Roberto Devereux

Photo: Faye Fox

American soprano Angela Meade is the winner of both the Metropolitan Opera’s 2012 Beverly Sills Artist Award and the 2011 Richard Tucker Award. In 2008 she joined an elite group of history’s singers when, as Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani, she made her professional operatic debut on the Met stage. Since then she has fast become recognized as one of today’s outstanding vocalists, excelling in the most demanding heroines of the 19th-century bel canto repertoire as well as in the operas of Verdi and Mozart.

In the 2022/23 season, Angela Meade made her role debut as Leonora in La Forza del Destino and performed in a 70th anniversary gala with Amigos de la Ópera de A Coruña in A Coruña, Spain. She returned to Asociación Bilbaína de Amigos de la Ópera (“ABAO”) to perform the title role in the third act of Aida in concert. She made her role debut as the title role in Lucrezia Borgia in her house debut at Munich's Bavarian State Opera before returning to the Metropolitan Opera for Elisabeth de Valois in Sir David McVicar’s production of Don Carlo conducted by Carlo Rizzi. She returned to Teatro Regio di Torino for the Verdi Requiem before making her Teatro alla Scala debut, singing the role of Elena in I Vespri Siciliani conductd by Fabio Luisi. Following her debut at La Scala, her appearances include the title role in Aida in Torino, Lucrezia Contarini in The Two Foscari at Teatro Carlo Felice, and Elvira in Ernani at Palau De Les Arts Reina Sofia.

Meade began the 2021/22 season as Sieglinde in Die Walküre alongside Eric Owens and Brandon Jovanovich at Seattle Opera before singing the role of Amelia Grimaldi in Simon Boccanegra at Teatro Regio di Parma. She sang the title role in Norma at Teatro Municipale di Piacenza and Teatro Comunale Luciano Pavarotti di Modena. She sang the title role in Anna Bolena at Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova before returning to Teatro Regio di Parma for a reprise of Norma. She made a return to Bilbao to sing Rossini’s Stabat Mater with Nicola Luisotti and sang a recital with Myra Huang for the Wexford Festival Opera. She also returned to Teatro Massimo di Palermo for the Verdi Requiem and performed the role of Elvira in Ernani at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. She sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Toronto Symphony conducted by Gustavo Gimeno before debuting the role of Amelia in Un Ballo in Maschera at the Verbier Festival conducted by Gianandrea Nosdea.

In the 2020/21 season, Ms. Meade gave a recital at Seattle Opera alongside mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton, and then sang a concert featuring selections from Verdi operas with the Dallas Symphony and music director Fabio Luisi. She also returned to Bilbao for a gala concert featuring music from Aida, then reprising the title role in Aida at Arena di Verona. 

In the 2019/20 season, Ms. Meade sang Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux at LA Opera, the title role in Aida at the Gran Teatro del Liceu, the title roles in both Norma and Rossini’s Ermione at Teatro San Carlo in Naples, and Elisabetta in Don Carlo at Amigos de la Opera de la Coruña in Spain. In concert, she sang Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, conducted by Alan Gilbert. 

In the 2018/19 season, Ms. Meade joined forces with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Orchestre Métropolitain for a special performance of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in memory of Jacqueline Desmarais. Domestic opera engagements included a role debut as Margherita in the Robert Carsen production of Boito’s Mefistofele at the Metropolitan Opera, a house debut at Seattle Opera as Leonora in Il Trovatore and a return to Dallas Opera as Alice Ford in Falstaff, while internationally, she reprised Leonora at Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla in Spain. In concert, Ms. Meade sang Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 at the Ravinia Festival with Marin Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, reprised the Messa da Requiem with the RTÉ National Symphony under the baton of Michele Mariotti, and appeared in a gala concert in her debut at the Rossini Opera Festival.

Operatic highlights of recent seasons include performances at the Metropolitan Opera as the title role in both Norma and Semiramide (broadcast Live in HD in theaters worldwide), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Leonora; at Washington National Opera as the title role in Handel’s Alcina; at Oper Frankfurt as the title role in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur; at the Teatro Real in Madrid as both Norma and Lucrezia in Verdi’s The Two Foscari; at the Teatro Regio di Torino as Giselda in Verdi’s I Lombardi; and, stepping in as a last-minute replacement, at Deutsche Oper Berlin as Leonora.

Ms. Meade’s concert highlights of recent seasons include performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, under the baton of music director Gustavo Dudamel; at Lincoln Center for the Metropolitan Opera’s 50th Anniversary celebration concert; with the Philadelphia Orchestra for their 2016 New Year’s Eve Gala; in the Messa da Requiem for her debut at Houston Grand Opera, under the baton of music director Patrick Summers; at the Grant Park Music Festival in Martinů’s The Epic of Gilgamesh; at the Caramoor Music Festival for an opening night gala and in performances of Il Pirata; with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9; with the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra in Rachmaninoff’s The Bells; with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 for her Japanese debut; and as Ermione under the baton of the late Alberto Zedda with the Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, as well as with the Opéra de Lyon Orchestra in Lyon and in Paris at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées. She has also presented solo recitals at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., as well as in Philadelphia, Santa Fe, and Waterford (VA).

Following her momentous Met debut, Ms. Meade’s numerous returns to the storied New York house included performances as the title role in Sir David McVicar’s new production of Anna Bolena, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Contessa Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro and Alice Ford in a new production of Falstaff under James Levine, as seen around the world in the Met’s Live in HD series and released on DVD by Decca Classics. She also reprised Elvira in a production seen both in the Met’s Live in HD series and on a Great Performances at the Met presentation on PBS. Elsewhere in New York City, she has performed at Carnegie Hall as both the title role in Bellini’s Beatrice di Tenda and Amaltea in Rossini’s Moïse et Pharaon, and at Lincoln Center as Giselda in Verdi’s I Lombardi with the Opera Orchestra of New York. Career operatic highlights also include house debuts at the Vienna State Opera as Elena in Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani, the Teatro Regio di Torino in Italy as Mathilde in Rossini’s Guglielmo Tell, both LA Opera and Cincinnati Opera as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and her first fully-staged portrayal of Norma at Washington National Opera, where as she was subsequently honored as the “2013 Artist of the Year.”

On the concert stage, Ms. Meade has appeared as a soloist with the New York Philharmonic, Baltimore Symphony, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre Métropolitain, Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, and Seattle Symphony, among others. Conductors with whom she has collaborated include Roberto Abbado, Marin Alsop, Marco Armiliato, Maurizio Benini, Will Crutchfield, Thomas Dausgaard, Charles Dutoit, Riccardo Frizza, Manfred Honeck, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, James Levine, Fabio Luisi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Gianandrea Noseda, Donald Runnicles, Gerard Schwarz, and Osmo Vänskä.

A native of Washington State and an alumna of the Academy of Vocal Arts, Ms. Meade has triumphed in an astounding number of vocal competitions: 57 in all, including many of the opera world’s most important prizes. In addition to being a winner at the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as documented in The Audition, a film subsequently released on DVD by Decca, she was also the first singer to take first prize in both the opera and operetta categories of the prestigious Belvedere Competition.

Learn more at AngelaMeade.com.

Ramón Vargas is one of the leading tenors of our time and one of the most sought-after worldwide. 

His international debut took place in 1992, when the Metropolitan Opera asked him to sing Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor opposite June Anderson, substituting for Luciano Pavarotti. This was soon followed by a debut on the stage of La Scala, in 1993, where he performed Fenton in a new production celebrating the centenary of Falstaff, conducted by Riccardo Muti.

He now regularly performs at all the major opera houses all over the world to great acclaim:

Buenos Aires Teatro Colón (La Favorita), London Royal Opera House (Un Ballo in Maschera, La Bohème, Rigoletto, La Traviata), Milan's La Scala (Falstaff, Rigoletto, La Traviata), Metropolitan Opera (Attila, La Bohème, The Barber of Seville, La Cenerentola, L'Elisir d'Amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Rigoletto, Der Rosenkavalier), Madrid Teatro Real (Werther), Paris Opéra-Bastille (Rigoletto, La Traviata), San Francisco Opera (Un Ballo in Maschera, L'Elisir d'Amore, Lucia di Lammermoor), Vienna State Opera (La Bohème, L'Elisir d'Amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Maria Stuarda, Roberto Devereux), Arena di Verona (The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto), and others.

Mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, a Grand Finals winner of the 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, recently completed her second year as a San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow. She made her San Francisco Opera mainstage debut in Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer’s It’s a Wonderful Life as an Angel First Class. Most recently, she was seen in the workshop for Laura Kaminsky’s new work Hometown to the World: Postville as the character of Linda Larsen in San Francisco’s Opera for all Voices. In 2019, Ms. Dixon performed the roles of Mércèdes in Carmen, Third Wood Sprite in Rusalka, the Italian Singer in Manon Lescaut and the Sandman in Hansel and Gretel with San Francisco Opera.

As a participant in the 2017 Merola Opera Program, Ms. Dixon sang the role of Popova in William Walton’s The Bear and ended her summer season on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House, singing an aria from Massenet’s Cendrillon as part of the Merola Grand Finale concert. Her inaugural summer at the Merola Opera Program had her singing La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium.

Ashley Dixon’s 2016/17 season included her debut with Michigan Opera Theatre in Copland’s The Tender Land as Mrs. Splinters. In concert, she has appeared on the Hill Auditorium stage as mezzo-soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and with the University of Michigan Men’s Glee Club in Schubert’s Ständchen, and the title role in a concert performance of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Ms. Dixon holds a Master of Music from the University of Michigan, where she performed the role and a Bachelor of Music from Louisiana State University.

Learn more at AshleyDixonMezzo.com.

Hailed by the New York Times as a "mezzo-soprano with a burnished voice and dramatic fervor" and by the San Francisco Chronicle for her "electrifying sense of fearlessness," she will make her La Scala debut in 2022 as Ulrica in Un Ballo in Maschera. Other upcoming engagements, in addition to her return to Los Angeles as Azucena in Il Trovatore, include Azucena at the Glimmerglass Festival and at the Staatstheater Nürnberg, Fricka/Ortrud in Gods and Mortals at the Glimmerglass Festival, Componist in Ariadne auf Naxos at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, La Principessa in Suor Angelica at La Monnaie de Munt, and a role debut as Joan of Arc in Tchaikovsky's Maid of Orleans with Theater St. Gallen. 

Additional credits include Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlos at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Preziosilla in Verdi's La Forza del Destino at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Leonora in Donizetti’s La Favorite at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Marguerite in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust conducted by Maestro John Nelson with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Ms. Alexander in Phillip Glass' Satyagraha at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen, Kristina in The Makropulos Affair at the Janáček Brno Festival, Wellgunde in Wagner’s Die Ring-Trilogie at Theater an der Wien, Madeline Mitchell in Heggie’s Three Decembers at Opera Maine, and Nezhata in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Sadko at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.

Ms. Bryce-Davis’ concert highlights include the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall; which won a Grammy nomination, Verdi’s Requiem with conductor Kent Nagano and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at the Olympic Stadium, Elgar’s Sea Pictures at the Musikverein in Vienna with the Tonkünstler Orchestra, Verdi's Requiem with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, the world premiere of Anthony Davis' We Call the Roll with The Lied Society, Martinů’s Julietta with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Corigliano’s Of Rage and Remembrance at the Aspen Music Festival, the world premiere of Come, My Tan-Faced Children by Melissa Dunphy at Lyric Fest, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with Maestro Philippe Entremont at Manhattan School of Music, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.

As a producer/performer Bryce-Davis has released "To the Afflicted," her first music video, which received much critical acclaim and was chosen as an official video for World Opera Day. Her second digital short, “Brown Sounds,” was co-produced with LA Opera and Aural Compass Projects, and won Best Music Video at film festivals around the globe including the New York International Film Awards, New York Cinematography Awards, Hollywood Boulevard Film Awards, the Anatolian Short Film Festival, and the Silk Road Film Awards - Cannes.

Bryce-Davis is a 2018 recipient of the prestigious George London Award at the George London Competition, the 2017 first place and audience prize-winner of the Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino competition; chaired by Dominique Meyer, winner of the 2016 Richard F. Gold Career Grant at the Merola Opera Program, winner of the 2015 Hilde Zadek Competition at the Musikverein in Vienna, and the 2015 Sedat Gürel - Güzin Gürel International Voice Competition in Istanbul. She holds a Master of Music and Professional Studies certificate from the Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music from the University of Texas at Arlington.

Raehann Bryce-Davis is a co-founder of the Black Opera Alliance and is an advocate for social justice in opera.

Learn more at Raehann.com.

Hawaiian baritone Quinn Kelsey, the 2015 Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Award recipient, is in demand for the Verdi, Puccini and French repertoires in houses such as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Operas, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Covent Garden and the Opernhaus Zürich.

In the 2019/20 season, Quinn Kelsey returned to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for a new role, Miller in Luisa Miller, before reprising his celebrated Germont in La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera, joining the company as Marcello in Act I of La Bohème for their New Year’s Eve Gala, and returning to the Opernhaus Zürich for Guido di Monforte in a new Calixto Bieito production of I Vespri Siciliani. Future projects include debuts at the Vienna State Opera and Opera Philadelphia and returns to the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opernhaus Zürich, Santa Fe Opera and the Canadian Opera Company.

Last season, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for his celebrated Germont in the new production of La Traviata, along with Amonasro in Aida. He also returned to Zurich for the title role in Rigoletto and to Hawaii for more performances as Germont. He made debuts in Dallas as Ford in Falstaff and in Spain at the Peralada festival as Germont.

Quinn Kelsey won a Richard Tucker Foundation Career Grant (after winning a Sarah Tucker Study Grant) and was a finalist of Operalia in 2004. He was a member of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, now known as the Ryan Center, for three years. In 2003, he won a Scholarship from the Solti Foundation of Chicago. Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Kelsey received his Bachelor’s of Music degree in Vocal Performance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa under John W. Mount.

QuinnKelsey.com

The winner of the CulturArte Prize at Operalia 2022 and a Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions 2019 National Semifinalist, the tenor is drawing attention for his Italianate sound and compelling stage presence.

In December 2022, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Messenger in Aida. Other appearances for the 2022/23 season include the Verdi Requiem with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park and returns to LA Opera as Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor and as Cassio in Otello.

In addition to several appearances with LA Opera, his engagements for the 2021/22 season included creating the role of Giorgio in New York City Opera's world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

In the summer of 2021, he performed Tamino in The Magic Flute at the Aspen Music Festival, under the baton of Patrick Summers.

He spent the summers of 2018 and 2019 as an apprentice with the Santa Fe Opera, where he covered the role of Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri and performed the role of Toke in the world premiere of The Thirteenth Child.

Mr. Ciaramitaro is a former Cornelia T. Bailey Apprentice Artist at Palm Beach Opera, and a former Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist with Arizona Opera, where he appeared as Theseus in Patrick Morganelli’s Hercules vs. Vampires, Spoletta in Tosca, the Governor and Vanderdendur in Candide, and Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville. Mr. Ciaramitaro performed the role of Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola as a member of the prestigious Merola Opera Program in 2017, and spent previous seasons as a studio artist with Chautauqua Opera and Wolf Trap Opera, where he performed the roles of Don Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro and the Messenger in Aïda.

While working toward a Masters in Music at Florida State University under the direction of Douglas Fisher and voice teacher David Okerlund, Mr. Ciaramitaro performed the roles of Alfredo in La Traviata, Charles II in Carlisle Floyd’s Prince of Players, and Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola. Mr. Ciaramitaro earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rollins College and studied with tenor Richard Owens.

In concert, Mr. Ciaramitaro has performed Orff’s Carmina Burana and Haydn’s The Creation with the Tallahassee Community Chorus, and was the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah at the Crystal Cathedral and with the Messiah Choral Society of Winter Park and the Villages Philharmonic.

He is the 2021 Los Angeles District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

In the summer of 2022, he performs the title role of Don Giovanni and Ford in Falstaff (opposite Bryn Terfel in the title role) with Aspen Opera Theater. His engagements for the 2022/23 season include a recital with pianist Sandra Leary at SUNY at Fredonia's Rosch Recital Hall, a role debut as Dr. Buchanan in Lee Hoiby's Summer and Smoke at Hillman Opera, and a role debut as Papageno in The Magic Flute with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by JoAnn Falletta.

In the summer of 2021, he returned to Santa Fe Opera as Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream. In 2019, he made his role debut as Escamillo in Carmen with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. He also appeared in Zemlinsky's Lyric Symphony and in the U.S. premiere of Korngold's Das Wunder der Heliane with the Bard Music Festival.

Other recent appearances include the First Officer and Croupier in Candide at Santa Fe Opera; the Cobbler in Philip Glass's The Juniper Tree at Wolf Trap Opera; Nardo in La Finta Giardiniera, Professor Bhaer in Mark Adamo's Little Women, Curio in Giulio Cesare and Betto in Gianni Schicchi with the Shepherd School Opera; the Reverend Olin Blitch in Susannah and Dandini in La Cenerentola with the Hillman Opera; the title role in Don Giovanni and Sam in Trouble in Tahiti with the WNY Chamber Orchestra.

He received his master’s degree in May 2018 from Rice University, where he studied with Stephen King. In 2018, he was a finalist in Houston Grand Opera's Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias; in the summer of 2018, he joined the Apprentice Singer Program at Santa Fe Opera, where he covered the title role of J. Robert Oppenheimer in the new production John Adams' Doctor Atomic, directed by the librettist Peter Sellars. In the summer of 2017, he joined the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, covering the role of Pacuvio in Rossini's La Pietra del Paragone and singing in Four of a Kind, a recital with Steven Blier and Joseph Li.

Learn more at MichaelJHawkBaritone.com.

Eun Sun Kim is the Music Director Designate of San Francisco Opera, where she will become Music Director in August 2021. Her presence in North America was first established with performances of Verdi’s Requiem with the Cincinnati Symphony and La Traviata with Houston Grand Opera, with the latter earning her an appointment as the company’s first Principal Guest Conductor in 25 years.

In the 2019/20 Season, Ms. Kim leads concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, L’orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille and the symphony orchestras of San Diego, Cincinnati, Oregon and Seattle. She continues a series of important operatic debuts with the company premiere of Roberto Devereux at LA Opera and The Magic Flute with Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, and leads Salome in her triumphant return to Houston Grand Opera, where The New York Times pronounced her “a major star … with great sensitivity and flexibility.” Major upcoming debuts include subscription concerts with the New York Philharmonic and productions with the Wiener Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Metropolitan Opera.

In addition to her growing North American presence, Ms. Kim is a regular guest conductor at many important European opera houses. She maintains a particularly close connection with the Berlin Staatsoper, where she has recently conducted successful productions of La Traviata, Ariadne auf Naxos, Madama Butterfly, Un Ballo in Maschera, and Il Trovatore. She has appeared consistently at opera houses across Germany, leading productions of Hänsel und Gretel at Bayerische Staatsoper, Madama Butterfly at Staatsoper Stuttgart, Rigoletto at Semperoper Dresden, and a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor at Oper Köln. She has been frequently engaged by Oper Frankfurt, where she celebrated successes with La Sonnambula, The Count of Luxembourg, La Bohème, Die Csárdásfürstin, and Der fliegende Höllander.

Ms. Kim established herself in Scandinavia with a successful debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in Madama Butterfly, returning there to conduct Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Her performances of Il Trovatore at Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, Carmen in Oslo, and Madama Butterfly and Der fliegende Höllander in Bergen have been complemented by concert appearances with Gothenburg Symphony and Norwegian Radio Orchestra, as well as orchestras in Malmö, Umeå and Aarhus.

Learn more at EunSunKim.com.

He was director of production for the Glyndebourne Touring Opera from 1986 to 1991, where his work culminated in an immensely successful production of Death in Venice, which was subsequently recorded by the BBC for television and video release. The production was revived at the 1992 Glyndebourne Festival. He made his debut with the Kirov Opera in Leningrad producing Boris Godunov which was broadcast live on British television, the first-ever live telecast of an opera from the Soviet Union to the U.K.

His productions include Roberto Devereux, Capriccio and Boris Godunov for San Francisco Opera; Boris Godunov for the Vienna State Opera; The Flying Dutchman, Daphne, Capriccio, Semele, and Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci for the New York City Opera; Il Trovatore, Vanessa, and L’Elisir d’Amore for Washington National Opera and Philadelphia Opera; The Marriage of Figaro and La Bohème for Lyric Opera of Chicago; The Marriage of Figaro, Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci, La Clemenza di Tito, Maria Stuarda, Anna Bolena, and Boris Godunov for the Dallas Opera; Scarlatti’s Griselda for the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin; Boris Godunov and Un Ballo in Maschera for Teatro La Fenice in Venice; Orfeo, Tancredi, and a double bill of Iolanta and Francesca da Rimini for the Theater an der Wien. He received critical acclaim for his directing of Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera. Future engagements include The Marriage of Figaro for San Diego Opera, Káťa Kabanová for Scottish Opera, and Così fan tutte for Essen’s Aalto-Musiktheater.

The late Benoît Dugardyn‚ who died in 2018‚ graduated as an architect at the University of Leuven‚ followed by periods as deputy technical director at La Monnaie and technical director at the Vlaamse Opera.

His projects included Lucia di Lammermoor (Oldenburg, his final design)‚ La Traviata (Magdeburg)‚ Roberto Devereux‚ Maria Stuarda and Anna Bolena (Canadian Opera Company)‚ Carmen and Faust (Santa Fe)‚ Der Rosenkavalier (Bolshoi)‚ Il Trovatore (Houston Grand Opera)‚ Anna Bolena (Washington National Opera)‚ Otello (Korean National Opera)‚ Salome (Portland)‚ Die Fledermaus (Geneva) and a double bill of Iolanta and Francesca da Rimini (Theater an der Wien), all with director Stephen Lawless; Rigoletto‚ L’Elisir d’Amore and Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci (Oscarsborgs Operaen) with Stein Winge‚ La Cenerentola (Erfurt) with Lynne Hockney‚ Oresteia (Muziektheater Transparant) with Caroline Petrick‚ Werther (Buenos Aires)‚ Un Ballo in Maschera (Theater Biel Solothurn)‚ Lakmé (Theater Bonn and Opera Theatre Metz Métropole) with Paul-Emile Fourny‚ La princesse de Trébizonde (Opéra Théâtre de Saint-Etienne)‚ Die Fledermaus (Glyndebourne‚ Geneva‚ Graz); Ariodante (Halle); The Bartered Bride‚ The Tsar’s Bride and L’isola disabitata (Frankfurt); Francesco Bartolomeo Conti's Don Chisciotte in Sierra Morena (Innsbruck‚ Holland Festival); The Magic Flute (Opera Zuid); La Bohème (Malmö); Der Ring des Nibelungen‚ Salome (Nuremberg); La Clemenza di Tito (Dallas‚ Minnesota‚ Royal Opera House); Il Trovatore (Los Angeles‚ Washington‚ Gothenburg‚ Toronto‚ San Diego‚ Tel Aviv‚ Genova‚ Saarbrücken); Simon Boccanegra (New Zealand Festival); Wozzeck (Braunschweig); Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Delphin Poulopeau (Strasbourg); The Marriage of Figaro (Glimmerglass); Venus and Adonis and Dido and Aeneas (Innsbruck‚ Antwerp); Tosca (Oscarsborg Opera); Orfeo ed Euridice (Theater an der Wien); La Strada (Vlaamse Opera) and Maria Stuarda/Roberto Devereux/Anna Bolena (Dallas).

Costume designer Ingeborg Bernerth has been working for theaters and opera houses in Europe and North America since 1981. Recent engagements include the Ring cycle and The Tsar’s Bride at the Frankfurt Opera and Don Carlo at the Korean National Opera in Seoul. A frequent collaborator with director Stephen Lawless, she was costume designer for Die Fledermaus at the Glyndebourne Festival, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Graz Opera and Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts; Guillaume Tell at Graz Opera; and Maria Stuarda, Roberto Devereux and Anna Bolena at the Dallas Opera. In 2018, she designed Lohengrin in Bonn. Future projects include Fidelio in Chemnitz.

Broadway credits include Time and the Conways, Indecent (Tony and Drama Desk Awards), Rocky (Tony nomination), The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (Tony nomination), Superior Donuts, 110 in the Shade (Tony nomination), Talk Radio, Shining City, Awake and Sing! (Tony nomination), Well, Rabbit Hole, A Touch of the Poet, In My Life, The Light in the Piazza (Tony, Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Awards), Reckless, Seven Guitars (Tony Award nomination) and The Piano Lesson, among others. Recent work in opera includes Terence Blanchard’s Champion for L’Opéra de Montréal, Kátia Kabanová at Scottish Opera, and upcoming productions of Carmen, Die Fledermaus, Tobias Picker’s Awakenings and Susannah for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He holds a BFA from Boston University and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

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.  

She danced professionally with English National Ballet before joining English National Opera as Head of Movement and Dance (1980-1998). In that capacity, she choreographed more than 40 productions there.

Since 1998 she has worked as a director and choreographer at New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Washington National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Virginia Opera, Seattle Opera, Portland Opera, Eugene Opera, Arizona Opera, San Diego Opera, Graz Oper, Oper Bonn, Semper Oper in Dresden, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Scottish Opera, Korean National Opera, National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Teatro Real Madrid, Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon, Opera Zuid in Maastrict, San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, Opera McGill in Montreal, USC, UCLA and Cal State Long Beach. (NicolaBowie.com)