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| Korry Keeker / Juneau Empire
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 Connecting culture: Baritone Roberto Perlas Gomez, from the Philippines, will use Tagalog, one of the native languages of the Philippines to connect with the Filipino community. |
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Baritone Roberto Perlas Gomez's favorite operatic role is Figaro from the Barber of Seville.
"Figaro is the man about town. He's a guy that does everything. He's a barber. He's a veterinarian. He's the dentist. He's also the matchmaker and he can put any two people together for a price. That's what he's about," Gomez said.
Gomez has performed that role with eight different opera companies and said it has been one of the highlights of his operatic career.
"All of his text is rapid-fire monolog and dialog," he said. "The reason why I like him the best is because I get to express a big part of my personality when I do this role. He's really kind of big smart-alec, and I like that."
Gomez will perform a concert of songs, with an artist discussion, on Feb. 10 at St. Ann's Parish Hall, downtown. He will also be performing the role of Sarastoro in Opera to Go!'s production of the Arctic Magic Flute on Feb. 8, 9 and 11.
In his solo show, Gomez plans to sing arias, American art songs and songs in Tagalog, one of the native languages of the Philippines.
"It's going to be an 'informance,' a performance plus some information and little bits about my experience with the music itself," Gomez said. "It's a really personal explanation, a personal take on what the music is and on its significance to me and hopefully to the audience as well."
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Concert, Artist discussion
Who: baritone Roberto Perlas Gomez.
When: Sun., Feb. 10, 3 p.m.
Where: St. Ann's Parish Hall
Cost: $15 ($10 students)
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Gomez was born in the Philippines and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1967. He has since become a naturalized citizen. His family was very musical and encouraged Gomez to sing, but his parents wanted him to take on a more stable profession.
"They expected that I would grow up and be a professional in some particular field," he said. "(But) the arts were something I just had to try or else I would have really regretted never trying." He's been engaged in a performance career ever since.
After studying with the California State University at Northridge opera program and performing many of the baritone leads there, Gomez branched out and has sung over 70 roles with a variety of companies, including Opera Pacific, the Michigan Opera, San Diego Opera Ensemble, Sacramento Opera, Opera San Jose, Acorde Opera in Tijuana and Opera Idaho. He has also sung secondary roles with the San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Pacific and San Diego Opera.
Besides his appreciation for the role of Figaro, Gomez said another highlight in his career was depicting José Rizal, the Philippines national hero, in a fully staged opera produced by his family at the Cultural Center of the Phillipines in 1996. Gomez returned to the Philippines then and performed the part, which depicted the final days of the hero's life.
"Even though I had not been back home to live since 1967, it was a very important thing for me to do. It got me back to what the patriotism and nationalism was about in my country during the time of the fight for independence from Spain," he said.
The inclusion of songs and stories from the Philippines and connecting with the Filipino community will be a highlight in Gomez's Juneau performance, he said.
• Teri Tibbett is a writer and musician living in Juneau.
