The Dallas Opera 2021-2022 - Madame Butterfly/Flight

12 Adam Lau (The Bonze) The American bass is also appearing at TDO this season as Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville . The 2021/22 season is highlighted by his return to Utah Opera as Don Basilio; house and role debuts at the Metropolitan Opera (Jailer in Tosca , Second Armored Man in The Magic Flute ); Colline in La bohème at North Carolina Opera; and his Atlanta Opera debut as Kobun in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs . He won First Prize in the 2016 Jensen Vocal Competition and Top Prize in the 2015 George London Competition. Lau was also a finalist in the 2016 Dallas Opera Competition. He has appeared with such opera companies as Opera Theatre of St. Louis, The Dallas Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Portland Opera, Utah Opera, and North Carolina Opera, as well as with some of the nation’s leading summer programs including Merola Opera Center, Aspen Opera Theater, and The Santa Fe Opera. Lau has appeared at Carnegie Hall and with the leading orchestras of Los Angeles, Cincinnati, San Diego, and Liverpool, among many other prestigious ensembles. William Meinert (Imperial Commissioner) The Dallas Opera debut The bass, a 2021 Studio Artist with Atlanta Opera, sings Curio in Giulio Cesare and Fiorello in The Barber of Seville with the company this season. Meinert is a recent graduate of the Cafritz Young Artist program at Washington National Opera, where he portrayed Sarastro in The Magic Flute and the Secret Police Agent in The Consul . He recently debuted as Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at The Santa Fe Opera, where he is a former Apprentice Artist. Meinert has sung the Commendatore in Don Giovanni , the Commentator in Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg , Vodník in Rusalka , and the Duke in Romeo and Juliet . He has been featured in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 , and Handel’s Messiah ; and his successes in competitions include First Prize in the 2019 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition. Gabrielle Gilliam (Kate Pinkerton) The Dallas Opera debut The Dallas-based soprano is a Fort Worth Opera Lesley Resident Artist and a Florentine Opera Summer Concert Resident Artist, and was a regional finalist for the 2020-2021 Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions. This season she sings the Doctor in FWO’s production of La traviata and will debut with Tulsa Opera as Amore in Orfeo ed Euridice . At FWO she starred in the world premiere of composer Joe Illick and librettist Mark Campbell’s Bernadette’s Cozy Book Nook and was part of the company’s inaugural FWO Go program. She has been seen as Dorabella in John Davies’ The Bremen Town Musicians with The Dallas Opera Education production. Gilliam’s major role credits include Violetta in La traviata , Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites , Donna Anna in Don Giovanni , Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow , and Johanna in Sweeney Todd . She is an alumna of the University of North Texas and currently a voice faculty member at Dallas’s prestigious Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing Arts. Emmanuel Villaume , Conductor The French conductor has been TDO’s Mrs. Eugene McDermott Music Director since 2013. Formerly Music Director of Spoleto Festival USA and Chief Conductor of the National Slovenian Philharmonic, he has held both of those positions with the PKF-Prague Philharmonia since 2015. Villaume has triumphed throughout America, leading productions at the Metropolitan Opera and the major companies of Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, Los Angeles, St. Louis, and Santa Fe. He has also appeared at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, all the major French and German houses, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, Venice’s Teatro La Fenice, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and the Tokyo Bunka Kaikan. Villaume’s guest-conducting of symphonic repertoire has been hailed with the leading orchestras of Montreal, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Los Angeles, and Boston, as well as those of London, Paris, Munich, Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm, Tokyo, and more. Most recently, he received critical acclaim for his Carmen in Munich and Cendrillon at the Met. THE DALLAS OPERA | 2021/2022 SEASON