Maestro Sparacino conducts La Sonnambula.
For the past 30 years the head of Sparacino Artists, Micaele Sparacino, has sung, cast, rehearsed, coached, taught and conducted opera, operetta, choral, concert, traditional and (admittedly not often) rock music in and around the Washington, D.C., area. And in English, Italian, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Hebrew and a few other languages.
Over much of that time, Mr. Sparacino developed a specialty in 19th-century Italian bel canto,, especially the operas of Gaetano Donizetti, unknown as well as famous. He founded and conducted Opera Camerata of Washington and Opera Bel Canto.
In collaboration with the Milanese publishing house, Ricordi, and the Fondazione Donizetti of Bergamo, Mr. Sparacino has presented the American premieres of the new critical editions of Donizetti’s Poliuto, Marin Faliero, Maria di Rohan and Lucrezia Borgia. He presented the world premiere of his own critical edition of La Favorita, which restores much of its original music, including a hitherto unknown cabaletta for the heroine Leonora and the original Italian ending, which was lost for more than a century.
An orchestra including cellist Harriet Kaplan accompanies Bellini's La Sonnambula.
As a tenor he made his professional debut at the Kennedy Center in 1976, singing the title role in Handel’s Judas Maccabeus. Engagements followed with the Wolf Trap Company, the Washington Opera, the Boston Opera, the New York City Opera Mostly Mozart Festival and the San Francisco Opera. Mr. Sparacino sang principal roles in oratorio, bel canto opera and operetta, and comprimario roles in grand opera.
His repertoire included Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Don Basilio (Nozze di Figaro), The Impresario, Almaviva (Barbiere di Siviglia), Elvino (La Sonnambula), Goro (Madama Butterfly), Guillot de Morfontaine (Manon), Sandor Barinkay (Gypsy Baron), and the Evangelist (Saint Matthew Passion).
He proudly counts in his repertoire all of the principal tenor roles of Gilbert & Sullivan. For 21 seasons he was the principal tenor of the Washington Savoyards.
In the 1980s George London introduced him to Maestro Mario Salerno of La Scala Opera. Maestro Salerno convinced the young tenor that his true talent was in conducting and he began to make the transition shortly thereafter. It was making the acquaintance of noted Donizetti authority William Ashbrook at performances of L’Elisir d’Amore he was directing that had the most profound effect upon him. Ashbrook persuaded him to delve into the Donizetti canon.
His repertoire also includes the operas of Rossini, Bellini, Verdi, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, Puccini, Cilea, Giordano, Massenet, Debussy, Gounod, Meyerbeer, Tchaikovsky and Gluck.
Maestro Sparacino has served as Music Director of the Maryland State Opera Company and the Victorian Lyric Opera Company. He founded the Opera Camerata of Washington and directed it for 11 seasons and then founded and directed Opera Bel Canto, also in Washington.
