Zorro

Venezuelan soprano María Brea has been called a “fantastic soprano,” by Opera Wire, showcasing “virtuosity as a singer” and imbuing her performances with “luxurious polish.” Opera News celebrated her appearance in Cav+Pag with New Camerata Opera, saying “Maria Brea was an absolute delight as Nedda, ...demonstrating a natural theatrical instinct. She also has a lovely voice.”

In the 2023/24 Season, the “vocally thrilling” (ConcertoNet) soprano makes her debuts with the Phoenix Symphony as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Mesías [Messiah in Spanish] and the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra singing Odaline de la Martinez’s Four Afro-Cuban Poems. She also makes her debut with Arizona Opera in the role of Ana Maria in Zorro, and with Vero Beach Opera in the role of Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. In the fall, she returns to American Ballet Theatre as the soprano soloist in performances of Charpentier’s Depuis le Jour at the David H. Koch Theater in New York.

Brea’s most recent performances have included the roles of Micaëla in CarmXn with Hogfish Opera, Gilda in Rigoletto with Resonance Works, Norina in Don Pasquale with The Barn Opera in Vermont, and as Olga in Giordano’s Fedora with Teatro Grattacielo, where she “conquer(ed) the entire stage with her every appearance” with her “seemingly unfettered vocal abilities” (Opera Wire). She performed the role of Elena in the Zarzuela El Barbero de Sevilla, for which the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors awarded her “Best Musical Actress”; and in 2019, created the title role of Anton Coppola’s Lady Swanwhite in a production with Opera Tampa. Her other operatic roles have included Raquel in the world premiere of José Luis González Moya’s El Rey Nació with PuntaClassic, Musetta in La Bohème with the New York Concert Opera, and Micaëla in Carmen and Adina in The Elixir of Love with West Bay Opera. With Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance, she performed the roles of Nannetta in Falstaff, Giannetta in The Elixir of Love and Marie in La Fille du Regiment.

As a concert soloist, Brea has recently been seen with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Oratorio Society of New York, Tucson Symphony, Boston Philharmonic Youth Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and the Queens Symphony Orchestra performing works including Handel’s Messiah, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, and Haydn’s Creation. She also recently sang as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana with the Cecilia Chorus of New York at Carnegie Hall. She regularly performs in recital, with recent engagements for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, at the Schubert Club, and as the headliner of Venezuelans and Immigrants Aid’s “A Song for Venezuela” concert. In 2023, she made her debut as a soloist with the American Ballet Theatre in their US premiere of Like Water for Chocolate in Costa Mesa at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and in New York at The Metropolitan Opera House.

Brea was chosen to represent Venezuela in the 2022 Operalia Competition in Latvia, was a finalist in the 2022 Paris Competition, and sang for the 2021 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition. She previously won 6th prize in the Tenor Viñas Contest, where she also received a special award for the best interpreter of Zarzuela and a contract to perform with the orchestra at Teatro Liceu de Barcelona. Brea has been the recipient of awards in the Opera Cultura, Gerda Lissner, Giulio Gari, Mary Truman Art Song, and New York Lyric Opera Competitions, and received an encouragement award from the Metropolitan Opera National Council Connecticut District Auditions.

Brea earned her bachelor’s degree in Vocal Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, where she was the recipient of the Mae Zenke Orvis Scholarship; and her master’s degree at the Juilliard School as a Kovner Fellow. Along her professional path, Brea participated as a studio artist with Wolf Trap Opera, where she performed the role of the Bird in Philip Glass’s Juniper Tree. She was an apprentice artist with Palm Beach Opera, was the Eva and Marc Stern Fellow at Songfest and has been the beneficiary of a Novick Career Advancement Grant.

Brea credits her father, a music teacher and Cuatro player, for instilling in her a love of Venezuelan folk music from an early age. María Brea is a co-founder of the Instagram platform Latina Women in Opera and is a Spanish diction expert at DictionBuddy.com.

Hailed for his “sublime baritone” and “burnished tone,” praised for his “remarkable ease,” “passionate acting chops,” and “soft-spoken charisma,” Mexican-American baritone Octavio Moreno is a commanding artist whose voice and presence have resonated on some of the world’s most celebrated stages. Critics from The New York Times, Houston Chronicle, Arizona Daily Star, The Independent, and The Dallas Morning News have recognized his ability to embody characters with “vitality and fullness,” wielding a voice that is “round and resonant” with “deep masculinity” and a natural dramatic instinct.

A graduate of the prestigious Houston Grand Opera Studio and the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Moreno earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Arizona. His artistry has garnered international recognition, including First Prize at the 2018 Linus Lerner International Opera Competition, Third Prize in the Eleanor McCollum Competition, and representation of Mexico at both the 2009 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World and the 2010 Paris International Competition. He is also a top prizewinner of Mexico’s Carlo Morelli Competition, Cuba’s Mariana de Gonitch Competition, and Peru’s Premio Ciudad Trujillo.

Moreno has performed with major companies such as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Diego Opera, Arizona Opera, Teatro de Bellas Artes (Mexico City), and Théâtre du Châtelet (Paris), among many others.

A strong advocate for new and culturally resonant repertoire, he created the roles of Laurentino in Cruzar la Cara de la Luna—the world’s first mariachi opera—Xihuitl in El Pasado Nunca Se Termina, and General Moncada in Zorro. His operatic portrayals include Marcello (La Bohème), Tonio (Pagliacci), Zurga (Les Pêcheurs de Perles), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Vronsky (Anna Karenina), John Proctor (The Crucible), Germont (La Traviata), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), the title role in Rigoletto, Sourin (The Queen of Spades), and Belcore (The Elixir of Love).

On the concert stage, Moreno has appeared with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, singing the baritone solo in Carmina Burana, and with the Arizona Philharmonic as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah. He has been a featured guest artist with the International Music Festival Orchestra in Belgrade, Serbia, and performed the baritone solo in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Fred Fox School of Music Orchestra. At the Academy of Vocal Arts, he sang the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the AVA Orchestra. His concert work continues to reflect his versatility and vocal distinction across both sacred and symphonic repertoire.

Upcoming engagements include a return to the role of Laurentino in Cruzar la Cara de la Luna in McAllen, Texas, and a concert of Spanish and Latin American music with Opera Idaho as part of their 2025/26 Season.

Francesca Herrera is a soprano hailing from Atlanta, Georgia. Most recently, she was a studio artist with Wolf Trap Opera where she covered the roles of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and Frasquita in Carmen. She was the recipient of an Encouragement Award in the 2025 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition North Carolina District. The Opera Guild for Atlanta awarded her the Tommy Trotter Memorial Scholarship in their 2025 scholarship competition. During the 2024/25 Season, Herrera performed the role of Flora in Britten’s Turn of the Screw under the direction of Chía Patiño with the University of Michigan Department of Voice & Opera. She sang the roles of Cathy/Shamana 1 and covered the role of Lucy in the first orchestral workshop of Derek Bermel’s The House on Mango Street, a collaboration between the SMTD OperaLab and the Glimmerglass Festival. She had her role debuts as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Johanna in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Seagle Festival in 2024. As an accomplished dancer, Herrera also choreographed Seagle Festival’s 2024 Season opening production of Lerner and Loewe’s Brigadoon. She graduated cum laude from Duke University with a B.A. in music as well as minors in computer Science and psychology. There she was also awarded the Duke Music Department’s Julia Wilkinson Mueller Prize for Excellence in Music. She began pursuing a master’s degree at the University of Michigan’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance under the tutelage of Amanda Majeski before joining the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio.

Mauricio Perusquia, baritone, is a rising performer with recent performances including Papageno in The Magic Flute with Arizona Lyric Theatre, Escamillo in Carmen with Chandler Opera, and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at FIO Mondo in Italy. He performed with Arizona Opera’s OperaTunity Program, bringing music to Phoenix-area schools, and participated in El Paso Opera’s Curbside Opera Initiative. Perusquia has performed in new works like El Paso Opera’s Frida and Arizona Opera’s Silent Night, as well as standard repertoire such as La Traviata and The Barber of Seville. He holds an MM in Opera Performance from Arizona State University.

Anthony Barrese, hailed by South Florida Classical Review as conducting “with passion and idiomatic fluency,” has earned accolades as both a composer and a conductor. He is the recipient of the 2007 Georg Solti Foundation U.S. award for young conductors. His original works have won numerous awards, and he is regularly engaged by opera companies in North America and Italy.

Currently serving as Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of Opera Southwest, Barrese lead the company productions of L’occasione fa il ladro and Bluebeard’s Castle during the past season. Barrese also serves as Music Director of OperaDelaware, a role he assumed in 2017. Additional conducting engagements for the 2023/24 Season included L’infedeltà delusa at Sarasota Opera and Zorro at Opera Santa Barbara. That season, he conducted Zorro, Le comte Ory, and Turandot with Opera Southwest, as well as Florida Grand Opera’s production of The Barber of Seville.

In recent seasons, the Maestro has conducted La scala di seta, La Traviata, Pelleas et Melisande, Ali Baba, Tosca, Maria de Buenos Aires, La cambiale di matrimonio, Lohengrin, Guillaume Tell, The Marriage of Fiagro, Die Fledermaus, La Cenerentola, Rossini’s Otello with the American staged première of the finale lieto, and a “Return of Rossini” festival, all with Opera Southwest; Korngold’s rarely heard opera Die Kathrin with Folks Operetta; The Barber of Seville and The Marriage of Figaro with Opera Delaware; Sarasota Opera’s production of Roméo & Juliette; La Bohéme with Opera Tampa; Kurt Weill’s operetta Johnny Johnson with Chicago Folks Operetta; The Merry Widow for Opera Saratoga; Suor Angelica and Il Tabarro with Opera Delaware; and Orfeo ed Euridice in a return to Florida Grand Opera.

Barrese has made débuts at Florida Grand Opera conducting Les pêcheurs de perles and Norma, Opera Theatre of St. Louis conducting The Kiss, Opera North conducting The Elixir of Love, and Boston Lyric Opera conducting Don Giovanni. In 2014, Barrese held the prestigious honor of leading the World Premiere of Franco Faccio’s little-known opera Amleto with Opera Southwest, not heard anywhere since 1871. With his background as a musicologist, Barrese worked vigorously for nearly ten years to rediscover, prepare, and edit the critical edition of Amleto, in conjunction with Casa Ricordi, for American audiences. In the following years, Amleto premièred on the east coast with Opera Delaware (under Barrese's baton) and as a part of the Bregenz Festival in Austria (conducted by Paolo Carignani).

Barrese made his operatic conducting début in Milan with La Bohème and made his début in France conducting Turandot at the Opéra de Massy. He led several productions with Sarasota Opera including, Lakmé, The Marriage of Figaro, and Hansel and Gretel; and a new production of Turandot in the historic Teatro Ventidio Basso, with a cast that included Nicola Martinucci as Caláf. Barrese was the Assistant Conductor of the Dallas Opera in 2006/07 and later returned there as Guest Conductor for a production of Tosca, and La Wally. He also recorded Roberto Andreoni’s quattro luci sul lago with I Solisti della Scala, a chamber group made up of the first chair musicians of the La Scala Philharmonic, for broadcast on Italian National Radio (RAI 3).

Other notable highlights include being the recipient of numerous composition awards including a N.E.C. Contemporary Ensemble Composition Competition Award for his Madrigale a 3 voci femminili, The Sir Georg Solti Conducting award, and two B.M.I. Student Composers Awards.

Brian Lavelle is a choreographer, performer, and dance educator with over 25 years of professional experience in both ballroom and theatre. He began his formal training at the Pacific Conservatory of Performing Arts (PCPA), where he studied musical theatre, jazz, tap, ballet, and acting under nationally recognized instructors. While at PCPA, he performed in numerous productions, including The Wildest!!! (originating the role of Kitsum, Samuel French publication), Wonderful Town, Crazy for You, Fiddler on the Roof, and Zombie Prom (Choreographer). He has also trained extensively through masterclasses with Susan Eagan, Jason Robert Brown, Joanna Gleason, and other leading Broadway professionals.

Lavelle’s theatre career expanded with Phoenix Theatre and Arizona Broadway Theatre, where his credits include Bandstand (Choreographer), Beauty and the Beast, Guys and Dolls (Dance Captain), The Music Man, Thoroughly Modern Millie, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, The Quilter’s Gift (Choreographer), A Chorus Line, The Will Rogers Follies, and Beguiled Again—for which he received the prestigious AriZoni Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In addition to his theatre accomplishments, Lavelle built a highly successful career in the ballroom dance industry. He began his competitive journey in Sugar Land, Texas, training at the Sugar Land Dance Studio and competing in the Texas Challenge Pro Rhythm Division at just 18 years old. He later joined Arthur Murray Franchised Dance Studios in Mesa, AZ, where he trained under 12-time World Rhythm Champions Bob Powers and Julia Gorchakova and served as both Instructor and Front Department Manager.

For years, Lavelle competed nationally on a weekly basis, traveling across the country with his professional dance partner, training extensively with elite coaches, and working tirelessly to perfect his craft. His dedication, discipline, and artistry led him to achieve a #1 National Ranking in Professional Pro Rhythm Dance—a milestone representing years of passion, perseverance, and hard work.

Throughout his competitive career, Lavelle earned numerous Arthur Murray awards, including Rising Star Rhythm Champion and Future Rhythm Champion, while choreographing and performing in showcases, spotlight performances, Metal Balls, Tournament of Champions, and other national-level events.

Today, Lavelle is the proud owner of Performance Ballroom Dance Connection, which he has successfully operated since 2016. His studio specializes in private instruction, group classes, wedding choreography, master classes, competitive coaching, and full-scale showcase productions. In addition to running his studio, Lavelle teaches advanced-level ballroom classes at Dancers Domain and leads partner-dancing programs at Arcadia Overture.

Through his teaching, choreography, and performances, Lavelle blends the artistry of theatrical storytelling with the passion and precision of ballroom and partner dance, creating work that is dynamic, engaging, and unforgettable.

Lavelle is thrilled to join Arizona Opera as the choreographer for Zorro and looks forward to bringing his energy, creativity, and love of storytelling to this exciting production.

Madeleine Snow is a director and creative collaborator who is passionate about reimagining ways for contemporary audiences to engage with classical music. She has enjoyed directing site-specific performances and collaborating with composers including Ricky Ian Gordon and Ben Moore. She directed the World Premiere of Joshua Hershfield’s critically acclaimed rock musical Rise and won second place of the 2023 American Prize in Directing for her inventive production of La Calisto with Eastman Opera Theatre. A 2024 Festival Artist at Central City Opera, Snow has recently worked as a director at PAC NYC, Palm Beach Opera, Boulder Opera, Loveland Opera Theatre, Rochester Philharmonic, Boston Youth Symphony, and Harvard College Opera.

Tláloc Lopez-Watermann’s designs have been seen at In-Series, Salisbury University, Opera Omaha, Alabama University, Opera Columbus, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Lakes Area Festival, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Grand Rapids, The Castleton Festival, Tri-Cities Opera, North Carolina Opera, Toledo Opera, Utah Opera, Opera Roanoke, Amarillo Opera, Guerrilla Opera (Boston, Mass.), Crested Butte Music Festival, DiCapo Opera (NYC), Brevard Music Festival, and many others. Lopez-Watermann is the owner of Light Conversations LLC, and has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts and a Master of Fine Arts in design from NYU/Tisch. Lopez-Watermann was the 2002 Allen Lee Hughes Lighting Fellow at Arena Stage in Washington, DC.

A native of Tucson, Alita Lopez began her career with Arizona Opera in 2001 working as a makeup artist. After just a few seasons, she became assistant to the former Wig Master. In this position she learned the art of wig building and developed her skill as a stylist. In 2010, she took on the title of Wig Master and has been overseeing the hair and makeup department at Arizona Opera ever since. In addition to managing her crew, she utilizes her creativity and talent as an artist and designer to aide each director in the realization of their vision.