Lyric Opera 2024-2025 Issue 5 - Blue

31 | Lyric Opera of Chicago Phoenix Symphony. Last season, Garrett made a house debut at San Francisco Opera, sang Abdul and Abe in Omar, returned to LA Opera as Bob in William Grant Still’s Highway 1, USA, sang Masetto in Don Giovanni with Houston Grand Opera, Jochanaan in Salome with Des Moines Metro Opera, and held a residency with Cedar Rapids Opera, where he made a role debut as Scarpia in Tosca, and later returned for Carmina Burana. In concert, he performed Carmina Burana with Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Carnegie Hall. Other recent highlights include Conte in Le nozze di Figaro with Seattle Opera, Abdul in Omar at LA Opera, Riolobo in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas with Houston Grand Opera, Escamillo in Carmen with Austin Opera, Opera Orlando, Opera Columbus, and Lubbock Symphony, the title role in Chausson’s Le roi Arthus with Bard SummerScape, the Foreman/Adult James in Fire Shut Up in My Bones at the Metropolitan Opera and Lyric (21/22 Season), the title role in Don Giovanni and Jochanaan in Salome with Dayton Opera, the title role in Delius’s Koanga with the Wexford Festival in Ireland, Larkens in La fanciulla del West with the Bayerische Staatsoper, and Ned in a new edition of Treemonisha with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. ARIANA WEHR GIRLFRIEND 1 / NURSE Lyric debut The Brazilian-American soprano is a graduate of the Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington National Opera. Last season she performed Micaëla in Carmen with Portland Opera and returned to Washington National Opera as Girlfriend 1/Nurse in Blue . Wehr sang the role in the opera’s 2019 premiere at The Glimmerglass Festival, and at Seattle Opera and Pittsburgh Opera (debut), and she appears on the original cast recording released on Pentatone. Last season Wehr performed in Opera Lafayette’s production of La Fêtes de Thalie . Other recent highlights include her Seattle Opera debut as Euridice in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, and an appearance in Washington National Opera’s television production of Carmen for the Kennedy Center Honors. Wehr also recently made her Carnegie Hall debut in Requiem by Marc-André Bougie and Serenade to Music by Vaughan Williams. Other performances include Despina in Così fan tutte for Opera in the Heights, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel in a return to Brava! Opera Theater, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Naples Philharmonic, Micaëla in Carmen with Opera Louisiane, Amy March in Mark Adamo’s Little Women with Annapolis Opera, Konstanze in The Abduction from the Seraglio with Brava! Opera Theater, and Abigail Williams in Francesca Zambello’s production of The Crucible at The Glimmerglass Festival. ADIA EVANS GIRLFRIEND 2 Previously at Lyric: Countess Ceprano/ Rigoletto (2024/25). A first-year Ryan Opera Center soprano from Baltimore, Evans will also appear this season as Theresa Alvarez/ The Listeners . In the 2023/24 Season, the soprano debuted at The Cliburn in Recital with Jake Heggie, the Dayton Philharmonic (Handel’s Messiah ), and Annapolis Opera (First Lady/ The Magic Flute ). Other recent highlights include Mimì/ La Bohème with the Borderland Arts Foundation and Beethoven’s 9th with the National Orchestral Institute and Marin Alsop. Evans has performed with the Santa Fe Opera, Merola Opera Program, Fort Worth Opera, Dallas Opera Guild, Opera Columbus, Tulsa Opera, and Knoxville Opera, among others. Her numerous honors include an Encouragement Award from the 2024 London Foundation Competition, third place in the 2023 and 2024 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Midwest Region, second place and the soprano prize in the 2023 George Shirley Vocal Competition, and first place in the 2023 Dallas Opera Guild Lonestar Vocal Competition. Adia Evans is sponsored by Lead Sponsor the H.Earl and Miriam U.Hoover Foundation and cosponsors Ron and Peggy Beata. KRYSTY SWANN GIRLFRIEND 3 Previously at Lyric: Three roles since 2017/18, most recently Cousin Blanche/ Champion (2023/24) and Third Maid/ Elektra (2018/19). This season the mezzo-soprano joins Oberlin Conservatory to sing Fatima in Omar and the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir for Dett’s The Ordering of Moses . She’ll close the season with a return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Beulah in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon, Lynn Nottage, and Ruby Aiyo Gerber’s This House. Swann opened last season as Jade Boucher in Dead Man Walking with the Metropolitan Opera, which was followed by The Mother in Blue at New Orleans Opera, a role she has performed also at Detroit Opera. Other engagements include Schönberg’s Gurre-Lieder with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, and Sanctuary Road with Princeton Pro Musica. Recent highlights also include a return to the Metropolitan Opera in Akhnaten and Champion as Cousin Evelyn, as well as Rossweisse in Detroit Opera’s The Valkyries , Elijah with Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra, Verdi’s Requiem with the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, The Ordering of Moses for Oberlin Conservatory, and Handel’s Messiah for Pacific Symphony. For Lincoln Center Theater, she created the role of Mayme in the world premiere of Intimate Apparel , directed by Bartlett Sher and written by Lynn Nottage and Ricky Ian Gordon. Swann debuted with the Metropolitan Opera as the Third Maid in Elektra and has also appeared in productions of Die Walküre, Marnie , Il tabarro , and Francesca da Rimini . TERRENCE CHIN-LOY POLICEMAN 1 Previously at Lyric: Charlie/ The Factotum (2022/23). This season the American tenor makes his European debut singing Gualtiero in Vivaldi’s Griselda with Danish National Opera, and sings Ferrando in Così fan tutte with Virginia Opera, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Opera Omaha and in concert, and Graf Albert in Die tote Stadt with Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Last