Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 3 Idomeneo

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 13 - November 2, 2018 MATTHEW POLENZANI (Idomeneo) Previously at Lyric: 14 roles since 1995/96, most recently Nadir/ e Pearl Fishers, Duke/ Rigoletto (both 2017/18); Tamino/ The Magic Flute (2016/17). e Evanston native, one of today’s most admired tenors internationally and particularly celebrated for Mozart, bel canto, and French repertoire, reprises a portrayal previously acclaimed at the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. is season, the Ryan Opera Center alumnus portrays Puccini’s Rodolfo at Palermo’s Teatro Massimo and will make role debuts as Vaudémont/ Iolanta at the Met and Don José/ Carmen at San Francisco Opera. In addition to Idomeneo, Polenzani has triumphed in recent seasons at the Met in the title role/ Roberto Devereux and Nemorino/ L’elisir d’amore , all seen worldwide in HD. e tenor stars regularly at the Salzburg Festival, Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, the Vienna State Opera, and the Zurich Opera House (where he made a much-acclaimed role debut last season as Rodolfo/ Luisa Miller ). A major highlight of his 2018/19 concert season will be a solo recital in February at Carnegie Hall. Among Polenzani’s recordings are Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer and live recitals from the Verbier Festival and London’s Wigmore Hall, as well as a program of Liszt songs with his regular recital partner, pianist Julius Drake. Polenzani is a past recipient of the Richard Tucker Award (2004), the Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Artist Award (2008), and an Opera News Award (2017). JANAI BRUGGER (Ilia) Previously at Lyric: Liù/ Turandot (2017/18). A Chicago native, the soprano recently returned to Mozart at Dutch National Opera as Servilia/ La clemenza di Tito , to be reprised later this season at LA Opera. Another Mozart role, Pamina/ e Magic Flute , was a great success as her 2015 Covent Garden debut. She soon returns to Amsterdam to sing Clara/ Porgy and Bess . As a member of the Domingo- ornton Young Artist Program, Brugger appeared in LA Opera’s production of La bohème as Musetta and e Marriage of Figaro as Barbarina; she moves on to the role of Susanna at Cincinnati Opera next summer. After earning acclaim in 2012 as a triple award-winner at the Operalia competition and a winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Brugger also won the Sphinx Prize and the Marian Anderson Vocal Award. She has been heard in major roles at the Met, among them Pamina/ e Magic Flute , Helena/ e Enchanted Island , Jemmy/ Guillaume Tell (premiere of the company’s new production), and most recently Micaëla/ Carmen . Chicago-area audiences have heard the soprano in concert at the Ravinia and Grant Park festivals. Brugger is featured in the 2009 experimental jazz album Ask Your Mama , alongside e Roots and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon. ERIN WALL (Elettra) Previously at Lyric: 12 roles since 2001/02, most recently Antonia/ Les contes d’Hoffmann (2011/12); Helena/ A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2010/11); Konstanze/ e Abduction from the Seraglio (2008/09). e Canadian-American soprano, a RyanOpera Center alumna, is making her role debut in this production. Wall has appeared throughout both of her home countries, with successes including starring roles at the Metropolitan Opera (Donna Anna/ Don Giovanni , title role/ Arabella, Helena/ A Midsummer Night’s Dream ); Canadian Opera Company (Arabella, Countess/ e Marriage of Figaro ); and the major companies of San Francisco (Donna Anna), Vancouver (Desdemona/ Otello ), Santa Fe (title role/ Daphne , Arabella, title role/ Vanessa ), and Québec (Clémence/ L’amour de loin ). Later this season, the soprano will return to the role of Marguerite/ Faust (Washington National Opera) and will take on one of her dream roles, Chrysothemis/ Elektra (Canadian Opera Company). Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 is prominent in Wall’s concert career, with appearances most recently with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and with Tokyo’s NHK Symphony. She earned a Grammy Award for the San Francisco Symphony’s recording of the work, which she has also recorded with the Berlin Staatskapelle. Other recordings include Messiah with the Toronto Symphony and Strauss’s Four Last Songs with the Melbourne Symphony, both under Sir Andrew Davis, and two recordings of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 . On DVD, Wall appears in Così fan tutte (Aix-en-Provence) and the 50th-anniversary performance of Britten’s War Requiem (City of Birmingham Symphony). ANGELA BROWER (Idamante) Lyric debut e American mezzo- soprano, who makes her role debut in this production, began her rise to prominence at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, where she was awarded the Munich Festival Prize. Brower is celebrated for her portrayals of Strauss’s trouser roles, with successes including Octavian/ Der Rosenkavalier in Munich and the Composer/ Ariadne auf Naxos at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Among her other Munich roles have been Dorabella/ Così fan tutte (the vehicle of her Covent Garden debut), Cherubino/ e Marriage of Figaro , Adalgisa/ Norma , and Hansel/ Hansel and Gretel . She will reprise both Dorabella and Adalgisa at the Bavarian State Opera this season, with the latter role also to be heard in the 2019 Munich Opera Festival. In Europe Brower also frequently appears in important concert venues, including the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Munich’s Gasteig, the Stadttheater in Klagenfurt, and the Rudolfinum’s Dvořák Hall in Prague. In February she will join the Vienna Philharmonic in Salzburg for the Mozart Requiem . e mezzo returned to the United States last season to star as Octavian with the Bavarian State Opera in concert at Carnegie Hall, and to be featured soloist in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir’s Christmas concert. Brower’s Dorabella and Cherubino can be heard on CD, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. DAVID PORTILLO (Arbace) Previously at Lyric: 9 roles since 2007/08, most recently Andres/ Wozzeck (2015/16); David/ Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2012/13); Trin/ La fanciulla del West (2010/2011). Celebrated for Mozart – recently including Tamino/ e Magic Flute (Frankfurt) and Don Ottavio/ Don Giovanni (Dallas) – the San Antonio-born tenor, a Ryan Opera Center alumnus, is making his role debut in this production. Later this season, he will debut as Mozart’s Idamante at Madrid’s Teatro Real, and will also return to the Metropolitan Opera (Chevalier/ Dialogues des Carmélites , another role debut) and to Glyndebourne (Tamino). Portillo, who sang Renaud/Gluck’s Armide in the Met’s 2012 collaboration with Juilliard, made his official Met debut as Almaviva/ e Barber of Seville and has since returned as Jaquino/ Fidelio , Eduardo/ omas Adès’s e Exterminating Angel (company premiere, HD transmission), and Camille/ e Merry Widow. He has performed at the Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Aix- en-Provence, and Saito Kinen festivals and in the major houses of Washington, Houston, St. Louis, Berlin, Vienna, and Paris. In 2016, Portillo sang the featured role of Dr. Richardson in Opera Philadelphia’s unanimously acclaimed world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves . e tenor has performed in concert with such ensembles as the Kansas City Symphony, Richmond Symphony, and the Phoenix Symphony. With Washington Concert Opera, he has been heard as Tebaldo/Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi . Portillo appears on CD as Pedrillo/ e Abduction from the Seraglio with the period–instrument orchestra Le Cercle d'Harmonie.