Opera Colorado - New Heights in Grand Opera

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The Cast

Sondra Radvanovsky | soprano
Tosca
Soprano Sondra Radvanovsky's dramatic stage presence and stunning vocal qualities have firmly established her as one of the rising stars on the international stage today. She has been hailed as one the great Verdi singers of the new generation, critically acclaimed for her performances as Elvire in Ernani, Leonora in Il Trovatore, Hélène in Les Vêpres Siciliennes and Elisabetta in Don Carlo. Her performance as Hélène in the rarely performed Les Vêpres Siciliennes at the Paris Opera took the opera world by storm. The press was unanimous in its praise: "…singing Hélène with dramatic flourish and lyric radiance, who roused the audience from her first entry,” raved the International Herald Tribune; "Not since I first heard the young Cheryl Studer 20 years ago have I been so excited by a soprano voice. It has a tender, softly colored personality, with a light tremolo that blossoms at the top,” said the Financial Times. Her Elvira at the Metropolitan Opera elicited no less praise: “The role's high As, Bs and Cs were fearlessly attacked; she sang with tenderness when called for and is a fine actress. There's a unique buzz to her powerful, secure top notes that is very appealing" according to Classics Today. Sondra's 2008-2009 season began with a return to the Los Angeles opera for her debut in the title role of Suor Angelica. Performances as Lucrezia Borgia at the Washington National Opera completed the fall season. February and March marked a return to the Metropolitan Opera in one of her signature roles - that of Leonora in Verdi's Il Trovatore, a role she reprises at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in the spring. In addition to being a winner of the 1997 George London Foundation Competition, Sondra Radvanovsky also won the 1995 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received first prize in the 1995 Loren L. Zachary Society Competition. A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera's Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Ms. Radvanovsky's training has also included advanced studies at Tanglewood Music Center and the University of Cincinnati's College Conservatory of Music. Sondra and her husband make their home in Toronto, Canada. Visit her website here.

 

Antonello Palombi | tenor
Cavaradossi
Italian tenor Antonello Palombi performs around the world to tremendous acclaim, and made his American debut performing the role of Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West with Seattle Opera. “The most pleasant surprise was the discovery of a very fine new tenor in Antonello Palombi, whose singing in rehearsals had set the rumor mills abuzz. It's all true: Here is a tenor with that exciting, emotion-stirring, head-turning Italianate sound, and he ignited the show whenever he was on-stage...here's betting he will be in considerable demand in this country,” says the Seattle Times. Like his career abroad, Mr. Palombi is now in demand with houses around the North America including recent performances as Canio in I Pagliacci with Seattle and Dallas Opera, Don Alvaro in La Forza del Destino with the Baltimore Opera, Cavaradossi in Tosca with the Cincinnati Opera and Baltimore Opera, and Radames in Aïda with the Michigan Opera Theatre, Palm Beach Opera and Seattle Opera. Recent European engagements as Radames in Aïda at Teatro alla Scala and Deutsche Oper Berlin, Calaf in Turandot in both Cagliari and Genoa, Ismaele in Nabucco in Caracalla, Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt and in Munich. Visit his website here.

Greer Grimsley | bass-baritone
Scarpia
American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley has gained international recognition as an outstanding singing actor and is one of leading interpreters of the Wagnerian repertoire.  In Seattle Opera’s recent Ring Cycle, the Seattle Times says “Grimsley’s big, resplendent voice is the right size and color for this vital role; as Wotan, he sounds like a singer who has found his true home. He’s an adept actor, too, never overplaying his hand and relating to the rest of the cast with unflagging intensity.” Additionally, Mr. Grimsley made his Metropolitan debut as Captain Balstrode in Peter Grimes and has subsequently performed there as Escamillo in Carmen, Jokanaan in Salome, Scarpia in Tosca, Telramund in Lohengrin and Amfortas in Parsifal.  Mr. Grimsley first came to international attention as Escamillo in the Peter Brook production of La Tragédie de Carmen, which he has sung in venues around the world, including his Italian debuts at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, the Teatro Comunale di Bologna. Previous European engagements have include the title role in Der Fliegende Holländerat the Deutsche Oper Berlin and at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna under Maestro Gatti’s baton, Telramund in Lohengrin, and Mandryka in Arabellawith the Royal Danish Opera, Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde with the Prague National Theatre, the Royal Danish Opera, and the Opera de Bellas Artes in Mexico, the title role in Der Fliegende Holländer in Nancy, France, Mephistopheles in Faust in Oviedo, Spain, Jochanaan in Salome with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Aarhus-Den Jyske Opera in Denmark, the Scottish Opera, and the Opera de Bellas Artes in Mexico, Don Pizarro in Fidelio with the Scottish Opera, the title role in Don Giovanni and Scarpia in Tosca with the Stadttheater Basel in Switzerland, the Villains in Les Contes d’Hoffmann with New Israeli Opera, and Amonasro in Aïda with Opera de Caracas in Venezuela. Visit his website here.

Matthew DiBattista | tenor
Spoletta
Critically acclaimed tenor Matthew DiBattista has an exciting and successful career in the opera and concert worlds. Opera News praised his performance in The Tender Land (broadcast on PBS), saying he "was a darkly handsome, ardent romantic interest as Martin." With a vibrant sound and an excellent dramatic sense, he frequently performs throughout the United States. He has performed the roles of Ernesto in Don Pasquale and Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S Pinafore with Skylight Opera, Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus with Kentucky Opera, Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance with Whitewater/Sorg Opera, Count Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Lehigh Opera, Dr. Caius in Falstaff, and Andrew Johnson in The Mother of Us All at Glimmerglass Opera. Mr. DiBattista has sung as an Apprentice Artist at both Santa Fe and Glimmerglass Operas and in the Phyllis Curtin Seminar at Tanglewood. He holds a Master’s degree and Artist Diploma in voice from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as well as a Bachelor’s degree from Boston University. Visit his website here.

Ron Daniels
Stage Director
Born in Brazil, Ron Daniels made his San Francisco Opera debut with Madama Butterfly in 1997 which was revived in 1999, 2002, 2003, and 2006. He also directed La Forza del Destino in 2005. Daniels was a founding member of the Teatro Oficina in São Paulo. In 1977 he was appointed the artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s The Other Place Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon, England. In 1980 he became an Associate Director of the RSC. In 1991 he was named associate artistic director of the American Repertory Theatre in Cambridge, MA. Daniels is now an honorary associate director of the RSC and is currently working out of New York as a freelance director. His recent work includes productions for the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, D.C., The Public Theatre of New York and the Dallas Theater Center. Among his many Shakespeare productions are Macbeth, The Tempest, Hamlet, Titus Andronicus, Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 (Best Production, Boston Critics Circle), Henry V (Manchester Theatre Critics Award, Outstanding Production) and acclaimed stagings of Richard II and Richard III at New York’s Theatre for a New Audience. He directed Britten’s The Turn of the Screw for the Berkshire Opera, Tosca at the Teatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro and Così fan tutte at the Arizona Opera, a production that is scheduled again for the Pittsburgh Opera in 2006. Also in preparation is Verdi’s Macbeth for the Teatro Amazonas, in Manaus, Brazil. His work for the musical stage includes Il Re Pastore (his first opera production) at the Boston Lyric Opera, as well as Carmen in Houston, Costa Mesa and Detroit. Mr. Daniels is the 2009-2010 Nathaniel Merrill Honorary Director, which was made possible by a generous gift from Pamela Merrill.

Stephen Lord
Conductor
Stephen Lord was recently chosen by Opera News as one of the "25 Most Powerful Names in U.S. Opera" (one of four conductors) and is continually praised for conducting a variety of both traditional and contemporary operatic works. An Opera News review said of his performance of Ariadne auf Naxos (with Opera Theatre of St. Louis), "Central to the evening's success was Stephen Lord's masterly conducting, spinning webs of sound both fragile and tensile." Recent seasons include debuts with the San Francisco Opera (Rigoletto) and the Dallas Opera (La Rondine). He led performances of Un ballo in maschera and Le Nozze di Figaro with Boston Lyric Opera and conducted I Puritani for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Also at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Maestro Lord has conducted Roméo et Juliette, a double bill of Cavalleria Rusticana and Suor Angelica, Tosca, Lucia di Lammermoor, The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, La Traviata, Katya Kabanova, Madama Butterfly, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, The Rape of Lucretia, Candide, The Beggar's Opera, Curlew River, The Prodigal Son, The Gondoliers, King Arthur, La Fille du Régiment, Ariadne auf Naxos and Madama Butterfly. In addition to his operatic endeavors, Stephen Lord has conducted at Carnegie Hall for PDQ Bach's annual concerts and at the Berkshire Choral Festival Institute. Stephen Lord teaches Master Classes at various institutions including Yale University, The Blossom Festival, the Hartt School of Music and Westminster Choir College. In addition, he serves as an adjudicator in vocal competitions such as the Metropolitan Opera National Auditions, Opera America's George London/Sullivan Grants, and the Richard Tucker Foundation. Visit his website here.