Così fan tutte

This season, Katherine Beck returns to Arizona Opera as well as makes her Saint Louis Symphony debut as Lola in Cavalleria Rusticana and returns to the roster of the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She recently sang Rosina in The Barber of Seville (Florentine Opera), Isabella in L’inganno felice (Opera Festival of Chicago), Karolka in Jenůfa (Santa Fe Opera), Angelina in La Cenerentola (Opera Buffs), and a recital at her alma mater, SUNY Purchase. She is a previous member of Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center where she sang Wellgunde in Twilight: Gods and excerpts of Carmen in concert at Grant Park. Previous performances at Arizona Opera include Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro, and Mary Johnson in Fellow Travelers.

Praised by the Huffington Post for his “ringing high notes,” Texas-born tenor Bille Bruley has garnered attention for his strength and versatility in operatic repertoire from baroque to contemporary.

Bille’s 21/22 season is highlighted by role/house debuts in Mason Bates and Mark Campbell’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (Steve Wozniak) with Austin Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and The Atlanta Opera. He will also return to Arizona Opera for Così fan tutte (Ferrando).

Recently he joined the roster of Lyric Opera of Chicago Dead Man Walking to cover Father Grenville and Howard Boucher and returned to Arizona Opera for Shining Brow (Louis Sullivan) and Riders of the Purple Sage (Bern Venters). Highlights from previous seasons include Britten’s War Requiem with the Tulsa Symphony, a program of Mozart arias with the Phoenix Symphony, and a return to The Santa Fe Opera, where he created the role of Benjamin in the world premiere of Poul Ruders’ The Thirteenth Child.

Bille Bruley hails from Montgomery, Texas and is a graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and Baylor University.

Praised for his “imposing baritone” and “supple vibrant baritone that he deploys with unaffected lyricism and manifest honesty” by Opera News, American baritone Jarrett Porter is quickly making a name for himself with a fearless talent and commanding intellect. Porter is currently a member of the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at The Juilliard School.

In the 2020/21 Season, Jarrett makes his professional debut at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Neil Armstrong in the world premiere of Steve Mackey’s Moon Tea, and as the Adjudicator in the world premiere of Damien Sneed’s The Tongue & The Lash. He joins Internationale Meistersinger Akademie in Neumart, Germany where he will make appearances on Bavaria Radiofunk, as well as with the Nürnburg Symphony. At Juilliard, he appears in their Liederabend series, with New York Festival of Song@Juilliard, and as Polyphemus in Händel’s Acis & Galatea with Juilliard415.

In the 2021/22 Season he looks forward to making his professional debut at Arizona Opera as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He will return to Opera Theater of Saint Louis to create the role of Oliver Sacks in the world premiere of Tobias Picker’s Awakenings, based on the memoir of the same name.

Porter’s 2019/20 Season included his principal debut at Tulsa Opera as Dancaïre in Carmen. At the Santa Fe Opera in his second year as an Apprentice, he sang the Sergeant in La boheme, covered Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, appeared in scenes as the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and joined Renée Fleming and the Santa Fe Opera Orchestra under the baton of Harry Bicket as a soloist in Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music.

In the 2018/19 Season he finished his second and final year as a Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist at Arizona Opera, where he performed as Antonio and the cover of Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Father Palmer in Silent Night, and Baron Douphol in La traviata. In the 2017/18 Season at Arizona Opera, he was seen as the title role in Patrick Morganelli’s Hercules vs. Vampires, Maximilian in Candide, Sciarrone in Tosca, and Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia. He joined Santa Fe Opera in 2018 as a member of the company’s Apprentice Program, singing Der Perückenmacher in Ariadne auf Naxos, and covering Maximilian in Candide. Role engagements elsewhere have included the title role of Don Giovanni and Eugene Onegin, Le Chevalier des Grieux in Massenet’s Le portrait de Manon, Sid in Albert Herring, Harry Easter in Weill’s Street Scene, and Morales in Carmen. Other programs include Opera Saratoga (2016) and The Glimmerglass Festival (2017), as well as Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Vocal Academy (2014).

As a sought after recitalist, Porter has held fellowships at the Ravinia Stean’s Music Institute at The Ravinia Festival, and at SongFest at the Hidden Valley Music Festival under the mentorship of Sir Thomas Allen and Graham Johnson. Accompanied by narration from Allen and Johnson, he made his National Public Radio debut with selections from Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, and in the spring of 2018 joined pianist Taylor Hutchinson in recital to present Winterreise in Katzin Hall at Arizona State University.

Awards include: winner of The Sullivan Foundation (2019), winner of the 2019 St. Louis District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council, the Lisa and Bernie Kalvelage Award at the 2018 Holt Competition, the 2017 Grand Prize Winner of the Pacific Music Society Competition, the Ellie Silver Award Winner at the 2017 Holt Competition, and the First Prize of the inaugural Esther C. Weill Competition. A native of coastal New Jersey, he holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music (2015) and a Master of Music from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (2017), where he was a James Schwabacher Fellow. He can be seen in the June 2020 issue of Opera News, where he was the magazine’s Soundbite. A student of Darrell Babidge, Porter resides on the Upper East Side in New York City.

Described by Das Opernglas as “a strong, rich and warm-colored voice with assured style,” Mark Schnaible returns this season to Arizona Opera as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte. His recent appearances include Klingsor in Parsifal with Indiana University Opera, and the title role in Bluebeard’s Castle with the Columbus Symphony, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro with Arizona Opera, reprise performances of Pere Joseph in the acclaimed production of Gounod’s Der Rebell des Königs (Cinq Mars) and Méphistophélès in Faust with Oper Leipzig, Musiklehrer in Ariadne auf Naxos and the Police Sergeant in Pirates of Penzance with Palm Beach Opera, and returning to the Metropolitan Opera for their new productions of Guillaume Tell and Lulu.

Schnaible’s other recent performances include Friedrich in Das Liebesverbot and Méphistophélès in Faust with Oper Leipzig with repetitions of the latter at the Teatro Comunale Bolzano, Orest in Willy Decker’s production of Elektra with Polish National Opera; Der Wanderer in Siegfried with Kent Nagano conducting and the Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann in a production directed by Nicholas Joel with Den Nye Opera; Jochanaan in Salome with Edmonton Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera Theater; Escamillo in Carmen with New Orleans Opera and the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra; Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, Pizarro in Fidelio, Ferrando in Il trovatore, and the title role in Giulio Cesare with Utah Opera; Friedrich in the North American stage premiere of Das Liebesverbot and the Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Glimmerglass Opera; Biterolf in Robert Carsen’s production of Tannhäuser conducted by Seiji Ozawa at Tokyo Opera Nomori; the title role in Sweeney Todd and Scarpia in Tosca with Portland Opera, Dayton Opera, and Shreveport Opera; and Mephistofeles in Faust with Shreveport Opera and El Paso Opera.

He has sung numerous leading roles with Theater Lübeck including the Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann Dr Schön in Lulu, both directed by Anthony Pilavachi as well as the title role in Der fliegende Holländer, Seven Antagonists in Death in Venice, Orest in Elektra, Pizarro in Fidelio, Capulet in Roméo et Juliette, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Lorenzo in I capuleti e i Montecchi. Additional recent performances include Leporello in Don Giovanni with Boston Baroque and Utah Opera; Colline in La bohème with Oper Kiel; the title role in Gianni Schicchi and Rambaldo in La rondine with Opera Tampa; Ariodate in Xerxes with Boston Baroque; Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte with Shreveport Opera; Capulet in Roméo et Juliette with New Orleans Opera; as well as the Huntsman in Rusalka with Christoph Eschenbach at the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and with Franz Welser-Möst at the Opernhaus Zurich. A past winner of the prestigious Marseille International Opera Competition, the bass-baritone subsequently sang Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera d’Avignon and Metz Opera and joined the Choregies d’Orange Festival under Bertrand de Billy for Baron Douphol in La traviata and for Carmen under Michel Plasson. He also also previously joined the Metropolitan Opera roster for its production of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

He is equally at home with the concert repertoire having recently sung Bizet’s Clovis et Clotilde with Les Flaneries Musicales de Reims and Jean-Claude Casadesus and in subsequent performances with the same conductor and the Orchestre National de Lille (released on the Naxos label). Other concert performances include Bluebeard’s Castle with Utah Symphony and excerpts of Boito’s Mephistopheles with Dayton Opera; Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Utah Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, and Sioux City Symphony; previous performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Edo de Waart conducting the Hong Kong Philharmonic, Jacques Lacombe conducting the Lorraine Philharmonic, as well as with the Nashville Symphony and Memphis Symphony Orchestra; Verdi’s Requiem with the Orchestre National d'Île de France; Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio with the Winterthur Philharmonic; Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Hartford Symphony; Dvořák’s Te Deum with the Utah Symphon;, and Fauré’s Requiem with the Heidelberg Philharmonic and Lorraine Philharmonic. He has sung Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra, St. John Passion with the Heidelberg Philharmonic, and Mass in B minor with the Würzburg Symphony Orchestra; Berlioz’s Messe Solenelle also with the Heidelberg Philharmonic and his Lélio, ou le retour à la vie with the Lübeck Philharmonic Orchestra; and Handel’s Utrecht Jubilate with the Sioux City Choral Union, Judas Maccabeus with the Octavo Singers in Albany, Messiah with the Jerusalem Symphony and El Paso Symphony; Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Seiji Ozawa conducting at the Saito Kinen Festival as well as with the Nuremberg Philharmonic Orchestra, with which he also sang the composer’s St. Paul; Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Quad Cities Symphony, Requiem with the Harrisburg Symphony, and Vesperae Solemnes with the Buena Vista Symphony; and Haydn’s The Creation with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra conducted by David Stern and Utah Symphony conducted by Jeffrey Kahane and The Seasons with the Poitou-Charentes Orchestre. He also joined the Sioux City Chamber Music Association in his home state of Iowa for a recital of Brahms’ Vier ernste Gesänge in addition to works by Handel, Duparc, and Kohn.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on January 27, 1756, in Salzburg, Austria. Mozart's father, Leopold Mozart, a noted composer, instructor, and the author of famous writings on violin playing, was then in the service of the archbishop of Salzburg. Leopold and Anna Maria, his wife, stressed the importance of music to their children. Together with his sister, Nannerl, Mozart received such intensive musical training that by the age of six he was a budding composer and an accomplished keyboard performer. In 1762 Leopold presented his son as performer at the imperial court in Vienna, Austria, and from 1763 to 1766 he escorted both children on a continuous musical tour across Europe, which included long stays in Paris, France, and London, England, as well as visits to many other cities, with appearances before the French and English royal families.

Mozart was the most celebrated child prodigy of this time as a keyboard performer. Mozart also made a great impression as a composer and improviser. In London, Mozart won the admiration of musician Johann Christian Bach (1735–1782), and was exposed from an early age to an unusual variety of musical styles and tastes across Europe.

From the age of ten to seventeen, Mozart's reputation as a composer grew to a degree of maturity equal to that of most older established musicians. Mozart spent the years from 1766 to 1769 at Salzburg writing instrumental works and music for school dramas in German and Latin, and in 1768 he produced his first real operas: the German Singspiel Bastien und Bastienne. Despite his growing reputation, Mozart found no suitable post open to him; and his father once more escorted Mozart, at age fourteen (1769), and set off for Italy to try to make his way as an opera composer.

In Italy, Mozart was well received: in Milan, Italy, he obtained a commission for an opera; in Rome he was made a member of an honorary knightly order by the Pope; and at Bologna, Italy, the Accademia Filarmonica awarded him membership despite a rule normally requiring candidates to be twenty years old. During these years of travel in Italy Mozart produced his first large-scale settings of opera seria: Mitridate (1770), Ascanio in Alba (1771), and Lucio Silla (1772), as well as his first string quartets. At Salzburg in late 1771 Mozart renewed his writing of Symphonies (Nos. 14–21).

Paris was a vastly larger theater for Mozart's talents. His father urged him to go there, for "from Paris the fame of a man of great talent echoes through the whole world," he wrote his son. But after nine difficult months in Paris, from March 1778 to January 1779, Mozart returned once more to Salzburg, having been unable to secure a foothold and depressed by the entire experience, which had included the death of his mother in the midst of his stay in Paris. Unable to get hired for an opera, Mozart wrote music to order in Paris, again mainly for wind instruments: the Sinfonia Concertante for four solo wind instruments and orchestra, the Concerto for flute and harp, other chamber music, and the ballet music Les Petits riens. In addition, Mozart began giving lessons to make money.

Mozart's years in Vienna, from age twenty-five to his death at thirty-five, cover one of the greatest developments in a short span in the history of music. In these ten years Mozart's music grew rapidly beyond the realm of many of his contemporaries; it exhibited both ideas and methods of elaboration that few could follow, and to many, the late Mozart seemed a difficult composer.

The major instrumental works of this period bring together all the fields of Mozart's earlier activity and some new ones: six symphonies, including the famous last three: no. 39 in E-flat Major, no. 40 in G Minor, and no. 41 in C Major (the Jupiter —a title unknown to Mozart). Mozart finished these three works within six weeks during the summer of 1788, a remarkable feat even for him.

In the field of the string quartet Mozart produced two important groups of works that completely overshadowed any he had written before 1780: in 1785 he published the six Quartets (K. 387, 421, 428, 458, 464, and 465) and in 1786 added the single Hoffmeister Quartet (K. 499). In 1789 he wrote the last three Quartets (K. 575, 589, and 590), dedicated to King Frederick William (1688–1740) of Prussia, a noted cellist.

Mozart's development as an opera composer between 1781 and his death is even more remarkable, perhaps, since the problems of opera were more far-ranging than those of the larger instrumental forms and provided less adequate models. The first important result was the German Singspiel entitled Abduction from the Seraglio (1782). Mozart then turned to Italian opera. Mozart produced his three greatest Italian operas: The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Cosi fan tutte (1790). In his last opera, The Magic Flute (1791), Mozart turned back to German opera and produced a work combining many strands of popular theater and including musical expressions ranging from folk to opera.

On concluding The Magic Flute, Mozart turned to work on what was to be his last project, the Requiem. This Mass had been commissioned by a benefactor said to have been unknown to Mozart, and he is supposed to have become obsessed with the belief that he was, in effect, writing it for himself. Exhausted, Mozart managed to finish the first two movements and sketches for several more, but the last three sections were entirely lacking when he died. It was completed by his pupil Franz Süssmayer after his death, which occurred in Vienna, Austria, on December 5, 1791.

Karen Kamensek’s remarkable versatility and expansive artistry, coupled with her deep commitment to championing many of the leading compositional voices of the 20th and 21st century, is reflected in her work in both the opera house and on the concert stage. Last season alone, she made her long-awaited Metropolitan Opera debut with Glass’ Akhnaten—a production, under her direction, that recently won the coveted Olivier Award in London—as well as debuts with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra conducting works by Pépin and Takemitsu, respectively.

While the ongoing pandemic continues to impact Ms. Kamensek’s 2020/21 Season, she is currently scheduled to lead performances in Sweden, Austria, France and the US. In the fall, she will be making her debut with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra leading a program that features Osvaldo Golijov’s Three Songs for Soprano and Orchestra, with Sanna Gibbs as soloist; Aaron Jay Kernis’ Musica Celestis for Strings; and Joseph Canteloube’s Selection from Songs of the Auvergne. In Austria, with the Tyrolean Symphony Orchestra, she will conduct three concerts that include Beethoven’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 5 in E flat major Op.73, with Lise de la Salle as soloist, and the Austrian premiere of Fazil Say’s Symphonic Dances. Camille Pépin’s Laniakea; R. Strauss’ Intermezzo – Quatre Interludes symphoniques; and Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder, with soprano Elza van den Heever as soloist, and his Prélude and Liebestod are on the program for her performance with Orchestre National Montpellier Occitanie. In winter 2021, she will travel to the United States to lead a powerful program that features two of today’s leading female voices in contemporary music, Joan Tower (Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman) and Jennifer Higdon (Concerto for Orchestra) when she makes her debut with the Charlotte Symphony. Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, with pianist Joyce Yang, is also on the program.

Kamensek served as the Music Director of the Staatsoper Hannover from 2011-2016. She has also served as the 1st Kapellmeister at the Volksoper Wien (2000-2002), Music Director of the Theater Freiburg (2003-2006), Interim Music Director at the Slovenian National Theatre in Maribor (2007-2008), and Associate Music Director at Staatsoper Hamburg (2008-2011).

Frequently in demand as a guest conductor with many of today’s most prominent opera companies and orchestras, Kamensek’s recent opera highlights include her debut and return performances with the English National Opera in Glass’ Akhnaten; her debut with the San Francisco Opera conducting a new production of Floyd’s Susannah with soprano Patricia Racette; and the Royal Swedish Opera’s production of Victoria Borisova-Ollas’ Dracula.

Recent orchestral highlights include a focus on living-composer Thea Musgrave for Kamensek’s debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic as part of their highly-lauded Composer Festival; a live-to-film performance of Miloš Forman's iconic Oscar-winning film, Amadeus, marked her debut with the Oslo Philharmonic; and performances of Philip Glass’/Ravi Shankar’s collaboration Passages with master sitar player, Anoushka Shankar, outlined her first performances leading the Britten Symphonia in Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC Proms as well as the Orchestre Chambre de Paris in the Paris Philharmonie.

Kamensek regularly collaborates with singers, directors, and instrumentalists from across the globe. She has worked with many renowned singers, including Joseph Calleja, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Andrzej Dobber, Elza van den Heever, Brandon Jovanovich, Lise Lindstrom, Ambrogio Maestri, Thomas Johannes Mayer, Patricia Racette, Stuart Skelton and Klaus Florian Vogt. She has partnered with such groundbreaking directors as Guy Joosten, Harry Kupfer, Uwe Eric Laufenberg, Phelim McDermott, and Olivier Tambosi. She has led performances featuring critically-acclaimed instrumentalists such as Michael Barenboim, Gautier Capuçon, Renaud Capuçon, David Aaron Carpenter, Lynn Harrell, Louis Lortie, Olli Mustonen, Ida Nielsen, Benjamin Schmid and Tanja Tetzlaff.

Laura Fine Hawkes’ work broadly encompasses scenic design for theatre, opera, and musical theatre, as well as art direction for live shows, themed visitor experiences, museum exhibits, events, and television programming. Theatrical engagements include design for Arizona Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Utah Opera, Houston Grand Opera’s HGOco, San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Theatre Under the Stars, Stages Repertory Theatre, Center Theatre Group at The Mark Taper Forum, Big League Productions, The Geffen Playhouse, Catastrophic Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles, The Road Theatre, Circle X Theatre, NoHo Arts Ensemble, The Fountain Theatre, and a short film within Cirque du Soleil's Iris production at the Kodak Theatre, among many others. Laura has participated in the development of multiple international large scale live shows and themed visitor experiences for Thinkwell Group, Inc. and The Hettema Group, both based in the greater Los Angeles area. Laura designed the THEA award-winning Air Force One Discovery Center housed in the Air Force One Pavilion within The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, CA. Art Direction for television includes programming for NBC/Bravo, Climate Reality Project, AEG Live, Comedy Central, PBS, and the FUEL Network. Laura holds an MFA in Scenic Design from UCLA and currently serves as Head of Design for the Theatre Department at Binghamton University (SUNY.)

Julie Duro (Lighting Designer) is delighted to be a part of this incredible new production of Così fan tutte and is thrilled to be returning to Arizona Opera. She has designed extensively for opera, theatre, and dance throughout the United States and abroad. Her work in opera includes designs for Connecticut Opera, Kentucky Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, Manhattan School of Music, Palm Beach Opera, Opera International, Mannes Opera, Opera at USC, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Illinois, Dayton Opera, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Florida State Opera, Opera North, and the Green Mountain Opera Festival. Her theatre credits include designs for Riverside Theatre, Paper Mill Playhouse, Walnut Street Theatre, Florida Repertory Theatre, the Emerson String Quartet, Olney Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse, the Kennedy Center Jazz Program, Artpark, Seacoast Repertory Theatre, the Asolo Conservatory in Florida, and the yearly Drama Desk Awards. Her work in dance encompasses designs for Tulsa Ballet, Kansas City Ballet, North Carolina Dance Theatre, the Australian Ballet, Southern Ballet Theatre, Dances Patrelle, and Mark Stuart Dance Theatre. She was the resident lighting designer for the critically acclaimed Ohio Ballet from 1996 to 1999. She also works frequently with Pittsburgh Ballet, where her designs can be seen each year in their production of The Nutcracker.