Frankenstein

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.

Gordon Hawkins is critically acclaimed throughout the world for his in-depth interpretations and lush baritone voice. A dramatic baritone with an international reputation as a “Rigoletto specialist,” Hawkins has delighted audiences as the tragic Verdi underdog in more than 200 performances, most recently with the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Vancouver Opera, Washington National Opera, Arizona Opera, and Opera Colorado. He is now earning critical acclaim as a Wagner specialist: “Alberich was superbly realized by baritone Gordon Hawkins, in his [Los Angeles Opera] début. Despite wearing a grotesque puppet head and clunky boots that hobbled his movements, Hawkins delivered a sterling vocal characterization of the power-mad Nibelung.” (Opera News). He has been engaged as Alberich in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at esteemed international companies including San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro de la Maestranza de Sevilla, and the BBC Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall in London.

Last season saw Hawkins return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the World Premiere of Proximity, a project he assisted in creating during its workshop, as well as perform the role of Tonio in Pagliacci with San Antonio Opera. This season, Hawkins makes his role début as Alphonse in Frankenstein with Arizona Opera and joins New Orleans Opera to reprise his Reverend in Blue.

In recent seasons, Hawkins performed the role of the Reverend in the World Premiere of Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson’s Blue at the Glimmerglass Festival, which was received to rave reviews. He also recorded the piece with Washington National Opera, which was released in March of 2022, with critic Ralph P. Lock saying, “The one big name in the cast is Gordon Hawkins, a world-renowned Porgy, Rigoletto, and Alberich, who here establishes a rock-solid presence as The Reverend." He reprised the role in the 2021/22 Season with Detroit Opera, Toledo Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and Seattle Opera.

Hawkins’ career is shaped by performances of opera’s most popular baritone roles at leading companies throughout the world. With an impressive repertoire under his belt, some of his prominent roles include Amonasro in Aïda which he has performed with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Detroit Opera, and The Atlanta Opera; Scarpia in Tosca which he has performed with Cincinnati Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Vancouver Opera, Portland Opera, and Arizona Opera; as well as title roles such as Nabucco with Seattle Opera and Opera Carolina and Macbeth also with Seattle Opera. Additional favored engagements have included Thoas in Iphigénie en Tauride with Metropolitan Opera; The Warden in Dead Man Walking with Lyric Opera of Chicago; Alvaro in Florencia en el Amazonas with Los Angeles Opera; Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana with Washington National Opera; Count di Luna in Il trovatore with Seattle Opera; Tonio in Pagliacci with Arizona Musicfest; and Renato in Un ballo in maschera with New Orleans Opera and Opéra de Montréal.

Internationally, Hawkins has performed at venues such as Deutsche Oper Berlin as Telramund in Lohengrin, Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville as Caspar in Der Freischütz, and New National Theatre Tokyo as the Villians in Les contes d’Hoffmann.

One of his signature roles, Porgy in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess has brought him to some of the most esteemed companies and symphonies in the world, including The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, Detroit Opera, Dallas Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Toledo Opera, Colorado Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Jacksonville Symphony, Festspillene i Bergen in Norway, and the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen.

An accomplished concert artist, some favorite engagements of recent seasons include a Gala Concert for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg in Washington DC; a recital entitled War and Remembrance at The Clarice Center for the Performing Arts; Amonasro in Aida with St. Louis Symphony; Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony with The Washington Chorus at the Kennedy Center; the world première of Jake Heggie’s A Great Hope Fell with the Eos Orchestra of New York; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with The Atlanta Symphony and St. Louis Symphony; concert selections from American musicals with Welle WDR 4 in Cologne, Germany; and additional repertoire with the Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, the Baltimore Symphony, The Cincinnati Orchestra, National Theatre Orchestra of Prague, and Vienna Symphony.

Hawkins has been heard on the Live BBC Radio broadcast as Alberich in Götterdämmerung with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall and “Live from the Metropolitan Opera” broadcasts earlier in his career as Marcello in La Bohème with Plácido Domingo and Mirella Freni, and Silvano in Un ballo in maschera with Luciano Pavarotti and Aprile Millo. He can be heard as George Milton on the first recording of Carlisle Floyd’s Of Mice and Men with the Houston Grand Opera on Albany Records and the recording of Simon Boccanegra as the title role with the New Zealand International Festival of the Arts.

Hawkins was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Luciano Pavarotti International Vocal Competition and was awarded the Washington National Opera’s “Artist of the Year” award.

A rich, buttery voice. A wide emotional scope and actor’s grace. A stage presence that captivates the hearts of audiences. These accolades and more have followed baritone Andrew Stuckey, whose opera and concert performances are widely acclaimed for their visceral power and rich beauty. His exploration of the character’s complex persona, reviewers noted, was displayed winningly in arias whose vocal agility ranged from pensive whispers to despairing outbursts. Stuckey’s interpretation of Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with the Syracuse Opera and the Connecticut Grand Opera brought praise for his “unusual sensitivity.”

Stuckey’s many and varied roles speak to his accomplished voice and broad appeal. He sang the title role of Rigoletto with Opera on the James. He had the honor of working with the late maestro Lorin Maazel as Michele in Il tabarro, Sonora in La fanciulla del West and Iago in Otello. As the black-hearted Iago in Opera Roanoke’s stellar production, the Roanoke Times deemed Stuckey’s portrayal “not to be missed.” With the Festival Lyrique-en-mer in France he debuted, with great success, the title role in the comic opera Falstaff, following up with Germont in La Traviata, a role he has perfected with several opera companies, including Santa Fe Opera, Opera Delaware and Opera New Jersey.

Stuckey has put his unique stamp on many varied roles including Tonio in I Pagliacci, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Don Pizarro in Fidelio, the title role in Gianni Schicchi, and the High Priest in Samson et Dalila. He has interpreted these and other leading roles for opera houses throughout the United States, including the Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, and the opera houses of Santa Fe, Baltimore, Palm Beach, Portland, Augusta, Tulsa, Kansas City, St. Louis and Sarasota.

In addition to his prodigious talent as a singer, Stuckey is a consummate professional who has proven himself well able to meet the rigors of the stage. As an understudy in a Lyric Opera Company of Chicago production of Madama Butterfly, he once stepped in to take the role of Sharpless with just four hours’ notice. Also, last minute, he was recruited to sing Acts 3 and 4 of Mephistopheles in the opening night of Gounod’s Faust with the Kansas City Lyric Opera.

No stranger to concert work, Stuckey has had the privilege of performing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Britten’s War Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Mozart’s Requiem, among other beloved classics of the concert repertoire.

He was chosen by the Lyric Opera of Chicago for its two-year apprentice program, out of a field of more than 1,200 performers to audition. Prior to that, he was a resident artist for the Portland Opera and apprenticed twice with the Santa Fe Opera. Over the years, he has received many prestigious prizes, awards and grants, including the Sara Tucker study grant, the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation grant and The Union League grant. He won first prize in both the Florida Grand Opera’s Young Patronesses of the Opera competition and the Palm Beach Opera competition. He was also a National Semi-Finalist for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

In the pursuit of excellence, Stuckey credits the enormous influence of renowned singers, teachers, directors, conductors, and coaches who have guided his career. He has had the pleasure of working professionally with many respected opera singers, including Bryn Terfel, Renee Fleming, Renata Scotto, Mirella Freni, Susan Graham, Frank Lopardo, Marcello Alvarez and Dmitri Hvorostovsky. He credits much of his success to his vocal coaches and voice teachers Daniel Beckwith, Eric Weimer, Craig Rutenberg, Richard Boldin, Donna Brunsma, Phil Morehead, Jerry Langenkamp, John Stephens and Marlena Malas.

Soprano Melissa Solomon, praised by Opera Canada as “delightful” and “vivacious,” is exciting audiences as a rare and diverse performing actress. Solomon appears regularly with the Scottsdale Philharmonic as their soprano Artist in Residence, and has been a member of the Arizona Opera Chorus for over ten seasons.

Solomon recently covered the role of Maria (The Sound of Music, Arizona Opera), and performed as Echo (Ariadne auf Naxos, Arizona Opera). Additional roles include: Johanna (Sweeney Todd, Arizona Musical Theatre Orchestra), Despina cover (Così fan tutte, Arizona Opera), Maria (The Sound of Music, Scottsdale Desert Stages Theatre), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare, Halifax Summer Opera, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Lyric Opera Theatre, Tempe, AZ). Equally experienced in oratorio, Solomon has performed as soloist for Mozart's Requiem and Haydn’s Creation with the Mt. Desert Summer Chorale in Bar Harbor, Maine, Bach’s St. John Passion and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with MusicaNova Orchestra in Scottsdale, AZ, as well as Handel’s Messiah, Mozart C-minor Mass, and Fauré’s Requiem with various organizations in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

Additional roles in musical theatre include Marian Paroo in The Music Man and Lily in The Secret Garden. Solomon has been a lead vocalist with a jazz band, and was a singer for many years with the non-profit Songs by Heart, where she connected with memory care patients in meaningful ways through the power of song. Solomon has performed numerous solo concerts in performing centers, churches, and homes throughout Arizona and is a graduate of Arizona State University.

Clinton Smith’s 2022/23 Season includes a return to Dayton Opera to conduct Charlie Parker’s Yardbird with the Dayton Philharmonic in the pit. Smith will return to Arizona Opera and lead an orchestral workshop of the newly commissioned Frankenstein and will conduct members of the Atlanta Symphony at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church for their annual presentation of Messiah. On the orchestral stage, Smith will make his guest conducting debut with the Georgia Philharmonic, leading two subscription concerts.

Clinton Smith's 2021/22 Season included a return to Dayton Opera to conduct The Elixir of Love and Opera Las Vegas to conduct Strawberry Fields/Trouble In Tahiti. He covered Tosca and Attila at Sarasota Opera, and made his Opera Company of Middlebury conducting debut with Orphée aux Enfers. When home in Atlanta, Smith regularly coached The Atlanta Opera's young artists. Smith spent his ninth summer on the music staff at Santa Fe Opera covering the world premiere of Corgliano/Adamo's Lord of Cries.

Smith's 2020/21 Season included conducting Atlanta Opera's new "Big Tent" productions of Der Kaiser von Atlantis and The Threepenny Opera, and a virtual recital for Opera Orlando. The 2019/20 Season included debuts at Florentine Opera conducting The Marriage of Figaro and Opera Birmingham conducting Cendrillon. Smith returned to Dayton Opera to conduct Cenerentola and Tacoma Opera to conduct The Elixir of Love.

Smith’s recent conducting credits include Charlie Parker's Yardbird at Atlanta Opera and Arizona Opera, The Barber of Seville at Dayton Opera and the University of Michigan, Pagliacci/Pulcinella at Opera Orlando, The Marriage of Figaro at Tacoma Opera, Alcina at Fargo-Moorhead Opera, Turandot, Norma, and Hansel and Gretel with Pacific Northwest Opera, The Mikado for Kentucky Opera, and Noah's Flood with Opera Las Vegas. Smith has served on the music staff of Santa Fe Opera, Juilliard Opera, Minnesota Opera, Atlanta Opera, Portland Opera, Kentucky Opera, Ash Lawn Opera, and Skylark Operas and has included the preparation of over 60 operas in German, Italian, French, English, Czech, Russian, and Mandarin.

On equal footing in the orchestral world, Smith recently concluded a collective nine years as music and artistic director of both Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers and the St. Cloud Symphony, conducting over 60 orchestral, oratorio, chamber, pops, educational, and holiday concert performances. While music director of OSSCS, Smith saw subscriptions double and worked in tandem with the managing director to double annual fundraising events. Among Smith's many accomplishments include conducting seven to ten subscription concerts a season, creating a chamber music series, annual Messiah performances, and partnering with numerous cultural and educational organizations including the Hong Kong Association of Washington, the Seattle Chinese Arts Group, German Consulate, Cornish College, and Seattle University, to name a few. Smith launched a composer competition which premiered a new work annually and a concerto competition to showcase local talent. Smith's carefully curated programming focused on locally relevant themes and explored an enormous breadth of musical styles and genres.

For four seasons, Minnesota Opera engaged Smith as cover conductor and chorus master, where he led main stage performances of La Traviata and Madame Butterfly and covered the St. Paul Chamber and Minnesota Opera Orchestras in over 20 productions. During 2011, Smith conducted a workshop and prepared the world premiere of Kevin Puts' opera Silent Night, which won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize in Music. For Minnesota Opera's New Works Initiative, Smith prepared workshops and performances of Douglas J. Cuomo's Doubt, Rick Ian Gordon's The Garden of the Finzi Continis, and the North-American premiere of Jonathan Dove's The Adventures of Pinocchio, as well as Dominick Argento's Casanova's Homecoming and Bernard Herrmann's Wuthering Heights.

Previous positions include Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master for San Francisco Opera's Merola Program, Assistant Conductor for Glimmerglass Opera, Music Director for Western Ontario University's Canadian Operatic Arts Academy, Guest Coach at the National University of Taiwan, Music Director and Conductor of the Franco-American Vocal Academy in France, the Austrian-American Mozart Academy in Salzburg, and the University of Michigan Life Sciences Orchestra. Born in Texas, Smith holds degrees in orchestral conducting from the University of Michigan and piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bretta Gerecke is a lighting, set, costume and projection designer for theatre, circus, opera, film and installation art. Gerecke is the resident designer at Catalyst Theatre in Canada, where she co-creates and tours new work across North America, the UK and Australia. Gerecke also designs for Cirque du Soleil, the RSC, the National Arts Centre in Ontario, Stratford Shakespeare Festival, Edmonton Opera, Calgary Opera, Vancouver Opera, The Citadel Theatre in Edmonton and the Grand Theatre in Ontario. Gerecke is the recipient of over 25 awards for her work including Avenue Magazine’s Top 40 under 40, Global Television’s Woman of Vision and Best Emerging Artist. Gerecke represented Canada in Prague at the Scenography Quadrennial and her costume designs have been exhibited in Moscow, Beijing and Taipei. Recent designs include: Richard II (Stratford Festival), Stabat Mater (Edmonton Opera), The Invisible, Grand Acts of Theatre (Catalyst Theatre), Grow (Grand Theatre), american (tele)visions (New York Theatre Workshop), Threads | Woven (RSC), Coming to England, Tartuffe, East is East (Birmingham Rep), Lady in the Dark (Opera Zuid).

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.