La Bohème

SeokJong Baek has continued to draw international attention following his Royal Opera House debut as Samson in Richard Jones’s new production of Saint-Saëns' Samson et Dalila and is fast establishing himself as an artist of note, winning widespread praise for his arresting lirico/spinto sound and refined technical accomplishment.

Baek’s critically acclaimed portrayal of Samson was not only a house and role debut, but also his professional debut as a tenor, having transitioned from baritone over the coronavirus lockdown period. As a baritone, he was an Adler Fellow and a member of the Merola Programme at the San Francisco Opera, as well as a former resident artist of the Lyric Opera of Kansas and an alumnus of the Manhattan School of Music.

Highlights of the 2024/25 Season includes Cavaradossi in Tosca for The Metropolitan Opera, Cavaradossi & Calaf in Turandot for the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Radamès in Aida for the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Additionally Baek makes his role debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème at Arizona Opera and returns to the Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Last season, Baek made his much-anticipated Metropolitan Opera debut as Ismaele Nabucco, returning later in the season as Calaf Turandot. Other recent highlights include role debuts as Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Radamès in Aida & Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Royal Opera House, a house debut at Teatro San Carlo as Calaf and role debut as Cavaradossi in Tosca with Arizona Opera.

On the concert platform, Baek recently made professional debuts with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano in Verdi's Requiem, as well as with the Royal Danish Orchestra conducted by Bertrand de Billy. Other highlights include festival debuts at the Lanaudière Festival in a concert performance as Radamès in Aida conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and at the BBC Proms in Verdi's Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall, as well as appearances with the Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, alongside Elīna Garanča and conducted by Karel Mark Chichon.

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.

Yichen Xue is a baritone from Anshan, China. In 2023, he was the recipient of Opera Index Competition’s Emerging Artist Award and, subsequently in 2024, received a Career Bridges grant. Xue was also a 2024 finalist and grant winner in the renowned Gerda Lissner Competition. Xue graduated from the Manhattan School of Music and received his Master’s degree from Hunter College, where he was a student of Ron Raines. In summer of 2024, he joins Wolf Trap Opera as a Studio Artist, followed by a residency with Arizona Opera as a Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist where he will make his company debut as Schaunard in La Bohème.

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.

Marie Yokoyama is a Japanese lighting designer based in NY. Her opera design credit includes Così fan tutte, Orpheus in the Underworld, and The Rake's Progress (Juilliard), Madama Butterfly (Virginia Opera & Florentine Opera); Orphée et Eurydice (University of Michigan); Rinaldo (Minnesota Opera); note to a friend (Tokyo Bunkakaikan). Her other credits include Kim’s Convenience at (TheatreSquared); Conscience (Portland Stage); Dangerous Days (Miami New Drama); Cyrano de Bergerac (KC Rep); Mystery of Irma Vep (St. Louis Rep); Testmatch (American Conservatory Theater San Francisco); Tiny Beautiful Things (Merrimack Repertory Theatre); Do You Feel Anger (Vineyard Theatre); and Pillowtalk (Kyoung's Pacific Beats).