Ravinia 2023 Issue 4

SIMON PAULY (HOPKINS, LEWEK); JIYANG CHEN (LEIGH) JOSHUA HOPKINS Juno Award-winning and Grammy-nomi- nated Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins has established himself as a leading singer-actor with regular appearances at the Metropoli- tan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, and Wash- ington National Opera, among many other companies. During the 2022–23 season he de- buted at Japan’s Hyōgo Performing Arts Cen- ter in the title role of Mozart’s Don Giovanni , made his role debut as Raimbaud in Rossini’s Le comte Ory at the Lyric, and returned to the Met as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Belcore in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love , a role he first performed at the Lyric. In concert, Hopkins joined the Met Orchestra Cham- ber Ensemble for an all-French program at Carnegie Hall and sang Brahms’s German Requiem with the Colorado Symphony and Peter Lieberson’s Songs of Love and Sorrow with the Monterey Symphony. Collaborating with composer Jake Heggie and author Mar- garet Atwood, Hopkins conceived Songs for Murdered Sisters and premiered the chamber version in March 2022 in partnership with Houston Grand Opera. He premiered the or- chestral version with Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra earlier this year. Hopkins’s recent role debuts have included Britten’s titular Billy Budd with Central City Opera, Malatesta in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale with Pittsburgh Opera, and Athanaël in Massen- et’s Thaïs with Toronto Symphony Orches- tra. Highlights of recent seasons also include portraying Silvio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci , Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte , Mar- cello in Puccini’s La bohème , Count Alma- viva in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro , and Figaro in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville , as well as creating several leading roles. For his Dutch National Opera debut, Hopkins orig- inated Niccolò Machiavelli in Mohammed Fairouz’s The New Prince , and Harry Bailey in Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life was his San Francisco Opera entrée following the Houston Grand Opera premiere. He recently reprised Orpheus in Matthew Aucoin’s Eu- rydice at the Met after the Los Angeles Op- era premiere. Hopkins made his Met debut as Ping in Puccini’s Turandot and his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Tadeusz in Wein- berg’s The Passenger . Joshua Hopkins was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2005 and is making his first return to the festival. KATHRYN LEWEK One of the foremost coloratura sopranos of the present generation, Kathryn Lewek re- cently marked her 50th performance as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Metropolitan Opera, surpass- ing the record for most appearances in the role with the company, and has portrayed the villain with more than 25 companies in over 350 performances to date. Following her acclaimed debut as Ginevra in Handel’s Ariodante with the Salzburg Whitsun Festi- val, Lewek returned in 2019 as Eurydice in a new production of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld , and she recently released an album of Handel’s cantatas Armida abbando- nata and Apollo e Dafne on Pentatone. Over the past year, Lewek made role debuts as the Countess Adèle in Rossini’s Le comte Ory with Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Hero- ines in Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffmann with Deutsche Oper Berlin, house debuts with Semperoper Dresden and the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden as the Queen of the Night (also returning to Vienna State Opera and the Met in the role), and a return to the title role of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Opéra de Nice. This coming season she sings Delibes’s titular Lakmé with Opéra Nice Côte d’Azur and Olympia in Tales of Hoff- mann with Semperoper Dresden (reprising the Heroines at the Salzburg Festival) in ad- dition to making a long-awaited role debut as Juliette in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with Toledo Opera. Recent highlights have includ- ed essaying Ginevra with Opera Monte Carlo, the title role of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda with Edmonton Opera, Teresa in Berlioz’s Ben- venuto Cellini at Barcelona’s Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Konstanze in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio with Deutsche Oper Ber- lin and for her Bavarian State Opera debut, as well as touring Europe with performances of Angelica in Handel’s Orlando and creating the role of Jessica in André Tchaikowsky’s The Merchant of Venice with the Bregenz Festival. Lewek made her role debut as Violetta in Ver- di’s La traviata at Toledo Opera, where she has also appeared as Rosina in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville , and she sang Cunegonde in Bernstein’s Candide for her Glimmerglass debut. Kathryn Lewek is making her Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. DAVID LEIGH A prizewinner of Metropolitan Opera and Fort Worth Opera competitions, bass Da- vid Leigh comes from a family of diverse artists—his father a Tony-winning compos- er, mother a painter, and sister a multiple award-winning playwright—and studied composition at Yale in addition to earning a master’s degree in opera. During the 2022–23 season, he joined the Met’s roster covering Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and sang Savitsky in Peter Knell’s Arkhipov in Los Angeles. Internationally, Leigh debuted with Bavarian State Opera as Colline in Puccini’s La bohème , joined Opernhaus Zürich’s new Wagner Ring Cycle as Fafner in Siegfried , and sang the Commendatore in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at Japan’s Hyōgo Performing Arts Center. Last season, he appeared with Opéra national du Rhin in the French premiere of Hans Abrahamsen’s The Snow Queen in the roles of Snow Queen, Reindeer, and Clock, and he sang the Commendatore in Zürich as well as Sarastro with both Opéra national de Lorraine and the Canadian Opera Company. Back in the US, Leigh portrayed König Marke in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with Santa Fe Opera, and in concert he joined the Dallas Symphony for Mozart’s Requiem. He made his role and house debuts as Prince Gremin in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin with Seattle Opera during 2019–20, that same season de- buting with Detroit Opera as the Commen- datore. Earlier highlights include Leigh’s San Francisco Opera debut as Zuniga in Bizet’s Carmen while covering the role of Vodník in Dvořák’s Rusalka, his Santa Fe Opera debut as King Hjarne in Poul Ruders’s The Thir- teenth Child , his role debut as Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Kentucky Opera, house and role debuts with the Bolshoi Theatre as Colline, his Canadian Opera Company debut creating the leading role of Turbo in Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian , and company debuts with Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Opéra na- tional de Lorraine, and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg as the Commendatore. He has also sung the Commendatore with Florentine Opera and the Festival d’Opéra Baroque de Beaune, Fafner with Cincinnati’s Queen City Opera, and Verdi’s Requiem with the Choral Society of Northeast Pennsylva- nia. David Leigh was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2015 and is making his Chi- cago Symphony Orchestra debut. CHRISTIAN SANDERS With a repertory encompassing Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Prog- ress, the title character of Britten’s Albert Herring , Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff , Laurie in Mark Adamo’s Little Women , Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute , Rinuccio in Puc- cini’s Gianni Schicchi , and Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon —as well as a broad range of contemporary opera and work by living composers—tenor Christian Sanders highlighted his 2022–23 season with several different roles. With Opera Santa Barbara he portrayed Dorvil in Rossini’s La scala di seta , and he reprised his acclaimed interpretation of Tobias Ragg in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd with Austin Opera, also singing Beppe in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with the Sacramento Philharmonic, Loge in Wagner’s Das Rhe- ingold with Dayton Opera, and Little Bat in Floyd’s Susannah in a return to OperaTheatre of Saint Louis. Sanders made his Opera Santa Barbara debut the previous year as The Song Seller in Puccini’s Il tabarro , and during the 2021–22 season he also appeared as Donald Trump in Anthony Davis’s The Central Park Five with Portland Opera, the title character of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld with Madison Opera, and Monostatos in The Magic Flute with Opera Theatre of Saint Lou- is. With Des Moines Metro Opera, he sang Timothy in Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers as well as Tobias Ragg during the summer of 2021, and that year he also participated in workshops of Jorge Sosa’s The Opposable Thumb and Emma O’Halloran’s Trade . While a member of Utah Opera’s Resident Artist Program, Sanders performed as the Messen- ger in Verdi’s Aida , Don Curzio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro , Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen, the Padre in Leigh’s Man of La Man- cha , Normanno in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lam- mermoor , and Castleman in Jeremy Howard Beck’s The Long Walk , and with Minnesota Opera’s, he portrayed Bill in Jonathan Dove’s Flight , the Young Servant in Strauss’s Elektra , Prunier in Puccini’s La rondine , and Jona- than Dale in the original production of Kevin Puts’s Silent Night . He reprised the latter role at the Glimmerglass Festival, where he later sang Bégearss in John Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles . Christian Sanders is making his Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 31 – AUGUST 14, 2023 28 SIMON PAULY (HOPKINS, LEWEK); JIYANG CHEN (LEIGH)