Redlands Opera Student Imitates Pavarotti for Competition

Student’s sounds of the legendary tenor were heard Saturday, Feb. 23 on Channel 34. Watch the video.

University of Redlands School of Music graduate student Julio Carrillo has a passion for singing opera that has taken him across the country to Miami to compete on an internationally televised weekly entertainment show.

Carrillo, sporting a freshly grown beard, will imitate the operatic master Luciano Pavarotti as he reaches for the highest note this Saturday in a competition with 18 other finalists on the popular Univision show “Sabado Gigante,” broadcast at 8 p.m.

His voice will be heard by millions of viewers when his performance in the competition “Idolos de la Cancion” airs Feb. 23 on Channel 34.  Three of the finalists in the competition, which began airing Feb. 9, are being heard from each Saturday, with one being eliminated by a celebrity, three judge panel.

Carrillo, who throughout this childhood had watched “Sabado Gigante,” instantly knew he wanted to vie for a chance to be on the show when he heard that an audition for the competition would take place at near-by Casino Morongo last August. After regional auditions were completed in Los Angeles, Puerto Rico, Miami and New York, Carrillo was one of 40 contestants who were called back to compete in the semi-finals in Miami, he said.

Carrillo says he chose to imitate Pavarotti because he’s been told that he has a slight physical resemblance to the singer and that his facial expressions when he sings on stage are similar.

So Carrillo began to study the tenor’s voice and grew out his beard.

“Personally, I don’t think that I sound much like Pavarotti; it’s hard for me to think that my voice can be placed in the likeness of such an amazing tenor. I greatly admire Pavarotti’s work and one day I wish to sing with as much musical expression and such a beautiful sound,” he said.

Carrillo, who is working on his Masters of Music in Voice Performance, didn’t always have a love for opera. As an undergraduate music student at Redlands who was studying guitar, Carrillo decided to join the choir his sophomore year. He then discovered that one of the tenors in the school’s upcoming production of the opera “Norma” had left his role, and Carrillo spontaneously decided to give opera a try.

“Never in my life would I have imagined that I would be a soloist in opera,” he said. But after stumbling into a performance, “I just fell in love with it.”

Carrillo only had 1 minute and 30 seconds to impress the celebrity judges of the competition with his imitation of Pavarotti while singing “La donna e mobile” from Giuseppe Verdi’s opera “Rigoletto.”

“I was very happy with my performance and satisfied with the judges’ comments,” said Carrillo.

That’s all Carrillo can share in the pre-show warm-up to his Saturday performance. Find out just how Carrillo did Feb. 23 at 8 p.m. on Channel 34.

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