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TIME FOR EMILE
Justino Diaz feels that he is now mature enough to play Emile de Becque - in New York City Opera's South Pacific

[[image - black and white photo of Susan Bigelow and Justino Diaz]]
Susan Bigelow shares an enchanted evening with Justino Diaz in South Pacific

[[photograph]] MARTHA SWOPE ASSOCIATES/SUSAN COOK

Many years ago in his native Puerto Rico, Justino Diaz was asked to play Emile de Becque in a community theatre production of Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific. But the group had to find someone else to portray the sophisticated, middle-aged leading man; 17-year-old Justino could not get his father's permission to participate in the project.

"I was taking vocal lessons, and I already had a pretty decent bass-baritone voice," Diaz recalls. "I guess that's why they asked me. But my father was afraid I'd be taking too much time away from my high-school studies. It was probably the right decision. I wouldn't have looked too convincing in the part, even if they had poured half a jar of baby powder in my hair. But at this point, after 30 years in opera, I think I can pass for a mature French plantation owner very easily."

Diaz is currently doing just that, alternating with Stanley Wexler in the New York City Opera production of South Pacific, which runs through April 26. And the internationally renowned singer claims he's been waiting many years to play Emile de Becque. "I've wanted to do South Pacific for a long time," he says, "but I had shied away from it before because I thought I might have looked too juvenile for the part. This is a man who has been through a lot, a man who is not young anymore. And this maturity must come through. he must be very sure of himself, of what he wants in life. And this is usually a quality that occurs later in life. I feel I am now able to identify with the character and to sympathize with him more than I could have a long time ago."

Indeed, Diaz offstage exudes the same quiet self-assurance as his current stage persona. That confidence is likely the by-product of a steady series of successes which began in 1963 when he won the Metropolitan Opera National Council's Regional Auditions and, as a result, a Met contract. He made his debut there at 23, playing the elderly Monterone in Rigoletto. Two years later he was tackling Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust.

"Everything happened very fast for me," he admits. "I made my debut at age 17 in San Juan in a production of Menoti's The Telephone. I then went to study at the New England Conservatory of Music, but after two-and-a-half years I got impatient and moved to New York. Six years after my professional debut, I was singing at the Met.

"When you are successful at an early age, you think this is how it happens for everybody. You usually appreciate things more if you've suffered. I didn't take stock of this until much later. Looking back, I think that what helped me keep my perspective is that I didn't set my sights too

by Sheryl Flatow

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[[image - color image of the Tapia Theatre and Justino Diaz]]

Justino Diaz: "Puerto Rico has been the cultural center of the Caribbean since Columbus first sang its praises."

It was an honor for opera great Justino Diaz to inaugurate the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
But not even his most current role as Iago in Zeffirelli's new film Otello has given him more of a thrill than inaugurating the restored Tapia Theatre (shown above) and the new Performing Arts Center in his homeland of Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rio has long been a mecca for the performing arts. Symphony, opera, ballet, dance, drama, and, of course, the world renowned Festival Casals - they're all a vital part of the rich culture of this charming island.

For a free color brochure, write: Puerto Rico Tourism, 1290 Avenue of the Americas, Box 9, NY, NY 10104. Or call a Puerto Rico Travel Expert at (800) 223-6530. In NY, (212) 541-6630.

[[image - color picture of United States and Puerto Rico flags]]

PUERTO RICO/The Shining Star of the Caribbean

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