Lyric Opera 2018-2019 Issue 9 La Traviata

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 16 - March 22, 2019 ALBINA SHAGIMURATOVA (Violetta Valéry) Previously at Lyric: Elvira/ I puritani (2017/18); title role/ Lucia di Lammermoor (2016/17); Gilda/ Rigoletto (2012/13). e internationally celebrated Russian soprano’s 2018/19 season began with La traviata at the Vienna State Opera, followed by Il viaggio a Reims at the Bolshoi and Rigoletto at the Mariinsky eatre. Iconic coloratura roles in 19th-century Italian opera have been central to Shagimuratova’s career. In addition to Violetta (Houston, Moscow), she has triumphed as Lucia (Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Berlin, Moscow, St. Petersburg, role debut in Houston), and Gilda/ Rigoletto (San Francisco, Berlin). Among her most acclaimed recent roles is Rossini’s Semiramide (Munich’s Bavarian State Opera, the BBC Proms, and on CD with Sir Mark Elder). After winning Moscow’s 2007 Tchaikovsky Competition, Shagimuratova debuted in Europe as the Queen of the Night (Salzburg Festival). She has reprised the role at 12 other venues, among them La Scala (DVD), Covent Garden, the Bolshoi, and the leading houses of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Houston. Recent successes onstage also include Konstanze (Met, role debut; Houston) and Lyudmila/ Ruslan and Lyudmila (Bolshoi, DVD). Concert works have brought Shagimuratova to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and the Danish National Symphony. e soprano is a proud alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. GIORGIO BERRUGI (Alfredo Germont) Lyric debut e Italian tenor has risen rapidly to international prominence. Recent sea- sons have been highlight- ed by La bohème (Teatro Regio di Torino), com- memorating the work's 120th anniversary; Romeo and Juliet (Arena di Verona); Simon Boccanegra (La Scala); and Der Rosenkavalier (Covent Garden). Berrugi has also sung the Verdi Requiem in ten cities: New York with the London Symphony Orchestra; Milan with the Filarmonica della Scala; Paris at the éâtre des Champs- Elysées; Rome at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; and Lucerne, Hong Kong, Manchester, Dallas, Valencia and Riga. Earlier this season Berrugi was heard as Nemorino (Turin), Cavaradossi (Rome), and Rodolfo (Naples). Following Lyric's Traviata he will travel to Frankfurt to sing the title role/ La damnation de Faust and to Vienna for Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Vienna Philharmonic. Before becoming a singer, Berrugi held the first-clarinet position in the Orchestra Sinfonica di Roma before begin- ning his vocal training in 2007. He debuted in opera as Rodolfo at Venice’s Teatro La Fenice and built his repertoire of leading roles during three seasons as an ensemble member of the Semperoper in Dresden. e tenor starred there in Carmen, Un ballo in maschera, Tosca, L'elisir d'amore, Rigoletto, and Hans Werner Henze’s Gisela (world premiere). ŽELJKO LUČIĆ ( Giorgio Germont) Previously at Lyric: Title role/ Nabucco (2015/16); Title role/ Rigoletto (2012/13). One of today’s leading expo- nents of dramatic Italian repertoire internationally, the Serbian baritone began the season with his return to the Metropolitan Opera to portray both Jack Rance/ La fanciulla del West (HD) and Iago/ Otello . In between those two productions, he traveled to Oper Frankfurt to add Seid/ Il corsaro to his gallery of Verdi portrayals. e rest of the season brings two roles at the Opéra National de Paris – Scarpia/ Tosca and Don Carlo di Vargas/ La forza del destino – as well as Carlo Gérard/ Andrea Chénier (Munich Opera Festival). Lučić is a great favorite at many other houses, among them the Vienna State Opera, where he returned last season for Macbeth and Salome , and the Bavarian State Opera, where he was a recent Scarpia and Simon Boccanegra. He has also starred at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (Gérard, Count di Luna, Iago, Macbeth, all since 2014), La Scala, the Semperoper Dresden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the Salzburg Festival. He has also appeared with many major orches- tras, including the Hessischer Radio Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic, the RTB Symphony Orchestra, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Lučić stars on DVD in Macbeth, Rigoletto, La traviata, Il trovatore, and Andrea Chénier. ZOIE REAMS (Flora Bervoix) Lyric debut Highlights of the American mezzo-sopra- no’s current season include the title role/ Carmen (Opera Louisiane), Margret/ Wozzeck (Des Moines Metro Opera), and Bernstein’s First Symphony: Jeremiah (Staatstheater Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra). She has recently been heard as Maddalena/ Rigoletto (Wolf Trap Opera), in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (National Symphony Orchestra), and in Handel’s Messiah (Las Vegas Philharmonic). An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, she has been heard in HGO productions of La traviata, Elektra, West Side Story, Nixon in China, Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life (world premiere), and Laura Kaminsky’s Some Light Emerges (world premiere). Other operatic achievements include the leading role of Clarice/Rossini’s La pietra del paragone (Wolf Trap Opera), Tituba/Robert Ward’s e Crucible (Glimmerglass Festival), the Sandman/ Hansel and Gretel (Opera Louisiane), and on the concert stage, Bruckner’s Te Deum (Houston Symphony Orchestra). Her awards include second place at Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition (2016), first place in the Emerging Artist division of the Classical Singe r Competition (2015), and second place of the Gulf Coast Region of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2016). Reams is an alumna of Louisiana State University and Lawrence University. LAUREN DECKER (Annina) Previously at Lyric: Six roles since 2016/17, most recently First Maid/ Elektra , Inez/ Il trovatore (both 2018/19); Enrichetta/ I puritani, (2017/18). e contralto, a third-year member of the Ryan Opera Center, has been featured at the Grant Park Music Festival in Menotti's e Old Maid and the ief, and in the Harris eater’s "Beyond the Aria" series both last season and this season. She was a national semifinalist in the 2018 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, having previously been a two-time recipient of an Encouragement Award in the MONCA’s Upper Midwest Region. e 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). She is the winner of the 2018 Lola Fletcher Scholarship in voice with the American Opera Society of Chicago. Lauren Decker is sponsored by an Anonymous Donor, Susan M. Miller, and the ierer Family Foundation. MARIO ROJAS (Gastone de Letorières) Previously at Lyric: Parpignol/ La bohème Ruiz/ Il trovatore (both 2018/19); Borsa/ Rigoletto (2017/18). e Mexican tenor, a second-year Ryan Opera Center member, 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 Jos è / La tragèdie 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