MUSICAL ARTISTS
The 7 Sopranos
The 7 Sopranos were conceived in 2009 by acclaimed Queensland opera singer and creative director, Tarita Botsman.
Named as “Australia’s most beautiful voices,” by the Sydney Morning Herald and ABC Limelight Magazine, after their first album went to the to top of the ARIA charts in 2014, their commanding stage presence and refined vocal skills make this operatic ensemble convert the inconvertible to the power, beauty and versatility of classically trained performers.
They cover a huge breadth of repertoire: everything from show tunes to musical theatre to opera and contemporary songs. Always in demand, The 7 Sopranos have clocked up hundreds of appearances across the globe from Singapore to Sydney and beyond. Reaching out to a new audience of music lovers, they successfully straddle the divide between opera and mainstream music, creating their own unique fusion of faithful classical traditions and techniques meshed with contemporary music.
The artists that form The 7 Sopranos are the kind of role models young girls should have: an ensemble of talented, strong, passionate women. The individual singing pedigree of each of the artists who make up The 7 Sopranos is impressive: young, up and coming performers who are all graduates of Australia’s finest conservatories and musical theatre training courses, winners of Australia’s most prestigious singing competitions and budding solo artists from our major opera companies, international touring musicals and orchestras internationally.
The 7 Sopranos are proud to most recently be announced as an Affiliate Ensemble to the School of Music at the University of Queensland, Australia.
Rosario La Spina
Rosario La Spina trained at the Queensland Conservatorium of Music continuing his studies at RNCM, Manchester under the tutelage of Joseph Ward OBE. In 2002, Rosario won first prize in the Mario Del Monaco International Opera Competition and made his principal role debut at La Scala as Riccardo (Oberto) reprising the role in Genoa.
He made his Opera Australia debut as Cavaradossi (Tosca) in 2005 and has subsequently appeared for the national company as Radames (Aida) The Prince (Love for Three Oranges), Alfredo (La traviata), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), The Duke (Rigoletto), The Prince (Rusalka), Calaf (Turandot), Macduff (Macbeth), Rodolfo (La bohème), Don José (Carmen) and the title role in The Tales of Hoffmann. His American debut was as Rodolfo for Seattle Opera in 2007; he returned to Seattle as Radames and made his first Canadian appearances in this same role.
Rosario has also been a regular soloist with the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras and appears on the CD/DVD Classical Spectacular with the Melbourne Symphony (ABC Classics). Other recordings include Puccini Romance with the Queensland Symphony (ABC Classics), The Prince in Rusalka under Richard Hickox (Chandos) and, in 2009, a major solo album released by Universal Music featuring Rosario with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo.
The Verdi Bicentenary in 2013 saw him sing Alfredo and The Duke in Perth, Don Alvaro (La forza del destino) in Adelaide, Verdi’s Requiem in Taiwan and New Zealand, Radames in Detroit and Gaston (Jérusalem) in Fidenza; he also performed Don José throughout Japan. Since 2014, Rosario La Spina has sung The Duke for Opera Queensland, Manrico (Il trovatore) for West Australian Opera, Pollione (Norma) and Canio for Victorian Opera, Samson (Samson et Dahlia) in Tokyo, Cavaradossi, Turiddu and Canio for State Opera of South Australia and The Prince (The Love for Three Oranges), Turiddu, Canio and Calaf for Opera Australia.
In 2020, he sang Cavaradossi for Opera Queensland and made his Wagnerian debut as Siegmund in Opera Australia’s new production of Die Walküre.
