Marco Panuccio: Encore and More
Tenor Marco (then Mark) Panuccio’s introduction to the
Cincinnati audience was singing "O Holy Night" on the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra’s “Home for the Holidays” show in December, 1999 at the Taft Theater.
His stirring performance of the Adolphe Adam classic was a highpoint of the show for five seasons -- until the CSO canceled “Home for the Holidays” in 2004 as part of budgetary belt-tightening.
Now a leading tenor on world opera stages, Panuccio will sing “O Holy Night” at 8 p.m. Saturday (Dec. 4) at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral, Eighth and Plum Streets downtown. It will be part of his own concert entitled, you guessed it, “O Holy Night.”
”With the discontinuation of 'Home for the Holidays,' I felt that there was a void in downtown Cincinnati” (as opposed to Over-the-Rhine where the Cincinnati Pops presents an annual Christmas show at Music Hall on Elm Street). I’m hoping that by presenting this concert, I’m able to fill that void.”
Another reason to present downtown is because “the downtown is thriving right now. I believe this type of performance is what downtown Cincinnati really needs.”
Panuccio, owner of a beautiful, emotionally vibrant lyric tenor, is also gratified to be performing in St. Peter in Chains Cathedral. “I’m very glad that I’m doing it at St. Peter in Chains because when I started here in Cincinnati, I was a member of the choir. I sang in the choir for over ten years, so I have a very strong connection with that church.”
Panuccio, 36, is presenting the concert. himself. “I am producing this from top to bottom, left to right,” he said. “I have produced holiday concerts like this in Portland, Oregon and around the country. They have been so successful I thought let’s bring it to Cincinnati. I hope it’s as successful here as it has been in other cities. Just from the Facebook messages I have sent out, there’s a church in Philadelphia and a church in Orlando that want me to produce it next season. They actually wanted me to do it this year, but as far as my schedule is concerned, there was no way I could.”
"O Holy Night" will consist of sacred and secular music. Panuccio will be accompanied Cincinnati Opera coach-accompanist Carol Walker and organist Blake Callahan of St. Peter in Chains. “I am singing a song by Schubert called ‘Mille Cherubini in Coro,’ ‘Panis Angelicus’ (by Cesar Franck) and ‘Sancta Maria’ by Mascagni. “I will be singing Hanukkah songs, and because this is happening right after Thanksgiving, I have also found a Thanksgiving song. It’s an American piece by David Foster called ‘Thankful,’ and it’s really beautiful. Then, of course, ‘O Holy Night.’”
A native of Easton, Pennsylvania and a graduate of
the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Panuccio is a
regular at Cincinnati Opera, though not for the next couple of seasons, because
he will be singing “Rigoletto” and “Madame Butterfly” for Grange Park Opera in
London.
“I still make
Cincinnati my home. I’m here for good." He just flew in from Bologna, Italy where he
sang in British composer Thomas Ades’ “Powder Her Face” for Teatro Comunale di
Bologna.
The day after his Cincinnati concert he departs for auditions in New York City, then on to Boston where he will sing “La Boheme” in a concert performance with the Amherst Symphony Orchestra. After that, he will debut the lead (des Grieux) in Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” for Opera Grand Rapids. Immediately after that, he will fly to Munich to sing the title role in Bernstein’s “Candide” with the Munich Philharmonic conducted by Kristjan Järvi, brother of CSO music director Paavo Järvi. (Panuccio sang Mao Tse-Tung in Cincinnati Opera’s 2007 “Nixon in China” by John Adams, conducted by Järvi.)
Panuccio, 36, who made his Cincinnati Opera debut as Pong in Puccini's "Turaandot" in 2003, likes to explore a wide range of repertoire. “There are a lot of singers in the operatic world who love to do Italian repertoire or French repertoire. They do their forte. I love to sing it all.”
By the way, he is quite used to being called “Marco” now. “It was a change that had been spoken about for the last year, and finally about three months ago, we did it.”
Changing from Mark to Marco feels perfectly natural,
he said. “I’m an Italian-American, so it
was a very easy transition. Everyone in
Europe calls me Marco, especially in Italy, because in the last two years I’ve
sung so much there. It’s just an
everyday occurrence to them, so it’s no big deal. It wasn’t like I changed my name from Mark to
Stefano or something like that.”
If anyone wants to call him Mark, that’s OK, he said. “Sometimes it’s a hard change, but it’s fine. Obviously, I would never take any offense to it.”
Tenor Marco Panuccio sings “O Holy Night,” songs of the holiday season, at 8 p.m. December 4 at St. Peter in Chains Cathedral downtown. Tickets are $20, $10 for students with I.D. To order, call (513) 241-2742.