Dynamic tenor, Luis Fernando Ruiz, has been selected to join L.A.’s prestigious Verdi Chorus for their upcoming program, “Sound and Fury” on November 16^th & 17^th (Show info below). Presently working on his Master’s in Music at CSUN, we caught up with this busy 27-year-old to discuss opera, acting and who he is meant to be. 

Cris Franco (CF): Like so many vocalists, I hear that you got your start singing in church?

Luis Fernando Ruiz (LFR): Yes. After graduating from high school, I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I did know that I loved singing. So, never thinking I’d actually get in, I auditioned for the music program at the University of Phoenix and just happened into classical music. I was overjoyed when I was accepted. 

CF: Did you come from a musical family?

LFR: Not really. My grandfather sang, not professionally, but he always just sang or hummed or whistled. Plus he and I always watched those old Mexican rancheras on Spanish-language TV. Those musicals with Pedro Infante, Jorge Negrete, Javier Solis. And those guys really sang legit. I mean, they had amazing voices! They were really inspiring. 

CF: What inspired you to audition for the Verdi Chorus’s Apprentice Singers scholarship program? 

LFR: I’ve wanted to audition for years. After I got to know the director/conductor Anne Marie Ketchum, I was taken by her passion and kindness. So, I gave it my best shot and here I am! I’m very thankful for the opportunity because the chorus performs opera’s greatest choral works, so it’s more than just a chorus. The songs exist within a story. I so impressed by how Anne Marie brings out the performer in the choristers. They’re a wonderful group of people.

CF: What has been your journey to singing with the Verdi Chorus? 

LFR: I started seriously studying voice at the late age of twenty. At first I didn’t know my voice type.

CF: From your speaking voice, I’d say you sound like a lyric baritone or a second tenor?  

LFR: Both. My voice is placed in between (baritone and tenor) and it took a while for me to realize that I wanted to be a tenor. And it hasn’t been easy. Sometimes my upper range isn’t easily accessed. So, I really have to work on my top register. Though I’ve improved, I’ve been through a great deal of the self-doubt that I hear all tenors go through. Sometimes I worry that I’ll never be able to sing a high-C but I’m working a lot on my passaggio blending my head voice into my chest voice. Today, I realize that my limitations are due to my youth. I also realize that I have my own path and that I can’t compare myself to other singers. Mine’s been a process of accepting where I am right now, and what I have to offer right now is much more important than worrying about all the things that I can’t do. 

CF: Wow. That’s profound. All young artists need to understand what you just said. A lifetime of creativity requires a lifetime of learning. What roles have you learned and sung so far?

LFR: A lot. I’ve had principal roles in the musicals Oklahoma! and Seussical, The Musical – and the operas Little Women, Die Fledermaus, The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Impresario and Serse. 

CF: Your Italian accent is beautiful – you’ve got bright vowels. Were you exposed to Spanish at home? 

LFR: Yes, it was my first language and then I learned English in school.  I feel like I have a really good ear for accents because I grew up speaking two languages.

CF: Being bilingual is a blessing in this world. You’re just starting your career. What are your professional goals?

LFR: Following completing my Master’s and my recital at CSUN, I’ll start auditioning for local companies to get repertoire on my resume. I just want to audition as much as I can as soon as I can. 

CF: What are your dream roles?

LFR: Nemorino from The Elixir of Love because he’s a romantic who sings “Una furtiva lagrima” – and I’m a true romantic.

CF: What singers, romantic or not, inspired you?

LFR: Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau for his unique interpretation, phrasing and articulation. With each song he wraps you up in the music. I also admire Joan Sutherland, la estupenda, for her sheer power. And Pavarotti for singing each note as freshly as if it’s his first note. He uses the perfect amount of rubato in his Pagliacci. He’s so perfect, he actually gets you rooting for the bad guy. Genius.

CF: What do you think about superstar Juan Diego Flores?

LRF: Oh, he’s incredible – and brings so much liveliness to the compositions, especially Mozart’s. Flores has so much lyrical agility and precision. And he’s a fantastic actor, too. 

CF: Acting’s becoming increasingly important in opera.

LFR: Yes. The days of the park and bark singer are long gone. I find it distracting when someone can’t act. I don’t enjoy their voice as much because if there’s no intention behind their delivery and stage action, it takes me out of the moment. Actors have to have an objective, something that’s pushing them to enter the stage with purpose, not just step onto the stage with no history. Today’s singers have to be able to portray the drama or comedy because if you’re not convinced of your motives – the audience won’t be either. 

CF: Sounds like you’re into acting. 

LFR: Definitely. That’s what I find so satisfying about opera, it incorporates all the performing arts. And that’s what I like about working with the Verdi Chorus, they truly commit to the drama. Our upcoming program features thrilling sequences from Verdi’s Otello and Il trovatore, Puccini’s Turandot and Tosca, and Lehár’s The Merry Widow. 

CF: Sounds like it’s going to be a highly theatrical and satisfying event. Even at this early stage in your career, what advice do you have for your fellow young artists? 

LFR: I’d give them the advice I give to myself every day: Don’t compare yourself to others. It will only frustrate you. Accept and appreciate what you uniquely offer. If I’d realized this years ago, it would have saved me lots of heartache. Once I embraced where I was at, I felt freer and started to enjoy my journey to becoming the singer I want to be. The singer I was meant to be.  

To see and hear the talented Luis Fernando Ruiz doing what he was meant to do alongside world renown guest soloists Alex Boyer, Shana Blake Hill and Malcolm MacKenzie on (Saturday) November 16th @ 7:30pm & (Sunday) November 17th @ 2pm at The First United Methodist Church in Santa Monica, 1008 11th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90403 – and for all show info — log onto:  www.verdichorus.org 

PHOTO CREDIT: Tim Bereth

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By Cris Franco

Two remarkable revivals are now running on Broadway. Both are startling new takes on familiar properties; productions so daring and different they are better described as magnificent re-imaginings. 

Oklahoma!, Tony-nominated for Best Musical Revival, has recreated Rogers and Hammerstein’s folksy chestnut about young love on the open plains of 1900. Now set in a timeless American landscape, a small country western band on a bare thrust-stage accompanies the 12-person ethnically diverse cast in this shockingly-contemporary and completely “woke” production. Scores of ominous gunracks are mounted throughout the theater, some scenes are played in complete darkness, and huge “night vision” video projections punctuate the antagonist’s mental breakdown. This brazen approach has garnered both praise and condemnation by R&H purists who question the artistic liberties taken by Tony-nominated for Director Daniel Fish, in his bold new Oklahoma! 

But it’s these jarring devices lead us to go beyond the tuneful tale and get under the skin of the determined (and violent) nature behind the dogged pioneers who trailblazed the Oklahoma Territory in America’s quest to stretch from “sea to shining sea!” An extraordinary complement of players takes us on this uncharted journey, but of special note is Best Supporting Musical Actress Tony-nominee Ali Stroker, in the role of the flirtatious Ado Annie. Although in a wheelchair, she delivers a humorous, vocally-rich and sensual performance. 

All your favorite songs are here, but from the opening number Curly’s moody rendition of “Beautiful Mornin’” seems to welcome us to a wilder time and place where unbridled desire and ambition rule. Later, the womenfolk advocate resisting settling down to the tune of “Many a New Day” as they aggressively husk, break and, in essence castrating ears of fresh corn. But the most notable artistic stroke is the emotionally-raw solo dream ballet by African-American dancer (the mesmerizing, shaved-head Gabrielle Hamilton in a spangled t-shirt reading only, “Dream baby dream.” Everything is infused with a dark rich subtext that makes you wonder if you ever really saw Oklahoma! before. So evocative is this interpretation that it will color every Oklahoma! you’ll ever see again. This production gets this reviewer’s highest recommendation.  oklahomabroadway.com

Fiddler on the Roof is one of the most-often produced theatrical properties since its Broadway debut in 1964. The tale of Tevye the milkman has been presented on amateur and professional stages in numerous languages worldwide. (In Latin America it’s known as El Violinista en el Tejado). A story of love and loss, tradition and change, adversity and faith, community and exile, filled with wondrous songs that have entered the lexicon of the American musical. Director Joel Grey found how to reinvent this perfect classic. In Yiddish! Who knew? 

Based on a translation by Shraga Friedman, this powerful production by the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene beams with a renewed strength, taking us back to that Russian shtetl in a language both new to the audience and of a very distant past. All dialogue and lyrics are projected in English on either side of the simple set. You’d think seeing a play in a foreign tongue would alienate the non-Yiddish speaking viewer – but the effect is quite the opposite. Because we all know the story so well, the Yiddish rhythms create the most authentic and intimate Fiddler this reviewer has ever seen.   

The characters, the jokes, and the songs are reborn in this ancient tongue. “Traditsye” (“Tradition”), that sets the story and introduces the characters. “Ven Ikh Bin a Rothshild” (“If I Were a Rich Man”) giving Tevye a chance to dream of escaping his poverty. The melancholy “Tog-ayn, Tog-oys” (“Sunrise, Sunset”) left not a dry eye in the house. The spiritually uplifting ballad “Shabes Brokhe” (“Sabbath Prayer”) and the exuberant celebration of life “Lakhayim” (“To Life”) in Yiddish brought these scenes to life in a revelatory manner.  

Heading the cast of talented bilingual actors is the brooding yet charming Steven Skybell, as Tevye who brings a heartfelt truth to lines like, “God, I know we are the chosen people, but once in a while can’t You choose somebody else?” Skybell (this year’s Lortel Award-winner for Outstanding Actor in a Musical) lovingly guides the story until the crushing culmination when the Russian pogrom expels the townsfolk from Anatevka. Though defeated, we see in this devastating tragedy the concept come full circle as a tribe packs and transports their traditions and language across the Atlantic. It’s an inspiring realization. This Fiddler on the Roof is not to be missed.      https://nytf.org/fiddler-on-the-roof/

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