Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

ANTHONY LEÓN American-born Cuban and Colombian tenor Anthony León is quickly developing an interna- tional performing career. His most recent hon- ors include being named a 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition winner and earning first prize and the Don Plácido Domingo Zarzu- ela Prize at Operalia 2022. He has also received a Career Development Grant from the Sullivan Foundation. During the 2022/23 season, León was a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera, where his credits have included Roderigo in Verdi’s Otello , Pelléas in Impressions de Pelléas , Don Curzio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figa- ro , Male Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucre- tia , Spoletta in Puccini’s Tosca , and Normanno in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor . He most recently appeared with the company making his role debut as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni . During the summer of 2023, León made debuts at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence and the Salzburg Festival singing the Teapot, Frog, and Mathematician in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges . He has also recently toured with the ensemble I Gemelli portraying Giove and Amphinome in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria , performing at Théâtre des Champs- Elysées and Arsenal Theater in France and Vic- toria Hall in Switzerland. During the summers of 2021 and 2022, León was an Apprentice Artist at Santa Fe Opera, performing Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen as well as covering the roles of Ly- sander in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff . In the fall of 2021, he appeared as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville with Opera Theatre Saint Louis. Across other stages around the world, he has also performed such leading roles as Le Chevalier in Poulenc’s Dialogues des carmélites , Agenore in Mozart’s Il re pastore , Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore , Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute , the Witch in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel , and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance . León holds a Bachelor of Music from La Sierra University and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the New England Con- servatory, where he studied under Bradley Wil- liams. Anthony León is making his Ravinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. RODRICK DIXON Rodrick Dixon is a leading American dramatic tenor whose versatility has led him to promi- nent theaters and orchestras across the United States. Highlights of his operatic credits include the title role of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg and Wal- ther in Wagner’s Tannhäuser with Los Angeles Opera; Tonio in Donizetti’s La fille du régiment with Detroit Opera and Todi Music Festival, where he also sang Lensky in Tchaikovsky’s Eu- gene Onegin ; Erik in Wagner’s Der fliegende Hol- länder (RAI Torino, Saint Louis Symphony); the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto (Cincinnati Opera); Sportin’ Life in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess (Vir- ginia Opera); and the title roles of Verdi’s Otello and Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann (Opera Southwest and Portland Opera, respectively). He portrayed the Prince in the 1999 premiere of Leslie Burrs’s original Vanqui with Opera Co- lumbus. Dixon has performed prolifically at the Cincinnati May Festival, featuring in Orff ’s Car- mina burana , Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex , Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass , Mahler’s Das klagende Lied , Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Rachmaninoff ’s The Bells , Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Nathaniel Dett’s The Ordering of Moses , and the premiere of Alvin Singleton’s Prayer . Additional credits with these roles and works include Sportin’ Life with the Cleveland Orchestra, Oedipus rex with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and at the Sydney Arts Festival, Beethoven’s Ninth with the Phil- adelphia Orchestra and at Carnegie Hall, and The Ordering of Moses with the City of Birming- ham Symphony. Recent highlights include three Hannibal Lokumbe premieres— Healing Tones and One Land, One River, One People (Philadel- phia Orchestra) and The Jonah People (Nashville Symphony)—as well as Delius’s A Mass of Life (Carnegie Hall), Beethoven’s Missa solemnis (Philadelphia Orchestra), Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde (Aspen Festival), and Joel Thompson’s To Awaken the Sleeper (Baltimore Symphony). Dixon recently sang Molqi in John Adams’s The Death of Klinghoffer at the Concertgebouw led by the composer and debuted at Covent Gar- den as Froh in Wagner’s Das Rheingold . Rodrick Dixon first performed at Ravinia Festival in 2011 and has collaborated on and off the concert stage, including with the Reach Teach Play pro- grams, and was most recently heard on 2023’s Gala concert duetting with Heather Headley. MORRIS ROBINSON Atlanta native Morris Robinson completed undergraduate studies at The Citadel in South Carolina, going on to train his bass voice at the Boston University Opera Institute and enter the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, making his company debut in Beethoven’s Fidelio . He has since ap- peared in numerous other Met productions, including Verdi’s Il trovatore (Ferrando), Aida (King), and Nabucco (High Priest), Strauss’s Salome (Nazarene), Berlioz’s Les Troyens (Mer- cury), Wagner’s Tannhäuser (Reinmar), and Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Sarastro). Across his career, Robinson has added extenseively to his repertory: Ramfis in Aida and Zaccaria in Nab- ucco , as well as the title role of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and roles in Mozart’s The Abduction from the Seraglio (Osmin) and Don Giovanni (Commendatore); Verdi’s Rigoletto (Spara- fucile), La forza del destino (Padre Guardiano), and Don Carlos (Grand Inquisitor); Puccini’s Turandot (Timur) and Madama Butterfly (The Bonze); and Wagner’s Das Rheingold (Fasolt), Tristan und Isolde (King Marke), and The Flying Dutchman (Daland). These credits have includ- ed appearances with San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Volksoper Wien, and Opera Australia. He was Artistic Advisor to the Cincinnati Opera during 2019–21, and this season he created the role of The Commander in Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded with Washington National Opera. A prolific concert singer, Rob- inson has been a guest of the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Hous- ton, National, and San Francisco Symphonies, as well as the BBC Proms and the Mostly Mo- zart, Cincinnati May, Tanglewood, Verbier, and Aspen Festivals, among many other ensembles and venues. Morris Robinson has previous- ly appeared in six operas at Ravinia— The Ab- duction from the Seraglio and Don Giovanni in 2008, Rigoletto in 2009, Puccini’s Tosca in 2011, The Magic Flute in 2012, and Aida in 2013—and performed a solo concert of arias and art songs in 2017, also leading a masterclass for the Steans Music Institute Program for Singers that season. RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 71 ANDRÉSMALDONADO(LEÓN);DANDEMETRIAD(DIXON);LAWRENCEBROWNLEE(ROBINSON)