Lyric Opera 2019-2020 Issue 9 The Queen of Spades

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 20 BRANDON JOVANOVICH | GHERMAN Previously at Lyric: Seven roles since 2009|10, most recently Siegmund/ Die Walküre (2017|18); Énée/ Les Troyens (2016|17). The renowned American tenor triumphed in his role debut as Gherman, singing it at the 2018 Salzburg Festival. He also recently sang his first performances of Samson/ Samson and Delilah at the Berlin State Opera. Jovanovich also appears at Lyric later this season in Madama Butterfly , Das Rheingold , and Die Walküre . Following Lyric’s Ring , he returns to the Bavarian State Opera in La fanciulla del West . His exceptional stylistic versatility encompasses works of Wagner ( Lohengrin – San Francisco, Zurich, Berlin, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg – San Francisco, Paris); Massenet ( Werther – Lille); Strauss ( Ariadne auf Naxos – Lyric, Boston, Munich); Janácek ( Jenufa – Munich, Angers-Nantes, Katya Kabanova – Lyric); Shostakovich ( Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk , Met, London); and in contemporary opera: Marco Tutino’s Senso (Palermo, world premiere), Walter Braunfels’s Die Vögel (Los Angeles), Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur (Glimmerglass Festival), Jonathan Dove’s Flight (St. Louis), and David Carlson’s Anna Karenina (Miami world premiere, reprise in St. Louis). SONDRA RADVANOVSKY | LISA Previously at Lyric: The Three Queens (2019|20); seven roles since 2002, most recently title role/ Norma (2016|17). Making her role debut is the internationally renowned American soprano, who reprises her portrayal of Lisa later this season at the Deutsche Oper Berlin. She also sings Aida there. She began the season starring in the title role/ Rusalka at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. Radvanovsky made history in 2015/16 as the first artist to portray Donizetti’s “Tudor queens” in a single Metropolitan Opera season. Among her many other bel canto successes are Polina/ Poliuto (Barcelona), Elisabetta/ Roberto Devereux (Toronto, San Francisco), the title role/ Norma (Met, San Francisco, Toronto, Barcelona, Oviedo), and the title role/ Lucrezia Borgia (Washington). Last season Radvanovsky starred as Tosca at the Met, Vienna, and Munich, and reprised her Maddalena/ Andrea Chénier in London after a triumphant role debut in Barcelona. One of today’s eminent Verdians, Radvanovsky has been acclaimed in recent seasons for Luisa Miller (Barcelona), Aida (Met, Paris), Simon Boccanegra (Paris, Monte Carlo), Il trovatore (Paris), and Un ballo in maschera (Zurich). JANE HENSCHEL | COUNTESS Lyric debut The Wisconsin-born mezzo-soprano is celebrated internationally in a highly varied repertoire. Among her specialties are three formidable Strauss roles: the Nurse/ Die Frau ohne Schatten (eight major houses, among them the Metropolitan Opera and London’s Royal Opera); Herodias/ Salome (La Scala, Bavarian State Opera, and recently the Vienna State Opera, Dresden’s Semperoper, and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra), and Klytämnestra/ Elektra (Munich, Vienna, Berlin, San Francisco, London). Additionally, she has earned acclaim in Verdi ( Un ballo in maschera , London; Falstaff , Munich, Vienna); Wagner ( Tristan und Isolde , Los Angeles, Paris; Ring cycle, London; Lohengrin , Berlin); Janácek ( Katya Kabanova , Vienna, Salzburg; Jenufa , Japan); Tchaikovsky (Filipyevna/ Eugene Onegin , Stuttgart); Stravinsky ( The Rake’s Progress , Glyndebourne, Salzburg, Japan); Britten ( Peter Grimes , Salzburg; The Turn of the Screw , London); and Poulenc ( Dialogues des Carmélites , Amsterdam). Henschel has been heard in concert with the Dresdner Staatskapelle, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, and Boston Symphony; and at the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival. LUCAS MEACHEM | PRINCE YELETSKY Previously at Lyric: Six roles since 2006, most recently title role/ Don Giovanni (2019|20); Chorèbe/ Les Troyens (2016|17). Among the American baritone’s most celebrated portrayals internationally have been Don Giovanni (Glyndebourne, Dresden, San Francisco), Eugene Onegin (San Francisco, Montpellier), Billy Budd (Paris), and Rossini’s Figaro (eight major companies, among them The Dallas Opera this season). Meachem began 2019/20 as Mercutio/ Romeo and Juliet , his twelfth role at San Francisco Opera; and Marcello/ La bohème at the Opéra National de Paris. Last season he starred with the leading companies of Washington ( La traviata ), Toronto ( La bohème ), and Detroit ( The Barber of Seville ). Another Figaro, in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles , brought Meachem a Grammy in the 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 both Romeo and Juliet and Pagliacci , and in concert at the Salzburg Festival in Penderecki’s St. Luke’s Passion . ˚ ˚ ˇ ˇ Artist profiles