorial Concert at the Embassy of Ukraine. She has sung with the Washington Opera, Washington Concert Opera, and the Master Chorale of Washington. She has performed as a soloist with the Chorale in Benjamin Britten's Rejoice in the Lamb at the Kennedy Center.

She has sung operatic roles ranging from Susanna in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro to Miriam in Lee Hoiby's The Scarf. She has given recitals with the St. Petersburg (Russia) Concert Society and a benefit concert for the Russian Museum in St. Petersburg and recitals of Russian vocal music in Washington, D.C., and her hometown, Grand Rapids, Mich. Ms. Kiemel is a graduate of Calvin College and earned her doctorate in vocal performance from the University of Illinois.

Mr. Malovic has sung for seven Presidents at the White House, as well as such heads of state as Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev during a long career as a bass soloist with the U.S. Army Chorus, 1966 to 2000. He retired as Group Leader of the chorus.

He has also performed as soloist with the Washington Opera, the National Symphony and the Georgetown and Arlington Symphonies and has given numerous recitals in the Washington area.

Mr. Malovic was born in Norwich, England, and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, where he attended the Cleveland Institute of Music as a private student.

Mr. Vasiliu, a veteran of the Romanian National Opera, has performed on the opera stages of Europe, the United States and Asia. In Washington, the bass-baritone has sung with the Washington Opera in Rigoletto, Tosca and Le Nozze di Figaro, as well as in concerts and operas with Catholic University’s Summer Opera Theater, the Washington Chamber Symphony, the Alexandria Symphony and the New Dominion Chorale.

He sang Pizzaro in Beethoven’s Fidelio with the Chattanooga (Tennessee) Opera and Gérard in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier at Bob Jones University, and has appeared with the Vermont Symphony and the Canterbury Choral Society in New York.

Mr. Vasiliu studied vocal performance and pedagogy at the Music Academy of Bucharest, Romania, completing a master's degree in 1991. He made his operatic debut as Schaunard in La Bohème at the Romanian Opera in Cluj-Napoca in June 1990. He has since performed regularly with the Romanian National Opera in such roles as Giorgio Germont in La Traviata, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen, Scarpia in Tosca and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. With the Vienna Kammeroper, Mr. Vasiliu toured Japan, South Korea, and China, performing the roles of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Leporello in Mozart's Don Giovanni.

He returned to the National Opera in Bucharest in the 2001-02 season to perform in Bizet's Les Pecheurs de Perles as Nourabad, in Don Giovanni as Leporello, in Il Barbiere di Siviglia as Dr. Bartolo, and in Carmen as Escamillo. In addition, he sang the roles of Sacristan in Tosca and Yamadori in Butterfly, the last of which he also presented at the Festival in Miskolc, Hungary, in June 2002.

[Biography]

Gerald Muller
Piano concertato

Dr. Muller, a conductor and music educator, has conducted and directed more than 200 operas and musical theater productions. He is artistic director for the Maryland Opera Society, director of music of Theological College at the Catholic University of America and continues as an adjunct faculty member of the University's Benjamin T. Rome School of Music.

He was a professor of music at Montgomery College-Rockville from 1965 to 1996 and helped develop the Opera/Musical Theater Workshop, serving as its artistic director. In addition he was director of music at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington from 1980 to 1997. From 1995 to 1999 Dr. Muller was music director for Theatrefest, a professional equity theater in Upper Montclair, N.J.

He has composed five fully staged operas, with a sixth in preparation, and more than 200 motets and psalm-settings for liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church.

His trained at the Juilliard School of Music, earned a bachelor's degree from Niagara University in English literature and continued his graduate studies at the Catholic University of America, where he earned his master's degree in music in 1965 and his doctorate in 1980.

Mr. Brown is a versatile musician. As a tenor, his roles include Monastatos in Die Zauberflöte and Goro in Madama Butterfly.

A member of the piano faculty at George Washington University, he has coached and accompanied singers in the Washington area for years. For three summers he has served as coach for the Washington Opera’s Institute for Young Singers. He has appeared as a soloist with the McLean Symphony, Washington Pro Musica and the Orchestra of the New Opera Festival di Roma.

Mr. Brown as served as accompanist and assistant conductor for many musical companies in the region, including the Eldbrooke Opera, the Richard Crittenden Opera Studio, Opera Camerata of Washington and the Capital City Opera.

Cora E. Alter
Chorus Master

Ms. Alter, contralto, has been a professional musician for more than 40 years and has performed steadily with Opera Bel Canto this season. As a singer, she has appeared with the Washington Opera, the professional chorus of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Opera Camerata of Washington, the Shir Chadash Chorale and other groups. She also has been a church and synagogue soloist.

Ms. Alter has played cello in various orchestras and has conducted choral and orchestral groups. She was chorusm aster for the Shir Chadash Chorale and for Opera Camerata of Washington, and has been musical director for productions by Montgomery Playhouse and Rockville Musical Theater.

She has produced and sung at the Kennedy Center and performed with the Washington Opera at the White House during the administration of President Kennedy, likely the only time there has been a staged opera production there.

Ms. Alter began her formal music training at the Dalcroze School of Music, continuing at the High School of Music & Art, both in New York City. She earned a bachelor's degree in music education at Queens College, City University of New York, and has done graduate study in voice at the Douglas College of Music, Rutgers University, and the Chicago Conservatory of Music, Roosevelt University, and has studied with several private teachers.

A strong advocate of musical experiences for children, Ms. Alter for many years was a music specialist and then director for the Arts Day Program of the Roundhouse Theater, Montgomery County, Md.. This program provides creative arts experiences for children of elementary school age.

She also teaches classes about opera and operetta for the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Frederick Community College.

Mark Husey
Organo concertato

Mr. Husey has been widely acclaimed as a musical Renaissance man for his gifts as a conductor, organist, accompanist and tenor throughout the East Coast and in forays abroad. A former Washington-area resident, he is now a faculty member of the Frost School of Music at the Universtiy of Miami and singing in the chorus of the Florida Grand Opera.

He is one of the few organists reviewed in Opera News, for a 1995 performance of his original organ transcription of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta for Opera Camerata of Washington, under the baton of Micaele Sparacino.

A native of Harford County, Md., he received a bachelor of music degree from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., in 1991. As a graduate student at Yale, he performed in master classes for Marie-Claire Alain and Daniel Roth. Mr. Husey served as accompanist to the Westminster Choir under Joseph Flummerfelt in Spoleto Festivals in the United States and Italy in 1993.

Mr. Husey was acclaimed in The Washington Post for his accompaniment of Argento's Peter Quince at the clavier with the Alexandria Choral Society in 1994, under the direction of Kerry Krebill. He has served as continuo player with New Trinity Baroque (Atlanta, Georgia), the Columbia Pro Cantare (Columbia, Maryland), and the National Chamber Orchestra (Rockville, Maryland). Mr. Husey has given organ recitals at Washington National Cathedral, Princeton University Chapel, Saint Catharine's College (Cambridge, England), Saint Mary's Cathedral (Tallinn, Estonia) and the Church in the Rock (Helsinki, Finland). He was awarded first prizes in the 1991 Music Teachers' National Association Competition in Miami, Florida, and in the 1994 American Guild of Organists Young Artist Competition for Baltimore-Washington.

Mr. Husey was the pianist and co-producer for the Atlanta premiere of Lee Hoiby's setting of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I have a dream."

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Revised June 12, 2004