La Bohème

Baritone Benjamin Taylor begins the 2023/24 season with a return to Opera Philadelphia for Simon Boccanegra (Paolo). Other season engagements include debuts with Austin Opera for Pagliacci (Silvio), The Princeton Festival for Così fan tutte (Guglielmo), and returns to The Metropolitan Opera for Carmen (Moralès), Detroit Opera for Breaking The Waves (Jan), and Bayerische Staatsoper for La fanciulla del West (Bello). He will also debut with Symphoria and Northwest Florida Symphony in Carmina Burana.

Last season he debuted at Boston Lyric Opera in La Bohème (Schaunard) followed by debuts with Bayerische Staatsoper for La fanciulla del West (Bello), OperaDelaware/Opera Baltimore for La traviata (Germont), and Opera Philadelphia for La Bohème (Schaunard). He returned to The Metropolitan Opera for The Magic Flute (Papageno) and Dialogues des Carmélites and Berkshire Opera Festival for La Bohème (Marcello). On the concert stage he will made his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra in La fanciulla del West (Bello).

Recent engagements include his debut at The Metropolitan Opera in Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Chester) followed by debuts with Michigan Opera Theatre and Spoleto Festival USA in La Bohème (Schaunard), Cincinnati Opera for the World Premiere of Castor and Patience (West), North Carolina Opera for Sanctuary Road (William Still), Baltimore Concert Opera for Adriana Lecouvreur (Michonnet), and a return to Pittsburgh Opera for The Magic Flute (Papageno). Additionally, he workshopped Factotum (Garby) at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Past highlights include a visit to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Opera on the Go – Digital followed by debuts with Fargo-Moorhead Opera for The Barber of Seville (Figaro), Opera Orlando for The Secret River (Augustus), and Des Moines Metro Opera for Pique Dame (Tomsky), Platée (Satyre), and Fellow Travelers (Tommy McIntyre).

Taylor is a graduate of the Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist Program where some of his assignments included La Bohème (Schaunard), Glory Denied (Older Thompson), and Tosca (Sciarrone). He debuted at Madison Opera in I pagliacci (Silvio) and was an Apprentice Artist at The Santa Fe Opera where his assignments included covering in Les pêcheurs de perles (Zurga). As a Gerdine Young Artist and Richard Gaddes Festival Artist at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis where he seen in The Barber of Seville (Fiorello), Shalimar the Clown (Cowardly Giant), and Madam Butterfly (Prince Yamadori) and covered in The Barber of Seville (Figaro), La Bohème (Marcello), Ariadne auf Naxos (Music Teacher), Madam Butterfly (Sharpless), and The Trial (Lawyer Huld). Additional performances include La Bohème (Marcello) with Crested Butte Festival and Madama Butterfly (Prince Yamadori) for Berkshire Opera’s inaugural season.

Taylor received his Master of Music from Boston University and his Performer’s Certificate with Boston University’s Opera Institute. While at BU, he performed in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Demetrius), Così fan tutte (Guglielmo), La Tragédie de Carmen (Escamillo), Angels in America (Prior Walter), Florencia en el Amazonas (Alvaro), Owen Wingrave (Coyle), and Le Portrait de Manon (Des Grieux). He received his Bachelor of the Arts at Morgan State University where he sang in Blue Monday (Tom) with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Peter Barber is an American bass-baritone and Resident Artist at the Academy of Vocal Arts. In October of 2021, Barber made his professional role and company debut with Salt Marsh Opera, performing Escamillo in Carmen. In February of 2022, Barber made with role debut with AVA as Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin, followed just a few months later by Schaunard in La Bohème, under the baton of Maestro Christofer Macatsoris. Last summer, Barber joined The Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Singer, covering Fiorello in The Barber of Seville, and performing Truffaldin in Ariadne auf Naxos during the Apprentice Scenes program. In the Fall, Barber performed the role of Barone Douphol in La Traviata, and is currently preparing the title role in Mozart’s Don Giovanni to be performed in April/May 2023 with AVA. Next summer, Barber will be returning to Music Academy of the West (’19) to perform Colline in La Bohème with Daniela Candillari conducting.

Throughout the virtual 2020/21 Season, Barber performed in three recitals with the Academy of Vocal Arts, earning reviews like, "...command over the full range of his voice from top to bottom was unshakeable" for his presentation of Schubert's Der Wanderer. In January of 2020, Barber made his professional debut with Pacific Opera Project, performing Amantio in POP's double-bill production of Gianni Schicchi and L'enfant et les Sortilèges. Also with POP, Barber was to perform his first professional lead role as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, but the shows were cancelled due to COVID-19. Some of his other role highlights include: Bottom in Midsummer Night's Dream, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Stobrod/Blindman in Cold Mountain, Sarastro in The Magic Flute, and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte. Barber is currently in the voice studio of Bill Schuman.

Outside of the opera world, Barber has grown a substantial audience on YouTube, surpassing 80,000 subscribers via videos with in-depth musical analysis of contemporary music, as well as creating non-operatic musical covers. He is also one of the founding members of a musical group called The Bass Gang (Bobby Bass, Peter Barber, Tomi P, and Marwan Ayman), which was formed during the pandemic, and consists of four bass singers that collaborate virtually from all over the world. The Bass Gang released their first EP in May of 2021 (May the Bass Be With You, Vol. 1), and released their second EP in May of 2022 (May the Bass Be With You, Vol. 2), collaborating with some of the most exciting singers in the virtual landscape (MALINDA, Jonathan Young, Colm McGuinness, and Elliott Robinson). Just recently, The Bass Gang collaborated with Tim Foust, the bass singer for world-famous acapella group, Home Free. So far, The Bass Gang has amassed over 2 million views/streams between YouTube and Spotify alone.

This summer, Steven Osgood begins his eighth season as General and Artistic Director of the Chautauqua Opera Company. In addition to conducting a performance of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, he leads Love and Longing by the Lake, a trio of chamber operas that includes two World Premieres.

During the 2024/25 Season, Osgood returns to The Metropolitan Opera to lead a performance of Tesori/Brant’s Grounded and serves as Assistant Conductor for Heggie’s Moby Dick. In the winter he travels to Arizona Opera for his house debut, conducting performances of La Bohème.

Maestro Osgood made his anticipated Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2023/24 Season, conducting two performances of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking. He also joined the company as Assistant Conductor for The Hours, and workshopped Lincoln in the Bardo with Opera Fusion.

Osgood’s engagements for the 2022/23 Season included a return to The Metropolitan Opera for La Traviata, Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up at The Juilliard School, Ainadamar at University of Houston, and Street Scene at Rice University. The previous season saw rescheduled performances of Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s highly successful Intimate Apparel at Lincoln Center Theatre, and he joined The Metropolitan Opera for their acclaimed production of Akhnaten.

Most recently, Osgood has collaborated with The Metropolitan Opera and Opera Memphis for workshops of new operas, continued his collaboration with Washington National Opera for their American Opera Initiative, bringing As One to Merkin Hall, and made his L’Opera de Montreal debut with the first revival of JFK by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek. He also joined the Prototype Festival for the World Premiere of Blood Moon, and led both The Flood and The Turn of the Screw at Opera Columbus.

In his role at Chautauqua Opera, Osgood has led productions of Sweeney Todd, La Tragédie de Carmen, The Ghosts of Versailles, Thompson’s The Mother of us All, Tosca, The Barber of Seville, Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Respighi’s realization, Don Pasquale, Hydrogen Jukebox, Don Giovanni, Candide, As One, and La Traviata, amongst others. He also pioneered Opera Invasion, the company’s multi-year audience development initiative. Maestro Osgood regularly shares his talent and expertise with emerging artists outside of his work at Chautauqua, having recently worked with students at Rice University, conducting Taking Up Serpents and Proving Up, and Juilliard Opera for The Turn of the Screw.

In previous seasons, Osgood conducted the World Premieres of Breaking the Waves at Opera Philadelphia, JFK at Fort Worth Opera, The Scarlet Ibis, Thumbprint, and Sumeida’s Song for the PROTOTYPE Festival, as well as Missy Mazzoli’s Song From the Uproar with Beth Morrison Projects. He was the 2017 Conductor Mentor for Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, conducting the premieres of Adam, Lifeboat, and What Gets Kept. Other notable productions include the critically acclaimed World Premiere of Xenakis’s Oresteia at the Miller Theater, Tan Dun’s Marco Polo with De Nederlandse Opera, La Traviata and La Bohème with Edmonton Opera; The Ballad of Baby Doe, Peter Grimes and Tosca at Chautauqua Opera; Glory Denied, The Rape of Lucretia, Bon Appetit! and This Is the Rill Speaking with Opera Memphis; Three Decembers at Atlanta Opera; Dead Man Walking at Lyric Opera of Kansas City; The Long Walk at Utah Opera; Tosca at Hawaii Opera Theater, Stephen Schwartz’s Seance on a Wet Afternoon and Massenet’s La Navarraise with New York City Opera, Philip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox at Fort Worth Opera, Conrad Susa’s Transformations and Jonathan Dove’s Flight at Juilliard Opera, Lee Hoiby’s Summer and Smoke and Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All at Manhattan School of Music, and John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles at both Northwestern University and Manhattan School of Music.

His concert work included appearances with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony featuring Tony Award nominee Louise Pitre. He also conducted workshops of two new operas in development: Herschel Garfein’s Rosenkrantz and Guildentern are Dead, and Conrad Cummings’ The Golden Gate, as well as readings of Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar and Anthony Davis’ Revolution of Forms with New York City Opera’s VOX 2010.