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Acclaimed Tenor Franco Farina to Receive Honorary Doctor of Music Degree at Commencement
Other 2001 Honorary Degree Recipients
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Franco Farina |
Acclaimed tenor Franco Farina, a 1978 graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, will be awarded an honorary doctor of music degree during commencement ceremonies on Monday, May 28, on Tappan Square. Professor of Singing Gerald Crawford, director of the Conservatory's division of vocal studies, will present Farina for the degree. The ceremony, which begins at 9:30 a.m., marks the 168th commencement at Oberlin.
Farina has won international renown in nearly all of the world's leading opera houses and operatic centers, including the Metropolitan Opera--where he made his debut in 1990 as Rodolfo in La Boheme, and where he has performed each season since.
His Riccardo in Un Ballo
in Maschera, performed at the Met earlier this year, elicited praise
from The New York Times: "Mr. Farina produced some beautiful
sounds . . . he sings with a ringing yet limpid quality."
Farina's relationship with the Opera
National de Paris is similarly close. After his first appearance there
in 1995 (he opened the season at the Bastille as Adorno in Simon Boccanegra),
he has returned regularly, appearing in new productions of Eugene Onegin,
Norma and Macbeth, and in revivals of La Boheme,
Madame Butterfly, and Turandot.
At Oberlin, Farina studied with Wheeler Professor of Singing Richard Miller. A double major in voice/singing and music theory, he earned a combined bachelor of music and master of music degree in opera theater in 1978.
"Frank was not only a wonderful musician as a student," says Miller, "he was also very positive and cooperative--with his peers and with his teachers, and in the many Oberlin Opera Theater roles he performed here. He's a very 'up' person; consequently, he's had a very 'up' career."
Farina's "up" career includes starring in the Vienna State Opera's production of Mefistofele, under Riccardo Muti. He has also appeared in Vienna in La Boheme, Tosca, La Traviata, and Un Ballo in Maschera.
Highlights of the 1999-2000 season included his first performance of Calaf in Turandot at the Bastille, followed by his debut as Radames in Aida at Geneva. At the Deutsche Oper Berlin he performed in Carmen and Tosca; he appeared at the Met in La Boheme; performed Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly in Lisbon and Pollione in Norma at Covent Garden, and appeared in Carmen at Marseilles and in Tosca in Rome.
In the fall of 2000, Farina appeared at the Theatre Royale de La Monnaie in Brussels and at the Opera National de Paris as Cavaradossi in Tosca. He also sang Radames in Aida in Rome. This spring, when the Teatro Comunale Firenze staged a production of Turandot in Japan under Zubin Mehta, Farina sang Calaf. In March he sang his first performances of Verdi's Il Corsaro in Athens. The remainder of this season saw him debut at the Teatro Comunale Bologna in Aida as Radames and appear at the Macerata Festival as Pollione in Norma.
Farina's plans for next season include the new production of Attila in Paris, Tosca at the Met, Simon Boccanegra in Florence under Claudio Abbado, Attila at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, and his first Canio in Pagliacci in Seattle.
Aside from his appearances with the Metropolitan Opera, Farina has sung La Boheme and Salome at the Chicago Lyric Opera, and Boheme and Tosca in Dallas. He has appeared in new productions of Attila and Mefistofele, Tosca and La Rondine in Houston, and La Boheme and Madame Butterfly at the Canadian Opera.
He made his professional debut in 1982 at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston. He was born in Connecticut.
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