Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 8 Elektra

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 | February 2 - 22, 2019 NINA STEMME (Elektra) Lyric debut Winner of the 2018 Birgit Nilsson Prize, the internationally celebrated Swedish soprano debuts at Lyric with a portrayal that previously earned unanimous acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera, the major houses of Vienna, Berlin, and Munich, and in a Paris concert with the orchestra of Radio France. Stemme began the current season as Brünnhilde/ Ring cycle at London’s Royal Opera House Covent Garden, before returning to the Italian repertoire as Turandot (Madrid) and Tosca (Vienna). e season also includes both Kundry/ Parsifal and Turandot in Munich and the Dyer’s Wife/ Die Frau ohne Schatten in Vienna. In addi- tion to solo discs of Wagner and Strauss, Stemme can heard on CD as Isolde (twice), Leonore/ Fidelio , and the Walküre Brünnhilde . Her Isolde is also available on DVD (Glyndebourne), as are the heroines of Siegfried (La Scala), Aida and Der Rosenkavalier (both from Zurich), La forza del destino and La fanciulla del West (both from Vienna). Stemme first attracted international attention as the winner of Plácido Domingo’s 1993 Operalia competition. Engagements fol- lowed at the Met, La Scala, the Bayreuth Festival, the Vienna State Opera, and Covent Garden. e soprano, appointed a Swedish Court Singer and an Austrian “Kammersängerin,” is a past recipient of the “Premio Abbiati” critics’ award, Olivier Award, International Opera Award, and Opera News Award. (See “ How ey Handle Elektra ,” pp. 30-32.) ELZA VAN DEN HEEVER (Chrysothemis) Previously at Lyric: Armida/ Rinaldo (2011/12). e much-acclaimed South African soprano scored a triumph as Chrysothemis last season at the Metropolitan Opera, where she has also earned similarly lavish praise as Elettra/ Idomeneo , Elisabetta/ Maria Stuarda (company premiere, HD), and Donna Anna/ Don Giovanni . She began the current season at the Vienna State Opera as Elsa/ Lohengrin (a portrayal previously heard in Zurich and Munich). Following Lyric’s Elektra she will return to the Met as Vitellia/ La clemenza di Tito and to Oper Frankfurt as Norma (which she has also sung in Toronto, Dallas, and Bordeaux). Van den Heever has scored successes in an astonishingly varied repertoire, including operas of Mozart ( Così fan tutte , Paris, Dallas); Beethoven ( Fidelio , Zurich); Britten ( Peter Grimes , Vienna, London); Verdi ( I Lombardi , Hamburg; Ernani , Frankfurt; Il trovatore , Bordeaux; Otello , Frankfurt; Don Carlo , Bordeaux, Strasbourg); and Puccini ( Il trittico , Frankfurt). At San Francisco Opera, where she participated in the company’s Merola Opera and Adler Fellowship programs, she appeared in the world premiere of Philip Glass’s Appomattox . Among her successes in concert have been Britten’s War Requiem with the Kölner Philharmonie under Semyon Bychkov, and Strauss’s Four Last Songs and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 (Grammy-winning CD) with Michael Tilson omas and the San Francisco Symphony. MICHAELA MARTENS (Klytämnestra) Previously at Lyric: Nurse/ Die Frau ohne Schatten (2007/08). e American mezzo- soprano is renowned internationally for portrayals of some of the most memorably dramatic roles in the repertoire. In addition to Klytämnestra (San Francisco, Houston) and the Nurse/ Die Frau ohne Schatten (Oper Graz), her other successes in Strauss include Adelaide/ Arabella (San Francisco earlier this season) and Herodias/ Salome ( e Santa Fe Opera, Pittsburgh Opera). Among her other German roles are Kundry/ Parsifal (Metropolitan Opera), Gertrud/ Hansel and Gretel (Bavarian State Opera, Met, English National Opera) and Fricka/ Das Rheingold (North Carolina Opera). Martens has taken on works of composers as varied as Berlioz (Cassandre/ Les Troyens , San Francisco, Geneva), Massenet (title role/ Hérodiade , Washington), Giordano (Countess/ Andrea Chénier , Met), Bartók (Judith/ Bluebeard’s Castle , New Japan Philharmonic, ENO), Janáček (Kostelnička/ Jenůfa , ENO), Virgil omson (Susan B. Anthony/ e Mother of Us All , New York’s Hudson Opera House), and John Adams (Marilyn Klinghoffer/ e Death of Klinghoffer , Met, ENO, St. Louis Symphony). She debuted at Carnegie Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra in the title role of Magnard’s rarely heard Bérénice . Additional recent concert engagements include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony) and the Verdi Requiem (Grant Park Music Festival, Spoleto Festival USA). IAIN PATERSON (Orest) Lyric debut One of today’s leading interpreters of heroic bass- baritone repertoire, the Scottish artist began the season with performances at the Berlin State Opera as Creonte/ Medea . Following Lyric’s Elektra he will sing Wotan/ Ring cycle (Oper Leipzig, where he starred in the complete Ring last season) and in the title role/ e Flying Dutchman (Deutsche Oper Berlin). Recent Wagner successes include Gunther/ Götterdämmerung (company debut, Semperoper Dresden) as well as Kurwenal/ Tristan und Isolde (Bayreuth Festival, Dutch National Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Opera House Covent Garden), the Dutchman (Flanders Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Accademia di Santa Cecilia). Wotan/ Das Rheingold (Bayreuth, Hallé Orchestra - CD), Wotan/ Die Walküre (Houston Grand Opera), Wotan/ Siegfried (Edinburgh International Festival), and Hans Sachs/ Die Meistersinger von Nürnber g (English National Opera, Hall é Orchestra), among other prestigious engagements. Paterson is equally celebrated for Strauss, with successes including Elektra (Vienna), Peneios/ Daphne (Brussels), and Jochanaan/ Salome (Stuttgart). In 2017 he created the central role of Leontes/Ryan Wigglesworth’s e Winter’s Tale at English National Opera. He has appeared with many major orchestras and has collaborated with such distinguished conductors as Daniel Barenboim, Christian ielemann, Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon Rattle, and Christoph von Dóhnanyi. Paterson can be seen on DVD in Aida (Bregenz Festival) and Gloriana (Opera North). ROBERT BRUBAKER (Aegisth) Lyric debut e American tenor is established internationally as a formidable singing actor, singing an immensely varied repertoire. Prominent among his numerous Metropolitan Opera roles have been Mime/ Das Rheingold and Siegfried , the Witch/ Hansel and Gretel , Golitsyn/ Khovanshchina , Mephistopheles/ Doktor Faust (company premiere), and Chairman Mao/ Nixon in China (company premiere, DVD). His many exceptionally challenging roles in 20th- and 21st-century repertoire have ranged from the Captain/ Berg’s Wozzeck (Santa Fe), Alviano/Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten (Los Angeles, Salzburg, CD, DVD), and the title role/ Zemlinsky’s Der König Kandaules (Vienna, Salzburg, CD) to Pierre/Prokofiev’s War and Peace (Paris, DVD), the Jailer and Inquisitor/ Dallapiccola’s Il prigioniero (Barcelona), Bégearss/ Corigliano’s e Ghosts of Versailles (Los Angeles, CD), Old Man Marshall/Turnage’s Anna Nicole (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Don Ignacio/Eötvös’s Of Love and Other Demons (Strasbourg), and Wilmer McLean and J. Edgar Hoover/Glass’s Appomattox (Washington). Brubaker has triumphed as Peter Grimes at the Canadian Opera Company, the Aldeburgh Festival, and English National Opera. Another British success was Bacchus/ Ariadne auf Naxos at Covent Garden (opening night of Antonio Pappano’s first season as music director). Following Lyric’s Elektra , the tenor will portray Dr. Caius/ Falstaff at Dallas Opera. Last season brought him to San Francisco ( Turandot, Elektra, Manon ) and to Turin’s Teatro Regio ( Salome ). SUSAN FOSTER (Overseer) Previously at Lyric: Seven roles since 1989/90, most recently ird Maid/ Elektra (1992/93); Gaudy Lady/ e Gambler , Peasant Girl/ e Marriage of Figaro (both 1991/92). e American soprano, an alumna of the Ryan Opera Center (formerly the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists), has been widely acclaimed in dramatic repertoire, such as Puccini’s Turandot (Opera Australia/DVD, San Francisco Opera, Hawaii Opera eater, Finland’s Savonlinna Opera Festival, Greek National Opera). Foster debuted at