Director of Florentine Opera Company to speak Jan. 31 at UW-Green Bay

The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay will host guest speaker Bill Florescu, general director of Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera Company, at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 31 in the Jean Weidner Theatre at the Weidner Center for the Performing Arts.

Florescu has held his current position with the Florentine Opera Company since May 2005, overseeing the expansion of the Company’s repertoire, producing works including the Florentine’s first Bellini opera (I Capuleti e i Montecchi); first Baroque opera (Handel’s Semele); the Midwest premiere and recording on the Naxos label of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry; and a world premiere of Don Davis’ Río de Sangre. He has also directed main stage operas including The Barber of Seville, The Magic Flute, Rigoletto and a double bill of John Blow’s Venus and Adonis and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, as well as a variety of touring education operas. In October of 2008, Florescu oversaw the creation of the Florentine Opera Studio, a nine-month program for young professional singers, which is in its fourth year for the Florentine’s 2011-2012 season.


Florescu is currently working on a book about auditioning in opera for young singers, and maintains an active blog, The Opera Audition. He received his training at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, the Trinity College of Music in London, Miami University and the Ohio State University. His talk is free and open to the public. More information on the Florentine Opera is available at www.florentineopera.org/.

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