Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 1-Ernani

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 26 KATHERINE D e YOUNG | GIOVANNA Previously at Lyric: Second Lady/ The Magic Flute (2021/22). A native of Traverse City, Michigan, the third-year Ryan Opera Center mezzo-soprano will appear this season at Lyric in Carmen and Proximity . As a member of the 2019/20 Detroit Opera Studio, she was heard as the Sandman/ Hansel and Gretel , the Old Lady/ Candide , the Mother/ Amahl and the Night Visitors , and Mae/ The Grapes of Wrath . In 2018 and 2019 she participated in The Santa Fe Opera’s Apprentice Singer program. Competition successes include National Semi-Finalist in the 2020 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Finalist and Online Viewers’ Choice Award winner in Houston Grand Opera’s 31st Eleanor McCollum Competition, and participant in the internationally celebrated Neue Stimmen Competition in Gütersloh, Germany. Following studies at Michigan State University, DeYoung received a master’s degree in voice performance from the University of Houston, where she portrayed Isabella/ L’italiana in Algeri , Fidalma/ The Secret Marriage , Gertrude/ Romeo and Juliet , Elizabeth Proctor/ The Crucible , and Lady Sneerwell/Robert Nelson’s The School for Scandal (world premiere). Katherine DeYoung is sponsored by lead sponsors Dr. and Mrs. Mark F. Kozloff and co-sponsors Cynthia Vahlkamp & Robert Kenyon. ALEJANDRO LUÉVANOS | RICCARDO Lyric debut Born in Durango, Mexico, the tenor is a first-year member of the Ryan Opera Center Ensemble. He will sing at Lyric this season in Don Carlos and Proximity . His appearances in Mexico include Don José/ Carmen (Toluca Philharmonic Orchestra); Borsa/ Rigoletto , Count Almaviva/ The Barber of Seville and scenes from Il trovatore (Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México); and Rossini’s Stabat Mater and Petite Messe Solennelle , as well as an opera gala with Ramón Vargas (all at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes). Luévanos was previously a two-year member of the Opera Studio at the Bellas Artes, where he is scheduled to return to appear in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk . A former participant in the International Summer Program in Sankt Goar, Germany, he is also a 2021 and 2022 winner of the Mexico District in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Alejandro Luévanos is sponsored by an Anonymous Lead Sponsor. RON DUKES | JAGO Lyric debut A first-year Ryan Opera Center member, the bass completed his master’s degree in opera at the Jacobs School of Music of Indiana University. While there, he served as an associate instructor of voice and performed numerous roles with IU Opera and Ballet Theater, among them Bartolo/ The Marriage of Figaro , Don Basilio/ The Barber of Seville , and Simone/ Gianni Schicchi . This season he will appear at Lyric in Don Carlos and Proximity . He has extensive experience with start-up opera companies in Bloomington, Indiana, including Bloomington Chamber Opera, where he portrayed Sarastro/ The Magic Flute , and A Little Knight Music Opera Company, where he was heard as Oroveso/ Norma . Originally from Indianapolis, Dukes is a former Studio Artist at Wolf Trap Opera (Truffaldino/ Ariadne auf Naxos ) and The Glimmerglass Festival (Old Gypsy/ Il trovatore , Second Priest and Second Armored Man/ The Magic Flute ). He recently concluded a residency with Pensacola Opera for the company’s 39th season, singing Basilio/ The Barber of Seville and Sarastro/ The Magic Flute . Ron Dukes is sponsored by The Thierer Family Foundation. ENRIQUE MAZZOLA | CONDUCTOR Lyric’s Music Director—only the third in the company’s history—is renowned as an expert interpreter and champion of bel canto opera and a specialist in French repertoire and early Verdi. Lyric audiences first experienced the Italian conductor’s artistry in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor in 2016/17, and subsequently in Bellini’s I puritani in 2017/18. During 2019/20, he led Verdi’s Luisa Miller to launch the company’s Early Verdi Series. Mazzola’s first opera as Lyric’s music director, Sir David McVicar’s new production of Verdi’s Macbeth , opened the 2021/22 season, followed by Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love as well as Verdi Voices and Rising Stars in Concert . Mazzola is Principal Guest Conductor at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and served as Artistic and Music Director of the Orchestre National d’Île de France from 2012 to 2019. Symphonic guest work has included the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Philharmonia Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, London Philharmonic, and Brussels Philharmonic. He has conducted bel canto works for The Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the major houses of Florence, Strasbourg, Berlin, Zurich, Moscow, and Tokyo, in addition to a historic Meyerbeer cycle for Deutsche Oper Berlin. Past major European festivals have included Glyndebourne (including DVD releases of Il barbiere di Siviglia and Poliuto ), new productions in 2019 for Bregenz ( Rigoletto ) and Salzburg ( Orphée aux Enfers ), Pesaro (Rossini Opera Festival), Venice, and Aix-en- Provence. Mazzola was born in Barcelona, Spain, into a musical family, and grew up in Milan, where he studied violin and piano, earning diplomas in composition and orchestral conducting at the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi of Milan. Enrique Mazzola is supported by the John D.and Alexandra C.Nichols Endowed Chair.