Rigoletto

She made her LA Opera debut in 2018 as Gilda in Rigoletto. In the 2017/18 season, Ms. Zaharia returned to the Deutsche Oper am Rhein ensemble where her roles included the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Gilda in Rigoletto, and the dual role of Fire and the Princess in Suzanne Andrade’s new production of L’enfant et les Sortilèges. She made her Bavarian State Opera debut in the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor, her role and house debut as Elisabetta in concert performances of Roberto Devereux at Oper Frankfurt, and also returned to the Komische Oper Berlin as Pamina in The Magic Flute. Additional concert appearances include her debut at the George Enescu Festival, where she performed the mad scene from Iain Bell’s A Harlot’s Progress, a gala concert with Placido Domingo in Guadalajara with the Philharmonic Orchestra of Jalisco, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Arad State Philharmonic in her native Romania.

Ms. Zaharia has been a member of the Deutsche Oper am Rhen ensemble since the 2015/16 season, where she has sung the title role of Lange’s The Snow Queen, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos. As a former member of the Komische Oper opera studio, she also sang Micaëla in Carmen, Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Princess Nicoletta in The Love for Three Oranges, Elsbeth in Offenbach’s Fantasio, and Pamina in Barrie Kosky’s production of The Magic Flute. She has also appeared in Kosky’s production for her debuts at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, the Bolshoi Theater, the Edinburgh International Festival, and the Shanghai Grand Theater. While studying voice and piano at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in her native Romania, Ms. Zaharia sang such roles as Gilda in Rigoletto, Norina in The Elixir of Love, and Musetta in La Boheme. Her concert repertoire includes Carmina Burana, Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Brahms’s Ein deutches Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, and Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri. She was the recipient of the Grand Prix of the Haricleea Darclée International Competition in 2012.

Since winning Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition in 2005, Arturo’s career has seen a successful and steady development. His repertoire spans from Bellini and Donizetti to Puccini and Verdi. Some of his more sought after roles are: Rodolfo, the Duke of Mantua, Alfredo, Jacopo Foscari, Gabriele Adorno, B.F. Pinkerton, Hoffmann, Werther, and Romeo to name a few.

He has sung private recitals for His Majesties Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos of Spain, as well as another one for all the leaders of Iberoamerica, and His Majesty King Felipe of Spain.

Recent highlights include two critically acclaimed role debuts: one as Cavaradossi in Tosca, in Spain, as well as his first Nemorino in The Elixir of Love in Italy.

Other recent performances include the Duke in Rigoletto (Verona, Naples, Budapest, Los Angeles and Florence), La Boheme (San Francisco and Hamburg), La Traviata (Munich, Valencia, Moscow and Rome), Ruggero in Puccini’s La Rondine in Genova, Werther in Barcelona and Budapest, Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon in Monte Carlo, Don Jose in Carmen (Tel Aviv, Lyon, Palermo and Zurich), as well as a critically acclaimed role debut as Macduff in Macbeth in Los Angeles and later performed in Vienna.

Recent collaborations with star directors Sofia Coppola (La Traviata, with Valentino costumes) and Woody Allen (Gianni Schicchi, available on DVD and BluRay by Sony) resulted in international acclaim and all sold out performances in Los Angeles, Valencia and Rome.

Upcoming performances include his role debuts as Rafael in Penella’s The Wild Cat in Los Angeles and as Rodolfo in Luisa Miller in Barcelona. He will be Alfredo in La Traviata in Oman, Hoffmann in The Tales of Hoffmann in Naples, the Duke in Rigoletto in Hamburg, Faust in La Damnation de Faust in concert on Mexico City’s Bellas Artes, as well as concerts in Tucson, Mexico City, Honduras and Paris, among many others.

Following his notable role debut as Alberich in Das Rheingold with the Tiroler Festspiele Erl during the summer of 2021, bass-baritone Craig Colclough began the 2021/22 season with his debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago, singing the title role in Verdi’s Macbeth. Further ahead in the season, he returns to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Monterone in a new production of Rigoletto, and to his home company of LA Opera, who named him a 2021 recipient of the Eva and Marc Stern Artist Award, for performances of the St. Matthew Passion. Additionally, he reprises the role of Alberich in Das Rheingold with Nashville Opera later in the spring. Future seasons include a return to the Metropolitan Opera, returns to Tiroler Festspiele Erl and his debut with the Grand Théâtre de Genève.

Craig Colclough began the 2019/20 season with his Metropolitan Opera debut as the title role of Macbeth. He also performed this role with Belgium’s Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp during the summer of 2019 — bowing in further performances with the company in Ghent and Luxembourg in the autumn of 2019 — and returned to Arizona Opera for a role debut as Bishop Dyer in Riders of the Purple Sage. 

In the 2018/19 season, Craig Colclough returned to Opera Vlaanderen as Telramund in Lohengrin, and LA Opera as Peter in Hansel and Gretel. He debuted with Oper Frankfurt as Fra Melitone in La Forza del Destino, and Opera Queensland as the Storyteller in A Flowering Tree .by John Adams. During the summer, he returned to the title role of Don Pasquale with the Berkshire Opera Festival.

Mr. Colclough’s 2017/18 season included significant debuts with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Pistola in Falstaff, Opera Vlaanderen as Falstaff in Falstaff (directed by Oscar-winning actor Christoph Waltz), Boston Lyric Opera as Hare in the world premiere of Burke and Hare by Julian Grant, and Dallas Opera as Peter Vogel in Korngold's Der Ring des Polykrates. He also made returns to Minnesota Opera as the title role in Don Pasquale, Arizona Opera as Donner in Das Rheingold, and LA Opera as Monterone in Rigoletto.

The autumn of 2016 found Craig Colclough’s return to London for Scarpia in Tosca with English National Opera, a role which served as his debut at Canadian Opera Company later in the season. He also joined the Minnesota Opera for Doristo in L’Arbore di Diana, and spent the summer singing the title role in Verdi’s Falstaff with Opera Saratoga.

In the 2015/16 season Mr. Colclough’s performances included appearances with Arizona Opera as the title role in Falstaff and with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela for Timur in Turandot, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. Additionally, he returned to English National Opera for his role debut of Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde, and LA Opera for Simone in Gianni Schicchi. On the concert stage, he debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Dottore Grenvil in La Traviata.

In the 2014/15 season, Craig Colclough made his European debut with English National Opera as Jack Rance in The Girl of the Golden West, returned to LA Opera for concert performances of Hercules v. Vampires (roles of God of Evil and Procrustes), and also debuted with Atlanta Opera as Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, as well as Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Lieutenant Gordon in Silent Night by Kevin Puts.

During the 2013/14 season, the bass-baritone essayed the title role in Don Pasquale at the Arizona Opera, covered the title role in Falstaff for both San Francisco Opera and LA Opera, and appeared as the Bosun in Billy Budd at LA Opera. In concert, Mr. Colcough appeared with the Orange County Philharmonic Society for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. 

Learn more at CraigColclough.com.

Morris Robinson is considered one the most interesting and sought-after basses performing today.

Matthew Aucoin, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, was named LA Opera's first ever Artist in Residence, a position he held from 2016 to 2020. He has conducted LA Opera productions of Akhnaten (2016) and Rigoletto (2018), as well as concert performances of his own opera Crossing (2018) and performances of Joby Talbot's new score for the film Vampyr (2018).  In 2020, he conducted the world premiere of his newest opera, Eurydice, in Los Angeles; the opera will subsequently be presented by the Metropolitan Opera.

He will return to LA Opera in 2021 for a chamber music program (which will include music he has composed) entitled Veils of Desire.

Born in 1990, he is an American composer, conductor, writer and pianist. In the 2014/15 season, he conducted the premieres of two of his operas: Crossing at Boston’s American Repertory Theater (directed by Diane Paulus); and Second Nature, a chamber opera for the young, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. He wrote the libretti for both works. He is currently at work on a new opera for the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater’s New Works program. In the coming season, he will conduct the premiere of his new orchestral work, commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. His new song cycle, set to texts by James Merrill and co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New York, and Wigmore Hall, London, will be premiered by tenor Paul Appleby and pianist Ken Noda at recitals in New York, Boston, Chicago, Notre Dame, and Miami. Violinist Jennifer Koh will premiere Aucoin’s new solo violin work at the New York Philharmonic Biennale and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.

He is also at work on a piano concerto commissioned by The Gilmore for pianist Charlie Albright. This season, he makes conducting debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Music Academy of the West (Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, as well as his own chamber opera Second Nature); the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy (The Marriage of Figaro); and he returns to the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In recent seasons, he has appeared as a conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Rome Opera Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (a special event featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma) and Juilliard Opera (Eugene Onegin). (MatthewAucoin.com)

He has additionally conducted LA Opera performances of Handel's L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato and Lee Holdridge's Dulce Rosa, as well as Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Florencia en el Amazonas, Gianni Schicchi, Wonderful Town, The Tales of Hoffmann, Tosca, The Pearl Fishers and Satyagraha.

Grant Gershon is hailed for his adventurous and bold artistic leadership and for eliciting technically precise and expressive performances from musicians. He has conducted Rigoletto, Tosca, La Bohème, La Traviata, Carmen and Madama Butterfly at Wolf Trap Opera with the National Symphony Orchestra; John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary at the San Francisco Symphony and Ravinia Festival; Vivaldi’s Griselda at Santa Fe Opera; and many concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The 2019/20 season marks his 19th season as the Kiki & David Gindler Artistic Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. 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, he has led more than 200 Master Chorale performances at Walt Disney Concert Hall in programs encompassing choral music from the earliest writings and pillars of the repertoire through to contemporary compositions. He has led world premiere performances of major works by John Adams, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Lang, Louis Andriessen, Christopher Rouse, Steve Reich, Morten Lauridsen, Ricky Ian Gordon, Gabriela Lena Frank, Shawn Kirchner, Ellen Reid, and Chinary Ung, among many others.