Ravinia 2023 Issue 5

BENNETT GORDON HALL 7:30 PM TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2023 LARA DOWNES, piano NICOLE CABELL, soprano Love, Life & Laughter PRICE Summer Moon * BEACH Under the Stars , op. 65, no. 4 * ASSAD A World of Change * BONDS Four songs * Sunset Children’s Sleep Sleep Song What Lips My Lips Have Kissed Nicole Cabell, Lara Downes BONDS Spiritual Suite Valley of the Bones * The Bells Troubled Water –Intermission– HOLIDAY Three songs * (arr. Distler) God Bless the Child Don’t Explain Ain’t Nobody’s Business FRIEDMAN Laugh at All My Dreams * (arr. Siskind) MAZZOLI A Map of Laughter * PRICE Piano Sonata in E minor * Andante—Allegro Andante Scherzo * First performance at Ravinia A recent second-year alum of San Fran- cisco Opera’s Merola Program, Mexican American soprano Celeste Morales took the company’s stage during summer 2022 singing Rosalba in scenes from Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas on a concert featuring prominent works by Latin American and Spanish composers. For the grand finale of the 2022 Merola summer series, she performed in scenes from Verdi’s Falstaff as Alice Ford and Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz as Suzel. Earlier that year, Morales also sang with the Florilegium Chamber Choir as the soprano soloist in Brahms’s German Re- quiem . Her previous stage credits also include Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites , Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni , the Mother in Humperdinck’s Han- sel and Gretel , Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello , and Suzel with Texas State University, as well as performances with the Manhattan School of Music as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni , the Countess in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro , Mrs. Grose in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, and Alice Ford. A recent first prize winner of the Giulio Gari Foundation Competition, Morales was featured in Hearing In Color’s performance documentary Latinidad: la gente y la música , participated in Opera in Reach’s fundraising concert Art for Peace, and performed the title role of Nathan Felix’s La Malinche for Hispanic Heritage Month at The Museum of Art in her native San Anto- nio. Celeste Morales is a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow this summer. Poised to join the en- semble of Madrid’s Teatro Real for the 2023 and 2024 seasons, mezzo-soprano Elissa Pfaender is also a 2023 Opera Foundation scholarship winner. Earlier this summer she returned to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gaddes Festival Artist to perform as Mrs. Mc- Lean in Floyd’s Susannah , having appeared with the company in 2022 as a Gerdine Young Artist creating the role of Dr. Landau in To- bias Picker’s Awakenings as well as covering the Third Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and the title role of Bizet’s Carmen , which she performed with Opera North for her compa- ny debut in July. During the 2022–23 season, Pfaender also sang Zulma and covered Isabel- la in Rossini’s L’italiana in Algeri with Tulsa Opera and appeared as Alisa in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with New York City Opera, where she also covered Mama and Signora Olga for the premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis . She was previously a studio artist with Sara- sota Opera and the Savannah Voice Festival and has also participated in the Manchester Music Festival and the National Endowment for the Arts YoungArts Foundation, having won awards from the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, Gerda Lissner Foun- dation, National Opera Association, and Or- pheus National Music Competition, among others. Elissa Pfaender is a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow this summer. Chinese-native tenor Yuntong Han was a national semifinalist in the 2023 Metro- politan Opera Laffont Competition and is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. There, he recently portrayed Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni , hav- ing previously essayed Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Ruggero in Puccini’s La rondine . While earning his bachelor’s degree at the New England Conservatory—his sec- ond, following studies in aircraft manufac- turing engineering at China’s Northwestern Polytechnical University—Han performed as Nemorino in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love , Rodolfo in Puccini’s La bohème , and Lucano in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea , the latter making his opera debut. He has also appeared in concert performances of Han- del’s Messiah and Haydn’s The Creation , as well as NEC’s Song and Verse art song series. Yuntong Han was a Ravinia Steans Music In- stitute fellow in 2022 as well as this summer. Earlier this year, bari- tone Erik Grendahl made his Virginia Op- era debut as Barone Douphol in Verdi’s La traviata , adding to highlights of the 2022–23 season that include covering the same role with Lyric Opera of Kansas City as well as Valentin in Gounod’s Faust with Opera Baltimore, plus making his Carne- gie Hall debut as part of the Gerda Lissner Competition winners’ concert. Last season, Grendahl was an Apprentice Artist of Santa Fe Opera and debuted with the company as the Steersman in Wagner’s Tristan und Isol- de and as René Gallimard in the premiere of Huang Ruo’s M. Butterfly . He also made his Lincoln Center Alice Tully Hall debut singing Britten’s Songs and Proverbs of William Blake with Brian Zeger. While earning his Master of Music at The Juilliard School, Grendahl per- formed as Herr Fluth in Nicolai’s The Merry Wives of Windsor , Endimione/Caronte in the New York City premiere of Rossi’s L’orfeo , and the title character of Donizetti’s lesser-known opera Torquato Tasso . He was also featured at Alice Tully Hall as a winner of Juilliard’s Vo- cal Honors award. Erik Grendahl is a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow this summer. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • AUGUST 15 – AUGUST 27, 2023 32