Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 4 Siegfried

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 November 3 - 16, 2018 | 25 SAMUEL YOUN (Alberich) Previously at Lyric: Alberich/ Das Rheingold (2016/17). In the Ring cycle, the South Korean bass- baritone has scored recent successes as both Alberich (Edinburgh International Festival) and Wotan (Deutsche Oper Berlin). Youn, who achieved a significant international breakthrough in 2012 as Wagner's Dutchman at the Bayreuth Festival and later took on that role at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, has also sung other demanding German roles, including Jochanaan/ Salome (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Kurwenal/ Tristan und Isolde (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Kaspar/ Freischütz (Cologne Opera), and Gunther/ Götterdämmerung (Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden). He made a memorable debut at London's Royal Opera House as Scarpia/ Tosca in 2016. Youn’s versatility also encompasses such diverse roles as Iago/ Otello (Dresden), Leporello/ Don Giovanni (Cologne), Tonio/ Pagliacci (Berlin), and Orest/ Elektra (Wiesbaden). Later this season, he reprises Alberich/ Das Rheingold (Madrid’s Teatro Real) and returns to the Cologne Opera as Vodník/ Rusalka and Scarpia. Concert appearances include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Essen Philharmonic Orchestra) and Brahms’s German Requiem (Seoul Philharmonic). The bass-baritone has recorded three Wagner operas: Lohengrin (Royal Concertgebouw), Das Rheingold (Hallé Orchestra), and The Flying Dutchman (Bayreuth Festival). Youn began his career as first-place winner of several international competitions, including the Treviso Toti dal Monte, the Seoul Chung-Ang, the Genoa Franz Schubert Contest, and the Naples Francesco Albanese Contest. Samuel Youn is sponsored by Drs. Young, Byong Uk, and Mrs. Myung Soon Chung. DIANA NEWMAN (Forest bird) Previously at Lyric: Seven roles since 2015/16, most recently Jazz Trio Member/ Trouble in Tahiti , Page/ Rigoletto (both 2017/18); Frasquita/ Carmen ; (2016/17). The American soprano, a recent winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Illinois District), returns to Lyric for the first time since her Ryan Opera Center tenure. Newman received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Southern California (title role/ L’incoronazione di Poppea, Miranda/ The Tempest , Pamina/ The Magic Flute , Lauretta/ Gianni Schicchi, Belisa/Conrad Susa’s The Love of Don Perlimplin ). Her many concert credits include Bach’s “Coffee” Cantata (Whittier Bach Festival), Maria Schneider’s Winter Morning Walks (Lucerne Festival), Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (Eastern Sierra Symphony Summer Festival), Francesco Cilluffo’s The Land to Life Again (UCLA Camarades Ensemble, world premiere), Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 (American Youth Symphony Orchestra), and Curly’s Wife/ Of Mice and Men (Grant Park Music Festival). In Chicago she has also appeared in the Harris Theater’s Beyond the Aria series. The soprano is an alumna of Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, the Fall Island Vocal Arts Seminar, the Aspen Opera Theater Center, and the Oberlin in Italy program. She can be heard on the soundtracks of three feature films: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010), Sex and the City 2 (2010), and The Spirit (2008). PATRICK GUETTI (Fafner) Previously at Lyric: Six roles since 2015/16, most recently Mandarin/ Turandot (2017/18); Dr. Grenvil/ La traviata (“Celebrating Plácido!” concert), Zaretsky/ Eugene Onegin (both 2016/17). A New Jersey native and a Ryan Opera Center alumnus, the bass has recently undertaken company debuts as Sparafucile/ Rigoletto (Wolf Trap), Sciarrone/ Tosca (Los Anegeles Philharmonic), and Nightwatchman/ Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Glyndebourne). Guetti returns to Opera Philadelphia later this season as Snug/ A Midsummer Night’s Dream . Next season he joins the prestigious Deutsche Oper Berlin ensemble. As a Santa Fe Opera apprentice, Guetti appeared in Carmen, Fidelio , Theodore Morrison’s Oscar (world premiere) and Huang Ruo’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (American premiere). He studied at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts (title role/ Don Quichotte , Prince Gremin/Zaretsky/ Eugene Onegin , Don Basilio/ The Barber of Seville , Tom/ Un Ballo in Maschera, Crespel and Wilhelm/ Les contes d’Hoffmann ). He has been featured with soprano Nicole Cabell in the Harris Theater’s “Beyond the Aria” series, and can be heard on CD in Bernstein’s Songfest with the National Symphony Orchestra. The bass is a past recipient of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions grand prize, the Richard Tucker Foundation’s Sarah Tucker Grant, first prize in the Gerda Lissner competition, Audience Favorite Award at the Giargiri Bel Canto Competition, and first prize in the Prémio “Verdi” Competition. SIR ANDREW DAVIS (Conductor) Previously at Lyric: 58 operas since 1987, most recently Idomeneo (2018/19); Turandot, The Pearl Fishers (both 2017/18). Lyric Opera of Chicago’s renowned music director began this season conducting the Last Night of the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall and concerts with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. In addition to Lyric’s Idomeneo , Siegfried, and Cendrillon , 2018/19 highlights include a Mozart/Duruflé program with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Act One of Die Walküre with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (where Sir Andrew is currently chief conductor). The complete Walküre was a triumph for Sir Andrew at the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival. He has also earned acclaim for recent appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Detroit and Frankfurt Radio symphony orchestras. Former music director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Davis is also conductor laureate of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (for which he is currently interim artistic director). Operatic successes include productions at many major international companies, from the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, and La Scala to the Bayreuth Festival and the leading houses of San Francisco, Munich, and Santa Fe. Davis has appeared with virtually every internationally prominent orchestra, including those of Chicago, New York, London, Berlin, Amsterdam, and Rotterdam. A vast discography documents his artistry, with recent releases including programs of Berlioz and Ives, as well as Handel’s Messiah in Sir Andrew’s new orchestration. Sir Andrew Davis is the John D. and Alexandra C. Nichols Endowed Chair. DAVID POUNTNEY (Director) Previously at Lyric: Five productions since 1987/88, most recently Die Walküre (2017/18); Das Rheingold (2016/17); The Passenger (2014/15). Artistic director of Welsh National Opera since 2011, the internationally celebrated British director in recent seasons has created productions of such formidable and stylistically diverse works as Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto (Naples), Francesca da Rimini (La Scala), Lulu (Bolzano), Guillaume Tell and The Haunted Manor (both in Warsaw), and the world premieres of Rolf Wallin’s Elysium (Oslo), Elena Langer’s Figaro Gets a Divorce and Iain Bell’s In Parenthesis (both in Cardiff). Among his new productions this season are War and Peace (WNO), Manon Lescaut (La Scala), and I vespri siciliani (Bonn). Pountney’s historic production of Mieczysław Weinberg’s The Passenger was first seen at the Bregenz Festival (world stage premiere), where Pountney was Intendant from 2003 to 2014. It has been remounted at Lyric, London’s English National Opera, New York’s Lincoln Center Festival, and the major companies of Warsaw, Houston (U.S. premiere), Miami, and Detroit. Former director of production at English National Opera and Scottish Opera, Pountney holds the Janáček Medal, the Martinů Medal, and two Olivier Awards. He is both a CBE and a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres, has the Cavalier’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, and was awarded the Ehrenkreuz des Bundes Österreich in 2014. (See Director’s Note, page 33.)