In 2004 Sean Panikkar, a young tenor from Bloomsburg, Columbia County, auditioned for the Pittsburgh Opera Center as well as San Francisco Opera's Merola program. He was accepted into both. There were no conflicts because Merola was a summer program and Pittsburgh started in the fall. But by the time Mr. Panikkar had finished his summer stint, he was awarded one of San Francisco's prestigious Adler Fellowships, a residency that overlapped with his Pittsburgh obligations.

With his canny insight and perception, Pittsburgh Opera director Christopher Hahn decided to release Mr. Panikkar from his contract here but allowed him to do the first part of the season in Pittsburgh, up to the point that he was due to arrive on the West Coast. "Christopher was extremely gracious in allowing me to leave, which he didn't have to do," says Mr. Panikkar.

The local director says that when the tenor auditioned, "I found he had one of the most striking voices. I realized that while he would get excellent training in both places, he would have even more opportunities as an Adler Fellow. "He has an honesty and directness in his sound," Mr. Hahn says, "a brightness and silvery quality that will cut through in big spaces. He'll have no trouble at the Met." He also notes "a nobility and kind of aristocracy that he has on stage." Mr. Hahn was right in his instincts. The tenor's career blossomed after that, and by January 2008 he had made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Edmondo -- an important secondary role -- in Puccini's "Manon Lescaut." That production was telecast worldwide on The Met in HD.

Pianist-coach Ronald Valentino, a former Pittsburgher who worked with Mr. Panikkar in the Merola and Adler programs, has similar words of praise: "I knew Sean had a lot of potential right from the beginning. He immediately emerged as one of the best singers in the group. The voice was always awesome!"

Mr. Panikkar, 30, has sung several roles with Pittsburgh Opera since his brief local residency, and on Saturday he will take on his biggest assignment so far: the lead role of Nadir in Bizet's "The Pearl Fishers." The opera itself was Bizet's first big success, and though this melodious work never achieved the popularity of that composer's "Carmen," it contains two numbers -- both featuring the tenor -- that are familiar even to people to may not know where the tunes come from: the duet with baritone, "Au fond du temple saint" and the aria, "Je crois entendre encore." And the singer feels that those two moments are the most difficult in the opera.

"My voice is a full lyric tenor," Mr. Panikkar explains. "Some people think I'm headed for the spinto [heavier] repertory, but that aria is almost written for a different kind of tenor than the rest of the role. It's light and soft. It sits in the passaggio part of the voice. I have to scale back. And in this staging I'm singing it lying down! The famous duet is stressful for many of the same reasons." He adds that "it's harder to be a tenor than a baritone or a bass, because we sing in a part of the voice that's less natural."

"The Pearl Fishers" takes place in old Ceylon, and the tenor from Bloomsburg may become typecast in this role. Although he has never visited present-day Sri Lanka, his parents and older brother were born there. The parents immigrated to the United States because his father, an anesthesiologist, was a member of the Sinhalese majority, while his mother was Tamil (the largest ethnic minority), and the country has had a long history of civil conflict between the two sides.

"My father went to medical school in Kandy," the young singer explains, "the town where Nadir and Zurga remember meeting Leila in the duet; and my uncle was actually a pearl and oyster diver when he was growing up."

There's still another Pittsburgh Opera connection. Mr. Panikkar's first voice teacher was soprano Li-Ping Hsieh, who sang the Countess in Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" here in 1969 and attended graduate school at Duquesne University. It was Ms. Hsieh who talked the young singer into auditioning to be a music major at the University of Michigan, even though his parents would have preferred him to pursue a "normal" profession such as architecture or medicine. He compromised by taking a double major along with engineering.

Now the tenor says, "I can't imagine my life without music. I love singing. I enjoy the rehearsal process most, watching things come together." He says he would love to do an important world premiere: "My favorite part of the opera is that whole creation process."

He knows there are sacrifices to be made, however. "It's a fun career, but it's miserable to be away from your family. My second child was born seven weeks ago. My wife is like a single mother when I'm away. When I go home I do the cooking and cleaning to give my wife a break. I become Mr. Mom."

First Published: November 10, 2011, 10:00 a.m.