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From heavy metal to opera performer

Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmenw

Astoria artist Adelmo Guidarelli, 40, has been named the 2011 Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs (MAC) award winner for best Comedy/Musical Comedy Performer.

“It’s not something I ever thought about. I mean, I think I’m pretty funny, but this is on a completely different level,” said Guidarelli. “The award is for my performance in the one-man show ‘Operation Adelmo,’ written and directed by Michael Mackenzie Wills, who has worked with such comic greats as Penn & Teller and Blue Man Group.”

Guidarelli attended The Music Conservatory of Westchester, the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music and is a graduate of the Jerome Hines Opera Music Theatre International Program. Guidarelli currently studies privately and receives coaching at the Met.

Guidarelli was also recently selected by producer Ryan Seacrest on the season premiere of his show “Bank of Hollywood” to present Mozart’s “Non più andrai.”

Guidarelli’s director Wills had worked with Penn & Teller when they lived in New York and performed on “Late Night with David Letterman” regularly.

“They would rehearse their Letterman appearances by having Eddie Gorogetsky play Letterman and ask every possible question Letterman might ask. Eddie had been a writer for Letterman and “Saturday Night Live.” Mike [Guidarelli’s director] did the same for me. He chose what piece I would present and then we rehearsed with him asking me every possible question the judges might ask and we worked out the best answers for each question,” said Guidarelli.

“When Ryan Seacrest’s personal assistant first called, I thought it was my sister-in-law pranking me,” said Guidarelli. “I arrived in Los Angeles very prepared and the experience was really great. The audience loved it, the judges loved it, and I loved it.”

Guidarelli was born in Greenwich, Connecticut. When he was six, his parents moved to the Silver Lake area of Harrison, a suburb of White Plains. In 2006, Guidarelli met his wife and she showed him all the great things Queens has to offer an artist.

Growing up, Guidarelli played the lead in many school plays. In high school he got into Heavy Metal and formed a garage band called “Defcon,” where they played Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Queensryche, TNT and Metallica.

“It was during that time that my Mom made me take voice lessens because she was tired of hearing me scream out of tune in my bedroom. I started taking lessons and learned that the singers from the bands I admired were classically trained,” said Guidarelli. “My very first voice teacher told me she heard an ‘operatic’ quality in my voice, and that’s how it all began. At this early fork in the road to my success I turned my focus from becoming a Heavy Metal star like my idols, to becoming an opera singer.”

“I’m currently preparing for a Metropolitan Opera audition that I have coming up in 2012. I want to play The Met and sing in Vegas,” said Guidarelli. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask.”

Guidarelli has many performers who he admires and would like to work with someday.

“I am inspired by artists with a tenacious drive to expand their horizons, opera singer Bryn Terfel, Italian pop-singer Giorgia, actors Neil Patrick Harris and Hugh Jackman,” said Guidarelli. “I recently debuted in the title role of Puccini’s “Gianni Schicci” with Maestro Anton Coppola, the uncle of the famous Francis Ford. He is in his 90’s and has an amazing energy and zest for life.”

Guidarelli’s production team is a member of The Association of Performing Arts Presenters, APAP.

“January 6 and 8, I am going to be doing two showcase performances of the show we presented so successfully at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Also, on February 20 we are presenting ‘Operation Adelmo’ at Symphony Space, as a fund raiser and gala for Opera Manhattan,” said Guidarelli.