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P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
20
|
December 7, 2015 - January 17, 2016
JIMMY LÓPEZ
(
Composer
)
One of today’s most origi-
nal voices in contempo-
rary music, the composer
has created works per-
formed by such renowned
ensembles as the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra,
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Sym-
phony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Symphony,
Radio France Philharmonic, and the National
Symphony Orchestras of Peru, Chile, and
Argentina. Further engagements include
Carnegie Hall; Germany’s Darmstadt and
Donaueschingen music festivals; the Aspen,
Tanglewood, and Grant Park music festivals;
and the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Sin-
gapore.
Fiesta!
, one of his most famous works,
has received over 70 performances worldwide
by the major orchestras of Sydney, Gothen-
burg, Helsinki, Leipzig, The Hague, Seattle,
Colorado, and Spokane, among many others.
Among his recent works are
Perú Negro
,
Lord
of the Air
, and
Man and Man
(world premiere
in San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral, soloist
Anthony Roth Costanzo). López has received
numerous prestigious awards, most recently a
Honorable Mention at the 2015 Barlow Prize
and, in 2014, the Premio Antara Award in rec-
ognition of his outstanding career (Lima Con-
temporary Music Festival in Peru). A native of
Lima, he studied at the city’s National Conser-
vatory of Music with Enrique Iturriaga, prior
to graduating from the Sibelius Academy in
Helsinki with a master of music degree. López
completed his Ph.D. in music at the Univer-
sity of California-Berkeley. He is published by
FILARMONIKA Music Publishing.
NILO CRUZ
(
Librettist
)
The
Cuban-American
playwright’s work has
been produced widely
across the U.S., including
performances with such
distinguished companies
as Princeton’s McCarter
Theatre, New York’s Public Theater, Manhat-
tan Theatre Club, Los Angeles’s Mark Taper
Forum, Washington’s Arena Stage, Chicago’s
Victory Gardens, San Francisco’s Magic The-
atre, Minneapolis Children’s Theatre, and
Oregon Shakespeare Festival, among many
others. Internationally, Cruz’s plays have been
produced in Canada, England, France, Austra-
lia, Germany, Belarus, Costa Rica, Colombia,
Panama, Japan, Russia, and in cities through-
out Spain. A graduate of Brown University,
the writer has received numerous prestigious
awards, including the Helen Merrill and the
Laura Pels Mid-Career Playwriting Award
and the Fontanals-Cisneros USA Fellowship
in literature. In 2003 Cruz became the first
Latino to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama,
thanks to his most celebrated work,
Anna in
the Tropics
. The play opened on Broadway to
great critical acclaim, won the 2003 Steinberg
Award for Drama, and was nominated for a
Tony Award in 2004. Further works written
by Cruz include
Two Sisters and a Piano
,
Life is
a Dream
,
Night Train to Bolina
,
A Park in Our
House
, and
Dancing on Her Knees
. As a lyricist
he has written three works with noted com-
poser Gabriela Lena Frank,
La Centinela y la
paloma
(St. Paul Chamber Orchestra),
Santos
(San Francisco Girls Chorus), and
The Journey
of the Shadow
(Berkley Chamber Orchestra).
ANN PATCHETT
(
Author
)
The bestselling author has
earned consistent critical
praise ever since her debut
novel,
The Patron Saint of
Liars
, was named a 1992
New York Times Notable
Book of the Year. Her novel
Taft
was awarded
the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize in 1994, and
Bel Canto
(2001), which has been translated
into more than 30 languages, received the
PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, and
the Book Sense Book of the Year prize. It was
also a finalist for the National Book Critics
Circle Award. In addition to three other novels
(
The Magician’s Assistant
,
Run
,
State of Wonder
)
and three nonfiction books, Patchett’s writing
has appeared in
The New York Times, Vogue,
The Washington Post
, and many other major
publications. She is the co-owner of Parnassus
Books in Nashville, Tennessee. The author has
been the recipient of numerous awards and
fellowships, including England’s Orange Prize,
PEN/Faulkner Award, the Harold D. Vursell
Memorial Award from the American Academy
of Arts and Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship,
The Chicago Tribune’s Heartland Prize, The
Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts,
the American Bookseller’s Association’s Most
Engaging Author Award, and the Women’s
National Book Association’s Award. In 2012
Time
magazine named Patchett one of the 100
Most Influential People in the World.
RENÉE FLEMING
(
Curator
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Creative consultant since
2010; eight roles since
1993-94, most recently
Hanna Glawari/
The Merry
Widow
(2015-16).
As Lyric’s creative consultant, the internation-
ally celebrated American soprano has been
involved with the development of
Bel Canto
since the work’s inception, initially propos-
ing Ann Patchett’s best-seller as the basis for
a new opera. Collaborating with Anthony
Freud and Sir Andrew Davis, Fleming under-
took extensive research over a period of many
months that resulted in Lyric awarding the
commission for this work to composer Jimmy
López. Fleming’s work with the opera’s cre-
ative team has been crucial over the four years
since
Bel Canto
was commissioned. She also
tapped the talents of another emerging com-
poser, Matthew Aucoin, which led to the most
recent Lyric Unlimited commission,
Second
Nature
(premiered in August 2015). Among
Fleming’s current projects for Lyric is
Chicago
Voices
, a multi-year, multifaceted project to
begin next summer, with pilot programs and
workshops in Chicago, culminating with a
gala in 2017. Fleming is continuing the high-
profile collaborations she has nurtured with
other Chicago-based arts institutions, includ-
ing developing an innovative performance
series,
To the Edge,
for the Harris Theater, to
debut in December, while also further devel-
oping Lyric’s young-professionals initiative
and serving as National Cultural Ambassador
for the Chicago Public Schools Arts Educa-
tion Plan. Advisor for Lyric’s Patrick G. and
Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, Fleming is also
nurturing young talent in the Chicago area
through Lyric Unlimited’s Vocal Partnership
Program, in association with five local schools.
DANIELLE
DE
NIESE
(
Roxane Coss
)
Previously at Lyric Opera
:
Susanna/
The Marriage
of Figaro
(2009-10);
Cleopatra/
Giulio
Cesare
(2007-08).
Australian-born and raised
in America, the soprano is the youngest alumna
of the Lindemann young-artist program at the
Metropolitan Opera, where she debuted at 19 as
Mozart’s Barbarina. Subsequent Met portrayals
include Despina, Euridice, Ariel/
The Enchanted
Island
, Susanna, and de Niese’s signature role,
Handel’s Cleopatra. She debuted in Europe as