Lyric Opera 2021-2022 Issue 4 Florencia en el Amazonas

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 23 DANIEL CATÁN | COMPOSER The Mexican composer (1949–2011) is particularly renowned for his operas and Spanish-language contributions to the international repertory. His opera Rappaccini’s Daughter was the first Mexican opera to be produced by a professional company in the United States. Catán’s subsequent opera Florencia en el Amazonas became the first Spanish-language opera to be commissioned by an opera company in the United States (co-commissioned by Houston Grand Opera, LA Opera, and Seattle Opera, it premiered in Houston in 1996). Shortly thereafter, Catán received a Guggenheim Fellowship for his contributions to music. In 2004, Catán’s Salsipuedes: a Tale of Love, War and Anchovies was premiered by Houston Grand Opera. LA Opera premiered his Il Postino in 2010. Catán passed away while working on his next opera, Meet John Doe . His works also include vocal, chamber, orchestral, and choral music, as well as music for ballet, film, and television. MARCELA FUENTES-BERAIN | LIBRETTIST The distinguished Mexican writer has worked in film, opera, television, radio, and theater. Among her projects are the script for Hasta Morir , which received two nominations from the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, and Sumas y Restas , co-written with Colombian director Victor Gaviria; it won Best Movie at the Cartagena Film Festival and Best Foreign Film from the Mexican Academy of Film Arts and Sciences. Fuentes- Berain worked closely with the late Hollywood director Tony Scott on Man on Fire starring Denzel Washington. She has been a script consultant for the Sundance Institute for more than 15 years. Fuentes-Berain was chosen to create the academic program for the first Mexican screenwriting school which opened in 2015. She has been a member of the selection committee of the Huelva Ibero- American Film Festival since 2001. ANA MARÍA MARTÍNEZ | FLORENCIA Previously at Lyric: Ten roles since 2008/09, most recently Cio-Cio-San/ Madama Butterfly (2019/20), Marguerite/ Faust (2017/18). The internationally renowned, Grammy Award-winning Puerto- Rican-born soprano recently starred as Florencia at Houston and Florida grand operas. Martínez’s exceptionally varied repertoire extends stylistically from Pamina/ The Magic Flute (San Francisco, Vienna, Bonn, Stuttgart) to Carmen (Houston, Los Angeles, Santa Fe), Rusalka (Lyric, Glyndebourne, Houston, Buenos Aires), Cio-Cio-San (Paris, Met, Vienna, London, Houston, Washington, Munich, Los Angeles, Santa Fe), Blanche/ Dialogues des Carmélites (Hamburg), and Mélisande (Florence). Recent new roles include Tosca (Philadelphia), Paolina/Donizetti’s Poliuto (Glyndebourne, released on DVD), Elisabetta/ Don Carlo (Los Angeles, San Francisco), and Alice Ford/ Falstaff (London’s Royal Opera). Last season, Martínez reprised her celebrated portrayal of Mimì/ La bohème in her debut with San Diego Opera. She received great acclaim for the 2019 world premiere of Jimmy López’s oratorio Dreamers (Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting). The soprano is Houston Grand Opera’s first-ever artistic advisor, and is in her second year as Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music artist-in-residence. GABRIELLA REYES | ROSALBA Lyric debut Chosen by WQXR New York as a 20 for 20 Artist to Watch and named a 2019 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, the Nicaraguan- American soprano is rapidly ascending to prominence. An alumna of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Reyes has appeared at the Met as the High Priestess/ Aida , Liù/ Turandot , First Lady/ The Magic Flute , and Nella/ Gianni Schicchi . Operatic highlights to date also include Musetta/ La bohème (Santa Fe Opera debut) and Cio-Cio-San/ Seven Deaths of Maria Callas (Bavarian State Opera). Reyes also has sung the First Lady in excerpts from Mozart’s opera with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Gustavo Dudamel at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. She has appeared as soloist with the New York Choral Society and the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. The soprano was awarded a coveted Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation in 2018. MARIO ROJAS | ARCADIO Previously at Lyric: Eight roles since 2017/18, most recently Major Domo/ The Queen of Spades ; Percy, Leicester/ The Three Queens (both 2019/20). The Mexican tenor is an alumnus of Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has sung Rodolfo/ La bohème at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes, and in 2019 performed a concert for 30,000 people in his home town of Torreón. Among the honors Rojas has received are a 2018 Sullivan Foundation Award, third place in the 2018 Dallas Opera National Vocal Competition, 2018 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Illinois District Auditions, second place in the East Bay Opera League Competition, the Marta Eggerth Kiepura Award in the Licia Albanese- Puccini Foundation International Vocal Competition, third place in the Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, the Emerging Singers Artist profiles