A Soaring Soprano

About Dolores Ferraro

Lyric soprano, Dolores Ferraro, has performed in opera, as soloist with orchestras and in recital.  Early in her career, she was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions and studied with that company’s legendary soprano, Licia Albanese.

Ferraro’s performing repertoire encompasses all traditional areas but her main focus has been on contemporary American music. This has resulted in recordings, interviews on classical, public radio stations and many first performances of songs and operas in venues including Carnegie Recital Hall, Sala Baldini in Rome, Academy of Music in Philadelphia and Hunter College in New York City.  

Her strongest interest is in the music of her late husband, Romeo Cascarino, recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships in Composition and bringing his works to audiences in Europe and throughout the United States.  In Saumur, France, she presented musical excerpts from his three-act opera, "William Penn", and delivered a paper on the genesis of the opera.  Ferraro was the first interpreter of the role of Penn’s wife, Gulielma, in the staged world premiere of that work.  In Italy, she sang the European premiere of his song cycle "Pathways of Love" and has presented these and Cascarino’s other vocal works in concert halls and colleges in the United States, the UK and France.  A teacher, as well as a performing artist, she is adjunct professor at Immaculata University.