Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 7 - Aida

33 | Lyric Opera of Chicago JOHNATHAN HART DANCER Lyric debut The Chicago native began his training at The Chicago High School for the Arts, where he studied multiple styles of dance, including ballet, hip hop, modern, and various contemporary works. Hart spent two years at the San Francisco Ballet School, then joined Ballet Met from 2020 to 2023. While there, he also toured with Lil’ Kim in 2021. In 2022, Hart was named one of “25 to Watch” by Dance Magazine . ANNE O’DONNELL PASSERO DANCER Lyric debut During a decade with the Martha Graham Dance Company as a soloist, O’Donnell Passero toured internationally performing Graham’s principal roles as well as original works by Mats Ek, Hofesh Shechter, Bobbi Jene Smith, Pam Tanowitz, Lar Lubovitch, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, and Sonya Tayeh, among others. O’Donnell Passero studied on full scholarship at The Ailey School and was invited into Ailey II under the direction of Sylvia Waters. She dances for Buglisi Dance Theatre and was accepted into the Jacob’s Pillow Contemporary Program, Glimmerglass Festival, and Springboard Danse Montreal. She is currently on faculty at The Joffrey Academy. MALACHI SQUIRES DANCER Previously at Lyric: The Daughter of the Regiment (2023/24) and La clemenza di Tito (2013/14). Squires recently appeared in Day of the Gypsy by Gordon Pierce Schmidt at the Harris Theater, Brigadoon with the Goodman Theatre, and RPM Productions’ Le Journée Des Tziganes and An American Portrait . He has danced extensively with Les Ballets Grandiva in numerous works with Fort Worth Dallas Ballet, and also with Paul Sanasardo, EZ Credit Dance Theater, and Lawrence Pech Dance Company. Guest engagements have included Madison Ballet, Ballet Quad Cities, Chicago Civic Ballet, Hilton Head Dance Theater, Rochester Dance Company, and Marin Dance Theater. He has choreographed for Mesopotamia Night Chicago, Dance in the Parks Chicago, Bitterroot Dance Academy, Dance Drama Collaborative, 12 Min. Max Dance Festival, and the Houston Artist of the Year Awards. 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 Verdi repertoire, and as a specialist in French repertoire. 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, since 2022, the first ever Conductor-in-Residence at the Bregenz Festival. He served as Artistic and Music Director of the Orchestre National d’Île de France from 2012 to 2019. Symphonic guest work has included the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre National de France, and Oslo Philharmonic. He has conducted at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, and the major houses of Florence, 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, Poliuto, and Don Pasquale ), new productions in 2019 for Bregenz ( Rigoletto and Madama Butterfly ) 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 in Milan. Enrique Mazzola is supported by the John D.and Alexandra C.Nichols Endowed Chair. FRANCESCO MILIOTO CONDUCTOR (4/4 and 4/7) Milioto currently serves as Music Director of OPERA San Antonio, The Florentine Opera, and Holy City Arts & Lyric Opera. Recent highlights include acclaimed performances at The Atlanta Opera, Tulsa Opera, and Arizona Opera. He is currently in his eleventh season on the music staff at Lyric, where he has worked on numerous productions, including most recently Jen ˚ufa and Hansel and Gretel . Recent highlights include successful productions of Romeo and Juliet and The Barber of Seville at The Florentine Opera, and in San Antonio, Hansel and Gretel and Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors . This winter he continued his work with Ballet San Antonio conducting several performances of The Nutcracker in collaboration with the Classical Music Institute Orchestra. He is currently a member of the music staff at the Santa Fe Opera, and has worked with both the Canadian Opera Company and The Dallas Opera. For more than a decade, Milioto worked at the Ravinia Festival as an assistant conductor, prompter, pianist, and vocal coach. He has served as Music Director to the NewMillennium Orchestra, the Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Highland Park Strings, Access Contemporary Music, and the Chicago Cultural Center Summer Opera, and as guest conductor in critically acclaimed productions with Chicago Opera Theater. FRANCESCA ZAMBELLO DIRECTOR Previously at Lyric: Seven productions since 1999/00, most recently West Side Story (2022/23) and Florencia en el Amazonas (2021/22). The internationally recognized director of opera and theater has served as the Artistic Director of Washington National Opera at the Kennedy