{"id":114260,"date":"2025-05-13T13:35:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T17:35:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=114260"},"modified":"2025-05-13T14:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T18:00:01","slug":"preview-tafelmusik-wraps-2024-25-season-male-soprano-samuel-marino","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/05\/13\/preview-tafelmusik-wraps-2024-25-season-male-soprano-samuel-marino\/","title":{"rendered":"PREVIEW | Tafelmusik Wraps Up 2024\/25 Season With Male Soprano Samuel Mari\u00f1o"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Male
Male soprano Samuel Mari\u00f1o (Photo: Diana Gomez)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After an auspicious Canadian debut with Tafelmusik back in 2023<\/a>, male soprano Samuel Mari\u00f1o returns to Toronto to end the Baroque orchestra\u2019s season on May 23 to 25. Julia Wedman directs Tafelmusik in a program titled Opera: Bologne & Mozart.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t think of a better way to close the 24\/25 season than with classical rockstar Samuel Marino,\u201d says Cristina Zacharias, Tafelmusik\u2019s Artistic Co-Director in a statement. \u201cThis program highlights his sensational artistry and shines a light on unfairly neglected composers with important stories to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuel Mari\u00f1o, male soprano<\/h2>\n

Bullied as a school boy for his high speaking voice, Samuel Mari\u00f1o has been having the last laugh these last few years.<\/p>\n

The Venezuelan-born vocalist has one of the rarest voices in all of opera: that of a male soprano.
\nConcerned about the bullying, when Samuel was in his teens, his mother took him to a medical specialist, who offered surgery that would deepen his voice. However, the physician also mentioned that men with high voices could also find a home in the world of Western classical music as countertenors. Mari\u00f1o decided to take his advice.<\/p>\n

He began studying piano and voice at the National Conservatory in Caracas, and studied ballet at the National School of Dance. His interest in the Baroque era in particular developed early, after his first operatic performances with Camerata Barroca de Caracas. He went on to pursue his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris.<\/p>\n

Alongside a busy performing career that has taken him across Europe, North and South America, Japan, and South Korea, Samuel has made a point of revealing lesser known and neglected works of the Baroque and Classical eras. He often performs and records music that was written for the male castrato singers popular in previous centuries, many of which have never been recorded with a male voice.<\/p>\n

On his album Sopranista, Samuel gives works written in the 1780s by Joseph Bologne and Domenico Cimarosa their world recording premieres, as well as including the work of women composers Marianne Martines and Maria Antonia Walpurgis.<\/p>\n