Ravinia 2023 Issue 2

DARIO ACOSTA (BRUGGER); JOHN MATTHEW MYERS (DIXON); JONATHAN TICHLER (APPLEBY); JIYANG CHEN (GREEN) I ; I ; I ; I JANAI BRUGGER A native of Chicago, Janai Brugger completed a master’s degree at the University of Mich- igan, where she studied with the late Shirley Verrett, and a bachelor’s degree at DePaul University, subsequently joining the Mero- la Opera Program at San Francisco Opera and becoming a Domingo-Thornton Young Artist at Los Angeles Opera for two seasons. In 2012, she not only won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions but also took all three top prizes in the Operalia com- petition: Opera Prize, Song Prize, and Audi- ence Prize. Since debuting at the Met as Liù in Puccini’s Turandot , Brugger has appeared with the company as Jemmy in Rossini’s Guil- laume Tell , Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen , Helena in the pastiche The Enchanted Island , Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute , and Glauce in Cherubini’s Médée (a role debut), as well as Clara in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess for several recent productions. She previously essayed the role at Dutch National Opera, where she has also sung Servilia in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and Haydn’s Missa in tempore Belli . In recent seasons, Brugger has reprised Pamina for her Royal Opera at Covent Garden debut and Palm Beach Opera’s first Outdoor Opera Festival; Servilia at Los Angeles Opera; Zerli- na in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Tanglewood; Liù at Opera Colorado and Lyric Opera of Chicago, where she also appeared at Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo ; and Susanna in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at LA Opera and Cincin- nati Opera, where she also sang Micaëla. She made her role debut as the title character of Floyd’s Susannah with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in June, and next spring she will reprise Glauce with Canadian Opera Company. In concert, Brugger recently sang Haydn’s Cre- ation at the Grant Park Music Festival and made her Vienna debut at the Musikverein singing Brahms’s Requiem with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, which she rejoined for Mahler’s Second Sympho- ny in the UK. Janai Brugger was a fellow at Ravinia Steans Music Institute in 2011 and appeared at Ravinia twice in 2012, for the US premiere of Weill’s Zaubernacht and in The Magic Flute . Last summer she returned to sing Zerlina and Servilia as well as Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony, which was recorded for a PBS Great Performances broadcast in August, and she will return to Ravinia earlier that month as Pamina in The Magic Flute . ASHLEY DIXON A 2018 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, mezzo-sopra- no Ashley Dixon is also a 2019 alum of the Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera. During her two-year residency, she made her SFO debut in Heggie’s It’s a Wonder- ful Life as a First-Class Angel and was also heard as Mércèdes in Bizet’s Carmen , Third Wood Sprite in Dvořák’s Rusalka , the Italian Singer in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut , and the Sandman in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gre- tel . Dixon was also a two-year participant in SFO’s Merola Opera Program, during which she portrayed La Ciesca in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi , Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medi- um , and Popova in Walton’s The Bear . In the spring of 2020, Dixon made her Los Angeles Opera debut as Sara in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux , and she has since appeared in the title roles of Bolcom’s Lucrezia for Opera Louisiane and Bizet’s Carmen with Atlanta Opera and Hawaii Opera Theater, as Doris in Puts’s Elizabeth Cree with West Edge Opera, and as Adalgisa in Bellini’s Norma with Fes- tival Opera. Recent highlights include Mrs. Splinters in Copland’s The Tender Land with Detroit Opera and Flora in Verdi’s La travia- ta with Des Moines Metro Opera, where she made her professional debut, and her reper- toire also includes the title roles of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas , Rossini’s La Cenerentola , and Handel’s Ariodante , as well as Marguerite in Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust and Ro- sina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville , which was the vehicle of her Amarillo Opera debut this past fall. This season she participated in the final workshops of Heggie’s Intelligence , which will premiere this fall at Houston Grand Opera. Dixon holds a BM from Lou- isiana State University and an MM from the University of Michigan, where she portrayed the title role of Handel’s Giulio Cesare and Sister Helen Prejean in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking . Ashley Dixon was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2019, that year also performing at Ravinia in Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared with mezzo Jennifer Johnson Cano and tenor Matthew Polenzani. She made her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut at Ravinia last summer as Annio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito , and she will re- turn in August as the Second Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute . PAUL APPLEBY A Chicago-area native and founding core member of the American Modern Opera Company, tenor Paul Appleby was a 2009 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, having completed both an Artist Diploma and master’s degree from The Julliard School and dual bachelor’s de- grees from the University of Notre Dame. Af- ter completing the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Appleby made his debut with the company as Brighella in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos in 2011, returning later that year to create the role of Demetrius in its premiere of the Shakespearean pastiche The Enchanted Island . His other Met credits include (most recently) Grimoaldo in Han- del’s Rodelinda , the title of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande , Hylas in Berlioz’s Les Troyens , Chevalier de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites , the lead role of Brian in the US premiere of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys , Da- vid in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürn- berg , Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress , and the Mozartean roles Belmonte in The Abduction from the Seraglio and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni Appleby has also portrayed Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with Washington National Opera and San Francisco Opera, Fritz in Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein at Santa Fe Op- era, and in January the title role of Bernstein’s Candide with Opéra de Lyon. Following his Glyndebourne debut as Jonathan in Han- del’s Saul —which he reprised for his Hus- ton Grand Opera debut—Appleby returned to Glyndebourne in the title role of Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict , which was the vehicle of his Oper Köln debut last spring. Appleby cre- ated the role of Joe Cannon in Adams’s Girls of the Golden West with San Francisco Opera in 2017, and last fall he returned to SFO to cre- ate Caesar in Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra , which he will reprise at Spain’s Gran Teatre del Liceu this fall. In concert, he recently sang Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion with the New York and Hong Kong Philharmonics, ap- peared with Music of the Baroque in Chicago, and made his Tanglewood debut performing Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Vanished . Paul Appleby was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2008 and first returned to Ravinia in 2018 for a performance of Beetho- ven’s Ninth Symphony. RYAN SPEEDO GREEN A native of Virginia, Ryan Speedo Green was a winner of the Metropolitan Opera Nation- al Council Auditions in 2011, received the Marian Anderson Vocal Award in 2018, and has won two Grammy Awards with the Met’s casts of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (as Jake) and Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones (as Uncle Paul). The 2016 bestselling biography Sing for Your Life chronicles Green’s journey from juvenile detention to the Met. Over the past year, Green appeared in his first leading role at the Met, starring as Emile Griffith in Blanchard’s Champion , and made debuts at Paris National Opera as Kurwenal in Wag- ner’s Tristan und Isolde and Bavarian State Opera as Varlaam in Mussorgsky’s Boris Go- dunov , as well as with the New York Philhar- monic, premiering music written for him by Courtney Bryan. He also sang Ferrando in Verdi’s Il trovatore and Orest in Strauss’s Elek- tra at Washington National Opera, where he debuted as Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen last spring, and last summer he debuted at Santa Fe Opera as Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbi- ere di Siviglia . Green’s past highlights at the Met include his role debut as Oroe in Rossi- ni’s Semiramide ; the King in Verdi’s Aida ; the Puccini roles Colline in La bohème , the Man- darin in Turandot , the Jailer in Tosca , and the Bonze in Madama Butterfly ; the Second Knight inWagner’s Parsifal ; and Rambo in the company’s first Adams Death of Klinghoffer . A longtime member of the Vienna State Opera, he has also portrayed Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute , Raimondo in Donizetti’s Lu- cia di Lammermoor , Fasolt in Wagner’s Das Rheingold , Strauss’s Peneios in Daphne and the One-Armed Man in Die Frau ohne Schat- ten , Puccini’s Angelotti in Tosca and Timur in Turandot , Fouquier-Tinville in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier , the Pope in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk , and the Verdi roles of Banquo in Macbeth , Lodovico in Otello , Sparafucile in Rigoletto, and the Monk in Don Carlo . On the concert stage, Green has been a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Sympho- ny with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Phil- adelphia Orchestra, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Verdi’s Requiem at Tanglewood and Brevard. Ryan Speedo Green made his Ravinia debut in 2017 with a solo concert and returned to guest with the CSO in 2018 and 2019. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIA MAGAZINE 37