Nov 20
Lyric Tenor David Rivera Bozón Talks Crossing Over to Cabaret for Thanksgiving Show
John Amodeo READ TIME: 7 MIN.
When opera singers cross over into the Broadway and Great American Songbook genres, it usually doesn't end well. There is something about the focus on posture and elocution, singing more from the diaphragm than the heart, that often hamstrings a classically trained singer attempting "This Nearly Was Mine" from "South Pacific," or "The Impossible Dream" from "Man of La Mancha." While songs such as these in the Broadway canon were written for legitimate voices, Broadway songs – and the cabaret rooms where these songs are also sung – require an emotional connection with the lyrics that draws in the audience in a different way than just with vocal pyrotechnics.
But enter cabaret newcomer David (pronounced Dah-VEED) Rivera Bozón, a Columbian native and classically trained tenor with two degrees (and working on a third) in vocal performance with an emphasis on opera. He has been recognized by the Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives for his outstanding commitment to the cultural and artistic events in the Commonwealth. He was also part of an ensemble for the Grammy-nominated opera "The Lord of the Cries" by John Corgliano, with the Boston Modern Opera project.
Even with his classical training and accolades in opera, he has found a path for crossing over into cabaret without any awkward or abrupt incongruencies. "I love the connection cabaret singers have with the music. What they perform is meaningful," Bozón enthuses. "When you are pulling together a classical recital, you have expectations of high-level composers, and you sing in other languages [he speaks six]. It is different."
This, he feels, sometimes distances some classically trained singers from the emotional core of a song. But he takes a different approach. His website biography proclaims, "The core of his thriving performance career is to share the joy of singing from the heart."
Frequenting piano bars and open mics to hone his skills at lyric interpretation and audience connection, he has already debuted a solo cabaret show earlier this year at Club Café's Napoleon Room. With the holidays coming up, Bozón brings a new show, "A Taste of Thanksgiving," to the Cabaret Club at the Arctic Playhouse in West Warwick, RI on Tuesday, November 26, 2024.
EDGE spoke with Bozón as he exited a Boston University (BU) recording studio following a recording session for an opera project he is involved in. Sitting within the collegiate gothic loggia of their main building, Bozón spoke, in his sultry Columbian accent, of his love for cabaret, how Columbians celebrate Thanksgiving, and his pending nuptials to his boyfriend of three years.
John Amodeo is a free lance writer living in the Boston streetcar suburb of Dorchester with his husband of 23 years. He has covered cabaret for Bay Windows and Theatermania.com, and is the Boston correspondent for Cabaret Scenes Magazine.
