Family and Opera with Torlef Borsting and Cass Penuska

Cass loves singing and connecting with people, and she believes that experiencing the power of the human voice can initiate emotional catharsis, joy, transformation, inspiration, and even healing. she was fortunate to grow up in a small community where the traditions of storytelling and music-making run deep. As a child, Cass would go to ceilidhs – parties – and the live music would prompt everyone in the room to jump up and step dance or square dance, joining in the fun. Cass has kept this love of music with her as she studied classical singing and embarked on her own professional performing career. She considers herself lucky to have been influenced by this kind of musical spontaneity and interactive enjoyment from a young age. Her performing philosophy is based on these early life experiences, emphasizing personal interaction and connection, joy, and healing through sharing beautiful vocal music.

Torlef Borsting’s powerful baritone fuses with sensitivity, compassion, and lyricism to lend a musical and dramatic depth to characters such as Scarpia in Tosca, Germont in La Traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West. His is a voice ideal for the commanding presence of Verdi, the emotional swell of Puccini, the flexibility and movement of Donizetti, and the nuance of Mozart.

Other leading roles in his repertoire include Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Prince Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Dr. Bartolo in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Leporello in Don Giovanni and Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, where his vocal prowess was lauded by East Bay Times as having “appropriate gusto…[moving] convincingly from rowdy full-voice banter at the saloon with his pals to sotto voce crooning to Baby Doe.”

A native of Hawaii, Torlef has spent most of his time on the West Coast, performing leading and supporting roles with companies including San Francisco Opera, Opera Parallèlle, West Bay Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera San Jose, Livermore Valley Opera, Opera San Luis Obispo, Berkeley Opera,and others. In concert, he has performed as a soloist with Pacific Chamber Symphony, Mendocino Music Festival, Oakland Symphony Chorus, Symphony Parnassus, Cantare con Vivo, and Oakland Civic Orchestra.

In 2018, Torlef made a move across the country with his family to Florida, where he now resides. He has since made company debuts with Opera Orlando, Indianapolis Opera, New York City Opera, and looks forward to his first dive into Wagner’s Ring Cycle in the summer of 2022 with Tundi Productions in Brattleboro, VT.

Torlef’s foray into classical singing happened almost by chance; a series of events and an assignment to watch Le nozze di Figaro saw him shift from being a low brass performer at the end of his undergraduate degree studies to being fully-committed toward becoming an opera singer.

Cass loves singing and connecting with people, and she believes that experiencing the power of the human voice can initiate emotional catharsis, joy, transformation, inspiration, and even healing. she was fortunate to grow up in a small community where the traditions of storytelling and music-making run deep. As a child, Cass would go to ceilidhs – parties – and the live music would prompt everyone in the room to jump up and step dance or square dance, joining in the fun. Cass has kept this love of music with her as she studied classical singing and embarked on her own professional performing career. She considers herself lucky to have been influenced by this kind of musical spontaneity and interactive enjoyment from a young age. Her performing philosophy is based on these early life experiences, emphasizing personal interaction and connection, joy, and healing through sharing beautiful vocal music.

Torlef Borsting’s powerful baritone fuses with sensitivity, compassion, and lyricism to lend a musical and dramatic depth to characters such as Scarpia in Tosca, Germont in La Traviata, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, and Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West. His is a voice ideal for the commanding presence of Verdi, the emotional swell of Puccini, the flexibility and movement of Donizetti, and the nuance of Mozart.

Other leading roles in his repertoire include Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Prince Yeletsky in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades, Dr. Bartolo in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Leporello in Don Giovanni and Horace Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, where his vocal prowess was lauded by East Bay Times as having “appropriate gusto…[moving] convincingly from rowdy full-voice banter at the saloon with his pals to sotto voce crooning to Baby Doe.”

A native of Hawaii, Torlef has spent most of his time on the West Coast, performing leading and supporting roles with companies including San Francisco Opera, Opera Parallèlle, West Bay Opera, Sacramento Opera, Opera San Jose, Livermore Valley Opera, Opera San Luis Obispo, Berkeley Opera,and others. In concert, he has performed as a soloist with Pacific Chamber Symphony, Mendocino Music Festival, Oakland Symphony Chorus, Symphony Parnassus, Cantare con Vivo, and Oakland Civic Orchestra.

In 2018, Torlef made a move across the country with his family to Florida, where he now resides. He has since made company debuts with Opera Orlando, Indianapolis Opera, New York City Opera, and looks forward to his first dive into Wagner’s Ring Cycle in the summer of 2022 with Tundi Productions in Brattleboro, VT.

Torlef’s foray into classical singing happened almost by chance; a series of events and an assignment to watch Le nozze di Figaro saw him shift from being a low brass performer at the end of his undergraduate degree studies to being fully-committed toward becoming an opera singer.