Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 2 The Barber of Seville

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 21 KRZYSTOF BACZYK | DON BASILIO Lyric debut The Polish bass's early-career successes included The Magic Flute and Alcina (Aix- en-Provence), La clemenza di Tito (Warsaw), and Acis and Galatea (Salzburg). In recent seasons he sang the Commendatore and Masetto/ Don Giovanni in Stockholm; Capellio/ I Capuleti e i Montecchi , Melisso/ Alcina , Raimondo/ Lucia di Lammermoor , Masetto and Colline (all at the Zurich Opera House); and the Mozart Requiem (Opéra National de Lorraine). Other successes have included his Opéra National de Paris debut ( Don Carlos ) and subsequent roles in Iolanta and Tosca , Die Zauberflöte and Zuniga/ Carmen at Polish National Opera, Rossini's Stabat Mater (Toulouse's Orchestre National du Capitole), Alcina (Paris's Théâtre des Champs-Elysées), The Fiery Angel (Polish National Opera, Aix-en-Provence Festival), and Masetto/ Don Giovanni (NDR Philharmonie Hannover). Most recently he debuted at ABAO Olbe Bilbao as Colline/ La bohème and made his U.S. debut singing Rossini's Stabat Mater with the Philadelphia Orchestra. MATHILDA EDGE | BERTA Lyric debut The soprano, a first-year Ryan Opera Center member, returns to the Lyric stage later this season in Die Walküre . An Illinois native, Edge has been heard at Indiana University as Butterfly, Fiordiligi, Romilda/ Xerxes , and the First Lady/ The Magic Flute . Most recently, she was a recipient of a prestigious Sara Tucker Study Grant through the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. In 2016 she received third place in the NATS Artist Award Competition and the Washington International Competition for Voice. Also in 2016, she won Milwaukee’s Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artist Competition, subsequently singing Elijah with the BCC. A two- time winner in the Indiana District's Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, she received the Georgina Joshi Fellowship through Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. Mathilda Edge is sponsored by Maurice J. and Patricia Frank . CHRISTOPHER KENNEY | FIORELLO Previously at Lyric: Marquis d’Obigny/ La traviata, Master of Ceremonies/ Cendrillon (both 2018/19). A Minnesota native and a second-year Ryan Opera Center member, the baritone also appears in Dead ManWalking and Madama Butterfly at Lyric this season. Kenney was recently a member of Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program ( The Barber of Seville , Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince , Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up —world premiere). He was also a featured soloist in Bernstein’s Songfest with the National Symphony Orchestra. A former Santa Fe Opera apprentice artist, Kenney is a three-time winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions. The baritone is an alumnus of Concordia College, the University of Kentucky, and Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts. Christopher Kenney is sponsored by an Anonymous Donor . ERIC FERRING | SERGEANT Previously at Lyric: Lurcanio/ Ariodante , Gastone de Letorières and Giuseppe/ La traviata , Young Servant/ Elektra (all 2018/19). The Iowa-born tenor, a second-year Ryan Opera Center member, was a Resident Artist at Pittsburgh Opera (2016/17, 2017/18), where prominent among his roles was the Protagonist/ Douglas J. Cuomo’s Ashes and Snow (world premiere). A 2017 apprentice at The Santa Fe Opera, Ferrring has also performed with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Wolf Trap Opera, and Seagle Music Colony. In 2017/18 he received a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, a Sullivan Foundation Career Grant, and third prize in the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Voice Competition. This summer he participated in the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme and the Aix-en-Provence Festival’s summer academy. Eric Ferring is sponsored by Richard O. Ryan , Richard W. Shepro and Lindsay E. Roberts , and Cynthia Vahlkamp and Robert Kenyon . SIR ANDREW DAVIS | CONDUCTOR Previously at Lyric: 59 operas since 1987, most recently Cendrillon , Siegfried , Idomeneo (all 2018/19) Internationally renowned as one of today’s most celebrated musicians, Sir Andrew Davis is music director and principal conductor of Lyric Opera of Chicago and chief conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. This season at Lyric he also leads The Queen of Spades and the Ring cycle. The 2019/20 season sees his return to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, where he serves as interim artistic director through 2020 (among the highlights will be a concert performance of Massenet’s Thaïs ); Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (Handel’s Messiah in Davis’s own orchestration, also to be heard with Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra), and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Beethoven and Tippett). Maestro Davis’s career spans more than 40 years, during which he has been the musical and artistic leader at several of the world’s most distinguished symphonic institutions, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. An extensive and award- winning discography documents his artistry. Sir Andrew Davis is the John D. and Alexandra C. Nichols Music Director Endowed Chair . STEFANO SARZANI | CONDUCTOR, OCT. 18 Previously at Lyric: La bohème (2018/19). The Italian-born conductor’s recent engagements include concerts in New Hampshire with Symphony NH and Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana (Italy). He will conduct