Download Frangoulis, Marios - Famous Greeks

Frangoulis, Marios - Famous Greeks - Greek Gateway
Born: Rhodesia, Africa 1967
Musician: Tenor
Frangoulis was born in Rhodesia in 1967, but moved to Greece at age 4, to be raised by his
aunt and uncle. He took part in choirs as a leading tenor from the age of eight and at the age of
11 he recorded the part of Isaaca in Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's Joseph and the
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He took part in several school theatrical performances. At
age 15, he was the Master of Ceremonies in the Joe Masteroff, Fred Ebb, and John Kander
musical theater production Cabaret and at age 16 he was Tony in the Arthur Laurents, Leonard
Bernstein, and Stephen Sondheim musical West Side Story. He studied the violin at the
Athens Conservatorium for 11 years before graduating in 1984.
In 1985, he moved to London, where he did a three-year professional acting course at the
Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In 1988, he played Puck in Midsummer Nights Dream
with great critical acclaim in his final year drama school production in collaboration with the
Royal Shakespeare Company for the Arundel Festival.[citation needed] British theatrical
producer Cameron Mackintosh saw him in a musical and, after an audition, offered him the
young romantic lead Marius in the West End production of Les Miserables (musical) at the
Palace Theatre, where he performed for a year, in 1988-89. The musical was directed by
Trevor Nunn, at the time the director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1988, he won the
coveted Maria Callas Scholarship for Opera. After the successful run of Les Miserables, he
went to Italy where he studied with tenor Carlo Bergonzi in the Verdi Academy in Busseto,
Verdis birthplace, graduating six months later.
In Italy, he met famous tenor Alfredo Kraus and became his private pupil, accompanying him all
over the world to take lessons from him for more than a year. In 1991, he was invited by Sir
Andrew Lloyd Webber to star as the young lead Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, at Her
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Frangoulis, Marios - Famous Greeks - Greek Gateway
Majestys Theatre in Londons West End, directed by Harold Prince.
From 1992 up until 1995, he moved to New York to continue his operatic studies with soprano
Dodi Protero, at the introduction of his mentor Marilyn Horne, in a three-year part-time course
at the Juilliard School. In 1992, he won the Onassis Scholarship, which enabled him to
continue his studies. In 1993, he sung at the Athens Music Concert hall in an opera gala
dedicated to the memory of Maria Callas. In 1994, he was a distinguished finalist of the Luciano
Pavarotti International Competition. On his return to London in 1995, Mario Frangoulis was
invited to play the young lead Lun-Tha in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and
I for a few performances during the Covent Garden Festival, and won critical acclaim from The
Times, The Guardian and newspapers[citation needed].
Frangoulis has chosen to focus on traditional and pop music from around the world, as he can
sing in Greek, Italian, French, Spanish and English, in an effort to bridge the gap between
"popular" and operatic music and attract younger audiences to operatic productions. His next
major project is rumored to be Homer's Odyssey, translated in part by poet Dimitris Iatropoulos
and set to music by Stamatis Spanoudakis. Frangoulis will sing the parts of Odysseus and
Scylla.
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