The Clemency of Titus

With a “heroically shining tone of exceptional clarity and precision” (Opera magazine) and “gorgeously burnished power” (New York Times), American tenor Russell Thomas uses his signature elegance and intensity to create vivid character portrayals on the world’s most important stages.

His engagements for the 2021/22 season include his return to LA Opera as Radames in Aida, Florestan in Fidelio with San Francisco Opera, Cavaradossi in Tosca with Cincinnati Opera, Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the title role of Otello at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Appearances in the 2022/23 season will include the title role of Ernani with Lyric Opera of Chicago and Calaf in Turandot with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

He opened the truncated 2019/20 season with his role debut as Don Alvaro in a new production of La forza del destino at Deutsche Oper Berlin, and subsequently made his role and house debuts as Radames in Houston Grand Opera’s new production of Aida. He also returned to Washington National Opera as the title character in Otello. On the concert stage, he joined Gianandrea Noseda at the Vienna Konzerthaus for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.  (Engagements cancelled due to the pandemic included leading roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera and Canadian Opera Company.)

The 2018/19 season featured Mr. Thomas’s hotly anticipated stage debut in Verdi’s iconic Otello, seen at the Canadian Opera Company after concert performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He sang Manrico in Il Trovatore at the Bavarian State Opera and Lyric Opera of Chicago, made his role debut as Roberto Devereux at San Francisco Opera, and brought his celebrated Titus in The Clemency of Titus to LA Opera. On the concert stage, he joined the World Orchestra for Peace in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the BBC Proms, and performed Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. He closed his season by reuniting with conductor Teodor Currentzis and director Peter Sellars for a new Idomeneo at the Salzburger Festspiele.

Soprano Guanqun Yu is a regular guest at international opera houses in Europe and America. Her engagements in the 2021/22 season include the staged version of Verdi's Messa da Requiem at the Nederlandse Opera Amsterdam, Micaela in Carmen at the Staatsoper Hamburg, her role debut as Elvira in Ernani in a new production (de Beer/Mazzola) of the opera at the Festspielhaus Bregenz, and again Verdi's Messa da Requiem with the Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to the major Mozart roles such as Vitellia, Elettra, Contessa, Fiordiligi, Donna Anna and Donna Elvira, Guanqun Yu's repertoire includes the Italian repertoire in particular. She has sung Leonora in Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera, at LA Opera and at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Amelia in Simon Boccanegra in Valencia, Hamburg and Frankfurt, Desdemona in Otello at the Palau de les Arts Valencia, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin as well as at the Hamburg State Opera, Mimì in La Bohème in a new production at the Zurich Opera House as well as at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and Liù in Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra de Paris, Staatsoper Hamburg, in Zurich, Cologne and at the Bregenz Festival.

Guanqun Yu is also familiar with the French repertoire singing Micaëla in Carmen and Mathilde in Guillaume Tell, a role which brought her a great personal triumph in a new production at Hamburg State Opera.

Her numerous engagements also led her to the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Semperoper Dresden. With Lucrezia in a concert performance of The Two Foscari, she celebrated her highly noticed debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2017.

Guanqun Yu has already worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, James Levine, Michele Mariotti and Cornelius Meister. In 2010 she made her debut in Vienna in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc under the baton of Bertrand de Billy. Numerous concert commitments have taken Guanqun Yu to Scandinavia and Germany.

Guanqun Yu is winner of the Belvedere singing competition and winner of the renowned Operalia competition. After studying in Shandong and Shanghai, she was a member of the opera studio at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna.

Her interpretation of Lina in Verdi's Stiffelio was released on DVD in a production from Parma.

Learn more at GuanqunYu.com.

Opera News wrote of Elizabeth DeShong's performance as Sesto in LA Opera's production of The Clemency of Titus: "Elizabeth DeShong took pride of place as Sesto. Completely unrecognizable in her beard and dingy armor, DeShong sang with the range, expressiveness and musical precision that captured the hysterical extremes of her character. Much of Sesto’s music lies in the cellars of DeShong’s mezzo-soprano, where the intensely deep contralto tones she commands contrasted startlingly with the dazzling coloratura runs at the top of her range.” 

During the 2019/20 season, Ms. DeShong returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She debuted with the Melbourne Symphony as Hansel in a concert performance of Hansel and Gretel and performed Pauline in The Queen of Spades at Lyric Opera of Chicago—both conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

The previous season, Ms. DeShong performed Adalgisa in Norma with the North Carolina Opera, gave a recital for Vocal Arts, D.C., sang  John Adams' The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia  with the composer conducting, and was a soloist in Handel's Messiah with the San Francisco and Houston Symphonies, conducted by Jane Glover. Additional highlights were her debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Ariel in Sibelius' The Tempest, the Philadelphia Orchestra in Rossini's Stabat Mater, conducted by Yannick Nézet -Séguin, a  tour of Europe and the United States with The English Concert in which she portrayed both Juno and Ino in Handel's Semele, the Verdi Requiem with the Minnesota Orchestra, and Sesto in a new production of La Clemenza di Tito with the Los Angeles Opera. 

In 2018/19, Ms. DeShong sang Ruggiero in Alcina at Washington National Opera, and Arsace in Semiramide at the Metropolitan Opera. In concert she performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Music of the Baroque, and made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Schubert’s Mass No. 6, and the world premiere of Three Lisel Mueller Settings by Maxwell Raimi, both conducted by Riccardo Muti. On the European platform, Ms. DeShong portrayed Suzuki in a new production of Madama Butterfly at the Glyndebourne Festival, and made her debuts with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and at the Proms in Bernstein's Symphony No. 1 ("Jeremiah"), under the direction of Sir Antonio Pappano, and sang Hänsel  in a concert version of Hänsel and Gretel conducted by Sir Andrew Davis at the Edinburgh International Festival.

Further performances of note include Adalgisa in Norma at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and her Royal Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper debuts as Suzuki. Ms. DeShong has performed extensively throughout the world with such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra National de Bordeaux, the Glyndebourne Festival, and Aix-en-Provence.

The list of symphony orchestras with whom she has performed includes the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Cincinnati Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony,  the Royal Flemish Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra,  the Oregon Symphony, The English Concert, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Ms. DeShong was the recipient of the Washington National Opera’s “Artist of the Year” award in 2010, as the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos. On DVD, she can be seen as Suzuki in the Royal Opera's production of Madama Butterfly on Opus Arte, Hermia in the Metropolitan Opera’s pastiche opera The Enchanted Island (Virgin), and as Maffio Orsini in the San Francisco Opera’s production of Lucrezia Borgia (EuroArts Music and Naxos of America). Her recording of Handel’s Messiah with the Toronto Symphony under the direction of Sir Andrew Davis was released by Chandos and nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2018.

Learn more at ElizabethDeShong.com.

Born in Seattle, he graduated from Yale University and his early career included apprenticeships with LA Opera and San Francisco Opera until moving to Germany as a soloist with the Komische Opera Berlin.

Earlier this season, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Ashby in The Girl of the Golden West at the Metropolitan Opera and performed Phorbas in Oedipe for Dutch National Opera. Upcoming engagements include Frére Laurent in Roméo et Juliette and Dr. Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro with San Francisco Opera, Sarastro in The Magic Flute with Scottish Opera, and Oroveso in Norma for Oper Frankfurt.

Since his debut that year with La Traviata, he has conducted 66 different operas and more than 435 performances to date with the company. Highlights of recent seasons include the 2020 company premiere of The Anonymous Lover (L'Amant Anonyme) by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the 2021 company premiere of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex, and the 2022 company premiere of Bach's St. Matthew Passion.

(Click here to visit James Conlon's Corner, where you can find essays, videos and conversations he has created especially for LA Opera.)

One of today’s most versatile and respected conductors, James Conlon has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. He has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1974. He has conducted more than 270 performances at the Metropolitan Opera. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography and videography, numerous essays and commentaries, frequent television appearances and guest speaking engagements, Mr. Conlon is one of classical music’s most recognized interpreters.

In September 2021, he became Artistic Advisor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

He 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).

Mr. Conlon has served as the Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony (2005–15), 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. As a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, he has led more than 270 performances since his 1976 debut. He has also conducted at leading opera houses and festivals including 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 LA Opera's Music Director since 2006, Mr. Conlon has led more performances than any other conductor in the company’s history—to date, over 420 performances of more than 60 different operas by over 20 composers. Highlights of his LA Opera tenure include conducting the company’s first Ring cycle, recently re-aired in a marathon webcast celebrating the performances’ tenth anniversary; initiating the groundbreaking Recovered Voices series, an ongoing commitment to staging masterpieces of 20^th-century European opera that were suppressed by the Third Reich; and spearheading Britten 100/LA, a city-wide celebration honoring the centennial of that composer’s birth. During the period in which Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was closed due to the pandemic, Mr. Conlon conducted LA Opera’s live-streamed, socially distanced production—staged at the Colburn School—of The Anonymous Lover by Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, a prominent Black composer in 18^th-century France. The performance was presented as an online-only event in fall 2020 and marked the work’s West Coast premiere. The Pavilion reopened in June 2021 with Mr. Conlon conducting the company premiere of Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex, with which LA Opera became the first major American opera company to perform live in its own theater since the coronavirus outbreak. The performance was subsequently released online for at-home viewing. During LA Opera’s 2021/22 season, Mr. Conlon conducts three operas long absent from the company’s repertory: Verdi’s Il Trovatore, which opens the season; Wagner’s Tannhäuser; and Verdi’s Aida. He also conducts John Neumeier’s ballet adaptation of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, performed at LA Opera for the first time.

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)

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)

JAX Messenger maintains a successful career as a lighting professional. He has lit productions for such companies as Opera Philadelphia (The Wake World), Curtis Institute of Music (Dr Atomic, Impressions of Pelléas), the Canadian Opera Company (Pyramus and Thisbe), Boston Lyric Opera (In the Penal Colony), Bard SummerScape (Oresteia, The Wreckers, The Turandot Project), R. B. Schlather’s exhibition (Alcina, Orlando, The House Taken Over), Adam H Weinert (MONUMENT), Wanda Culture Industry Group (Princess Butterfly), Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo (Laurencia, Waltzpurgisnacht, Majisimas), Merola Opera (The Barber of Seville, Transformations) The Washington Ballet (Sleeping Beauty, Fluctuating Hemlines, Shostakovich Concerto, Don Quixote), the San Francisco Opera (Requiem, The Elixir of Love for Families). As a lighting supervisor he has produced tours for Black Grace Dance, the Washington Ballet and Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo in hundreds of venues around the world. (JAXMessenger.com)

Greg Emetaz has designed video and projections for Jimmy López’s Bel Canto at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Werther at Boston Lyric Opera, Terence Blanchard’s Champion at Washington National Opera and several productions for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, including John Adams’ The Death of Klinghoffer, Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket and Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier. Later this year, he will design Norma at Utah Opera and Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in my Bones for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. As a filmmaker, he is the writer and director of the horror-comedy feature Camp Wedding and the award-winning shorts Bowes Academy, Death by Omelette and Spell Claire. He is also the director of the web series Do It Yourselfie: Songs for Millennials and numerous music videos and commercials. (MinorApocalypse.com)

Since joining LA Opera in 2007, he has served as associate chorus director (since 2011) and assistant conductor, and he has worked closely with the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program. Before becoming Chorus Director, he previously directed the LA Opera Chorus for the Plácido Domingo 50th Anniversary Concert (2017) and for The Clemency of Titus (2019). One of his generation’s most respected pianists and vocal coaches, he has collaborated with major opera houses throughout the United States. He has assisted in the preparation of operas and vocal chamber music at the LA Philharmonic. As a pianist, he has partnered with Sondra Radvanovsky, J'Nai Bridges, Eric Owens, Brandon Jovanovich, Rodell Rosel, Dolora Zajick, Kate Lindsey and Susan Graham. He accompanied Joyce DiDonato at the 54th Grammy Awards, the first time the ceremony featured a performance by a classical singer.

In partnership with the Getty Villa and LACMA in Los Angeles and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., he has curated multimedia recitals which draw connections between the classical vocal repertoire and special exhibits in the museums. He is a frequent collaborator at Wolf Trap Opera as an assistant conductor, chorus master and recitalist. He has been a guest coach at the Opernfestspiele St. Margarethen, in Esterhazy, Austria, and he helped prepare Seattle Opera’s Ring cycle in 2013. He has been a guest faculty member for young artist programs at Utah Opera and Seattle Opera, and he is a part-time lecturer in vocal arts and opera at the University of Southern California. (JeremyMFrank.com)