The following information has been provided by Federico Freschi:
FEDERICO FRESCHI - baritone
Baritone Federico Freschi studied opera at the University of Cape Town’s College of Music, where he received a number of prestigious awards and bursaries, including the first prize in the Wendy Fine Singing Prize, and being placed as a finalist in both the Oude Meester Music Prize and the SABC Singing Competition. He was subsequently invited to join the CAPAB Singers’ Studio, and made his professional début singing Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, followed by various roles in operas, operettas and musicals. Since relocating to Johannesburg in 1998, Federico has been a sought after opera soloist, and has sung the principle baritone role in various highly successful productions in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Windhoek, including Germont in La Traviata, Marcello in La Bohème, Dr Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Dr Falke in Die Fledermaus, Sulpice in La Fille du Régiment, Count Danilo in Die Lustige Witwe, Escamillo in Carmen, Pappacoda in A Night in Venice and Zurga in the Gauteng premiere of Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles.
Federico maintains a busy concert schedule, and is regularly invited to perform at festivals and concert venues throughout South Africa, including orchestral concerts and oratorios with some of the country’s leading orchestras. Together with pianist Christopher Duigan he is pursuing an ongoing exploration of baritone concert repertoire – particularly in the genre of French song – with performances throughout the country, and together they have been invited to perform at various festivals and concert venues, including the Main Festival at the Grahamstown National Festival of the Arts. Recent CD recordings include Salon Music’s popular Boulevard Café. Federico’s multi-faceted career has seen engagements as director of Tom Johnson’s The Four Note Opera for the New Music Indaba at the Grahamstown National Festival of the Arts (in which he also sang the role of The Baritone) and Strauss’s Gypsy Baron for Salon Music, as well as writing a number of scripts for Salon Music operas. Federico shares his talent for singing with a love of the visual arts, and holds a Doctorate in History of Art, in which he lectures at the University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Arts. He continues his vocal studies with the acclaimed South African soprano, Emma Renzi.
