Tenor was inspired by Pavarotti recording
You never know where you’ll find inspiration for your aspirations.
For Moscow-born tenor Stanislas Vitort, the inspiration to become an opera singer came courtesy of a Pavarotti CD.
You see, back around 1993, the then-18year-old Vitort, who had just a juggled his way to a degree from the National College of Circus and Performing Arts, was working as a juggler-acrobat with the Russian Circus on tour in Europe when he bought a CD by tenor Luciano Pavarotti.
“I was really, really impressed and I started just copying him. That’s how my love of singing started,” the Toronto-based Vitort said over the phone last week.
Vitort left the circus in 1997 to pursue operatic studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatoire in the class of Vladislav Piavko. For Western audiences, Piavko may not be a household name like Pavarotti, but in the USSR, he was one of the top tenors at the Bolshoi Theatre from 1966 to 1989. In addition, he and his wife, the late mezzo Irina Arkhipova, were a prominent artistic power couple in Russia.
Vitort’s formal studies with Piavko, not to mention Arkhipova who informally listened to him before he took his exams, turned out to be a voice-saver.
“How to survive” and “the stamina” were Vitort’s two best take-aways from Piavko’s teaching. “Before Piavko, with another teacher, I almost lost my voice. He basically saved me,” said Vitort.
Upon graduating in 2003 with a master’s degree in operatic arts, Vitort joined Moscow’s Novaya Theatre, covering roles and singing in concerts. He was cast in the Moscow production of “We Will Rock You” and in 2004 sang alongside his heroes from Queen, Brian May and Roger Taylor, in a concert at the Kremlin Hall. In 2005, Vitort moved to Toronto where he attended master classes with Italian-Canadian tenor Ermanno Mauro.
His career got an unexpected boost in 2014 when he returned to Moscow to visit his parents. Unbeknownst to him, some friends had filled in an application for him to audition for “Golos” (”The Voice”), a Russian reality TV singing competition.
Not only did Vitort pass the casting audition, he made it to the quarter-finals, singing largely crossover material.
“It really changed my life,” he said of “Golos.” “They offer you a bigger honorarium after that. That makes a difference. Before it was, like, one hundred and something but now we’re talking about thousands. For two years, I had 33 shows in Moscow, sometimes two to three shows per day.”
Here in Canada, Vitort butters his bread singing Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra covers with his jazz band.
This Saturday at 7:30 p.m., it’s full on opera as Vitort sings the role of Canio, the murderous head of a touring theatrical troupe, in Leoncavallo’s tale of lethal jealousy, “Pagliacci” (“Clowns”) which Sabatino Vacca’s Southern Ontario Lyric Opera is mounting as a one-night only double feature with Puccini’s “Gianni Schicchi.” Both operas will be accompanied by a 37-piece pit orchestra in the Burlington PAC.
“The music is gorgeous,” gushed Vitort about “Pagliacci.” “Musically, dramatically, it suits me.”
And you can bet your last ruble that stage director Ed Franko will be putting Vitort’s juggling skills to good use in “Pagliacci.”
There’s free admission for kids to Friday’s 7:30 p.m. dress rehearsal at the BPAC that will be prefaced by a brief talk at 7:15.
••• Saturday, March, 3 at 7 p.m. in Melrose United, 86 Homewood Ave., clarinetist Zoltan Kalman, pianist Erika Reiman, and soprano Melissa-Marie Shriner perform works by Bernstein, Chopin, Schubert and others. Tickets at door: $20.
•••
Sunday, March 4 at 7:30 p.m. at Artword Artbar, 15 Colborne St., Cem Zafir’s Zula Presents holds a celebration of late Canadian guitarist Ken Aldcroft’s music with American tenor saxophonist Jason Robinson and Boston-based guitarist Eric Hofbauer in “Two Hours Early, Ten Minutes Late,” and “Mars People” with trumpeter Emily Denison, acoustic guitarist Daniel Kruger, and drummer Joe Sorbara. Admission: $15/$10.