Joe Spinella (the Tenor of iIlusions) is an Italian American artist who brings the world of Italian musical culture to the mysterious, intriguing, art of magic to create a new, magnificent show, "illusionAria".
Spinella has two great talents going for him, a well-trained golden Italian tenor voice, often compared to that of Luciano Pavarotti and the unique talent to perform never before seen, exciting and revolutionary on stage illusions. Most of which are all original and have never before been seen in any magic act, anywhere.

A true illusionist, he has managed to combine the two worlds of music and magic to create a true on stage evolution of these two art forms.
illusionAria pushes the envelope of all magic shows ever seen on the planet, combining great symphonic music with storytelling magic! The drama on stage comes to life with fantastic characters, colorful costumes, special lighting effects, a state of the art sound system, astonishing illusions, and of course the phenomenal voice of Joe Spinella. The music in illusionAria is from the Emmy Award winning, Macedonia Radio Symphony Orchestra and the sound engineering by multi Grammy and Platinum award winner, Eric Schilling.
And that's just the beginning... Spinella's collaboration with Joseph Velpis, (Lady Gaga's long time song writer and musical producer), has created several new songs destined to be hits. One of their original singles, Trust In Me, written and produced by Joe Vulpis, is featured in the IllusionAria show. This popular new song has been released as a single and is available on iTunes and Amazon.com.
Along with all this incredible talent illusionAria features the Duo Design Statue hand Balancing Act of Jerek and Derek, from the popular America's got talent and Cirque du Soleil. This grand and glorious new form of seeing and hearing music and magic gives orchestras and opera companies a new and different way to attract a whole new generation of music fans of all ages.
This exciting show premiered last October for a successful two week run in Venice, Florida with full houses and standing ovations every night. The magic used in the show tells the story along with the wonderful songs. Each song is a vignette in the overall story. The children love the magic, and the adults love that the magic is integral to the plot. It's a unique concept to be sure and I don't know of many opera tenors who perform magic while they are singing. This is only the beginning of the plans this unique performer has in store for the world. Perhaps an overseas booking and performing with symphony orchestras is now in the consideration stage.
It's taken a long while for someone with the talent of a great tenor and the skills of a magician to come up with the idea of combining these two creative illusions — music and magic — into one spectacular performance. Spinella has been working and investing in this unique idea for several years. He started doing magic when he was six years old. He perfected his art in the slight of hand tricks and one night included a few of these tricks in his singing act. The reaction from his audience was immediate and overwhelming — they loved it! It was then that he formulated the idea for a show, Metamorpho, which combined his two loves- magic and music. The magic and illusions for this show, like that of IllusionAria, were especially designed by Spinella himself and are all custom made.
Spinella's tenor voice is a full-bodied sound of power that sends out a deep feeling of emotions and when combined with this colorful production and the stage effects the results are awe-inspiring. This is a show that is appropriate for all cultures and all ages, with the tenor's main goal to expose the beauty of classical music to the younger generation. Spinella takes each song and tells the story behind it. As life is an illusion and love is often fleeting, so is the illusion that follows the story behind many of the romantic arias and Neapolitan songs. For example, in "Rondine al Nido," the song talks about the swallow that flies from her nest, never to return. Spinella creates an illusion with an animatronic bird in a cage, which later disappears. So the story behind the song relates to the illusion in his show.
Spinella is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, with a major in voice. He has participated in Master Classes with Birgit Nielsen, Eleanor Steber, and Regina Resnik. Spinella has been described as "a solid Metropolitan Opera level performer," and was also similarly praised by the Princeton Review's music critic. Maestro Paul Nadler discovered Joseph and later Joseph were invited to work with Metropolitan Opera coaches in NYC. This began his regular sessions with Joan Dorneman, a 30-year vocal coach who worked with legendary Luciano Pavarotti. Perhaps it's because of Dorneman that Joseph is often compared to Pavarotti. Indeed he's considered the worlds premiere Pavarotti impersonator, most impressively because he requires no technical dubbing to achieve his vocal range.
Joseph Spinella has made numerous appearances, including most notably with The Three World Tenors, the Israeli Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta, and the Sarasota Opera. Other guest appearances include the Lake Placid Sinfonietta, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra and the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. He has also appeared as a guest soloist with the Anna Maria Island Orchestra, the Sarasota Pops, and the Sarasota Concert Band. He sang for the 1996 local Olympic Torch ceremony and created a CD, "Sparks of Fire," to commemorate the 2000 Olympics.
Spinella's talents and experience reach beyond singing to choral conducting and theater. Since the age of six, Joseph has been playing drums. It led to becoming a percussionist with the Sarasota Orchestra, the Florida Symphonic Band and a guest soloist with the United States Navy Band. He also performed special engagements with Emmet Kelly, the Flying Wallendas, and Ringling Brothers circus leader, Merle Evans.
While this incredibly talented young man concentrates on his musical illusion tours, you can catch up with his recordings and appearances by visiting his website or his Facebook page: Spinella Tenor. Evolutionary? Revolutionary? Whatever you wish to call Spinella's new form of performance art, I would not hesitate to say that much of his creative talent and his magnificent tenor voice are derived from the rich musical heritage of his Italian culture, a lineage that continues to produce some of the world's greatest talent.

By Cookie Curci

Fonte: The IA Journal