The Marriage of Figaro

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, performs Telramund in Lohengrin at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and returns 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.

Grammy Award winner Ana María Martínez is considered to be one of the foremost sopranos of her time, with an international career that spans the world’s most important opera houses and concert halls.

A winner of the 15th Annual Opera News Awards, her repertoire encompasses opera’s most intriguing and diverse leading ladies, and she engages her audiences season after season with signature roles, spellbinding debuts, and a myriad of captivating recordings.  In addition to a full calendar of performances, Ms. Martínez continues to explore all aspects of her career, both on and off stage, highlighted by such diverse opportunities as voicing the role of opera singer Alessandra in season three of Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle, to proudly representing her birthplace of Puerto Rico as an honoree and performer in the 62nd Annual Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City, and all the while maintaining her commitment as a leader in the industry and as an advocate and educator to the next generation of musicians. 

In 2019 Ms. Martínez joined Houston Grand Opera as their first-ever Artistic Advisor where she works with the artistic team on casting and production decisions, adjudicates the annual Concert of Arias competition, mentors and coaches HGO Studio artists, and engages with the larger Houston community on behalf of the Opera.  Equally exciting, following a two year appointment as Artist-in-Residence at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, in July 2021 she became a professor in their Department of Voice.

Her appearances in the 2022/23 season will include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni at the Metropolitan Opera.

Performance highlights of the 2021/22 season include the title role in Florencia en el Amazonas with Lyric Opera of Chicago and a role debut as Despina in Cosi fan tutte with Washington National Opera. On stage during the 2020/21 season, in the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ms. Martínez was thrilled to join San Diego Opera as Mimi in their production of La Bohème, in the world’s first-ever drive-in opera production.  Virtual performances during the season included a “Living Room Recital” with LA Opera performed in Ana María’s home and available digitally.  She curated two Spanish-themed virtual programs, the first for Lyric Opera of Chicago with pianist Craig Terry, was entitled Pasión Latina and featured a dynamic selection of music from Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, Guatemala, Argentina and Spain. The second program, created by Ana María for Houston Grand Opera, entitled Suite Española, featured music of Spain, including zarzuela, and stared Ana María alongside HGO Studio artists.  Additional performances during the season included her role debut in the title role of Tosca with Opera Philadelphia, which she performed again later in the season with Cincinnati Opera, as well as Nedda in Pagliacci with Palm Beach Opera. 

Learn more at AnaMariaMartinez.com.

Grammy Award-winning baritone Lucas Meachem is one of the most accomplished, in-demand singers of the moment, captivating audiences around the world with his “earnest appealing baritone” (New York Times) and “commanding presence” (San Francisco Chronicle). 

Engagements for the 2022/23 season include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with San Francisco Opera.

“A rock star of opera” (Opera Pulse), he opened the 2019/20 San Francisco Opera season as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette and appeared as a soloist in the Richard Tucker Gala at Carnegie Hall. He then sang the title role of Don Giovanni at Lyric Opera of Chicago, followed by his house and role debut as Escamillo in Opera Teatro Regio di Torino’s production of Carmen. He then added another role to his repertoire as Prince Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades at the Chicago Lyric Opera. (Cancelled engagements for the season included Figaro in the Dallas Opera’s The Barber of Seville and Marcello in La Bohéme with Opéra National de Paris.)

Named the winner of San Francisco Opera’s inaugural “Emerging Star of the Year” Award in 2016, notable performances in Meachem’s American career include marking his 50th role debut as Athanaël in Thaïs (Minnesota Opera), Chorèbe in Les Troyens, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Valentin in Faust at Chicago Lyric Opera; Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni, and The Barber of Seville, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, and Fritz/Frank in Korngold’s Die Tote Stadt at San Francisco Opera; General Rayevsky in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Robert in Iolanta, Marcello in La Bohéme, Silvio in Pagliacci, and Mercutio in Roméo and Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera; Don Giovanni with Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Opera Cincinnati Opera; Zurga in The Pearl Fishers at the Florida Grand Opera; Germont in La Traviata at Washington National Opera; The Barber of Seville at San Diego Opera, Opera Colorado, Houston Grand Opera, and LA Opera where he also gave his Grammy Award-winning performance of Figaro in The Ghosts of Versailles.

A regular performer across Europe, Meachem has performed the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, Den Norske Opera; the title role in Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne Festival and Semperoper Dresden; the title role in Britten’s Billy Budd at Opéra national de Paris; as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Royal Opera House; Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan under the baton of Seiji Ozawa; the title role in Eugene Onegin with Komische Oper Berlin and Opéra national de Montpellier; Zurga in The Pearl Fishers at Bilbao Opera; with the Teatro Real de Madrid in the world premiere of El Viaje a Simorgh, Frank/Fritz in Die Tote Stadt, as well as Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride; and a European tour with Anna Netrebko as Robert in Iolanta with 11 performances at Europe’s most important musical centers and venues including Vienna, Munich, Paris, Berlin, and Amsterdam.

He performed with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under the baton of Kent Nagano as the opening concert for the Salzburg Festival of Penderecki’s St. Luke Passion. Additionally, Meachem was part of the opening concert for the Grafenegg Music Festival of the Britten War Requiem and performed the Mahler Kindertotenlieder with Emmanuel Villaume and the Prague Philharmonia. Other notable concert performances in Europe include the Fauré Requiem with the Maggio Musical Fiorentino under Seiji Ozawa and Carmina Burana in Rome with the Accademia Nazionale de Santa Cecilia. Meachem made his Hollywood Bowl debut in 2014 as Silvio in Pagliacci with Gustavo Dudamel. He has sung with the New York Philharmonic in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under Kurt Masur; the San Francisco Symphony in concert performances of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe; the American Symphony Orchestra in the United States premiere of Ferdinand Hiller’s oratorio The Destruction of Jerusalem at Avery Fisher Hall.

Born in North Carolina, Lucas Meachem studied music at Appalachian State University, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University before becoming an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera.

LucasMeachem.com

Tunisian-born Rihab Chaieb is a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program where she appeared in numerous productions, including L’Italiana in Algeri (Zulma), Luisa Miller (Laura), Cavalleria Rusticana (Lola) and Hänsel und Gretel (Sandman). Returning since as a guest in Don Giovanni (Zerlina) under Cornelius Meister, she appears there this season as Nefertiti in Phelim McDermott’s unforgettable production of Philip Glass’ Akhnaten, conducted by Karen Kamensek.

In the 2021/22 season, Rihab Chaieb debuts at Washington National Opera in Così fan tutte (Dorabella), sings Penelope on a European concert tour and recording of Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Ensemble I Gemelli and Emiliano Gonzalez Toro, returns to Opéra et Orchestre National de Montpellier as Maddalena in Marie-Eve Signeyrole’s new staging of Rigoletto, and joins Palm Beach Opera in the title role of Carmen. In concert, Chaieb joins the Toronto Symphony Orchestra for Handel’s Messiah, and Les Violons du Roy for Mozart’s Requiem. 

Demonstrating strong repertoire versatility in recent seasons, Rihab Chaieb debuted as Charlotte in Werther at Opera Vlaanderen under Giedrė Šlekytė, at Houston Grand Opera in the world premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix, as Rosina (The Barber of Seville) at Cincinnati Opera and as Offenbach’s Fantasio at Opéra de Montpellier. For Dutch National Opera, Chaieb sang Lola in Robert Carsen’s new staging under Lorenzo Viotti, Dorabella at Teatro Santiago de Chile, Kasturbai in Philip Glass’ Satyagraha at Opera Vlaanderen, and received unanimous acclaim for her first Carmen in Lydia Steier’s intense new production for Oper Köln. 

On the concert stage, Rihab Chaieb has performed with Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal under Johannes Debus in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and in a programme of Rossini under Kent Nagano; with both Vancouver Symphony Orchestra under Otto Tausk and Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Carlos Miguel Prieto in de Falla’s Three-Cornered Hat; and at the Toronto Summer Music Festival in her first Das Lied von der Erde. Last season, Rihab Chaieb joined Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s line-up of soloists for an audiovisual recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with Orchestre Métropolitain for broadcast on DG Stage, Deutsche Grammophon’s new online platform.

A former member of both Canadian Opera Company’s Ensemble Studio, where she earned major acclaim as Sesto (La Clemenza di Tito), and San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program, where she debuted as Cherubino (The Marriage of Figaro), Chaieb also enjoyed several summers at the Glyndebourne Festival as Mércedès (Carmen) under Jakub Hrůša, and Flora (La Traviata) under Andrés Orozco-Estrada. 

The recipient of many major grants, Rihab Chaieb has also enjoyed competition success, taking Third Prize at the 2018 Operalia Competition, winning the 2016 Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and taking prizes at both the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the 2018 George London Foundation Competition. 

In the 2021/22 season, Kristinn Sigmundsson joins the Enescu Festival as the Chamberlain in The Dwarf, the Royal Opera House Muscat as Monterone in Rigoletto, New National Theatre Tokyo for Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, and returns to the Bavarian State Opera for La Roche in Capriccio. He returned to Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie as Ghost in Dusapin’s Macbeth Underworld, and joined Indiana University Opera for Gurnemanz in Parsifal. Mr. Sigmundsson also recently returned to Houston Grand Opera for the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and Daland in The Flying Dutchman, to San Francisco Opera for Vodnik in Rusalka, Den Norske Opera for Dansker in Billy Budd, the Edinburgh International Festival for the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, and Atlanta Opera for Daland in The Flying Dutchman.

Other recent performances include returns to Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie for La Roche in Capriccio, Staatsoper Hamburg to reprise Melchthal in Guillaume Tell, Teatro Regio Torino for Sarastro in The Magic Flute and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Rocco in Fidelio. He also sang Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro with Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Sigmundsson recently joined the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for Hunding in excerpts of Die Walküre, Staatsoper Hamburg for Melchthal in Guillaume Tell and the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos, the Caramoor International Music Festival for Rocco in Fidelio, the Icelandic Opera for Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, the Grant Park Music Festival for Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust, and returned to the Cincinnati May Festival for Music Director James Conlon’s final season for Dvořák’s Stabat Mater. He also joined LA Opera for its trilogy of Beaumarchais operas as he sang Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, Louis XVI in Corigliano’s 2017 Grammy-winning The Ghosts of Versailles, and Doctor Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro. He also recently sang King Philip in Don Carlo with the Icelandic Opera and returned to both the Ravinia Festival as Daland in The Flying Dutchman and the Cincinnati May Festival for Haydn’s Creation.

As one of the world’s most sought after basses, Mr. Sigmundsson has sung nearly his entire repertoire with the Opéra National de Paris. His performances at the Metropolitan Opera include Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio, Hunding in Die Walküre, Rocco in Fidelio, Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette, and Vodnik in Rusalka. He has sung leading roles regularly with the Staatsoper Wien, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Semperoper Dresden, where his most recent performances include Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust. Other appearances include the Commendatore in Don Giovanni in Munich, Berlin and New York; Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier, König Heinrich in Lohengrin and Pogner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg in Berlin; Rocco in Fidelio in New York and Houston; Daland in The Flying Dutchman in San Francisco and Strasbourg; Fasolt in Das Rheingold in Houston; Creonte in Medea in Salzburg; Gurnemanz in Parsifal in Cologne and Florence; Zaccaria in Nabucco in Copenhagen and Beijing, King Heinrich in Lohengin in Madrid, San Fancisco, Los Angeles, and with the Bayerische Staatsoper both in Munich and on tour to Japan; King Marke in Tristan und Isolde in Santiago, Dallas, and Berlin; Hunding in Die Walküre in Naples, Venice and Cologne; Hermann in Tannhäuser in Geneva, Amsterdam, and Tokyo; Méphistophélès in La Damnation de Faust; La Cuisinière in The Love of Three Oranges in Florence; King Marke in Tristan und Isolde, Sparafucile in Rigoletto, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, and Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier in San Francisco; King Heinrich in Lohengrin and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor in Munich; Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio in Naples; the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro and Walter in Luisa Miller at the Cincinnati May Festival; and Sarastro in The Magic Flute in Houston, San Francisco, Toulouse, and Santiago.

His concert performances include collaborations with many of the world's leading conductors including James Levine, Riccardo Muti, James Conlon, Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink, Charles Mackerras, Christoph von Dohnányi, Jeffrey Tate, Christoph Eschenbach, Ivor Bolton, and Marc Minkowski. He recently joined the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Cincinnati May Festival, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra on tour at Avery Fisher Hall for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and sang Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius with the Hamburger Symphoniker, and Dvořák’s Requiem with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale. Also with the Cincinnati May Festival, he sang Tchaikovsky’s Ode to Joy and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Among his discography are commercial recordings of Don Giovanni and The Magic Flute with Arnold Östman (Decca) and Schreker's Die Gezeichneten (Deutsche Grammophon). With Frans Brueggen he has recorded both Bach’s St. John Passion and the St. Matthew Passion (Phillips). He has recorded Schumann's Faustszenen with Philippe Herreweghe (Harmonia Mundi) and Fidelio with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis.

In the early part of his career he performed principally in his native Iceland before joining the Hessische Staatstheater in Wiesbaden. His initial training was as a biologist and he taught for a few years before becoming a singer, studying first at the Reykjavik Academy of Singing and then at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, Austria.

Distinguished soprano Marie McLaughlin has enjoyed more than three decades of performance at the highest international level. Over that time, she has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest conductors including such legends as the late Leonard Bernstein and Giuseppe Sinopoli, as well as Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink and Sir Antonio Pappano. A wide repertoire of core roles took her around the world at an early age including to the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opéra National de Paris, and the Salzburg and Glyndebourne Festivals. Her substantial discography includes many of those roles including Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Sir Neville Marriner for Philips, Despina in Così fan tutte with James Levine for Deutsche Grammophon as well as Micaëla in Carmen and Violetta in La Traviata under Bernard Haitink. 

Key roles in today’s repertory include Marcellina in The Marriage of Figaro, which has been heard at Gran Teatre del Liceu, Opéra National de Paris, Staatsoper Unter den Linden, at the Salzburg and Ravinia Festivals and at the Metropolitan Opera; La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi at Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Glyndebourne Festival; Madam Larina in Eugene Onegin at Teatro Regio di Torino, Glyndebourne Festival and Opéra de Lille; Despina in Così fan tutte at Scottish Opera and the Spoleto Festival; Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor at the Bavarian State Opera; Mrs Grose in The Turn of the Screw at Madrid’s Teatro Real; and Miss Jessel in the same opera at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie and Berlin’s Staatsoper unter den Linden in the highly-acclaimed production by the late Luc Bondy, conducted by Daniel Harding and released on DVD by BelAir Classique.

Equally at ease in contemporary repertoire, Marie McLaughlin has recently created the characters of Lilian Disney in Philip Glass’ The Perfect American at Madrid’s Teatro Real, subsequently in performance at the Brisbane Festival, Mother Needham in Iain Bell’s The Harlot’s Progress at Theater an der Wien, and Abigail Simpson in the world premiere of Julian Grant’s The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare for Boston Lyric Opera. For the 2018/19 season, Marie McLaughlin joins Garsington Opera as Ludmila in Paul Curran’s production of The Bartered Bride, makes her first appearance as Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Vladimir Jurowski, and creates the role of Annie Chapman in Iain Bell’s new commission Jack the Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel for English National Opera. The previous season’s highlights included Meg Page in Robert Carsen’s production of Falstaff for the Royal Opera House under Nicola Luisotti, Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw for Berlin’s Staatsoper unter den Linden, and the Older Woman in Jonathan Dove’s Flight for Scottish Opera. 

Rodell Aure Rosel is a guest of the major opera companies. Following his debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Remendado in Carmen, he has appeared on that stage as Mime in Das Rheingold, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Pang in Turandot, Monastatos in The Magic Flute, the Prince and Man Servant in Lulu, Spoletta in Tosca, Faninal’s Major-domo in Der Rosenkavalier, Bardolph in Falstaff, Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus, the Four Servants in The Tales of Hoffmann, and Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier, among other roles. He has appeared on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera as Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier and as Nathaniel and Franz in the new production of The Tales of Hoffmann. He has also appeared with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as Monastatos.

Elsewhere, he has appeared with Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera and Tulsa Opera as Goro in Madama Butterfly, Houston Grand Opera as Mime in Das Rheingold and Siegfried, Squeak in Billy Budd, Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Goro, Seattle Opera as Monastatos, Wolf Trap Opera as the Governor in Candide and the Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, the Florentine Opera as Monastatos in The Magic Flute, Little Bat in Susannah, Njegus in The Merry Widow, and in the title role of Albert Herring, Santa Fe Opera in the world premiere of The Letter, the Ravinia Festival as Curzio in The Marriage of Figaro, Spoletta and Arbace in Idomeneo, the Dallas Opera as Anthony Candolino in the world premiere of Heggie’s Great Scott, the Cleveland Orchestra as the First Jew in Salome, and Kentucky Opera as the Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, Arizona Opera as Loge in Das Rheingold, Numi Opera in the title role of Zemlinsky’s The Dwarf, and the National Theater in Taiwan as Mime.

Engagements for the 2021/22 season include Monostatos in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera and at Pittsburgh Opera, and Spoletta in Tosca with Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Formerly a member of the Ryan Opera Center (formerly Lyric Opera Center for American Artists), the Manila native studied at the University of California in Los Angeles, where he sang the title role in Britten’s Albert Herring and leading roles in Mozart, Rossini and Ravel, also appearing as tenor soloist in The Creation, Messiah and the Mozart Requiem. He has sung Basilio in The Marriage of Figaro at Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, as well as Monostatos in The Magic Flute, Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and Tinca in Il Tabarro, all with Opera Nova-Santa Monica.

In addition to his award from the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Rosel has received a third-place award from the Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, a second-place award at the Lotte Lenya Vocal Competition, and was a finalist at the Loren Zachary National Vocal Competition. He is the recipient of scholarships from, among others, the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Since his debut that year with La Traviata, he has conducted 66 different operas and more than 420 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, and the 2021 company premiere of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex.

(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.

Writer/director James Gray attended film school at the University of Southern California. He made his first film Little Odessa (1994) at the age of 25. The film, which starred Tim Roth, Edward Furlong, Vanessa Redgrave and Maximilian Schell, received critical acclaim and was the winner of the Venice Film Festival's prestigious Silver Lion Award in 1994.

Miramax Films released James Gray's second feature, The Yards (2000) starring Mark Wahlberg, Joaquin Phoenix, Faye Dunaway, Ellen Burstyn, Charlize Theron and James Caan in fall of 2000. The film was selected for official competition at the 2000 Cannes International Film Festival.

His film The Immigrant (2013), starring Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix, was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. His film The Lost City of Z (2016), starring Charlie Hunnam, premiered at the New York Film Festival. He followed with Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt, Donald Sutherland and Tommy Lee Jones, which premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival. His next film, Armageddon Time, starring Anne Hathaway, Anthony Hopkins, and Jeremy Strong, wrapped production in December 2021.

He made his operatic debut in 2019, directing The Marriage of Figaro at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees.

French fashion designer Christian Lacroix studied at the University of Montpellier and at the at the École du Louvre. He has been a major force in the international fashion world since opening his own haute couture house in 1975.

He has also frequently designed costumes for major opera companies throughout Europe. He has designed costumes for productions of Otello (Salzburg Festival, Dresden Semperoper), Aida (Cologne Opera), La Fanciulla del West and Madama Butterfly (Hamburg Opera), Pelléas et Mélisande (Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Stadttheater Klagenfurt, Opéra de Dijon), Le Postillon de Lonjumeau and Fortunio (Opéra Comique, Paris), Adriana Lecouvreur (Frankfurt Opera), and Un Ballo in Maschera (Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona)

Since joining LA Opera in 2004, he has served as associate chorus director (since 2007) 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)