The Marriage of Figaro

Lorenzo Da Ponte was born Emanuele Conegliano in 1749 in Ceneda, in the Republic of Venice (now Vittorio Veneto, Italy). Da Ponte was Jewish by birth and the eldest of three sons. In 1764, Da Ponte's father, Geronimo Conegliano, then a widower, converted himself and his family to Roman Catholicism in order to marry a Catholic woman. Emanuele, as was the custom, took the name of Lorenzo Da Ponte from the Bishop of Ceneda who baptized him.

Thanks to the bishop, the three Conegliano brothers studied at the Ceneda seminary. The bishop died in 1768, after which Da Ponte moved to the seminary at Portogruaro, where he took Minor Orders in 1770 and became Professor of Literature. Da Ponte  was ordained a priest in 1773 and began writing poetry in Italian and Latin, including an ode to wine, "Ditirambo sopra gli odori".

In 1773 Da Ponte moved to Venice, where he made a living as a teacher of Latin, Italian, and French. Although he was a Catholic priest, the young Da Ponte led a dissolute life. While priest of the church of San Luca, Da Ponte took a mistress, with whom he had two children. At Da Ponte's 1779 trial, where he was charged with "public concubinage" and "abduction of a respectable woman," it was alleged that he had been living in a brothel and organizing the entertainments there. Da Ponte  was found guilty and banished for fifteen years from Venice.

Lorenzo Da Ponte moved to Gorizia, then part of Austria, where he lived as a writer, attaching himself to the leading noblemen and cultural patrons of the city. In 1781 Da Ponte falsely believed that he had an invitation from his friend Caterino Mazzolà, the poet of the Saxon court, to take up a post at Dresden, only to be disabused when he arrived there. Mazzolà however offered Da Ponte work at the theatre translating libretti and recommended that he seek to develop writing skills. He also gave Da Ponte a letter of introduction to the composer Antonio Salieri.

With the help of Salieri, Da Ponte applied for and obtained the post of librettist to the Italian Theatre in Vienna. Here Da Ponte also found a patron in the banker Raimund Wetzlar von Plankenstern, benefactor of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. As court poet and librettist in Vienna, Da Ponte collaborated with Mozart, Salieri, and Vicente Martín y Soler. Da Ponte wrote the libretti for Mozart's most popular Italian operas, The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and Così fan tutte (1790), and Soler's Una cosa rara, as well as the text on which the cantata Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia (collaboratively composed in 1785 by Salieri, Mozart, and Cornetti) is based. All of Da Ponte's works were adaptations of pre-existing plots, as was common among librettists of the time, with the exceptions of L'arbore di Diana with Soler, and Così fan tutte, which he began with Salieri, but completed with Mozart. However the quality of Da Ponte elaboration gave them new life.

In the United States, Da Ponte settled in New York City first, then Sunbury, Pennsylvania, where he briefly ran a grocery store and gave private Italian lessons. Da Ponte returned to New York to open a bookstore. Da Ponte became friends with Clement Clarke Moore, and, through him, gained an unpaid appointment as the first professor of Italian literature at Columbia College. In New York Da Ponte introduced opera and produced in 1825 the first full performance of Don Giovanni in the United States, in which Maria García (soon to marry Malibran) sang Zerlina. Da Ponte also introduced Gioachino Rossini's music in the United States, through a concert tour with his niece Giulia Da Ponte.

Lorenzo Da Ponte died in 1838 in New York.

Stage Director Tara Faircloth’s work has been seen in opera houses around the nation. Critics hailed Faircloth's recent directorial debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago: a “wickedly funny, elegantly sung, cleverly directed production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville.” In recent seasons, Faircloth created new productions of The Little Prince (Utah Opera), Ariadne auf Naxos (Wolf Trap Opera), Il re pastore (Merola Opera), Agrippina (Ars Lyrica Houston), and The Coronation of Poppea (Boston Baroque).

The 2021/22 Season found Faircloth working on several new productions, including Emmeline with Tulsa Opera, La Traviata at Opera Santa Barbara and The Merry Wives of Windsor with The Juilliard School, as well as a program with Ars Lyrica Houston entitled “Eternity and the Underworld” which paired Jonathan Dove’s The Other Euridice and Bach’s Ich habe genug. In addition, Faircloth revisited her old favorite The Barber of Seville in a debut at The Dallas Opera.

Faircloth has a thriving career in regional houses such as Utah Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Arizona Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Atlanta Opera (The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, The Magic Flute, Hansel and Gretel, etc.). The baroque repertoire is of special interest to Faircloth, who made her directorial debut with Ars Lyrica Houston’s production of Cain: Il primo omicidio in 2003 and has since designed and directed a number of shows for the company including Charpentier’s Actéon and La descente d’Orphée aux enfers. Faircloth created productions of Dido and Aeneas for Ars Lyrica at the Festival di Musica Barroca in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and for Mercury Baroque in collaboration with the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater.

Recent seasons for Faircloth have included new productions of Il re pastore with Merola Opera, Agrippina with Ars Lyrica Houston, The Little Prince with Utah Opera, The Coronation of Poppea with Boston Baroque, Eugene Onegin with Arizona Opera, and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Boston University. Additionally, Faircloth has directed new productions of Madame Butterfly with Wolf Trap Opera, L’enfant et les sortileges with Utah Symphony & Opera, Don Giovanni with Arizona Opera, and a reconfiguration of her 2014 Wolf Trap Carmen for Arizona Opera.

Faircloth has worked extensively on the directing staff of such companies as Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Central City Opera, and Dallas Opera, and as such, has worked on some of the most complicated operas in the repertoire, assisting international directors and preparing cover casts of some of the best performers in our industry. Passionate about dramatic training for young singers, Faircloth is the Drama Instructor for the Houston Grand Opera Studio and HGO's Young Artists’ Vocal Academy and has served as a guest coach at Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Des Moines Metro Opera, University of Michigan, and Rice University. Faircloth splits her time between Austin and Houston, Texas, where she enjoys restoring her 1935 Craftsman Bungalow.

American soprano Katie Van Kooten’s operatic and concert appearances continue to thrill audiences and earn her praise for using her “powerful, gleaming soprano” to bring vibrancy and life to all of her performances.  Of her recent role debut as Tatyana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, the Houston Chronicle wrote, “Her singing is extraordinary in is radiance, power and sheer expressiveness. Her "Letter Scene" alone, would be reason enough to attend.”

In the current season Ms. Van Kooten makes her house debut at Dallas Opera as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, under the baton of music director Emmanuel Villaume. On the concert stage, she retunrs to the Boston Symphony Orchestra at the Tanglewood Festival for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by Andris Nelsons and sings the piece with the Rochester Phlharmonic.

In the 2016/17 season Ms. Van Kooten returned to the Lyric Opera of Kansas City Opera to reprise her portrayal of the Countess in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and returned to both the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony conducted by music director, Marin Asop and the Oregon Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem, conducted by Jean-Marie Zeitouni.

Operatic highlights from recent seasons include Tatayana in Eugene Onegin at Houston Grand Opera, where she has also appeared as Elisabetta in Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda opposite Joyce DiDonato Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann , Mimi in La bohème, and Ellen Orford in Britten’s Peter Grimes in a new production by Neil Armfield.  She has performed Liù in Turandot with Opera New Orleans, Elettra in Idomeneo and Vitellia in La Clemenza di Tito at Oper Frankfurt, Mimi and the Countess at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, the Countess with Atlanta Opera, and Donna Elvira with Opera Grand Rapids.  Ms. Van Kooten made her house debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in the acclaimed Nicolas Joël production of La Rondine as Magda and at Houston Grand Opera as Helena in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. She made her debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in as Magda in La Rondine and return performances there have included Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann opposite Rolando Villazón and led by Antonio Pappano, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Mimi in La Bohème, and Marguerite in Faust. She made her Japanese debut as Micaëla in Carmen under the direction of Seiji Ozawa, and her United States debut performing Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust with the Metropolitan Opera on the Great Lawn of Central Park.

Notable appearances on the concert stage include performances with the San Francisco Symphony for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas and Handel’s Messiah led by Ragnar Bohlin, as well as a New Year’s Eve program with Dimitry Sitkovetsky.  She has performed the Beethoven 9 with the Baltimore Symphony, conducted by Nicholas McGegan, the Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony and the Louisville Symphony.  She has performed Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Vladimir Jurowski and Strauss’ Four Last Songs with the Halle Orchestra led by Edward Gardner. She made her Minnesota Orchestra and role debut as the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier under the direction of Andrew Litton and returned for Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 under the baton of music director Osmo Vänskä.  She has sung the Marschallin in excerpts from Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier alongside Heidi Grant Murphy with Tucson Symphony.

A graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, Ms. Van Kooten studies voice with Rudolf Piernay. She received her Bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Biola University where she studied with Dr. Jeanne Robison and is a graduate and perpetual member of the Torrey Honors Institute.

Brandon Morales, Bass-Baritone and graduate of the Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist Program, has performed with opera companies all over the US - stretching from the Pacific northwest’s Portland Opera to Virginia Opera on the East coast. Morales has recently completed two years with Virginia Opera’s Heardon Foundation Emerging Artist’s Program with highlights including Bartolo in The Barber of Seville, Peter Quince in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jose Castro/Billy Jackrabbit in La Fanciulla del West, and the Mother in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins.

A graduate of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, he has been highly active in the Ohio area performing with Dayton Opera, NANO Works, Cincinnati Chamber Opera, Queen City Chamber Opera, Cincinnati College-Conservatory, Cincinnati Opera, participated in Toledo Opera’s Resident Artist program, and performed the roles of Friedrich von Telramund in Lohengrin and the Dutchman in Die Fliegende Holländer in concert with the Wagner Society of Cincinnati, where he is a part of their blooming Wagner studio. A native of San Antonio, TX, Morales currently enjoys the vagabond life of performing, but misses his faithful cat, Elsie.

A former Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio Artist, Louisiana-born soprano Cadie J. Bryan has been praised by Opera News as “sparkling” and “pertly pealing”. Recent highlights include a number of house debuts including The Dallas Opera in concert for the Hart Institute for Women Conductors, Opera Las Vegas as Addie Mills in the west coast premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The House Without a Christmas Tree, and The Atlanta Opera as Berta in The Barber of Seville, as well as a return to Arizona Opera to reprise the role of Despina.

In the summer of 2021, she debuted the roles of Clarine in Rameau's Platée under the baton of Gary Thor Wedow, and Prilepa in Queen of Spades as an Ensemble Artist at Des Moines Metro Opera. Prior to the COVID-19 shut down, she was slated to sing the role of Naiade in Ariadne auf Naxos at Arizona Opera where she completed two years as a Marion Roose Pullin Studio Artist (2018-2020). In her final season, she performed four main stage roles including Bess in Craig Bohmler’s Riders of the Purple Sage, Musetta in La Bohème, Lucy in Fellow Travelers, and Maid in the Taliesin West Premier of Daron Hagen’s Shining Brow.

In her 2018-2019 season, she made her main stage debut at Arizona Opera as Chan Parker in Daniel Schnyder's and Bridgette Wimberly’s Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, as well as Annina in La Traviata, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. As an apprentice artist at Des Moines Metro Opera, she made her main stage debut as the Second Wood Sprite in an Emmy Award-winning production of Rusalka (2017).

Bryan is an alumnus of Ravinia’s Steans Institute for singers (2017, 2018) where she studied and performed in a variety of art song and Lieder recitals with world-renowned pianists and coaches. Other career highlights include Clara in Jake Heggie’s and Gene Scheer's It’s A Wonderful Life (2017), Marian in The Music Man (2017), Zerlina in Don Giovanni (2014), and Lisette in La Rondine (2014).

She received a Master of Music and a Performance Diploma from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of soprano Heidi Grant Murphy and her Bachelor of Music from Louisiana State University with baritone Dennis Jesse.

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.

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.