Bio
Baritone and Philadelphia native, Matthew Maisano enjoys performing a variety of repertoire ranging from opera, concert works, and art song to musical theater, the American Songbook, and pop. Known for his “sonorous baritone” (Broad Street Review) and “commanding stage presence," (Miami Herald), Matthew has sung with many local and regional opera company. Most recently, Matthew made his debut with Alter Ego Chamber Opera as Melissa in a queer retelling of Handel's Alcina entitled, Alcina REVAMPED as part of the Philly Fringe Festival. This December, Matthew joins Three Oaks Opera as Melchior in Menotti's beloved classic, Amahl and the Night Visitors under the baton of Opera Philadelphia's Liz Braden. Later in the month, he will appear as his drag persona, Balena Canto alongside soprano Rachel Sigman in, A Light in the Dark: A Holiday Cabaret of classical and popular music as a part of Multicultural Arts Exhange's Musika Series at the historic Glen Foerd Mansion. Matthew will begin the 2022 season returning to Opera Philadelphia in the chorus of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.
Other performance highlights include, The Title Role in Eugene Onegin (Russian Opera Workshop), Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro (Wilmington Concert Opera and Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater), Pandolfe in Cendrillon (Miami Music Festival), Senex in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (Natchez Festival of Music), Morbio in Strauss' Die schweigsame Frau, Baptista in Kiss Me, Kate! (Pittsburgh Festival Opera), Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief and First Stepsister in Martin's The True Story of Cinderella (Opera Tutti), Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus and Albert in Werther (Temple University Opera Theater), the Witch in Hansel and Gretel with Opera on Tap: Philadelphia, The Strong Man in Fox's Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing (Penn Square Music Festival), Antonio in The Gondoliers (Greensboro Light Opera & Song), and in the chorus of Prokoviev's The Love For Three Oranges and Verdi's Requiem (Opera Philadelphia).
A performer of concert and sacred works, Matthew traveled to Haiti in January (2019) to perform in a collaborative concert with Trinity Episcopal Church (Swarthmore, PA), The Holy Trinity Cathedral Choir (Port-au-Prince, Haiti) and The Institution St. Louis de Gonzague (Port-au-Prince, Haiti). The concert included many sacred and Haitian choral works as well as Schubert’s Mass in G, in which Matthew was the baritone soloist. Matthew made his Kimmel Center solo debut in November, 2018 singing the bass solos in Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Coronation Mass with Philadelphia’s VoxAmaDeus Ensemble. In 2017, Matthew sang Siméon in Debussy's L'enfant prodigue with Trinity Episcopal Church (Swarthmore, PA). He was also the baritone soloist in Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass at Fairmount Presbyterian Church (Cleveland Heights, OH), Bach's Cantata 140, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit, and Schubert’s Mass in G and Mass in C at Trinity. During his time in Cleveland, Matthew performed with Case Western Reserve University’s Baroque Chamber Ensemble, Baroque Orchestra, and Collegium as a baritone soloist in Bach’s Cantata 58, Bruhn’s De Profundis, and Merula’s Credidi. He also frequently appears with The Rose Tree Pops Orchestra of Media, PA.
An avid recitalist, Matthew joins the roster of Baltimore Musicales for their 2022 season! In 2016 Matthew participated in Cleveland's famous Art Song Festival singing in a number of masterclasses and recitals. In 2013, Matthew collaborated with mezzo-soprano Anna Saurman to create and perform a program entitled Unsex me Here: A Recital Challenging Gender in Art Song performed at Temple University. That same year, he premiered The Broken Ground: Seven Poems of Wendell Berry, a song set composed by Ryan Carson at Cairn University. Matthew frequently gives recitals with soprano, Tracy Sturgis and pianist, James Smith at Trinity Episcopal Church (Swarthmore, PA) each year with programs of varied art song repertoire.
Matthew holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from The Cleveland Institute of Music (Cleveland, OH) and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Temple University (Philadelphia. PA).
Repertoire
Performances
Matthew will sing the role of King Melchior
in his FOURTH Amahl!
Matthew is honored to sing in the chorus along side the Marian Anderson Vocal Scholars in a Holiday Concert remembering the Great Marian Anderson!
Balena Canto, Rachel Sigman, & Kat Boman
present a holiday cabaret at this historic venue!
Matthew is honored to sing in the chorus along side the Marian Anderson Vocal Scholars in a Holiday Concert remembering the Great Marian Anderson!
Reviews
The bass role of Melisso becomes Melissa—and in a further act of genderqueering, the part is essayed by Balena Canto, the drag persona of Matthew Maisano, a sonorous baritone...Canto/Maisano appears to be having a ball.
-Broad Street Review, Cameron Kelsall
"In this version Cinderella’s father Pandolfe has a large role. Matthew Maisano encompassed the serious and comic elements of the role superbly. Maisano’s dark baritone and commanding stage presence gave the role greater dimension. The tenderness of the scenes with his daughter proved one of the evening’s highlights. And his turn from harried, henpecked husband to finally standing up to his wife and Cinderella’s stepsisters, garnered approving l laughter from the audience."
-Miami Herald & South Florida Classical, Lawrence Budmen
"Aplauso especial, para Matthew Maisano como el Padre, el personaje de carácter en la obra,
que tuvo un hermoso dúo con DeLorenz./Special applause, for Matthew Maisano as the
Father, a person of character in the play, who had a beautiful duet with DeLorenz."
-el Nuevo Herald, Daniel Fernández
"The comic antics of Matthew Maisano (Morbio)...added greatly to the entertainment, both vocally and in appearance."
- Pittsburgh in the Round, George. B Parous
"Matthew Maisano made a physically imposing Count Almaviva."
-Cleveland Classical, Daniel Hathaway
"The aria by the Count, sung by Matthew Maisano, is a soliloquy of sorts about his concern of how he is viewed by his servants. An aria that Bamberger said has been labeled the “greatest psychological aria in opera.” Maisano conveyed well the deep emotion of the composer’s work."
-West Lake West Bay Observer, Louise Seeholzer
"Matthew Maisano made an impressive ROW debut. His voice is stentorian at full-throttle - he sings Puccini's Michele - yet he can hone it to delicate soft singing...Matthew deftly conveyed Onegin's eternal boredom, peppered with superciliousness, condescension, misogyny and general lack of empathy...Matthew, a tall man, sang Onegin's famous aria, 'Когда бы жизнь домашним кругом' with a compelling sense of bel canto line, all the while literally looking down on a cringing, cowering Tatyana, dramatically ratcheting up, thereby, the lass's humiliation...At Gremin's society cotillion, where Onegin rediscovers the newly minted
Tatyana, Matthew, animated by his character's reawakened passion, made the love -
struck arioso, 'Ужель та самая Татьяна' containing an ironic reprise of the principal Letter
Scene melody, a vocal high point of the evening."
-Lew's Opera Views and Experiences in Tempo (Internet Blog), Lew Loesberg
News
10/15/2018: Company Feature: Wilmington Concert Opera
Matthew appears in Modern Singer Magazine's featurette on Wilmington Concert Opera and their Fall 2018 production
of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro
08/18/2018: "Anne Arundel's drag community looks to build visibility with events like Drag Queen Storytime" (Capital Gazette, Danielle Ohl)
Article about Matthew's first ever Drag Queen Story Time as "Balena Canto"
05/2018: Matthew appears on LMTV's The Library Show to discuss his career in opera and classical music. The segment begins at the 12:58 mark.
11/02/2015: "The Making of Figaro" Episode 8: Recitative
Matthew appears in the Cleveland Institute of Music's online docuseries about the institute's fall 2015 production of
Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro
10/20/2015: "The Making of Figaro" Episode 2: Meet the Cast
Matthew appears in the Cleveland Institute of Music's online docuseries about the institute's fall 2015 production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro
