Lyric Opera 2023-2024 Issue 8 - Requiem

13 | Lyric Opera of Chicago of Massenet’s Hérodiade with Deutsche Oper Berlin, performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Utah Symphony, and joined tenors Michael Fabiano and Evan LeRoy Johnson for their “Three American Tenors” program with the Fort Worth Symphony, led by Robert Spano. KYLE KETELSEN BASS Previously at Lyric: Eight roles since 2004/05, most recently Dulcmara/ The Elixir of Love (2021/22) and King of Scotland/ Ariodante (2018/19). This season, the American bass-baritone debuts at the Opéra National de Paris in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni and returns to Staatsoper Hamburg to sing Jochanaan in a new production of Salome by Dmitri Tcherniakov conducted by Kent Nagano. Ketelsen will return to the Metropolitan Opera to sing Escamillo in a new production of Carmen conducted by Daniele Rustioni and reprise the role of Richard in The Hours . His concert engagements include Verdi’s Requiem with the Madison Symphony Orchestra. In the 2022/23 season, Ketelsen returned to the Metropolitan Opera for the world premiere of Richard in The Hours opposite Renée Fleming, Kelli O’Hara, and Joyce DiDonato, and returned to Wiener Staatsoper in the title role in Don Giovanni . His concert engagements included performances of Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Riccardo Muti. Ketelsen sang Mozart’s Requiem with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Bravo!Vail Music Festival conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Additional concert engagements included his first performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Utah Symphony under the baton of Thierry Fischer. Other recent highlights included a return to the Los Angeles Opera as Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande conducted by James Conlon and directed by Sir David McVicar. In previous seasons, Ketelsen made house debuts at Wiener Staatsoper in the title role of Don Giovanni and at Teatro de la Maestranza as Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande . He returned to Canadian Opera Company in the title role of Bluebeard’s Castle , and sang Escamillo in Carmen with the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Madrid. EMILY MWILA SOPRANO The New Zealand-born soprano was part of the original revival cast of Anthony Davis’s The Life and Times of Malcolm X with Detroit Opera, Omaha Opera, and the Metropolitan Opera. At Lyric, she is a member of the Core Supplementary Chorus, and has performed the roles of Lucia Paret/ Champion (2023/24) and Evelyn/ Fire Shut Up in My Bones (2021/22). In 2021, she appeared in the chorus of Porgy and Bess at the Metropolitan Opera. She made her operatic debut in New Zealand at Eternity Opera (Zerlina/ Don Giovanni ), and other roles include Susanna/ Le nozze di Figaro , Mae Jones/ Street Scene , and Euridice/ Orfeo ed Euridice . Mwila received a Master of Music and Professional Studies Diploma in Voice at Mannes School of Music in New York. CORINNE WALLACE-CRANE ALTO A Lyric Opera Chorus member since the 2010/11 Season, Wallace-Crane has taken the roles of 3rd Knaben/ Magic Flute (2021/22), Sister Lillianne/ Dead Man Walking (2019/20), Sprite/ Cendrillon (2018/19), and Night Maid/ My Fair Lady (2016/17). She played GPS in Lyric’s world premiere of Proximity (2022/23). She sang Hansel in the Lyric in the Parks production of Hansel and Gretel (2021). Recent highlights with the Grant Park Music Festival include soloist performances in Mendelssohn’s Die Walpurgisnacht (2023), Vivaldi’s Gloria (2021), and Rachmaninoff’s Vespers (2017). Wallace- Crane trained as a young artist at the Natchez Opera Festival, Central City Opera, and Sarasota Opera. JOHN CONCEPCIÓN TENOR Concepción has been a full-time member of the Lyric Opera Chorus for more than three decades, and is a longtime performer with the Grant Park Festival Chorus. Notable local appearances include Haydn’s A Mass in Time of War with Naperville Festival Orchestra & Chorus, Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins with Grant Park Symphony, An Afternoon of Opera and Musical Theatre with Skokie Valley Symphony, the world premier of Gustavo Leone’s opera, The Leader , with Latino Music Festival in Chicago, and solo appearances with West Suburban Symphony (Verdi’s Requiem , A Night of Lerner & Loewe , and A Night of Rodgers & Hammerstein ). He has appeared also with the Santa Fe Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Hawaii Symphony, Tulsa Opera, Cleveland Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Portland Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Pine Mountain Music Festival. Concepción was the recipient of the 2022 Cultural Ambassador Award from the Center for Performing Arts at Governors State University. JONATHAN WILSON BARITONE Wilson joined the Lyric Opera Chorus in 2020, and sang the role of Jailer in one performance of Tosca (2021/22). He regularly sings with many of Chicagoland’s top symphonic and choral ensembles including the Chicago Symphony Chorus and the Grant Park Chorus. As a soloist, he has performed with the Northwest Indiana Symphony Orchestra, the New Philharmonic Orchestra, the South Shore Orchestra, and many Chicago-area