TRIO
OF OPERA STARS PERFORM
AT SORRENTO CHEESE SUMMER IN
LITTLE ITALY
Tenor Brian K. Ernstes, baritone
Kenneth Overton and soprano Vanessa Salaz
headlined a free Peroni Beer Outdoor Concert on
Saturday, June 10, 2006 in Manhattan’s historic
Little Italy as part of the ongoing Sorrento Cheese
Summer in Little Italy summer celebration. The concert
was held on the Sorrento Cheese Performance Stage at the intersection
of Mulberry and Hester Streets. Pianist John Dunkerley
accompanied the singers.
Brian K. Ernstes returned to Little Italy where
last summer he won the 2nd Annual Mario Lanza Vocal Competition
in New York City. He subsequently sang Calaf in Turandot
with New York City Opera, performed in a recital at the Donnell
Library in NYC, and later performed as tenor soloist with the Queens
Symphony Orchestra.
Baritone Kenneth Overton is a singer whose voice
has frequently been singled out for its richness of color and gleaming
tone quality. In 2007 he will be singing his first North American
performance of the title role in Gershwin’s Porgy
and Bess with Opera Memphis, a role which he recently
performed on tour throughout Great Britain. This season he is performing
Leporello in Don Giovanni with Opera Memphis,
Ping in Turandot with Sacramento Opera, Bello in La
Fanciulla del West with Tampa Bay Performing Arts
Center, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Annapolis Symphony
Orchestra.
Soprano Vanessa Salaz is making her mark on the
world of classical music. This past April, Vanessa made her Connecticut
Grand Opera debut as the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro.
She has been invited back to the Festival Lyrique en Mer
in France to sing Donna Anna in Don Giovanni
this summer, and later this season she will sing Donna Elvira in
Don Giovanni and Michaela in Carmen
with Opera in the Heights. In February she appeared with Downtown
Music Productions of New York City singing the world premiers of
The Wild Swans of Coole and What
can the Shadow, both by Joyce Hope Suskind with poetry
by Yeats.
A SRO crowd cheered the performers who performed solo arias and
Broadway standards, as well as duets and even a trio.
