Ravinia 2022, Issue 4

FAY FOX (POLENZANI); JIYANG CHEN (YU); MARK PILLAI (D’ANGELO) JAMES CONLON, conductor Biography appears on page 38 KRISTINN SIGMUNDSSON, bass Biography appears on page 39 APOLLO CHORUS OF CHICAGO Biography and roster appear on page 40 MATTHEW POLENZANI, tenor An Illinois native, tenor Matthew Polenza- ni studied at Eastern Illinois University and the Yale School of Music before becoming a member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s ap- prentice program for two seasons. In 1997, he auditioned for the Metropolitan Opera, and before the year’s end made his debut in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov . Polenzani has appeared on the Met stage every season since, and has been honored with its Bev- erly Sills Artist Award (2008) and Richard Tucker Award (2004). This season he add- ed the title role of Verdi’s Don Carlos to his repertoire in the company’s new production, having recently made his first Vaudémont in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta at the Met as well. Po- lenzani’s more than 300 credits on its stage include several Mozart roles—Tamino in The Magic Flute , Ferrando in Così fan tutte , Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni , and the title roles of Idomeneo and La clemenza di Tito —Nadir in Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers ; the title role of Of- fenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann ; Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème ; the Verdi roles of Mac- duff in Macbeth , Alfredo in La traviata , and the Duke in Rigoletto ; and Donizetti’s Nemo- rino in The Elixir of Love , Roberto in Maria Stuarda , and the titular Roberto Devereux, the latter two in the Met’s first productions of each opera. In recent seasons Polenzani made role debuts as Cavaradossi in Puccini’s Tosca at the Savonlinna Opera Festival and Don José in Bizet’s Carmen with San Francis- co Opera, as well as house debuts with Palm Beach Opera as Tamino and both Canadian Opera Company and Teatro Real de Madrid as Alfredo. He is also a veteran of Lyric Opera of Chicago—where he gave his first essay of Massenet’s titular Werther in 2012—Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Paris Nation- al Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, London’s Royal Opera, and the Vienna, Bavarian and Hungarian State Operas, as well as Milan’s La Scala and all three stages at Carnegie Hall, among many others. Following his Ravin- ia debut in 1995, Matthew Polenzani has led master classes for the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Program for Singers in 2016, 2019, and this season. These performances mark his sixth summer at the festival. GUANQUN YU, soprano A regular guest of opera houses across Eu- rope and North America, soprano Guanqun Yu is a winner of Operalia and the Belve- dere Singing Competition, having studied in Shandong and Shanghai before joining the opera studio at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in 2008. She debuted in 2010 at Vi- enna’s Musikverein, singing in Honegger’s Jeanne d’Arc . Shortly after portraying Lina in Verdi’s Stiffelio at the Parma Royal Theater in Italy for a DVD recording in 2012, Yu made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Leonora in Verdi’s Il trovatore . Italian repertoire is a particular focus of Yu’s—her credits include Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello at Spain’s Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, in her Deutsche Oper Berlin debut, and at Hamburg State Opera; Amelia in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra in Ham- burg, Frankfurt, and Valencia; Mimì in Puc- cini’s La bohème in a new production at the Zurich Opera House as well as with Bavarian State Opera; and Liù in Puccini’s Turandot at the Met, in Zurich and Cologne, and at the Bregenz Festival. Yu also regularly essays the major roles of Mozart’s operas—Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte , Vitellia in La clemenza di Tito , Elettra in Idomeneo , the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro , and both Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni —and in 2015 she portrayed both Mozart’s and Cori- gliano’s accounts of the Countess in her de- but season with Los Angeles Opera, sharing in the Grammy Award won by the cast of Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles . French repertoire has also underscored highlights in Yu’s career, including Micaëla in Bizet’s Car- men and Mathilde in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell , a role with which she earned critical praise in a new production at Hamburg State Op- era. In the past year, she has returned to LA Opera as Leonora, Paris Opera and Hamburg State Opera as Liù, and Deutsche Oper Berlin in the title role of Verdi’s Aida , and next year she sings Verdi’s Requiem with Amsterdam’s Residentie Orkest Den Haag. Guanqun Yu is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. EMILY D’ANGELO, mezzo-soprano A 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, To- ronto-born mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo is the only vocalist to receive the Leonard Bernstein Award from the Schleswig-Hol- stein Festival and is a winner of the George London and Gerda Lissner Competitions, as well as Operalia, where she earned the Birgit Nilsson, zarzuela, audience, and first prizes. Having trained at the University of Toronto and the Metropolitan Opera and Canadian Opera Company apprentice artist programs, she made her stage debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Spo- leto Festival dei Due Mondi in 2016. In the past year, D’Angelo has added several firsts in her career—last fall she made her role debut as Ottavia in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at Zurich Opera and then made her house and role debuts as Angelina in Rossi- ni’s La Cenerentola at Semperoper Dresden. She continued to inhabit the Cinderella story in the winter as Prince Charming in Massen- et’s Cendrillon at the Met, and in the spring she sang her first Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at La Scala. Last month she also tallied house and role debuts as Siébel in Gounod’s Faust at Paris Opera. Recent seasons’ highlights include several Mozarte- an roles: Cherubino with Berlin State Opera (debut) and Bavarian State Opera, where she also essayed Idamante in Idomeneo ; Dorabel- la in Così fan tutte first with Canadian Opera Company and for her La Scala and Santa Fe Opera debuts; role and house debuts as Sesto in La clemenza di Tito at Covent Garden, and both Annio in Clemenza and Second Lady in The Magic Flute in her 2019 Met debut season. D’Angelo has also portrayed Sister Mathilde in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites at the Met and Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Se- ville first at the Glimmerglass Festival and also with Canadian Opera Company. A Deutsche Grammophon exclusive recording artist, she recently released her debut album enargeia , which informs her solo program next week. Emily D’Angelo was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2015 and 2016 and is making her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut. Publio and the guards usher Sesto into Tito’s chamber. The three men experience conflict- ing emotions (“Quello di Tito è il volto!”). Intent on issuing justice, but suddenly moved by compassion, Tito orders the others to leave so he can speak with Sesto alone—as his friend, not his ruler. What was the reason for his offense? Unwilling to betray Vitellia, Sesto confesses his guilt of a crime deserving of death. Maddened by the lack of confidence in their friendship, Tito sends Sesto to meet his fate. Sesto begs one last kiss of the em- peror’s hand (“Deh, per questo istante”). Lost in his own thoughts, Tito struggles to define his imperial character. Will he offer forgive- ness or impose justice? He decides to grant clemency to Sesto, despite his disloyalty, and orders Publio to take his friend to the arena (“Se all’impero, amici Dei”). Vitellia enters the room, interrogates Publio over Sesto’s fate, and worries that he has ex- posed her role in the uprising. Servilia halt- ingly shares news that her brother, Sesto, has been condemned to death. She reveals that the emperor has made plans to marry Vitel- lia later that evening, proving that Sesto has remained true to his word. Vitellia begins to weep. Servilia asserts that tears alone will not save her brother (“S’altro che lagrime”). The decisive moment has arrived. Vitellia must choose whether to remain silent, seal Sesto’s fate, and become empress or admit her guilt, save the innocent man, and relinquish the throne (“Ecco il punto, o Vitellia”). Emo- tions swing wildly as she contemplates her own condemnation (“Non più di Fiori” with basset horn obbligato). At the public amphitheater, senators, patri- cians, the Praetorian guard, and the Roman populace have gathered to witness the impo- sition of justice (“Che del ciel”). Tito orders the guards to present the prisoner. Annio and Servilia implore their sovereign to take pity on Sesto. As Tito begins reading the sentence, Vitellia throws herself at the emperor’s feet and admits her treachery, driven by jealou- sy and vengeance. Tito fleetingly considers punishment for all the traitors but concludes, in the end, to offer clemency instead (“Ma, che giorno”). Sesto, Vitellia, and the gathered throng marvel at their benevolent ruler and implore the gods to “preserve in Tito from afar Rome’s greatness, present and past” (“Tu, è ver, m’assolvi”). –Program notes © 2022 Todd E. Sullivan RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 43 I ; I ; I I ’