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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
January 28 - February 24, 2017
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ANDREA
SILVESTRELLI
(
Oroveso
)
Previously at Lyric:
Ten roles since 2000-
01, most recently
Ferrando/
Il trovatore
,
Commendatore/
Don
Giovanni
(both 2014-15); Sparafucile/
Rigoletto
(2012-13).
The Italian bass, who has previously
portrayed Oroveso at the Finnish National
Opera, has most recently performed
in the
Ring
cycle (Tyrolean Festival in
Erl, Austria – his third
Ring
with the
company), and as the Grand Inquisitor/
Don Carlo
and Don Basilio/
The Barber
of Seville
(both at San Francisco Opera).
Silvestrelli is a favorite at these venues,
having also portrayed King Marke/
Tristan
und Isolde
and King Henry/
Lohengrin
in Erl, and the Nightwatchman/
Die
Meistersinger von Nürnberg
, Wurm/
Luisa
Miller
, Pistola/
Falstaff
, and Sparafucile/
Rigoletto
in San Francisco. He reprises
his Sparafucile there later this season,
along with Hagen/
Götterdämmerung
in
Houston. The bass’s successes in Wagner
and Verdi are mirrored by achievements
in Mozart, including the Commendatore/
Don Giovanni
(Lyric, La Scala, London,
Bologna, Parma, Paris, Los Angeles,
among many other companies), Sarastro
(Philadelphia, Tel Aviv, Santa Fe), and
Osmin (Lyric, San Francisco, Houston,
Munich). Silvestrelli has recorded
Donizetti’s rarely heard
Adelia
(CD,
Haydn Orchestra), as well as
Don Carlo
(CD, La Scala Orchestra, Riccardo
Muti conducting) and
Rigoletto
(DVD,
Toscanini Foundation Orchestra). Among
his previous successes in concert have
been Verdi’s
Requiem
(Siena, Sydney,
Munich), Rossini’s
Stabat Mater
(Berlin),
Mahler’s
Symphony No. 8
(Amsterdam’s
Concertgebouw), and Puccini’s
Messa di
Gloria
(Hamburg).
HLENGIWE
MKHWANAZI
(
Clotilde
)
Previously at Lyric:
First Noble Orphan/
Der Rosenkavalier
,
Barbarina/
The Marriage
of Figaro
(both 2015-
16); Clara/
Porgy and Bess
(2014-15).
The third-year Ryan Opera Center
member is a native of KwaZulu-Natal
and former resident of Cape Town,
South Africa. She made her Grant Park
Music Festival debut last summer in
Mozart’s
Mass in C Minor
, and portrayed
Susanna/
The Marriage of Figaro
at Brown
University. The soprano debuted in
Chicago singing the title role/
Les mamelles
de Tirésias
with the Civic Orchestra (where
she returned last season to sing Ophelia’s
Mad Scene from
Hamlet
). Mkhwanazi is
an alumna of the South African College
of Music (University of Cape Town). Her
competition successes include the 2015
Women’s Voice Fellowship (Luminarts
Cultural Foundation), her homeland’s
SAMRO International Singing Scholar-
ship (second prize) and Muzicanto
Singing Competition (first prize), and
Vienna’s 2012 Hans Gabor Belvedere
International Singing Competition
(second overall prize, media jury prize,
audience prize). Among her leading roles
in Cape Town are Fiordiligi, Konstanze,
and Antonia, all at Cape Town Opera;
and Donizetti’s Adina, Stravinsky’s Anne
Trulove, and Rossini’s Madama Cortese
(
Il viaggio a Reims
) at the Baxter Theatre.
Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi is sponsored by
The
Susan and Richard P. Kiphart Family
and
Drs. Funmi and Sola Olopade
.
JESSE DONNER
(
Flavio
)
Previously at Lyric:
Seven roles since 2014-
15, most recently
First Armed Man/
The Magic Flute
,
Helenus/
Les Troyens,
Froh/
Das Rheingold
(all 2016-17).
A third-year Ryan Opera Center member
and native of Des Moines, Iowa, the
tenor was featured last May with soprano
Christine Brewer and mezzo-soprano
Annie Rosen in the Harris Theater’s
“Beyond the Aria” series. Donner holds
a master’s degree from the University of
Michigan (where he was heard as both
Bacchus/
Ariadne auf Naxos
and the title
role/Viktor Ullmann’s
Der Kaiser von
Atlantis
) and a bachelor’s degree from
Iowa State University. In 2015 he won
the coveted Luminarts Fellowship for
Men’s Classical Voice and was awarded
the Grand Prize in the Bel Canto
competition. Formerly, he received the
2014 George Shirley Award for Opera
Performance and a special encouragement
award from the 2014 Metropolitan Opera
National Council Regional Auditions.
Other performing credits include his
debut with Opera in the Ozarks as
Pinkerton/
Madama Butterfly
, as well as
concert appearances with the Grant Park
Orchestra, Civic Orchestra of Chicago,
the Toledo Symphony, Adrian Symphony,
and University of Michigan Symphony
Orchestra.
Jesse Donner is sponsored by
Robert C. Marks
and
Susan M. Miller
.