Giuseppe Verdi's Nabucco
LA Opera's revival of Nabucco convinced us of the thrilling musical power of Verdi’s first masterpiece. James Conlon’s conducting of the overture was a model of control, balancing gigantic dramatic statements with pleasingly fluid lyricism; later, the great ensembles, which comprise much of the action, unfolded with stately grandeur... Plácido Domingo’s interpretation of Nabucco was revelatory."
James Conlon conducted a stellar cast in a powerful interpretation of Verdi’s early masterpiece, LA Opera’s first presentation of Nabucco in 15 years. The fascinating production, directed and designed by Thaddeus Strassberger, interpreted Nabucco through the lens of Verdi’s own time by framing it as a sort of opera-within-an-opera, set in the tense political atmosphere of the work’s 1842 premiere. The iconic chorus “Va, pensiero” returned during the curtain call as a dramatically charged encore, with the audience in the house invited to join in.
Cast
- Nabucco
- Plácido Domingo
- Abigaille
- Liudmyla Monastyrska
- Zaccaria
- Morris Robinson
- Ismaele
- Mario Chang
- Fenena
- Nancy Fabiola Herrera
- Anna
- High Priest of Baal
- Gabriel Vamvulescu
- Abdallo
Plácido Domingo
Nabucco

Plácido Domingo is recognized as one of the finest and most influential singing actors in the history of opera.
He has sung more than 150 different roles to date, with more than 3900 total career performances. An integral part of LA Opera since its earliest days, he served as the company's general director from 2003 to 2019.
His more than 100 recordings of complete operas, compilations of arias and duets, and crossover discs have earned him 12 Grammy Awards, including three Latin Grammys, and he has made more than 50 music videos and won two Emmy Awards. In addition to starring in three feature opera films—Carmen, La Traviata and Otello—he voiced the roles of Monte in Beverly Hills Chihuahua and Skeleton Jorge in The Book of Life, and also appeared as himself on Sesame Street and The Simpsons. His telecast of Tosca from the authentic settings in Rome was seen by more than one billion people in 117 countries. He subsequently took the title role in a 2010 live telecast of Rigoletto from Mantua, Italy, the city in which the opera’s story takes place. In 1990, he and his colleagues José Carreras and the late Luciano Pavarotti formed the Three Tenors, performing with enormous success all over the world and attracted millions of new fans to opera.
He has conducted more than 500 opera performances and symphonic concerts with the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Chicago Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Montréal Symphony, National Symphony, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic. In 2018, he made his debut at the Bayreuth Festival as a conductor, leading performances of Die Walküre. In 1993, he founded the international voice competition Operalia.
He has received honorary doctorates from Oxford University and New York University for his lifelong commitment and contribution to music and the arts. He made his first stage appearances in a leading baritone role in 2009, performing the title role of Simon Boccanegra in Berlin. Since then, he has added several additional Verdi baritone roles to his repertoire, with appearances in Don Carlo, Rigoletto, The Two Foscari, La Traviata, Nabucco, Giovanna d’Arco, Il Trovatore, Macbeth, Ernani and Luisa Miller. He has also won acclaim in the baritone roles of Athanaël in Massenet’s Thaïs, the title role of Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Zurga in The Pearl Fishers (his 150th role, as of August 23, 2018, which he performed at the Salzburg Festival).
In addition to numerous concerts worldwide, his singing engagements for the 2018/19 season include Giorgio Germont in La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and the Royal Opera House Muscat; the title role of Gianni Schicchi with the Metropolitan Opera; Rodrigo in Don Carlo and Juanillo in El Gato Montés for LA Opera; the title role of Simon Boccanegra with the Vienna State Opera; the title role of Macbeth with Berlin’s Staatsoper Unter den Linden; and the title role of Nabucco with the Semperoper Dresden. Further engagements include Giorgio Germont in La Traviata at the Munich Opera Festival and Giacomo in Giovanna d’Arco with Madrid’s Teatro Real.
His conducting engagements for the season include a concert of Spanish music with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, a gala concert with the Vienna Philharmonic at La Scala in Milan, as well as productions of Aida for the Metropolitan Opera and of La Traviata for the Royal Opera House Muscat. (PlacidoDomingo.com)
Liudmyla Monastyrska
Abigaille

Liudmyla Monastyrska made her LA Opera debut in 2017 as Abigaille in Nabucco.
Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska is acclaimed for her lush, powerful, compelling performances and superb technical command. Her relationships with European, American and Asian opera houses have continued to expand following her highly acclaimed 2010 debut with Deutsche Oper Berlin in the title role of Tosca.
In the 2019/20 season, she continues her successes as Abigaille in Nabucco at Staatsoper Hamburg, Odabella in Attila with Münchener Runfunkorchester and Tosca at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma.
She returns to Teatro alla Scala as Leonora in Il Trovatore and then to the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana. And she finishes her new season at Deutsche Oper Berlin as both Leonora in La Forza del Destino and Abigaille in Nabucco.
The 2018/19 season saw Ms. Monastyrska star in new productions of La Forza del Destino conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano at Covent Garden and Tosca at the Gran Teatre del Liceu. She also made her role debut as Leonora in Il Trovatore at the Staatsoper Berlin and returned to the Deutsche Oper Berlin as Tosca, as well as the Vienna Staatsoper as Abigaille in Nabucco. She also appeared in opera gala concerts in Greece with Dimitri Platanias and Latvia to celebrate the Latvian National Opera’s centennial.
Ms. Monastyrska’s began her 2017/18 season with her LA Opera debut as Abigaille in Nabucco, conducted by James Conlon and opposite Placido Domingo. She also made her role debut as the title role of Norma at the Houston Grand Opera led by Patrick Summers. She returned to Germany for two productions with the Deutsche Oper Berlin where she sang the title role of Tosca and Abigaille in Nabucco. Her season closed in Barcelona at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, where she made her role debut in the title role of Manon Lescaut.
Recent season highlights with the Opera National de Paris include the title roles of Tosca and Aida; with the Metropolitan Opera the title roles of Tosca and Aida, Abigaille in Nabucco with Placido Domingo, and Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana; with Deutsche Oper Berlin the title role of Tosca and Abigaille in Nabucco. She also sang the role of Abigaille with Placido Domingo at London’s Royal Opera House, and made her debut with the Vienna State Opera singing the title role in Aida under conductor Simone Young. Additional performances included the title role of Tosca under Patrick Summers for Houston Grand Opera, and in summer 2015 she toured through Japan and sang the role of Lady Macbeth in Macbeth with the Royal Opera House led by conductor Sir Antonio Pappano.
Among Ms. Monastyrska’s many performance credits are Macbeth with Maestro Pappano and Nabucco with Nicolà Luisiotti at London’s Royal Opera House (both new productions), and Nabucco, Cavalleria Rusticana and Aida at La Scala. Aida has also served as her introduction to the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Vienna State Opera, as well as the Hollywood Bowl, where she sang Aida in concert under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. With the Deutsche Oper Berlin, she has appeared in productions of Tosca, Macbeth and Nabucco, as well as a concert version of Attila. Ms. Monastyrska has sung Verdi’s Requiem at Rome’s Accademia di Santa Cecilia as well as with the Cleveland Orchestra, and has also sung La Forza del Destino with Zubin Mehta at Valencia’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia. She appeared in Macbeth with the Staatsoper Berlin, sharing the stage with Placido Domingo, and made her Italian debut with Festival Puccini in Torre del Lago, Italy. In 2015, she made her debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival conducted by Christian Thielemann, singing the role of Santuzza in a new production
of Cavalleria Rusticana with Jonas Kaufmann, as well as the Verdi Requiem.
Ms. Monastyrska can be seen/heard on DVDs of Macbeth and Nabucco – both from the Royal Opera (Opus Arte), and in Sony Classics DVD of Cavalleria Rusticana from the 2015 Salzburg Easter Festival with the Staatskapelle Dresden.
Born in Kiev, Liudmyla Monastyrska was a principal soloist with the Ukraine National Opera for several years before expanding her international career. Ms. Monastyrska and her family make their home in Kiev.
Morris Robinson
Zaccaria

From: Atlanta, Georgia. LA Opera: Sarastro in The Magic Flute (2009, debut); Fasolt in Das Rheingold (2009, 2010); Oroveso in Norma (2015); Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio (2017); Zaccaria in Nabucco (2017); Sparafucile in Rigoletto (2018); Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo (2018); Parsi Rustomji in Satyagraha (2018); Ferrando in Il Trovatore (2021); Hermann in Tannhäuser (2021); Ramfis in Aida (2022); Lodovico in Otello (2023); Timur in Turandot (2024).
Morris Robinson is considered one the most interesting and sought-after basses performing today.
He regularly appears at the Metropolitan Opera, where he is a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Program. He debuted there in a production of Fidelio and has since appeared as Sarastro in The Magic Flute (both in the original production and in the children’s English version), Ferrando in Il Trovatore, the King in Aida, and in roles in Nabucco, Tannhäuser, and the new productions of Les Troyens and Salome. He has also appeared at the San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, LA Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Teatro alla Scala, Volksoper Wien, Opera Australia, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. His many roles include the title role in Porgy and Bess, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Ramfis in Aida, Zaccaria in Nabucco, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo, Timur in Turandot, the Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Padre Guardiano in La Forza del Destino, Ferrando in Il Trovatore, and Fasolt in Das Rheingold.
Also a prolific concert singer, Mr. Robinson’s recently made his debut with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in performances of the Mahler Symphony No. 8 with its music director, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyl. His many concert engagements have included appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (where he was the 2015/16 Artist in Residence), San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, L’Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, Met Chamber Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, New England String Ensemble, and at the BBC Proms and the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, Verbier, and Aspen Music Festivals. He also appeared in Carnegie Hall as part of Jessye Norman’s HONOR! Festival. In recital he has been presented by Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Savannah Music Festival, the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Mr. Robinson’s solo album, Going Home, was released on the Decca label. He also appears as Joe in the DVD of the San Francisco Opera production of Show Boat, and in the DVDs of the Metropolitan Opera’s production of Salome and the Aix-en-Provence Festival’s production of Mozart’s Zaide.
For the reduced 2020/21 season, Mr. Robinson returns to both the Michigan Opera Theater and the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Haggen in Twilight: Gods, an innovative production of Gotterdämmerung created by Yuval Sharon. He also sings Sparafucile in a special performance of Rigolettto produced by the Tulsa Opera. He is also a member of the Atlanta Opera’s Company Players for the 2020/21 season where he will appear in various concerts, recitals, and educations outreach events throughout the year.
An Atlanta native, Mr. Robinson is a graduate of The Citadel and received his musical training from the Boston University Opera Institute. He was recently named Artistic Advisor to the Cincinnati Opera.
To learn more, visit MorrisRobinson.com.
Mario Chang
Ismaele
Nancy Fabiola Herrera
Fenena

Spanish mezzo-soprano Nancy Fabiola Herrera entrances audiences and critics around the world.
She enjoyed many great successes on 2018, including the releases of two new recording. She appeared in concert at the Barbican Center with the London BBC as Rosario in Granado´s Goyescas, recorded by Harmonia Mundi, and also appeared in concert with the Manchester BBC as Salud in Falla's La vida breve, recorded by Chandos. She received the Opera Actual Magazine 2018 Lifetime Career Achievement Award. She also made her debut at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires as Isabella in L´Italiana in Algeri.
Other concert appearances included Rossini´s Stabat Mater in Malaga, the Verdi Requiem at Palma de Mallorca´s Cathedral, a concert at Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow with Alexis Soriano, Mahler´s 3rd Symphony with the OSSODRE in Uruguay, a concert tour with the Valencia Soloists Septet, and the Verdi Requiem in San Sebastián and Guadalajara (Mexico) conducted by Plácido Domingo. She also performs recitals at Palau de la Musica de Valencia, and with soprano Ainhoa Arteta at the Benicassim Festival. Another successful debut was as Bernarda in Miguel Ortega's La casa de Bernarda Alba at Madrid's Teatro de la Zarzuela, conducted by the composer.
Carmen is undoubtedly Ms. Herrera´s signature role. Her hypnotic portrayal has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Bolshoi Theater in Moscow, New National Theater in Tokyo, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Munich's Bavarian State Opera, Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Dresden Semperoper, Masada Festival, Israeli Opera, LA Opera (where she received the Plácido Domingo Award for her performance of this role), Teatro Bellas Artes in México, and other Spanish theaters such as Sabadell Opera, Teatro Villamarta in Jerez, San Sebastian, Teatro Pérez Galdós in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Santander and Lyric Opera of A Coruña among others. In summer 2009 she opened the season at the Arena di Verona as Carmen and was honored to perform Act IV of the opera with Plácido Domingo in his 40th anniversary gala there.
Her one-woman show Gitanas has been seen in Madrid´s Teatro de La Zarzuela and Teatro Pérez Galdós of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. In this show Ms. Herrera becomes immersed in the charm and passion of the gypsy universe, interpreting some of the most fascinating characters in the world of opera, zarzuela and the symphonic repertoire.
Her most recent and future engagements include her Houston Grand Opera debut as Paula in Florencia en el Amazonas, El Gato Montés at LA Opera with Placido Domingo, Guilietta in The Tales of Hoffmann at the National Theater in Beijing, and Dalila in Samson et Dalila at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, among others. (NancyFabiolaHerrera.com)
Anna
Gabriel Vamvulescu
High Priest of Baal
Abdallo
Creative Team
- Conductor
- James Conlon
- Director/Scenery
- Thaddeus Strassberger
- Costumes
- Mattie Ullrich
- Mark McCullough
- Lighting
- Mark McCullough
- Chorus Director
- Grant Gershon
- Fight Choreographer
- Austin Spangler
James Conlon
Conductor

James Conlon has been LA Opera's Richard Seaver Music Director since 2006.
Since his debut that year with La Traviata, he has conducted 67 different operas and more than 450 performances to date with the company.
(Click here to visit James Conlon's Corner, where you can find essays, videos and conversations he has created especially for LA Opera.)
Internationally recognized as one of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. Since his 1974 debut with the New York Philharmonic, he has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra, and at many of the world’s leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography and filmography, numerous writings, television appearances, and guest speaking engagements, Conlon is one of classical music’s most recognized and prolific figures.
Conlon has been Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (2016–20); Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera (1995–2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989–2003), simultaneously leading the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1983–91). Conlon was Music Director of the Ravinia Festival (2005–15), summer home of the Chicago Symphony, and is now Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati May Festival―the oldest choral festival in the United States―where he was Music Director for 37 years (1979–2016), marking one of the longest tenures of any director of an American classical music institution. He also served as Artistic Advisor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (2021–2023). He has conducted over 270 performances at the Metropolitan Opera since his 1976 debut. He has also conducted at leading opera houses and festivals such as the Vienna State Opera, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Mariinsky Theatre, Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
As Music Director of LA Opera, Conlon has led more operas than any other conductor in company history. Highlights of his LA Opera tenure include the company’s first Ring cycle; initiating the groundbreaking Recovered Voices series, an ongoing commitment to staging masterpieces of 20th-century European opera suppressed by the Third Reich; spearheading Britten 100/LA, a city-wide celebration honoring the composer’s centennial; and conducting the West Coast premiere of The Anonymous Lover by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a prominent Black composer in 18th-century France.
Conlon opens his 18th season at LA Opera conducting Mozart’s Don Giovanni directed by Kasper Holten. His groundbreaking Recovered Voices initiative, dedicated to rescuing works from historical neglect or censorship, returns to the company with a double-bill featuring the company premiere of William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA in a new production directed by Kaneza Schaal, and a revival of Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf (Der Zwerg)—an opera that launched the Recovered Voices initiative in 2008—directed by Darko Tresnjak. He also conducts Verdi’s La Traviata—the first opera he led as Music Director of LA Opera—continuing his multi-season focus on the works of the great Italian composer. To date, Conlon has conducted more than 500 international performances of Verdi’s repertoire. Conlon closes his LA Opera season honoring the 100th anniversary of Puccini’s death, conducting Turandot, Puccini’s final opera composed in 1924.
Additional highlights of his season include returning to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra to lead Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and conducting Wagner’s Lohengrin at Deutsche Oper Berlin. He also returns to Switzerland’s Bern Symphony, where he is Principal Guest Conductor, to lead three programs including Schubert and Beethoven symphonies, a celebratory New Years Day concert, and a season finale with Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5.
Conlon is dedicated to bringing composers silenced by the Nazi regime to more widespread attention, often programming this lesser-known repertoire throughout Europe and North America. In 1999 he received the Vienna-based Zemlinsky Prize for his work bringing the composer’s music to a broader audience; in 2013 he was awarded the Roger E. Joseph Prize at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for his efforts to eradicate racial and religious prejudice and discrimination; and in 2007 he received the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League. His work on behalf of silenced composers led to the creation of The OREL Foundation, an invaluable resource on the topic for music lovers, students, musicians, and scholars; the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School; and a recent virtual TEDx Talk titled “Resurrecting Forbidden Music.”
Conlon is deeply invested in the role of music in civic life and the human experience. At LA Opera, his popular pre-performance talks blend musicology, literary studies, history, and social sciences to discuss the enduring power and relevance of opera and classical music. He also frequently collaborates with universities, museums, and other cultural institutions and works with scholars, practitioners, and community members across disciplines. He frequently appears throughout the country as a speaker on a variety of cultural and educational topics.
Conlon’s extensive discography and filmography spans the Bridge, Capriccio, Decca, EMI, Erato, and Sony Classical labels. His recordings of LA Opera productions have received four Grammy Awards, two respectively for John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and for Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Additional highlights include an ECHO Klassik Award-winning recording cycle of operas and orchestral works by Alexander Zemlinsky; a CD/DVD release of works by Viktor Ullmann, which won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik; and the world-premiere recording of Liszt’s oratorio St. Stanislaus.
Conlon holds four honorary doctorates, was one of the first five recipients of the Opera News Awards, and was distinguished by the New York Public Library as a Library Lion. He received a 2023 Cross of Honor for Science and Art (Österreichische Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst) from the Republic of Austria, and was named Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic. He was also named Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and, in 2002, personally accepted France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur, from then-President of the French Republic Jacques Chirac.
Learn more at JamesConlon.com.
Mr. Conlon’s first season as Artistic Advisor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra includes three weeks of concerts, starting with an October 2021 program of music by historically marginalized composers. The featured works are Alexander Zemlinsky’s Die Seejungfrau (The Mermaid), which is the piece that sparked Mr. Conlon’s interest in suppressed music from the early 20th century, and William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony, which reflects a theme that will recur throughout Mr. Conlon’s advisorship—the bringing of attention to works by American composers neglected due to their race. He returns in February 2022 for performances including Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony and the final scene of Wagner’s Die Walküre, with guest artists Christine Goerke and Greer Grimsley. The BSO season concludes in June 2022 with Mr. Conlon conducting an orchestra co-commission from Wynton Marsalis, Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Beatrice Rana, and Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony (“Leningrad”). As Artistic Advisor, in addition to leading these performances, Mr. Conlon will help ensure the continued artistic quality of the orchestra and fill many duties off the podium, including those related to artistic personnel—such as filling important vacancies and attracting exceptional musicians.
Additional highlights of Mr. Conlon’s season include Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at Rome Opera, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman at New National Theatre, Tokyo, the Paris Opera’s Gala lyrique with Renée Fleming, and concerts with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony and works by Beethoven and Bernstein), Gürzenich Orchester Köln (Sinfoniettas by Zemlinsky and Korngold), Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra (works by Shostakovich and Zemlinsky), and at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. Mr. Conlon’s 2021/22 season follows a spring and summer in which he was highly active amidst the re-opening of many venues to live performance. These engagements included concerts with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and RAI National Symphony Orchestra. He also led a series of performances in Spain scheduled around World Music Day (June 21). In Madrid, over a period of two days, he conducted the complete symphonies of Schumann and Brahms in collaboration with four different Spanish orchestras: the Orquesta Nacional de España, Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, and Joven Orquesta Nacional de España (JONDE). He subsequently conducted JONDE at the Festival de Granada and Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza. Additional summer 2021 engagements included the Aspen, Napa, Ravello, and Ravinia Festivals.
In an effort to call attention to lesser-known works of composers silenced by the Nazi regime, Mr. Conlon has devoted himself to extensive programming of this music throughout Europe and North America. In 1999 he received the Vienna-based Zemlinsky Prize for his efforts in bringing that composer’s music to international attention; in 2013 he was awarded the Roger E. Joseph Prize at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion for his extraordinary efforts to eradicate racial and religious prejudice and discrimination; and in 2007 he received the Crystal Globe Award from the Anti-Defamation League. His work on behalf of suppressed composers led to the creation of The OREL Foundation, an invaluable resource on the topic for music lovers, students, musicians, and scholars; the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices at the Colburn School; and a recent virtual TEDx Talk titled “Resurrecting Forbidden Music.”
Mr. Conlon is an enthusiastic advocate of public scholarship and cultural institutions as forums for the exchange of ideas and inquiry into the role music plays in our shared humanity and civic life. At LA Opera, he leads pre-performance talks, drawing upon musicology, literary studies, history, and social sciences to contemplate—together with his audience—the enduring power and relevance of opera and classical music in general. Additionally, he frequently collaborates with universities, museums, and other cultural institutions, and works with scholars, practitioners, and community members across disciplines. His appearances throughout the country as a speaker on a variety of cultural and educational topics are widely praised.
Mr. Conlon’s extensive discography and videography can be found on the Bridge, Capriccio, Decca, EMI, Erato, and Sony Classical labels. His recordings of LA Opera productions have received four Grammy Awards, two respectively for John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles and Kurt Weill’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny. Additional highlights include an ECHO Klassik Award-winning recording cycle of operas and orchestral works by Alexander Zemlinsky; a CD/DVD release of works by Viktor Ullmann, which won the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik; and the world-premiere recording of Liszt’s oratorio St. Stanislaus.
Mr. Conlon holds four honorary doctorates and has received numerous other awards. He was one of the first five recipients of the Opera News Awards, and was honored by the New York Public Library as a Library Lion. He was named Commendatore Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana by Sergio Mattarella, President of the Italian Republic. He was also named Commandeur de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture and, in 2002, personally accepted France’s highest honor, the Legion d’Honneur, from then-President of the French Republic Jacques Chirac.
Learn more at JamesConlon.com.
Thaddeus Strassberger
Director/Scenery

Thaddeus Strassberger has directed LAO productions of The Clemency of Titus, Nabucco and The Two Foscari.
He recently created new productions of The Tales of Hoffmann in Innsbruck, Martinů’s The Greek Passion at Ekaterinburg Opera, Rubinstein’s The Demon at Bard Summerscape and Carmen with The Danish National Opera. His acclaimed staging of Nabucco, first seen at Washington National Opera, has also been presented in Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Miami and Montreal. Other highlights include The Two Foscari and the world premiere of Glare for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden; the world premiere of David T. Little’s JFK, a co-production with Fort Worth and Montreal; the Russian premieres of The Passenger and of Satyagraha, which won a Golden Mask Award for Best Production, at the Ekaterinburg Opera and the Bolshoi Opera; and The Marriage of Figaro, The Rape of Lucretia and Don Giovanni for the Norwegian Opera. (TStrassberger.com)
Mattie Ullrich
Costumes

Recent opera productions include Pelléas et Mélisande for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Giulio Cesare in Tel Aviv, the world premiere of David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s JFK in Montreal and Fort Worth, Satyagraha in Ekaterinburg and Moscow, Don Giovanni in Oslo, The Two Foscari in Vienna, Valencia and at Covent Garden, The Oresteia for Bard Summerscape, Cavalli’s Eliogabalo for Gotham Chamber Opera, Nabucco in Washington DC, Montreal, Miami and Philadelphia, and Lucia di Lammermoor in San Francisco. She previously designed the costumes for LA Opera's recently productions of Nabucco and The Two Foscari. Off-Broadway credits include The Starry Messenger with Matthew Broderick, The Pride directed by Joe Mantello, Fault Lines directed by David Schwimmer, Things We Want directed by Ethan Hawke and Bad Dates starring Julie White at Playwrights Horizons. Film projects include Year of the Fish (Sundance), Shoplifting Chanel and the multi-festival award-winning short Sovereignty. (MattieUllrich.com)
Mark McCullough

Mark McCullough has designed lighting for LAO productions of Porgy and Bess, Lohengrin, Rigoletto, Florencia en el Amazonas, Nabucco and Candide.
Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, he collaborates frequently with the Glimmerglass Festival, where he has designed more than 20 productions. Other highlights include the lighting designs for The Marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera; Cyrano de Bergerac at La Scala, The Queen of Spades at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Norma at the Ópera Nacional de Chile and The Pearl Fishers at Houston Grand Opera.
Mark McCullough
Lighting

Mark McCullough has designed lighting for LAO productions of Porgy and Bess, Lohengrin, Rigoletto, Florencia en el Amazonas, Nabucco and Candide.
Originally from Charlotte, North Carolina, he collaborates frequently with the Glimmerglass Festival, where he has designed more than 20 productions. Other highlights include the lighting designs for The Marriage of Figaro at the Metropolitan Opera; Cyrano de Bergerac at La Scala, The Queen of Spades at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Norma at the Ópera Nacional de Chile and The Pearl Fishers at Houston Grand Opera.
Grant Gershon
Chorus Director

From: Alhambra, California. LA Opera: Resident Conductor from 2012 to 2022, he made his LAO conducting debut with La Traviata (2009). He has conducted 15 productions to date including, most recently, The Magic Flute in December 2019.
Hailed for his adventurous and bold artistic leadership, and for eliciting technically precise and expressive performances from musicians, Grammy Award-winner Grant Gershon celebrated his 20th anniversary as Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale in the 2021/22 season. The Los Angeles Times has said the Master Chorale "has become the most exciting chorus in the country under Grant Gershon,” a reflection on both his programming and performances.
During his tenure, Gershon has led more than 200 Master Chorale performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in programs encompassing a wide range of choral music, from the early pillars of the repertoire to contemporary compositions. He has led world premiere performances of major works by John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Eve Beglarian, Billy Childs, Gabriela Lena Frank, Ricky Ian Gordon, Shawn Kirchner, David Lang, Morten Lauridsen, Steve Reich, Ellen Reid, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and Chinary Ung, among many others.
Gershon is committed to increasing representation in the choral repertoire, and in 2020 he announced that the Master Chorale will reserve at least 50% of each future season for works by composers from historically excluded groups in classical music.
In July 2019, Gershon and the Master Chorale opened the famed Salzburg Festival with Lagrime di San Pietro, directed by Peter Sellars. The Salzburg performances received standing ovations and rave reviews from such outlets as the Süddeutsche Zeitung, which called Lagrime “painfully beautiful” (Schmerzliche schön). Gershon and the Master Chorale debuted the production in Los Angeles in 2016 and began touring the world with it in 2018. In its review of the premiere of Lagrime, the Los Angeles Times noted that the production “is a major accomplishment for the Master Chorale, which sang and acted brilliantly. It is also a major accomplishment for music history.”
He was the Resident Conductor of LA Opera from 2012 to 2022, and in this capacity conducted the West Coast premiere of Philip Glass’s Satyagraha in November 2018. He made his acclaimed debut with the company with La Traviata in 2009 and has subsequently conducted productions including Il Postino, Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Florencia en el Amazonas, Wonderful Town, The Tales of Hoffmann and The Pearl Fishers. In 2017, he made his San Francisco Opera debut conducting the world premiere of John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West directed by Peter Sellars, who also wrote the libretto, and made his Dutch National Opera debut with the same opera in March 2019. Gershon and Adams have an enduring friendship and professional relationship which began 27 years ago in Los Angeles when Gershon played keyboards in the pit for Nixon in China at LA Opera. Since then, Gershon has led the world premiere performances of Adams’ theater piece I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky, premiered his two-piano piece Hallelujah Junction (with Gloria Cheng), and conducted performances of Harmonium, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, El Niño, The Chairman Dances, and choruses from The Death of Klinghoffer.
In New York, Gershon has appeared at Carnegie Hall and at the historic Trinity Wall Street, and he has performed on the Great Performers series at Lincoln Center and the Making Music series at Zankel Hall. Other major appearances include performances at the Ravinia, Aspen, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Salzburg, and Vienna festivals, the South American premiere of LA Opera’s production of Il Postino in Chile, and performances with the Baltimore Symphony and the Coro e Orchestra del Teatro Regio di Torino in Turin, Italy. He has worked closely with numerous conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Simon Rattle, and his mentor, Esa-Pekka Salonen.
His discography includes the 2022 Grammy Award-winning recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as Grammy–nominated recordings of Sweeney Todd (New York Philharmonic Special Editions) and Ligeti’s Grand Macabre (Sony Classical); six commercial CDs with the Master Chorale, including Glass-Salonen (RCM), You Are (Variations) (Nonesuch), Daniel Variations (Nonesuch), A Good Understanding (Decca), Miserere (Decca), and the national anthems (Cantaloupe Music); and two live-performance albums, the Master Chorale’s 50th Season Celebration recording and Festival of Carols. He has also led the Master Chorale in performances for several major motion pictures soundtracks, including, at the request of John Williams, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Gershon was named Outstanding Alumnus of the Thornton School of Music in 2002 and received the USC Alumni Merit Award in 2017.
Austin Spangler
Fight Choreographer
Additional concert performance on November 14, 2017, at the Musco Center for the Arts.
Production made possible by generous gifts from Barbara Augusta Teichert and Marilyn Ziering. Additional generous support from The Seaver Endowment. Placido Domingo's appearance made possible by generous support from The Eva and Marc Stern Principals Artists Fund.