Franc D’Ambrosio, an Oscar-winning singer, is looking forward to performing in Athens.
The once longest standing Phantom in The Phantom of The Opera has hope of delivering the “Music of the Night” to Athens on Saturday.
“I’m just really looking forward to getting back to Ohio and seeing the beautiful Spring and looking forward to performing to your audience,” Franc D’Ambrosio said.
D’Ambrosio, an Italian-American singer and actor, is best known for his portrayal of the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical The Phantom of The Opera. He has performed more than 2,300 shows as the Phantom over a span of seven years.
“It was amazing. It was a tremendous,” D’Ambrosio said of his role. “A huge lesson in discipline, and ... it was a great way of honing my craft.”
In addition to playing the role of the Phantom, D’Ambrosio has also starred opposite of Al Pacino in The Godfather III, playing Anthony Vito Corleone and singing the academy award-winning "Speak Softly, Love."
His show, however, is not limited to those songs. He performs Broadway show tunes such as “Bring Him Home” from Les Miserables, “The Impossible Dream” from Man of La Mancha and “This is the Moment” from Jekyll and Hyde.
“The show is not a park on the stage and then bark the song out, you know, it’s not a park and bark,” D’Ambrosio said. “It’s a very fun, funny show with kind of the Italian-American narrative going through it and Broadway songs type that tie all of the stories together.”
Andrew Holzaepfel, the senior associate director of the Campus Involvement Center, said in an email the show was originally anticipated as being a gala kickoff that was intended to support Ohio University’s Arts and Education Endowment.
However, the endowment is not set to begin until the 2017-2018 school year, so the Campus Involvement Center decided to use this as an opportunity to have another performance.
“We booked Franc based on the recommendations of many venues from around the state,” Holzaepfel said in an email. “It should prove to be a very enjoyable and entertaining Saturday night.”
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D’Ambrosio said he enjoys performing in Ohio because the audience knows and appreciates what it likes.
“You always know you are going to get a sophisticated audience and that can always be guaranteed in Ohio,” he added.
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