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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
December 7, 2015 - January 17, 2016
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Cleopatra in Amsterdam, and the role catapulted
her to stardom at Glyndebourne (DVD). Her
stage performances encompass such starring roles
as Handel’s Galatea
(Covent Garden, DVD),
Rodelinda (Toronto), Ginevra/
Ariodante
(Paris,
London, Vienna), Semele (Paris), and Partenope
(San Francisco); Donizetti’s Adina and Norina
(Glyndebourne, the latter on DVD); and Puc-
cini’s Lauretta (Los Angeles, Tokyo). Earlier this
year, de Niese portrayed Susanna (Hamburg,
Met), inaugurated the new Philharmonie de
Paris with William Christie and Les Arts Floris-
sants, and returned to Glyndebourne to star in
both
L’heure espagnole
and
L’enfant et les sortilèges
.
The soprano, who has performed with the major
orchestras of New York, Cleveland, and San
Francisco, began this season with a BBC double-
header – the “Last Night of the Proms” (opposite
Jonas Kaufmann) and Hyde Park’s “Proms in
the Park.” De Niese’s many acclaimed record-
ings include four solo discs. She has received an
Emmy as host for the television program
L.A.
Kids
(at age 16), New Artist of the Year at the
ECHO Awards, France’s Orphée D’Or, and a
Classical Brit Award nomination as Female Artist
of the Year.
J’NAI BRIDGES
(
Carmen
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Nine roles since 2012-13,
most recently Vlasta/
The
Passenger
, Inez/
Il trovatore
(both 2014-15); Second
Wood Nymph/
Rusalka
(2013-14).
An alumna of the Ryan Opera Center and
native of Lakewood, Washington, the mezzo-
soprano has previously been heard in numerous
contemporary works in Chicago, including
Bernstein’s
Songfest
(Ravinia Festival), Bolcom’s
Cabaret Songs
(Grant Park Music Festival),
and Ravel’s
Chansons Madécasses
and Stravin-
sky’s
Priboutky
(Chicago Symphony Orchestra
debut). Bridges represented the United States
as a finalist at the 2015 BBC Cardiff Singer of
the World competition. Among her 2015-16
engagements are Suzuki/
Madama Butterfly
(San
Diego Opera), Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 9
(Los Angeles Philharmonic, Simon Bolivar
Youth Orchestra), and Ravel’s
Shéhérazade
(Hamburg’s NDR Symphony Orchestra under
Esa-Pekka Salonen). Bridges graduated from
the Manhattan School of Music and Phila-
delphia’s Curtis Institute of Music, where she
appeared in a highly diverse operatic reper-
toire. She has subsequently sung the title role/
Carmen
at the Finger Lakes Opera (Geneseo,
New York) and the Glimmerglass Festival,
Suzuki (Wolf Trap Opera), and Adalgisa/
Norma
(Knoxville Opera). Concert appearances
include performances at the Kennedy Center
and with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra
and Opera Orchestra of New York. Bridges
has received the Women’s Voice Fellowship
from the Luminarts Cultural Foundation, a
Sara Tucker Grant, a Sullivan Award, and the
Marian Anderson Award.
RAFAEL DAVILA
(
General Alfredo
)
Lyric Opera debut
A native of Puerto Rico,
the tenor boasts an exten-
sive repertory of more than
50 roles, including heroes
of Donizetti, Verdi, and
Puccini operas, as well as numerous Spanish,
Venezuelan, and Cuban zarzuelas. Highlights
of the current season include Davila’s return to
Washington National Opera (Don José/
Car-
men
), Pinkerton/
Madama Butterfly
at the Opera
de Puerto Rico, and his return to Valencia as
Radames/
Aida.
Last season marked Davila’s
debut at the Macerata Festival as Canio and
Turiddu/
Pagliacci
/
Cavalleria
rusticana
, and his
return to Naples’ Teatro San Carlo as Turiddu
(debut in 2005 in the title role/Verdi’s
Gus-
tavo III
, the original version of
Un ballo in
maschera
). He has also recently portrayed Des
Grieux/
Manon Lescaut
(Valencia), Dick John-
son/
La fanciulla del West
and Don José/
Car-
men
(The Minnesota Opera), Cavaradossi/
Tosca
(Leipzig Opera), and Alvaro/
La forza del destino
(Washington National Opera, Florida Grand
Opera, and in concert in Puerto Rico opposite
Deborah Voigt). Davila’s recordings of Ariel
Ramírez’s
Misa Criolla
and Rafael Hernán-
dez’s
Cofresí
were both nominated for Grammy
Awards. The tenor trained at the Puerto Rico
Conservatory of Music before graduating from
the University of Texas at Austin with a master’s
degree in opera performance.
ANDREW STENSON
(
Gen Watanabe
)
Lyric Opera debut
Highlights of the Ameri-
can tenor’s current season
include appearances at Ari-
zona Opera (Don Otta-
vio/
Don Giovanni
), Fort
Worth Opera (Count Almaviva/
The Barber
of Seville
), and the Cincinnati Symphony
(Handel’s
Messiah
). Stenson has been a Young
Artist with San Francisco Opera’s Merola
Opera Program (
Postcard from Morocco
),
The Santa Fe Opera (Head Man/
The Let-
ter
), Glimmerglass Opera (Martin/
The Tender
Land
, Jimmy O’Keefe/John Musto’s
Later the
Same Evening
), Seattle Opera (Arturo/
Lucia
di Lammermoor
, title role/
Werther
, Ernesto/
Don Pasquale
), and the Metropolitan Opera’s
Lindemann Program (Beppe/
Pagliacci
, Deme-
trius/
The Enchanted Island
). Among his other
important operatic credits are Tonio/
La fille
du regiment
, (Seattle Opera), Belmonte/
The
Abduction from the Seraglio
(Utah Opera),
Danny Chen/Huang Ruo’s
An American Sol-
dier
(Washington National Opera debut), and
Brighella/
Ariadne auf Naxos
(Glyndebourne
debut). Stenson is an alumnus of Luther
College (Tamino/
The Magic Flute
) and the
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory
(Curley/
Of Mice and Men
). Winner of a Sara
Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker
Foundation and a Richard F. Gold Career
Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, Sten-
son was a major award winner in the Opera
Index competition and second-prize winner
in both the Queen Sonja International Vocal
Competition and the Licia Albanese-Puccini
Foundation competition.
JEONGCHEOL CHA
(
Katsumi Hosokawa
)
Lyric Opera debut
A native of Seoul, Korea,
the bass-baritone studied
at Bard College Conserva-
tory, where he performed
the role of Prince Gabriel
III/David T. Little’s
Vonkensport
(world pre-
miere). Cha graduated with an artist diploma
from New York’s Juilliard School and scored
a great success there in the title role/
Don
Pasquale.
He has also appeared at Juilliard as
Germano/Rossini’s
La scala di seta
, Wu Tian-
shi/Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’s
Kommilitonen!
(American premiere), and the title role/
Don
Giovanni
. Among his engagements in recent
seasons have been appearances with North
Carolina Opera (title role/
Don Giovanni
),
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis (Don Basilio/
The Barber of Seville
), the Metropolitan Opera
(Yamadori/
Madama Butterfly
, Second Watch-
man/
Die Frau ohne Schatten
), the Chautauqua
Institute (Dulcamara/
L’elisir d’amore
), and the
Seoul City Opera (Leporello/
Don Giovanni
).
The bass-baritone has received numerous pres-
tigious awards, including First Prize of the
2012 Connecticut Opera Guild Competition,
Second Prize at the 2013 Gerda Lissner Foun-
dation Competition, and a full scholarship at
the 2012 and 2013 Chautauqua Music Festi-
val. Cha was a 2011 New England Regional
Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions and a 2013 scholarship
recipient from the Liederkranz foundation.