The Copper Queen (Workshop)
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Clint BorzoniComposer |
CLINT JOSEPH BORZONI is an award- winning composer whose “highly original yet lyrical music…[and] natural gift for melody and harmonic structure” (The Huffington Post) has resulted in international performances and premieres.
He has collaborated with librettist John de los Santos on the opera When Adonis Calls. The lyrical opera (fashioned entirely from the poetry of Gavin Geoffrey Dillard), was selected for inclusion by Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers and Opera America’s New Works Forum. The world premiere at the Asheville Lyric Opera sold out, and was followed by a collaborative new production in Chicago between Thompson Street Opera and Pride Films & Plays.
Their second collaboration, The Copper Queen, won the Arizona Spark competition, and was slated to open the McDougall RED Series in the 2020/21 Season— excerpts were recently performed at the American Lyric Theater’s Alumni concert, with a third sold-out workshop at Opera America. Arizona Opera is making an ambitious turn toward film by producing a motion picture adaptation of the company’s second world premiere commission, The Copper Queen. Arizona Opera—along with the opera’s creators and its all-female production team, led by director Crystal Manich—have joined forces with longtime video partner and creative agency Manley Films, to create a feature-length film of the opera.
Clint and John are currently in development with The American Opera Project on a new holiday opera, “The Christmas Spider”. Other operatic works include Margot Alone in the Light, an adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s story All Summer in a Day (premiered by operamission and subsequently produced by Opera On Tap); and Antinous and Hadrian (commissioned by operamission). The orchestra suite based on Antinous and Hadrian won the Queer Urban Orchestra’s 2018 composition competition, and will be performed by the Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra next season.
Borzoni has composed songs and song cycles for many leading vocalists. He won BARIHUNKS Best New Song (2015), Best New Solo Work for Baritone (2017), operamission’s cabaret song competition, and was a prize winner of Sparks & Wiry Cries Second and Fourth annual NYC songSLAM. Borzoni’s additional honors include the Morton Feldman Award, the Boston Metro Opera Festival Award, an artist residency with the American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program (2009), an artist residency with The American Opera Project’s Composers and the Voice Program (2010), and an associate producer credit for Patricia Racette’s CD “Diva on Detour”.
In addition to composing opera, art song, and concert music, his musical My Life as a Bald Soprano received an Off-Broadway run at the Midtown International Theater Festival. Borzoni has also scored three films for the production company JR VISION, which were featured at the Take Two Film Festival, the Miami Short Film Festival, SeriesFest, NewFilmmakers Los Angeles, and Anthology Film Archives. His music has been presented by the Merola Opera Program, the Glimmerglass Festival, the Bay View Music Festival, the Wintergreen Festival, the Summer Street Festival, St Martin-in-the-Fields, the U.S. embassy in Switzerland, La MaMA, Symphony Space, Opera Grows in Brooklyn, the New York Youth Symphony, the Walt Whitman Project, the Jacobs School of Music, the Guildhall School of Music, the Mannes School of Music, and many more venues and universities.
He has recently been commissioned by Arizona Opera, the Delaware Art Museum, the Big Apple Corps Symphonic Band, and Barihunks. He studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici at the City University of New York where he received an MA in Music Composition. He recently finished a new oratorio, The Wife of Lot, which was commissioned by the Gavin Dillard Poetry Library & Archive, and made possible by a generous donation from Steven J. Schimmel. The Wife of Lot is part of the collection of the Senator John Heinz History Center, in association with the Smithsonian Institution.
He recently completed a chamber piece, Requiem Fragments, which was commissioned by tenor Mitchell Sturges. He has begun work on his six opera, Being in Love Alone, with librettist Dr. Judith G. Wolf. He currently resides in New York City and is the Resident Composer for Musica Marin, a nonprofit organization that presents, supports and inspires classical music throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.
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John de los SantosLibrettist |
Librettist John de los Santos’ first collaboration with composer Clint Borzoni, When Adonis Calls, was selected for inclusion in both Opera America’s New Works Forum and Fort Worth Opera's Frontiers showcase, then premiered under John’s direction at Asheville Lyric Opera. His latest libretto with Borzoni, The Christmas Spider, will premiere with The American Opera Project in New York City. He was commissioned by Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative to create an original work with composer Christopher Weiss. The resulting piece, Service Provider, premiered at The Kennedy Center, and has since had over a dozen productions across the United States. Over the summer of 2020, John and composer Marc Migó were commissioned by UrbanArias to write an operatic film as part of Decameron Opera Project. The film, The Roost, was directed by John and was recently included in the archives of the Library of Congress. John has also collaborated with composers Robert Paterson, Tony Solitro, and Lingbo Ma.
As director/choreographer, John has staged the world premieres of Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun (Santa Fe Opera), Stardust (Helios Opera), Pure Country (Lyric Stage), and The Astronaut Love Show (Kraine Theater, NYC). Other productions include The Rose & the Knife, Le Comte Ory, and Otello for LoftOpera (NYC), La Cage Aux Folles for Skylight Music Theatre, La Fille du Regiment for Arizona Opera, Carousel for Ashlawn Opera, Trouble in Tahiti for Lexington Philharmonic, and Maria de Buenos Aires for San Diego and Arizona Opera. In 2015, he choreographed the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's Great Scott for the Dallas Opera. His choreography has also been seen at the Washington National, Florida Grand, Philadelphia, Des Moines Metro, Utah Festival, and Austin Lyric Opera Companies.
John was the resident choreographer at Fort Worth Opera for Rigoletto, Salome, La Traviata, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and the world premieres of Frau Margot and Before Night Falls. John then made his directing debut with the company with a 2009 production of Carmen, followed by The Mikado and The Pearl Fishers. John has served on the directing faculty of the Seagle Music Colony in Schroon Lake, NY, where his productions have included Anything Goes, Crazy for You, The Medium, The Fantasticks, The Mikado, La Boheme, Guys & Dolls, Brigadoon and L'Italiana in Algeri.
Other productions include Italienisches Liederbuch for Voces Intimae, The Golden Apple for Lyric Stage, Spring Awakening and Dogfight for WaterTower Theatre. For the Dallas-based theatre company Uptown Players, choreographed the American premiere of the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer to Heaven, the regional premiere of Altar Boyz (for which John was awarded the DFW Critics Forum Award for Best Choreography), and directed and choreographed the regional premiere of Hello Again and the American premiere of Soho Cinders.
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Cody MartinConductor |
Cody Martin is quickly becoming known as an important talent in the world of opera. He joined Des Moines Metro Opera for the 2016 season, coaching members of the Apprentice Artist Program and working on productions of Falstaff and Orphée et Eurydice. He returns to Arizona Opera in the fall for his second season as a Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist, where he will work on the music staff for productions of Rusalka, Madama Butterfly, Riders of the Purple Sage (world premiere), and Cinderella.
Cody also worked with Virginia Opera in the 2014/15 season as Emerging Artist Apprentice Coach, where he was the music director for two touring educational outreach shows and the cover pianist for La traviata. He was on the music staff of the Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center for three seasons, working as an assistant conductor and coach for productions of The Ballad of Baby Doe, Così fan tutte, Rigoletto, Sweeney Todd, Don Giovanni, and Albert Herring.
An avid proponent of new opera, Cody has worked on multiple premieres, including a 2014 workshop of Robert Aldridge’s Sister Carrie and the world premiere of Michael Ching’s Speed Dating Tonight! at Brevard Music Center; as well as a regional premiere of David T. Little’s Soldier Songs at Florida State University.
Cody holds degrees from Murray State University and Florida State University, where his teachers included Valerie Trujillo (piano), Stephen Brown (piano), and Douglas Fisher (conducting).
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Lacy SauterJulia Lowell |
American soprano, Lacy Sauter, is quickly becoming known for her vocal and dramatic versatility. She returns to Arizona Opera for the 2017/18 season as Dianara, Hesperide 1, City Woman and Peasant Woman in Hercules vs Vampires and Welgunde in Das Rheingold.
In the 2016/17 season, she made her company debut with Arizona Opera as the Second Woodsprite in Rusalka and also created the role of Julia Lowell in a workshop performance of Borzoni’s The Copper Queen. She bowed as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro for her company debut with the Livermore Valley Opera. Lacy Sauter also returned to the Missouri Symphony as a Resident Artist for various concert performances and as Violetta in La Traviata.
The 2015/16 season brought role and company debuts as Micaela in Carmen with Heartland Opera Theatre and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Nashville Opera. She spent the summer as a Resident Artist performing with the Missouri Symphony as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and as a soloist in both the POPS and Classical Concert Series.
In the fall of 2014 she completed her graduate studies at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University under the tutelage of world-renowned soprano, Carol Vaness. While at IU, she sang Mimi in La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. Lacy Sauter started 2015 with a 1st Place win in Phoenix Opera’s Southwest Vocal Competition competing in the final round with orchestra at the Orpheum Theater. In February 2015, she covered Nadine Sierra as Gilda and sang Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto with The Atlanta Opera. She returned to Union Avenue Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto after having made her company debut as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire the previous summer.
Ms. Sauter finished her tenure as a Young Artist at the Florida Grand Opera in the spring of 2013. During her time at FGO she sang 1st Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Flora in La Traviata, and Bianca in La Rondine. In addition, she covered the roles of Mimi and Musetta in La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Magda in La Rondine, Gilda in Rigoletto and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. She spent two summers as an Apprentice Singer with The Santa Fe Opera where she performed the role of Albina in La Donna del Lago starring Joyce DiDonato and conducted by Stephen Lord. Ms. Sauter also served as the cover for Wanda in the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and Violetta in La Traviata. In addition, she was featured as Magda in La Rondine, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and the Overseer in Elektra for the Apprentice Scenes Showcase.
As a Young Artist at the 2011 Glimmerglass Festival, she sang the role of Valentina Scarcella in Later the Same Evening and covered the roles of Frasquita in Carmen and the Young Woman in the world premiere of A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck. She was a Festival Artist at Utah Festival Opera in 2009, where she covered the roles of Frasquita in Carmen and Peep-Bo in The Mikado. As a studio artist at Chautauqua Opera, in 2008 and 2010, she played the roles of the Baby Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen and the Second Graduate in Street Scene.
Lacy Sauter hails from Scottsdale, Arizona and completed her undergraduate degree at Arizona State University. She was a winner of the Arizona and the Middle-East Tennessee Districts of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008 and 2011 and the 2nd Place Winner of the Orpheus Vocal Competition in 2014. She was also honored to be nominated for a Sara Tucker Study Grant in 2011.
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Alyssa MartinAddison Moore |
Lauded for her vocal agility and dynamic stage presence, Alyssa Martin is quickly garnering attention as a standout young singer.
Ms. Martin is currently a first-year Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist at Arizona Opera. This season she will perform Mercédès in Carmen, Meg Page in Falstaff, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. She will also appear as the mezzo soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Santa Fe Symphony.
Upcoming engagements include a return to The Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist, where she will perform the role of Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette and a return to Arizona Opera in the 2016/17 season singing Kitchen Boy in Rusalka, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and Angelinain La Cenerentola.
Ms. Martin’s 2014/15 season included her tenure as an Apprentice Artist at the Santa Fe Opera where she covered Don Ramiro in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. While at Santa Fe, Ms. Martin also performed scenes as Dorabella in Così fan tutte, and Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello. Other recent engagements include covering Flora and Annina in La traviata and The Page in Salome as an Emerging Artist at Virginia Opera. Ms. Martin was also an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, where she covered Isolier in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory.
This season, Ms. Martin was named a winner in the Arizona District Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, where she went on to place 3rd in the Western Region Finals. In the 2014/15 season, she was awarded a Career Grant from the Seattle Opera Guild, an Encouragement Grant from the Career Bridges Grant Foundation, and also 2nd prize at the Young Patronesses of the Opera Competition at Florida Grand Opera. She has been the recipient of numerous awards from organizations such as the Orpheus Vocal Competition, Young Patronesses of the Opera, Opera Guild of Dayton, Indianapolis Matinee Musicale, and Utah Festival Opera.
Ms. Martin completed her studies at the prestigious Indiana University Jacobs School of Music where she obtained both a bachelor’s and master’s degree under the instruction of Patricia Stiles and world-renowned soprano, Carol Vaness. On the IU stage she performed roles such as Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, Cendrillon in Cendrillon, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, and Prinz Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. Ms. Martin is a native of Greensboro, NC.
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Chris CarrTheodore "Teddy" Billings |
Raised in the small town of Quasqueton, IA, Mr. Carr has performed roles with Arizona Opera, Merola Opera Program, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. He made his company debut with Arizona Opera last season as a Studio Artist singing several roles including Schaunard in La bohème and Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, as well as John Lassiter in the workshop of The Riders of the Purple Sage, a new opera by composer Craig Bohmler. This season, Mr. Carr returns as a Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio Artist to sing Marullo in Rigoletto, Eugene Onegin in Eugene Onegin, the Corporal in The Daughter of the Regiment, and cover Papageno in The Magic Flute.
Mr. Carr spent his summer at the Glimmerglass Festival where he made his debut as Billy Bigelow in Carousel. In December of this year, he will also make his Kennedy Center debut with Washington National Opera as The Pilot in their production of The Little Prince. Mr. Carr won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Arizona District in October and in February Mr. Carr was announced the recipient of the 2014 Igor Gorin Memorial Award in February.
Mr. Carr was featured in San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program as Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia in the summer of 2013. The opening of the 2012/13 season marked Mr. Carr’s mainstage debut with The Lyric Opera of Kansas City where he performed Yamadori in Madama Butterfly and later Pish-Tush in The Mikado. Mr. Carr spent two seasons with The Lyric Opera of Kansas City as a Resident Artist beginning in 2011, while he was also at the University of Missouri Kansas City. During this time, he sang the title role in Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the University of Missouri Kansas City. In the summer of 2012, Mr. Carr made his debut as Schaunard in La bohème at Central City Opera where he also received the John Moriarty Award. Also that year, Mr. Carr was a District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received a Career Development Award from The Sullivan Foundation.
Mr. Carr participated in the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist Program in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, he made his debut with The Cedar Rapids Opera Theater as the Sacristan in Tosca. Mr. Carr was also a District Winner in Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the winner of the Vocal Division of the NAFTZGER competition.
Mr. Carr’s concert performances include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Monteverdi’s Vespers, Faure’s Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah. This year, he will sing The Narrator in The Polar Express with the Phoenix Symphony. He has also sung recitals with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater and Kansas City’s Bach Aria Soloists. Mr. Carr graduated with a Master of Music degree from the University of Missouri Kansas City and a Bachelor of Music degree from Simpson College in Indianola, IA.
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Joseph LattanziPeter Ackerman |
A 2017 recipient of a top prize from the Sullivan Foundation, Joseph Lattanzi established himself as a singer to watch with his portrayal of Hawkins Fuller in the world premiere of Greg Spears’ Fellow Travelers with Cincinnati Opera, followed by further performances for his debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago, in New York at the PROTOTYPE Festival, and with Arizona Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. Praise for Lattanzi's performances included The New York Times saying “Joseph Lattanzi was splendid as Hawk, his buttery baritone luxuriant and robust.” and Opera News described him as a “confident, handsome presence, and a resonant baritone suggesting wells of feeling that the character might prefer to leave untapped.” In the 2022/23 Season, Lattanzi once again joined The Metropolitan Opera for their productions of Peter Grimes and Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk before returning to the role he created in Fellow Travelers with Virginia Opera. Lattanzi also made a debut with the Sacramento Choral Society as the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana.
In the 2021/22 Season, Lattanzi continued his relationship with The Metropolitan Opera, covering the role of Orpheus in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice and joining their production of Madame Butterfly. Additionally, Lattanzi returned to his hometown in the title role in The Barber of Seville with the Atlanta Opera, where he was praised for his “stellar” voice and his “top notch” acting by the Atlanta Arts Review. Lattanzi capped off the season debuting the role of Escamillo in Utah Festival Opera’s production of Carmen.
Recent career highlights include his return to Cincinnati Opera as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Silvio in Pagliacci with Atlanta Opera, Dandini in La cenerentola with Virginia Opera, and the title role in Don Giovanni with the Jacksonville Symphony. A regular at The Metropolitan Opera since the 2018/19 Season, Lattanzi has been on the roster for productions of Der Rosenkavalier, Kat’a Kabanvova, Marnie, Madame Butterfly, and The Barber of Seville. Lattanzi has also maintained a strong relationship with Arizona Opera, where he was a member of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio from 2015 until 2017. During Lattanzi's time with the company, he was heard in the title role of Don Giovanni, as Dandini, Riolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas, and was featured in the company’s Sapphire Celebration with Frederica von Stade. Additional performances included Moralès and Dancaïre in Carmen, Yamadori in Madame Butterfly, and as the Gamekeeper in Rusalka. Lattanzi also appears regularly with Seattle Opera, most recently as the Steward in their filmed production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight.
On the concert stage, Lattanzi was heard in a celebration of the music of Leonard Bernstein with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and in the coast of West Side Story at Grand Tetons Music Festival under the baton of Donald Runnicles. Lattanzi has appeared with Jake Heggie in OPERA America’s Creators in Concert series, previewing Fellow Travelers at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, and in Carmina Burana with the Reno Philharmonic and at the Christ (Crystal) Cathedral, and with the Chicago Sinfonietta.
The Georgia native has studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). In addition to two summers at the Merola Opera Program, Lattanzi has participated in programs at the Brevard Music Center and the Chautauqua Institute Voice Program.
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Loren BattiesteRichie aka "Sugar Dog" |
Loren Battieste currently lives in Phoenix area after completing an Artist's Diploma with the Chicago College of Performing Arts. While at CCPA Loren performed many roles, including Papageno in The Magic Flute and Paul in Daron Hagen's Amelia. In 2017, Loren performed the role of Imperial Commissioner in Arizona Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly.
Loren has been involved with Arizona Opera since their 2014/15 season. In addition to performing in their regular season, he also worked with their educational outreach, OperaTunity, for two seasons.
During his time in Chicago, Loren was also a young artist with the Chicago Opera Theater where his most notable performances were the roles of Talbot in Verdi's Giovanna d'Arco and Second Armed Man in The Magic Flute.
A trained dancer, he also performed in the ensemble of Moscow, Cheryomushki by Shostakovich as well as Duke Ellington's Queenie Pie both with Chicago Opera Theater.
During the 2012 season, he was also a Resident Artist with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh.
He made his professional debut in 2010 as Jim in Porgy and Bess with New Orleans Opera. Loren received his Bachelor's Degree from University of Redlands and currently studies with renowned soprano, Carole FitzPatrick.
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Zachary OwenMr. Floyd / Daddy Lowell |
Born and raised in Illinois, American bass-baritone Zachary Owen has performed with such companies as the Glimmerglass Festival, Arizona Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Kentucky Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Central City Opera, Opera North, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Opera Santa Barbara.
He has performed the roles of Dulcamara in Elixir of Love, Alidoro in La Cenerentola, Ashby in La fanciulla del West, Don Fernando in Fidelio, Matouš in Smetana’s The Kiss, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Haly in L’italiana in Algeri, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Frank Maurrant in Street Scene, the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, der Sprecher in The Magic Flute, Spencer Coyle in Owen Wingrave, and the title role in Don Pasquale. A strong advocate for new music, he has participated in a composer’s workshop at Cincinnati Opera in which he worked alongside Jake Heggie, Jack O’Brien, and Terrence McNally to develop two characters for Heggie’s new Opera, Great Scott. In the 2017/18 season, Mr. Owen will be returning to the Marion Roose Pullin Studio at Arizona Opera and performing several roles including Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville, Angelotti in Tosca, and Lycos in Hercules vs Vampires.
Mr. Owen is the recipient of numerous awards including the Grace Keagy Award at the Lotte Lenya Competition, the Brudos Family Prize for Opera Performance and was a national semifinalist at the 2015 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Luther College in Decorah Iowa and a master’s degree from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.