Benjamin Sloman

Benjamin Sloman gained first musical experience at a very young age in his native Australia, as a synagogue cantor and choir conductor in Sydney. In his early 20s, he decided to do something fruitful instead, went to New York City and studied law and finance. However, he could not refrain from also studying voice, first as a baritone, then as a tenor, with Tommy Lo Monaco (for the last year before Lo Monaco retired), then with Nicola Martinucci, Salvatore Fisichella, Marcello Giordani and others, which eventually made him second-think about Lo Monaco's teaching methods. This brought him into hefty conflicts with Lo Monaco devotee Jeremy Silver on various internet forums, where both of them seemed to spend much of their time. In some of those conflicts, also François Nouvion engaged, as he strongly disliked both Sloman and Silver, so a lot of heated argument on that front was to be found on this website, too.
After completing his studies in 2001, Sloman practiced law in New York, while singing opera as a second job. As a lawyer, he was admitted to the bar in both Australia and the USA. As a singer, he was admitted to Amore Opera, Bleecker Street Opera or Opera at the Hamptons, making his way to... similar low-class opera events outside New York, in Australia and in Italy, and finally even to the opera theaters of Erfurt and Antibes, as Andrea Chénier, seriously. Sloman seems to be a nice and modest guy, so I would love to be able to say something nice, too... well, the concept of singing opera part-time, beside a "real" main job, is certainly fun, even if the results are merely funny.

As for the recordings that were on this site already at François Nouvion's times, Sloman swears they were mislabeled, and not sung by himself. About one of them (Recondita armonia), I, too, had my doubts upon thorough examination, so I've taken it down from the site. But the two excerpts below are, to my ears, clearly sung by the same voice as the Pagliacci finale above. One of us, Sloman or myself, must be wrong. Please make up your own mind!