Rigoletto

Dean Williamson

Conductor

Dean Williamson, music director of Nashville Opera, is widely known for his perceptive and commanding conducting. He was artistic director of Opera Cleveland and was the founder and music director of Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program.

This past season he made a highly successful Lincoln Center debut with the New York City Opera. He has conducted at many regional companies, including Seattle Opera, Minnesota Opera, Wolf Trap Opera Company, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, Lyric Opera of Boston, San Francisco Opera/Merola, Opera Colorado, Chautauqua Opera, and Manitoba Opera..

With Nashville Opera, he has recently released two studio opera recordings by Michael Nyman and Carly Simon on Naxos. His video recording of Le Comte Ory with Des Moines Metro Opera earned an Emmy nomination.

Fenlon Lamb

Stage Director

Opera News called Fenlon Lamb “moving and convincing” and Seen and Heard International complemented her “well-honed theatrical sensibility.” Lamb brings these qualities of experience and perspective as an outstanding singing actress to her work as a stage director.

Lamb directed the world premiere of Riders of the Purple Sage with Arizona Opera in a production that BroadwayWorld.com called “epic” and “memorable…literally and figuratively blazing trails.” She returned to Finger Lakes Opera for her first Tosca in a new prodution created with her artistic partner, Jeff Ridenour. They continued their collaboration this past fall for a “lovingly crafted” Hänsel und Gretel at UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance. Fenlon returned to Palm Beach Opera for her 5th season to direct Tosca with “lively stage direction [which] provided a stream of effective touches that spiced up the drama.” (South Florida Classical Review)

In the past few seasons, Lamb led Dayton Opera’s Carmen and directed the oratorio To Be Certain of the Dawn (Stephen Paulus) with the Lexington Philharmonic. She created a unique production of The Juliet Letters with the Resident Artists of Lyric Opera Kansas City which the Kansas City Star hailed as “a successful, intimate show [that] delighted the audience in a noteworthy production.” In another new production and collaboration with Jeff Ridenour, she debuted with Finger Lakes Opera directing La Traviata. Lamb made her company debut with Opera Santa Barbara directing a double-bill of Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi and returned to Palm Beach Operafor her fourth season to direct a “delightful, energetic” Don Pasquale.

Currently, Lamb is the Director of Opera and Vocal Programming at Bar Harbor Music Festival. She has designed and directed engaging productions of Carmen, L’Elisir d’Amore, Madama Butterfly, The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro, La Bohème, Cinderella, and Don Giovanni while she continues to program innovative recitals and pops concerts each summer. This summer she brought her production of Hänsel und Gretel to the Criterion theater in a collaboration with Papermoon Opera Productions. As the Director of Opera at UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance Ms. Lamb directed The Magic Flute,The Turn of the Screw, Suor Angelica/Gianni Schicchi, Hänsel und Gretel, La voix humaine/L’enfant et les Sortièges along with Cendrillon and Little Women.

Previously, Lamb made her debut at Dayton Opera directing The Pearl Fishers, joined Mobile Opera for Werther with Gran Wilson in the title role and returned to Arizona Opera as stage director for a “grand and gripping” Rigoletto. She directed the young artists of the Crested Butte Music Festival in a production of Don Pasqualeand a new production of Hansel and Gretel for Nightingale Opera Theatre that was hailed as “fresh and alluring from curtain to curtain.” For Palm Beach Opera‘s 2013 International season Fenlon directed a “fizzing and delightful” The Barber of Seville “displaying theatrical ingenuity and artistic taste.” Lamb also directed Our Townand Alcina with the young artists of that company to critical acclaim. She returned to Opera Carolina as Stage Director for The Flying Dutchman with Greer Grimsley in a production lauded for its “intriguing visuals, startling set contexts and projections…balancing operatic polish, romantic beauty and feminist critique.”

Upcoming, Fenlon leads a new production of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird for Arizona Opera and two productions of Carmen with North Carolina and Annapolis Opera companies along with a new production of Scalia/Ginsburgfor Opera Delaware.

Jason Slayden

Duke of Mantua November 14, 16 & 22

Winner of a 2012-13 Sullivan Career Grant, tenor Jason Slayden has been celebrated for the warmth and beauty of his voice, as well as demonstrating “considerable subtlety as an actor.”

This fall, Jason premiers with Gotham Chamber Opera in their double bill of Bohuslav Martinů’s Alexandre Bis and Veselohra na Mostĕ (Comedy on the Bridge) and returns to Arizona Opera to sing il Duca di Mantua in Verdi’s Rigoletto. In December he will return to Florida with the Jacksonville Symphony in Handel’s Messiah, and in the spring he debuts with Florida Grand Opera as Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte and Austin Lyric Opera in Don Giovanni as Don Ottavio.

The 2013-2014 season brought several Verdi role debuts, including il Duca di Mantua in Rigoletto with Opera Memphis, Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra with Kentucky Opera, and Cassio in Otello for Nashville Opera. Also in 2014 was a reprise of his Roldofo for Arizona Opera’s La Bohème, hailed by the press as “impeccably expressive.” In concert that season he performed with the Jacksonville Symphony in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, the Dayton Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and with L’Opéra de Montreal for their Gala 18th Edition: A Verdi Celebration. In Verdi’s Requiem with the Portland Symphonic Choir critics said, “Slayden supplied a heroic tenor that was remarkably expressive and supported with terrific stamina. His “Ingemisco teamquam reus” (“I groan as a guilty one”) beautifully forged power with lyricism.”

The 2012-13 season marked Jason’s international debut, which attracted much critical acclaim. As Rodolfo in Vancouver Opera’s La Bohème, critics praised him as a “heartfelt, note-perfect tenor,” and said, “His ‘Che gelida manina’ was refreshingly realistic . . . and was dramatically as well as musically interesting.” Prior to that he was a Filene Young Artist with Wolf Trap Opera, where he performed Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, a recital with pianist Steven Blier, and the tenor solo in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the National Symphony Orchestra. Additional engagements for the 2012-2013 season included his debut with Minnesota Opera in Thomas’s Hamlet as Laerte, and a return to Des Moines Metro Opera to premiere his first Roméo in Roméo et Juliette.

Mr. Slayden joined the Seattle Opera as a Young Artist for the 2011-2012 season, where he made his main stage debut as Uldino in Verdi’s Atilla. In the Young Artist program, he sang the title role in Massenet’s Werther and Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale. In 2011, Jason won the Gerda Lissner Foundation First Prize, a George London Foundation encouragement award, and was a Metropolitan Opera National council semi-finalist. That same year, Mr. Slayden returned to the Santa Fe Opera as a principal artist to sing the role of Andres in Berg’s Wozzeck and, at the last minute, stepped in to sing two performances of La Bohème as Rodolfo. He was an apprentice artist at Santa Fe in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, where he was awarded the Donald Gramm Memorial Award and the Richard Tucker Memorial Award for apprentices.

In concert, Mr. Slayden has also performed as a soloist with the Dayton Philharmonic in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, the Seattle Youth Symphony in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Utah Symphony Orchestra in Roméo et Juliette by Hector Berlioz, Concert: Nova in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Musica Sacra Cincinnati in the Gounod Messe Solennelle de Saint-Cecile.

Anthony Kalil

Duke of Mantua November 15 & 23

Praised by the New York Times as an “excellent tenor” with a voice that has “ping and richness,” American tenor Anthony Kalil is currently a member of the prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera.

In the 2013-2014 season, Mr. Kalil made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Young Man in Die Frau ohne Schatten conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and the 1st Armed Man in The Magic Flute. He also sang the title role in Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini in the MET + Juilliard scenes program conducted by James Levine. In the future, Mr. Kalil will be seen at the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Santa Fe Opera.

Most recently, Mr. Kalil made his role debut as Alfredo in La traviata with Opera on the Avalon in St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada. He also made his Alice Tully Hall debut in a gala concert with the I Sing Beijing Program, was the tenor soloist for Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, sang the role of Lensky in Eugene Onegin with Vashon Opera, and participated in the I Sing Beijing Program in Beijing, China. Further career highlights include Rodolfo in La bohème, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, Canio in Pagliacci, and Gabriel Von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus.

Mr. Kalil is the recipient of a 2014 Encouragement Award from the George London Foundation, a 2013 Sara Tucker Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation and Second Prize in the 2013 Gerda Lissner Competition. In the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Mr. Kalil was awarded a prize as a Semi Finalist.

Michael Corvino

Rigoletto November 14, 16 & 22

Mr. Corvino began his operatic career in 1997, singing the role of Sharpless with Opera Northeast’s production ofMadama Butterfly. Since then, his career has continued to grow and flourish, taking him to Europe and Asia, as well as to many houses in the United States. In the 2000 – 2001 season, he joined the roster of New York City Opera, where he made many returns in the years to follow. Roles in his repertoire include Verdi’s Rigoletto(title role), Germont (La traviata), Nabucco (title role), Amonasro (Aïda), Iago (Otello), and the Count di Luna (Il trovatore), as well as Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Alfo (Cavalleria Rusticana), Tonio (I Pagliacci), Marcello (La bohème), David (L’amico Fritz), Lescaut (Manon Lescaut), and Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), among many others. On the concert stage, he has sung Verdi concerts with Dayton Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Birmingham, and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra, in addition to a gala concert with Opéra de Montréal. In the 2010 – 2011 season, he joined the Metropolitan Opera roster, as part of the casts ofCapriccio (R. Strauss), Roméo et Juliette (Gounod) and Don Carlo (Verdi). In 2012, he joined the Lyric Opera of Chicago roster, as part of the cast of Simone Boccanegra (Verdi).

Upcoming for Mr. Corvino is the role of Tonio in I Pagliacci with Compania Lirica Nacional in Costa Rica and the title role in Rigoletto with Musica Viva (Kingman Lo) in Hong Kong.

michaelcorvino.com

Joshua Jeremiah

Rigoletto November 15 & 23

Skilled across many genres, Joshua Jeremiah began last season with engagements with LoftOpera in a concert of Verdi duets; appearances in concerts with the New Haven Symphony and Toledo Symphony; he joined Beth Morrison Projects in the role of The Man in the world-première of Persona by Keeril Makan; added Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream with Hawai'i Opera Theater; reprised the role of Gianni Schicchi with Mobile Opera; Petite Messe Solennelle with Smith College; and, a Rodgers and Hammerstein Concert with Toledo Symphony.

This summer he took on a role debut as Macbeth with Opera Co. of Middlebury and added Iago in Otello to his resume.

Upcoming and within the season: Toured the Pacific Rim with New York City Opera in concerts of Carmen as Escamillo; debuts the opera Mata Hari with PROTOTYPE Festival in December; 2017 he is reëngaged with Arizona Opera in their world-première of Riders of the Purple Sage by Craig Bohmler in the role of Lassiter; debuts Four Nights of Dream by Moto Osada as The Samurai with the Japan Society in New York and Tokyo; reprises the role of Ford in Falstaff with Resonance Works; and reprises the title role of Gianni Schicchi with the Opera Company of Middlebury.

Other recent activities include: an Arizona Opera 2014-15 debut the title role of Rigoletto; sang the role of Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana) with the New Jersey Festival Orchestra; and made his debut with Des Moines Metro Opera 2015 as The Foreman (Jenůfa) and Sonora (La fanciulla del West); Escamillo (Carmen) with Northern Lights Festival and added Sharpless (Madama Butterfly); John Sorel (The Consul) with Opera Santa Barbara; Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas) to Stephanie Bythe’s Dido with Mark Morris Dance Group at the Mostly Mozart Festival; Ford (Falstaff) with Opera Louisiane; a world première of A Death in the Family with Hungary’s Armel Music Festival; NYCO as Don Pedro (La Périchole) and reëngaged as the Deputy Mayor (Anna Nicole); and engagements with the New Haven Symphony and Cape Cod Symphony in concerts this past season. He has debuted with Jazz at Lincoln Center in a Rufus Wainwright concert and appeared with the New York Festival of Song with Steven Blier in past seasons.

He has covered the role of Junior in Bernstein’s A Quiet Place and was presented in an all-Bernstein concert, both with New York City Opera and added the role of Billy Bigelow (Carousel) with the Carnegie Visual and PAC and was part of Bard SummerScape as Capt. Lutte in Noel Coward’s Bitter Sweet. He covered Guglielmo (Così fan tutte) with NYCO and has sung Athanaël (Thaïs) with Opera Co. of Middlebury.

As an young artist with Glimmerglass Opera, Mr. Jeremiah performed Alidoro (La Cenerentola) and in addition, covered the role of John Sorel in Menotti’s The Consul. Prior to Glimmerglass he was a Filene Young Artist at Wolf Trap Opera for two seasons performing the roles of La Rocca (Un giorno di regno), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos); and, to critical acclaim, in addition to being a Grammy Nominee 2010 for Best Opera, the title role in John Musto’s Volpone. As a two-season member of the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program, Mr. Jeremiah performed the title role of Gianni Schicchi, Sam (Trouble in Tahiti) and the title role of Falstaff. Other roles performed include Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Peter (Hänsel und Gretel), Griswald (The Voyage of Edgar Allen Poe) by Argento and Sid (Albert Herring).

He covered the role of Buonofede in Haydn’s opera Il Mondo della Luna with Gotham Chamber Opera and made he debut in Alice Tully Hall with the Little Orchestra Society in an all-Victor Herbert program and added Slivio in I Pagliacci with the Spokane Opera to his repertoire. He made his stage debut with the Old Globe Theater in San Diego in the role of the Young Man (Last Romance) by Joe DiPietro, a role he reprised with San Joe Repertory Theater.

In concert, Mr. Jeremiah has been heard in Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the Great Falls Symphony, Carmina Burana with the University of Cincinnati Conservatory and the New York City Opera Orchestra (Hand in Hand project) and the Nielsen Symphony No. 3 with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Sarah Coburn

Gilda November 14, 16, 22 & 23

American soprano Sarah Coburn is captivating international audiences with her “precision placement, mercury speed, and a gorgeous liquid gold tone, gilded by a thrilling top and bottom register” (The Globe and Mail). Following her performances as Lucie de Lammermoor at Glimmerglass Opera, the New York Observer noted “she turns out to have qualities that have made legends out of so many of her predecessors, from Adelina Patti to Maria Callas: stage charisma, a thrilling upper register and, crucially, a fearlessness about abandoning herself to opera’s most abandoned heroine … this is a palpably exciting voice … Ms. Coburn is a budding prima donna of exceptional promise.”

Sarah Coburn’s engagements for the 2013-2014 calendar include an opening season concert with the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra, returns to Seattle Opera and Washington National Opera for respective performances as Marie in La fille du régiment and Adina in L’elisir d’amore, as well as the role of Elvira in I puritani with Boston Lyric Opera. She will debut at the Tivoli Festival in Copenhagen in the summer of 2014. Future seasons include returns to Handel & Haydn Society, Tulsa Opera and Seattle Opera.

Ms. Coburn’s 2012-13 performances included Amina in La sonnambula with the Wiener Staatsoper, Marie in La fille du régiment with Tulsa Opera, a gala performance for the Cincinnati Opera and a concert with the Moscow Philharmonic. She concluded the season with Cincinnati Opera as Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier.

Ms. Coburn’s engagements for 2011-12 included the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Washington National Opera, Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with both Tulsa Opera and Boston Lyric Opera, appearing in an opera gala with the Russian National Orchestra in Moscow, in an evening of opera highlights with Oklahoma City Philharmonic, andMessiah with Handel & Haydn Society at Boston Symphony Hall. Her engagements in 2010-11 included her debuts with Wiener Staatsoper as Amina in La sonnambula and Opéra de Montréal as Gilda in Rigoletto, as well as reengagements to sing Gilda with both Los Angeles Opera and Cincinnati Opera, and Rosina with Seattle Opera. She also appeared with Los Angeles Opera to perform Handel’s “L’allegro, il penseroso, ed il moderato” and sang in recital through the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, D.C.

Recent highlights include performing the role of Princess Yue-Yang in the world premiere production of Tan Dun’s The First Emperor at the Metropolitan Opera opposite Placido Domingo, which she returned the following season to reprise in the production’s revival; Asteria in Tamerlano and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Los Angeles Opera; Rosina with Florida Grand Opera; the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Tulsa Opera; Gilda in Rigoletto with Welsh National Opera; Asteria in Tamerlano with Washington National Opera; Vittoria in Pedrotti’s Tutti in maschera atWexford Festival Opera, Euridice in Haydn’s L’anima del filosofo under the baton of Sir Roger Norrington at the Handel & Haydn Society, and Gilda with Portland Opera. She also appeared as soloist in Messiah with both the Seattle Symphony Orchestra,and the Philadelphia Orchestra, in Carmina Burana with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, in concert with Bryn Terfel in Florida Grand Opera’s Superstar Series, and in recital with Lawrence Brownlee for the Vocal Arts Society.

Ms. Coburn’s many successes performing bel canto repertoire include Elvira in I puritani with Washington Concert Opera, the title role in Lakmé with Tulsa Opera, the title role in Lucie de Lammermoor with both Cincinnati Opera andGlimmerglass Opera, the title role in Linda di Chamounix at the Caramoor Festival, Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchiwith Glimmerglass Opera, the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Utah Opera, and Norina in Don Pasquale withFlorida Grand Opera. Ms. Coburn created the role of Kitty in the world premiere of Anna Karenina at Florida Grand Opera, later reprising the role with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Ms. Coburn has also appeared as Adele in Die Fledermaus with both Seattle Opera and Michigan Opera Theatre, Oscar in Un ballo in maschera and Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann with Cincinnati Opera, and both Sandrina in La finta giardiniera and Susanna in Le nozze di Figarowith Florida Grand Opera.

On the concert stage, Ms. Coburn has sung Bach’s Mass in B Minor and Mozart’s Mass in C Minor with the Seattle Symphony as well as Carmina Burana with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall, the National Symphony Orchestra, Haddonfield Symphony at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, and the Dallas Wind Symphony. Sarah Coburn is a winner of the 2004 George London Foundation Awards, a 2004 recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, a 2004 Jensen Foundation Award Winner, a 2003 Liederkranz Foundation Award Winner, a 2002 Opera Index Career Grant recipient, and was a National Grand Finalist in the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Andrea Shokery

Gilda November 15

Andrea Shokery is a dynamic young performer quickly garnering attention for her “magnetic stage presence” and “tangy soprano… [that is] simply delicious” (The Arts Louisville, The Arizona Republic). In the 2015-2016 season, Ms. Shokery makes her role and company debut as Violetta (La traviata) with Opera Columbus, returns to Arizona Opera for a debut as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), and performs as the
Soprano Soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Phoenix Symphony. In the 2014-2015 season, she returned to Phoenix for her last year of residency in the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio. She made exciting debuts as Gilda (Rigoletto), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), and Marie (La fille du régiment). She also returned as the Featured Soloist on the Phoenix Symphony’s New Year’s Eve Celebration Concert. Beginning her tenure with the Studio in 2013, she made company debuts that season as Musetta (La bohème) and Norina (Don Pasquale). She also sang the role of Bess in Craig Bohmler’s Rider’s of the Purple Sage in workshop performances and made her debut with the Phoenix Symphony. Ms. Shokery completed two seasons as an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera in 2011 and 2012. Her scene concert performances included Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Semiramide (Semiramide), Alma Winemiller (Summer and Smoke), La Comtesse Adèle (Le comte Ory), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Adina (L'elisir d'amore), and Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor).

In the 2010-2011 season, she was a member of the Studio at Kentucky Opera, covering Adina in L'elisir d'amore and making her mainstage debut as Giannetta. While in Louisville, Ms. Shokery performed in a Composer Workshop with Daron Hagen, singing Pamela in Broken Pieces, one of three one-act operas entitled New York Stories. She then made a return to Wolf Trap, creating the role of Bobachina in the World Premiere of Musto's The Inspector with the Wolf Trap Foundation.

The 2008-2009 season saw Ms. Shokery in the title role of Pasatieri’s La Divina with the Wolf Trap Opera Studio and making her European debut as Musetta in La bohème with The Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy. Ms. Shokery has received prizes from multiple competitions, including the Opera Birmingham Competition, Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, Tri-State Vocal Competition, Irma Cooper/Opera Columbus Vocal Competition. She is also a threetime District Winner in The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Originally from Gahanna, Ohio, she received both her Master's and Bachelor's Degrees from The University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.

Joseph Barron

Count Monterone

Hailed by Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times as “vocally robust” and “lyrically malevolent”, American Bass-Baritone Joseph Barron was a winner of the 2011 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Awards. In the 2013-2014 season, Mr. Barron will debut with The Metropolitan Opera in Shostakovich’s The Nose, and will return to Opera Philadelphia as Leporello in Don Giovanni and Pittsburgh Opera as the Speaker in The Magic Flute and the Prophet/Larry King in Dark Sisters. Recently, Mr. Barron debuted at the San Francisco Opera in Mark Adamo’s world premiere of The Gospel of Mary Magdalene.

In the 2012-13 season, Mr. Barron appeared as Monterone in Rigoletto, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Geronimo in Il matrimonio segreto, The Bonze in Madama Butterfly, and Alidoro in La cenerentola with the Pittsburgh Opera. Other recent appearances include Ramfis in Aida at Glimmerglass Festival, Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea with the Aix-en-Provence Festival and La Fenice, Montano in Otello with Opera Company of Philadelphia, and Grandpa Moss in The Tender Land and Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro with Glimmerglass Opera.

Other roles Mr. Barron has performed recently include Count Rodolfo in La sonnambula, Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Seneca in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra, Wilhelm Reischmann in Elegy for Young Lovers, Friedrich Bhaer in Little Women, Erste Handwerksbursche in Wozzeck, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Gaudenzio in Il signor Bruschino, and Don Prudenzio in Il viaggio a Reims.

Mr. Barron has also garnered top prizes from the Sullivan Foundation Awards, Opera Index Vocal Competition, Lucia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition, Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, and the Irma M. Cooper Opera Columbus Vocal Competition. He received his Master of Music at the Curtis Institute of Music and his Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music.

Peter Volpe

Sparafucile

Recent highlights of Mr. Volpe's career include three broadcasts for the Metropolitan Opera's Live in HD series: Puccini's Gianni Schicchi (with Il tabarro and Suor Angelica), Rossini's Armida, and Verdi's La Traviata, the Verdi Requiem at the Chichester Festival in Chichester, England, and the popular French grand opera Les Huguenots in the role of Marcel at the Bard Festival; the first time the opera was staged in America since the Metropolitan Opera's production 95 years earlier.

In 2007, Mr. Volpe created the role of Antoine Deguiche in the world premiere of David DiChiera and Bernard Uzan's Cyrano for Michigan Opera Theatre. Recordings of the French Grand Opera's Les Huguenots and Michigan Opera Theatre's Cyrano, as well as a DVD of the MET's Armida, were subsequently released and well-received.

In 2013, Mr. Volpe retained a full calendar. Performances for the bass include Ferrando in Il Trovatore at Arizona Opera, Ramfis in Aida at Michigan Opera Theatre, Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer at Glimmerglass Opera, La Forza del Destino at Washington National Opera, Philip II in Don Carlo at Austin Lyric Opera, and Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Portland Opera.

Additionally this season, Mr. Volpe will continue his concert roles with the music of Richard Wagner at North Carolina Opera, the Verdi Requiem at Chattanooga Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, and Carnegie Hall, and Die Walküre - Act I, singing the role of Hunding at the American Symphony Orchestra at Bard.

While consistently in demand, Mr. Volpe remains a focused performer, concert soloist, interpreter of song, and talented educator. He was recently invited to teach masters classes and sing concerts as an Opera Week guest artist at Omaha Opera.

Mr. Volpe attributes his technique and knowledge of the bass repertoire to his studies with accomplished Italian basso Nicola Rossi-Lemeni. Over the years, he has honed his repertoire under the batons of notable conductors including Jame Levine, Seiji Ozawa, Valery Gergiev, Sir John Pritchard, Maurizio Arena, Marcello Viotti, Semyon Bychkov, Joe Rescigno, Vincent La Selva, Richard Buckley and Richard Hickox.

Domestically, he has performed at the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, New York City Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Central City Opera, Florentine Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Arizona Opera, Atlanta Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Kentucky Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Santa Fe Opera, Hawaii Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Natchez Festival of Music, Palm Beach Opera, Portland Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Saratoga, Mobile Opera, New Orleans Opera, Washington National Opera and the Bard Festival.

Internationally, he has been acclaimed at the opera houses of Vancouver, Manitoba, Montreal, Ottawa, Edmonton, Tokyo, Kyoto, Shanghai, Beijing, Prague, Colmar, Mulhouse, Imola, Riccione, Strasbourg, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Bremen, Dusseldorf, and Saarbrucken.

Beth Lytwynec

Maddelena

American mezzo-soprano Beth Lytwynec most recently returned to The Glimmerglass Festival, singing the role of Dryad in Francesca Zambello's new production of Ariadne in Naxos. Following her first season as a member of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio at Arizona Opera, Ms. Lytwynec returns to Arizona Opera for the 2014/15 season, singing the roles of Maddalena in Rigoletto, Olga in Eugene Onegin, and Second Lady in The Magic Flute. Later this season, Ms. Lytwynec debuts with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The 2013/14 season marked Ms. Lytwynec's debut performances with The Phoenix Symphony, singing excerpts from Bizet's Carmen, West Side Story, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

In previous seasons, Ms. Lytwynec has performed with Chautauqua Opera, Nashville Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Opera New Jersey, Lyric Opera Virginia, Boston Opera Collaborative and Seagle Music Colony. Roles include Jo March in Little Women, Mary in Der fliegende Holländer, Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore, Wowkle in La fanciulla del West, the title role of Handel’s Serse, Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro, Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, and Dido in Dido and Aeneas.

beth-lytwynec.com

Chris Carr

Marullo

Raised in the small town of Quasqueton, IA, Mr. Carr has performed roles with Arizona Opera, Merola Opera Program, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. He made his company debut with Arizona Opera last season as a Studio Artist singing several roles including Schaunard in La bohème and Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, as well as John Lassiter in the workshop of The Riders of the Purple Sage, a new opera by composer Craig Bohmler. This season, Mr. Carr returns as a Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio Artist to sing Marullo in Rigoletto, Eugene Onegin in Eugene Onegin, the Corporal in The Daughter of the Regiment, and cover Papageno in The Magic Flute.

Mr. Carr spent his summer at the Glimmerglass Festival where he made his debut as Billy Bigelow in Carousel. In December of this year, he will also make his Kennedy Center debut with Washington National Opera as The Pilot in their production of The Little Prince. Mr. Carr won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Arizona District in October and in February Mr. Carr was announced the recipient of the 2014 Igor Gorin Memorial Award in February.

Mr. Carr was featured in San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program as Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia in the summer of 2013. The opening of the 2012/13 season marked Mr. Carr’s mainstage debut with The Lyric Opera of Kansas City where he performed Yamadori in Madama Butterfly and later Pish-Tush in The Mikado. Mr. Carr spent two seasons with The Lyric Opera of Kansas City as a Resident Artist beginning in 2011, while he was also at the University of Missouri Kansas City. During this time, he sang the title role in Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the University of Missouri Kansas City. In the summer of 2012, Mr. Carr made his debut as Schaunard in La bohème at Central City Opera where he also received the John Moriarty Award. Also that year, Mr. Carr was a District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received a Career Development Award from The Sullivan Foundation.

Mr. Carr participated in the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist Program in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, he made his debut with The Cedar Rapids Opera Theater as the Sacristan in Tosca. Mr. Carr was also a District Winner in Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the winner of the Vocal Division of the NAFTZGER competition.

Mr. Carr’s concert performances include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Monteverdi’s Vespers, Faure’s Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah. This year, he will sing The Narrator in The Polar Express with the Phoenix Symphony. He has also sung recitals with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater and Kansas City’s Bach Aria Soloists. Mr. Carr graduated with a Master of Music degree from the University of Missouri Kansas City and a Bachelor of Music degree from Simpson College in Indianola, IA.

chriscarrbaritone.com

Andrew Penning

Mateo Borsa

Andrew Penning, originally from St. Paul, MN, is a tenor in the Arizona Opera Studio. During the 2015-16 season he returned to the Arizona Opera Studio to make leading role debuts as Arcadio (Florencia en el Amazonas) and Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni). He will also sing the supporting roles of Remendado (Carmen), Chester Kingsbury (Arizona Lady), and Bardolfo (Falstaff). Assignments from the 2014-15 season with Arizona Opera included Triquet (Eugene Onegin), Borsa (Rigoletto), and 1st Armored Man/Second Priest (Die Zauberflöte).

Mr. Penning has been a Young Artist with some of the most prestigious companies and festivals in the United States. In the summer of 2015 he will cover the role of Belmonte (Die Entführung aus dem Serail) at Des Moines Metro Opera. At the Glimmerglass Festival he performed the roles of Delmonte (King for a Day) and Scaramuccio (Ariadne auf Naxos). With Utah Opera as The Ballad Singer in Of Mice and Men, Opera News said, “cast standouts included … Andrew Penning as the Ballad Singer, whose sweet lyric tenor conveyed the workers’ conscience.” As a Fellow at the 2011 Tanglewood Music Festival, he sang the Second Tenor in performances of Stravinsky’s Renardwith the Mark Morris Dance Group and gave recital performances featuring works by Richard Strauss, Alberto Ginastera and Ralph Vaughn Williams’ chamber song cycle On Wenlock Edge. At CCM Spoleto in the summer of 2010, he performed the role of the Male Chorus (The Rape of Lucretia). As a young artist at Seagle Music Colony in upstate New York, he performed the roles of The Governor and Vanderdendur (Candide).

In addition to his work in opera, Mr. Penning is also an active concert soloist. In performances of Handel’s Messiah with the Tucson Symphony of 2014, the Arizona Daily Star said “Penning…was ashow-stealer, singing at times with richly nuanced vibrato and at other times with such ringing clarity that you just couldn’t take your eyes off him.” Other concert repertoire includes: Arvo Pärt’s Passio, Monteverdi’s Vespers, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, J.S. Bach’s

Cantata 12, Haydn’s Grosse Orgelmesse in E Flat, and Bruckner’s Te Deum.

Mr. Penning completed his Master of Music in Vocal Performance at the University of Cincinnati:College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) and his Bachelor of Music at Lawrence University.

www.andrewpenning.com

Calvin Griffin

Count Ceprano

Calvin Griffin, a native of Columbus, Ohio, joined the Florida Grand Opera studio in the 2016-2017 season. Mr. Griffin made his debut with the company stepping in as a cover to sing the role of Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen. In addition, he sang Zaretsky and covered Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Victor in Before Night Falls, and Samuel in Un ballo in mascherawith the company. Mr. Griffin recently finished a stint with the Arizona Opera Studio where he performed the roles of the Captain in Florencia en el Amazonas, Zuniga in Carmen, Pistola in Falstaff, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin, Speaker/2nd Armored Man in Die Zauberflöte, Hortensius in La fille du régiment, Colline in La bohème, and Dr. Grenville in La traviata. In 2016, he made his Opera Columbus debut as Colline in La bohème.

In a busy 2017 -2018 season, Mr. Griffin makes exciting debuts with Atlanta Opera as Mother in The Seven Deadly Sins and Morales in Carmen, Opera Birmingham singing Escamillo in Carmen, Opera on the James as Leporello in Don Govanni, Opera Orlando singing Alidoro in La cenerentola, and will return to Arizona Opera to sing Dr. Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia. In concert, he sings Handel’s Messiah with the Richmond Symphony and Bach’s Mass in B minor with Gloria Musicae in Sarasota, Florida.

Sarah Tucker

Countess Ceprano

Praised by Opera Today for “pure, clear tones” and lauded by the Arizona Republic for “purity and vivacious charm,” young soprano Sarah Tucker is demanding attention for her captivating vocal timbre and engaging stage presence. Tucker was a National Semifinalist in the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and recently completed her second year as a member of the Arizona Opera Studio. She was recently heard as Nelly Nettleton in Arizona Opera’s innovative, multi-lingual production of Arizona Lady, in which she not only sang, but also “danced like a flapper” (Opera Today).

The 2019/20 Season included several company debuts: as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Pensacola Opera, Mimi in La bohème with Gulfshore Opera, and Tatyana in Eugene Onegin with Opera in the Heights. This season, she returns to Gulfshore Opera for a reprise of her Mimi in La bohème.

The 2018/19 Season for Tucker included debuts with The Dallas Opera as Frasquita in Carmen, San Diego Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, and Intermountain Opera Bozeman as Tatyana in Eugene Onegin. In the 2017/18 Season, Tucker made her Opera Philadelphia debut where she reprised First Memory in Lembit Beecher’s War Stories, a role which she first premiered with Gotham Chamber Opera in New York City. Additionally, she sang Gilda in Rigoletto with Opera Connecticut and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. The 2016/17 Season brought her debut with Utah Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, her return to Texas State University as a guest soloist in Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and covering the title role in The Golden Cockerel at Santa Fe Opera. Her 2015/16 Season included several more role debuts with Arizona Opera including Micaëla in Carmen, Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni as well as her San Francisco Opera debut as Jano in Jenufa.

Passionate about uncommon works as well as traditional operatic repertoire, Tucker collaborated with conductor Scott Terrell in Lexington Philharmonic’s 2015 Holiday Series, which included the rarely performed “Song of the Angel” by John Tavener. The piece’s haunting duet for soprano and solo violin requires great musical and vocal versatility, which was “stunningly realized by Tucker” (Tedrin Blair Lindsay, Contributing Music Critic, www.kentucky.com). She was also the star of a cutting-edge workshop of composer Clint Borzoni’s The Copper Queen in which she performed the role of Julia Lowell as part of Arizona Opera’s “Arizona Spark” initiative.

Other recent appearances include Norina in Don Pasquale with the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with both Lexington Philharmonic and the Christ Cathedral (Crystal Cathedral) in Orange County, CA. Additional past credits include the roles of Contessa Ceprano and Paggio in Rigoletto, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Arizona Opera, for which she received high acclaim. In 2014, Tucker performed Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica and Contessa Ceprano in Rigoletto with the Crested Butte Music Festival, and the role of Tina in Flight with Opera Fayetteville.

In addition to her success in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Tucker has received numerous awards in several nationwide vocal competitions. She was a finalist in the Fritz & Levinia Jensen Foundation Voice Competition, in the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition she was a finalist and winner of the Encouragement Award, and she competed in the semifinals of the Dallas Opera Guild and Fort Worth Opera McCammon Vocal Competitions. Tucker is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College‐Conservatory of Music (CCM).

Alexis Davis Hazell

Giovanna

Dramatic Mezzo-soprano Alexis Davis Hazell is a teaching artist and active performer on the international opera stage. Her appearances have earned accolades for the size and quality of her instrument and the dramatic intensity she brings to the development of character.

Alexis made her international debut in the role Maria at the Kuressaare Operadays Festival of Estonia during the Living Arts, Inc. European tour of Porgy and Bess, also in collaboration with the Mikhailovsky Opera in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Philharmonic, and the Polish National Opera. Her relationship with Porgy and Bess continued with house debuts in the Dresden Semperoper, the Deutsch Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, and San Francisco Opera. Regionally, Alexis accepts regular small role and principal role cover assignments with Arizona Opera, Phoenix Opera and the Southern Arizona Symphony Orchestra, including: Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte, Phoenix Opera); La Badessa/La Zia Principessa (Suor Angelica, SASO); Giovanna (Rigoletto, Arizona Opera); Amneris Cover (Aida, Arizona Opera & Phoenix Opera); Santuzza Cover (Cavalleria Rusticana, Arizona Opera); Azucena Cover (Il Trovatore, Arizona Opera)

Mrs. Davis Hazell is most recently returning from the 2014 San Francisco Opera production of Show Boat, and Porgy and Bess in Mexico City at the Palacio de Bellas Artes. Alexis is also the Creative Director of Jazzoperetry, Inc.: the innovative production company currently featuring the touring concert series Earl & Alexis: AMERICAN SONGS.

Sarah Tucker

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