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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
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|
February 11 - March 25, 2017
EKATERINA
GUBANOVA
(
Carmen – Feb. 11- March 6
)
Previously at Lyric:
Foreign Princess/
Rusalka
(2013-14).
One of today’s most
celebrated mezzo-sopranos,
the Moscow native, who
is making her role debut in this production,
has previously earned significant acclaim in
a number of leading French roles, such as
Clitemnestre/
Iphigénie en Aulide
(Rome Opera,
Riccardo Muti conducting), Marguerite/
The Damnation of Faust
(Madrid, Michel
Plasson conducting), Cassandre/
Les Troyens
(Carnegie Hall, Valery Gergiev conducting)
and Nicklausse
/Les contes d’Hoffmann
(Paris,
Milan). Gubanova’s successes in Wagner
include Brangäne (Metropolitan Opera, Paris,
Baden-Baden, Berlin, Tokyo, St. Petersburg,
Munich), Fricka (Milan, London, Berlin,
Baden-Baden) and Waltraute (Berlin). Her
highly successful Met debut as Hélène/
War
and Peace
was followed by Giulietta/
Les contes
d’Hoffmann
, Giovanna Seymour/
Anna Bolena
(company premiere, HD transmission), and
Eboli/
Don Carlo
. Gubanova’s most prestigious
concert appearances have included the Verdi
Requiem
with Muti (Tokyo, Vienna, Madrid)
and the Mahler song cycles and symphonies
in Paris, Moscow, Seoul, Dublin, Sydney, and
at the BBC Proms in London. The mezzo’s
schedule this season is highlighted by her return
to the Met as Amneris/
Aida
, Eboli/
Don Carlo
in
Florence (under Zubin Mehta), and Fricka/
The
Ring
at Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
ANITA
RACHVELISHVILI
(
Carmen - March 16-25
)
Lyric Opera debut
The renowned Georgian
mezzo-soprano, widely
established as one of the
major Carmens of her
generation, has triumphed
in the role at the Metropolitan Opera, the
Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Berlin State Opera,
Covent Garden, Seattle Opera, San Francisco
Opera, and Turin’s Teatro Regio, among many
other houses. She reprises her portrayal this
season at the Opéra National de Paris and the
Bavarian State Opera. With Jonas Kaufmann
and Daniel Barenboim, Rachvelishvili made
a sensational debut (seen on television
internationally) as Carmen in 2009, among
the youngest singers ever to open the La Scala
season in a starring role. She joined Kaufmann
again for her 2011 Carnegie Hall debut as the
Princess/
Adriana Lecouvreur
. In recent years
she has also won praise as Amneris/
Aida
in
Paris, Verona, Rome, Milan, and Detroit. The
mezzo-soprano returned to the Metropolitan
Opera in 2013-14 as Konchakovna in a new
production of Borodin’s
Prince Igor
, the
company’s first production of Borodin’s opera
in nearly a century. In addition to a growing
operatic repertoire – including Dalila/
Samson
et Dalila
(Paris and Amsterdam), Isabella/
L’italiana in Algeri
(Milan), and Orfeo/
Orfeo
ed Euridice
(Festival de Peralada, DVD) –
Rachvelishvili has recently returned to La Scala
for Verdi’s
Requiem
with Zubin Mehta.
JOSEPH CALLEJA
(
Don José
–
Feb. 11-
March 6
)
Previously at Lyric:
Romeo/
Romeo and Juliet
(2015-16); Alfredo
Germont/
La traviata
(2013-14, 2007-08);
Rodolfo/
La bohème
(2012-13).
Recipient of a 2016
Opera News
Award, the
2014 International Opera Awards’ Readers
Award, and
Gramophone
’s 2012 Artist of the
Year, the world-renowned Maltese tenor returns
this season to Covent Garden (Pollione/
Norma
),
the Metropolitan Opera (Duke of Mantua/
Rigoletto
), and Munich’s Bavarian State Opera
(Faust/
Mefistofele
). Calleja debuted in opera at
19 singing Macduff/
Macbeth
at Malta’s Astra
Theatre. Shortly thereafter he was an award-
winner in Vienna’s prestigious Hans Gabor
Belvedere Competition, which launched his
international career. Since then he has starred
in more than 25 leading roles with many major
companies, including Covent Garden (among
his roles there have been Alfredo/
La traviata
opposite Renée Fleming and Gabriele/
Simon
Bocccanegra,
both released on DVD), Oper
Frankfurt (an acclaimed role debut as Don José
last summer), the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the
Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the state operas
of Vienna and Berlin, and Paris’s Théâtre des
Champs-Élysées. The Grammy nominee has
recorded five highly praised solo discs, most
recently a program of popular songs entitled
“Amore.” He made his Hollywood debut in
the highly praised 2013 motion picture
The
Immigrant
, portraying legendary tenor Enrico
Caruso. Calleja recently teamed up with Malta’s
Bank of Valletta to form the BOV Joseph
Calleja Foundation, created to help children
and families in need.
BRANDON
JOVANOVICH
(
Don José
–
March 16-25
)
Previously at Lyric:
Six roles since 2009,
most recently Aeneas/
Les
Troyens
(2016-17); Walter/
The Passenger
(2014-15);
Prince/
Rusalka
(2013-14).
The American tenor, one of today’s most
celebrated interpreters of Bizet’s Don José,
triumphed in the role in his Metropolitan
Opera and Glyndebourne debuts. His
portrayal has also been heard in Vienna,
Munich, Zurich, Sydney, Los Angeles, and
many other major houses internationally.
Jovanovich’s exceptional versatility extends to
works of Wagner (
Lohengrin
– San Francisco,
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
– San
Francisco, Paris); Massenet (
Werther –
Opéra
de Lille); Puccini (
Madama Butterfly –
Los
Angeles, Santa Fe, Stuttgart, Toulon;
Tosca –
Cologne, Toronto, Seattle); Strauss (
Ariadne
auf Naxos
– Munich, Chicago, Boston);
Dvořák (
Rusalka
– Glyndebourne, CD); and
Janáček
(Jenůfa –
Munich;
Katya Kabanova
– Chicago). He has been extraordinarily
successful in contemporary opera, including
such formidable roles as Hans/Marco Tutino’s
Senso
(Palermo, world premiere), Hoffegut/
Walter Braunfels’s
Die Vögel
(Los Angeles,
DVD), Bocconion/Richard Rodney Bennett’s
The Mines of Sulphur
(Glimmerglass Festival,
CD), Bill/Jonathan Dove’s
Flight
(St. Louis),
and Levin/David Carlson’s
Anna Karenina
(Miami world premiere, St. Louis, CD). Recent
appearances with major orchestras include
Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis
and
Fidelio
(San
Francisco Symphony under Michael Tilson
Thomas),
Wozzeck
(Philharmonia Zurich), and
Tosca
(Act One with the Boston Symphony).
Among Jovanovich’s performances this season
are reprises of
Lohengrin
(Zurich, where the
tenor is a great favorite),
Lady Macbeth of
Mtsensk
(Vienna), and
Rusalka
(Met).
ELEONORA BURATTO
(
Micaëla
)
Lyric Opera debut
The Italian soprano, who
has rapidly risen to the top
rank internationally, has
portrayed Bizet’s Micaëla
with great success at the
Teatro dell’Opera in Rome
and the Teatro San Carlo in Naples. She
also appeared this season at Barcelona’s Gran
Teatre del Liceu (Mimì/
La bohème
) and at
the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam
(Countess Almaviva/
The Marriage of Figaro
).
Buratto has earned acclaim as Norina/
Don
Pasquale
in her 2016 Metropolitan Opera
debut, and in previous performances in Rome
and at the Teatro Real in Madrid. She recently
sang Alice/
Falstaff
with the Chicago Symphony
Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti
(she has also sung that role at the Savonlinna
and Ravenna festivals), as well as Adina/
L’elisir
d’amore
at Milan’s La Scala, a performance
seen by a worldwide television audience. The
role of Amelia/
Simon Boccanegra
introduced
her to audiences in Tokyo. Buratto has also
distinguished herself as a concert soloist, with
prestigious engagements including Mahler’s
Symphony No. 2
, Daniele Gatti conducting, at
the Opera di Firenze for the Maggio Musicale
Fiorentino. Born in Mantua, the soprano
graduated at the Conservatoire of her native
town, and she studied for three years under the
guidance of Luciano Pavarotti and then with
Paola Leolini.