Peter Kazaras is an American stage director, artistic director and opera singer (tenor) from New York City.
Kazaras holds an undergraduate degree in government. Before his career in opera, he worked in a law firm. [1] He served as Artistic Director for the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program from 2006 to 2013. [2] [3]
He is Professor of Music and Director of Opera at University of California, Los Angeles.
Marilyn Berneice Horne is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer. She specialized in roles requiring beauty of tone, excellent breath support, and the ability to execute difficult coloratura passages. She is a recipient of the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors, and has won four Grammy Awards.
James Conlon is an American conductor. He is currently the music director of Los Angeles Opera and principal conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra.
The Los Angeles Opera is an American opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth-largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.
The Ghosts of Versailles is an opera in two acts, with music by John Corigliano to an English libretto by William M. Hoffman. The Metropolitan Opera had commissioned the work from Corigliano in 1980 in celebration of its 100th anniversary, with the premiere scheduled for 1983. Corigliano and Hoffman took as the starting point for the opera the 1792 play La Mère coupable by Pierre Beaumarchais. They took seven years to complete the opera, past the initial deadline. The opera received its premiere on December 19, 1991, at the Metropolitan Opera, with the production directed by Colin Graham. The premiere run of seven performances was sold out. The original cast included Teresa Stratas, Håkan Hagegård, Renée Fleming, Graham Clark, Gino Quilico, and Marilyn Horne. The Metropolitan Opera revived the opera in the 1994/1995 season.
Stephanie Blythe is an American mezzo-soprano who has had an active international career in operas and concerts since the early 1990s. She is particularly associated with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, with whom she has performed annually since her debut with the company in 1995. In 2014 she starred as Gertrude Stein in the world premiere of 27, an opera composed by Ricky Ian Gordon with libretto by Royce Vavrek, and commissioned for her by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
Henry Jay Lewis was an American double-bassist and orchestral conductor whose career extended over four decades. A child prodigy, he joined the Los Angeles Philharmonic at age 16, becoming the first African-American instrumentalist in a major symphony orchestra and, later, the first African-American symphony orchestra conductor in the United States. As musical director of the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra, he supported America's cultural diplomacy initiatives in Europe after World War II.
Bejun Mehta is an American countertenor. He has been awarded the Echo Klassik, the Gramophone Award, Le Diamant d’Opera Magazine, the Choc de Classica, the Traetta Prize, and been nominated for the Grammy Award, the Laurence Olivier Award, and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Writing in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Michael Stallknecht called him "arguably the best counter tenor in the world today."
The José Iturbi International Music Competition is a music competition named after the Spanish piano virtuoso José Iturbi. It was established by the José Iturbi Foundation in 2007 and takes place at the University of California Los Angeles. The competition has two tracks: one for pianists and the other for opera singers. The competition is open to pianists and singers of all nationalities between the ages of 17 and 35. The competition's co-founder, Donelle Dadidgan, is the founder of the Hollywood Museum and the goddaughter of José Iturbi. Initially held annually from 2007 to 2010, the next competition was scheduled in 2013.
Christopher Alden is an American theater and opera director. He is the twin brother of David Alden, also an opera director. Both brothers belong to a generation of modernist directors that includes Robert Wilson and Peter Sellars. and are known for staging revisionist productions of opera.
The Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company was an American opera company located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that was active between 1958 and 1974. The company was led by a number of Artistic Directors during its history, beginning with Aurelio Fabiani. Other notable Artistic Directors include Julius Rudel and Anton Guadagno (1966–1972). The company produced between four and six of their own operas every year in addition to sponsoring numerous traveling productions from the New York City Opera. In 1975 the company merged with the Philadelphia Grand Opera Company but retained its original name. With the combined resources of both companies, the Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company began producing higher quality productions with name artists such as Luciano Pavarotti, Joan Sutherland, Roberta Peters, Montserrat Montserrat Caballé, and others. For the bicentennial year 1976, the company commissioned famed opera composer Gian Carlo Menotti to create a new opera. The work, The Hero, premiered on June 1, 1976. In 1980, the company artistically reorganized to form the Opera Company of Philadelphia.
Robert Beaser is an American composer.
Nadine Sierra is an American soprano. She is most well known for her interpretation of Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, and Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Currently performing in leading roles in the top opera houses around the world, she received the 1st Prize and People's Choice Award 2013 at the Neue Stimmen competition, is the 2017 Richard Tucker Music Foundation Award Winner, and was awarded the Beverly Sills Artists Award in 2018. Her debut album on the Universal Music Group label, There's a Place for Us, was released on August 24, 2018.
Lauren Flanigan is an American operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the 1980s. She enjoyed a particularly fruitful partnership with the New York City Opera, appearing with the company almost every year since 1990. She has sung more than 100 different opera roles on stage during her career, often appearing in contemporary works or more rarely staged operas. Opera News stated that, "Flanigan has enjoyed one of the most distinctive careers of any artist of her generation, one marked by a high volume of contemporary works. Modern composers love her because of her innate musicality, dramatic power and lightning-fast skills and instincts."
Neil Rosenshein is an American operatic tenor, who sang leading tenor roles in the major American and European opera houses. He created the roles of Aspern in Dominick Argento's The Aspern Papers and Léon in Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles.
Evelyn Mandac is a soprano opera singer, orchestra soloist, recitalist and voice teacher from the Philippines. She is based in New York City. She's also listed in "Who's Who in Music and Musicians."
José Iturbi Báguena was a conductor, pianist, harpsichordist and actor from Valencia, Spain. He also appeared in several Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer musical films including Thousands Cheer (1943), Music for Millions (1944), Anchors Aweigh (1945), That Midnight Kiss (1949), and Three Daring Daughters (1948), his only leading role.
Anthony Roth Costanzo is an American countertenor. He began his career in musical theatre at the age of 11. Costanzo is a graduate of Princeton University and of the Manhattan School of Music. In 2012, he won first place at the Operalia competition. In 2009, he was a Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He has been an actor in film and a producer and curator. He is the designated general director and president of Opera Philadelphia.
Megan Marie Hart is an American operatic soprano from Eugene, Oregon, performing in leading operatic roles and concerts in America and Europe.
The Marilyn Horne Song Competition is an annual competition for participants of the voice and piano programs at the Music Academy of The West.
Sheri Greenawald is an American soprano and music educator who had a performance career in concerts and operas during the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century. She has portrayed principal roles in the world premieres of several operas, including works by composers Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Catán, Carlisle Floyd, Thomas Pasatieri, and Stephen Paulus. She has performed leading roles with opera companies in the US and abroad, including the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Bavarian State Opera, La Fenice, and Paris Opera. She was particularly active as a performer with the Santa Fe Opera and San Francisco Opera. A former member of the voice faculty at the Boston Conservatory, she served as director of the San Francisco Opera Center from 2002 through 2020.