Ravinia 2024 Issue 4

DIANA NEWMAN Soprano Diana Newman made highlights of the past two seasons performing the world premiere of Aaron Zigman’s Émigré with the Shanghai Symphony and its US premiere with the New York Philharmonic, also joining the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony and Dallas Opera as Woglinde in Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Despina in Così fan tutte . The 2021–22 season marked Newman’s Metropolitan Opera debut as Papagena in Mo- zart’s The Magic Flute , and she appeared in the leading role of Clara in Adam Guettel’s The Light in the Piazza with Central City Opera and was a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Alabama Symphony. During the 2019–20 sea- son, Newman debuted with Dallas Opera as the First Lady in The Magic Flute and, then freshly an alumna of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, returned to the company to join its Wagner Ring Cycle, portraying Woglinde in Götterdämmerung and Woodbird in Siegfried . With the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hol- lywood Bowl, she was a featured artist in Amer- ica in Space , celebrating the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. While a member of the Lyric’s stu- dio program, Newman performed as Frasqui- ta in Bizet’s Carmen , Pedro in Massenet’s Don Quichotte , Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerento- la , Papagena in The Magic Flute , and the Page in Verdi’s Rigoletto , a role she first performed with the LA Phil at the Hollywood Bowl. Recent highlights also include role and house debuts as Adele in J. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus at Palm Beach Opera and covering Sophie in R. Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier at the Glyndebourne Festival, as well as concert performances of Orff ’s Car- mina Burana with the Rochester Philharmonic. Newman appeared at the Lucerne Festival per- forming Maria Schneider’s song cycle Winter Morning Walks , and her concert credits also include Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 at the Eastern Sierra Symphony Summer Festival, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the American Youth Symphony, Vivaldi’s Gloria in Havana, Cuba, and her Grant Park Music Festival in 2016 singing Curly’s Wife in Floyd’s Of Mice and Men . Diana Newman was a Ravinia Steans Music Institute fellow in 2014 and made her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut last season as Papa- gena in The Magic Flute. MADELEINE LYON Mezzo-soprano Madeleine Lyon is a proud na- tive of San Marcos, TX, who was a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Pro- gram at Los Angeles Opera from 2022 to 2024. She made her main-stage debut with the com- pany during that first season, portraying Alisa in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor for a new production co-produced with the Metropolitan Opera. During 2023, she appeared with LA Op- era as Bianca in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia , Bithia in Moses by Henry Mollicone, and Gen- evieve/Yniold in Impressions of Pelléas , and she covered the role of Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro . This season, Lyon performed with the company as the Second Frida Image in El último sueño de Frida y Diego by Gabriela Lena Frank and as the Second Companion in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg , and she returns to its stage in 2025 as Giovanna in Verdi’s Rigoletto . This summer she is a Gerdine Young Artist with OperaTheatre St. Louis, singing the role of Nire- no in Handel’s Giulio Cesare . Equally passionate about oratorio and concert work, Lyon has been featured as the mezzo soloist in performances of Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah , Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and selections from Ver- di’s Requiem. In 2022, Lyon completed graduate studies at Rice University, where she previously obtained her Bachelor of Music degree in 2019. There, she was seen as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni , the title role in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges , and Taller Zegner in Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up . Madeleine Lyon was a Ravinia Ste- ans Music Institute fellow in 2023 and is making her Chicago Symphony Orchestra debut. HARRY SILVERSTEIN The director of DePaul Opera Theatre since 1990, Harry Silverstein has developed a reputa- tion as one of the most successful interpreters of Mozart’s operas. His original production of The Magic Flute for San Francisco Opera, Op- era Carolina, and Opera Omaha premiered in 2012 and was later reprised by Washington Na- tional Opera, which broadcast it to an audience of 20,000 at Nationals Park. Similarly, his 2012 staging of Verdi’s Rigoletto for San Francisco Opera was shown to 30,000 at AT&T Park. Af- ter apprenticing on the staff of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Silverstein made his company de- but staging Verdi’s La traviata and returned in 2010 to direct Bizet’s Carmen . Also a former apprentice and staff member of Houston Grand Opera, he has directed both Rigoletto and La traviata for the company, as well as Mozart’s Don Giovanni , The Marriage of Figaro , and Così fan tutte . Further Mozart credits include Don Giovanni for Dallas, Wolf Trap, and Chautauqua Operas; The Marriage of Figaro for Opera Pacific and Washington National Opera; Così fan tutte for Dallas and Utah Operas; and Idomeneo for Opera Northern Ireland. Silverstein has staged such other standard repertoire as Puccini’s La bohème (San Francisco Opera) and Madama Butterfly (Victorian State and Auckland operas), Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor (Dallas Op- era) and Don Pasquale (Opera Mobile), Verdi’s Il trovatore (Tulsa Opera), Puccini’s Tosca and Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah (Opera Pacific), Wag- ner’s The Flying Dutchman (Utah Opera), and Saint-Saëns’s Samson et Dalila (Opera Omaha). In contemporary opera, Silverstein has worked closely with Philip Glass on productions of the composer’s Satyagraha , Akhnaten , The Fall of the House of Usher (South American premiere), The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 (European premiere), and The Marriages Be- tween Zones Three, Four, and Five (American premiere). He has also directed the premieres of Stephen Barlow’s King and Conrad Cummings’s Tonkin , among other works. Harry Silverstein has directed Ravinia’s presentations of Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio (2008), Così fan tutte (2010), and The Marriage of Figaro (2014, 2022) in the Martin Theatre as well as Pavilion concert performances of Così fan tutte (1996) and The Marriage of Figaro (2004). RAVINIAMAGAZINE • AUGUST 5 – AUGUST 18, 2024 72 SIMONPAULY(NEWMAN)