Rosanna Riverso didn't find her entertainment with Bugs Bunny and Romper Room like most kids.

It was the booming baritone of Luciano Pavarotti that held her in thrall as an east Hamilton youngster and propelled her to her own singing career as an adult.

"I was just amazed whenever my parents (Gabriel and Nancy) would put on Pavarotti when I was a kid," she said.

"It was that voice. It captivated me and I stood still."

Now it's her own soprano voice that has her singing career doing anything but standing still.

Riverso, 28, has established herself with personal and TV appearances in Canada and is looking to crack the U.S. market at the end of next month as a guest performer at the Jimmy Kimmel San Gennaro Festival in Hollywood. The mission of The San Gennaro Foundation is to uphold the principles that were established by St. Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples. Late night talk show host Kimmel, whose ancestry is both Italian and German, and comic Adam Corolla have been sponsoring the big Italian festival for about six years.

Riverso said she does not know of any Canadian entertainers who have ever been invited to the three-day event.

"They were impressed by my promotional video and wanted to book me," Riverso said. "It's definitely the biggest booking I've had in the States.

"I intend to set up some meetings (with agents) while I'm down there. I have a lot of good contacts in Toronto now, so hopefully they can help me with people they know down there."

Riverso says she has always loved to sing and credited her Grade 2 teacher at St. Luke's School, Carmine Genovese, for first recognizing her innate vocal talents.

She started singing with the Hamilton Children's Choir at age seven and hasn't stopped performing since.

Riverso studied business at Wilfrid Laurier University but mixed that with piano and singing lessons in classical, jazz and pop.

That led to dinner theatres, corporate events, weddings, a host of Italian events and appearances on the TLN television network.

"I'm a soprano but as a result of a lot of training I can also sing down much lower.

"That allows me to be versatile with other genres and I surprise people.

"I'm working full-time in the industry now and I'm very happy about that.

"It has taken a lot of work to get to this point and but I really see things picking up in the last few years."

Riverso has moved to Mississauga to be closer to the music business in Toronto but still considers Hamilton home.

Her dedication to the city includes being founder and chair of Harmony for Hope, a 2007 benefit dinner and concert for the Juravinski Cancer Centre in Hamilton that raised almost $60,000.

Riverso is currently spending much of her time writing for an album she hopes will be released in the new year.

Samples of her singing are available on her website rosannariverso.com. She will also be featured on Inside Fashion on Global TV Aug. 23 at 11 a.m.

"For years my goal was to be able to sing full time and now that I can do that I've made a new goal to establish myself as a commercial artist doing original material.

"At the end of the day, I just love singing."

dfoley@thespec.com

905-526-3264