Thaddeus Strassberger, Director
Thaddeus Strassberger is a young American director who manages to straddle the sometimes very different worlds of European and U.S. opera production seamlessly. His “productions are fresh and thoughtful, and he often presents us with modern parallels without being contrived,” writes
Opera Now magazine.
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His career as a director and scenic designer for opera was launched when he was awarded the prestigious European Opera Prize in 2005 for his production of
La Cenerentola (Opera Ireland/Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden).
Strassberger’s previous productions for Bard SummerScape—Meyerbeer’s grand opera Les Huguenots and Franz Schreker’s masterpiece The Distant Sound—were both critically acclaimed. This production of Chabriér’s opéra comique Le roi malgré lui is a coproduction with Wexford Festival Opera in Ireland.
Following the success of his production of Ambroise Thomas’s Hamlet for the Washington National Opera conducted by Plácido Domingo, Strassberger returned to the Kennedy Center this season to direct and design the scenery for Verdi’s Nabucco, a coproduction with the Minnesota Opera and the Opera Company of Philadelphia. In September 2012, he will debut with the Los Angeles Opera with a new production of Verdi’s rarely performed I Due Foscari, with Plácido Domingo making his role debut as Francesco Foscari, and James Conlon conducting. This is a coproduction with Palau les Arts (Valencia), Theater an der Wien (Vienna), and the Royal Opera House Covent Garden (London).
His new productions of Le nozze di Figaro and The Rape of Lucretia (Norwegian National Opera) are both scheduled for revivals in coming seasons due to popular demand. He will return in 2014 to create a new production of Don Giovanni, together with his frequent collaborators, designers Kevin Knight and Mattie Ullrich. His production of the rarely heard Rossini’s La Gazzetta (Rossini in Wildbad Festival, Germany) garnered nominations for both Best Production and Best Direction from Opernwelt magazine in 2008.
Strassberger earned his degree in engineering from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City. Further studies were supported by a Fulbright Fellowship to complete the Corso di Specializzazione per Scenografi Realizzatori at Teatro alla Scala in Milan in 2001.
Leon Botstein, Conductor
Leon Botstein has been music director and principal conductor of the American Symphony Orchestra since 1992, and is conductor laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director from 2003–11. He is also the founder and artistic codirector of the SummerScape Festival and the Bard Music Festival, now in its 23rd year. He has been president of Bard College in New York since 1975.
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Botstein maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor throughout the world. Recent engagements include the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hawaii Symphony, and Taipei Symphony, among others. He may also be heard on numerous recordings, including operas by Strauss, Dukas, and Chausson, as well as works of Shostakovich, Dohnányi, Liszt, Bruckner, Bartók, Hartmann, Reger, Glière, Szymanowski, Brahms, Copland, Sessions, Perle, and Rands. Many live recordings with the American Symphony Orchestra are now available for download on the Internet.
He is the editor of The Musical Quarterly and the author of numerous articles and books. In 2011 he gave the prestigious Tanner Lectures in Berkeley, California. For his contributions to music he has received the award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and Harvard University’s prestigious Centennial Award, as well as the Cross of Honor, First Class, from the government of Austria. He is a 2009 recipient of the Carnegie Foundation’s Academic Leadership Award, and is a member of the American Philosophical Society.
Kevin Knight, Set Designer
Kevin Knight trained at the Central Saint Martins School of Art in London and has worked extensively as a set and costume designer in the United Kingdom and abroad. He has worked at most of Britain’s leading repertory theaters and on numerous West End productions.
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He has designed premieres of plays and musicals that have toured throughout Europe and America, in productions that have gained international recognition and won numerous awards. As an international opera designer he has served many of the world’s leading opera companies. Among his credits are The Tsar’s Bride (Royal Opera House, London); Rusalka (Oslo and Japan); Marriage of Figaro (Oslo); Lulu and Die Frau ohne Schatten (Lyric Opera of Chicago); and Tosca and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk (Canadian Opera Company: Toronto).
Mattie Ullrich, Costume Designer
Mattie Ullrich has previously designed costumes for Bard SummerScape’s productions of
The Sorcerer,
Les Huguenots, and
The Distant Sound. Recent opera work includes
Nabucco (Washington National Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Opera Company of Philadelphia);
The Rape of Lucretia (Norwegian Opera);
The Tales of Hoffman and
Zaide (Wolf Trap Opera); and a revised version of Stephen Shwartz’s musical
Working, with new songs by Tony Award–winner Lin-Manuel Miranda.
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Ullrich and director Thaddeus Strassberger received the European Opera Prize in 2005 for their collaboration on La Cenerentola (Opera Ireland). They are currently working on new productions of I Due Foscari (Los Angeles Opera) and Don Giovanni (Norwegian Opera). In addition to opera, Ullrich has designed many cutting-edge Off-Broadway productions for companies such as The New Group, Vineyard Theater, and Manhattan Theater Club. Off-Broadway credits include The Pride and The Starry Messenger (starring Matthew Broderick). Her film work includes Year of the Fish (Sundance 2007) and Sovereignty, an award-winning short.
Simon Corder, Lighting Designer
The award-winning lighting designer Simon Corder left school in 1978 and joined the circus as a ring boy. His opera work includes productions for Teatro Lirico di Cagliari; Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires; English National Opera; Los Angeles Opera; Teatro Verdi di Pisa; Opéra Municipal, Marseille; La Scala, Milan; and Welsh National Opera, among others.
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He designed projections for Operama’s stadium Aida, widely seen in Europe and South America. In 1995 Corder created lighting for the Night Safari attraction in Singapore, the first night-time zoo in the world, since visited by more than 10 million people; he currently works for Artis Zoo, Amsterdam, and Yerevan Zoo, Armenia. He also makes his own installations and art works, including Standing Still (2002); Bough 1 (London, 2004); Cascade (2006); Bough 2 (Glasgow, 2006); and Winter Garden (Durham, 2009).
Liam Bonner, Baritone (Henri)
Praised by
Opera News for his “rich, versatile voice” and “beautiful instrument,” baritone Liam Bonner sang the role of Lieutenant Audebert in the world premiere of
Silent Night by Kevin Puts at Minnesota Opera.
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Other roles include Sid in Albert Herring at Los Angeles Opera (debut), Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Conte di Luna (role debut) in Il trovatore at North Carolina Opera. He will appear in future seasons at Houston Grand Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Wexford Festival Opera, and Washington National Opera. A graduate of Manhattan School of Music and Carnegie Mellon University, Bonner is the recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshanna Foundation, first-prize winner of the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, national semifinalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and award winner in the George London Foundation and Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition.
Michele Angelini, Tenor (Nangis)
Not yet 30, young Italian/American tenor Michele Angelini has already made his debut in Rome, Florence, Bologna, Dusseldorf, Savonlinna, La Monnaie, Bilbao, Colorado, Austin, Fort Worth, Los Angeles, and Oslo in roles such as Lindoro, Ferrando, Ramiro, Don Ottavio, Almaviva, Fenton, and Liebenskoff.
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This season includes his debut at Firenze Maggio Musicale as Liebenskoff in Viaggio a Reims, the title role in Mozart’s Il Sogno di Scipione with Gotham Chamber Opera, his Bard SummerScape debut as Nangis in Chabrier’s Le roi malgré lui, and Rossini’s Mosé in Egitto at Carnegie Hall with the Collegiate Chorale. Future engagements include Lindoro in L’italiana in Algieri in Catania and at the Atlanta Opera, a return to the Met for Barber of Seville (cover), his first La Sonnambula at the Florida Grand Opera, and a debut at the Royal Theatre of Stockholm as Almaviva.
Andriana Chuchman, Soprano (Minka)
This season, Canadian soprano Andriana Chuchman made her debut at the Canadian Opera Company as Olympia in
Les contes d’Hoffmann and returned to the Michigan Opera Theater as Susanna in
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A graduate of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chuchman has appeared on their main stage as Yum-Yum in The Mikado, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, and in productions of Die Frau ohne Shatten and Manon. Upcoming engagements include her debut at Washington National Opera as Magnolia in Show Boat, and a return to the Michigan Opera Theater as Cleopatra in Guilio Cesare. Chuchman received her bachelor’s degree in voice performance from the School of Music at the University of Manitoba. Her many awards include prizewinner at the finals of the 2009 Neue Stimmen Competition in Germany and a Sullivan Foundation Encouragement Award in 2007.
Nathalie Paulin, Soprano (Alexina)
Nathalie Paulin has established herself in North America, Europe, and the Far East as an interpretive artist of the very first rank, collaborating with renowned conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrew Parrott, David Agler, Bernard Labadie, Andrew Litton, and Antony Walker.
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Current highlights include La cour de Célimène (Wexford Festival), Matthäus Passion (Calgary Philharmonic), Hercules (Tafelmusik), Messiah (Seattle Symphony), the title role in Rodelinda (Houston’s Mercury Baroque), Carmina Burana (Quebec Symphony), and Marzelline in Fidelio (Edmonton Opera). She has been featured as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte (Vancouver Opera), Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann (Cincinnati Opera), and the title roles in Semele (Arizona Opera) and Manon (Quebec Opera). Future engagements include Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, Atlantic Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Washington Concert Opera, Seattle Symphony, Boston Baroque, and the Lanaudière Festival.
Frédéric Goncalves, Baritone (Fritelli)
Parisian-born baritone Frédéric Goncalves is a graduate of the National Superior Conservatory of Music and Dance of Paris where he studied with Jane Berbie, and the Ecole d’Art Lyrique de l’Opera de Paris, where he studied with Anna-Maria Bondi.
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He has also studied with baritone Roger Soyer. Winner of the Chambre syndicale des directeurs de théâtre de France and member of the Opéra Comique Company, Goncalves has notably sung the roles of Comte in Le nozze di Figaro, Enrico in Il Campenello by Donizetti, Johann in Werther, and the Marquis d’Obigny in La traviata at the Opéra d’Avignon. Upcoming projects include Chabrier’s Le roi malgré lui at Bard SummerScape and Wexford Festival Opera, Mignon in Geneva, La bohème in Montpellier, and Marouf with the Opéra Comique in Paris.
Jeffrey Mattsey, Baritone (Laski)
Jeffrey Mattsey made his European debut as Marcello in Modena, Italy, and then appeared again as Schaunard in
La bohème, in Genoa, Beijing, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.
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He made his Metropolitan Opera house debut in 1998 in the Met’s production of Les Contes d’Hoffmann. In the current season and beyond, he returns to the San Diego Opera to perform Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, performs Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Indianapolis Opera, returns again to the Met to sing Marullo in Rigoletto and to cover Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia. Other roles include Donald in Billy Budd, Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, Berlingerio in Francesca da Rimini, and Marquis in La Traviata. He also toured with the Met to Japan in summer 2011 for its productions of Don Carlo and La bohème.
Jason Ferrante, Tenor (Basile)
A leading character singer of his generation, Jason Ferrante portrays both comedians and protagonists on the operatic stage, and in concert sings a wide-ranging repertoire, from Bach and Handel to John Musto and Lowell Liebermann.
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The 2011–12 season saw him as Borsa in Rigoletto with Florida Grand Opera and the Orlando Philharmonic, and Goro with Syracuse Opera. In the 2010–11 season he debuted with Opera Boston as Jacquino in Fidelio, returned to Opera New Jersey as the Magician in The Consul, and sang Goro in Madama Butterfly with Kentucky Opera and Opera Omaha. Additional recent engagements include debuts at the New York City Opera as King Ouf in L’etoile, the Wexford Festival as the Tenor Opera Box Ghost in The Ghosts of Versailles, Eugene Opera as Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro, and a return to Italy as the Beadle in Sweeney Todd at Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Teatro Municipale di Piacenza.
