Russian tenor Sergey Romanovsky has quickly established himself as one of the most interesting voices of his generation. He studied at the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory and the Academy of Choral Arts in Moscow and is the winner of numerous competitions, including the 2005 International Bella Voce Competition in Moscow.
Recent roles have included Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata at the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Raoul in Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots at Semperoper Dresden and the title role in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux. Romanovsky has performed at opera houses around the world, including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Alfredo in La traviata); Teatro alla Scala (Libenskof in Il viaggio a Reims); Opernhaus Zürich (Nadir in Les pêcheurs de perles); Bregenzer Festspiele (Duca in Rigoletto); Dutch National Opera (Rodolfo in La bohème); the Rossini Opera Festival (Leicester in Elisabetta, regina d’Inghilterra, Néoclès in Le siège de Corinthe, and Agorante in Ricciardo e Zoraide); and Wexford Festival Opera (Giasone in Medea) to name a few.
Recent concert engagements include Verdi’s Requiem (his debuts with Vlaanderen Opera and the Berliner Philharmoniker); Mascagni’s Messa di Gloria (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam); and Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle (Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia).
Romanovsky has collaborated with conductors including Lorin Maazel, Evelino Pidò, Leo Hussain, Alberto Zedda, Christophe Rousset, Michele Mariotti, Daniele Callegari, Antonio Fogliani, Yuri Bashmet, Ottavio Dantone and stage directors Robert Carsen, Denis Krief, Stefano Mazzonis Di Pralafera and Luca Ronconi.
Canadian tenor Josh Lovell, whose voice has been described by the Chicago Classical Review as ‘a consistent cause for joy’, is the winner of the 39th Belvedere Singing Competition and an ensemble member of the Wiener Staatsoper. In 2022/23, he made house debuts at the
Teatro alla Scala as Ferdinand in Thomas Adès’s The Tempest, at the Oper Leipzig as Don Ottavio in a new production of Don Giovanni and with Deutsche Oper Berlin as Gérald in Lakmé at the Philharmonie. He also returned to the Wiener Staatsoper for guest performances as Telemachus in Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, Lukas in Die Jahreszeiten and Ernesto in Don Pasquale. Recently he stepped in for an unwell colleague as the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier at the Bayerische Staatsoper.
An avid and experienced concert artist, Lovell has given numerous performances of the works of Handel, Mozart, Haydn, Britten, Vaughan Williams and Bach. Most notably, he sang opposite Susan Graham and Nathan Gunn as part of the Jazz Trio in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti during a ‘Celebrating 100 Years of Bernstein’ concert at Lyric Opera of Chicago. He has
also appeared with Music of the Baroque, performing Bach’s Coffee Cantata conducted by Jane Glover; and Messiah with The International Music Foundation, as well as the Apollo Chorus of Chicago. He debuted as the Evangelist in Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Victoria Philharmonic Choir in Canada and sang a selection of Bach cantatas as well as his Magnificat with the baroque ensemble I Musici de Montréal. Upcoming engagements include debuts at the Canadian Opera Company and the Opéra National de Paris.
French tenor Christophe Mortagne is in demand for character tenor roles at major houses around the world including the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Milan, the Dutch National Opera, Teatro Real in Madrid and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He has worked with conductors including Fabio Luisi, Marc Minkowski and Antonio Pappano, as well as directors such as Stefan Herheim, Kasper Holten and Laurent Pelly.
His broad repertoire includes Don Curzio (Le nozze di Figaro), Monsieur Triquet (Eugene Onegin), Schmidt (Werther), Spalanzani (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), le Roi Bobèche (Offenbach’s Barbe-Bleue), the title role in Offenbach’s Le Roi Carotte, Dr Caïus (Falstaff); Goro (Madama Butterfly) and Aegisth (Elektra).
Mortagne studied at the Conservatoire de Paris and is a former member of La Comédie Française. His recordings include Les Contes d’Hoffmann (Royal Opera House/Sony DVD; Bregenz Festival/Unitel Classica DVD) and La Vie Parisienne (Opéra de Lyon/Virgin DVD); L’Étoile (Dutch National Opera/Naxos DVD); and Eugene Onegin (Royal Opera House/Opus Arte).
Awarded a 2022 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship, an Associate Artist of The Mozartists and a former member of the BBC’s New Generation Artists Scheme, Alessandro Fisher won First Prize at the 2016 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. He read Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge, where he was a Choral Scholar at Clare College, furthering his studies at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
He made his Salzburg Festival debut as Lucano L’Incoronazione di Poppea and his operatic engagements have further included Delmiro / Alindo Hipermestra for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Fabio Berenice for the Royal Opera, London, Bastien Bastien und Bastienne,Don Polidoro La finta semplice and Christian Die Schuldigkeit des ersten Gebotes for The Mozartists, Bellecourt Vert Vert for Garsington Opera, the title role in Dardanus for English Touring Opera and FentonFalstaff for The Grange Festival.
His recordings include L’Incoronazione di Poppea with Les Arts Florissants on Harmonia Mundi CD, Bastien und Bastienne with The Mozartists on Signum CD (nominated for a 2019 International Classical Music Award), Roussel’s Évocations with the BBC Philharmonic on Chandos CD and Dame Ethel Smyth’s Fête Galante on Retrospect Opera CD.
Engagements in 2021 / 2022 include the B Minor Mass with the New London Orchestra, Britten Les Illuminations with the Ulster Orchestra, Mendelssohn Elias at the Badisches Staatstheater Klagenfurt, Monteverdi Vesperae della beate Vergine with La Nuova Musica at London’s Wigmore Hall, Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 3 and On Wenlock Edge with the BBC Philharmonic, First Brother The Seven Deadly Sins on tour with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Simon Rattle (London, Cologne, Essen) and a New Generation Artist Recital at Stoller Hall. At the Wigmore Hall, he also appears in A Home for All Seasons and, with The Mozartists, The Swinging Sixties.
Mercadante’s Il proscritto is his debut with Opera Rara.
Iván Ayón Rivas was born in 1993 in Perù. He studied opera under the tutelage of María Eloisa Aguirre at the National Conservatory of Music of Perù. He pursued his studies with Juan Diego Florez, Ernesto Palacio, Vincenzo Scalera, Maurizio Colaccichi and Luigi Alva.
In 2013 he won the second prize at the Peruvian National competition for Opera Singers, and in 2014 he sang in many solo recitals in Perù.
In November 2014 he made his debut in Ludwigshafen/BASF in a Gala with Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, in the benefit concert of Juan Diego Florez, under the baton of Fabio Luisi.
In November 2015 he won the third edition of the Concorso Internazionale di Canto “Premio Etta Limiti”
He sang in Mercadante’s Francesca Rimini at the Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca conducted by Fabio Luisi, where he came back the following year in Un giorno di regno.
Among his recent and future engagements: La Traviata n Venice, Rimini, Florence, Rome, Falstaff in Turin, L’Arlesiana in Berlin, Il Corsaro in Piacenza, I Capuleti e i Montecchi in Rome, La Bohème in Moscow, at the Teatro Regio in Turin, at La Fenice, in Rome and at the Puccini Festival in Torre del Lago, L’elisir d’amore in Las Palmas and Bari, Rigoletto in Florence under the baton of Fabio Luisi, in Turin and in Palermo directed by John Turturro, in Rome under Daniele Gatti, in Venice, Tokyo and in Liège, L’elisir d’amore in Bari and Las Palmas, La Rondine at the Festival Puccini in Torre del lago, Don Pasquale and Gianni Schicchi at the Liceu in Barcelona, Eugene Onegin at the Wiener Staatsoper, Faust in Venice, Les contes d’Hoffmann in Sydney and his debut with Macbeth at la Scala.
He is the winner of the First Prize, the Don Plácido Domingo Ferrer Prize of Zarzuela ed the Rolex Prize of the Audience at the Operalia Competition 2021.
Iván Ayón Rivas’s performance in Mercadante’s Il proscritto is generously supported by Islée Oliva Salinas.
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.
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.
Tenor Kenneth Tarver is a graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Yale University School of Music. His repertoire encompasses the operatic roles of Mozart, Rossini, Donizetti, Gluck, Verdi and Berlioz as well as concert works from Bach and Beethoven to Debussy and Stravinsky. Among his operatic performances are Don Giovanni with Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding in Aix-en-Provence, Così fan tutte at Covent Garden with Colin Davis and Il barbiere di Siviglia with Maurizio Benini at the New York Met. In October 2006 he took the role of Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni under René Jacobs in Brussels, Cologne and Paris and more recently has sung Il barbiere di Siviglia (Conte d’Almaviva) and La Cenerentola (Don Ramiro) at the Bavarian State Opera. He has recorded several of Berlioz’s operas with Colin Davis and the LSO and with Pierre Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra. He can be heard on the Opera Rara releases Paventa Insano and La donna del lago.
Opera Rara’s Artist Ambassador Michael Spyres was born and raised in the Ozarks and grew up in an extremely musical family. Mr. Spyres is one of the most sought-after Tenors of his generation with 10 DVDs and 30 CDs to his name and has performed more roles than any active tenor with an astounding 83 roles in 78 separate operas. Michael has been celebrated in the world’s most prestigious international opera houses, festivals, and concert halls and is acclaimed in the widest range of repertoire. His unique career has taken him into every genre from Baroque to Classical to the 20th century, while firmly establishing himself as an expert within the Bel Canto repertoire and French Grand Opera.
In this incredible 2022/2023 season Michael will star twice on the Metropolitan Opera stage as he returns to NYC with the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo as well as Pollione in Bellini’s Norma. Michael also sees his return to the Opéra National de Paris, as Don Jose in Bizet’s Carmen. To begin the new year, Michael tours Hamburg and Cologne as Pollione in Bellini’s Norma with Maestro Riccardo Minasi, followed by his return to the MET as Pollione. In the spring he performs, tours, and records for the first time in history with the winning Erato Warner team, all versions of Carmen led by Maestro John Nelson, and the Orchestra Philharmonique de Strasbourg starring Joyce DiDonato in the title role of Carmen. The final opera of the year sees his debut as Jupiter in Handel’s Semele with his return to the festival of the Bayerische Staatsoper Munchen.
In addition to the opera stage, this season will see a very active concert schedule beginning with his debut at both the NYC Armory series and the Kennedy Center of Washington D. C. alongside his piano virtuoso partner, Mathieu Pordoy as they present a romantic music recital of Beethoven, Berlioz, and Liszt. Michael performs again with M. Pordoy in the festival Les Volques of Nimes where they will present a recital of Schumann’s Dichterliebe as well as Schumann’s Op.74 duets along with his wife Tara Stafford-Spyres. Also in December Michael will sing a recital of duets with his wife entitled Noel en Italie with Maestro Jeremie Rohrer at the Grand Theatre de Provence. The beginning of 2023 will see Michael along with his colleague Lawrence Brownlee as they share the stage in Les Grands Voix in their return to Théatre Champs Elysée. The spring of 2023 will see his debut in his home state with the Saint Louis Symphony under the baton of Maestro Stephane Deneuve as Faust in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust, followed by his hometown debut with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra along with his wife, sister, and brother as they share an evening of musicals and opera. To conclude the concert season, Michael’s latest solo album Contra-Tenor recorded with Erato Warner Records and the famed Pomo d’Oro baroque ensemble, will be released with a subsequent tour in Montpellier, London, Antwerp, and Berlin.
The previous 2021/2022 season saw Michael’s solo album debut, BariTenor, for Warners/Erato with the Strasbourg Philharmonie under the baton of Marko Letonja as well as his return to the stage in an incredibly wide range of repertoire from Lieder to BelCanto and Wagner to French Grand Opera and Verismo. The exciting season saw his return as Florestan in Fidelio with Raphael Pichon and Pygmalion at Opera Comique de Paris, his role debut as Wagner’s Tristan in a concert version of Act 2 with Opera de Lyon, his role debut as Canio in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with the OLOpera, his return as Romeo to the Houston Grand Opera, as well as his anticipated debut in the title role of Mozart’s Idomeneo in Baden-Baden. In addition to the opera stage he made his recital debut with Mathieu Pordoy in Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, Theatre du Capital Toulouse, Festival Les Volques, as well as two separate recitals in Paris. On the concert stage Michael starred with the Ravello Festival, Opera Philadelphia, Strasbourg Philharmonie, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Gran Theatre de Liceu, Theater an der Wien, and Theatre des Champs Elysees,
Since 2015 Michael has had the honor to be the only International Opera Star who is not just a performer but also an impresario. Mr. Spyres has been the Artistic Director of his hometown opera company, the Ozarks Lyric Opera and has been involved in every aspect of the renaissance of his regional company. In addition to being the active Artistic Director he has translated libretti and actively teaches masterclasses while guiding young artists careers. The last years have seen him produce numerous events as well as 7 operas and numerous gala concerts. For the 2019/2020 season Michael wrote/produced the 40th anniversary gala as well as an original pastiche on the life of Handel. The 2021/2022 season saw his return to the OLOpera’s main stage after 10 years to star in his original vaudeville pastiche coupled with his role debut as Canio in his original concept of Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci.
Michael has worked with some of the world’s most renowned conductors such as Riccardo Muti, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Sir Mark Elder, Valery Gergiev, Emmannuelle Haim, Sir Andrew Davis, Fabio Luisi, Michele Mariotti, Alberto Zedda, and John Nelson. In his meteoric rise Michael has quickly established himself as one of the greatest singers of his generation and has already sung at many of the world’s most prestigious Opera houses and festivals worldwide such as Teatro San Carlo, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro alla Scala, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Aix en Provence Festival, Opera National de Bordeaux, Opera Comique, Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Covent Garden, English National Opera, Nederlands National Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berliner Festspiele, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Gran Teatre del Liceu, ABAO Bilbao Opera, Teatro Real de Madrid, Wiener Staatsoper, and the Salzburger Festspiele.
In addition to his operatic career, Mr. Spyres is equally accomplished within the concert world and has given concerts and recitals in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Prague, Pesaro, Bologna, Napoli, Sao Paulo, A Coruna, Tokyo, Cape Town, Shanghai, Vienna, Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Lyon, Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
For Opera Rara he has recorded Donizetti’s Les Martyrs and Le Duc d’Albe as well as his debut solo recital album Espoir.
