Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 6 Don Giovanni

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 20 LUCAS MEACHEM | DON GIOVANNI (NOVEMBER DATES) Previously at Lyric: Five roles since 2006, most recently Chorèbe| Les Troyens (2016|17); Marcello| La bohème (2012|13). The celebrated American baritone has previously starred as Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne, Dresden, San Francisco, and Santa Fe. Other title roles include Onegin (San Francisco, Montpellier), Billy Budd (Paris), and Figaro| The Barber of Seville (eight companies internationally, including The Dallas Opera this season). Meachem began 2019|20 as Mercutio| Romeo and Juliet , his twelfth role at San Francisco Opera, with Marcello| La bohème at the Opéra National de Paris in June. Last season he debuted with the major companies of Washington ( La traviata ), Toronto ( La bohème ), and Detroit ( Barber ). Another Figaro, in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles , brought Meachem a Grammy (LA Opera production). The baritone has also earned critical praise as Mozart’s Count Almaviva (Munich, London), Wolfram| Tannhäuser (Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival) and Robert|Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta (European tour with Anna Netrebko). Meachem has been featured at the Metropolitan Opera in Romeo and Juliet, La bohème, lolanta and Pagliacci , and in concert at the Salzburg Festival in Penderecki’s St Luke’s Passion . DAVIDE LUCIANO | DON GIOVANNI (DECEMBER DATES) Lyric debut In Don Giovanni the Italian baritone has previously triumphed in both the title role (Deutsche Oper Berlin) and as Leporello (São Paulo’s Teatro Municipal). Other achievements in Mozart include Guglielmo| Così fan tutte (Oslo) and in The Marriage of Figaro , both Figaro (Glyndebourne, Madrid) and the Count (Berlin). Luciano scored his career breakthrough as Don Profondo| Il viaggio a Reims in Pesaro’s Rossini Opera Festival. Rossini successes also include, in La pietra del paragone , both Pacuvio (Paris) and Macrobio (Pesaro); the title role| The Barber of Seville (Berlin, Rome, Dresden, Seville, Malta, Venice, Marseille); and Batone| L’inganno felice (Pesaro). Later this season Luciano sings Rossini’s Don Profondo (Beijing) and Dandini| La Cenerentola (Metropolitan Opera). Other bel canto successes include Belcore| L’elisir d’amore (Met debut) and that role, as well as Malatesta| Don Pasquale , Cecil| Maria Stuarda , and Nottingham| Roberto Devereux , at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. More unfamiliar fare includes Gernando|Jommelli’s L’isola disabitata at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. RACHEL WILLIS-SØRENSEN | DONNA ANNA Lyric debut The American soprano has been hailed as Donna Anna at the Metropolitan Opera, London’s Royal Opera, and in Vienna, Houston, and Dresden. Also an acclaimed Verdian, she recently triumphed in Il trovatore (Turin) and Les vêpres siciliennes (Munich) and is slated for debuts in La traviata, Otello , and Don Carlo . She began 2019|20 with her debut as Marguerite in Faust with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden in Japan, followed by Strauss’s Marschallin in Dresden, where she will return to debut Handel’s Alcina before reprising Donna Anna in Munich and Bordeaux. She will also debut in Geneva as Valentine| Les Huguenots . Recent engagements included her debut in June 2019 as Rusalka in San Francisco, Contessa Almaviva (Munich), the Marschallin (Royal Opera, Glyndebourne), Elsa| Lohengrin (Berlin, Zurich), Eva| Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (Royal Opera, San Francisco Opera), and Rosalinde| Die Fledermaus opposite Jonas Kaufmann (Dresden). She will with partner Kaufmann in many concerts in Europe this season. AMANDA MAJESKI | DONNA ELVIRA Previously at Lyric: Marschallin| Der Rosenkavalier , Countess Almaviva| The Marriage of Figaro (both 2015|16). The Illinois-born soprano, a Ryan Opera Center alumna singing her ninth role at Lyric, was hugely acclaimed last season for the title roles of Katya Kabanova (debut, London’s Royal Opera) and Iphigénie en Tauride (debut, Stuttgart Opera), both new productions. Later this season she reprises The Passenger in Madrid. Majeski debuted at the Metropolitan Opera on opening night of 2014|15 as the Countess| The Marriage of Figaro (new production, HD). She has returned for that role, Donna Elvira, and Fiordiligi| Così fan tutte (new production, HD). The soprano has triumphed as Fiordiligi and the Composer| Ariadne auf Naxos at The Santa Fe Opera. Among her successes at Frankfurt Opera are Der Rosenkavalier , Rusalka , Humperdinck’s Königskinder , and Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet . Other significant international credits include appearances at Glyndebourne; the major houses of Dresden, Zurich, Paris, and Buenos Aires; those of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Washington; the Bard Music Festival and Washington Concert Opera. Artist profiles