PROGRAM

MUSIC DIRECTOR AND PIANIST: Kelly Kuo

“O Viviane, auprès de toi” from Brocéliande (1892)
Composer: Lucien Lambert (1858-1945)
Librettist: André Alexandre (1860-1928)
Briana Hunter, mezzo soprano
WooYoung Yoon, tenor

“I was moved first” from We shall not be moved (2017)
Composer: Daniel Bernard Roumain (b.1970)
Librettist: Marc Bemuthi Joseph (b.1975)
Kelly Guerra, mezzo soprano

“Ernestine, que vas-tu faire…Ô Clemangis” from Ernestine (1777)
Composer: Joseph Bologne (1745-1799)
Librettist: Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803)
Laquita Mitchell, soprano

“The Moon Duet” from An American Soldier (2018)
Composer: Huang Ruo (b.1976)
Librettist: David Henry Hwang (b.1957)
Yulan Piao, soprano
WooYoung Yoon, tenor

“To those fleeing persecution, terror, and war (2018) Composer: Rene Orth (b.1985)
Librettist: Kanika Ambrose (b. 1989)
Malcolm J. Merriweather, baritone

“No sabes tu” from Marina (1871) Composer: Emilio Arrieta (1823-1894)
Librettists: Francisco Camprodón (1816-1870) and Miguel Ramos Carrión (1845-1915)
Laquita Mitchell, soprano
Chauncey Packer, tenor
Erik Grendahl, baritone

“Seigneur, voyez ma peine” from Morgiane, ou, Le sultan d’Ispahan (1888)
Composer: Edmond Dédé (1827-1901)
Librettist: Louis Brunet (1847 - 1905)*
Yulan Piao, soprano

“Dove Costanza…Non mi fuggir così” from L’isola disabitata (1831) Composer: Manuel García, Sr. (1775-1832)
Librettist: Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782)
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Malcolm J. Merriweather, baritone

“The Greatest Liberty” from Amistad (1997) Composer: Anthony Davis (b.1951)
Librettist: Thulani Davis (b.1949)
Joseph Beutel, bass

Monkey meets Crocodile from Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers (2017) Composer: Kamala Sankaram (b.1978)
Librettist: David Johnston (b. 1964)
Alex Scheuermann, tenor
Joseph Beutel, bass-baritone

“Disfrazado de pastor” from Los Juegos Olímpicos (1673)
Composer: Juan Hidalgo de Polanco (1614-1685)
Librettist: Agustín de Salazar y Torres (1636-1675)
Chauncey Packer, tenor

“The Imitation Game” from The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing (premiering in 2023)
Composer: Justine F. Chen (b. 1975)
Librettist: David Simpatico (b. 1960)
Briana Hunter, mezzo-soprano
Erik Grendahl, baritone

“Beatriz, puerta del mundo” from La hija de Rappaccini (1989) Composer: Daniel Catán (1949-2011)
Librettist: Juan Tovar (b. 1941)
WooYoung Yoon, tenor

“Sweet Love, soon I must go” from Thelma (1907-1909) Composer and Librettist: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
Laquita Mitchell, soprano
Chauncey Packer, tenor

INFORMATION ABOUT THE FEATURED WORKS

“O Viviane, auprès de toi” from Brocéliande (1892)
Composer: Lucien Lambert (1858-1945)
Librettist: André Alexandre (1860-1928)

Lucien Lambert was a French pianist and composer of American Creole descent on his father’s side. Lucien fils was a pupil of Gottschalk in Brazil and Jules Massenet in Paris before moving to Portugal. He is believed to be the first classical pianist of African descent to make recordings, having made three cylinders for the Pathe Company in Lisbon in 1905. One of Lucien Lambert Jr.'s two grand operas, Brocéliande was a collaboration with poet Andre Alexander to transform the King Arthur legend. The full orchestration to the opera has not been found though a full vocal score exists intact. This duet is between Viviane, the lady of the lake, and Gildas, a knight of the round table who has just killed the lady’s previous love interest.

“I was moved first” from We shall not be moved (2017)
Composer: Daniel Bernard Roumain (b.1970) Librettist: Marc Bemuthi Joseph (b.1975)

Premiered in 2017 at Opera Philadelphia, this collaboration between two powerhouse American artists of Haitian descent brings social justice and community to the forefront through a genre-defying blend of styles. The story centers on five North Philly teens on the run who find refuge in an abandoned house in West Philadelphia at the exact location that served as headquarters of the MOVE organization. In this aria, Glenda, a north Philly native turned West Philly cop who patrols the area on her regular beat, observes that the young people who have taken over the home are hanging out there when they are supposed to be in school.

“Ernestine, que vas-tu faire…Ô Clemangis” from Ernestine (1777)
Composer: Joseph Bologne (1745-1799)
Librettist: Pierre Choderlos de Laclos (1741-1803)

Had it not been for opposition to his mulatto identity, Bologne, Chevalier de St. Georges, might have become artistic director of the Royal Academy of Music (the Paris Opéra). Ernestine was the first of perhaps seven operas composed by Saint-Georges and marked his debut as a stage composer in 1777. It was based on the novel, L’Histoire d’Ernestine by Mme. Riccoboni, with the libretto written by Valmont de Choderlos de Laclos, a captain, in the French artillery, and revised by the secretary to the Duke d’Orléans, N. Desfontaines. The recitative and aria presented here occur at a point in the story when the heroine, Ernestine, is separated from her lover, Clemangis.

“The Moon Duet” from Act 2, Scene 1 of An American Soldier (2018)
Composer: Huang Ruo (b.1976)
Librettist: David Henry Hwang (b.1957)

Initially premiered in a one-act version in 2014 by Washington National Opera, An American Soldier was subsequently expanded to two acts and had its premiere at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in 2018. Presented through a series of flashbacks, the opera is based on the true story of Danny Chen, a Chinese-American soldier in the U.S. Army who committed suicide in 2011 after having been subjected to racial harassment and beatings by his fellow soldiers. The second act duet with his high school friend Josephine expresses how much they miss each other and how different the moon is in their separate worlds.

“To those fleeing persecution, terror, and war (2018) Composer: Rene Orth (b.1985)
Librettist: Kanika Ambrose (b. 1989)

This aria was created as a stand-alone scene for Tapestry Opera’s LibLab Residency. Late at night. Vincent and his wife, Marjean are seeking asylum from Haiti. Their home was destroyed in the earthquake. They stop behind some trees near the border. From a distance, Vincent sees the lights around a tent city and realizes they’re close. Excited, Vincent calls back to Marjean to let her know how close they are to freedom.

“No sabes tu” from Marina (1871) Composer: Emilio Arrieta (1823-1894)
Librettists: Francisco Camprodón (1816-1870) and Miguel Ramos Carrión (1845-1915)

The Spanish composer, Emilio Arrieta, received Italian musical training that led him to concentrate on operatic writing, composing in an essentially Italianate style throughout his life, though he later composed zarzuelas. Marina is the first opera by a Spanish composer to be produced in Madrid’s Teatro Real in the original language. First written as a mildly successful zarzuela grande, it was converted to a three-act grand opera sixteen years later and was an unmitigated triumph, which for many critics heralded the arrival of a Spanish opera. Set in a fishing village on the shores of the Mediterranean, the plot features a classic operatic love triangle between the orphan Marina, a sea captain Jorge, and a rival suitor whose false reports about a letter creates misunderstanding.

“Seigneur, voyez ma peine” from Morgiane, ou, Le sultan d’Ispahan (1888)
Edmond Dédé (1827-1901)
Librettist: Louis Brunet (1847 - 1905)

Dédé was a free-born Creole composer from New Orleans who studied music with an Italian immigrant in the US and moved to France after realizing no one would play his music because of racial discrimination (he was particularly dark-skinned). By the time he died, he was forgotten in both where he lived in Bordeaux and unknown in Paris. Morgiane is the earliest known full-length opera (4 acts) by an African-American composer but has never been performed. Its score went missing in the early 20th century and resurfaced in 2008 at a Harvard University library. In this aria from Orientalist plot set in Persia, Amine begs the Sultan (who has chosen her as his wife) to release her beloved Ali, imprisoned by the Sultan because of their love. When Amine’s mother Morgiane finally reveals that the Sultan is actually Amine’s father, the Sultan pleads for forgiveness then blesses Amine’s marriage to Ali.

“Dove Costanza…Non mi fuggir così” from L’isola disabitata (1831) Manuel García, Sr. (1775-1832)
Librettist: Pietro Metastasio (1698-1782)

Himself a notable bel canto tenor, Manual Garcia was the father of a distinguished vocal dynasty which included two daughters, the celebrated mezzo-soprano Maria Malibran and singer/composer Pauline Viardot. L’isola disabitata was one of five salon operas García wrote in his late years to showcase the talents of his students. The modern premiere of the opera took place at Wake Forest University in 2005. This short and playful mezzo/baritone recitative and duet between Silvia and Enrico is from Scene 8 when Silvia encounters a man for the first time after having lived alone with her sister on a deserted island since she was a baby.

“The Greatest Liberty” from Amistad (1997) Anthony Davis (b.1951)
Librettist: Thulani Davis (b.1949)

Winner of the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Music for his opera, The Central Park Five, Anthony Davis has been called the “dean of African-American opera composers.” After the premiere of his opera Amistad at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, it underwent major revisions and was presented again successfully at the Spoleto Festival in 2008. In this excerpt, John Quincy Adams muses on the republic’s vision of liberty when he was asked to act as lead lawyer for Africans who seek freedom to return to their home after the ship in which they’ve been imprisoned runs aground.

Monkey meets Crocodile from Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers (2017) Composer: Kamala Sankaram (b.1978)
Librettist: David Johnston (b. 1964)

This comic duet is from a one-act children’s opera which fuses monkey stories from India, China, and West Africa to tell the story of Monkey and his brainy sister Francine. They must learn to work together and use their smarts to escape the hungry Crocodile and outwit the greedy Lord of the Tigers.

“Disfrazado de pastor” from Los Juegos Olímpicos (1673)
Composer: Juan Hidalgo de Polanco (1614-1685)
Librettist: Agustín de Salazar y Torres (1636-1675)

Considered by many to be the father of Spanish Opera and Zarzuela, he became the most influential composer of his time in the Hispanic world writing music for the first two operas created in Spanish. The ballad “Disfrazado de pastor” belongs to a zarzuela in two acts called Los Juegos Olímpicos (The Olympic Games), upon a text by Agustín de Salazar y Torres, a respected poet from the court of Queen Mariana of Austria, widow of Phillip IV. The play opened for the queen's birthday in 1673 and is about the mythological story of Paris and his wife, the nymph Enone. This ballad by Hidalgo is a piece sung as consolation to the fortune-teller Casandra.

“The Imitation Game” from The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing (premiere in 2023)
Composer: Justine F. Chen (b. 1975)
Librettist: David Simpatico (b. 1960)

Commissioned by American Lyric Theater and scheduled for its premiere in 2023, The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing is a two-act opera inspired by the life of the groundbreaking computer scientist, Alan Turing. After saving England in World War II by cracking the Nazi U-boat code, he was found guilty of gross indecency for a homosexual relationship and was chemically castrated. While working around the clock to break the Nazi Enigma code with fellow cryptanalyst, Joan Clarke, Alan and Joan became best friends. Thinking they could make a great team, Alan impetuously proposed marriage to her; they were engaged for six months. However, Alan soon broke it off because he wanted them both to have a fully genuine marriage, something he knew he could not give her because he was homosexual. Joan always suspected he was was homosexual, but thought they still could have made the marriage work. They parted forever, soon after breaking up.

“Beatriz, puerta del mundo” from La hija de Rappaccini (1989) Composer: Daniel Catán (1949-2011)
Librettist: Juan Tovar (b. 1941)

Written by ALT founding faculty member Daniel Catán and based on the play by Octavio Paz and the short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the opera is set in garden of Rappaccini, a botanist who uses his daughter Beatriz for his diabolical experiments. One of Rappaccini’s students, Giovanni, falls in love with Beatriz but is eventually poisoned by her deadly touch. This aria, in which Giovanni professes his infatuation for Beatriz, is one of the most lyric moments in the score.

“Sweet Love, soon I must go” from Thelma (1907-1909). Composer & Librettist: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)

Referred to by white New York musicians as the “African Mahler,” mixed-race composer Coleridge-Taylor wrote the opera Thelma that was never performed in his lifetime, supposedly due to the poverty of the work’s libretto. The manuscripts were only discovered in the British Library’s archives a century or so later. Following trends for Nordic and mythology in operas at the time, the story features a love triangle between goodies Thelma and Eric and the evil Viking Carl, an underwater kingdom, and a maelstrom. The performance of this duet on this concert is the American premiere of music from Thelma.

ABOUT THE COMPOSERS & LIBRETTISTS

André Alexandre, (librettist of Brocéliande) was a prolific French poet and librettist working in Paris in the late 19th century. He attended the lycée Louis-le-Grand. After military service in Bretagne, in 1881 he returned to Paris and published two collections of poetry: la Lande en fleurs and le Sonneur de biniou. His poetry and texts were set by composers including Jules Massanet; Reynaldo Hahn, Félix Foudrain, Charles Lecocq, and Lucien Lambert. He was a frequent contributor to the operatic stage, co-adapting the libretto Madame Chrysanthème (based on Pierre Loti’s play, the basis of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly) for composer André Messager with Georges Hartmann, and with Loti and Hartmann again, also wrote the libretto to Reynaldo Hahn’s opera L’île du rêve, and with Peter Carin, he wrote the libretto for the composer Charles Lecocq’s Rose-Mousse (1904). As sole librettist he collaborated repeatedly with composer Lucien Lambert creating the books for Brocéliande (1893); Evangéline (1895) ; le Spahi (1897). There are over twenty extant settings of his songs.

Kanika Ambrose is a Toronto-based playwright, librettist, and Artistic Producer of Paprika Festival. She was Obsidian Theatre Company's OAC Playwright-in-Residence in their 2017-2018 season with her play Reception and Cahoots Theatre Company's CCA Playwright-in-Residence developing her play our place. As a playwright, her work has been presented at Toronto Fringe, Crow’s Theatre’s East End Performance CRAWL, Rhubarb Festival, Black Lives, Black Words, Rising Tides Showcase, SummerWorks Festival and Paprika Festival. As a librettist, her first short works were presented by Tapestry Opera’s Tapestry Briefs, in 2018. Her children's opera, Anansi and the Great Light, created with composer Nick DiBerardino and the students at Girard College, premiered at Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia in 2019. She has been commissioned by Tapestry Opera and Obsidian Theatre Company to create new opera “Of the Sea” with composer Ian Cusson. She is a two time Dora Award nominee, graduate of Ryerson Theatre School and is founder of Dominican bélé dance group, Mabouya Dance Company. She was featured as one of Cahoots Theatre Company's 30 for 30 theatremakers for their 30th anniversary season.

Pascual Juan Emilio Arrieta (Corera) was a Spanish composer born in 1823. Arrieta was born in Puente la Reina, Navarre. He studied at the Milan Conservatory (1841-5) under several maestri including Vaccai, and became friends with Amilcare Ponchielli, composer of La Gioconda. He eventually won First Prize on his graduation and wrote Ildegonda (1846), a three act opera to an Italian text by the leading librettist Temistocle Solera, which was to be successfully performed in several Italian cities. He returned to Madrid the same year, becoming a fast favorite of the Queen, Isabel II. She appointed the young composer to a succession of posts, culminating in his investiture as Composer Director for the Teatro Real in December 1849, two months after the presentation of Ildegonda at the new Teatro Real. A new Italian opera La conquista de Granada followed in 1850, again to a text by Solera. Arrieta taught at the Madrid Conservatory from 1857, and became its director after the Revolution of 1868. As well as four operas, Arrieta wrote over 29 zarzuela in his lifetime, often in a more Italianate style than pleased his contemporaries attempting to establish a vernacular national idiom. But his zarzuela Marina remains one of the most popular lyric stage works in the Spanish repertoire, it has been produced and recorded both on CD and DVD many times. Arrieta died in Madrid, aged 70 in 1894. 

Joseph Bologne, composer, (also known as Chevalier de Saint-Georges) was born on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, the son of an enslaved woman of Senegalese origin and a French plantation owner. In 1757, his father was named Gentleman of the King's Chamber, serving as a personal assistant to King Louis XV. At the age of 17, Joseph joined the king’s guard and given the title “Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges.” Boulogne began his professional career as a musician with Les Concerts des Amateurs, making a sensational debut as a soloist with that orchestra in 1772, playing two violin concerti of his own composition. In 1773, he was named the conductor of the orchestra. In 1781, Bologne became director of the newly formed orchestra Le Concert Olympique. His first opera, Ernestine, premiered at the Comédie-Italienne in 1777. His second opera, La Partie de Chasse (The Hunting Party), premiered in 1778 and met with greater success. His third opera, L'Amant Anonyme (The Anonymous Lover), premiered in 1780 in the private theater of the Marquise de Montesson, who appointed him music director of her theater and gave him a residence in the ducal palace. The libretto was adapted from a play by the celebrated writer Madame de Genlis, who was governess and tutor to the Duke's children. It is the only one of his operas that survives in complete form. In 1797, Bologne returned to Paris and became director of a new orchestra, Le Cercle de l'Harmonie, which performed in the former residence of the Duke of Orléans. He died in 1799, at the age of 53.

Louis Brunet was born in 1847 in Reunion, a French colony in the East Indian Ocean.  Louis Brunet was part of a family of French politicians ruling there. After brief military service, Louis returned to his native island where he began a career as a journalist , polemicist and writer. He served as Mayor of Saint-Benoît , general councilor, and chaired the departmental assembly between 1887 and 1888. In 1893, he stood for the legislative elections, and won. He then sat on republican benches, and was very active on all colonial issues. He supported the French expedition to Madagascar carried out in 1894, and encouraged the colonization of the island. A digitised Harvard library held score of Morgiane lists an Luis Brunet as the author of the Morgiane, ou, Le sultan d’Ispahan. If the accreditation is correct, and the Brunet is the correct individual, it makes Dédé’s choice of librettist a fascinating choice of either alignment with colonialist values, or a subtle reappropriation of story for his own ends. In island societies, interacial unions, official and unofficial, were frequent. It is interesting to speculate whether Brunet or his family were themselves biracial, and how despite their possible political differences, Dédé and Brunet may have found common ground. 

Francisco Campodrón was born in Vic in March, 1816. He studied law at the University of Cervera and graduated in Barcelona (1838). His high-profile militancy in the Liberal party led to a period of exile in Cadiz. In spite of his reputation as a mediocre and prosaic poet, he worked extensively as a librettist for successful zarzuelas. He worked mainly with the musicians Emilio Arrieta, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, Cristóbal Oudrid and Nicolau Manent, and wrote various pieces in Catalan at the height of the movement known as the Renaixença. He was a firm defender of authors' copyrights, and established the custom whereby these were no longer forfeited to the theatrical impresarios, thus contributing to improving the quality of life of the dramatists of his time. He died in Havana in August, 1870.

Miguel Ramos Carrión, co-librettist of Emilio Arrieta’s famous zarzuela Marina, was also known as "Boabdil el Chico" and was born in Zamora in 1848. His first play, written with Eduardo Lustonó, was bought by the famous businessman Arderius, who premiered it in his equally famous De los Bufos theatre (1866). The play was called Un sarao y una soirée and was very successful. He specialised in comedy and zarzuelas; and collaborated with authors such as Vital Aza, with plays such as Los sobrinos del capitán Grant or La bruja. His most famous play is Agua, azucarillos y aguardiente, which Federico Chueca set to music. He was the secretary of the Society of Authors and he founded the satirical weekly "Las Disciplinas". His funny stories and humorous verses were published in "Blanco y Negro". He died in Madrid in 1915.

Daniel Catán, composer, is primarily known as a composer of operas, though his oeuvre spans works for orchestra, chamber music, and art song, as well as music for film and television. His opera, Rappaccini’s Daughter, was the first opera by a Mexican Composer ever produced by a professional opera company in the United States (by San Diego Opera in 1994). In 1973, Catán received a PhD from Princeton University under Milton Babbit, as well as with James K. Randall and Benjamin Boretz. Upon completing his university studies in 1977, Catán returned to Mexico, taking a post as an administrator at the Palacio de Bellas Artes  (Palace of Fine Arts) in Mexico City. Catán first came to public notice in 1990 when Octavio Paz won the Nobel Prize for literature, bringing attention to Catán’s opera La hija de Rappaccini, adapted from Paz’s 1956 play and based on the short story of the same name by Nathaniel Hawthorne. But Catán’s major breakthrough came with Florencia en el Amazonas (with a libretto inspired by Gabriel Garcia Márquez). After the premiere of Florencia, eight years passed before Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies, with a libretto by Cuban author Eliseo Alberto. His final complete work is based on the film Il Postino, with the title role of Pablo Neruda written as a vehicle for Plácido Domingo. Catán’s final, unfinished opera, Meet John Doe is also based on a screenplay for the 1941 film of the same name. 

Justine F. Chen, composer, has been the recipient of numerous prestigious composition awards and commissions, including prizes and funding from BMI, ASCAP, the Jerome Fund for New Music, Frances Goelet Charitable Lead Trust, and Opera America. She has been commissioned and performed by New York City Opera, New York City Ballet, The Juilliard School, New York Festival of Song, JACK Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Chicago Opera Theater, New Juilliard Ensemble, Washington Ballet, Brooklyn Philharmonic, FLUX Quartet, Concertante, Long Leaf Opera, SPRINGAUTUMN Festival, American Lyric Theater, Chants Libres, and Tapestry Opera. Her second opera, Jeanne, was described by The New York Times as “lyrical, atmospheric... striking… balances despair and humor.” Notable new projects include Seven Sisters, an opera with librettist Stephanie Fleischmann, and Motion Studies, a choral work for The Crossing. Ms. Chen has been a Resident Artist at American Lyric Theater since 2010, where she is collaborating with librettist Lila Palmer and composer Jorge Sosa on Splintered: A Nutcracker Adventure (2022) and with librettist David Simpatico on a full-length opera based on the life of famous British computer scientist Alan Turing. The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing was presented as part of Opera America’s 2017 New Works Showcase, workshopped by ALT in partnership with Chicago Opera Theater and heralded as ‘inventive’ and ‘revelatory’ (Chicago Reader). 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, composer, studied at the Royal College of Music under Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, a later advocate of his work, and was also championed by Edward Elgar. He  is best known for his cantata Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast, which he followed with two other cantatas about Hiawatha, The Death of Minnehaha and Hiawatha's Departure, published together with overture as Opus. 30. Coleridge-Taylor also composed chamber music, anthems, and the African Dances for violin, among other works. The Petite Suite de Concert is still regularly played. He set one poem by his near-namesake Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "The Legend of Kubla Khan." Coleridge-Taylor composed a violin concerto for the American violinist Maud Powell which has been recorded by the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra,  BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Coleridge-Taylor was only 37 when he died of pneumonia, he left behind a wife and two children. He was posthumously championed by conductor Malcolm Sargent. Between 1928 and 1939, Sargent conducted ten seasons of a large costumed ballet version of The Song of Hiawatha at the Royal Albert Hall. In 1999, several important chamber works by Coleridge-Taylor were identified and published in new editions, including the Piano Quintet and Haytian Dances. Coleridge-Taylor's only large-scale operatic work, Thelma, was unearthed in the 1990s by Catherine Carr. Thelma is a saga of deceit, magic, retribution and the triumph of love over wickedness and is through-composed. The librettist is uncredited and may be Coleridge-Taylor himself. Thelma received its world première in Croydon's Ashcroft Theatre in February 2012, the centenary year of the composer's death, performed by Surrey Opera.

Anthony Davis, composer, won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Music for his score for The Central Park Five. Mr. Davis has composed seven operas. X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, with a libretto by Thulani Davis, commissioned by New York City Opera. A recording of the opera was released in 1992 on the Gramavision label and earned a Grammy nomination (Opera Theatre of St. Louis); Tania, with a libretto by Michael John LaChiusa, (American Music Theater Festival); Amistad, with a libretto by Thulani Davis (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Wakonda’s Dream, libretto by Yusef Komunyakaa (Opera Omaha); Lilith, an opera about Adam’s first wife based on Allan Havis’ acclaimed play with a libretto by the playwright (2009); and Lear on the 2nd Floor, inspired by King Lear (2013). He has two music theater works in development, Shimmer, about the McCarthy Era with Sarah Schulman and Michael Korie, and Tupelo, about the life of Elvis Presley written with Arnold Weinstein. Mr. Davis has been commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Kansas City Symphony and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His other works include the music for the critically acclaimed original Broadway productions of Tony Kushner's Angels in America (1993 & 1994). In addition, he has written two choral works: Voyage Through Death to Life Upon These Shores, an a cappella work based on the poem "Middle Passage" by Robert Hayden; and Restless Mourning, an oratorio for mixed chorus and chamber ensemble with live electronics.

Thulani Davis, librettist, is a professor and a Nellie Y. McKay Fellow in the Afro-American Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the author of six books, a dozen theater works and has had a career in journalism. Davis wrote the libretti for Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X (1986), and his Amistad (1997). She is working now with Bernadette Speach on The Little Rock Nine, and on a new work with Davis, Fire Across the Tracks: Tulsa 1921. Davis has also written libretti for Miya Masaoka’s oratorio Dark Passages, Anne LeBaron’s electronic opera, The E & O Line, and the book and lyrics for The Sojourner Washing Society, A Musical in Gospel & Blues, with Steven Robinson. Davis has written the scripts for several narrative films, as well as award-winning documentaries, including Louis Massiah’s W. E. B. Du Bois: A Biography in Four Voices. Her most recent books are Nothin but the Music, a poetry collection, and The Emancipation Circuit: Black Activism Forging a Culture of Freedom, forthcoming from Duke University Press.

Edmond Dédé was a composer of French West Indian heritage, born in New Orleans about 1829. He studied violin with Constantin Debergue, a local free black violinist and director of the local Philharmonic Society and composition with Italian-born conductor and publisher Ludovico Gabici and Eugène Prévost, French-born winner of the 1831 Prix de Rome and conductor of the orchestra at the Théâtre d'Orléans, and with New York-born free black musician Charles Richard Lambert. Dédé emigrated first to Belgium then Paris. In 1857 he secured admission to the Paris Conservatoire de Musique (Paris Conservatory of Music), where he studied under Jacques-Francois Halevy and the noted French violinist and teacher Jean Delphin Alard. Dédé wrote a great number of operettas including La femme de glace, La femme au vitriol, La musique aux lanternes, Le chef de musique, Le roi des boudinés and the operas Le noye, Le grillon du foyer, Les étudiants bordelais, L'antropohage along with a number of orchestral pieces, ballets and a great number of songs. He is now best known compositionally for Le Palmier Overture  (1865) and  Le Sermente de L'Arabe (1865). Dédé spent thirty-six years in Bordeaux leading the city’s most popular orchestras and was the conductor of the Theater of Bordeaux for twenty-five years. In 1893 Dédé returned to New Orleans, where he presented two new songs, including Patriotisme, a swansong which lamented the ‘implacable prejudice’ that forced him to live in exile (the song is based on a poem by Rodolphe Desdunes). Dédé returned to France and was elected to  the Society of Dramatic Authors and Composers in 1894, dying in France in 1903. 

Manuel García, was a prolific composer, singer and pedagogue active across Europe  from the early to mid nineteenth century. García was active as a singer and composer of opera and operettas first in Madrid, including El padrastro, o Quien a yerro mata a yerro muere; El poeta calculista;  El cautiverio aparente; El preso.  In 1813, his opera l califfo di Bagdad was produced at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples; and in 1814 the cantata Diana ed Endimione and the opera seria Tella e Dallaton, o sia La donzella di Raab. During this period, Garcia was emerging as Rossini’s principal tenor. Whilst living in Paris, Garcia created the role of Count Almaviva in his Barber of Seville in 1816 and created 15 other roles in Rossini’s operas. In the same period he presented new French-style operas of his own composition at the Paris Opera, the Opéra-Comique and the Gymnase-Dramatique including Le prince d’occasion; Il fazzoletto; La mort du Tasse; La meunière; Florestan, ou Le conseil des dix and Les deux contrats de mariage. In 1825 he formed an opera company, which included his son Manuel and his celebrated daughters Maria Malibran and Pauline Viardot-García, and took it to New York City and Mexico, a company which also performed his works. In his final years, García wrote five salon operas to showcase the talents of his students. 

David Henry Hwang, is a librettist whose stage works include the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Kung Fu, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida (co-author), Flower Drum Song (2002 revival) and Disney’s Tarzan. Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His newest work, Soft Power, a collaboration with composer Jeanine Tesori (Fun Home) received four Outer Critics Honors, eleven Drama Desk Nominations, a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theatre Album, and was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama. As a librettist, he has collaborated with Unsuk Chin on Alice in Wonderland; Bright Sheng on Dream of the Red Chamber and The Silver River; Huang Ruo on An American Soldier and M. Butterfly; The Sound of a Voice, 1000 airplanes on the roof and The Voyage  with Phillip Glass, and The Fly for composer Howard Shore. 

David Johnston is an award-winning playwright, librettist and screenwriter, and alumnus of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program. New York productions with Blue Coyote Theater Group include Coney, Conversations on Russian Literature, an adaptation of The Oresteia (Time Out Best of 2007); and Busted Jesus Comix (GLAAD nominee 2005, London, Los Angeles, DC Cap Fringe, Prague). Mr. Johnston works frequently with director Kevin Newbury, including Candy and Dorothy (GLAAD winner 2006, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, Unexpected Stage, In the Now Productions), The Eumenides, and award-winning short film Monsura is Waiting. He wrote the libretto for the chamber opera, Why Is Eartha Kitt Trying to Kill Me?: A Love Story (composed by Jeffrey Dennis Smith at American Lyric Theater, and premiered by Urban Arias) and Daughters of the Bloody Duke, commissioned by Washington National Opera for the American Opera Initiative at the Kennedy Center, composed by Jake Runestad. Recent projects include a children’s opera for Houston Grand Opera, Monkey and Francine in the City of Tigers with composer Kamala Sankaram, the new play Pelicans (Ashland New Play Festival 2019) and Mercy Street, an opera adaptation of the Anne Sexton play, with composer Drew Hemenger. 

Bamuthi (Marc Bamuthi Joseph), librettist, is a 2017 TED Global Fellow, an inaugural recipient of the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, and an honoree of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. Bamuthi’s opera libretto, We Shall Not Be Moved, was named one of 2017’s “Best Classical Music Performances” by The New York Times. His evening length work created in collaboration with composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, The Just and The Blind, was commissioned by Carnegie Hall and premiered to a sold out house at Carnegie in March 2019. His upcoming piece, In His Name is inspired by the forgiveness exhibited by the congregation of Emanuel AME church in Charleston, and will premiere at The Perelman Center in New York in 2021. 

Lucien-Leon Guillaume Lambert, Jr. was a French composer and pianist of African American descent.  His father, Charles Lucien Lambert, Sr., had emigrated from the U.S.  Lambert, Jr. was taught by his father, by Theodore Dubois and by Jules Massenet.  He enjoyed success as a composer and pianist first in France and later in Portugal.  In the 1870s he was recognized by the Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil (where his father had stayed until his death in 1896) for innovations in music. In 1905 he recorded three wax cylinders for the Pathe Company in Lisbon, thought to be the first classical music recordings made by a performer of African descent. He later taught in Paris, where the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris now holds thirty-two of his pieces dating from 1866 to 1899. Lambert’s Promethee enchaine won the Concours Rossini in 1885. Works include Prométhée enchaîné; Gottschalk: Hymno brazileiro- Variações; Gottschalk: Tarantelle; Schumann: Prophet Bird, #7 from Waldszenen, Op. 82; Prélude, fugue et postlude. In 2017, the New Orleans-based opera company OperaCréole revived his opera La Flamenca, thought to have only been performed during its inaugural run in 1903.

Rene Orth is a composer that "breaks new ground" (Opera News), writing music described as “...always dramatic, reflective, rarely predictable, and often electronic” (Musical America). Her music focuses on dramatic and lyrical storytelling, and she takes a keen interest in blending electronic soundscapes with acoustic music. She recently completed her three-year tenure as Composer-in-Residence for Opera Philadelphia. Orth’s work has been performed by a variety of opera companies and orchestras, including Berkeley Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Summerville Orchestra, New World Symphony, Julliard Youth Symphony, Festival d’Aix en Provence, Opera Philadelphia, Tapestry Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and Washington National Opera, and Curtis Opera Theater.  She has collaborated with notable artists and ensembles such as the Del Sol, Dover and Aizuri Quartets, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Sasha Cooke, Daniela Mack Shrader, Blythe Gaissert, Zach James, Seraph Brass, Rock School of Dance, and Pennsylvania Ballet. Recent distinctions include an OPERA America Commissioning Grant and Discovery Grant for Female Composers, American Composers Forum Subito Grant, and Kentucky Foundation for Women Artist Enrichmnet Grant.  She has been in residence at Festival d’Aix en Provence, Yaddo, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, the Orchard Project Greenhouse, Avaloch Farm Institute, Tapestry Opera, Lake Champlain Music Festival, and Luzerne Music Center.

Juan Hidalgo de Polanco was a Spanish composer and harpist who became the most influential composer of his time in the Hispanic world writing the music for the first two operas created in Spanish. He is considered by many to be the father of Spanish Opera and of the Zarzuela. Hidalgo was born and died in Madrid. In the 1630s he became a harpist at the Spanish royal chapel where he was responsible for the accompaniment of both sacred and secular music and served King Philip IV. Around 1645 he began to serve as leader of the court's chamber musicians and chief composer of villancicos, chamber songs, and music for the theatre. He personifies the origins of Spanish Opera with the work Celos aun del aire matan by the illustrious playwright Calderon de la Barca, released on 5 December 1660 to celebrate the third birthday of Prince Felipe Prospero. It is considered the oldest opera preserved in Spain. Juan Hidalgo dominated secular and theatrical music at the Spanish court until his death. He was a prolific composer and his place in Spanish music-theatre history is equivalent to that of Henry Purcell in Britain and Lully in France. He wrote music for at least nine allegorical religious plays that were performed in public for Corpus Christi. His work for the court stages included songs for 16 spoken plays (comedias), many partly sung zarzuelas and semi-operas, and two full operas.

Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a prolific and endlessly collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), DBR has worked with artists from Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones to Lady Gaga; appeared on NPR, American Idol, and ESPN; and has collaborated with the Sydney Opera House and the City of Burlington, Vermont. Acclaimed as a violinist and activist, DBR’s career spans more than two decades, earning commissions by venerable artists and institutions worldwide. Known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic, urban, and African-American music influences, DBR takes his genre-bending music beyond the proscenium. He is a composer of chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, including We Shall Not Be Moved for Opera Philadelphia and an as yet untitled work for Chicago Lyric Opera. An avid arts industry leader, DBR serves on the board of directors of the League of American Orchestras, Association of Performing Arts Presenters and Creative Capital, the advisory committee of the Sphinx Organization, and was co-chair of 2015 and 2016 APAP Conferences.

Huang Ruo, composer has been lauded by the New Yorker as "one of the world's leading young composers" and by the New York Times for having “a distinctive style.” Huang Ruo’s music has been premiered and performed by the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Seattle Symphony, National Polish Radio Orchestra, Kiel Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Hong Kong, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Asko/Schoenberg Ensemble, Remix Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Quatuor Diotima, and Ethel Quartet, and conducted by Wolfgang Sawallisch, Marin Alsop, Michael Tilson Thomas, James Conlon, Dennis Russell Davies, Ed Spanjaard, Peter Rundel, Alexander Liebreich, Xian Zhang, and Ilan Volkov. Huang Ruo has written many operas for major houses including Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (Santa Fe Opera); Paradise Interrupted (Spoleto Festival USA); An American Soldier (Opera Theater St. Louis) and M. Butterfly.

Kamala Sankaram, composer has been praised as “strikingly original” (NY Times) and “new voice from whom we will surely be hearing more” (LA Times). Sankaram writes highly theatrical music that defies categorization. Recent commissions include the Glimmerglass Festival, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Opera on Tap, among others. Kamala is a distinguished alumna of the Composer Librettist Development Program at American Lyric Theater. Awards, grants and residencies include: Jonathan Larson Award, NEA ArtWorks, MAP Fund, Opera America, NY IT Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical, the Civilians, HERE, the MacDowell Colony, and the Watermill Center. Known for her work with emerging technologies, her recent genre-defying hit Looking at You (with collaborators Rob Handel and Kristin Marting) featured live data mining of the audience and a chorus of 25 singing tablet computers. Sankaram, Handel, and Marting also created all decisions will be made by consensus, a short absurdist opera performed live over Zoom and featured on NBC and the BBC3. With librettist Jerre Dye and Opera on Tap, she created The Parksville Murders, the world’s first virtual reality opera (Samsung VR, Jaunt VR, Kennedy Center Reach Festival, “Best Virtual Reality Video” NY Independent Film Festival, Future of Storytelling, Salem Horror Festival and the Topanga Film Festival.) 

David Simpatico is a playwright, librettist and performance artist whose work has been presented at major theatres around the globe, including London’s Hammersmith Apollo, Lincoln Center, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and the New York Shakespeare Festival. Career highlights include: the stage adaptation of High School Musical (Disney Theatricals); the full length opera, The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing (Justine Chen, composer; commissioned by American Lyric Theater); the sung through music drama, The Screams of Kitty Genovese (Will Todd, composer; Edinburgh Fringe Festival); and the libretto for Pulitzer Prize-winner Aaron J. Kernis’ Garden Of Light (NY Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, conducted by Kurt Masur). David recently earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the MountainView Writers at SNHU. He is currently adapting Robert Bloch’s That Hell-Bound Train as a jazz opera with composer Lisa DeSpain. Two new non-musical plays are currently being shopped around: Wilde About Whitman, and Waiting for the Ball to Drop. David is an alumnus of the Composer Librettist Development Program at American Lyric Theater, and a graduate of Northwestern University.

Agustín de Salazar y Torres (1642-1675) was a renowned poet and a playwright in the Spanish Court during the Regency of Mariana of Austria, mother of Charles II. An admirer of Pedro Calderón de la Barca, who practically invented baroque zarzuela and introduced opera into Spain, Salazar y Torres dedicated himself almost exclusively to music drama. Two of his plays, Also Loved in the Abyss (1670) and The Olympic Games(1673) are categorized as zarzuelas because of their reduced length (two acts instead of the usual three) and the pervasiveness of musical scenes within them. His works contributed to the genre's development by exploring the musical effectiveness of language and trying to fill the breach between the literal meaning of the plays and the emotions conveyed by music, thus transcending the decorative purpose of the latter.

Juan Tovar was a mexican screenwriter, translator and librettist born in Puebla, Mexico. He emerged as a short-story author in the 1960s. Around 1967 he began his teaching work at the School of Theater Art of the National Institute of Fine Arts , worked at El Heraldo de México as editor-in-chief of the Show Supplement. Between 1975 and 1976 he was editor-in-chief of the Diorama de la Cultura supplement. He was successful as a screenwriter, and his second novel, Creature of a day, was published in 1984. In 2018, Tovar received the Fine Arts Medal of Literature "in recognition of his mastery as a playwright, storyteller and translator.” Between 1979 and 2018 he premiered theatrical works including The Dawn, The Exile, The Adorations, Manga de Clavo, Forti Bliss, and The deal, often collaborating with director Ludwik Margules. As an opera librettist, he adapted Aura, by Carlos Fuentes , and " La hija de Rappacini ", by Octavio Paz for Daniel Catan. He died in 2019. 

ABOUT THE PERFORMERS

Joseph Beutel is "An imposing bass-baritone," (Opera News) often praised for his "deep well-rounded tone," and overall richness of voice and versatility on stage. Beutel has performed with such companies as Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Opera, Seattle Opera, and the New York Philharmonic, to name a few. He also originated the role of the "British Major" in the Pulitzer Prize winning opera Silent Night by Kevin Puts premiered at Minnesota Opera. Other roles include the Duke and Judge in Powder Her Face by Thomas Adès at Skylight Music Theatre in Milwaukee, where he "burned up the stage... singing with gorgeous tone in a huge vocal range and with an actor's command of language." He made his Carnegie Hall debut, singing the role of Peter in Elgar’s The Apostles with American Symphony Orchestra. His musical theater credits include Carousel with the New York Philharmonic, and Most Happy Fella with ENCORES! at City Center in New York. 

Baritone Erik Grendahl is currently pursuing a Master of Music Degree at The Juilliard School where he studies with Darrell Babidge. He graduated from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA with degrees in Voice Performance and Statistics. While at JMU, he performed Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Captain Corcoran in H.M.S. Pinafore, Schaunard in La Bohème, Danilo in The Merry Widow, and Pangloss/Voltaire in Candide. Erik’s recent roles include Escamillo and Sharpless with In Series Opera in their adaptations of Bizet’s Carmen and Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in addition to Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with Bel Cantanti Opera. Erik returned to his alma mater as a guest artist portraying Joseph De Rocher in JMU's production of Dead Man Walking. Erik was a Festival Artist for Opera Saratoga’s 2020 season and appeared in several of Opera Saratoga’s digital initiatives throughout the summer. 

Peruvian-American mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra was noted as a “standout” in the Wall Street Journal, for her performance with the Tanglewood Music Center as Mrs. Doc in Leonard Bernstein's A Quiet Place. In Spring 2021, Kelly will sing Zweite Dame in Lighthouse Opera's Die Zauberflöte and will sing with the Metropolitan Opera Guild. During the 2019-2020 season, Guerra was an Opera Santa Barbara Chrisman Studio Artist where she covered the roles of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and Donna Rosa in Il Postino. Due to COVID-19 cancellations, Guerra was unable to perform the role of Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette during their season. Guerra has been featured at the Lucerne Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, and the Bard Music Festival. Guerra has performed with a variety of ensembles including the Albany Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Garden State Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now, Contemporaneous, Opera Parallèle and BluePrint. As a first-generation American and native of Southern California, Kelly is passionate about producing projects that raise awareness and monetary aid for detained immigrants in the USA as well as performing excellent music composed by underrepresented groups. 

Briana Hunter has been hailed by Opera News as “a mesmerizing mezzo-soprano with a fiery theatrical presence and dynamic vocalism.” Ms. Hunter begins her 2019-2020 season in performances of Augusta Read Thomas’ Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun with the Santa Fe Opera. Following her acclaimed performances creating the role of Mother in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue at the Glimmerglass Festival, she reprises the role this spring for her debut at the Washington National Opera. A graduate of the Gerdine Young Artist Program, she returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in May for her role debut as Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus. Ms. Hunter recently debuted under the auspices of New York City Opera and American Opera Projects as Hannah Before in Laura Kaminsky’s As One at the Kaufman Music Center in New York. Additional recent performances include creating the role of Dee Dee Reyes in Hillard and Boresi’sThe Last American Hammer with UrbanArias in Washington, D.C.; Annie and Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess at the Glimmerglass Festival; and Giovanna in Rigoletto and Gertrude Stein in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27 at Michigan Opera Theatre, for which she won the EncoreMichigan award for Best Performance in an Opera.  Ms. Hunter is currently leading Opera Orlando’s groundbreaking Haitian production of Carmen in the title role. 

Kelly Kuo brings an extensive background as a conductor, pianist, educator, and administrator to his role as Associate Artistic Director of American Lyric Theater.  In addition to his demanding performance schedule, he is a strong advocate for music education, having initiated and developed important mentoring programs that continue to influence the lives and careers of young artists. Praised by the Cincinnati Enquirer as “a leader of exceptional musical gifts, who has a clear technique on the podium and an impressive rapport with audiences,” Kelly brings a dynamic versatility and nuance to a wide range of works, which includes over 90 operas and an expansive symphonic repertoire.  His past operatic engagements include Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Kentucky Opera, the Janiec Opera Company of the Brevard Music Center, and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.  In 2008, Kelly became the first conductor of Asian descent to lead a performance at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, making his company debut with Porgy and Bess.  He has since returned to lead the Chicago premiere of Charlie Parker’s Yardbird and performances featuring artists of the Ryan Opera Center.

Grammy nominated conductor and baritone Malcolm J. Merriweather is Music Director of New York City’s The Dessoff Choirs. An Associate Professor, he is Director of Choral Studies and Voice Department Coordinator at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York, and the Artistic Director of Voices of Haiti, a children’s choir operated by the Andrea Bocelli Foundation. He has conducted ensembles in venues that include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, Westminster Abbey, and at the Vatican before Pope Francis. His repertoire covers everything from Bach to the world-premiere recording of The Ballad of the Brown King by Margaret Bonds (AVIE Records). The baritone has been featured as a soloist throughout the United States and has premiered dozens of contemporary solo works. He was a fellowship recipient at Tanglewood. Dr. Merriweather holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Syracuse University. 

Soprano Laquita Mitchell consistently earns acclaim on eminent international opera and concert stages worldwide. In her compelling début as Bess in Porgy and Bess with the San Francisco Opera, Opera News said “Laquita Mitchell, in her first outing as Bess, dazzled the SFO audience with her purity of tone and vivid theatrical presence.” Ms. Mitchell performed the soprano soloist in the world première of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall with Oratorio Society of New York, which was nominated for a 2021 Grammy Award . She returned to the Philadelphia Orchestra to perform in their Academy Ball alongside Steve Martin, led by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Ms. Mitchell recently revised the title role of Josephine for a new digital production for Opera Colorado, as well as curated and starred in the multimedia program The Promise of Living. Next, she will create the role of Julie in the World Premiere of Grammy Award-Winner Rhiannon Giddens’ OMAR with the Spoleto Festival USA.  

Chauncey Packer is an exciting American tenor. Mr. Packer has sung such operatic roles as Rodolfo (La Boheme), Alfredo (La Traviata), Pong (Turandot), Werther (Werther), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Sam (Susannah), Ruggero (La Rondine), Dr. Blind (Die Fledermaus), Tamino (The Magic Flute), and the roles of Sportin’ Life, Mingo and Robbins (Porgy and Bess). Mr. Packer has garnered rave reviews for his portrayal of Sportin’ Life with Tulsa Opera, Atlanta Opera, Opera Birmingham, San Francisco Opera and the prestigious Teatro alla Scala.Mr. Packer has performed concert works with companies in the Americas and Europe and has also honed his craft in musical theater in two First National Broadway Tours. Mr. Packer’s upcoming engagements in the 2021-22 season include a concert with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, two productions with the Metropolitan Opera, and his debut with Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Korean-Chinese Soprano Yulan Piao, praised for her ‘lovely lyric voice’ in Opera News, most recently debuted in the role of Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly with Boston Lyric Opera, as Seraph in Christus am ölberge with Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica. In competitions she has earned many accolades. Recently she received 3rd prize in Lois Alba Aria Competition, 1st prize in the both Verismo Opera Competition and Vienna Summer Music Festival Competition. Past major awards include 3rd prize in the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, a Career Bridges Grant Award, Encouragement grant from Giulio Gari foundation, 3rd Prize from the Connecticut Opera Idol Competition, and 1st prize in the Five Towns Music and Art Foundation. She recently performed as Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with Knoxville Opera, as Liu in Turandot with the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera and Musetta in La Bohème with New Rochelle Opera.

Alexander Scheuermann has been praised for his sweet tone and nuanced stagecraft. Alexander has performed on operatic and concert stages across the US and in Europe. Engagements cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic include his Carnegie Hall debut as the tenor soloist for Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass with the New York City Chamber Orchestra, the cover of Tim Laughlin in Fellow Travelers with Des Moines Metro Opera, Polinesso in the world premiere of Jonathan Dawe’s opera Being Ariodante with Ensemble Échappé (NYC), and El Remendado in Carmen with Salt Marsh Opera. Recent performances include Younger Thompson in Glory Denied, with Kentucky Opera and Fayetteville Opera, Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette  and the cover of Arcadio in Florencia en el Amazonas with Pensacola Opera. Alexander has been a resident artist with Pensacola Opera and Kentucky Opera, and holds a bachelor’s degree in voice from Florida State University and a master's in voice from the University of Houston.

Tenor WooYoung Yoon recently made his role debut of Faust in La Damnation de Faust of Berlioz with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica with maestro John Nelson. He will return to Costa Rica for Christus am Oelberg with maestro Nelson in 2021. His other canceled engagements include a Stern Auditorium hall debut at the Carnegie Hall for MidAmerica Productions Inc, and Merola Opera Program 2020 for a second year. WooYoung Yoon’s previous opera credits include Hoffmann in Les contes d’Hoffmann at the New Brunswick Performing Art Center, Tonio in La fille du regiment at Opera Saratoga, Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Tito in La Clemenza di Tito, as well as Rodolfo in Luisa Miller and Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Manhattan School of Music. In 2017, Mr. Yoon covered Don Jose in Carmen for the Martina Arroyo Foundation Prelude to Performance, after debuting the same role in 2016, when he made his Italian debut as Don Jose in Carmen with the Trentino Music Festival. 2018 summer, he debuted as Tonio (Daughter of the Regiment) in the Merola Grand Finale on the stage of San Francisco Opera. In the spring of 2019 he returned to San Francisco Opera, for a recital in the Schwabacher Recital Series. He holds both Professional Studies and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Neil Rosenshein.