Italian Tenor Pasquale Esposito returns to The Annenberg Theatre, located at The Palm Springs Arts Museum, for his fifth appearance on December 7 at 8:00 pm. The concert celebrates Italian Piazzas and is the live version of his newest PBS special. I had the opportunity to catch up with Mr. Esposito as he was preparing for his Palm Springs concert. Here are a few excerpts from that interview:

DG: Tell me about you. Where are you from and how did your life lead you into a career in Opera?

PE: I was born and raised in Naples, Italy. I won the Green Card Lottery and moved to the United States in May 1998. I started performing at the age of 7 in Italy and continued to perform in piano bars until I moved to the USA. I decided to pursue my passion for music and studied at San Jose State University in their School of Music. I received my degree in music in May 2009 and specialized in vocal performance. My success has lead me to be a distinguished alumnus. I was fortunate to have met my vocal coach, Joseph Frank at San Jose State University. He still continues to mentor me and develop my vocal techniques. I strongly believe that "if I rest then I rust."

DG: When is the first moment you knew you had a special vocal gift and could make a career of it?

PE: It was probably when I was a child and I started to get the solo parts performing in my church choir. I recall hearing the applause of the audience and knew that I was doing something right.

DG: Where did you train and who were the greatest influences on your professional career?

PE: I studied at San Jose State University under the tutelage of Professor Joseph Frank. He had a great influence in my development as a performer and singer. I also had the great pleasure of working with Maestro Placido Domingo in my 1st PBS Special on Enrico Caruso. Other tenors that have influenced by career are of course Enrico Caruso and Luciano Pavarotti.

DG: What is the best advice anyone ever gave you about a career in Opera?

PE: The best advice that I every received was from Maestro Placido Domingo who told me to "BE PREPARED."

DG: Talk about your experiences creating your PBS specials.

PE: Both have been incredible musical and personal journeys. My first PBS Special that was release in 2015 was dedicated to Enrico Caruso and my second special that was released this year was dedicated to the tradition of the Italian Piazzas. I have prepared both of the specials as docu-concerts. Meaning that they had a combination of concert performance along with a travel log too. This provided the audience with a journey both musically as well as visually around Italy. At many of my live shows including the one at the Annenberg, I fuse some of the footage from the TV special into the live concert. I try to take the audience to Italy during the show and let them leaving with an incredible authentic Italian cultural experience, both musically and visually.

DG: What is a career highlight, to date?

PE: I feel that the best is yet to come but I can look back at my Opera debut at San Francisco Opera in 2015 in the world premiere of TWO WOMEN as one of my achievements. I was honored to be part of the incredible cast and share the stage with so many talented individuals. It was an incredible learning experience that I will be always remember. I was taken by the rave reviews that I received after the opening night performance by the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and many other papers. Another great achievement was to perform in Piazza del Plebiscito in my hometown Naples, Italy. It is one of the most prestigious piazzas (squares) that an Italian artist can perform in Italy.

DG: What are a few of your career aspirations?

PE: I aspire to keep having the opportunity to create my original songs and have the ability to perform them to audiences around the world. Nothing gives me more pleasure than being able to walk out onto a stage and to move people with my voice and stories.

DG: What can audiences expect from your concert at The Annenberg?

PE: They can expect a colorful repertoire that will include many songs from my last TV Specials as well as some of the standard Italian and Neapolitan hit songs. I will try to give the audience the best of my classical and contemporary repertoire and may just throw in a Christmas song since we are in the festive Holiday season. The audience of course will enjoy the multi-media production too including the footage of the many piazzas that I visited in Italy.

DG: What advice would you give to young people who might have similar career aspirations?

PE: Never to give up and follow your dreams. I strongly believe that the United States is still the country of opportunity. If you work hard and apply yourself that you can achieve success. I have been very fortunate along the way and have been surrounded by wonderful mentors and supporters but at the end I was given the gift of my voice and have been blessed that I am able to share my passion with others and bring emotion to them with my performances.

DG: How did you get connected with FGI and what made you decide to do a benefit to support their mission?

PE: A dear friend who has helped me with some of my productions, Beverly Zeiss, introduced me to the organization last year and I was pleased to support the mission of the organization. As an Italian, I have always appreciated great fashion. Italy is know as a front-runner in high fashion and I believe that it is important to promote and support the industry. At the show at the Annenberg Theater, I had the pleasure of being wardrobed by SAKS Men's Store in Palm Desert and to have wonderful models to showcase some incredible fashion during the live performance.

Italian Tenor Pasquale Esposito returns to The Annenberg Theatre, located at The Palm Springs Arts Museum, for his fifth appearance on December 7 at 8:00 pm. For tickets and more information call (760) 322-4800 or visit www.psmuseum.org.