Thank you to the Kennedy Center Blog for the great article. See the original article here.
A rumor was spreading among Park View’s neighborhood kids: there was an “opera man” down the street.
That “opera man” is tenor David Cangelosi, who is residing in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood during his run as Spoletta in WNO’s Tosca. “ In Park View, “this particular street has a very deep mix of residents,” David said. “Their parents work to see they have broad cultural exchanges.”
So David decided to teach a singing lesson. Six children and their parents happily gathered in a local home for dinner, conversation, and music.
“I got right down on the floor with them,” David said. “We spent about 45 minutes learning ‘the basics.’ Then we sang the first line of ‘Recondita armonia’ from Tosca…complete with translation and Italian language training.”
The evening continued with food and wines from around the world.
After a full day of Tosca rehearsals, David admitted he was exhausted leading up to the gathering.
“But these little tykes brought me right back to life,” he said.