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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
October 6 - 20, 2018
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RICARDO JOSÉ
RIVERA
(Schaunard)
Lyric debut
The
Puerto
Rican
baritone, a first-year
member of Lyric’s Ryan
Opera Center, returns to
the company’s mainstage
later this season to
portray Baron Douphol/
La traviata
. Rivera
has portrayed Guglielmo/
Così fan tutt
e at the
International Vocal Academy of Rome; sung
several recitals with the American Masters of
Opera Academy in Moscow; and performed in
scene and concert presentations as a participant
in Tel-Aviv’s International Vocal Arts Institute.
He has had repeat engagements at the Performing
Arts Center of San Juan and at the University of
Puerto Rico Theater, including Don Pasquale,
Gianni Schicchi, and Don Quixote/Ravel’s
Master Peter’s Puppet Show
(part of the 2016
Casals Festival). He recently earned his master’s
degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of
Music, where his appearances included Fiorello/
The Barber of Sevill
e, Starveling/
A Midsummer
Night’s Dream
, and Marco/
Gianni Schicchi
.
He has also participated in numerous summer
programs, including VOICExperience in
Savannah and the Aspen Music Festival, where
he has appeared as Claudio/
Béatrice et Bénédict
and Angel 7 in Luke Bedford’s opera
Seven
Angels.
Ricardo José Rivera is sponsored by
Dr.
David H. Whitney and Dr. Juliana Chyu
, and
Drs. Joan and Russ Zajtchuk.
JAKE GARDNER
(Benoit, Alcindoro)
Previously at Lyric:
Brétigny/
Manon
(2008/09)
JulesMackenzieGoddard/
William Bolcom's
A Wedding
(2004/05, world premiere);
George Jones/
Street Scene
(2001/02).
The career of the distinguished American bass-
baritone has encompassed productions at the
Vienna Volksoper, Dresden’s Semperoper,
Glyndebourne, Dutch National Opera, the
Edinburgh Festival, and the major houses of San
Francisco, Los Angeles, Houston, Washington,
and Miami. For a decade he performed as
principal baritone with the Cologne Opera,
under the baton of music director James
Conlon. Recently Gardner sang his first Prince
Gremin/
Eugene Onegin
at Eugene Opera and
portrayed Ashby/
La fanciulla del West
(Virginia
Opera); Harold Ryan/Richard Auldon Clark’s
and Kurt Vonnegut’s
Happy Birthday Wanda
June
(Indianapolis Opera, world premiere); the
Hermit/
Der Freischütz
, his 100th role (Virginia
Opera); Sulpice/
La fille du régiment
(Honolulu);
Bartolo/
The Barber of Seville
(Eugene, San
Antonio); and Scarpia/
Tosca
(Piedmont Opera,
Opera Coeur d’Alene). Gardner has sung a
wide variety of operetta and musical theater,
including recent portrayals of Baron Zeta/
The Merry Widow
(LA Opera), Frederic/
A
Little Night Music
(Hawai’i Opera Theater),
Judge Turpin/
Sweeney Todd
(Houston Grand
Opera) and Buffalo Bill/
Annie Get Your Gun
and Mayor Shinn/
The Music Man
(both at
Glimmerglass Opera). This season’s highlights
include Gardner’s first Bailiff/
Werther
(Florida
Grand Opera), Sir Joseph Porter/
HMS Pinafore
(Eugene Opera), and Wagner’s
Ring Cycle in
One Night
(Binghamton Philharmonic).
MARIO ROJAS
(Parpignol)
Previously at Lyric:
Borsa/
Rigoletto
(2017/18).
The Mexican tenor, a
second-year Ryan Opera
Center member, who
returns toLyric’smainstage
later this season as Ruiz/
Il trovatore
and Gastone/
La traviata
, has portrayed Rodolfo/
La bohème
at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes. Rojas is
an alumnus of the San Francisco Conservatory
of Music (Don José/
La tragédie de Carmen
,
Nemorino/
L’elisir d’amore
). He has also appeared
at the SFCM Gala with renowned pianist/coach
Warren Jones. One of the youngest singers ever
to receive the Plácido Domingo scholarship
from SIVAM (Mexico's most prominent young-
artist program), he has sung elsewhere in
Mexico as Don Ottavio/
Don Giovanni
and
Julian/Tomás Bretón’s
La verbena de la Paloma
.
Rojas has received the Marta Eggerth Kiepura
Award in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation
International Vocal Completion, third place in
the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition,
the Emerging Singers Award in the Opera Index
Vocal Competition, second place in the East Bay
Opera League competition, an Encouragement
Award from the Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions, and a grant from the Loren L.
Zachary Society for the Performing Arts.
Mario
Rojas is sponsored by the
Elizabeth F. Cheney
Foundation.
CHICAGO
CHILDREN’S CHOIR
Previously at Lyric:
Ten productions since
2000/01, most recently
Turandot
(2017/18);
Carmen
(2016/17);
Tosca
(2014/15).
Founded as a single
choir in Hyde Park at the height of the
civil rights movement in 1956, today the
Chicago Children’s Choir serves 4,800 youth
representing all 57 Chicago zip codes. The
CCC encompasses programs in 85 city schools
and 10 neighborhoods, an ensemble for young
male voices, and the world-renowned Voice of
Chicago. Under president and artistic director
Josephine Lee, Chicago Children’s Choir has
undertaken many highly successful national and
international tours, has been featured in national
broadcasts, including NBC’s
Today
,
Oprah
, and
the PBS series
From the Top: Live from Carnegie
Hall
, and was featured in the Chicago/Midwest
Emmy-winning documentary
Songs on the Road
to Freedom
(2008). A regular collaborator with
major Chicago musical organizations, CCC
has performed throughout the world, for many
dignitaries, and in performances with such
celebrities as Chance the Rapper, Luciano
Pavarotti, Beyoncé, Yo-Yo Ma, and Celine
Dion, among many others.
DOMINGO
HINDOYAN
(Conductor)
Lyric debut
The Venezuelan conductor,
who made a pre-season
appearance leading the
2018
Stars of Lyric Opera at
Millennium Park
concert,
enjoys a vibrant career leading internationally
acclaimed ensembles. Starting with the 2019/20
season, hewill serve as principal guest conductor of
the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Highlights among many prestigious engagements
this season include debuts with the Vienna State
Opera (
Turandot
) and Barcelona’s Gran Teatre
del Liceu (
Luisa Miller
) plus symphonic concerts
with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. Last
season Hindoyan made acclaimed debuts at
the Metropolitan Opera (
L’elisir d’amore
), the
Mariinsky Theatre (
La bohème
), Oper Stuttgart
(
Tosca
), Semperoper Dresden (
La traviata
), and
L’Opéra de Monte-Carlo (
I puritani
). Recent
symphonic engagements include performances
with the Dresden Philharmonic, Hamburger
Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Bordeaux
Aquitaine, Orchestre National de Belgique,
and Malmö Symphony Orchestra. From 2013
to 2016 Hindoyan was first assistant to Daniel
Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera and has
since become a prominent guest conductor
there, having led a vast array of works including
La traviata, Tosca, L’elisir d’amore, La boheme,
The Barber of Seville, The Rake's Progress, Orfeo
ed Euridice,
and
The Rite of Spring
(ballet). Born
in Caracas, Venezuela, and originally a violinist,
Domingo studied conducting at Geneva’s
Haute Ecole de Musique. (
See Conductor's Note,
page 34.)
RICHARD JONES
(Director)
Previously at Lyric:
Hansel and Gretel
(2012/13, 2001/02).
Jenůfa
(2000/01).
The British director
debuted at London’s
Royal Opera House
directing an award-winning 1994 production
of the
Ring
cycle. He has returned for eight
productions, among them
Lady Macbeth of
Mtsensk, Anna Nicole
(world premiere), and
most recently
La bohème
(2017/18). Other
productions have included
Die Meistersinger von
Nürnberg, La fanciulla del West, Wozzeck,
and
Hansel and Gretel
(Welsh National Opera and