Joseph Oparamanuike otherwise known as Mr. Tenor,, has been nominated for nominated for the Paris Opera Awards (POA), slated to hold in Paris, France, later this year.
The first edition of POA was launched in March 2012 allowing 78 opera singers from South Africa, Albania, Germany, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Australia, Belgium and a host of other countries to participate.
He will be contesting this year’s edition with several notable international A-list opera singers, which include: Israeli-born English soprano singer, Nili Riemer; Argentinian baritone singer, Juan Font; South Korean tenor, Seunghwan Oh, and Australian soprano, Amy Corkery.
Others include Quan Zhou, Manna Knjoi, Maria Katzarava, Yann Chazard, Sungkook Kim and Christina The.
In the world of Opera Music, Nigeria is not regarded as a heavyweight, compared to the likes of Germany, Austria, Italy and England. This is because the genre of music, though regarded as elitist, is alien to the Nigerian society, who values more of the groovy pop music currently in vogue.
Mr. Tenor’s recent visit to Europe showed that the world does not even know that Nigeria practices or performs opera music.
“Many of them did not believe the claim until they listened to us perform. Of course, they left the auditorium stunned at the Nigerians whom they only knew for football, pop music and probably Nollywood movies. Now, that’s rebranding Nigeria through opera music, if you ask me,” Oparamanuike, who hails from Imo State, said.
All that is changing now, as the world is beginning to see Nigerian opera (if only we had one or two opera houses to show) through Nigeria’s export, Oparamanuike, who dumped a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Owerri (FUTO), for a greater calling in opera music.
He has master of music opera (MMus Opera) at the Alexander Gibson Opera School (AGOS), Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS), under the tutelage of Scott Johnson. He also holds a Post-Graduate Diploma (PGDip) in singing. All his music education in Scotland was supported by RCS Trust Fund Scholarship. He holds Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music (LRSM) in Singing, and Diploma of Associated Board of Royal Schools of Music (DipABRSM) in vocal teaching.
Oparamanuike has done a lot in the world of opera music, having performed in some parts of Europe and Asia.