Portuguese soprano Susana Gaspar’s recent engagements include Vitellia in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito, Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème, 1st Nymph in Dvorak’s Rusalka, and La Passion de Simone by Kaija Saariaho, for Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon. Also Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata for Nevill Holt Opera, Cio-Cio San in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly for Diva Opera, Marguerite in Gounod’d Faust for Valladolid Opera, Mahler 4 conducted by Bruno Borralhinho in concerts in Madrid and Galizia, a recording of Portuguese songs by Fernando Lopes-Graça with Nuno Vieira de Almeida, and soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with Hastings Philharmonic.
Susana was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme 2011-13 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, singing Barbarina Le nozze di Fìgaro, Contessa Ceprano Rigoletto, Giannetta L’elisir d’amore, First Innocent Minotaur, Papagena Die Zauberflöte, Voce dal Cielo Don Carlo and Aurore Le Portrait de Manon (Meet the Young Artists Week).
Susana represented Portugal in the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World finals.
Recordings include Portugal Matinas do Natal for Paraty, Fanny Mendelssohn songs with Malcolm Martineau, opera arias and duets with the RPO and Renato Balsadonna, and Semiramide, Le portrait de Manon and Les nuits d’été for Opera Rara.
Opera News wrote of Elizabeth DeShong’s performance as Sesto in the Los Angeles Opera’s production of La Clemenza di Tito: “Elizabeth DeShong took pride of place as Sesto. Completely unrecognizable in her beard and dingy armor, DeShong sang with the range, expressiveness and musical precision that captured the hysterical extremes of her character. Much of Sesto’s music lies in the cellars of DeShong’s mezzo-soprano, where the intensely deep contralto tones she commands contrasted startlingly with the dazzling coloratura runs at the top of her range.”
During the 2019/20 season, Ms. DeShong will return to the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera for performances as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, the latter conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. She will make her debut with the Melbourne Symphony as Hänsel in a concert performance of Hänsel and Gretel, sing Pauline in Pique Dame at Lyric Opera of Chicago — both conducted by Sir Andrew Davis — and make her debut at the Frankfurt Opera as Falliero in a new production of Bianca e Falliero.
Last season, Ms. DeShong performed Adalgisa in Norma with the North Carolina Opera, gave a recital for Vocal Arts, D.C., sang John Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with the composer conducting, and was a soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the San Francisco and Houston Symphonies, conducted by Jane Glover. Additional highlights were her debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Ariel in Sibelius’ The Tempest, the Philadelphia Orchestra in Rossini’s Stabat Mater, conducted by Yannick Nézet -Séguin, a tour of Europe and the United States with The English Concert in which she portrayed both Juno and Ino in Handel’s Semele, the Verdi Requiem with the Minnesota Orchestra, and Sesto in a new production of La Clemenza di Tito with the Los Angeles Opera.
In 2018/19, Ms. DeShong sang Ruggiero in Alcina at Washington National Opera, and Arsace in Semiramide at the Metropolitan Opera. In concert she performed Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Music of the Baroque, and made her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Schubert’s Mass No. 6, and the world premiere of Three Lisel Mueller Settings by Maxwell Raimi, both conducted by Riccardo Muti. On the European platform, Ms. DeShong portrayed Suzuki in a new production of Madama Butterfly at the Glyndebourne Festival, and made her debuts with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and at the Proms in Bernstein’s Symphony No. 1 (“Jeremiah”), under the direction of Sir Antonio Pappano, and sang Hänsel in a concert version of Hänsel and Gretel conducted by Sir Andrew Davis at the Edinburgh International Festival.
Further performances of note include Adalgisa in Norma at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and her Royal Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper debuts as Suzuki. Ms. DeShong has performed extensively throughout the world with such companies as the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Canadian Opera Company, English National Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra National de Bordeaux, the Glyndebourne Festival, and Aix-en-Provence.
The list of symphony orchestras with whom she has performed includes the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Cincinnati Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra, Toronto Symphony, the Royal Flemish Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Oregon Symphony, The English Concert, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Ms. DeShong was the recipient of the Washington National Opera’s “Artist of the Year” award in 2010, as the Composer in Richard Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos. On DVD, she can be seen as Suzuki in the Royal Opera’s production of Madama Butterfly on Opus Arte, Hermia in the Metropolitan Opera’s pastiche opera The Enchanted Island (Virgin), and as Maffio Orsini in the San Francisco Opera’s production of Lucrezia Borgia (EuroArts Music and Naxos of America). Her recording of Handel’s Messiah with the Toronto Symphony under the direction of Sir Andrew Davis was released by Chandos and nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2018.
American Mezzo-soprano Irene Roberts continues to enjoy international acclaim as a singer of exceptional versatility and vocal suppleness. A resident artist with the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Roberts’ many roles this season include the title in Carmen, Marguerite in La Damnation de Faust, Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Fenena in Nabucco, and Dulcinée in Don Quichotte. She recently made her debut at the Dutch National Opera as Nicklausse, and last summer made her debut at Teatro La Fenice in the role of Amneris in Aida and at the Macerata Opera Festival as the title role in Carmen.
Roberts has a close relationship with the San Francisco Opera where she made her debut in Les Contes d’Hoffmann in 2013. She has since returned as the title role in Calixto Bieto’s US debut production of Carmen, and in the world premiere of Bright Sheng’s Dream of the Red Chamber. Recent engagements have included Le nozze di Figaro and Parsifal at the Metropolitan Opera, Don Giovanni, Madama Butterfly, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and Ariadne auf Naxos at Palm Beach Opera, L’Italiana in Algeri with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Marschner’s Der Vampyr at New Orleans Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia with Atlanta Opera, and Gounod’s Faust with Lyric Opera Baltimore.
On the concert stage, Roberts embarked on a five-city tour of France in May of 2017 with the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France as soloist for Rossini’s Stabat Mater under the baton of Enrique Mazzola. Roberts made her debut at London’s Wigmore Hall in 2016 in recital with tenor Bryan Hymel and pianist Julius Drake. Previous concert engagements include performances with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, Miami’s New World Symphony led by Joshua Gersen, and at the US Naval Academy for its annual holiday presentation of Handel’s Messiah.
Roberts studied at the University of the Pacific and the Cleveland Institute of Music, and is a graduate of the young artist program at Palm Beach Opera. She won 2nd prize in the Advanced Division at the 41st Annual Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition and was a finalist for the 2014 Richard Tucker Career Grant.
Among recent and future engagements: Carmen, Nabucco, Madama Butterfly and Tristan und Isolde in Berlin, Julie in Opéra nationale Lorraine, Così fan tutte in San Francisco, Parsifal in Hannover, Tannhäuser in Klagenfurt and Lyon, Il Proscritto by Mercadante with Opera Rara in London.
Irene Roberts’ performance in Mercadante’s Il proscritto is generously supported by Michael Buckley.
The tenor Iván Ayón-Rivas was born in 1993 in Peru. He has studied opera under María Eloísa Aguirre González, Juan Diego Flórez, Ernesto Palacio, Vincenzo Scalera, Maurizio Colacicchi and Luigi Alva, and is currently studying in Italy with the baritone Roberto Servile.
In 2013 he won Second Prize at the Peruvian National Competition for Opera Singers, and the following year he gave many solo recitals in Peru. In 2015 he won the Concorso Internazionale di Canto ‘Premio Etta e Paolo Limiti’, going on to sing in Mercadante’s Francesca da Rimini at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca, conducted by Fabio Luisi; he returned the following year in Verdi’s Un giorno di regno.
In 2021 he won First Prize in the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Prize of Zarzuela and the Rolex Audience Prize at the Operalia Competition. Recent and future engagements include the lead tenor roles in La traviata in Venice, Rimini, Florence and Rome, Falstaff in Turin, L’arlesiana in Berlin, Il corsaro in Piacenza, I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Rome and at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, L’elisir d’amore in Las Palmas and Bari, Rigoletto in Florence (under Fabio Luisi), Liège (under Daniele Gatti), Turin, Palermo, Rome, Venice and Tokyo, Don Pasquale and Gianni Schicchi at the Liceu in Barcelona, Eugene Onegin and Otello at the Vienna Staatsoper, Faust in Venice and Les contes d’Hoffmann in Sydney and Venice. He made his debut at La Scala as Malcolm in Macbeth.
For Opera Rara, he sang the role of Arturo Murray in Mercadante’s Il proscritto, which won the 2023 International Opera Award for Best Opera Recording.
One of the leading tenors of our time and one of the most sought-after worldwide, Ramón Vargas was born in Mexico City. In 1982 he made his debut in Haydn’s Lo Speziale, in Monterrey, Mexico. His breakthrough came in 1983, when the Mexican conductor Eduardo Mata hired him to sing Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff, and then Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Upon winning the Enrico Caruso Tenor Competition in Milan, in 1986, he moved to Austria, where he completed his vocal studies at the school of the Wiener Staatsoper, under the guidance of Leo Müller, then in Milan with the renowned vocal coach Rodolfo Celletti.
Ramón Vargas’ international debut took place in 1992, when the New York Metropolitan Opera asked him to sing Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor opposite June Anderson, substituting Luciano Pavarotti. This was soon followed by a debut on the stage of La Scala, in 1993, where he sung Fenton in Strehler’s new production celebrating the centenary of Falstaff, conducted by Riccardo Muti. He regularly performs at all the world leading opera houses, such as Royal Opera House London, Staatsoper Berlin, Opéra National de Paris, Liceu de Barcelona and many others.
He was awarded the Lauri Volpi Award for the Best Opera Singer of the 1993 Italian season, and in 1995 Italian critics were unanimous in decorating him with the Gino Tani Award for the Arts. In 2000, British Opera Now declared Ramón Vargas Artist of the Year. In 2001, he received the ECHO Klassik – Singer of the Year Award from the German Phono Academy.
His latest performances include Luisa Miller at Staatsoper Hamburg, Don Carlo at Vienna State Opera, La Gioconda at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Un ballo in maschera at Teatro Real de Madrid, Roberto Devereux at Los Angeles Opera, Les contes d’Hoffman at Teatro Colon de Buenos Aires.
John Treleaven studied in London at the College of Music with William Lloyd Webber, among others, and at the London Opera Centre, Covent Garden as well as in Naples under Maestro Campanino. At first, he sang primarily in his home country at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the Welsh National Opera, the Scottish National Opera and the English National Opera, where he learned numerous roles such as the Prince in Rusalka. At the Edinburgh Festival, he sang the role of Hans in The Bartered Bride, as well as Radames, Erik, Florestan and was heard in Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex. Further guest performances took him to the Adelaide Festival, the Taormina Festival, to Bologna, Amsterdam, Paris, New York …
In 1991, he made his highly acclaimed German debut at the Mannheim National Theatre as Peter Grimes, a role he has since sung at the Hamburg State Opera, in Bremen, Frankfurt and Genoa, at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires and at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg (directed by Alfred Kirchner). His repertoire also includes roles such as Bacchus in Ariadne auf Naxos, Canio in Pagliacci, Calaf in Turandot, Dick Johnson in La Fanciulla del West and Hermann in Pique Dame. At the Berlin State Opera he sang Pollione in Norma’ at the Teatro Real Madrid he performed Menelas in Die Ägyptische Helena and in Helsinki he sang the Emperor in Die Frau ohne Schatten.
Eiddwen Harrhy studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music, where she won the Imperial League of Opera Gold Medal. She then studied in London, winning the Miriam Licette Prize to further her studies in Paris.
She has sung with major orchestras and opera companies around the world, appearing in Amsterdam, Athens, Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Milan, Lucerne, Naples, Turin, Rome, Paris, Barcelona, Tel Aviv, St Petersburg, Sydney, Vienna and Hong Kong. Festivals include Glyndebourne, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh, Batignano, Halle, Göttingen, Lucerne, Geneva, Bruges and Hong Kong.
Notable roles include Poppea, Alcina, Iphigenie, Norina, Gilda, Michaela, Pamina, Countess, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Fiordiligi, Octavian, Componist, Katya Kabanova, Marenka, Madama Butterfly, Marie (Wozzeck).
Eiddwen has worked with many great conductors, including, Colin Davis, Georg Solti, Bernard Haitink, Mark Elder, John Eliot Gardiner, Roger Norrington, John Pritchard, Christopher Hogwood, Ivor Bolton, Richard Hickok, Mariss Janssons, Marc Minkovski and Phillipe Herreweghe.
Eiddwen Harrhy’s teaching career includes master classes and one-to-one teaching around the world , including Singapore, Prague, Berlin, Vilnius, Utrecht, Helsinki, Stockholm, Vienna, National Opera Studio (London) and USA. She travels to Indiana University every year to work with the students at the prestigious Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, preparing their performances of Handel operas and oratorios.
She is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music (London) Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, Royal Society of Arts, and has been awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Letters by the University of Swansea, Wales.
Lukasz Golinski studied at the Music Academy in Gdansk and made his professional debut as Zbigniew in Moniuszko’s Haunted Manor with Baltic Opera Gdansk. He went on to join the ensemble of Nova Opera in Bydgoszcz. There his roles have included the title role of Falstaff, Tonio (Pagliacci), Marcello, Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), Count Peter Homonay (Der Zigeunerbaron), Freddy Eynsford-Hill (My Fair Lady), Baron Douphol (La traviata), Speaker of the Temple (Die Zauberflöte), and Janusz (Halka). Other appearances include the title role of Król Roger for Polish National Opera, the Orchestra Nazionale dell’Accademia di Santa Cecilia under Pappano, Frankfurt Opera and Royal Swedish Opera, Wissmann/Innkeeper (The Fiery Angel) for Aix-en-Provence Festival, Escamillo (Carmen) for Teatr Wielki in Poznan and Selim (Il turco in Italia), Guglielmo Cecil (Maria Stuarda) and Janusz for Polish National Opera.
Golinski has won Best Male Voice and Best Male Supporting Actor for his interpretation of Marcello at the 2011 Bydgoski Opera Festival, and Best Polish Aria and Best Polish Male Singer at the 2013 International Stanislaw Moniuszko Vocal Competition in Warsaw.
Arsen Soghomonyan made his debut as a tenor in March of 2017 as Cavaradossi in Tosca to great acclaim at the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Opera Theatre in Moscow. Prior to his debut as a tenor, Soghomonyan was the leading baritone of the Stanislavsky Theatre, where his repertoire included Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Germont in La Traviata, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, Eletsky in The Queen of Spades and Napoleon in Prokofiev’s War and Peace. He has also appeared as a Guest Artist at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. The 2018/19 season saw Soghomonyan’s debut at many of Europe’s most important theaters. He appeared as the title role in Otello with the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta, Canio in Pagliacci at the Teatro di San Carlo in Napoli, and Roberto in Le Villi with Opera Rara. In the 2019/20 season, the tenor returned to Napoli as Cavaradossi in Tosca, and this season he will debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as Otello.
Born in Yerevan in 1983, Arsen Soghomonyan graduated from the Barkhudaryan music school, where he studied with L.Ter-Oganesyan. From 2000 to 2006, Soghomonyan studied with R. Hakobyants at the Komitas State Conservatory of Yerevan, during which time he made his debut as a baritone in the role of Fiorello from Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Maestro Eduard Topchyan. He was subsequently invited to the Armenian National Academic Theatre of Opera and Ballet, where he sang many of the leading baritone roles. In 2006, Soghomonyan was awarded the State Prize of Armenia by the President of the Republic of Armenia. He also won First Prize at the Pavel Lisitsian International competition of opera singers in Vladikavkaz, where he received the Special Prize from the Lisitsian family and had the honor of participating in a masterclass with Pavel Lisitsian himself. Additionally, Soghomonyan has been a prizewinner at the Romansiada International Competition in Moscow, S. Manushko International Competition in Warsaw, and UNISA International Singing Competition in South Africa. He has collaborated with such notable conductors as Vladimir Spivakov, Felix Korobov, Tugan Sokhiev, Alberto Zedda and many others.
Krassimira Stoyanova is one of the leading sopranos of our time, highly acclaimed by press and public alike. She was born in Bulgaria where she studied violin at the Conservatory and singing and violin at the Plovdiv Music Academy and made her professional debut in 1995 at the Sofia National Opera House, where she debuted a wide range of roles.
Since 1998 Krassimira Stoyanova has a close relationship with the Vienna State Opera where she has sung Rachel/ La Juive (new production with TV-production), Contessa/ Le nozze di Figaro, Micaela/ Carmen, Antonia/ Les contes d’Hoffmann, Liù/ Turandot, Nedda/ I Pagliacci, Mimi/ La Bohème, Violetta/ La Traviata, Alice/ Falstaff (new production), Rusalka (new production), Desdemona/ Otello (new production), Elisabetta/ Don Carlo (new production), Ariadne/ Ariadne auf Naxos (new production), Amelia/ Un Ballo in Maschera, Amelia/ Simone Boccanegra, Anna/ Anna Bolena, to mention only a few.
From there her international career developed rapidly and since takes her to the world’s leading opera houses including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden London, Teatro alla Scala di Milano, the Bastille Paris, to the State Operas of Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Dresden, and Zürich. She performed at Rome’s Teatro dell’ Opera, at the Liceu in Barcelona, at the Nederlands Opera in Amsterdam, in Bilbao, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, and at the New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv. In 2003 the artist made her debut at the Salzburg Festival where she is a regular guest since then.
She worked with the most renowned conductors which include Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haiting, Manfred Honeck, Mariss Jansons, Fabio Luisi, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Georges Pretre, Yuri Temirkanov, Christian Thielemann, Franz Welser-Möst.
Krassimira Stoyanova’s repertoire covers a wide variety of roles ranging from belcanto operas, the great Verdi and Puccini heroines as well as Richard Strauss to the Slavic repertoire. She also dedicates herself also to less well-known titles such as I Guarani, Fosca, La battaglia di Legnano, Maria di Rohan, Les Huguenots, Dmitry and Die Liebe der Danae.
Stoyanovais one of the most sought-after singers on the concert stage. Highlights of her concert work are: with Beethoven’s 9th Symphony at the Ravenna Festival under the baton of Riccardo Muti, with Sir Colin Davis at the St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, with Mariss Jansons at the Vatican in Rome, with Christian Thielemann and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. Her concert repertoire includes the Messa da Requiem by Verdi, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Four last songs by R. Strauss, Dvorak’s Requiem and Stabat Mater, to mention only a few.
Her solo CD recordings I palpiti d’amor, Slavic Opera Arias, Verdi Arias (label: Orfeo) have all received prestigious awards. Her 4th CD Verismo was released in Dec 2016 winning a Critics Choice designation by Opera News magazine, Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. She also recorded a CD of all the Songs of Giacomo Puccini (label: Naxos).
In 2009 Krassimira Stoyanova was awarded with the title Kammersängerin der Wiener Staatsoper.
