Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 4 - Jenufa

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 30 Desert Song Festival Orchestra. Other recent highlights include Don Jose in Carmen at Houston Grand Opera as well as his house debut at Opera San Jose. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the holiday presentation of The Magic Flute as First Armored Man, and performed with the Reno Philharmonic for their presentation of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. He also made role debuts as Alfredo in La traviata at Wolf Trap and as Gounod’s Faust in his home state of Georgia. Previously, he returned to Houston Grand Opera to make his role debut as the Witch in a streamed broadcast of Hansel and Gretel , as well as role debuts there as Gastone in La traviata , Young Servant in Elektra , and Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia . Smagur has been a fellow at the Steans Music Institute at Ravinia Music Festival, and was a participant in Houston Grand Opera’s 2012 Young Artists Vocal Academy. MARIANNE CORNETTI GRANDMOTHER BURYJA Lyric debut In early 2024, the internationally renowned mezzo-soprano will play the role of Cieca in La Gioconda at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the role of Madame Croissy in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites with Amigos Canarios de la Opera in the Gran Canary Islands. Cornetti opened the 2022/23 Season with performances as Ježibaba in Rusalka with Pittsburgh Opera (where she was last seen as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel ), and also joined the company in her signature role of Azucena in Il trovatore, which she also reprises with Opera Hong Kong in the spring. She has performed the role also at the Teatro alla Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Arena di Verona, Bregenz Festival, National Theatre of China in Beijing, Teatro San Carlo in Naples, Gran Teatre del Liceu, Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, and Teatro Regio in Parma. Other career highlights include Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Abigaille in Nabucco at Metropolitan Opera and at New National Theatre Tokyo, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Ortrud in Lohengrin at Opéra national de Paris, Brangäne in Tristan und Isolde at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and Principessa di Bouillon in Adriana Lecouvreur at Opéra de Monte-Carlo. LAUREANO QUANT FOREMAN Previously at Lyric: Notary/ The Daughter of the Regiment (2023/24) and Dancaïre/ Carmen (2022/23). A second-year member of the Ryan Opera Center Ensemble and a native of Barranquilla, Colombia, the baritone holds a Master of Music degree from the Manhattan School of Music and a Master of Musical Arts degree from Yale University. Highlights of his repertoire include Belcore/ The Elixir of Love , Guglielmo/ Così fan tutte , Figaro/Saverio Mercadante’s I due Figaro , Maguire/ Tobias Picker’s Emmeline , Zurga/ The Pearl Fishers , Vittorio and the Boarder/Nino Rota’s I due timidi , Demetrius/ A Midsummer Night’s Dream , and the Captain and Prince Ragotsky/ Candide . In the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Quant was awarded Second Place in both the Western Region (2022) and the Southeastern Region (2020). He has also won the Luminarts Cultural Foundation Men’s Voice Fellowship (2023), the Online Audience Award in Houston Grand Opera’s Concert of Arias (2020), and First Prize in the Premio de Canto Ciudad de Bogotá (2018). Laureano Quant is sponsored by Lead Sponsor Peter Scheuermann . KATHRYN HENRY JANA Previously at Lyric: Passenger 1/ Proximity (2022/23). Soprano Kathryn Henry is a second-year soprano with Lyric Opera’s Ryan Opera Center. In the summer of 2021, she portrayed Lucy Harker/John Corigliano’s The Lord of Cries (world premiere) at the Santa Fe Opera, a role she has since recorded. A former Baumgartner Studio Artist at Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera, she appeared there as Barbarina/ The Marriage of Figaro , Micaëla/ La tragédie de Carme n, and the title role/Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon . As a Toulmin Foundation Scholar at New York’s Juilliard School of Music, Henry portrayed Arminda/ La finta giardiniera . A native of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, the soprano has appeared at the Harris Theater’s Beyond the Aria series alongside Lawrence Brownlee as well as with the National Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and Civic Orchestra of Chicago. She was invited to participate in Carnegie Hall’s 2022 SongStudio with Renée Fleming and Ravinia’s 2020 Steans Music Institute. Henry was a finalist in the 2015 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition and the 2018 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition, among others. For the 2023 Aspen Music Festival, she starred as Roxane Coss/ Bel Canto . She will appear at Lyric later this season in Aida . Kathryn Henry is sponsored by Lead Sponsor The C.G. Pinnell Family and cosponsors Patricia A. Kenney and Gregory J. O’Leary . LINDSEY REYNOLDS BARENA Previously at Lyric: Very Loud Girl and Passenger 2/ Proximity , Alice/ Le Comte Ory (both 2022/23). The soprano, a native of New Orleans, is a second-year member of the Ryan Opera Center. In 2021/22, she portrayed Despina/ Così fan tutte and Betty/Marc Blitzstein’s Triple-Sec (film adaptation) with Curtis Opera Theatre and served as an Emerging Artist with Opera Philadelphia, where she sang the Page/ Rigoletto . Among the many leading roles Reynolds has performed are Zerlina/ Don Giovanni , Adina/ The Elixir of Love , Giulietta/ I Capuleti e i Montecchi , Miss Wordsworth/ Albert Herring , and Monica/ The Medium . She has appeared in concert with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. Recipient of an Emerging Artist Award from Opera Index, Reynolds has been awarded first place in many competitions, among them the Musicians Club of Women, Camille Coloratura Awards,