Carmen

Hailed as a “charismatic star” by the Boston Globe and as “a knockout performer” by The Times, Singaporean-British mezzo Fleur Barron is a 2018 HSBC Laureate of the Aix-en-Provence Festival and the recipient of the 2016 Grace B. Jackson Prize from the Tanglewood Music Festival, awarded to one outstanding young singer each year. A passionate interpreter of chamber music, concert works and opera ranging from the baroque to the contemporary, Fleur is mentored by Barbara Hannigan.

Fleur is committed to the way music can facilitate cross-cultural dialogue and healing. She is passionate about curating inclusive chamber music programming that amplifies the voices of diverse communities. An active mentor, Fleur is a member of the Hope Collective, an artist-in-residence at Manhattan School of Music, and is currently mentoring young singers in partnership with Cape Town Opera, the Malaysian Philharmonic and Manhattan School of Music. Born in Northern Ireland to a Singaporean mother and British father, Fleur grew up in the Far East and later completed studies in New York and London.

In the 2020/21 Season, impacted by COVID, Fleur sings Ottavia in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea at Opéra Royal de Versailles; Sasha Garner in the world Premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Woman with Eyes Closed at Opera Philadelphia; Olga in Eugene Onegin for Garsington Opera, and Mercedes in Carmen at Monte-Carlo Opera. Orchestral engagements include Chausson’s Poème de l’Amour et de la Mer with Orchestre Symphonique de Toulon and Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder with Geneva’s Léman Lyriques Festival. On the recital platform, Fleur joins regular collaborator Julius Drake for recitals at Het Concertgebouw, Chamber Music Northwest, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society in a duo recital with Eric Owens, and Oxford Lieder Festival in a duo recital with Ian Bostridge. She curates and performs a series of recitals at the Aix-en-Provence Festival on the theme of Empire/colonialism, curates a recital with pianist Myra Huang around Asian creators for Aural Compass Projects and Cincinnati Song Initiative, and performs a recital featuring Asian composers on the theme of “Homeland, Childhood and Belonging” at the Leeds Lieder Festival. Fleur has further recitals in France at Cannes Music Festival, and in the U.K. at Aldeburgh Festival and Blackheath Halls.

In the 2019/20 Season, also impacted by COVID, Fleur debuted with the Berlin Philharmoniker under Kirill Petrenko as La Zelatrice in a staged production of Suor Angelica, sang the title role in Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice with Cape Town Opera, and Suzuki with both the Hallé Orchestra under Sir Mark Elder and at Opéra National de Montpellier. She was also scheduled to sing the title role in Handel’s Giulio Cesare with the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Hannover. In concert, Fleur debuted with the Munich Philharmonic in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella under Barbara Hannigan and sang Berlioz arias with the Malaysian Philharmonic. She continued her partnership with Julius Drake in multiple recitals at Het Concertgebouw and in the U.K., joined regular collaborator Roger Vignoles in recital at Aldeburgh Festival, and performed one of the first livestreamed concerts in lockdown with pianist Myra Huang at the 92 Street Y, which was viewed by over 79,000 people.

In recent seasons, Fleur performed Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress to critical acclaim at both La Monnaie and Aldeburgh Festival with Barbara Hannigan; she also received plaudits for her portrayal of Anna I and Anna II in Kurt Weill’s die Siebentodsünden at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Further roles have included Fenena in Nabucco with Opéra National de Montpellier; Olga in Eugene Onegin with Opéra de Toulon; 1st Witch in Dido and Aeneas with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; and Balkis in Offenbach’s Barkouf with Opéra National du Rhin. Recent concert performances include an artistic residency at the Ojai Festival under the helm of Barbara Hannigan; alto soloist in Bernstein’s Songfest with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at Barbican Hall; Vaughn William’s Serenade to Music with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Orchestre Régional de Normandie.

Tenor Matthew White recently made critically acclaimed debuts as Roméo in Roméo et Juiliette at Cincinnati Opera and as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Tulsa Opera, prompting critics to proclaim him “an elegant tenor capable of exciting high notes. His famous cavatina, Ah! Lève-toi, soleil, was mesmerizing.”

In the 2020/21 Season, White returns to Tulsa Opera as the Duke in Rigoletto and makes his house and role debut at the Bard SummerScape Festival as Lancelot in Chausson’s rarely performed Le Roi Arthus. He was also scheduled to return to Cincinnati Opera as Pinkerton, and make house debuts at Lyric Opera of Kansas City as Alfredo in La Traviata, Arizona Opera as Don José in Carmen, and Michigan Opera Theatre as Roméo.

Highlights of the 2019/20 Season featured house debuts at Edmonton Opera as the Duke, Opera Naples as Rodolfo in La bohème, and Tulsa Opera as Pinkerton. He had also been scheduled to debut at Dallas Opera as the tenor soloist in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella. On the concert stage, he joined the Florida Orchestra as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah and performed in a gala concert at Cincinnati Opera.

A recent graduate of Philadelphia’s prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts, White performed a variety of roles during his time in the program, including Roméo, the title role in Werther, Roberto in Puccini’s Le Villi, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Avito in Montemezzi’s L’amore dei tre re, and Faust in Lili Boulanger’s Faust et Hélène. He made his house debut at Opera Maine as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, and has appeared at Palm Beach Opera and Vero Beach Opera. Concert credits include performances with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra, Ocean City Pops, and Longfellow Chorus Festival.

A favorite of competitions, White was selected to compete in the 2019 Operalia Competion in Prague. He has been awarded the Grand Prize of the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, 1st place in the Deborah Voigt International Vocal Competition, 2nd place in the Metropolitan Opera Mid-Atlantic region, the Grand Prize in the Mario Lanza Vocal Competition, an Encouragement Award from the George London Foundation, and the Alfonso Cavaliere Award. He has participated in the training programs of Bel Canto at Caramoor, PORTopera, and Seagle Music Colony.

A trained violinist, White is also an avid surfer and runs his own surfboard business, which currently has clients around the world.

Colombian-American soprano Vanessa Vasquez, winner of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, recently completed a four-year residency at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, where she has been heard as Mimì in La Bohème, Gilda in Rigoletto, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Violetta in La Traviata.

In the 2020/21 Season, Vasquez made her debut at the Paris Opera singing Liu in Turandot. Vasquez also performed for the first time at Seattle Opera as Mimi in La Bohème. Vasquez returned to The Santa Fe Opera to sing the Countess in a new production of The Marriage of Figaro. Vasquez's additional return engagements included Washington National Opera and Arizona Opera to sing her first performances of Micaëla in Carmen.

In the 2019/20 Season, Vasquez made her debut with the Canadian Opera Company in the role of Liù in Turandot, and with Washington National Opera singing her first performances of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. Previously, Vasquez debuted with Arizona Opera as Violetta in La Traviata, and with The Santa Fe Opera and Opera Philadelphia, both as Mimi in La Bohème.

Vasquez made her professional opera debut in summer 2017 as Liù in Turandot with Des Moines Metro Opera. With Oberlin in Italy, she performed Countess Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro. On the concert stage, Vasquez debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra in J.S. Bach’s cantata Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich and with the New York Choral Society in Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. Vasquez made her debut with the New York Philharmonic as soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy, and was the soprano soloist in Honneger’s King David and Poulenc’s Gloria with Voices of Ascension. Vasquez was a featured soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin in the Academy of Music 160th Anniversary Concert and Ball.

Vasquez is the recipient of a 2017 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, First Prize in the 2017 Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, First Prize in the 2016 Licia Albanese Competition, First Prize in the 2016 Giulio Gari Competition, First Prize in the 2016 Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition, and First Prize and Audience Award in the Phoenix Opera Southwest Vocal Competition, among others.

Vasquez graduated from The Catholic University of America with a Bachelor of Music degree. Vasquez went on to complete a Master of Music degree at UCLA, where she performed Susanna in Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. Vasquez is a native of Scottsdale, Arizona.

American Bass Wm. Clay Thompson has been praised by Opera News for his “mahogany-timbred” voice. A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Thompson recently completed his second year as a Resident Artist with Minnesota Opera, and is known for his "...strong, rich, and warm color, yet the ability to cross over into bass-baritone repertoire."

Thompson’s 2019/20 Season included reprising the role of Suleyman Pasha in The Ghosts of Versailles at the Chateau de Versailles Spectacles in France, Handel’s Messiah with Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, a series of Opera UNTRAPPED online concerts with Wolf Trap Opera, and his return the Minnesota Opera as Leporello in Don Giovanni (cancelled). This season’s engagements include postponed or cancelled performances as Zuniga in Carmen with Arizona Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City.

Thompson’s 2018/19 Season at Minnesota Opera included performances as Dottore Grenvil in La traviata, the French General in Silent Night, Crébillon in La rondine, and Charles Comiskey in the world premiere of Joel Puckett's The Fix. Additionally, he returned to The Glimmerglass Festival in the summer of 2019, where he performed as Suleyman Pasha in The Ghosts of Versailles, Dottore Grenvil in Francesca Zambello's La traviata, and the title role in Benjamin Britten's Noah's Flood. The 2017/18 Season saw Thompson in roles at Minnesota Opera including Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro, Second Prison Guard in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, and Palémon in Thaïs, as well as having covered Don Bartolo (Le nozze di Figaro), Warden Benton (Dead Man Walking), Sparafucile (Rigoletto), and the title role in Don Pasquale. As a member of the Young Artist Program at the Glimmerglass Festival, he was seen as The Poacher in E. Loren Meeker’s new production of The Cunning Little Vixen, Father Palmer in Kevin Puts’ Silent Night, and Gladhand in Francesca Zambello’s production of West Side Story.

As a Studio Artist with Wolf Trap Opera for their 2016 and 2017 seasons, Thompson sang Benoit and Alcindoro in La bohème, Suleyman Pasha in Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles, Yakuside in Madama Butterfly, and covered the role of Collatinus in The Rape of Lucretia. As a Young Artist at the Seagle Music Colony he performed the roles of Olin Blitch (Susannah), Mordred (Camelot), and the Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring).

Thompson sang the role of Zuniga in Carmen at Fort Worth Opera’s 2017 Festival, and in previous seasons has been seen as Colline in La bohème with SOO Opera Theatre, Raymond Buck in the world premiere of JFK with Fort Worth Opera, and Billy Jackrabbit in La fanciulla del West with Kentucky Opera.

Thompson was a winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Kentucky District in 2013, and was Encouragement Award Winner in New Orleans District in 2014, and the Tulsa District in 2016 and 2017.

A graduate of the University of North Texas, Thompson performed the title role in Le nozze di Figaro, Daniel Webster in Birgal Thomson's The Mother of Us All, and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni. With the University of Kentucky Opera Theatre his roles included Leporello in Don Giovanni, Don Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, and the Police Sergeant in The Pirates of Penzance.

American tenor Terrence Chin-Loy, whom Opera News described as having a "beautiful lyric tenor voice” pairs passionate performance with a full, sweet sound. In the 2022/23 Season, Chin-Loy will perform Tamino in The Magic Flute with the National Taichung Theater in Taiwan as well as at Arizona Opera, Don José in Carmen with MasterVoices at Lincoln Center, Old Head 2 and Charlie in the world premiere of Factotum with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Acis in Acis and Galatea with Eugene Opera, and join the roster of The Metropolitan Opera to cover the role of Arbace in Idomeneo. In concert, Chin-Loy joins the North Carolina Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem, and the Boise Philharmonic for a performance of Hailstork’s I Will Life Mine Eyes as well as a residency with the College of Idaho.

Chin-Loy opened the 2021/22 Season in his solo debut at The Metropolitan Opera in Terence Blanchard's Fire Shut Up In My Bones. Chin-Loy returned to Arizona Opera for his second and final season as a Marion Roose Pullin Resident Artist where he performed Henrik Egerman in A Little Night Music and Ferrando in Così fan tutte and Benny Paret Jr. in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Champion. In concert, Chin-Loy performed and recorded Taneyev’s At the Reading of a Psalm with the American Symphony Orchestra and Leon Botstein at Carnegie Hall.

In the 2020/21 Season, Chin-Loy sang a series of concerts with Arizona Opera as a member of the Studio, and joined the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival in Twin Stars, a piece by Daniel Bernard Roumain about the shooting of Philando Castile. Chin-Loy also appeared in William Grant Still's Highway 1 as a Gerdine Young Artist at Opera Theatre Saint Louis. In the 2019/20 Season, Chin-Loy joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera as Mingo (Cover) in Porgy and Bess and the New York Festival of Song as a part of the Vocal Rising Stars series at Caramoor.

Chin-Loy 's favorite roles include Idomeneo in Idomeneo: afterWARds (Pittsburgh Opera), director David Paul's retelling of Mozart's masterpiece with the composer's original music, Edgardo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (Indiana University), and Younger Thompson in Tom Cipullo's Glory Denied (Pittsburgh Opera, Penn Square Music Festival). Chin-Loy was happy to make his Carnegie Hall debut in Handel's Messiah in the 2018/19 Season.

Chin-Loy is a graduate of Indiana University, where he received a Performer Diploma, and holds degrees from Mannes College and Yale University. At Mannes, Chin-Loy performed the roles of Laurie in Mark Adamo's Little Women and Bill in the New York premiere of Jonathan Dove's Flight with Mannes Opera, and received the Michael Sisca Opera Award, the school's top prize for an opera singer. Chin-Loy holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Yale University, where his studies concentrated on Music Theory and Musicology. While at Yale, Chin-Loy was also a frequent performer with the Yale Baroque Opera Project, with which he performed major roles in La Calisto, Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and Scipione affricano. Chin-Loy is a 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions National Semifinalist.

Named a 2019 Grand Finals Winner by the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, rising American mezzo-soprano Mack Wolz joined Arizona Opera as a member of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio for the 2020/21 Season. Praised by Opera News for a “keen sense of character,” Wolz covered the role of Addison in the world premiere of The Copper Queen and was seen as Mercèdes in Carmen. On the concert stage, engagements included debuts with the Phoenix Symphony, performing Handel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Opera Edwardsville, presenting a program of Renaissance and Baroque motets with renowned harpsichordist Jory Vinikour.

Previously, Wolz joined pianist Steven Blier in the New York Festival of Song “Killer B’s” tour, performing the concert at the Tucson Desert Song Festival, the Century Club in New York City, and Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Wolz has spent several summers with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, taking part in their Gerdine Young Artist and Gaddes Festival Artist programs. The performance in The Coronation of Poppea was highlighted by Opera News for a “creamy mezzo and mischievous spark as Amore.”

Wolz trained at the Boston Conservatory, where numerous mainstage performances were lauded for their “immense skill in both solo and ensemble singing” and for a “radiant” voice (the Boston Musical Intelligencer).

Henri Meilhac was born in the 1st arrondissement of Paris in 1830. As a young man, he began writing fanciful articles for Parisian newspapers and comédies en vaudevilles, in a vivacious boulevardier spirit which brought him to the forefront. Around 1860, he met Ludovic Halévy, and their collaboration for the stage lasted twenty years.

Their most famous collaboration is the libretto for Georges Bizet's Carmen. However, Meilhac's work is most closely tied to the music of Jacques Offenbach, for whom he wrote over a dozen librettos, most of them together with Halévy. The most successful collaborations with Offenbach are La belle Hélène (1864), Barbe-bleue (1866), La Vie parisienne (1866), La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein (1867), and La Périchole (1868).

Other librettos by Meilhac include Jules Massenet's Manon (with Philippe Gille) (1884), Hervé's Mam'zelle Nitouche (1883), and Rip, the French version of Robert Planquette's operetta Rip Van Winkle (also with Gille). Their vaudeville play Le réveillon was the basis of the operetta Die Fledermaus.

In 1888 he was elected to the Académie française. He died in Paris in 1897.

Recipient of The 2017 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award, Christopher Allen is featured in Opera News as “one of the fastest-rising podium stars in North America.” He has led acclaimed performances with the Atlanta Symphony, Los Angeles Opera, Opera Philadelphia, English National Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Washington National Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Florida Grand Opera, Atlanta Opera, Daegu Opera House in South Korea and China National Opera Orchestra and Chorus. As The John L. Magro Resident Conductor for Cincinnati Opera, Maestro Allen has joined the company for three consecutive seasons, in addition to leading the Cincinnati Symphony in the annual Washington Park Concert each summer. In the 2019/20 Season, Allen returned to Florida Grand Opera and Michigan Opera Theatre to conduct Mozart’s Don Giovanni. He conducted his debut at Arizona Opera in Puccini’s La bohème. In the beginning of the 2020 Season, Christopher toured the United States as music director of the Bel Canto Trio. Shortly thereafter, many debuts and performances at Opera Omaha’s One Festival, Opéra de Montréal, Oper Frankfurt, and Cincinnati Opera were canceled due to COVID-19.

Allen’s career was launched by the Bruno Walter Conducting Award and Memorial Career Grant and has been fostered by Plácido Domingo and James Conlon, who brought him to Los Angeles Opera as Associate Conductor. At LA Opera, Allen led the musical preparation for the acclaimed The Ghosts of Versailles, which won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording. In addition to earning recognition as a Musical America Artist of the Month and one of their “25 Stars Still Rising,” Allen is a recipient of a Solti Foundation US Career Assistance Award and an International Opera Awards nominee. He recently received the Young Alumni Award from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Allen’s artistic pursuits extend beyond his role as conductor. He demonstrates his commitment to education through his work with young artists at Los Angeles Opera, Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, New England Conservatory, A.J. Fletcher Institute at University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Aspen Music Festival and School. Allen has been heard on NPR speaking about the importance of the arts in American society. As an award-winning pianist, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and mostly recently on film in La voix humaine, starring Patricia Racette and directed by James Darrah.

When not in rehearsal or onstage, Allen enjoys his work as a multimedia visual artist and playwright. His artistic short film NIOBE, that he wrote and directed during the COVID-19 lockdown, was selected by numerous film festivals. It has gone on to win awards for Best First Time Director, Best Screen Dance Short, and Best Dance Film. Allen is also the Creative Director of Shokat Projects, a production company dedicated to the creation of new, interdisciplinary works.

Haley Stamats is an opera and theater director based in the US. She enjoys directing new works, both conventional and experimental, as well as classical repertoire with numerous opera companies in the US and England.

Currently, she is working on the opera for feature film, The Copper Queen, which is a new work piece commissioned by Arizona Opera. She will serve as the script supervisor and 2nd Unit Film Director.

Her 2020/21 Season started with her residency at Arizona Opera with the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio as their first Resident Assistant Director. As a part of Arizona Opera’s reimagined season, she produced livestreams and recorded concerts with Manley Films.

Her 2019/20 Season began at Virginia Opera as the assistant director for their back-to-back productions of Tosca and Il Postino. She debuted at Resonance Works / Pittsburgh directing their annual Amahl and the Night Visitors as well as remounting Il Postino at Opera Southwest at the end of 2019. She returned to Virginia Opera to assistant direct their Aida and planned to make her directing debut with Scalia/Ginsburg but both productions were postponed due to COVID-19. In the summer, she planned on assistant directing Don Giovanni at The Glimmerglass Festival but the production was also postponed. Instead, she participated in their virtual YAP program.

Her 2018/19 Season began with directing two new work pieces, Between Constallations and Rain, as a part of the Mosiac Opera Showcase at Grimborn Opera Festival in London. She then returned to Virginia Opera to assistant direct their production of Don Giovanni. In 2019, she assistant directed Eugene Onegin at Opera Santa Barbara and ended her season making her directorial debut at Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre with their world premiere of The Grant Wood Opera: Strokes of Genius.

She holds a B.A. in Music and Public Relations from Simpson College.

Andrea Robertson began her fight direction career when she picked up a rapier/dagger in college and felt like she was coming home. Since that time, Robertson has fight directed over a hundred productions including many at Arizona Opera where she debuted with a production of Otello. Some of her other favorite operas have been Silent Night, Carmen, and Riders of the Purple Sage. Robertson began her own company - Fight Call, LLC in 2006 to pursue her love of stage combat; and is a Certified Teachers with the Society of American Fight Directors. Currently she is the Director of Theatre at Paradise Valley Community College.