He’s got the voice that breaks your heart, the one with the caress-and-power combo that’s a half-breath away from exploding in an aria, and another breath away from a simple but sensitive pop hook.
Greek tenor Mario Frangoulis’ “Follow Your Heart” album rides high on the Billboard Classical Crossover Chart, a noteworthy follow-up to “Sometimes I Dream,” which stayed on the chart for almost two years.
Greek audiences have made him a multiplatinum star. Now he shares the magic Saturday in Seattle when he and romantic pianist Jim Brickman perform.
While “Sometimes I Dream” covered signature songs of Frangoulis’ European career, “Follow Your Heart” represents the 35-year-old’s present, technically, vocally and artistically.
“It’s a more mature way of singing about things, songs like ‘Heroes,’ which talks about our everyday heroes, people who work very hard so everybody can be more secure, ordinary people who have extraordinary talent, who bless our lives and make us feel like life is beautiful,” Frangoulis said. “These songs are very true to me. They’re about relationships, families, love affairs, love in general.”
There was nothing in Frangoulis’ early childhood that would predict this career.
At age 4 in Rhodesia, during a difficult time when the country lurched toward becoming Zimbabwe, his family felt in danger; some of their friends were killed. His parents decided to leave him with his aunt in Greece.
“I felt like I was deserted,” he said.
“The real force in my life became my aunt. But I was lucky because she introduced me to classical music, took me to the conservatorium to learn how to play the violin.”
Frangoulis was never reunited with his parents, although they wanted to bring him back to Africa when he was 8, then at 14.
“I didn’t want to leave my aunt. I felt she was my mother. I needed to call somebody mother. … I was partly the one who decided not to go back to Africa.”
Frangoulis stayed in Greece and followed the path of music and drama with his matinee-idol looks and golden voice. He won over audiences in London as the dashing young hero in “Les Miserables” and “The Phantom of the Opera.”
And he developed his operatic side, winning the Maria Callas Prize, attending New York’s Julliard School of Music, and becoming the only private student ever accepted by operatic legend Alfredo Kraus.
“I always dreamed that my life would lead me to different countries,” he said. “In this day and age you have more tools and are more equipped to face the competition. There is no magic way of doing things. The three most important ingredients to success are work, work and work and I think that has always been my motto.”
Frangoulis wants to sing more opera, “my true desire and my love and my passion.” Unfortunately, he said, new opera records are hard to sell. “I have to reach a bigger audience and then I can share my passion with them,” he said.
“I know this is a difficult way of doing things but I never really liked to be labeled as one thing or another. I always wanted to be myself.”
Mario Frangoulis performs Saturday in Seattle.
Mario Frangoulis
With pianist Jim Brickman: 8 p.m. Saturday, Paramount Theatre, 911 Pine St., Seattle.
$34-$44, 206-628-0888.
Mario Frangoulis
With pianist Jim Brickman: 8 p.m. Saturday, Paramount, 911 Pine St., Seattle. $34-$44, 206-628-0888.
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