Mario Frangoulis

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MARIO FRANGOULIS NEW ALBUM
BRIEF BIO:"Prepare to be swept away!," one critic wrote about Sometimes I Dream, the Greek tenor Mario Frangoulis's international breakthrough album for Sony Classical which another writer described as "bathed in the passionate atmosphere of the Mediterranean." Columnist Liz Smith hailed the album as "a dream trip," adding, "Move over, Andrea Bocelli!" And now Frangoulis is back with Follow Your Heart, a striking new collection of songs that reflect his personality and burnish the sound of his remarkable voice, to be released in early 2005.
The new recording will take Frangoulis in new directions, featuring gorgeous original ballads, dazzling arrangements of favorite classical melodies and a soaring duet with Latino superstar Alejandro Fernandez. The handsome young tenor tapped a worldwide audience with the 2002 release of Sony Classical/Odyssey's Sometimes I Dream, a Mediterranean-flavored album that showcased his versatile style, rooted in his operatic training but inspired by the energy and sound of contemporary pop. Television audiences got to know Frangoulis even better when Sometimes I Dream Ð A Concert premiered on PBS in November 2002. The film captured a live outdoor concert in the Greek city of Thessaloniki that included selections from the first album. Sony Classical also released the concert on DVD with special features than include audio commentary by Frangoulis, behind-the-scenes footage and other interviews.
The tenor's latest album Follow Your Heart, released in Europe just before the tenor performed at the Summer Olympic Games in Athens, was the highlight of an already been a remarkable year for Frangoulis. With such superstars as Alanis Morissette, Natalie Cole, Robbie Williams, Diana Krall, Elvis Costello and Sheryl Crow, he appears in the MGM film biography of Cole Porter Ð De Lovely, starring Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd Ð and sings Porter's "So in Love" with Sony Music artist Lara Fabian, featured on the Grammy-nominated original soundtrack recording.
Mario Frangoulis's remarkable story belies the fact that he is a young tenor from Greece. Born in Africa Ð in colonial Rhodesia, as it was becoming the nation of Zimbabwe Ð he survived a childhood marked by hardships both at home and in the world outside. At the age of four, his mother found a home for him with her sister in Greece, at a time when the political situation in Africa was explosive and dangerous. Raised by his aunt in Greece and separated from his beloved older brother, Mario was surrounded with a large extended family. Today, he speaks fondly of both sets of parents and the feeling for music they instilled in him. He studied the violin and even composed a bit when he was a boy. At the age of 17, he was sent to London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study acting. The stage was an obvious choice because, among other things, Mario was considered handsome enough to be a matinee idol. In fact, he has already wowed audiences on London's West End as the dashing young hero in both Les Mis..rables and The Phantom of the Opera.
But in his days as a drama student at Guildhall, Mario discovered the operatic side of his tenor voice, winning the Maria Callas Prize, which he auditioned for simply because he knew some arias and a friend encouraged him. Juggling this newfound ambition with his burgeoning stage career, he found himself on a path that took him to New York's Juilliard School of Music as a scholarship student. His pursuits won him the support and counsel of such operatic legends as Alfredo Kraus and Marilyn Horne. He was the only private student the late Kraus ever accepted.
"I always sang, from an early age, with a record player Ð with Greek singers, of course, but also recordings of movie musicals, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand," Mario remembers. "I knew I had a good voice but I didn't know I had an operatic voice. In the beginning, I was against anyone saying I had that kind of operatic sound. I had always felt I didn't belong in that category. I wanted to communicate the music, and I didn't think opera singers sounded young enough, modern enough. Then I saw a performance of Carmen in Athens with Jose Carreras and Agnes Baltsa, and I realized I could be all of those things."
At the instigation of Horne, Mario went to Rome for Kraus and Nicola Rescigno, who was Maria Callas's favorite conductor. Both were impressed. He became Kraus's student, flying all over the world to take lessons as the great tenor continued to perform. The experience gave Frangoulis a solid vocal technique and good high notes, both hallmarks of Kraus's style.
Yet the career Mario has built is anything but a conventional operatic career. He sang the role of Tony in West Side Story in its first performances at Milan's Teatro alla Scala. He has appeared in films and on television, in concerts and even in epic presentations of Greek tragedies. And he is not quite 35 years old. He lives in Athens, surrounded by family Ð "millions of cousins," he says, with a laugh Ð and he loves sea sports, from wind surfing to scuba diving.
In his native Greece, Mario has been acclaimed in everything from the role of high-school hero Danny Zuko in Grease to a production of Aristophanes' The Birds featuring the songs of Greek composer Manos Hadjidakis (the Oscar-winning composer of "Never On Sunday") Ð in the ancient amphitheater at Epidaurus. As an actor, Mario has played leading roles in King Lear, The Bacchae and A Midsummer Night's Dream, and he created the title role in Kit Hesketh-Harvey and James Mackonnell's Yusupov.
The tenor began recording for Sony Classical in Greece in 1998, and his recordings always topped the charts at home. The release of Sometimes I Dream tapped an international audience, with material that drew freely on opera, rock, film and pop music. The new recording is the next chapter in his remarkable musical adventure.
Mario Frangoulis is now based in New York City.CV IN DETAILS:
Mario Frangoulis realized his musical talent from a very early age. He took part in choirs as a leading tenor from the age of eight and at the age of 11 he recorded the part of Isaaca in A.L.Webber’s “Joseph and his amazing technicolour raincoat”. He took part in several school theatrical performances: at age 15 he was the Conferencier in “Cabaret” and at age 16 he was Tony in “West Side Story”. Meanwhile, for eleven years he studied the violin at the Athens Conservatorium where he graduated in 1984. In 1980 he had already won a best prize for violin, at the age of 14. This musical training was to prove a precious help later, during his opera studies.
In 1985 he moved to London, where he did a three-year professional acting course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1988 he played Puck in “Midsummer Night’s Dream” with great critical acclaim in his final year drama school production in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company for the Arundel Festival.
Cameron Mackintosh ( producer of “Phantom of the Opera”, “Les Miserables”, “Cats” etc) saw him in the Vivian Ellis prize-winning musical “Orlando”, where he was playing the young lead : after an audition, he offered him the young romantic lead Marius in the West End production of “Les Miserables” at the Palace Theatre, where he performed for a year, in 1988-89. The musical was directed by Trevor Nunn, respected English National Theatre Manager,.
The same year 1988 he won the coveted Maria Callas Scholarship for Opera. After the successful run of “Les Miserables”, he went to Italy where he studied with tenor Carlo Bergonzi in the Verdi Academy in Busseto, Verdi’s birthplace, graduating six months later. After a successful audition for maestro Nicola Rescigno and renowned tenor Alfredo Kraus, in Rome, in 1990, Mario Frangoulis became Kraus’ first private pupil and travelled with him around the world studying with him vocal technique and repertory.
In 1991 he was invited by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber to star as the young lead Raoul in “The Phantom of the Opera”, at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End, directed by Harold Prince.
In the period 1992-1995 he moved to New York to continue his operatic studies with soprano Dodi Protero, at the introduction of his mentor Marilyn Horne, in a three-year part-time course at the Juilliard School of Music. In 1992, he won the “Onassis Scholarship”, which enabled him to continue his studies. In 1993 he sung at the Athens Music Concert hall in an opera gala dedicated to the memory of Maria Callas.
In 1994 he was a distinguished finalist of the Luciano Pavarotti International Competition. On his return to London, in 1995, Mario Frangoulis was invited to play the young lead Lun-Tha in the Rogers & Hammerstein musical “The King and I”, for a few performances during the Covent Garden Festival, and won critical acclaim from the “Times”, the “Guardian” and other major newspapers.
He repeated the part of Lun-Tha in a concert version with the BCC Symphony Orchestra with Barbara Cook in 1996, conducted by Wally Harper. In the summer of 1996 he made his debut at the Herod Atticus ancient amphitheater, under the Athens Acropolis, in an evening dedicated to the memory of Leonard Bernstein, with the “Orchestra of Colours” ( a symphony orchestra created by Oscar-winning popular Greek composer Manos Hatzidakis), singing excerpts from “West Side Story”, “Candide”, “ Our Town” etc.
He returned to this ancient theatre in September 4th and 5th of the same year, marking the start of his collaboration with renowned Greek composer Yannis Markopoulos, winner of the BBC-TV music award for “Who pays the ferryman”. He sung the title role of Orpheus in the “Orpheus liturgy”, an oratorio that was also broadcast by the National Greek TV Network. He was to interpret this work another three times in 1999. In the meantime, and at the same period of 1996, he was repeating his successful portrayal of Marius in “Les Miserables” at the Palace Theatre, in London’s West End.
In February 1997, due to his mother’s illness, he interrupted his international career to return to his home country where he soon became very popular with his fellow countrymen. He received great critical acclaim in the Athens theatres for his portrayal of parts such as Billy Kracker in K. Weil’s “Happy End”, with the Carolos Koun Art’s Theatre, directed by George Lazanis, the Lead Bird in Aristophane’s comedy “The Birds”, directed once more by Lazanis and performed in almost every major ancient amphitheatre of Greece, such as Epidaurus, Sparta, Filippoi and many more. In September 1997 he was offered the lead role of Danny Zouko in the musical “Grease”, directed by David Gilmore. Once more, it was a great success with public and critics alike.
In the same season, he appeared in late night shows in the prestigious music hall “Iera Odos”, alongside Greek star George Dalaras, singing popular Greek, Italian and Spanish songs: the production toured Greece and Europe and was turned into a best-selling CD (by EMI Greece), which soon went platinum.
Representatives of Sony Music heard him in this show and arranged for him to be introduced to Peter Gelb, the head of Sony Classical: the outcome was the signing of an exclusive contract for 2 CDs and 3 CDs optional, enabling M. Frangoulis to start an international recording career at the highest level. His collaboration with prestigious Greek composers continued with his starring in the May 1998 Herod Atticus performance of Mikis Theodorakis’ “ Axion Esti”, a musical rendition of the historic poem of the same name by Nobel prize winner Odysseas Elitis. In the spring of 1999, he made his first solo show, again in “Iera Odos” music hall, with songs from all over the world, with the participation of Deborah Meyers. He was an overnight sensation, and these appearances were followed by a hugely successful concert tour in Greece and Cyprus the following summer, playing to audiences of 2.000-10.000 people. His first solo album, “Fengari erotevmeno” (“Love struck moon”), a live recording of the show, a double CD by Sony, Greece (with kind permission of Sony Classical), was an immediate best-seller, thus winning him his second platinum album (both in Greece and Cyprus) in two years.
In the summer of 2000, apart from many recitals all over Greece, he spent the month of July in Milan, where he was Tony in “West Side Story” at the prestigious La Scala Opera House. In August he sang the title role in Yannis Markopoulos “Erotokritos”, at the Herod Atticus Theatre At the end of the same month he returned to the same venue for his first solo recital there, with the participation of Deborah Mayers, with a repertoire of Greek and foreign songs: a show that also went on tour and was also turned into a best-selling CD.
Mario Frangoulis has performed as a solo concert artist in some of the most prestigious concert halls in London, Berlin, Munchen, Helsinki, Paris, Brussels, such as Queen Elizabeth Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Athens Music Megaron concert hall, Frankfurt Opera, Savoy Theatre, to name but a few, in more than a hundred concerts around the world, always to great critical acclaim.
His concert experience includes appearances alongside Montserrat Caballé and Samuel Ramey with the orchestra and chorus of the National Youth Orchestra at Whilehall, celebrating the late Princess Diana’s birthday, in memory of Dame Margot Fonteyn and to benefit the Royal Ballet on May 21st, 1991. In 1993 he took part in an Opera Gala celebrating the 500th anniversary since the discovery of America. The evening, hosted by Sir Peter Ustinov, was held in Liverpool. Artists appearing were Montserrat Caballé, Dmitri Hvorostowki, Julia Migenes-Johnson, Dennis O’ Neil, Rita Hunter and the late Alfredo Kraus, with the orchestra and chorus of the London Royal Opera House conducted by Robin Stapleton, in the presence of His Majesty Juan Carlos of Spain and HM Queen Sophia, and HRH Price Andrew of England In the first months of 2001 he took part in a charity Opera Gala at the Athens Concert Hall, alongside stars of the Greek National Opera.
In May 2001 he was one of the leading artists in an evening called Viva Verdi!, a tribute for the centenary of the composer’s death, given at the New Opera of Moscow, under conductor Yevgeni Kolobov, a concert which was repeated the following month in Cyprus. In October 2001, at the Herod Atticus Theatre, in a concert called “Bravo China”, he sang alongside Nana Mouschouri and famous Chinese artists Liu Huan and Huang Ying, songs in Greek and in Chinese. Some days later, at the Veakeion Theatre, in Piraeus, he gave a solo concert for the benefit of handicapped children, with orchestra conducted by Richard Balcombe.
In March 2002, at the Athens Concert Hall, he gave a concert dedicated to film songs, with Deborah Meyers.
In July 2002 he appeared for the first time at the Lycabettus Theatre, in Athens, for the launching of his upcoming new record, “Sometimes I dream”, drawing immense crowds, as always, and on October 5th of the same year, again at the Herod Atticus Theatre. And all this without mentioning the extensive Greek tours which he regularly undertakes in the summer, in the last three years, and the frequent appearances dotting the Athens cultural winter season, that have made him immensely popular in all corners of his homeland. He notably appeared, alongside famed Greek singer Maria Farandouri, in the Millennium Festivities held on New Year’s Eve under the Acropolis, singing works by Mikis Theodorakis.
Mario Frangoulis also regularly appears in charity events: he has sung in about forty charity galas –among which the Red Cross Annual Ball being held at Grosvenor House, galas organized by “Elpida” ( “Hope”), a Greek charity headed by Ms M. Vardinoyanni and dedicated to the cure of children cancer sufferers, and many others. As a producer, he has organized charity shows and concerts, especially for “children in need” – as the one for the Michael S. Polemis Foundation. In March 2003, he gave charity concert for Action Aid with Elena Kelessidou at the National Greek Opera, singing opera and musical theatre arias and duets
In the summer of 2001 he made his debut in ancient Greek tragedy, interpreting the demanding role of Dionysus in Euripides’ “Bacchae”, a production that toured all Greece, and was also performed at the Herod Atticus Theatre in Athens: his acting drew unanimous acclaim from public and professional critics alike.
The winter season 2001-2002 was all taken by the final editing of his first international album with Sony International, with a repertoire of songs by Mediterranean composers: the CD. "Sometimes I dream", was released in the fall of 2002 and was heralded by two concert appearances in Athens, one at the Lycabettus Theatre another, on October 5th, 2002, at the Herodes Atticus Theatre and another at the “Theatre of the Earth” in Thessaloniki, not to mention numerous appearances in the U.S.A., Europe and all around the world for the launching of the CD.
His TV credits include “Brookside”, a mini-series on BBC TV and “Love in the Ancient World”, a documentary drama directed by Christopher Miles, in which Mr Frangoulis also composed the music for one of the songs. He played the lead role, the mean police captain Piotrowski, in BBC TV’s “The deliberate death of a Polish Priest” And of course there are the TV broadcasts of concerts in which he has taken part: 1993: Concert with Montserrat Caballé in Liverpool ,broadcast by the Whales TV 1998: “ Axion Esti”, by Mikis Theodorakis, in Herod Atticus Theatre 1996 and 1999: “Orpheus” by Yannis Markopoulos 1999: Mario Frangoulis Live in Concert ( the “Iera Odos” solo show) 2002: Mario Frangoulis Live in Thessaloniki (the show for the release of “Sometimes I dream”, broadcast on the P.B.S. for 8 million subscribers) …2004: August, ET 1, Concert just before the Olympic Games.
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