A k Rose

Paul Orta has fronted his band The Kingpins (a.k.a. The International Playboys) and various other groups around the world. He has played in the U.S.A., Spain, England, Ireland, France, Norway, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Austria, Russia, Portugal, Poland, Brazil, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark & The Netherlands. He has opened for B.B. King, John Lee Hooker, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Van Morrison, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Junior Walker, James Cotton, Buckwheat Zydeco, Dennis Quaid band with Huey Lewis to name a few.

The program on this release by baritone Matthew Rose is innovative and useful in a couple of different ways. First, although performers have sometimes tried to bring 18th century opera to life by programming arias written for specific singers, this has usually been applied to countertenors. They were generally the stars, it's true, but they weren't the only ones. The Italian comic baritone Francesco Benucci was one of the leads of Joseph II's Italian opera company, the original Figaro, and the original Leporello in Don Giovanni in the Vienna premiere (the second production).