Southern Ontario Lyric Opera (SOLO) opens its 2025–2026 season with Giacomo Puccini’s popular Tosca. The one-night only performance takes place at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre on October 4.
Italian-Canadian soprano Maria Vetere makes her role debut as Floria Tosca, one of opera’s iconic roles. Tosca is a powerful and impassioned diva, caught up in a swirl of power, love, and betrayal.
Tenor Romulo Delgado sings the rose of Mario Cavaradossi, Tosca’s idealistic lover, with baritone James Westman in the role of Baron Scarpia, the cruel chief of police in Rome.
Baritone Ryan Hofman performs dual roles as the Sacristan and Sciarrone, with John Darrigo as Spoletta and Chris Palmer as the Angelotti to round out the cast. The opera is directed by Gabriel Graziano and conducted by Sabatino Vacca, with the SOLO Chorus, Youth Chorus, and Orchestra.
The Singers
Maria Vetere: Tosca
Soprano Maria Vetere is a vocalist, pianist, and concert accordionist. She is also a scholar and a voice and opera pedagogue, and was inducted into the Niagara Falls Cultural Wall of Fame in 2021. Recently, she’s performed with Southern Ontario Lyric Opera as a guest soloist, and sang title role in Puccini’s Suor Angelica with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra. Pre-pandemic, she made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2019, and performed across North America, in the UK, South America, And Europe. She specializes in the Verdian and Puccinian heroines, including Mimì (La Bohème), Violetta (La Traviata), Suor Angelica, Amelia Grimaldi (Simon Boccanegra), Desdemona (Otello), and Leonora (Il Trovatore).
Romulo Delgado: Cavaradossi
Operatic tenor, composer, world music multi- instrumentalist, vocal coach and adjudicator Romulo Delgado trained at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and was a regional finalist at the Hans Gabor Belvedere International Opera competition in Vienna, Austria. He has since performed across North America and in Europe. His repertoire includes a variety of roles, including the Canadian premiere of Verdi’s Oberto, and he performs regularly as a soloist in concert and oratorio. His composition The Cross of Christ had its world premiere with Maestro Denis Mastromonaco.
James Westman: Scarpia
Baritone James Westman has carved out a career performing art song and as a concert soloist, as well as in operatic role in North America and Europe. He’s performed in recital for The Marilyn Horne Foundation, The George London Foundation, The Aldeburgh Connection, the Canadian Arts and Letters Club, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), at Stratford Summer Music Festival, the Schawbacher Debut Recital Series, the Michigan Chamber Music Society, and the Lanaudière Festival, among others. As a soloist, he’s performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra (Ottawa), Vancouver Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, and the Kitchener-Waterloo Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra.
- Find performance details and tickets for the October 4 show [HERE].
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