María Aleida Rodríguez Pérez

María Aleida Rodríguez began her musical studies at the Conservatorio Vicente Emilio Sojo in Venezuela in 1999. At this institution she performed the following productions: La Traviata by Verdi and Los Martines de Colón by Venezuelan composer Federico Ruiz.

As a soloist, she sang with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Lara, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Falcón, and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela at the Teatro Teresa Carreño, under the direction of Tarcisio Barreto, Angelo Pagliuca, and Bruno Aprea, current Artistic Director of the Opera de Palm Beach.

María Aleida Rodríguez has participated in master classes with renowned soprano artists from around the world, such as: Mirella Freni and Montserrat Caballé.

In 2008 she won an award in the international competition "Voz de Montserrat Caballé" held in Zaragoza, Spain, and was a finalist in New York in the competition "Voz de Francesc Viñas".

She was from 2009-2011 in Miami studying with Manny Pérez. In the fall of 2011 she attended the Vocal Arts Academy (AVA) in Philadelphia. The Cuban soprano María Aleida stood out among the young students of the Academia Rossiniana who performed in the ritual end-of-course execution of "Viaggio a Reims" at the XXXII Rossini Festival in Pesaro (ROF).

There she participated in an extremely difficult opera, whose manuscript was found by chance about 30 years ago in Rome, and since then has become a symbol of the Rossini renaissance. "The Journey" is a celebratory cantata in honor of the coronation of Charles X as King of France in June of 1825.

The work, a succession of bel canto acrobatics for about fifteen singers, is ideal for students —under the guidance and selection of Alberto Zedda, artistic director of the ROF— to test their conditions in public for entering the competitive world of opera.

Year after year, the singers who populate the program of the Rossini Opera Festival come from here, such as the half dozen who share the starring roles of this 32nd edition.

Of the ten main characters, the most difficult is that of the Countess of Folleville, protagonist of a very long aria, "Partir, o ciel! dessio", which is a passport to stardom for the singer called upon to perform it.

María Aleida was no exception and received the greatest amount of applause, among a distinguished group of singers such as Italian mezzo-soprano Adriana Di Paola, Russian soprano Elena Tsallagova, and Spanish soprano Carmen Romeu.

"I left my country at age 14 with my family and moved to Venezuela, where they still live, to go study at the Vocal Arts Academy of Philadelphia for the last two years. But my country is still Cuba despite the bonds of affection that unite me to these two nations where I trained and am still training."

From this open door to the world of opera, María Aleida sees for now only a year of lessons in Philadelphia: but in two years the ROF will present "Aureliano" for the first time, and it is almost a tradition of the festival to immediately hire every soprano who has excelled in the role of the Countess of Folleville.

In addition to Rossini, María Aleida dreams of tackling the French repertoire: "I would like to sing Olympia from 'The Tales of Hoffmann' by Jacques Offenbach as well as 'Lakmé' by Léo Delibes or Ophelia from 'Hamlet' by Ambroise Thomas".

"But what I really want is to bring my singing to all the people who want to hear me, and I feel that I have something very beautiful inside that I would like to express, and I ask God to allow me to do it."