Lyric Opera 2022-2023 Issue 9 - Proximity

31 | Lyric Opera of Chicago Todd at Austin Opera, and soloist in Messiah at Washington National Cathedral. Other recent highlights include Lily in the Metropolitan Opera’s Porgy and Bess , Jane in Cincinnati Opera’s Castor and Patience , the title role/ Carmen (Opéra Louisiane), Margret/ Wozzeck (Des Moines Metro Opera), and Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1: Jeremiah (Staatstheater Cottbus Philharmonic Orchestra). She has also been heard as Maddalena/ Rigoletto (Wolf Trap Opera), in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (National Symphony Orchestra), and in Handel’s Messiah (Las Vegas Philharmonic). An alumna of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Reams has been heard in HGO productions of La traviata , Elektra , West Side Story , Nixon in China , and in world premieres of Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Laura Kaminsky’s Some Light Emerges . Other notable appearances include the leading role of Clarice/ La pietra del paragone (Wolf Trap Opera), Tituba/Robert Ward’s The Crucible (The Glimmerglass Festival), the Sandman/ Hansel and Gretel (Opéra Louisiane), and on the concert stage, Bruckner’s Te Deum (Houston Symphony Orchestra). Her awards include second place at Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition (2016), rst place in the Emerging Artist division of the Classical Singer Competition (2015), and second place of the Gulf Coast Region of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (2016). GORDON HAWKINS | PREACHER MAN | THE WALKERS Previously at Lyric: Three roles since 2008/09, most recently George Benton/ Dead Man Walking (2019/20) and Amonasro/ Aida (2011/12). Recent highlights for the American baritone include Alberich/ Ring cycle (Deutsche Oper Berlin, San Francisco Opera), Telramund/ Lohengrin (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Alberich/ Siegfried and Kaspar/ Der Freischütz (Seville’s Teatro de la Maestranza), the Villains/ Les contes d’Hoffmann (Tokyo), the title role/ Simon Boccanegra (New Zealand Festival), Amonasro/ Aida (Houston, Cincinnati), George/ Of Mice and Men (Houston), Porgy/ Porgy and Bess (Dallas, Seattle, Houston, Washington, Detroit, San Francisco), Reverend/ Blue (Glimmerglass Festival, Detroit Opera, Seattle Opera, Pittsburgh Opera), Thoas/ Iphigénie en Tauride (Metropolitan Opera), and Renato/ Un ballo in maschera (New Orleans, Montreal), and more than 200 performances as Rigoletto. He debuted at Lyric in 2008/09 as Porgy/ Porgy and Bess . Hawkins has also appeared in Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony (Kennedy Center), Jake Heggie’s A Great Hope Fell (EOS Orchestra of New York, world premiere), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (St. Louis Symphony), and concert selections from American musicals (Deutsche Welle WDR 4, Cologne); with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall; and with the major orchestras of Chicago, Washington, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Prague, and Vienna. ISSACHAH SAVAGE | CURTIS TOLER | THE WALKERS Lyric debut This season, the tenor will return to the Metropolitan Opera for Idomeneo (High Priest) and will make concert debuts with The Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo, and the National Symphony Orchestra. He will return to the New York Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Jaap van Zweden. Last season, he sang the title role in Tannhäuser at LA Opera, and on the concert stage he sang Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Savage also joined Yannick Nézet- Seguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic for concert performances of Das Rheingold (Froh) in Rotterdam, Paris, Dortmund, and Baden-Baden. Additional engagements include the title role in Otello at Austin Opera. He made his European debut as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos at Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, sang in Die Walküre (Siegmund) with Opéra National de Bordeaux, and made his Chicago Symphony debut with Riccardo Muti in concert performances of Aida (Messenger). Savage made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in Ernani (Don Riccardo), sang in Die Walküre (Siegmund) at the Canadian Opera Company, and made his mainstage debut in Ariadne auf Naxos (Bacchus) at Seattle Opera. He made his role debut as the title role in Wagner’s Rienzi with the National Philharmonic at Strathmore Hall, debuted at Houston Grand Opera and Austin Opera in Aida (Radames), and performed Il trovatore (Manrico) with the San Antonio Symphony. NORMAN GARRETT | BILAL | THE WALKERS Previously at Lyric: Three roles since 2014/15, most recently Garby/ The Factotum (2022/23) and Foreman and Adult James/ Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2021/22). This season, the baritone made his LA Opera debut as Abdul in Omar and will sing Ned in a new edition of Treemonisha with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. In concert, he sang Vaughan- Williams’s Fantasia on Christmas Carols with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Messiah with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Ontario. Last season, he made his debut at Seattle Opera as the Count in Le nozze di Figaro . At the Metropolitan Opera, he appeared as the Foreman/Adult James in Fire Shut Up in My Bones , and as Jim in Porgy and Bess . He sang Jake in Porgy and Bess with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and on tour at both the Lucerne Festival and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival with conductor Alan Gilbert. In the 2020/21 season, Garrett made his house debut at Theater an der Wien as Crown in Porgy and Bess , made his role debut as the title role in Don Giovanni at Dayton Opera, and sang Escamillo in Carmen at Opera Orlando. He has appeared at Houston Grand Opera (Ríolobo/ Florencia en el Amazonas ), Washington National Opera