Rusalka

Praised by Opera News as a conductor who “squeezes every drop of excitement and pathos from the score,” Steven White is one of North America’s premiere operatic and symphonic conductors. He made his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2010, conducting performances of La traviata starring Angela Gheorghiu. Since then he has conducted a number of Metropolitan Opera performances of La traviata, with such stars as Natalie Dessay, Hei-Kyung Hong, Plácido Domingo, Thomas Hampson, Dmitri Hvorostovksy and Matthew Polenzani. In the past several seasons he has returned to the Met to participate in critically fêted productions of Don Carlo, Billy Budd, The Rake’s Progress and Elektra.

With a vibrant repertoire of over sixty-five titles, Maestro White’s extensive operatic engagements have included performances with New York City Opera, L’Opera de Montréal, Vancouver Opera, Opera Colorado, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Baltimore Opera, New Orleans Opera, and many others. In recent seasons he has conducted Rigoletto with San Diego Opera, Otello with Austin Opera, La traviata with Utah Opera, and a world premiere staged production of a brand-new Bärenreiter edition of Gounod’s Faust with Opera Omaha. In the 2021-2022 season, he returns to the Metropolitan Opera for their production of Tosca, which he also conducts for Utah Opera. With Opera Omaha he conducts Eugene Onegin, and he returns to Opera Roanoke for Bluebeard’s Castle in the fall and Verdi’s Requiem in the spring.

In 2020 the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the cancellation of his eleventh production at Arizona Opera, Ariadne auf Naxos, as well as the company premiere of André Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire at Opera Roanoke. Other projects in the 2020-21 season COVID-impacted season included a reimagined Rigoletto with Tulsa Opera at Tulsa’s ONEOK Field, and Le nozze di Figaro in a return to Opera Omaha (postponed).

Music critics are effusive in their praise of conductor Steven White’s ability to elicit inspired music-making from orchestras. Of his 2016 performances with the Omaha Symphony, the Omaha World-Herald asserts that, “it would be hard to imagine a more complete performance of the Symphonie Fantastique. Highly nuanced, tightly controlled and crisp, Steven White asked everything from orchestra members and they were flawless. He led them out of serene beauty into disturbing dissonance and even to the terrifying point of musical madness without ever losing control. It was insanely good.” Opera News declares, “White is amazing: he consistently demands and gets the absolute best playing from the orchestra.”

Among the many orchestras Maestro White has conducted are the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, the Mozarteum und Salzburg KulturvereinigungOrchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic, the Fort Worth Symphony and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra for a CHANDOS recording of arias featuring his wife, soprano Elizabeth Futral. In 2019 he made debuts with the San Diego Symphony, the Utah Symphony Orchestra and the Williamsburg Symphony Orchestra.

Maestro White is a passionate and dedicated educator. He has served multiple artistic residencies and led productions at such institutions as the Peabody Conservatory of Music, Indiana University, the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, the University of Miami Frost School of Music Program in Salzburg, Kennesaw State University and Virginia Tech University. In the summer of 2019 he served as an artist in residence at the Shanghai Conservatory in China and in 2020 he led a critically acclaimed production of La clemenza di Tito for the North Carolina School of the Arts Fletcher Opera Institute. He is in constant demand as an adjudicator of the most prestigious music and vocal competitions, including numerous auditions for the Metropolitan Opera National Council and the Jensen Foundation.

Steven White proudly makes his home in Virginia, where he serves as Artistic Director of Opera Roanoke, a company with which he has been associated for two decades. Maestro White has conducted dozens of productions in Roanoke, including performances of Das Lied von der Erde, Der fliegende Holländer, Fidelio, Falstaff, Otello, Macbeth, Aida, Hänsel und Gretel and many others. In recognition of his contributions to the civic, cultural and artistic life of Southwest Virginia, Roanoke College conferred on Maestro White an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts in May 2013.

A native of St. Paul Minnesota, Sara Gartland earned favorable notices this season as Curley's Wife in Utah Opera's production of Carlyle Floyd's Of Mice and Men, for which Opera News said, "Floyd, in Salt Lake City to observe final preparations and attend opening night, made some minor revisions to the score, including the addition of string glissandos when Curley's wife, played with glittering coloratura and astute restraint by soprano Sara Gartland, allowed Lennie to stroke her hair. The compositional tweak gave an added layer of creepiness to the scene, which is capped by the woman's startlingly realistic death." 

Other engagements include two years in the Adler Fellow program with San Francisco Opera as Micaëla in Carmen, Pat/Ann in the world premiere of Heart of a Soldier, Barbarina in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Gerhilde in Die Walkure, Merola Opera Program as Suzel in Pietro Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz, Utah Opera and Des Moines Metro Opera as Alexandra in Regina, Opera Iowa as Norina in Don Pasquale, The Ohio Light Opera as Elisabeth Bennet in the world premiere of Pride and Prejudice, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, and as Marianne in The New Moon.

She has appeared on the concert stage with the Elmhurst Symphony in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Cheyenne Symphony in Carmina Burana, Central City Opera, and Colorado University’s Boulder Wind Symphony in Four Maryland Songs.

Ms. Gartland earned a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Colorado Boulder and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Wisconsin Madison. In 2008, she was a Finalist in the Eastern Region at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

"A Danish tenor of beautiful tone and elegantly polished phrasing” (Seattle Times), David Danholt won a First Prize at the 2014 Seattle Opera International Wagner Competition and a 2009 Reumert Talent Award. Born in Funen, he trained at the Royal Academy of the Royal Theatre, Copenhagen, and then in the soloist class of the Royal Academy of Music, Copenhagen. He has established a strong relationship with Den Jyske Opera, where he has sung Nemorino in Elixir of Love, the title role in Faust, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tamino in The Magic Flute, the title role in Idomeneo, Alfredo in La traviata, The Steersman in The Flying Dutchman, and Young Seaman & Shepherd/Tristan und Isolde.

His wider engagements have included Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Eurimaco in Il ritorno d’Ulisse at the Royal Danish Opera, Robert Lanyon in Dr Jekylls advokat with Den Fynske Opera, Jenik in The Bartered Bride at the Staatstheater Mainz, Arindal in Die Feen and Claudio in Das Liebesverbot for Oper Leipzig,  and SS Officer The Passenger at the Bregenz Festival, a production now available on Neos Blu Ray and DVD. He made his UK debut as Idomeneo with Grange Park Opera and sang Arindal in Die Feen for Chelsea Opera Group.

Concert engagements have included performances with orchestras including the Ålborg Symphony Orchestra, the Århus Symphony Orchestra, the Esbjerg Ensemble, the Leipzig Chamber Orchestra, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Odense Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Metropolitana, Lisbon, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the South Jutland Symphony Orchestra and the Tivoli Symphony Orchestra. Conductors with whom he has worked in opera and concert include Nicholas Braithwaite, Nicholas Kraemer, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Joseph Rescigno, Tobias Ringborg, Carlo Rizzi, Michael Schönwandt, Stefan Solyom, Constantin Trinks, Jin Wang, Hilary Davan Wetton and Dominic Wheeler.

Current engagements include Tamino in The Magic Flute for Valdemars Castle Summer Opera, Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus and Carl Nielsen in Springtime in Funen with the Odense Symphony Orchestra, Accurato in Andre Bygninger for Den Fynske Opera, Baron Lummer in Intermezzo at The Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Erik in The Flying Dutchman for the Florentine Opera Company and Seattle Opera, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and Handel's Messiah with the Danish Radio Sinfonietta, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak's Stabat Mater with the Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Candide and Elijah with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Rued Langgard’s Antichrist at Ribe Cathedral and Mozart's Requiem with the Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra. He returns to the UK to sing Carl Nielsen in Hymnus Amoris with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra for his debut at the 2015 BBC Proms.

Grammy-award winning dramatic baritone, Richard Paul Fink, has been acclaimed internationally in appearances with theaters that include The Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berlin State Opera, Opera National de Paris, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, San Diego Opera, Hamburg State Opera, Welsh National Opera, Scottish Opera, Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse, and Sydney Opera as well as at the Bregenz and Ravinia Festivals.

Upcoming performances include Appomattox with Washington National Opera, Rusalka with Houston Grand Opera and Samson and Delilah with Dallas Opera.

His repertoire comprises some of the most challenging roles of the baritone canon: the title role in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman, Telramund in Wagner's Lohengrin, Pizarro in Beethoven's Fidelio, the title roles in Verdi's Nabucco and Rigoletto, as well as Iago in Otello, Scarpia in Tosca, Gerard in Giordano's Andrea Chenier, and Escamillo in Carmen among others. One of his signature roles, Alberich in Wagner's Ring cycle, he has sung at the Metropolitan Opera under James Levine as well as Ring cycles in Vienna, Los Angeles, Berlin, Dallas, Toronto, Seattle, and Vienna.

He’s also sung Klingsor in Wagner's Parsifal under the baton of James Levine, Claudio Abbado, Christoph Eschenbach, James Conlon and Valery Gergiev.

Mr. Fink sang multiple world premieres including John Harbison's The Great Gatsby at the Metropolitan Opera under James Levine and John Adam's Dr. Atomic at the San Francisco Opera under Donald Runnicles, and he starred in the European and Chicago premieres of the same work.

He sang The Metropolitan Opera's premiere of Adam's Nixon in China and the title role of Alban Berg's Wozzeck at the Santa Fe Opera Festival. He also sang Amonasro in Aida at the Seattle Opera before returning to the Metropolitan Opera as Teller in Dr. Atomic.  For Canadian Opera Company, he sang the Water Sprite in Dvorak's Rusalka, a role he also sang in Naples and in Houston.

Another Wagner role is Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde at the Metropolitan Opera. His Chicago Lyric Opera debut was Teller in Dr. Atomic before and returning to San Francisco as Alberich in Francesca Zambello's production of Das Rheingold, conducted by Donald Runnicles.

Mr. Fink debuted at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress under Daniele Gatti and at the Netherlands Opera in the European premiere of Dr. Atomic.

Richard Paul Fink began his professional career with the Houston Grand Opera where he performed in twelve productions and won particular acclaim as Telramund in Wagner's Lohengrin, Jokanaan in Salome, the Water Sprite in Dvorak's Rusalka and  Klingsor in a production of Parsifal staged by Robert Wilson.

He has been a frequently invited guest in many other theaters throughout North America: Dallas Opera, Miami Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Portland Opera, San Diego Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Theater of St. Louis, Boston Opera, Vancouver Opera, Opera Omaha, L'Opera de Montreal and many others. He made his Washington Opera debut in a revival of a rarely heard work, d'Albert's Tiefland, and returned subsequently as Orest in Elektra and Johanaan in Salome.

In addition to the Wagner roles, he has sung performances in North America that are cornerstones of the Italian repertoire: Gerard in Andrea Chenier for Seattle Opera and Opera Company of Philadelphia, Scarpia for Dallas, Milwaukee and Opera Pacific and Barnaba in La Gioconda in Miami and Montreal.

Mr. Fink sang Macbeth for Opera Pacific and repeated the role for New York City Opera, along with Iago in Verdi's Otello at the Miami Opera and Rigoletto for L'Opera de Montreal, Kansas City Lyric and Welsh National Opera. He also sang Eugene Onegin for the Atlanta Opera.

In the 2004/05 season, Mr. Fink made his debut at the Teatro Real in Madrid as Telramund in Lohengrin and at the Teatro Regio in Trieste in his first Nick Shadow in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress. He sang was also heard at the Teatro Municipal in Santiago, Chile, in the title role of The Flying Dutchman, as the Four Villains in The Tales of Hoffmann for Opera Tel Aviv and New Orleans Opera, as well as Alfio and Tonio in Tulsa Opera's production of Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci.

Richard Paul Fink's first international appearances included productions at the Welsh National Opera of Tristan und Isolde, Der Freischütz, Carmen and Rigoletto. He appeared in Toulouse in Il Trovatore, at the Bregenz Festival as Don Pizarro and at the Spoleto Festival in Die Tote Stadt. He starred in the title role in Wagner's The Flying Dutchman for his debuts at the Canadian Opera, the Sydney Opera and the Palacio de las Bellas Artes in Mexico City.

He was also heard in this role in 2001 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado followed by performances at the Salzburg Festival in 2002 again under James Levine. He made his Deutsche Oper Berlin in 2003 in The Flying Dutchman.

In concerts, he has also appeared frequently in concert with the Houston Symphony under Christoph Eschenbach and made his debut with the San Francisco Symphony in concert performances of Fidelio. He also sang with the Houston Symphony in the War Requiem by Britten. He sang Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex for the Seattle Symphony under Gerard Schwarz, Orff's Carmina Burana at the Cincinnati May Festival under James Conlon and Verdi's Requiem in Houston under Robert Shaw.

Hailed as "a singer to watch" (The Washington Post) with a voice that is “powerful and projecting" (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), Alexandra Loutsion continues to be recognized for her passionate performances and vocal versatility as a rising star on the operatic stage. This season, she adds three new roles to her repertoire: the title role of Puccini’s Tosca with Central City Opera, Princess Turandot in Puccini’s Turandot with Pittsburgh Opera, and the Foreign Princess in Dvorak's Rusalka with Arizona Opera. She also makes her debuts with Palm Beach Opera as Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly, and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic singing the title role in Puccini's Tosca. She was recently heard as Florencia in Daniel Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas with Arizona Opera, and made her Wolf Trap Opera debut as Cio-Cio-San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly to great acclaim. She debuted with North Carolina Opera as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni and Dayton Opera as Gertrude in Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel, as well as returning to Pittsburgh Opera as Almera in a new production of Nico Muhly's Dark Sisters. She also covered the Lady-in-Waiting in Verdi’s Macbeth with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Riccardo Muti.

Ms. Loutsion spent two summers as an Apprentice Artist with the Santa Fe Opera, most recently to cover the role of Leonore in Fidelio conducted by Harry Bicket. She also covered the title role in Puccini's Tosca, the leading role of Anna in Rossini’s Maometto II, and was heard in various scenes including Maddalena di Coigny in Giordano's Andrea Chénier, Elvira in Verdi's Ernani, and Gerhilde in Wagner's Die Walküre at the annual Apprentice Showcase. Ms. Loutsion also spent two seasons as a Resident Artist with Pittsburgh Opera where she was seen as Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo, Gertrude and the Witch in Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel, and Annina in Verdi's La traviata. As an Apprentice Artist with Central City Opera, she was heard as the title role in Puccini's Madama Butterfly and as Melissa in Handel's Amadigi di Gaula, as well as Minerva in Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld, La Dame Elegante in Poulenc's Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and as Frasquita in Bizet's Carmen. Other recent performances have included the title role in Madama Butterfly with Opera on the James, Anna Kennedy in Maria Stuarda with Washington Concert Opera, the Foreign Woman and Magda cover in Menotti’s The Consul with Opera Santa Barbara, Sie in Karl Hartmann's Wachsfiguren Kabinett with the Aspen Music Festival, and the leading role of Isabella in Wagner's Das Liebesverbot as part of the Ring Festival LA.

Ms. Loutsion recently represented the United States as a quarterfinalist in the Francisco Viñas International Singing Contest in Barcelona, Spain. She was also a winner of the Metropolitan National Council District Auditions and Long Beach Mozart Competition, as well as a finalist in the Fritz and Lavinia Jensen Foundation Competition, McCammon Voice Competition and Dallas Opera Competition. She is the recipient of the Catherine Filene Shouse Education Fund Career Grant from Wolf Trap Opera, Santa Fe Opera Donald Gramm Memorial Award and Anna Case MacKay Award, Shoshana Foundation Richard F. Gold Career Grant, the Central City Opera John Moriarty Award, and the Aspen Music Festival New Horizon Fellowship. She holds a Master of Music in Vocal Arts from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Ithaca College.

American soprano, Lacy Sauter, is quickly becoming known for her vocal and dramatic versatility.  She returns to Arizona Opera for the 2017/18 season as Dianara, Hesperide 1, City Woman and Peasant Woman in Hercules vs Vampires and Welgunde in Das Rheingold.

 In the 2016/17 season, she made her company debut with Arizona Opera as the Second Woodsprite in Rusalka and also created the role of Julia Lowell in a workshop performance of Borzoni’s The Copper Queen. She bowed as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro for her company debut with the Livermore Valley Opera. Lacy Sauter also returned to the Missouri Symphony as a Resident Artist for various concert performances and as Violetta in La Traviata.

The 2015/16 season brought role and company debuts as Micaela in Carmen with Heartland Opera Theatre and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Nashville Opera.  She spent the summer as a Resident Artist performing with the Missouri Symphony as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and as a soloist in both the POPS and Classical Concert Series.

In the fall of 2014 she completed her graduate studies at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University under the tutelage of world-renowned soprano, Carol Vaness.  While at IU, she sang Mimi in La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. Lacy Sauter started 2015 with a 1st Place win in Phoenix Opera’s Southwest Vocal Competition competing in the final round with orchestra at the Orpheum Theater.  In February 2015, she covered Nadine Sierra as Gilda and sang Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto with The Atlanta Opera. She returned to Union Avenue Opera as Gilda in Rigoletto after having made her company debut as Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire the previous summer.  

Ms. Sauter finished her tenure as a Young Artist at the Florida Grand Opera in the spring of 2013.  During her time at FGO she sang 1st Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Flora in La Traviata, and Bianca in La Rondine. In addition, she covered the roles of Mimi and Musetta in La Bohème, Violetta in La Traviata, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Magda in La Rondine, Gilda in Rigoletto and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette. She spent two summers as an Apprentice Singer with The Santa Fe Opera where she performed the role of Albina in La Donna del Lago starring Joyce DiDonato and conducted by Stephen Lord. Ms. Sauter also served as the cover for Wanda in the Grand Duchess of Gerolstein and Violetta in La Traviata.  In addition, she was featured as Magda in La Rondine, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and the Overseer in Elektra for the Apprentice Scenes Showcase. 

As a Young Artist at the 2011 Glimmerglass Festival, she sang the role of Valentina Scarcella in Later the Same Evening and covered the roles of Frasquita in Carmen and the Young Woman in the world premiere of A Blizzard on Marblehead Neck. She was a Festival Artist at Utah Festival Opera in 2009, where she covered the roles of Frasquita in Carmen and Peep-Bo in The Mikado. As a studio artist at Chautauqua Opera, in 2008 and 2010, she played the roles of the Baby Vixen in The Cunning Little Vixen and the Second Graduate in Street Scene. 

Lacy Sauter hails from Scottsdale, Arizona and completed her undergraduate degree at Arizona State University.  She was a winner of the Arizona and the Middle-East Tennessee Districts of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2008 and 2011 and the  2nd Place Winner of the Orpheus Vocal Competition in 2014. She was also honored to be nominated for a Sara Tucker Study Grant in 2011. 

A 2017 recipient of a top prize from the Sullivan Foundation, Joseph Lattanzi established himself as a singer to watch with his portrayal of Hawkins Fuller in the world premiere of Greg Spears’ Fellow Travelers with Cincinnati Opera, followed by further performances for his debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago, in New York at the PROTOTYPE Festival, and with Arizona Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera. Praise for Lattanzi's performances included The New York Times saying “Joseph Lattanzi was splendid as Hawk, his buttery baritone luxuriant and robust.” and Opera News described him as a “confident, handsome presence, and a resonant baritone suggesting wells of feeling that the character might prefer to leave untapped.” In the 2022/23 Season, Lattanzi once again joined The Metropolitan Opera for their productions of Peter Grimes and Lady MacBeth of Mtsensk before returning to the role he created in Fellow Travelers with Virginia Opera. Lattanzi also made a debut with the Sacramento Choral Society as the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana.

In the 2021/22 Season, Lattanzi continued his relationship with The Metropolitan Opera, covering the role of Orpheus in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice and joining their production of Madame Butterfly. Additionally, Lattanzi returned to his hometown in the title role in The Barber of Seville with the Atlanta Opera, where he was praised for his “stellar” voice and his “top notch” acting by the Atlanta Arts Review. Lattanzi capped off the season debuting the role of Escamillo in Utah Festival Opera’s production of Carmen.

Recent career highlights include his return to Cincinnati Opera as Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Silvio in Pagliacci with Atlanta Opera, Dandini in La cenerentola with Virginia Opera, and the title role in Don Giovanni with the Jacksonville Symphony. A regular at The Metropolitan Opera since the 2018/19 Season, Lattanzi has been on the roster for productions of Der Rosenkavalier, Kat’a Kabanvova, Marnie, Madame Butterfly, and The Barber of Seville. Lattanzi has also maintained a strong relationship with Arizona Opera, where he was a member of the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio from 2015 until 2017. During Lattanzi's time with the company, he was heard in the title role of Don Giovanni, as Dandini, Riolobo in Florencia en el Amazonas, and was featured in the company’s Sapphire Celebration with Frederica von Stade. Additional performances included Moralès and Dancaïre in Carmen, Yamadori in Madame Butterfly, and as the Gamekeeper in Rusalka. Lattanzi also appears regularly with Seattle Opera, most recently as the Steward in their filmed production of Jonathan Dove’s Flight.

On the concert stage, Lattanzi was heard in a celebration of the music of Leonard Bernstein with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and in the coast of West Side Story at Grand Tetons Music Festival under the baton of Donald Runnicles. Lattanzi has appeared with Jake Heggie in OPERA America’s Creators in Concert series, previewing Fellow Travelers at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, and in Carmina Burana with the Reno Philharmonic and at the Christ (Crystal) Cathedral, and with the Chicago Sinfonietta.

The Georgia native has studied at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM). In addition to two summers at the Merola Opera Program, Lattanzi has participated in programs at the Brevard Music Center and the Chautauqua Institute Voice Program.