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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
February 8 - March 13, 2016
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baritone debuted at Lyric Opera last season in
Capriccio
. Smoak has been heard with numerous
companies nationwide, with particular success
at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, where his roles
have included King of Hearts/Unsuk Chin’s
Alice in Wonderland
(American premiere), the
Pirate King/
The Pirates of Penzance
, Masetto/
Don Giovanni
, Antonio/
The Marriage of
Figaro
, and the Second Soldier/
Salome
. Last
year he appeared with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra in
L’enfant et les sortilèges
and
Pelléas
et Mélisande
. Smoak has also performed with
Boston Lyric Opera (
Les contes d’Hoffmann
),
Palm Beach Opera (
Otello
,
Don Giovanni,
Carmen
), Sarasota Opera (
La bohème
,
The
Crucible
), Opera Omaha (
Carmen
,
The Magic
Flute
,
Fidelio
), Opera North, Opera Charleston,
Opera Roanoke, Annapolis Opera, and DuPage
Opera Theatre. The bass-baritone’s appearances
at Ireland’s Wexford Festival Opera include
Corigliano’s
The Ghosts of Versailles,
Donizetti’s
Maria Padilla
, Smetana’s
The Kiss,
and Pergolesi’s
La serva padrona
. Smoak is an alumnus of Illinois
Wesleyan University.
Bradley Smoak is sponsored
by
The Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation
.
GEOFFREY AGPALO
(
Lackey
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Apprentice/
Die Meistersinger
von Nürnberg
(2012-13).
The tenor, a native of
Gurnee, Illinois, is an alum-
nus of the University of
Central Florida and Northwestern University.
While participating in the Opera Theatre of
Saint Louis young-artist program last season, he
portrayed Hooker/Tobias Picker’s
Emmeline
.
He will create the role of Gopinath/Jack Perla’s
Shalimar the Clown
at OTSL later this season.
Other performances include Künneke’s
The
Cousin from Nowhere
and Lehár’s
The Land of
Smiles
with Chicago Folks Operetta and, at
Northwestern, operas of Rossini, Lehár, Menot-
ti, and Corigliano. Agpalo’s concert appear-
ances include major works of Verdi, Beethoven,
Bach, and Mendelssohn. The tenor is a former
member of the Chautauqua Opera and Central
City Opera young-artist programs and has
performed with both the Lyric Opera Chorus
and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus.
HOSS BROCK
(
Lackey
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Four roles since 2012-13,
most recently Spanish
Ambassador to Peru/
Bel Canto
(2015-16);
Ensemble/
Carousel
(2014-
15); Baron Elberfeld/
The
Sound of Music
(2013-14).
A member of the Lyric Opera Chorus, the
American tenor has previously been seen on
the Lyric stage as Ike Skidmore/
Oklahoma,
Baron Elberfeld/T
he Sound of Music,
and
in the Ensemble of
Carousel
.
The current
season brings Brock to the Fort Wayne
Symphony in Indiana for Handel’s
Messiah.
The tenor has portrayed Almaviva/
The Barber
of Seville
with Lyric Unlimited’s “Opera in
the Neighborhoods” program, with L’Opera
Piccola, and for Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera
student matinees. Brock recently appeared
as Alfredo/
La traviata
with the Lake Geneva
Symphony Orchestra. He has performed
on San Francisco Opera’s mainstage (
Der
Rosenkavalier
) and in a varied concert repertoire
with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Grant
Park Music Festival (where he has also sung
Nanki-Poo/
The Mikado
), Peninsula Music
Festival, and Northwest Indiana Symphony.
KENNETH NICHOLS
(
Lackey
)
Previously at Lyric Opera
:
Ten roles since 2002-03,
most recently Undertaker/
Porgy and Bess
, Fourth
Servant/
Capriccio
(both
2014-15); Old Servant
/
Elektra
(2012-13).
Among the American bass-baritone’s roles in
Chicago have been the King and the Herald/
The Love for Three Oranges
(Chicago Cultural
Center) and Leporello/
Don Giovanni
(DuPage
Opera Theatre). He was an ensemble member
and sang many performances of the featured
role of Joe in Harold Prince’s production of
Show Boat
(1993-98) in New York, Toronto,
Chicago, and London. Since 1998 Nichols
has made seven appearances with “Night of
1,000 Voices,” the annual charity concert
at London’s Royal Albert Hall. His concert
activities have also included “An Evening of
Gershwin” earlier this year with Sarasota’s
Artist Series. Nichols is an alumnus of the
Crane School of Music/SUNY Potsdam.
RONALD WATKINS
(
Lackey
)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Six roles since 1994-95,
most recently Captain/
Carousel (
2014-Yamadori/
Madama Butterfly
(2013-
14); Joe/
Oklahoma!
(2012-13).
The baritone has appeared at DuPage Opera
Theatre (Marcello/
La bohème
), the Grant Park
Music Festival (Samuel/
The Pirates of Penzance
),
Light Opera Works (Captain Corcoran/
HMS
Pinafore
, Sir Richard Cholmundey/
The Yeoman
of the Guard
), Towpath Players in Rochester,
New York (Tony/
West Side Story
, Mr. Darling
and Captain Hook/
Peter Pan
), and with
Chicago Opera Theater, Madison’s Opera for
the Young, Eastman Opera Theater, and the
College Light Opera Company in Falmouth,
Massachusetts. He has sung a wide concert
repertoire throughout the Chicagoland area and
has been heard in numerous musical-theater
presentations at the Grant Park Music Festival.
EDWARD GARDNER
(
Conductor
)
Lyric Opera debut
Recently appointed chief
conductor of the Bergen
Philharmonic Orchestra,
the celebrated British
conductor is former music
director of London’s English National Opera
(where he most recently led
The Queen of
Spades
and
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
).
Gardner will return to ENO later this season
for
Tristan and Isolde
. His 2015-16 season
is further highlighted by debuts with the
Orchestre National de France, the Leipzig
Gewandhausorchester, and Frankfurt Radio
Orchestra. A graduate of Cambridge and
the Royal Academy of Music (where he
holds the newly created Mackerras Chair
of Conducting), Gardner has worked with
many of the world’s major orchestras and
opera companies, including the Metropolitan
Opera, La Scala, Glyndebourne, the Opéra
National de Paris, the London Philharmonic,
the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal
Concertgebouw, and the Czech Philharmonic,
among others. Gardner is principal guest
conductor of the City of Birmingham
Symphony Orchestra, earning acclaim for
such challenging works as Jonathan Harvey’s
Weltehos
(UK premiere, opening Britain’s
2012 Cultural Olympiad) and Britten’s
Spring
Symphony
and
War Requiem
to celebrate the
composer’s centenary year. Recent recordings
include critically acclaimed discs of Verdi’s
Macbeth
with ENO as well as orchestral
works of Janáček, Mendelssohn, Walton, and
Lutoslawski. Among Gardner’s numerous
awards are the 2008 Royal Philharmonic
Society Award (Best Conductor) and a 2009
Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement
in Opera. He was appointed to the Order of
the British Empire in 2012.