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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 2 - 22, 2019
NINA STEMME
(Elektra)
Lyric debut
Winner of the 2018
Birgit Nilsson Prize, the
internationally celebrated
Swedish soprano debuts
at Lyric with a portrayal
that previously earned
unanimous acclaim at the Metropolitan Opera,
the major houses of Vienna, Berlin, and Munich,
and in a Paris concert with the orchestra of Radio
France. Stemme began the current season as
Brünnhilde/
Ring
cycle at London’s Royal Opera
House Covent Garden, before returning to the
Italian repertoire as Turandot (Madrid) and Tosca
(Vienna). e season also includes both Kundry/
Parsifal
and Turandot in Munich and the Dyer’s
Wife/
Die Frau ohne Schatten
in Vienna. In addi-
tion to solo discs of Wagner and Strauss, Stemme
can heard on CD as Isolde (twice), Leonore/
Fidelio
, and the Walküre
Brünnhilde
. Her Isolde
is also available on DVD (Glyndebourne), as
are the heroines of
Siegfried
(La Scala),
Aida
and
Der Rosenkavalier
(both from Zurich),
La forza
del destino
and
La fanciulla del West
(both from
Vienna). Stemme first attracted international
attention as the winner of Plácido Domingo’s
1993 Operalia competition. Engagements fol-
lowed at the Met, La Scala, the Bayreuth Festival,
the Vienna State Opera, and Covent Garden.
e soprano, appointed a Swedish Court Singer
and an Austrian “Kammersängerin,” is a past
recipient of the “Premio Abbiati” critics’ award,
Olivier Award, International Opera Award, and
Opera News
Award.
(See
“
How
ey Handle
Elektra
,” pp. 30-32.)
ELZA VAN DEN
HEEVER
(Chrysothemis)
Previously at Lyric:
Armida/
Rinaldo
(2011/12).
e much-acclaimed South
African soprano scored a
triumph as Chrysothemis
last season at the Metropolitan Opera, where she has
also earned similarly lavish praise as Elettra/
Idomeneo
,
Elisabetta/
Maria Stuarda
(company premiere, HD),
and Donna Anna/
Don Giovanni
. She began the current
season at the Vienna State Opera as Elsa/
Lohengrin
(a
portrayal previously heard in Zurich and Munich).
Following Lyric’s
Elektra
she will return to the Met as
Vitellia/
La clemenza di Tito
and to Oper Frankfurt as
Norma (which she has also sung in Toronto, Dallas,
and Bordeaux). Van den Heever has scored successes
in an astonishingly varied repertoire, including operas
of Mozart (
Così fan tutte
, Paris, Dallas); Beethoven
(
Fidelio
, Zurich); Britten (
Peter Grimes
, Vienna,
London); Verdi (
I Lombardi
, Hamburg;
Ernani
,
Frankfurt;
Il trovatore
, Bordeaux;
Otello
, Frankfurt;
Don Carlo
, Bordeaux, Strasbourg); and Puccini
(
Il trittico
, Frankfurt). At San Francisco Opera, where
she participated in the company’s Merola Opera and
Adler Fellowship programs, she appeared in the world
premiere of Philip Glass’s
Appomattox
. Among her
successes in concert have been Britten’s
War Requiem
with the Kölner Philharmonie under Semyon Bychkov,
and Strauss’s
Four Last Songs
and Mahler’s
Symphony
No. 8
(Grammy-winning CD) with Michael Tilson
omas and the San Francisco Symphony.
MICHAELA MARTENS
(Klytämnestra)
Previously at Lyric:
Nurse/
Die Frau ohne
Schatten
(2007/08).
e American mezzo-
soprano is renowned
internationally for portrayals
of some of the most
memorably dramatic roles in the repertoire. In addition
to Klytämnestra (San Francisco, Houston) and the
Nurse/
Die Frau ohne Schatten
(Oper Graz), her other
successes in Strauss include Adelaide/
Arabella
(San
Francisco earlier this season) and Herodias/
Salome
( e Santa Fe Opera, Pittsburgh Opera). Among her
other German roles are Kundry/
Parsifal
(Metropolitan
Opera), Gertrud/
Hansel and Gretel
(Bavarian State
Opera, Met, English National Opera) and Fricka/
Das
Rheingold
(North Carolina Opera). Martens has taken
on works of composers as varied as Berlioz (Cassandre/
Les Troyens
, San Francisco, Geneva), Massenet (title
role/
Hérodiade
, Washington), Giordano (Countess/
Andrea Chénier
, Met), Bartók (Judith/
Bluebeard’s
Castle
, New Japan Philharmonic, ENO), Janáček
(Kostelnička/
Jenůfa
, ENO), Virgil
omson (Susan
B. Anthony/
e Mother of Us All
, New York’s
Hudson Opera House), and John Adams (Marilyn
Klinghoffer/
e Death of Klinghoffer
, Met, ENO, St.
Louis Symphony). She debuted at Carnegie Hall with
the American Symphony Orchestra in the title role
of Magnard’s rarely heard
Bérénice
. Additional recent
concert engagements include Beethoven’s
Symphony
No. 9
(Cleveland Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony)
and the Verdi
Requiem
(Grant Park Music Festival,
Spoleto Festival USA).
IAIN PATERSON
(Orest)
Lyric debut
One of today’s leading
interpreters of heroic bass-
baritone repertoire, the
Scottish artist began the
season with performances
at the Berlin State Opera
as Creonte/
Medea
. Following Lyric’s
Elektra
he
will sing Wotan/
Ring
cycle (Oper Leipzig, where
he starred in the complete
Ring
last season) and in
the title role/
e Flying Dutchman
(Deutsche Oper
Berlin). Recent Wagner successes include Gunther/
Götterdämmerung
(company debut, Semperoper
Dresden) as well as Kurwenal/
Tristan und Isolde
(Bayreuth Festival, Dutch National Opera, Bavarian
State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Royal Opera
House Covent Garden), the Dutchman (Flanders
Opera, Oper Frankfurt, Accademia di Santa Cecilia).
Wotan/
Das Rheingold
(Bayreuth, Hallé Orchestra -
CD), Wotan/
Die Walküre
(Houston Grand Opera),
Wotan/
Siegfried
(Edinburgh International Festival),
and Hans Sachs/
Die Meistersinger von Nürnber
g
(English National Opera, Hall
é
Orchestra), among
other prestigious engagements. Paterson is equally
celebrated for Strauss, with successes including
Elektra
(Vienna), Peneios/
Daphne
(Brussels), and Jochanaan/
Salome
(Stuttgart). In 2017 he created the central
role of Leontes/Ryan Wigglesworth’s
e Winter’s
Tale
at English National Opera. He has appeared
with many major orchestras and has collaborated with
such distinguished conductors as Daniel Barenboim,
Christian
ielemann, Antonio Pappano, Sir Simon
Rattle, and Christoph von Dóhnanyi. Paterson can be
seen on DVD in
Aida
(Bregenz Festival) and
Gloriana
(Opera North).
ROBERT BRUBAKER
(Aegisth)
Lyric debut
e American tenor is
established internationally
as a formidable singing
actor, singing an immensely
varied repertoire. Prominent
among his numerous
Metropolitan Opera roles have been Mime/
Das
Rheingold
and
Siegfried
, the Witch/
Hansel and Gretel
,
Golitsyn/
Khovanshchina
, Mephistopheles/
Doktor
Faust
(company premiere), and Chairman Mao/
Nixon in China
(company premiere, DVD). His
many exceptionally challenging roles in 20th- and
21st-century repertoire have ranged from the Captain/
Berg’s
Wozzeck
(Santa Fe), Alviano/Schreker’s
Die
Gezeichneten
(Los Angeles, Salzburg, CD, DVD),
and the title role/ Zemlinsky’s
Der König Kandaules
(Vienna, Salzburg, CD) to Pierre/Prokofiev’s
War
and Peace
(Paris, DVD), the Jailer and Inquisitor/
Dallapiccola’s
Il prigioniero
(Barcelona), Bégearss/
Corigliano’s
e Ghosts of Versailles
(Los Angeles, CD),
Old Man Marshall/Turnage’s
Anna Nicole
(Brooklyn
Academy of Music), Don Ignacio/Eötvös’s
Of Love and
Other Demons
(Strasbourg), and Wilmer McLean and
J. Edgar Hoover/Glass’s
Appomattox
(Washington).
Brubaker has triumphed as Peter Grimes at the
Canadian Opera Company, the Aldeburgh Festival,
and English National Opera. Another British success
was Bacchus/
Ariadne auf Naxos
at Covent Garden
(opening night of Antonio Pappano’s first season as
music director). Following Lyric’s
Elektra
, the tenor
will portray Dr. Caius/
Falstaff
at Dallas Opera. Last
season brought him to San Francisco (
Turandot,
Elektra, Manon
) and to Turin’s Teatro Regio (
Salome
).
SUSAN FOSTER
(Overseer)
Previously at Lyric:
Seven roles since
1989/90, most recently
ird Maid/
Elektra
(1992/93); Gaudy Lady/
e Gambler
,
Peasant Girl/
e Marriage
of Figaro
(both 1991/92).
e American soprano, an alumna of the Ryan
Opera Center (formerly the Lyric Opera Center
for American Artists), has been widely acclaimed
in dramatic repertoire, such as Puccini’s Turandot
(Opera Australia/DVD, San Francisco Opera,
Hawaii Opera
eater, Finland’s Savonlinna Opera
Festival, Greek National Opera). Foster debuted at