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P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
24
|
October 6 - 20, 2018
MARIA AGRESTA
(Mimì)
Previously at Lyric:
Liù/
Turandot
(2017/18).
Acclaimed as one of the
most remarkable Italian
singers of her generation,
the soprano is returning
to Lyric for one of her
signature roles, one that brought her to London’s
Royal Opera this summer. Her Mimì has also
earned acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera
(company debut, 2016), La Scala, the Opéra
National de Paris, and the major houses of
Vienna, Munich, Venice, the Verona Arena,
and Torre del Lago’s Puccini Festival. Also
prominent among her Puccini roles is Liù (La
Scala, Verona Arena, most recently last season at
the Metropolitan Opera). She is also a celebrated
Verdian, with successes including some of the
most demanding roles in Italian opera, such as
Lucrezia/
I due Foscari
(Vienna, London), Leonora/
Il trovatore
London, Milan, Amsterdam), the
title role/
Giovanna d’Arco
(Graz), Amelia/
Simon
Boccanegra
(Frankfurt), Violetta/
La traviata
(Munich, Berlin), Desdemona/
Otello
(with Jonas
Kaufmann, Royal Opera House, DVD), and her
career-breakthrough role, Elena/
I vespri siciliani
(Turin). Other important highlights include
Donna Elvira/
Don Giovanni
(La Scala), the title
role/
Norma
(Tel Aviv, Zurich, Paris), Marguerite/
Faust
(Salzburg), and the title role/Donizetti’s
Gemma di Vergy
(Bergamo, Scala, Amsterdam,
Salerno). On CD Agresta sings sacred music of
Verdi with Antonio Pappano conducting, and
she can be seen on DVD in
Pagliacci, Gemma di
Vergy, Faust,
and
I due Foscari.
MICHAEL FABIANO
(Rodolfo)
Lyric debut
A winner of both
the Richard Tucker
Award and the Beverly
Sills Artist Award,
the American tenor
premiered
Richard
Jones’s
Bohème
production to open the 2017/18
Royal Opera House season at London’s
Covent Garden. He reprises his Met portrayal
of Rodolfo this season, while also making role
debuts as Faust/
Mefistofele
(Met) and Carlo/
Verdi’s
Giovanna d’Arco
(Madrid). Highlights
in recent seasons have been Fabiano’s role
debut as Don José/
Carmen
(Aix-en-Provence),
as well as the title role/
Faust
(Houston), the
Duke/
Rigoletto
(London, Paris, Los Angeles),
Lensky/
Eugene Onegin
(London), Des Grieux/
Manon
(San Francisco, Bilbao), and Edgardo/
Lucia di Lammermoor
(Met, Sydney). Fabiano
triumphed in two rarities – Verdi’s
Il corsaro
and Massenet’s
Hérodiade
– at Washington
Concert Opera. Other major venues include
the leading companies of Milan, Madrid,
Amsterdam, Dresden, and Berlin, as well
as the major orchestras of Cleveland, San
Francisco, Philadelphia, and Vienna. Recent
recital activities include a seven-city American
tour and the tenor’s London recital debut at
Wigmore Hall. On DVD, he can be seen in
the title role/Donizetti’s
Poliuto
and Alfredo/
La traviata
(both from Glyndebourne),
Cassio/
Otello
(Met), and Gennaro/
Lucrezia
Borgia
(San Francisco). Fabiano is the recipient
of Australia’s prestigious Helpmann Award
in the “Best Male Performance in an Opera”
category, for
Faust
in Sydney.
DANIELLE
DE
NIESE
(Musetta)
Previously at Lyric:
Roxane Coss/
Bel Canto
(world premiere, 2015/16);
Susanna/
The Marriage
of Figaro
(2009/10);
Cleopatra/
Giulio Cesare
(2007/08).
The internationally celebrated Australian-born
American soprano sang her first Musetta in
June at London’s Royal Opera House, where
she previously starred as Galatea/
Acis and
Galatea
(DVD). She has earned acclaim at
the Metropolitan Opera as Despina, Euridice,
Ariel/
The Enchanted Island
, Susanna, and
de Niese’s signature role, Cleopatra/
Giulio
Cesare
. Cleopatra, the vehicle of her European
debut in Amsterdam, brought her stardom at
Glyndebourne (DVD), where she has returned
as Monteverdi’s Poppea, Donizetti’s Adina and
Norina (DVD), Concepción/
L’heure espagnole
,
the Child/
L’enfant et les sortilèges,
and Rosina/
The
Barber of Seville
. Her stage successes encompass
Donna Elvira/
Don Giovanni
(Dresden); Cavalli’s
Calisto (Munich); Norina/
Don Pasquale
(Vienna); Partenope (San Francisco); Susanna
and Despina (Dutch National Opera, DVD);
Anne Trulove/
The Rake’s Progress
(Turin);
and the title role/
The Merry Widow
(Sydney).
She returns to Brussels in December to star
in
Don Pasquale
. Her numerous prestigious
orchestral engagements include opening the new
Philharmonie de Paris; BBC’s “Last Night of the
Proms”; performances with the major orchestras
of New York, Cleveland, San Francisco; and her
London Symphony debut with Sir Simon Rattle
in Bernstein’s
Wonderful Town
. De Niese’s
many acclaimed recordings include four solo
discs for Decca Records. Her many honors
include an Emmy Award, the ECHO Award
and France’s Orphée D’Or.
ZACHARY NELSON
(Marcello
)
Previously at Lyric:
Ping/
Turandot
(2017/18); Donner/
Das
Rheingold
(2016/17).
This season the American
baritone appears as
Peter/
Hansel and Gretel
(Oregon Symphony) and Count Almaviva/
The
Marriage of Figaro
(Arizona Opera). Last season
he reprised his portrayal of Mozart’s Figaro
at Dresden’s Semperoper and Belcore/
L’elisir
d’amore
at Pittsburgh Opera. Other recent
successes include Enrico/
Lucia di Lammermoor
(Santa Fe) and Escamillo/
Carmen
(Oslo, San
Francisco, Palm Beach). He has portrayed
Escamillo and Masetto/
Don Giovanni
at
Toronto’s Canadian Opera Company. In
2013/14 Nelson joined the Semperoper’s
permanent ensemble, and has appeared with
the company as Paolo/
Simon Boccanegra
,
Guglielmo/
Così fan tutte
, Belcore, Marcello,
and the Figaros of Rossini and Mozart. His
portrayal of Mozart’s Figaro has been heard
with the Aix-en-Provence Festival; on tour in
Bahrain; and in Santa Fe, where he has also
sung Malatesta/
Don Pasquale
. Other successes
include appearances with Japan’s Seiji Ozawa
Music Academy Opera Project (
Die Fledermaus
)
and Washington Concert Opera (Strauss’s
Guntram
). The Maryland native is the recipient
of many awards and honors, among them
the George London Award from the George
London Foundation and first prize from the
Opera Index Competition, the Liederkranz
Foundation Competition (General Opera
Division), and the Licia Albanese-Puccini
Foundation. He is an alumnus of the Catholic
University of America and Philadelphia’s
Academy of Vocal Arts.
ADRIAN
SÂMPETREAN
(Colline)
Previously at Lyric:
Sir Giorgio Walton/
I puritani
(2017/18);
Raimondo Bidebent/
Lucia di Lammermoor
(2016/17).
The Romanian bass, who has rapidly risen
to international prominence, made his stage
debut as Colline/
La bohème
at the National
Opera in his hometown, Cluj-Napoca. Guest
engagements followed at the Opéra de Monte
Carlo, the Opéra National de Paris, the Opéra
de Bordeaux, Rome’s Teatro dell’Opera, the
Teatro Massimo in Palermo, the Teatro La
Fenice in Venice, the Deutsche Oper am
Rhein/Düsseldorf-Duisburg, and the state
operas in Hamburg, Berlin, and Munich, in
roles such as Alidoro/
Cinderella
, Don Basilio/
The Barber of Seville
, Philip II/
Don Carlo
, and
Sparafucile/
Rigoletto
. In his still-young career
Sâmpetrean has already earned successes at La
Scala in the title role/Verdi’s
Oberto
and Banco/
Macbeth
; the Salzburg Festival as Ferrando/
Il trovatore
and Leporello/
Don Giovanni
; the
Aix-en-Provence Festival as Selim/
Il turco in
Italia
; the Verona Arena as Ramfis/
Aida
; the
state operas of Hamburg (Raimondo/
Lucia
di Lammermoor
) and Berlin (Ferrando); and
the Teatro La Fenice in the title role/
Don
Giovanni
. As Leporello in the latter opera, he
also appeared in Amsterdam, Berlin, Prague,
Moscow, Paris, Monte Carlo, and Hamburg.
Sâmpetrean will be featured later this season
as Count Walter/
Luisa Miller
in Monte Carlo,
Leporello at France’s Chorégies d’Orange
Festival, and Alidoro in Rome.