![]() “I would love to be able to go back and forth between music theater and opera. “Singing and performing is my love,” she said. "Kanisha just has that 'something' beyond the technical facility - she has a gift for vocalism, and that extraordinary 'something' that we all look for in artists."įeliciano’s role in “Phantom” will continue indefinitely, which fits her career goal to continue performing on the stage. "This is a destination school for gifted individuals," Thomas said in a fall 2021 interview. Thomas, who first taught Feliciano as an undergraduate student at Westminster Choir College, said the stars aligned when she joined the Shepherd School faculty 2020 and Feliciano joined the Artist Diploma program. “I am a vocalist first and foremost, and music theater and opera are just different styles and it's my job to understand them and perform appropriately.” “People that play instruments play different styles, and that's how I view my voice,” she said. Feliciano as Christine in Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera." Photo credit: Greg Mills. Switching back and forth between opera and musical theater has worked out in her favor, Feliciano said, giving her the ability to use her voice as a versatile instrument. “She's always said, ‘You’re going to sing it well.’” “Professor Thomas has always supported me in whatever I wanted to sing,” Feliciano said. In her Playbill biography, Feliciano specifically thanks her Rice voice professor and Thomas Jaber, the university’s director of choral activities and professor of vocal coaching, for “helping her find her voice.” “And there's just something about seeing it on you and having someone fit it to you. “These costumes are so iconic,” she said. She burst into tears during her first costume fitting for Christine, standing next to the same dress Sarah Brightman wore when she performed the legendary role on Broadway beginning in 1988 “The outpouring of love I’ve received is overwhelming,” she said. She called it an “honor and privilege to accomplish one of my dreams with so many people I adore there alongside me.” Feliciano and the rest of the cast of Broadway's "Phantom of the Opera" take a bow following Feliciano's debut covering the role of Christine. She officially joined the show in the role of page and understudy for Christine Daaé and began rehearsals in late spring.įeliciano took the stage in her first performance as Christine June 27 and made history as the first Latina and second Black woman to perform the role. The role eventually went to Emilie Kouatchou.īut after the limited-run “Flying Over Sunset” closed in January, “Phantom” came calling again. ![]() ![]() Just months after her Broadway debut in James Lapine’s musical “Flying Over Sunset,” Rice Artist Diploma student Kanisha Feliciano has joined the cast of Broadway’s longest-running musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “The Phantom of the Opera.”įeliciano, a student of Rice voice professor Nova Thomas, originally auditioned for the role of Christine Daaé in “Phantom” in 2021, and was one of two finalists out of 4,000 hopefuls. ![]()
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