La fuerza del sino – the play by the Duke of Rivas on which the opera is based – requires its public (and it still has a public) to believe in a code of honor that drives people to punish human nature and even mere accidents with bloody murder, and in a power of fate, a “force of destiny,” that can enable murder to find its victims through the most improbable coincidences of time or place. 

The wheel of fate is set in motion by a doubly unintentional death:  Don Alvaro, of mixed Spanish and Inca blood, wants to elope with Eleonora de Vargas, and when he is caught in her room at night, his sense of honor compels him to offer his breast to the dagger of her father, the Marquis of Calatrava.  The Marquis’ sense of justice (and his unsubtle racial prejudice), however, cause him to consider Alvaro unworthy of death at his noble hands, and he says that the seducer must instead be handed over to the hangman.  Alvaro, insisting that he will yield to the Marquis and only to him, throws down his pistol, which the fires from the floor, killing the Marquis, and the cycle of fate turns inexorably from this point.  Eleonora feels she must expiate her “crime” by withdrawing entirely from the world, as a religious hermit living in a cave cut off from any human contact.  Alvaro seeks glorious death in battle, and failing that, a hermitage of his own in a monastery.  But Eleonora’s brother Carlos is driven to revenge: both his sister and her lover must die to cleanse the stain on the family’s honor.  By the end of the play, all these wishes have come true and all participants in the initial conflict, along with the brother, lie dead. 

It is untenable to consider this ridiculous in a world where teenage girls are still beheaded by their relatives for losing their virginity, where parents excommunicate their gay children, where unstable fathers murder their whole families before committing suicide, where neighbors butcher one another for being Hutu or Tutsi, Sunni or Shia, Jew or Gentile when war breaks out.   The relentless force of blind, irrational, murderous passion still lives below the surface of civilized life, and breaks through that surface oftener than we like to consider in daily life.  Verdi felt this keenly both as a man and an artist.

But he felt something else as well, and brought it to life in La forza del destino in ways that make it his most radical and ambitious opera.  Following the source play, he includes scenes of ordinary life – soldiers, vivandieres, local officials, wandering pedlars, buffoonish religious proselytizers, war-ravaged beggars – that have only the slightest connection to the fatal trajectory of the nobles in the main plot.  These are not mere local color; they account for three enormous scenes full of vivid music, music in which Verdi tried his hand at the colors and tones that made Falstaff possible at the end of his extraordinary life.  Moreover, he cared enough about these scenes to reach beyond Rivas’ play and the libretto of his trusted collaborator Francesco Maria Piave, incorporating bits from a Schiller drama (Wallensteins Lager, translated by Andrea Maffei) that had long interested him.  

This juxtaposition of pessimism and hearty embrace of the world’s foibles is nothing less than a philosophical self-portrait.  Our sense of Verdi the man comes mostly through his voluminous correspondence.  He was both funny and ready to be amused; he was also bitter and ready to assume the worst about the motives of others.  He longed for peace and a united Italy, and yet he was no pacifist (two anecdotes: he dismissed a plan in his hometown to raise funds for a statue of the new King of Italy and proposed the substitute goal of buying the King something useful, a cannon; later, when he was showing a squeamish conductor friend how to use a rifle, he encouraged him with the comment “don’t worry, it doesn’t bite, it only kills.”)  He wrote some of the world’s most beautiful and concentrated sacred music, yet when his wife tried to speak to him of God, redemption or the afterlife, “he laughs at me,” she said. 

Verdi’s original Forza del destino followed both these facets to the end, finishing with the bloody tableau of the original play.  As Philip Gossett describes in the program note printed below, he backed off when circumstances required him to revise the opera, finishing it instead with Don Alvaro still alive and with a note of Christian resignation.  The music of the new finale is gorgeous, but I believe Verdi undermined his opera with it (and with the attendant reordering of episodes).   Verdians have always loved the work for its incredible musical beauty and intensity, yet have almost unanimously considered it something of a disordered sprawl, and have subjected it to further cuts and rearrangements as a result.  The original Forza is not a sprawl but a Shakespearean panoply of life in the full.  I consider it the closest Verdi ever came to saying (in the words of Boito’s Mephistopheles), “ecco il mondo” – here is the world.

                                                                       -  Will Crutchfield, Director of Opera

Back to Top

LA FORZA DEL DESTINO:  THREE STATES OF ONE OPERA
by Philip Gossett*

Will the real La forza del destino please stand up? Verdi wrote to all his friends that he had “completed” his opera for St. Petersburg in 1861 (although, as always, he planned to finish its orchestration during rehearsals). When Emilia La Grua—the prima donna scheduled to sing the part of Leonora—took ill, however, the composer departed from Russia, carrying his score with him back home to Santa’Agata, near the town of Busseto. There, during the summer of 1862, he polished his opera, made some major changes in its structure, and completed its orchestration. Then he set off for St. Petersburg again. During rehearsals, he introduced still other changes, often to suit the needs of particular singers. When we refer to the Saint Petersburg version of the opera, essentially the version you will hear tonight, it is normally to the work as performed on 10 November 1862. But the composer was hardly done with his score. A few months later, for a performance he directed in Madrid on 21 February 1863, he made still other modifications, some to further particular artistic aims, some tied to his new singers.  For example, the tenor cabaletta that concludes Act III, originally written on the C major model of the corresponding pieces in Guillaume Tell and Il Trovatore and concluding on the high C that his tenor, Enrico Tamberlick, was famous for delivering in those operas.  In Madrid it went down to B-flat, because (as the composer explained in a letter) “nobody will be able to sing what was written for Tamberlick.”

La forza del destino in the St. Petersburg/Madrid version is a work of great beauty and emotional power, but it had a difficult time making its way in the world of Italian opera during the 1860s. Some sections were considered “old-fashioned” in an environment in which the Wagnerian revolution was beginning to be felt, and the extraordinary aria with which Verdi had originally concluded the third act made for a marathon few tenors could complete. Moreover, the stark tragedy, in which all three protagonists perish without hope or consolation, did not win the hearts of opera-goers, even if the composer had tried to leaven the sadness with “characteristic” scenes, one in an inn (the “Scena Osteria”) and one in a military camp (the “Accampamento”), and even with a frankly comic character, Fra Melitone. After contemplating his opera for several years, Verdi decided in the end to revise it yet again for performances six years later at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, beginning on 27 February 1869. He eliminated or modified some of the formal structures, in order to make them more “modern”; he added a marvelous overture (in place of the original Prelude, a lovely piece, but less ambitious); and he concluded the opera with his tenor still alive among the community of monks and his dying soprano promising to await him in heaven.

I do not think Verdi’s changes were always improvements. The structure of the third act, for example, suffers dreadfully in 1869. Having decided to omit the final Don Alvaro aria, Verdi wanted a blockbuster conclusion to the act, and could think of nothing better than the scene in the military camp, concluding with Preziosilla’s “Rataplan.” The result, though, is that the Duet between the healed Don Alvaro and Don Carlo takes place immediately after Don Carlo vows revenge on the man who has just had a successful operation. In St. Petersburg, the Accampamento scene introduces a welcome break between these two dramatic moments; by placing the Duet before the Accampamento, Verdi has ruined the careful dramaturgy of the original.

These performances of the 1862/1863 version are using a new critical edition of La forza del destino, which I have prepared, in part based on previous work by the late William C. Holmes. It will ultimately be published together with a complete score of the 1869 version as well as with all the surviving evidence (and there is an enormous amount) pertaining to the 1861 version (this afternoon members of Caramoor’s Bel Canto Young Artists program performed several pieces from 1861 for the first time in the United States).

Why do we need a new edition of La forza del destino? To begin with, the 1861 music is completely unknown (and it includes some truly beautiful pieces, which should be available to performers for special occasions, even if it would probably not be appropriate to reinsert them into the opera). Furthermore, no full score has ever been printed of the 1862 version and available materials are all based on secondary sources. The new critical edition in most cases has been able to work from Verdi’s own autograph manuscripts, which were recently made available to scholars by the Verdi family in Sant’Agata, thanks to the good offices of the Istituto di Studi Verdiani of Parma. The differences are palpable.

For the 1869 version, Verdi’s Milanese publisher, Ricordi, has published a reasonably good orchestral score since the end of the nineteenth century, although the composer himself had nothing to do with its preparation. Still, Verdi himself had reservations about the quality of work done by the firm. He was in Madrid in January and February 1863 to stage the opera, as we have seen. Having just examined the materials Ricordi provided for the performances, he was not pleased. These are his own words, from a letter to Ricordi, written on 17 January 1863:

Permit me to make some frank and sincere observations about your copyists, who must be better supervised. Apart from their terrible handwriting, the uncertainty of the notes, all the many errors, what I absolutely can’t pardon is the almost complete lack of colors and expression. Never or almost never in the vocal parts is there a scenic indication, never a “crescendo,” “staccato,” “rallentando,” “stentato,” pppp, ffff, etc. At the most a few simple f or p. In this way the music becomes a solfeggio [singing exercise]. Worse, your copyists have the unfortunate habit of adding notes (and imagine what notes) when I choose to elide two vowels under a single note. They think it is ignorance on my part, and make two notes where I write one.
Let me give you an example. With all these faults, in the printed vocal parts of the Rataplan alone, which is about 80 measures long, I corrected 14 errors of notes and 74 indications of color or expression. A piece for voices alone in which the entire effect resides in the colors becomes a non-entity. In short, it is clear that your copyists work too quickly. If they are paid by the page, pay them instead by the hour; augment their salaries; do whatever you think best. But stop this disorder, which can have a devastating impact on the success or failure of an opera.

It isn’t hard to imagine why a publisher would prefer to pretend these words didn’t exist!

Now, let’s not exaggerate: over the years Ricordi has indeed supervised its employees better and currently available materials for La forza del destino are not so disastrous. The history of the work, though, is complicated: sorting out that history and making the music available in all of the forms for which Verdi was responsible is the work of the critical edition.

Some of the most astonishing novelties will be heard in Caramoor. From the 1861 version, for example, I particularly like an early version of the Romanza for Leonora in the first act, “Me pellegrina ed orfana.” Also lovely is a ballad for the Alcade (Mayor) that Verdi originally planned at the beginning of the scene in the inn. At that stage in the history of the opera, however, Leonora never appeared on stage during the first half of Act II, so there was no elegant ensemble (“Su noi prostrati e supplici”). Once he decided to introduce Leonora into the scene, with her voice soaring over the new ensemble, Verdi most have felt that the ballad excessively prolonged the scene and he pulled it. While he was probably right, it is good also to know this attractive composition.

But even for passages unchanged between the 1862 and 1869 versions there are important surprises. The printing history of Forza is as complicated as its genesis. Verdi had relatively little to do with the printing of the 1862 version, while in 1869—when he was working in Milan side-by-side with Ricordi copyists—he concentrated exclusively on the changes he was making, not on the old material he had left unaltered.  As a result, many, many errors in the early editions were carried over into later prints and continue to circulate today. Two of my favorites have to do with words, and both are immediately audible. When Fra Melitone makes his comic sermon during the scene in the military encampment, he puns on the sins of the assembled soldiers and camp followers (their peccati), which are spread over them like so much pitch (pece). With such pece, he concludes there can never be peace (pace). After declaiming several times “con tal pece non v’è pace,” the Ricordi scores have him obsessively repeat “pece, pece, pece, pece.” That’s not what Verdi wrote: he finished by alternating “pece, pace, pece, pace.” Once you get the joke, you can only wince when you hear how the printed scores ruined it. And then there’s the “Rataplan” in which the chorus sings over and over “Pim, pum, pum,” according to the printed scores. But Verdi’s text, which any Italian child knows from its appearances in other songs, is actually “Pim, pum, pam,” with that explosive final “a” vowel. How could anyone get it so wrong?

Making a critical edition, however, is not just a matter of copying mindlessly an autograph source: it requires constant comparison of all surviving musical materials, taking into account letters, the testimony of contemporaries, and a profound knowledge of the social framework of Italian opera houses. At the end of the process, it is our job to give today’s performers what we believe to be the best possible score of the opera, as close as we can come to Verdi’s own desires. Then it is up to them to make music and theater.

*Note:  Philip Gossett is the Robert W. Reneker Distinguished Service Professor at The University of Chicago and a Professor "di chiara fama" at the University of Rome "La Sapienza."  He is general editor of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi.

Back to Top

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Daniel Borowski, bass ~ The swift progress of the career of the young Polish bass Daniel Borowski attests to the unusual maturity of his voice and his special gifts as a musician and actor.  While still in his twenties he came to the attention of important conductors, opera companies and orchestras including Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin where he appeared as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Daniel Barenboim; as Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, as Banquo in Macbeth conducted by Michael Gielen and as Oroveso in Norma.  At Opéra du Rhin Strasbourg and at Schwetzingen Festival he appeared as The Commendatore in Don Giovanni which was telecast live worldwide on the ARTE Television Network.  He was Colline in a new production of La Bohème at Frankfurt Opera, The Water Sprite in Rusalka in the Netherlands and Massimiliano in a concert performance of a Verdi rarity, I Masnadieri in London under Sir Edward Downes. His first assignment at Glyndebourne Festival was covering Fiesco and singing Pietro in Simon Boccanegra under the baton of Mark Elder.  He was the recipient of that season’s John Christie Award.           

Daniel Borowski was selected as Debut Artist of the Year by The New York City Opera for his first season performances of Banquo in Macbeth, Colline in La Bohème and Commendatore in Don Giovanni and was reengaged to sing Raimondo in a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor in the fall of 2003.  He sang his first performances of Daland in Der fliegende Holländer with Spoleto Festival USA and his first performances of Sparafucile in Rigoletto with Boston Lyric Opera.  With Grand Théâtre de Genève, at Berlin Staatsoper unter der Linden and at Teatro Carlo Felice Genoa he portrayed Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia and with the Minnesota, Nantes and Angers Opera Companies he appeared as Sarastro.  In Basel he sang a Gala Concert with Edita Gruberova and Neil Shicoff.   

To his ever-expanding repertoire Mr. Borowski added Ermito Piero in a virtually unknown Donizetti work, Pia de Tolomei in Venice’s rebuilt La Fenice; First Nazarene for his Teatro alla Scala debut in the acclaimed Luc Bondy production of Salome under the baton of Daniel Harding and Trulove in The Rake’s Progress at Santa Cecilia in Rome.   He portrayed Oroveso in Norma at Opéra de Montréal and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte at San Diego Opera and in his debuts with the Opera Companies of Madrid, Lyon and Detroit.  He sang the Mozart Requiem on tour in nine German cities as well as in London and Prague with Sir Neville Marriner and the Orchestra of St. Martin’s in the Fields.  He appeared on nationwide television in Italy with RAI in a performance of Rossini’s Stabat Mater and in London at the Barbican Center with Sir Colin Davis and The London Symphony he was Don Fernando in Fidelio, a performance released on CD by LSO Live.  The London “Mail on Sunday” called it “The finest performance of Fidelio I have ever heard”.

Mr. Borowski made his debut at Spoleto, Italy’s Festival of Two Worlds singing Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death and Nikitich in the Boris Godunov Prologue with James Conlon; at La Fenice singing Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht with Sir Neville Marriner and at San Carlo in Naples singing  Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with Jeffrey Tate.  He sang Don Fernando in Fidelio with Michael Tilson-Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony, Ferrando in Il Trovatore at Houston Grand Opera, Timur in Turandot in Montpellier and Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra at Sante Fe Opera.  His first appearance at The Proms in London was as the Bonze in Le Rossignol.

Back to Top

Kirstin Chávez, mezzo-soprano ~  Kirstin Chávez is considered one of the most riveting and significant emerging young artists performing today. She is praised for her luscious and velvety tone that transcends classification, with its rich evenness in her lower register and the easy ripeness of the top. The combination of the dramatic intensity of her acting, along with her striking natural physical beauty, makes her an arresting and unique presence on the operatic stage.

Ms. Chávez is capturing attention and acclaim in her signature roles and is becoming known as one of the definitive Carmens of the day, a role that she has performed with great success at New York City Opera, Tokyo City Opera, Minnesota Opera, as well as in Beijing, China, Omaha, Kentucky, Wichita and Evansville. Opera News recently reported that herCarmen in Graz, Austria was “the Carmen of a lifetime. With her dark, generous mezzo, earthy eroticism, volcanic spontaneity and smoldering charisma, Chavez has it all, including a superb command of French and a sense of humor.” Her natural sensuality also lends itself remarkably well to a host of pants roles, which include, among her most favorites, Octavian, in Der Rosenkavalier (Florentine Opera), the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro (New York City Opera). She has also earned praise for her performances as Jo in Adamo’s Little Women (Opera Pacific), Dorabella in Così fan Tutte (Orlando Opera, Utah Opera), Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (Santa Fe Opera, Orlando Opera, Connecticut Opera), Maddalena in Rigoletto (New York City Opera) and, as she adds to her growing repertoire, Thérèse, in Tobias Picker’s new opera, Thérèse Raquin (San Diego Opera).

Ms. Chávez appeared at The Metropolitan Opera in the 2006 – 2007 season as Bersi in Andrea Chenier, and performed the title role in Carmen at the Arizona Opera and the Graz Opera. She sang the title role in La Cenerentola with the Fresno Opera, and Desideria in The Saint of Bleecker Street with Central City Opera, a performance that was praised by MusicalAmerica as being “passionately sung.” The previous season was marked by her debut with the Metropolitan Opera in the leading role of Sondra Finchley in Picker’s An American Tragedy. That same season she sang at San Diego Opera as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, returned to the Opera Company of Philadelphia as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, and joined the Florida Bach Festival for concert performances of Bach’s Magnificat and Cantata BWV 106, and Mozart’s Requiem.

The 2007 – 2008 season begins with Ms. Chávez as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto with the Opera Company of Philadelphia, followed by her portrayal of Hansel in Hansel and Gretel with the Atlanta Opera. She makes her debut in the famous Sidney Opera House with Opera Australia in her signature role as Carmen and performs in concert with the Madison Symphony in Rossini’s Stabat Mater. Future seasons include performances with the San Diego Opera, L'opéra de Nice, and a return to the Graz Opera in Austria, among many others, and the anticipated release of a Tobias Picker disc on KOCH International Classics, in which Ms. Chávez is the featured artist.

Back to Top

Emmanuel di Villarosa, tenor ~ Engagements for Emmanuel di Villarosa during the 2006-07 and the 2007-08 seasons included Ismaele in Nabucco with Oper Frankfurt; the title role in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with the National Opera of Poland; the title role in Don Carlos and Rodolfo in La Bohème with the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden; Alvaro in La forza del destino, Calaf in Turandot, and Don José in Carmen with Theater Kiel; Calaf in Turandot with the Stadttheater Giessen; Cavaradossi in Tosca with the Staatstheater Darmstadt; and Rodolfo in La Bohème with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Concert engagements included a Verdi Gala with Theater Kiel.
 
Engagements during the 2005-06 season included a debut with the Staatstheater Stuttgart as Pollione in Norma; a return to the Bremer Theater as the Duke in Rigoletto; and a return to Austria’s Landestheater Linz as Des Grieux in Manon Lescaut, as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, as Jenik in The Bartered Bride, and as Don José in Carmen. 

Career highlights during the 2004-05 season included Calaf in Turandot with the Bremer Theater for the opening of their newly-renovated theater in Bremen, Germany, and a debut with the Nationaltheater Mannheim in the title role of Don Carlos. Also during the 2004-05 season, Mr. di Villarosa returned to the Landestheater Linz as Cavaradossi in Tosca and in the title role of Faust.

Mr. di Villarosa made his European debut during the 2003-04 season with the Landestheater Linz as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, in the title role of Don Carlos, and as Don José in Carmen. Additional engagements during the 2003-04 season included Rodolfo in La Bohème with both Opera Colorado and Germany’s Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.

His Metropolitan Opera debut occurred during the 2000-01 season in The Gambler (live broadcast). Other engagements for Mr. di Villarosa have included a debut with New York City Opera as Rodolfo in La Bohème; Rodolfo in La Bohème with Seattle Opera, Kentucky Opera, and the New York City Opera National Company; the title role in Faust with Sarasota Opera; Roméo in Roméo et Juliette with Connecticut Opera; the Duke in Rigoletto and Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Dicapo Opera Theatre; and Alfred in Die Fledermaus with Central City Opera. Other roles have included Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Ruggero in La rondine, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, and Silvano / Pasquin / Dr. Miracle in Bizet’s The miracle doctor. Contemporary roles have included Valère in Tartuffe, Edward in Patience and Sarah, and Andrew in A death in the family. Engagements during the 2002-03 season included Cavaradossi in Tosca with the New Jersey Verismo Opera Company.

In concert, Mr. di Villarosa has appeared with various orchestras throughout the United States, including the Atlanta Pops Orchestra and the Colorado Symphony under the baton of John Moriarty at the famous Red Rocks Amphitheater. Televised live on PBS, Mr. di Villarosa was a featured guest artist at the Georgia Music Hall of Fame Awards in the Georgia World Congress Center; other guest artists included Trisha Yearwood and the popular band known as The B-52s.

Awards and grants have included a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music, the Licia Albanese Puccini Competition career grant (for which he was selected by Licia Albanese herself), and second place in the prestigious Loren L. Zachary National Competition.

Back to Top

Philip Gossett, lecturer ~ Philip Gossett is one of the world's foremost experts on opera. A music historian, Gossett specializes in 19th-century Italian opera, specifically the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi. Author of two books on Donizetti and of the recent Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera (University of Chicago Press, 2006), Gossett serves as general editor of The Works of Giuseppe Verdi and of The Critical Edition of the Works of Gioachino Rossini. Among the operas he himself has edited or co-edited are Rossini's Tancredi, Ermione and Semiramide. He is currently working on Verdi's La forza del Destino. In 1998 the Italian government awarded him its highest civilian honor, Cavaliere di Gran Croce. He most recently won the Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award, an honor that carries with it a prize of $1.5 million. Early in 2004, Newsday wrote of Gossett that “some encomiasts claim that soprano Maria Callas did as much for Italian opera as Toscanini or Verdi. Musicologist Philip Gossett arguably has done as much for Italian opera as any of those geniuses.”

Back to Top

Rachelle Jonck, assistant conductor ~ Rachelle Jonck received her musical training at the Conservatory of the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. After initially training and performing as a concert pianist, she discovered the joy of working with other musicians, especially singers, and decided to focus on vocal accompaniment. Simultaneously nurturing an interest in musicology, she received her degree majoring in both piano and music sociology.

After completing her studies, Ms. Jonck joined Cape Town Opera as rehearsal pianist and vocal coach. She also taught at the Opera School of the University of Cape Town. In 1993 she moved to Pretoria as chorus master and assistant conductor at the State Theater Opera. She was awarded a FNB/Vita award for her contribution to opera in South Africa and in 1998 received the Nederburg Opera Prize – South Africa’s premier opera award. Throughout her operatic career in her home country she maintained a busy concert schedule accompanying local and visiting singers and instrumentalists. She was an official accompanist of the International String and Vocal Competitions in Pretoria (hosted by the University of South Africa.)

In 1998 Ms. Jonck moved to New York City as Head Coach and Assistant Conductor of Bel Canto at Caramoor (with Will Crutchfield) – a position she still holds. Balancing her love for opera and song literature she maintains a busy vocal coaching studio and enjoys recital collaborations with her singers. She works with a wide variety of singers, including established professionals whose careers take them to the largest opera houses of the world, and younger singers still on the verge of a professional career. While her repertoire is diverse, she has made a name for herself in New York City as a specialist Italian style coach. She has served on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music as Head Vocal Coach. She currently teaches at Westminster Choir College in Princeton.

In addition to regular concerts at the Caramoor Festival, Ms. Jonck’s recital appearances in the United States include Weill Recital Hall, the Bard Festival, the Monadnock Music Festival (Peterborough, NH), Music Mountain (Falls Village, CT), Van Cliburn Concerts (Fort Worth, TX), National Gallery Recitals (Washington, DC), Art Song of Williamsburg (VA) and the Dame Myra Hess broadcast concert series (Chicago, IL).

Also a budding young conductor, she made her debut conducting the Orchestra of St Luke’s in collaboration with the David Parsons Dance Company soon after her arrival in the United States. In 1999 she worked with this highly acclaimed orchestra again in collaboration with Pascal Rioult for New York Children’s Free Opera and Dance at the Kaye Playhouse. In January of 2000 she  returned to South Africa to conduct Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Spier Festival in Stellenbosch. In May of the same year she made her operatic conducting debut in New York City conducting the Orchestra of St Luke’s in their production of Bizet’s Le Docteur Miracle at the 92nd Street Y. For Caramoor she conducted Mozart’s Così fan tutte as well as Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon.

Back to Top

Takesha Meshé Kizart, soprano ~ Chicago native and star of the feature film, The Verdian Voice, Takesha Meshé Kizart was lauded by jury, media, and public of the prestigious Concorso Internazionale Voci Verdiane “Città di Busseto” as Grand Prize Winner and the next great Verdian Voice of her generation, and awarded Grand Prize at the prestigious Concurso Internacional de Canto Montserrat Caballé by the luminous Caballé herself.

In her fourth and final year as a Resident Artist of the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts (AVA) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, her performance credits include Lucrezia Contarini in I due foscari with Opera Orchestra of New York, The Duchess in Adès’ Powder Her Face with Musikfest Bremen, Lady Macbeth in Macbeth, Desdemona in Otello, the title role of Vanessa, Anna in Le Villi, Mimì in La Bohème, Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, the title role of Suor Angelica, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Lià in L’Enfant Prodigue, Hanna Glawari in The Merry Widow, the title role in Fort Worth Opera’s tour of La Cenerentola, the World Premiere of Train Is Comin’: Fisk Jubilee Singers, Händel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang and Elijah, Dubois’ Seven Last Words, Saint-Saëns’ Christmas Oratorio, and Wagner’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde.

The grand-niece of Blues legend McKinley “Muddy Waters” Morganfield and a performer since the age of two, she has been a featured artist throughout the United States and abroad, appearing with The Dallas Opera, L’Orchestra della Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, SWR Broadcast Orchestra & Faszination Musik TV, and many others. Ms. Kizart's vocal gift, with its “rich lyrical beauty and sheer dramatic power”, has garnered top prizes from numerous organizations and competitions around the world.  Among them, The Marian Anderson Historical Society; Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; Opera Index Inc. and its Tribute to Jessye Norman; Guilds of The Dallas Opera, Connecticut Opera, Florida Grand Opera, and Palm Beach Opera; Classical Singer Magazine Young Artist Competition; The Oratorio Society of New York; Competizione dell’Opera Internationaler Gesangswettbewerb der Italienischen Oper; The Caruso International Voice Competition; and the Foundations of William Matheus Sullivan Singer Awards with the Honorable Rose Bampton Award, Gerda Lissner, Sergio Franchi, Liederkranz, and Albanese-Puccini which led to her debuts with Carnegie and Alice Tully Hall. 

Recently the featured performer in The Metropolitan Opera’s Live HD Broadcast Intermission Feature, upcoming appearances include concerts in honor of Carlisle Floyd and Samuel Barber, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Columbia Festival Orchestra, Amelia in Un ballo in maschera, the title role in Manon Lescaut, and Cleopatra in the *world premiere* with The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Violetta in La Traviata with AVA, and exciting debuts with MIDEM-L’Orchestre Régional de Cannes, Die Oper Frankfurt, Die Deutsche Oper Berlin as Mimì in La Bohème and the title role in Marie Victoire, Opera de Oviedo as Amelia in Un ballo in maschera and with The Dallas Opera and Opera North-UK in the title role of Tosca.

Back to Top

Zurab Ninua, baritone ~ Zurab Ninua from the Republic of Georgia made his debut at the Tbilisi State Opera House in 1996 as Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades. Germont in La Traviata and numerous concerts throughout Georgia followed. His operatic career began with the opening of the Batumi City Opera where he appeared as Tandarukhi in Paliashvili’s Absalom and Eteri and as Berdo in Lagidze’s Lela.

In 1999 Mr. Ninua moved to the United States. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in the Mozart Requiem under the direction of John Rutter. He appeared at the Trinity Church Winter Festival in 2001, at Merkin Hall and at Avery Fisher Hall with the American Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Leon Botstein in Francesca da Rimini by Rachmaninoff. As the Opera of the Hamptons, Young Artist Competition winner he was selected for the role of Germont in the 2003 production of La Traviata, followed in subsequent years by Amonasro in Aida, Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana, and Scarpia in Tosca. In 2005 he sang Amonasro in Aida, and in 2007 he was Rigoletto with the Gateway Classical Music Society. He appeared with the VPR Opera as Michele in Il Tabarro in 2006 and again in 2007.

Zurab was a finalist in the 2006 Altamura/Caruso International Voice competition. As a young artist at  the Caramoor International Festival he was the cover for Count Di Luna in the 2007 Il Trovatore. Recently he was engaged by the  Metropolitan Opera in Prokofiev’s War and Peace as the cover of Napoleon.

Back to Top

Marco Nistico, baritone ~ Marco Nistico’s singing career has taken him to many theaters throughout Europe and across the United States. He became a Resident Artist at the New York City Opera after his successful debut in the role of Morales in Carmen (Bizet) in spring of 2005 followed by performances of Prudenzio in Il viaggio a Reims (Rossini), Schaunard in La Bohème (Puccini) and Morales in Carmen (Bizet) (spring 2006), covering Zurga in Les Pecheurs de Perles (Bizet). For NYCO in the season 2006/2007, he performed the roles of Le Dancairo in Carmen and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly (Puccini), as well as covered Guglielmo in Cosí fan tutte (Mozart) and Germont in La Traviata (Verdi). Also in New York, Mr. Nisticò was seen as Bruschino (father) in Il Signor Bruschino (Rossini) with the Gotham Chamber Opera (NY) in February. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in June ’07 with Mid America Productions as solo baritone in the Fauré’s Requiem and Schubert’s Mass in C. In the Summer of 2007 he performed the role of Antonio in Donizetti’s Linda di Chamounix with the Caramoor Festival. He returned to New York in the Fall of 2007 as Pallante in Agrippina (Handel) with NYCO. In November 2007 he was Malatesta in Don Pasquale (Donizetti) with the CT Grand Opera. In 2008 he was Franceso Foscari in I Due Foscari (Verdi) with Sarasota Opera (FL). He will return to Sarasota for Figaro in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Fall Season and start the 2009 season there as well as Posa in Don Carlos.

In the 2004 and 2005 seasons, Mr. Nistico was seen in the role of Shaunard in La Bohème with the West Florida Symphony Orchestra under Paul Nadler and in the role of Figaro in The Barber of Seville under Tom Conlin and has performed those roles, as well as the role of Marcello, subsequently at other venues in Mexico and the United States. He also performed the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly. In 2002 at New York’s Brooklyn Academy of Music, he was heard inOrfeo (Monteverdi) and at the Wexford Festival Opera, Ireland in The Barber of Seville as Figaro, also in Manon Lescaut (Auber) as Duroseaux and Renaud, and at the ASLICO in Italy as Taddeo in L’Italiana in Algeri (Rossini). In 2001, he appeared in Bologna and Amsterdam as Figaro, and toured in this role extensively in The Netherlands.  The same year Mr. Nistico portrayed Sir John Gotch and the Curato Mendham in La Visita Meravigliosa (Rota) in Fermo, Italy and Starveling in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Britten) in Naples at Teatro di San Carlo. He has performed the role of Ben in The Telephone (Menotti) at Florence Gould Hall in New York City, and Enrico in Il Campanello (Donizetti) at Symphony Space under the direction of Lucy Arner.

In 1998 he was at the Opera de Monte-Carlo as Buffo in The Impresario (Mozart) and with the European Union Opera at the Baden-Baden Theater, Germany and at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, Paris as Somarone in Beatrice et Benedicte (Berlioz).

Marco Nistico received his BA in Theater Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. He studied voice with his father, Maestro Benito Nistico of the Avellino Conservatory in Italy, and at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Marco Nistico received his BA in Theater Studies at the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. He studied voice with his father, Maestro Benito Nistico of the Avellino Conservatory in Italy, and at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Back to Top

Aaron Blankfield, tenor ~ Currently a student at Westminster Choir College, Aaron Blankfield, a Memphis native, is a transfer from the University of Tennessee. While there, he sang a number of supporting roles, including Arturo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lippo in the Ice Cream Sextet from Street Scene and the tenor solos in Handel's Messiah and Charpentier's Magnificat. He has also performed with Boheme Opera New Jersey as Borsa in Rigoletto and Gastone in La Traviata. He has been featured numerous times as a soloist with the Greater Trenton Symphony Orchestra at their Annual New Year's Eve Concert as well as the 75th Anniversary of the War Memorial.

Back to Top

Carla Dirlikov, mezzo-soprano ~ Carla Dirlikov began the 2007-2008 season as Cherubino with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, under the direction of Jonathan Eaton.  She also performed Handel's Messiah with the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra as well as at the Kennedy Center.  She performed and recorded Rossini's Stabat Mater and Beethoven's Kantate auf den Tod Kaiser Joseph II at the Spoleto Festival in Italy, under the baton of maestro Steven Mercurio.  Ms. Dirlikov was recently named a prize winner at the Palm Beach Opera Competition, and in June she makes her European opera debut as Princess Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo at the Opera Royale de Wallonie in Belgium.  Future engagements include appearances with Knoxville Opera, Opera de Montreal, and New Orleans Opera.

Ms. Dirlikov's stage credits include Carmen, Rosina, Cherubino, Papagena, Idamante, Dorabella, Flora in La Traviata, Mrs. Todd in The Old Maid and the Thief, Mère Marie in Dialogue des Carmelites, and Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse.  She has performed with Annapolis Opera, Pellegrini Opera, Opera Roanoke, the Banff Centre, Montreal Place des Arts, Summer Opera Lyric Theatre, and at the Canadian and Mexican National Arts Centers.

Ms. Dirlikov received a BM from the University of Michigan, an MM from McGill University, and a diploma from the Conservatoire National de Paris.  She has participated in the Banff Center Opera as Theatre Program, the International Mozarteum Summer Academy under Grace Brumbry and L'Academia Chigiana under Shirley Verrett. 

Back to Top

John-Andrew Fernandez, baritone ~ John-Andrew Fernandez is a versatile, young singer who is expressive in a variety of classical genres.  Recent performances include Montfleury (cover) for Opera Company of Philadelphia’s production of Cyrano, the baritone soloist in Carmina Burana with the Masterworks Chorus,  Prospero and Leonte in the premiers of La tempesta and Il racconto d’inverno with International Opera Theater, Teatro Avvalloranti, Città della Pieve, Italy, Yamadori in Madama Butterfly with the Princeton Festival, Belcore in The Elixir of Love at Swarthmore Opera, the title role in Gianni Schicchi, The Count in The Marriage of Figaro and Peter in Hansel and Gretel with Westminster Opera Theatre.  Upcoming engagements include Mercutio in Romeo e Giulietta (premier) for International Opera Theater and Silvio in I Pagliacci for Knoxville Opera

Back to Top

Anya Fidelia, soprano ~ Anya Fidelia began the 2007/8 season with a duet recital at The International Rachmaninov Society in New York City presided by Vladimir Ashkenazy. Ms. Fidelia made her Moscow and St. Petersburg debut with the "Art-November" International Festival, where she was heard on major stages of both Russian capitals in orchestral and piano solo concerts.  Other credits this season include appearances at the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Leonora in a concert version of Il Trovatore in Israel under the baton of Maestro Paul Nadler, concert appearances as Butterfly in Israel and Sweden, a solo recital for the UN VIP guests of the UN Russian Mission, sponsored and hosted by Mayor Bloomberg and Santuzza with Treasure Coast Opera in Florida.

During the upcoming seasons Ms. Fidelia will return to Russia for a recording, more concerts and operatic performances. She will be heard in Moscow as Leonora in La forza del destino in concert and the title role of Barber’s Vanessa. 

Past seasons included Tosca at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Stefan Weisman's new opera, Darkling with the American Opera Projects in New York City, an original soundtrack for Tribeca Film Festival Award Prize Winner documentary, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis. Additional highlights include: Verdi and Puccini arias for the Metropolitan Opera Guild Master Class series; Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) and Butterfly (Madama Butterfly) in Tel Aviv with the International Vocal Arts Institute (IVAI); Lisa and Butterfly at the Gala Concert at the New Israeli Opera and Shuni Theater, Israel; Mozart's Donna Anna and Countess at the Kimmel Center with the Center City Opera in Philadelphia and a tour of France with the New York Opera Society. 

Ms. Fidelia is a winner of numerous awards and grants, including The Schuyler Foundation for Career Bridges Competition and the Liederkranz Foundation Award Competition.

Back to Top

Nelson Martinez, baritone ~ Young Verdian baritone Nelson Martínez began his professional career in Cuba as principal soloist with the Rodrigo Prats Lyric Theater, and later with Cuban National Opera. At Cuban National Opera Nelson he performed the main principal roles of the Italian repertory, among them Figaro, Enrico, Germont, Rigoletto, Alfio, Tonio, Silvio and Marcello. In zarzuela, Nelson Martínez has been heard as Mario, Vidal. Germán, Joaquín, J. de Eguía, Juan Pedro, Juan en Los Gavilanes, Lázaro in El Cafetal, José Dolores Pimienta in Cecilia Valdés, and José Inocente in
María la O.

Abroad Nelson Martinez has been heard in opera and concert in Russia, Korea, China, France, Portugal and Spain on tour with the National Cuban Opera. He also appeared in Bogotá and Mexico City.

Nelson Martínez has been the recipient of many awards and prizes, among them the Grand Prize in the Ernesto Lecuona International Competition for Young Singers, and the Grand Prize in the Fourth National Rodrigo Prats in-memoriam Competition in Havana. He was also a winner in the Belle Voci Competition in Eugene, Oregon in 2004.

In the United States, Nelson Martinez has been heard as Figaro and Rigoletto with Miami Lyric Opera and with Sociedad Pro Arte Grateli, the leading zarzuela company in the United States, as Juan Pedro in la Rosa del Azafrán. Nelson Martínez will sing the title role in Rigoletto with Knoxville Opera in 2009.

Back to Top

Eve Miedel, soprano ~ Eve Miedel, from Smithton, Pennsylvania, received a BFA in Vocal Performance from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA in 2007.  At CMU she performed the roles of Morgana in Alcina, Anne in A Little Night Music, and Bobbie in A Chorus Line.   She has also performed as soprano soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Chamber Orchestra in Vivaldi’s Gloria.  Eve is currently pursuing her MM in Vocal Performance and Sacred music at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, NJ where she studies with Sharon Sweet.  This past fall she performed La Princesse in L’enfant et les sortilège.  As a member of Westminster’s early music choir, Kantorei, she recently performed Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Kurt Masur and the New York Philharmonic.  She is also currently employed as chorister and children’s choir director for Princeton Presbyterian Church.

Back to Top

Jorge Ocasio, bass-baritone ~ With his "deep, warm bass voice and an informed musicality" Jorge Ocasio is quickly becoming a favorite of audiences and critics. Jorge débuted as Osmin in Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio and in New York City as Bartolo in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia. He has been heard as Leporello with El Dorado Opera in Los Angeles, and made his company début with Houston's Opera in the Heights as Dulcamara in 2007. He returned to Opera in the Heights where he reprised his appealing Leporello receiving glowing reviews. With Little Opera Company of NJ he performed his hilarious Dottor Bartolo in Barber of Seville, a role he reprised for Opera al Fresco in San Juan, Puerto Rico in August. Also in 2007, he returned to his home town where he was part of the historic debut in Puerto Rico of Puccini's Il Trittico singing Talpa in Il Tabarro and Simone in Gianni Schicchi.

Ocasio made his debut at Carnegie Hall in 2008 singing Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Haydn’s Missa Sancti Nicolai with Distinguished Concerts International. He also reprised his acclaimed Dulcamara with Opera for Humanity in NYC and with Teatro de la Opera in San Juan, Puerto Rico and sang Bach’s Cantata 80 with Great Neck Choral Society.
 
Back to Top

Nathan Resika, lyric bass ~ Raised in New York City by a musical family, lyric bass Nathan Resika sang, acted, and played classical & folk guitar from an early age. Since 2004, Nathan’s rising career has seen him performing roles with, among others, the Center for Contemporary Opera, New York Grand Opera, Connecticut Lyric Opera, the Belleayre Music Festival, Utah Festival Opera, and Opera Orchestra of New York’s Artist Program. 

Highlights of this past year have been the title role in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera in the Heights (where the Houston Press praised his “sonorous voice and sprightly acting”) and Colline in New Jersey Verismo Opera’s La Bohème.

Other recently performed roles include Ferrando in Il Trovatore, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, the Commendatore and Masetto in Don Giovanni, Ramfis in Aïda, Sparafucile and Monterone in Rigoletto, Padre Guardiano and Marchese di Calatrava in La forza del destino, Publio in La Clemenza di Tito, Police Sergeant in Pirates of Penzance, and Superintendent Budd in Britten’s Albert Herring.

Nathan has performed in concert in Hungary, Greece, throughout the United States, and has sung the national anthem at several sporting events. A chessmaster and tutor, Mr. Resika  has been ranked among the top 200 players in the USA.

Nathan’s engagements this summer include The Commendatore with St.Petersburg Opera, as well as a featured role in NY Grand Opera’s La Traviata, live in Central Park.

Back to Top

Sandra Schwarzhaupt, mezzo-soprano ~ Sandra Schwarzhaupt began her professional singing career at age ten. She performed in a gala benefit concert at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and in many other venues throughout Europe and the United States. At age twelve, Sandra was awarded the prestigious Jugendförderpreis in Dresden, for outstanding young artists.
 
Sandra was invited to sing Mahler’s Fourth Symphony in the Musikverein in Vienna, with Fabio Luisi, conductor. Performances followed in Rome at the Accademia Santa Cecilia, where Sandra debuted as Adele in Die Fledermaus.  In Torino, she sang the role of Woglinde in Götterdämmerung, with the Orchestra della Rai and conductor, Eliahu Inbal. In Dresden she was invited to sing in a gala concert at the Semper Opera, as well as an open-air event with Agnes Baltsa and Neil Shicoff.
 
Among the many albums Sandra has recorded is an album of Mozart concert arias with the Salzburg Chamber Orchestra and Boris Belkin, violinist, and a live recording of her Carnegie Hall Mozart Recital.
 
One of her latest recordings is the contemporary one-person opera by Grigori Frid, The Diary of Anne Frank.  Sandra created this role and performed it many times in Austria and Germany. A European tour of this piece is planned for 2009.
 
Presently, Sandra is coaching in New York with her teacher Sonja Karlsen. She was recently part of a Carmen production with Espresso Opera, in the role of Mercedes and as understudy for Carmen.

Back to Top

Christian Šebek, tenor ~ Since his tenor debut, Christian Šebek has received exciting reviews.  The New York Times praised him as “possessing a marvelous voice,” while the Houston Chronicle extolled his Rodolfo: “His singing was full of visceral excitement.”   In Il Trovatore the Chronicle proclaimed his Manrico was sung with “stentorian authority, and clarity, forcefulness and ring that were the standard for others to meet or miss.”

In 2003, Mr. Šebek created the lead role of Nathaniel in Thomas Cabaniss’s Off-Broadway contemporary opera The Sandman.  Later that year he debuted as Cavaradossi in Tosca with Opera Idaho.  Mr. Šebek has performed Radames in Aida, Calaf in Turandot and Alfredo in La Traviata with Boheme Opera of NJ and Rodolfo in La Bohème with Center City Opera Theater, Opera in the Heights and Opera Western Reserve. Additional credits include the title roles in Otello and Samson and Delilah with One World Symphony, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with The Treasure Coast Opera and Center City Opera Theater, Canio in I Pagliacci with Opera Western Reserve, and Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana with The Chelsea Opera.

Christian Šebek has sung numerous times in concert at Carnegie Hall.  He has performed in both classical and contemporary opera throughout the United States and appeared as soloist in major choral works around the metropolitan New York area.  He was the recipient of the Brigit Nilsson award while attending the Manhattan School of Music. 

Future engagements include singing the role of Enrico Sabatini in the I Jacobs Phantom of the Opera on tour throughout Europe in the fall. 

Back to Top

Matthew Treviño, bass-baritone ~ Matthew Treviño is being hailed as a “…bass of rare talent” (San Francisco Chronicle), whose voice ”achieves nobility and sonorous resonance…” (Opera News).  As a leading young American opera singer, Mr. Treviño is quickly garnering attention for his wonderful stagecraft and his elegant, powerful voice. 
 
In the 2008/2009 season Mr. Treviño will debut with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Fresno Grand Opera as Colline in La Bohème.  He has recently been seen in Salome with Dallas Opera, Turandot with Michigan Opera Theatre, Aida with Nevada Opera, Rigoletto and Un ballo in maschera with Opera Santa Barbara, and Così fan tutte with the Mendocino Music Festival.
 
He has portrayed a wide variety of characters including the Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Don Alfonso and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Bartolo and Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Simone in Gianni Schicchi, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore, Ramfis in Aida,  Police Sergeant in Pirates of Penzance, among many others.  As a concert artist, Mr. Treviño has performed with noted symphony orchestras around the country in new and standard works including Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Bach’s Magnificat, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass,  Durufle’s Requiem, and Bernstein’s Dybbuk with the San Francisco Ballet.
 
Mr. Treviño has won prizes in the Zachary Foundation Competition, Dallas Opera Guild Competition, McCammon Competition of Fort Worth Opera, Shreveport Opera’s Singer of the Year Competition, and was the recipient of the Thomas Stewart Award for Vocal Excellence at Baylor University in Waco, TX.

Back to Top