Don Giovanni

Grammy Award-winning baritone Lucas Meachem, one of the most accomplished, in-demand singers of the moment, continues to captivate audiences worldwide with his “earnest, appealing baritone” (The New York Times). The “rock star of opera” (Opera Pulse) began his 2022/23 season with performances as the title role in Don Giovanni at Ravinia Festival, followed by Escamillo in Carmen with Canadian Opera Company and Opéra National de Paris, Marcello in La Bohème with Bayerische Staatsoper, and Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro with LA Opera. Rounding out the season with a return to Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at San Francisco Opera, other highlights include Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Dallas Opera, and guest soloist appearances with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Classical Tahoe and San Francisco Opera.

Celebrated by Opera News as a “masterful musician” with an “instrument of striking finish, smooth and solid throughout its range,” Meachem’s recent performances include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Royal Opera House, Marcello in La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, and the title role in Nabucco at Oper im Steinbruch. Additionally, Meachem’s Teatro alla Scala debut in Massenet’s Thaïs was acclaimed as the “most impressive performance of the evening” (Opera Online), with his portrayal of Athanaël, alongside Marina Rebeka’s Thaïs, described as “possibly one of the great duos experienced at La Scala in recent decades” (Beckmesser).

When Covid struck and performances were canceled abruptly, Meachem was one of the first classical musicians to live stream a recital from the opera stage, just days after lockdown on March 23, 2020. In a recent profile with Opera News, Meachem revealed that, in March 2020, he felt at loose ends. With debut performances of Rodrigo in Don Carlos at Dallas Opera indefinitely postponed, he and his wife, pianist Irina Meachem, arranged a live-streamed program from the Winspear Opera House. The concert, recorded on smartphones with just two other people in the room, amassed more than 25,000 views on Instagram and Facebook, setting the standard for digital performances over the pandemic. While theaters were dark, Meachem continued to perform on the physical and digital stage, singing his “signature role for good reason” (Opera News) as Figaro in San Francisco Opera’s The Barber of Seville for an innovative “drive-in” experience. Meachem then filmed a movie version of Pagliacci as the romantic lead Silvio with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, set within their own opera house.

Named the winner of San Francisco Opera’s inaugural “Emerging Star of the Year” Award in 2016, other 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; General Rayevsky in Prokofiev’s War and Peace, Silvio in Pagliacci, and Mercutio in Roméo and Juliette at the Metropolitan Opera; Don Giovanni with Chicago Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Cincinnati 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 The Barber of Seville with the Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, and 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; Escamillo in Carmen with Teatro Regio di Torino; and with the Teatro Real de Madrid in the world premiere of José Maria Sánchez-Verdú's El Viaje a Simorgh, Frank/Fritz in Die Tote Stadt, as well as Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride.

Meachem’s first solo album, Shall We Gather, released in September 2021 under Rubicon Records and featuring his wife, Irina Meachem, at the piano, was praised by BBC Music Magazine as having “vibrant and committed performances,” with Meachem delivering “a heartbreakingly beautiful performance.” According to The New Yorker, the album of American songs is “a plea for togetherness in a divided country. Meachem’s voice—a substantial and propulsive lyric baritone with pillowy edges—records beautifully.”

In July 2020, the Meachems founded Perfect Day Music Foundation (PDMF). The foundation aims to represent inclusivity and diversity of people today by using classical music as a relevant medium to address current issues through a traditional art form. The Foundation’s annual competition, which utilizes social media in its application process to raise awareness for new compositions, centers around a yearly theme that highlights an important demographic of classical music.

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.

Learn more at LucasMeachem.com

Soprano Guanqun Yu is a regular guest at international opera houses in Europe and America. Her engagements in the 2022/23 season included 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 a new production of Ernani 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 features the Italian repertoire in particular. She has sung Leonora in Il Trovatore at the Metropolitan Opera, 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 in 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 I due Foscari, she madeher highly noticed debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2017.

Guanqun Yu has 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.

Three-time Grammy Award winning artist Isabel Leonard has established herself as one of the most in demand performers as a star on the world’s leading stages and screens. The 2022/23 season saw Ms. Leonard’s house debut at Teatro alla Scala as Miranda in Thomas Adès’ The Tempest, as well as her house debut at Houston Grand Opera as Charlotte in Werther, conducted by Robert Spano. Continuing her long time collaboration with Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra music director Stéphane Denève, she appeared as Marguerite in a concert performance of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust. In the recital hall, Ms. Leonard partnered with renowned Spanish guitarist Pablo Sáinz Villegas for performances with Lincoln Center Presents the Metropolitan Opera at Alice Tully Hall, LA Opera at the Colburn School, San Diego Opera at the La Jolla Music Society, the Harris Theatre in Chicago, and the Conservatorìo de Música de Puerto Rico.

The 2021/22 season saw her return to the Metropolitan Opera in her role debut as the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, a return to the role of Cherubino in the Richard Eyre production of The Marriage of Figaro, and in the title role in Laurent Pelly’s production of Cinderella. Ms. Leonard also made her debut in the title role of Carmen in both Francesca Zambello’s production at Washington National Opera, conducted by music director Evan Rogister, and in Santa Fe Opera’s production conducted by Harry Bicket. Ms. Leonard also appeared in Washington National Opera’s reopening gala, Come Home, as well as a concert commemorating the anniversary of September 11 with the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Giancarlo Noseda. In recital, she appeared at the Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts at the University of Connecticut.

Highlights of Ms. Leonard’s career include the title roles in Carmen, La Périchole, Cendrillon, Marnie, and Der Rosenkavalier, as well as Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, both Zerlina and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Sesto in La clemenza di Tito, Charlotte in Werther, Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites, Costanza in Griselda, Musetta in La bohème, Sesto in Giulio Cesare, and Maria in West Side Story.

Ms. Leonard regularly appears on the stages of the world’s leading opera stages including the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Wiener Staatsoper, LA Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, San Francisco Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival, Salzburg Festspiele, and Teatro Comunale di Bologna. She regularly enjoys collaboration with esteemed conductors including Valery Gergiev, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Nézét-Seguin, Franz Welser-Möst, Plácido Domingo, Edward Gardner, James Levine, Edo de Waart, James Conlon, Marin Alsop, Sir Andrew Davis, Michele Mariotti, Harry Bicket, Andris Nelsons, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Orchestral highlights include appearances with Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic, and San Francisco Symphony, among others.

Television and film credits include an appearance in the Rebecca Miller film She Came to Me, starring Anne Hathaway and Marisa Tomei, being featured on the season 43 finale of Sesame Street in Murray Monster’s “People in Your Neighborhood’ segment, scenes from Terrence McNally’s Master Class directed by Nicole Alexander, and as a regular host of the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD broadcasts.

Ms. Leonard was named recipient of the prestigious Richard Tucker Award and currently has three Grammy Awards for Michael Tilson Thomas’ From the Diary of Anne Frank on SFS Media, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges on Decca, and The Tempest from The Metropolitan Opera on Deutsche Grammophon. She currently resides in New York and sits on the board of trustees at Carnegie Hall and on the artistic advisory board of ArtSmart.

Learn more at IsabelLeonard.com

The American-born Cuban and Colombian tenor Anthony León is a young up-and-comer who is quickly developing an international performing career. On April 23, 2023, he was a 2023 grand finals winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. On October 30, 2022, he was the first place winner of Operalia, where he also won the zarzuela prize.

His appearances in the 2023/24 season include Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at LA Opera and Nadir in The Pearl Fishers with the Cologne Opera. Engagements for the summer of 2023 include Ravel's L’Enfant et les sortilèges with the Salzburg Festival’s Young Singers Project and performances at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.

For the 2022/23 season, his appearances included several roles with LA Opera,  Pelléas in Impressions de Pelléas with James Conlon at the Ebell of Los Angeles, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

His most recent engagements elsewhere include singing Remendado in Carmen at Santa Fe Opera, Ernesto in Don Pasquale at New England Conservatory and being on tour performing the roles of Giove and Amphinome in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with the ensemble I Gemelli. On tour, Anthony performed at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, France; Arsenal Theater in Metz, France; and Victoria Hall in Geneva, Switzerland. A recorded album is in the works and is set to be released in 2023. In the fall of 2021, Anthony also presented the role of Count Almaviva in the Opera Theatre of St. Louis production of The Barber of Seville. During the summer of 2021, Anthony was an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera covering the role of Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. In addition to these contracts, Anthony has performed in other leading roles recently such as Le Chevalier in Dialogue des Carmélites, Agenore in Mozart's Il re pastore, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Tamino in The Magic Flute, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance.

Recent honors include receiving a Career Development Grant from the Sullivan Foundation. Other accolades include being named “Best up-and-comer” in the Inland Empire Magazine’s “Best of the Best 2019” list and being awarded the Wendy Shattuck ‘75 Presidential Scholarship for Vocal Studies among other prestigious awards.

Anthony holds a bachelor of music from La Sierra University and a master of music degree concentrating in vocal performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, studying under the tutelage of Bradley Williams.

Learn more at AnthonyLeonTenor.com.

Bass-baritone Craig Colclough initially studied as a cellist and eventually attended the University of Redlands in California. Before training with Wolf Trap Opera and Florida Grand Opera, he began his career appearing in several roles with LA Opera. The company awarded him the Eva and Marc Stern Artist Award during the 2020/21 season, celebrating artists with deep connections to LA Opera.

Verdi’s Macbeth has become a signature role, serving as Colclough’s debut at the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Bayerische Staatsoper and Luxembourg Opera. 2022 saw his return to the Royal Opera House Covent Gardens where he reprised his role as Telramund in Wagner’s Lohengrin. Colclough is currently building the character of Alberich under the direction of Brigitte Fassbaender for the Tiroler Festspiele in Austria. Having debuted Alberich in her 2021 Rheingold to great acclaim, Colclough will complete the cycle in 2024.

The 2022/23 season saw Colclough as Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro at LA Opera, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Atlanta Opera with continued appearances as Monterone in Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera. The 2018/19 season included appearances as Peter in Hansel and Gretel at LA Opera, Fra Melitone in La Forza del Destino for his company debut with Oper Fankfurt, as well as the Storyteller in A Flowering Tree for his company debut with Opera Queensland. During the summer, he returned to the title role of Don Pasquale with the Berkshire Opera Festival.

A house favorite with Belgium’s Opera Vlaanderen, he has appeared with the company as Telramund, Kurwenal, Macbeth and the title role of Falstaff, in a production directed by Oscar-winning actor Christoph Waltz.

Known for his versatility, Craig Colclough has appeared as Peter Vogel in Korngold's Der Ring des Polykrates with the Dallas Opera; Hare in the world premiere of Burke and Hare with Boston Lyric Opera; Pistola in Falstaff with the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; and Doristo in L’arbore di Diana with Minnesota Opera.

He has collaborated with acclaimed conductor Gustavo Dudamel for performances of Timur in Turandot with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Additional credits include the Israeli Symphony Orchestra, California Philharmonic, Capitol Records, Abbey Road Studios and the soundtrack of the film Rolled.

Learn more at CraigColclough.com.

Ms. Zhang will represent China in the 2023 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. She makes her LA Opera debut in Don Giovanni as Zerlina and her debut with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood in Così fan tutte as Despina. She also joins the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in J.L. Adams’ Vespers of the Blessed Earth. The 2022/23 season features an exciting role debut as Euridice in San Francisco Opera’s Orfeo ed Euridice, her Atlanta Opera debut as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, and a return to the Metropolitan Opera covering Ilia in Idomeneo. She also features as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the North Carolina Symphony, Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with Bard College’s The Orchestra Now, and Bruckner’s Te Deum with New Jersey Symphony.

The 2021/22 sparkled with notable performances with esteemed venues. At the Metropolitan Opera, Ms. Zhang sang an “energetic, bright-voiced Thibault” in Sir David McVicar’s Don Carlos under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as reprised her “warm, honeyed” Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro She also made her triumphant debut at the San Francisco Opera starring in the lead role of Dai Yu in Bright Sheng’s The Dream of the Red Chamber. As a soprano soloist, she performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 throughout China with the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Bach’s Coffee Cantata with Music@Menlo Chamber Music Festival, and concerts with both the Xi’an and Shenzhen Symphony Orchestras.

In previous seasons, Ms. Zhang performed with Switzerland’s Verbier Festival as Pamina in The Magic Flute, Opera National Bordeaux and Guangzhau Opera House as Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Philadelphia Orchestra in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges, Tianjin Grand Opera as Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia and Harbin Symphony Orchestra as Marzelline in Fidelio. Additional roles performed include the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. Previous concert appearances include Mozart’s Exsultate, jubilate with the New Jersey Symphony, Glière’s Concerto for Coloratura Soprano and Orchestra with Camerata Notturna, and solo recitals with pianist Ken Noda at Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium and Miami’s Wertheim Performing Arts Center.

Ms. Zhang was the Grand Prize winner of the 2019 Verbier Festival “Prix Yves Paternot”, a finalist in the 2019 Queen Sonja International Music Competition, and took second place at the 2020 Opera Index Competition. She won the Audience Prize at the 2020 Glyndebourne Opera Cup. While in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Zhang made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Bloody Child in Macbeth, followed by Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro. While attending the Merola Opera Program, she performed as Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, and at the Chautauqua Institute, she was seen as Pamina in The Magic Flute. Ms. Zhang earned her master’s degree from the Mannes School of Music, where she was a recipient of the George and Elizabeth Award, and completed her bachelor’s degree at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

Alan Williams recently received his specialist and master's degrees in voice performance from the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Daniel Washington. He received his undergraduate degree in 2018 from Northern Arizona University, where he studied with Dr. Judith Cloud. 

In the summer of 2023, he appears with Aspen Music Festival as the Voice of the Oracle (Neptune) in Idomeneo,  also covering the role of General Benjamin in Jimmy Lopez's Bel Canto. 

He has performed a number of major roles with various festivals and universities including John P. Parker in Adolphus Hailstork’s Rise for Freedom: The John P. Parker Story, Rev. Olin Blitch in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah and the title role in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. He has also performed in various concerts with Detroit Opera, recently in Detroit Players Club Opera Event. In the fall of 2021, Alan was invited to sing for Jean Snyder's presentation on the works of Harry T. Burleigh at the Oxford Lieder Festival in Oxford, England. He has also had the honor of singing with Dr. Eugene Rogers' professional chamber choir Exigence since 2020. 

He has received notable awards, recently earning an encouragement award at the Arizona District Laffont Competition. In 2021, he was named the winner of the Graduate Concerto Competition at the University of Michigan. Also during his M.M. studies at Michigan, he was selected as a national finalist in the 2019 National Association of Negro Musicians convention. In his undergraduate studies at Northern Arizona University, he was selected as a finalist for two consecutive years in the Rocky Mountain District for MONC auditions. 

In the summer of 2022, he joined the Frank R. Brownell III Apprentice Program at Des Moines Metro Opera, where he sung the role of Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and covered the role of the Lawyer in Porgy and Bess. 

Peixin Chen is recognized for his majestically resonant bass voice and for a keen dramatic instinct that he brings to a wide range of roles on the international opera stage. His repertoire spans from the comic parts of Donizetti, Mozart and Rossini to the strong and serious roles of Puccini, Verdi and Wagner. Peixin Chen has worked with an illustrious array of conductors and directors including Harry Bicket, James Conlon, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Lorin Maazel, Enrique Mazzola, Zubin Mehta, Giancarlo del Monaco, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Michel Plasson, David Pountney, James Robinson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Patrick Summers, Krzysztof Urbański and Francesca Zambello.

Performances of the 2022/23 season included Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera, Fasolt in Das Rheingold at the Dallas Opera, a return engagement with Washington National Opera as Colline in La Bohème, and Philippe (cover) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in the company’s Sir David McVicar new production premiere of the French, five act version of Verdi’s Don Carlos.

Last season he joined the Metropolitan Opera in productions of The Magic Flute and Boris Godunov, bowed as the King of Egypt in Aida for LA Opera and Cincinnati Opera, and appeared with his home company, Houston Grand Opera, as Timur in Turandot conducted by Principal Guest Conductor Eun Sun Kim. The bass’s concert scheduled included performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony and with Michael Stern leading the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of recent seasons include a European debut at the Festival d’Aix en Provence in Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in a new production by Ivo van Hove, a Metropolitan Opera debut as Sarastro in The Magic Flute conducted by Harry Bicket and later performances as Masetto in Don Giovanni led by Cornelius Meister, and a return to Opera Philadelphia as Colline in La Bohème conducted by Corrado Rovaris. He has sung the Verdi Requiem with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Music Director Patrick Summers and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as well as with Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony.

Peixin Chen has sung Sparafucile in Rigoletto at Santa Fe Opera and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Sarastro in The Magic Flute with Opera Philadelphia, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore at Washington National Opera, and the Patriarch of Moscow in Dvořák’s Dmitrij at the Bard Music Festival in a new production directed by Anne Bogart. With Houston Grand Opera, he has bowed as Doctor Bartolo in The Barber of Seville, Oroveso in Norma, the King of Egypt in Aida, Ferrando in Il Trovatore, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, and as Hunding in Die Walküre. As a member of the Merola Program under the auspices of San Francisco Opera, he appeared as Basilio in performances of The Barber of Seville.

The Marriage of Figaro has featured prominently in the bass’s career, assaying the title role in a new production by David Paul for Opera Saratoga and bowing as Bartolo at the Houston Grand Opera conducted by Harry Bicket in the company’s acclaimed production by Michael Grandage, at Beijing’s National Center for the Performing Arts, and in fully-staged performances with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra led by Edo de Waart.

He is a graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and a student of Dr. Stephen King.

Since his debut that year with La Traviata, he has conducted 67 different operas and more than 450 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, the 2022 company premiere of Bach's St. Matthew Passion and a 2023 production of Verdi's Otello.

(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 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 450 performances of 67 different operas by more than 30 different composers. Highlights of his LA Opera tenure include conducting the company’s first Ring cycle; 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 2022/23 season, Mr. Conlon conducted two operas long absent from the company’s repertory, Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Verdi's Otello, along with a new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

Kasper Holten is one of Scandinavia's most sought-after stage directors today and works all over the world. Kasper has directed more than 65 operas, plays, musicals and operettas. His productions have been staged in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Finland, Latvia, Germany, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Austria, Russia, Argentina, Australia, USA and Japan, including at world leading companies such as The Royal Opera Covent Garden, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Teatro alla Scala in Milan. In 2010 he directed his first feature film.

He was appointed artistic director of the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen at age 26, and successfully oversaw the company moving into a new grand opera house in Copenhagen. From 2011 to -2017 he was Director of Opera at Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London.

He is chairman of the board of Danish Dance Theatre, member of the advisory board for the National Gallery for Denmark, and associate professor at Copenhagen Business School and is a sought-after motivational speaker. He has been vice president of Opera Europa for several years, and been on the Danish Arts Council for Music as well as the Danish Radio and TV Board. Kasper Holten was knighted by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark who also presented him with the rare medal Ingenio et Arti for artistic achievements.

Learn more at Holten.com.

Artist Es Devlin creates large-scale public art works and stage sculptures that combine light, music and language. The Imperial War Museum commission I Saw the World End (2020) invited viewers to engage simultaneously with opposing perspectives while the monumental 360-degree sculpture Memory Palace (2019) mapped shifts in human perspective over 73 millennia as a reminder that we have achieved profound alterations in our behavior and mindset in the past, and we can do so once again in response to the threat of extinction.

Her recent series of temporary forests drew on the Shakespearean tradition of the forest as a place of transformation in which characters enter in one state of mind and emerge having shifted their point of view. For Conference of the Trees at COP26, the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, she installed 197 trees as protagonists bearing witness to the decisions 197 countries might make about the future of the planet. Forest for Change at Somerset House in London in June 2021 invited visitors to engage with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Her first large scale maze work, Mirrormaze (Peckham, London 2016), explored perforated cinema and memory and identity through reflective labyrinthine geometries. Her immense mirrored maze Forest of Us (2021) examines the striking visual symmetries between the structures within us that allow us to breathe and the structures around us that make breathing possible. Alongside work by James Turrell, it forms part of the inaugural exhibition at the new Superblue Miami arts center.

In Devlin's work, the viewer becomes a participant. She developed her deep understanding of the terms of audience engagement through two decades of collaborations in theater, designing The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre, London; NYC; LA); Hamlet with Benedict Cumberbatch at the Barbican; A Number, Girls and Boys, The Nether (Royal Court); Chimerica, The Hunt (Almeida); Faith Healer (Donmar). Her work in opera includes Don Giovanni, Salome, Les Troyens and Mahagonny at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and Carmen at the Bregenz Festival in Austria. Large scale productions include the London and Rio Olympic ceremonies and Super Bowl halftime shows with Dr. Dre, Kendrick Lamar and The Weeknd. She has created some of the most renowned stage sculptures in collaborations with Beyonce, The Weeknd, Kanye West, U2, Jay Z, Florence and the Machine, Imogen Heap, Petshop Boys, Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish, seen by mass audiences in stadiums and arenas around the world.

Anja Vang Kragh has designed costumes for theater, ballet, dance and concerts throughout her native Denmark. She has worked for many years for Christian Dior. She has designed costumes for many opera productions including Pagliacci, Carmen. The Flying Dutchman, Cavalleria Rusticana and the musicals West Side Story and Cabaret in the opera houses of Copenhagen, Oslo, Vienna, Bregenz, Barcelona, the royal Opera House Covent Garden in London and others. For the Israeli Opera she designed costumes for Don Giovanni, Idomeneo and La Traviata.

His designs for leading opera houses include Rusalka (Sydney Opera House, Australian Green Room Award), The Marriage of Figaro, Carmen (English National Opera); Peter Pan (Welsh National Opera, Komische Oper Berlin); Mahagonny, Don Giovanni, Connectome, The Two Foscari, La Donna del Lago (Covent Garden); Carmen, Don Giovanni (Oslo); The Threepenny Opera, The Two Foscari, Béatrice et Bénédict (Theater an der Wien); Rinaldo (Chicago); I Puritani (Netherlands Opera, Grand Théâtre de Genève) and productions for Opera North and Garsington Opera. Theater work includes Frankenstein (Olivier and Knight of Illumination awards); Miss Saigon, From Here to Eternity (West End); and productions for the National Theatre, RSC, Old Vic, Royal Court and Barbican. He won a second Knight of Illumination Award for his design of Sigur Ros’ world tour and also designed their 2016 world tour.

His engagements for 2020 include Alcina with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Aida for Houston Grand Opera and Uncle Vanya in London's West End.

(BrunoPoet.co.uk)

British video designer Luke Halls has produced video designs and animations for a wide variety of music, theater and dance performances. Opera work includes Don Giovanni (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden), Otello (Metropolitan Opera) and Carmen (Bregenz Festival Lake Stage).

Theatre work includes West Side Story (Broadway), Ugly Lies The Bone, The Lehman Trilogy (National Theatre) and The Nether (Royal Court). Halls has worked prolifically for music artists, creating video designs and animation for tours by Adele, Beyoncé, Pet Shop Boys, U2 and Rihanna, among others.

Learn more at LukeHalls.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)

Danish choreographer Signe Fabricius is  well sought-after for her work within the fields of opera, musicals, theater and film. In opera, she has had engagements with Malmö Opera, Royal Opera House in London, Teatro Real in Madrid, Vienna State Opera, Finnish National Opera, and the Bregenz Festival. She frequently works at both the Royal Danish Theater and Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen.

Her work in opera includes Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni and Die Meistersinger at the Royal Opera House in London, Tannhäuser and The Tales of Hoffmann in Copenhagen and The Flying Dutchman in Helsinki.

Anna-Marie Sullivan has served as revival choreographer for Kasper Holten's production of Don Giovanni for Houston Grand Opera, Israeli Opera, Barcelona's Gran Teatre del Liceu and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden. She is an actress and choreographer working in theater, television, and film. Recent credits include Round Robin (Obstacle Films), House of the Dragon (HBO); Close (Netflix); Crumbs (ABC TV); Mission: Impossible—Rogue Nation (Paramount Pictures); The Fairy Queen (Theater an der Wien); Don Giovanni, Il Turco in Italia, La Traviata, The Rape of Lucretia and Don Pasquale (Glyndebourne and U.K. tour); The Marriage of Figaro, Andrea Chenier, Lessons in Love and Violence, L’étoile and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden).

Learn more at AnnaMarieSullivan.com.