Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 5 Il Travatore

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 17 - December 9, 2018 | 25 Wisconsin native holds a B.F.A. in vocal performance from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and has performed in opera scenes with Milwaukee’s Kalliope Vocal Arts. She also participated in Dolora Zajick’s Institute for Young Dramatic Voices, the American Wagner Project (Washington, D.C.) and the Georg Solti Accademia di Bel Canto (Grosseto, Italy). Decker portrayed Sally/Samuel Barber’s A Hand of Bridge at the Up North Vocal Institute (Boyne Falls, Michigan) and has performed in concert with the Apollo Chorus/ Elmhurst Symphony (Verdi Requiem ), Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and the Harare International Festival of the Arts (Zimbabwe). Winner of the 2018 Lola Fletcher Scholarship in voice with the American Opera Society of Chicago, she returns to the Lyric stage later this season in Elektra and La traviata. Lauren Decker is sponsored by an Anonymous Donor, Susan M. Miller, and the Thierer Family Foundation. MARIO ROJAS (Ruiz ) Previously at Lyric: Parpignol/ La bohèm e (2018/19); Borsa/ Rigoletto (2017/18). The Mexican tenor, a second- year Ryan Opera Center ensemble member, who returns to Lyric’s mainstage later this season as 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 . Among the honors Rojas has received are third place in the 2018 Dallas Opera Vocal Competition, winner of the 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Central District Auditions, second place in the East Bay Opera League Competition, and, in 2015, the Marta Eggerth Kiepura Award in the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation International Vocal Competition, third place in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, and the Emerging Singers Award in the Opera Index Vocal Competition. He has been heard with soprano Nicole Cabell and pianist Craig Terry at the Harris Theater’s Beyond the Aria recital series and Kentucky Opera’s Sidecar cabaret series. Mario Rojas is sponsored by the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation. MARCO ARMILIATO (Conductor) Previously at Lyric: Rigoletto (2017/18); Madama Butterfly (2013/14). The Italian conductor is greatly sought after by many of the world’s most prestigious opera houses. Following Lyric’s Il trovatore , he will travel to the Vienna State Opera ( Andrea Chénier ), La Scala in Milan ( La traviata ), and the Zurich Opera House (new production of Manon ). Armiliato began the current season in Vienna ( La traviata, L’elisir d’amore ) and at the Metropolitan Opera ( La fanciulla del West ). The conductor has led nine works at San Francisco Opera and more than 25 at the Met, the latter highlighted by company premieres of Wolf-Ferrari’s Sly and Donizetti’s Anna Bolena . During the past two seasons he has earned acclaim for seven works in Vienna and four at the Met, as well as La fanciulla del West (Zurich Opera House) and Andrea Chénier and Tosca (Bavarian State Opera). His artistry has also been applauded at Madrid’s Teatro Real, Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and the Salzburg Festival. Armiliato’s discography includes projects with Renée Fleming, Angela Gheorghiu, Anna Netrebko, Plácido Domingo, Jonas Kaufmann, and Rolando Villazón, among many other distinguished artists. In 2010 his CD Verismo with Renée Fleming won a Grammy Award. Among his extensive performances on DVD are the Met’s productions of Il trovatore, La fille du régiment, Lucia di Lammermoor , and La rondine. SIR DAVID M C VICAR (Original Director) Previously at Lyric: Nine productions since 2001/02, most recently Wozzeck (2015/16); Il trovatore (2014/15, 2006/07); La clemenza di Tito (2013/14). The renowned Scottish director’s productions will be seen this season in eight major companies, highlighted by new productions of Adriana Lecouvreur (Metropolitan Opera), Médée (Geneva’s Grand Théâtre), and I masnadieri (La Scala). McVicar has created nine new productions for London’s Royal Opera House, ranging stylistically from The Marriage of Figaro to Les Troyens and Salome . His seven new Met productions include most recently Tosca, Norma, and Roberto Devereux. He has also directed at La Scala ( Les Troyens ), Opera Australia ( Don Giovanni,The Marriage of Figaro ), the Vienna Staatsoper ( Tristan und Isolde, Falstaff ), English National Opera ( The Turn of the Screw, Medea, Alcina, Tosca ), Glyndebourne ( The Abduction from the Seraglio, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Giulio Cesare ), Scottish Opera ( The Rake’s Progress, Madama Butterfly, La traviata, Idomeneo ), the Salzburg Festival ( Les contes d’Hoffmann ), Mariinsky Theatre ( The Turn of the Screw, Macbeth ), and other major companies. McVicar was knighted in the 2012 Diamond Jubilee Birthday Honours List for Services to Opera and was made Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. He has also been nominated for an Olivier Award in the category of the Outstanding Achievement in Opera. ROY RALLO (Revival Director) Lyric debut The American director began his career as artistic administrator of Long Beach Opera, where he has directed Lucio Silla, Bluebeard’s Castle , and Elektra . He made his German solo directing debut with Don Pasquale at Weimar’s Nationaltheater, where he later created an original music-theater piece. He has directed a new Ariadne auf Naxos in Bordeaux, and his production of Der Rosenkavalier for De Jyske Opera in Aarhus was nominated for Denmark’s prestigious Reumert Prize. Rallo’s collaboration with Christopher Alden includes co-directing Gluck’s L’isle de Merlin (Spoleto USA), Aida (Berlin), and Carmen (Mannheim). As staff director for San Francisco Opera, Rallo remounted Richard Jones’s The Queen of Spades and Johannes Schaaf’s The Barber of Seville . As revival director he has taken charge of productions by Nicolas Brieger ( Idomeneo , Barcelona, Hamburg), Jossi Wieler ( Alcina , Lyon), and Christopher Alden ( Turandot , New Zealand). Among his own recent productions have been Così fan tutte (Portland), The Rake’s Progress (Pittsburgh, Salt Lake City), and Carmina Burana/Pagliacci (Honolulu). He directed a new Barber of Seville for the San Francisco Opera Center, and in Oakland, California, he has been responsible for creating a series of operas produced by The Crucible, the largest nonprofit industrial arts education facility in the United States. CHARLES EDWARDS (Set Designer) Previously at Lyric: Five operas since 1993/94, most recently Il trovatore (2014/15, 2006/07); Billy Budd (2001/02); Macbeth (1999/00). Both a designer and a director, Charles Edwards has earned acclaim in a wide variety of repertoire internationally. Among his designs in the U.K. are, for the Royal Opera House, Adriana Lecouvreur (also Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, San Francisco, and Paris), Faust (also Monte Carlo, Lille, Trieste, and Australia), Elektra , and Werther (also Paris); and for English National Opera, Norma (also Bordeaux), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (also Moscow), Lucia di Lammermoor (Göteborg, Washington, Toronto), Jenůfa, and Makropulos Affair (also Prague). His designs have also been seen at the Metropolitan Opera and the major companies of Lisbon, Bonn, Vienna, Hamburg, Houston, San Francisco, and Dallas, among many others. This season Edwards’s designs will be seen at 11 international companies, including new productions of Kiss Me, Kate (Graz), Adriana Lecouvreur (Met), and I masnadieri (La Scala). He most recently directed Pagliacci for Opera North for the company’s “Little Greats” season, designing and lighting all six productions. In 2016 he directed the prologue of Les contes d’Hoffmann , in a composite production by four directors for Wuppertaler Bühnen und Sinfonieorchester. Other directing includes Elektra (Covent Garden), Don Quichotte and Idomeneo (Grange Park), Joshua, Rigoletto, and Oedipus Rex (Opera North), Così fan tutte (Mid-Wales Opera), and Maria di Rohan (Wexford).