Saluti dall'italia! (It mean “Hello, America! Greetings from Italy!)
I am so happy to come to America for the first time with my wife, Maria. We hear so many wonderful things about the Cleveland Grand Opera Company. My agent – she love to keep me busy! – she tell me that Signore Saunders is a huge fan and has been trying for long time to get me to make my first American performance in Cleveland. She say that he was on his knees and begging for me to come to America. I won’t give detail, but we got a lot of lira for this performance. She also tell me that Signore Saunders is very calm and… come si dice… easy-going. Which make me happy, because I tell my agent that I work with too many tense people, and is no good for me. I need to work with someone who know how to relax. My agent also tell me that I will sing with the wonderful Diana Nedda. My agent tell me that Diana always stay focus on the music and the performance, and that she act like a professional at all time.
I am also very excited that we will be performing Pagliacci, which is one of my favorite operas. I sing Pagliacci many times, and so I am happy to share this opera with you! It is also special because the man who compose Pagliacci… his name is Ruggero Leoncavallo… has the same birthday as me: April 23. So you could say is meant to be!
Of course, all of this is nothing without my Maria. She my Bellezza! She tell me she don’t want to come with me, but I say that we never get this chance again – to come to America for the first time. So I insist she come with me. My agent, she have me in New York right after Cleveland, so we have to leave right away. My agent have me singing the America National Anthem at Yankee game. I love baseball ever since I was bambino, so I have great honor to sing for baseball game. Maybe I sing for Cleveland baseball team next time! I’m only sorry that we can’t stay longer this time. But at least a short visit mean that everything should go fine… no problem at all!
Keith Emroll plays Tito Merelli