Perry Brisbon brings Italian opera to Cabrini’s campus

By Danielle McLaughlin
December 3, 2009

Shannon Keough

With a voice that seemed to shake the entire mansion at its core, Perry Brisbon performed a dozen pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, Rossini and Duparc on Sunday, Nov. 22.

Brisbon was accompanied on the piano by Kay Stretton. The harmonious sounds of the piano helped tell each story Brisbon was singing.

“He puts his all into every song and his emotions help tell the story he’s singing,” Sam Zeff, sophomore business administration major, said.

Everyone that attended the performance was given a sheet of paper with translations of the opera songs, which were sung in Italian. Although the sheet of paper was helpful, is was easier to figure out exactly what Brisbon was singing about by looking at all the emotion and expression on his face.

When Brisbon would sing about something sad, for example in the song “Misero! O sogno, O son desto,” he had a look of worry and sadness on his face. When Brisbon sang “Maria,” which he graciously dedicated to President George, he had a look of pride on his face. With each song Brisbon sang he seemed to portray a different emotion, almost as if he were acting and had to represent a character in a play.

“He sung at my inauguration, it was captivating,” President George said.

Brisbon received a Bachelor sDegree from Temple University and a Masters Degree in opera from Curtis Institute of Music. Brisbon has a long list of competitions he has won, which includes the Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, the National Society of Arts and Letters Award and Mario Lanza Competition.

Brisbon has also received the Licia Albanese- Puccini Foundation Grant and the Philadelphia Foundation Music Grant.

Brisbon is a man with many talents and can be found on the Cabrini College campus of teaching voice lessons to students.

As a man with a great deal of talent it is only expected that Brisbon has traveled many places to share his talent with others. He has performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and in Europe at the Biennale Festival in Munich.

Not only did Brisbon show emotion within his songs, he also showed his personality. During one of Brisbon’s performances he borrowed a scarf from a person in the audience and used it to liven up the song he was singing.

Brisbon also showed his personality when he began singing a song titled, “It ain’t necessarily so.” During this song he encouraged the entire audience to sing along with him. “Come on, help a brother out,” Brisbon said. The audience was eager to sing along with Brisbon.

Although many people may have mixed emotions about opera as a style of music, Brisbon knows how to work a crowd and is very popular among the staff and students at Cabrini College.

“He is one of the nicest, kindest and most humble people I have ever had the pleasure of meeting,” Dr. Adeline Bethany, professor of fine arts, said.

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Danielle McLaughlin

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