The Barber of Seville

Irish-American baritone Emmett O’Hanlon’s 2022/23 season sees his house debut with Austin Opera as Figaro in The Barber of Seville. He also returns to Deutsche Oper am Rhein for his role debut as Pierrot in a new production of Die tote Stadt, and a reprise of his acclaimed run as the title role in Der Kaiser von Atlantis, as well as a return to Irish National Opera to sing Simon in Donnacha Dennehy and Edna Walsh’s The First Child. Concert appearances include a concert with the New York Philharmonic celebrating the works of Stephen Sondheim presented by Bravo! Vail Festival, a holiday concert with the South Bend Symphony, and a special concert at the Sun Valley Festival with tenor Emmet Cahill focused on music from the leading men of Hollywood’s “golden age.”

The 2021/22 season saw Mr. O’Hanlon’s house debut with Irish National Opera as Simon in The First Child, presented as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival. He also joined the ensemble at Deutsche Oper am Rhein which saw his role debut as the Count in The Marriage of Figaro, as well as Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Silvio in Pagliacci and as the Kaiser in Der Kaiser von Atlantis. He also appeared in galas with Austin Opera and Hawaii Opera Theatre. In concert, he appeared with mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard and tenor Emmet Cahill in Scenes from a New York Stage at the Blue Building in Manhattan.

Operatic highlights include Mr. O’Hanlon’s role debuts as the title role in Don Giovanni, and Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette at Deutsche Oper am Rhein, his role debut as Malatesta in Don Pasquale with the Blackwater Valley Opera Festival, his role debut as Silvio in Pagliacci with Opera San Jose, and Maximillian in Bernstein’s Candide with Des Moines Metro Opera. Mr. O’Hanlon also made his role debut as Gaston in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast at the Paramount Theater. Highlights at Lyric Opera of Chicago include the Second Priest in The Magic Flute, Wagner in Faust, and Dancaīre in Carmen, where he also covered the roles of Valentin in Faust, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Marullo in Rigoletto, Papageno in The Magic Flute and the Captain in Eugene Onegin. Additional operatic highlights include his debut at Des Moines Metro Opera in a new production of Billy Budd singing the Novice’s Friend and covering the title role, as well as covering the title role in Eugene Onegin, singing Bartley in Vaughan Williams’ Riders to the Sea, the Traveller in Britten’s Curlew River at the Juilliard School, and the Soldier in a workshop of Scott Wheeler’s The Sorrows of Frederick the Great in partnership with the Metropolitan Opera.

Concert work includes his debut with the New World Symphony for Unanswered Questions: A Leonard Bernstein Journey, conducted by Edwin Outwater. Recital appearances include being presented by Opera Birmingham at Brock Recital Hall at Samford University, and with Sun Valley Opera.

In addition to his operatic and concert career, Mr. O’Hanlon joined the group Celtic Thunder in 2014 as a featured artist. Highlights of his time with the group include appearances on the 2014 Celtic Cruise, the 2014 Christmas Symphony Tour, and the 2015 Very Best of Tour. He is also featured on both the DVD and CD of Legacy Vol I & II, as well as the re-release of their albums Heartland, The Show, Take Me Home, Heritage, and Voyage I & II.

Honors and awards include being named a finalist in the 2017 Operalia competition, a finalist in the south regional finals of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, 2nd place in the Verismo Opera competition, third place in the Gerda Lissner Foundation competition, and an encouragement award from the Opera Index competition.

Mr. O’Hanlon holds a master of music degree from the Juilliard School of Music and a bachelor of music degree from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Additional training includes participation as a Bel Canto young artist at Caramoor Opera, studies at La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy, a summer with Oberlin in Italy, and the “Julliard in Paris” project, sponsored by the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation.

Learn more at EmmettOHanlon.com.

Multiple Grammy Award-winning Isabel Leonard continues to thrill audiences both in the opera house and on the concert stage. In repertoire that spans from Vivaldi to Mozart to Nico Muhly, she has graced the stages of the Vienna State Opera, Paris Opera, Salzburg Festival, Bavarian State Opera, Carnegie Hall, Glyndebourne Festival, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Aix-en-Provence Festival, the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera in The Barber of Seville (Rosina), La Cenerentola (Angelina), The Marriage of Figaro (Cherubino), Così fan tutte (Dorabella), Don Giovanni (Zerlina/Donna Elvira), La clemenza di Tito (Sesto), Werther (Charlotte), Dialogues des Carmélites (Blanche de la Force), Griselda (Costanza), La Bohème (Musetta), Giulio Cesare (Sesto), and the title roles in Carmen, La Périchole, Cendrillon, Marnie, and Der Rosenkavalier. She has appeared with some of the foremost conductors of her time: Valery Gergiev, Seiji Ozawa, Antonio Pappano, Charles Dutoit, Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yannick Nézét-Seguin, Franz Welser-Möst, Plácido Domingo, Edward Gardner, James Levine, Edo de Waart, James Conlon, Marin Alsop, Sir Andrew Davis, Michele Mariotti, Harry Bicket, Andris Nelsons, and Michael Tilson Thomas with the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, among others.  

In the 2021/22 season, she returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Cendrillon and Ariadne auf Naxos (Komponist), Washington National Opera for Come Home: A Celebration of Return and Carmen, and the Santa Fe Opera for Carmen. On the concert stage she will return to the National Symphony Orchestra for a 9/11 commemoration concert conducted by Giancarlo Noseda, University of Connecticut for a solo recital, and makes her Russian debut in a solo orchestral concert in the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory conducted by Marco Armiliato. 

Ms. Leonard is in constant demand as a recitalist and is on the Board of Trustees at Carnegie Hall and the Artistic Advisory Board of ArtSmart.  She is a multiple Grammy Award winner, most recently for Michael Tilson Thomas’ From the Diary of Anne Frank on SFS Media (2021) for Best Classical Compendium, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges on Decca (2016) and The Tempest from The Metropolitan Opera on Deutsche Grammophon (2014), both Best Opera Recording. Television and film appearances include Sesame Street and host for The Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD movie theater transmissions. Ms. Leonard is the recipient of the Richard Tucker Award and has lent her voice, in honor of her father who died from the disease, to the Prostate Cancer Foundation by filming a public service announcement (PSA). 

Learn more at IsabelLeonard.com.

Uruguayan tenor Edgardo Rocha began his vocal studies in Montevideo before moving to Italy in 2008 and studying with Salvatore Fisichella, Rockwell Blake and, currently, José Luis Ansorena.

He made his acclaimed debut at the 2010 Martina Franca Festival in the title role in Donizetti’s Gianni di Parigi and was immediately invited to appear at several major Italian houses. He has also sung Gianni at the Wexford Festival. His other roles include Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola in Seattle, Stuttgart, Seville, Lausanne, Monte Carlo, Geneva and Munich, Ernesto in Don Pasquale in Florence and Verona, Ferrando in Così fan tutte in Naples and Turin, Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri in Bari, at the Vienna State Opera and at the Liceu in Barcelona, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville in Valencia, Madrid, Naples, Lausanne, Zurich, Hamburg, Verona, Vienna, Munich, Dresden, Paris, Tel Aviv and Rome, Alberto in La Gazzetta in Liège, Don Narciso in Il Turco in Italia in Turin, Zurich and at La Scala, Milan, Dorvil in La Scala di Seta, Iago in Rossini’s Otello, the title role in Le Comte Ory and Belfiore in Il Viaggio a Reims in Zurich, Libenskof in Il Viaggio a Reims in Dresden and Moscow, Nadir in The Pearl Fishers in Nancy, Arturo in I Puritani in Stuttgart, Léopold in La Juive in Munich, Iago and Giannetto in La Gazza Ladra at La Scala, Giacomo V/Uberto in La Donna del Lago in Marseille, the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalier in Dresden and Percy in Anna Bolena in Lausanne and Geneva.

Edgardo Rocha made his debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris in 2014 as Rodrigo in Rossini’s Otello, later singing the same role for his Salzburg Festival debut. He returned to Salzburg in 2017 for Giacomo V/Uberto in a concert performance of La Donna del Lago and in 2018 as Lindoro in an acclaimed new production of L’Italiana in Algeri.

In 2012 Edgardo Rocha appeared as Don Ramiro in Andrea Andermann’s film La Cenerentola: Una favola in diretta directed by Carlo Verdone and conducted by Gianluigi Gelmetti. In 2017 and 2018 he toured Europe singing this same role alongside Cecilia Bartoli. Following this year’s Salzburg appearances in The Barber of Seville both at Whitsun and in the summer, Edgardo Rocha will be heard as Elvino in new productions of La Sonnambula in Nice and Düsseldorf, Don Narciso in Madrid, Gérald in Lakmé and Lindoro in Zurich and Leicester in Maria Stuarda and the title role in Roberto Devereux in Geneva.

His discography includes DVD/Blu-ray recordings of Gianni di Parigi, Otello, La Gazzetta, L’Italiana in Algeri and Paer’s Agnese as well as CD recordings of Rossini’s cantata La Riconoscenza and his Petite Messe Solennelle.

Learn more at EdgardoRocha.com.

Paolo Bordogna is an internationally renowned bass-baritone. He studied with Roberto Coviello, Katia Ricciarelli and Bianca Maria Casoni at the Accademia Internazionale di Desenzano and with Alberto Zedda at the Accademia Rossiana in Pesaro. In 2000 he won the Caruso Competition and in 2006 he received the Bastianini Award.

His expansive baritone range and acting skills have led to performances of over 50 roles from the 16th century to the contemporary era and he has been in most demand for his specialty in bel canto and buffo roles. These include Dandini, Don Magnifico, Dulcamara, Belcore, Don Pasquale, Malatesta, Guglielmo, Don Alfonso, Figaro, Don Bartolo, Don Alvaro, Leporello, Figaro and Il Conte.

He has been a regular guest at the Rossini Opera Festival since 2005, appearing in La Gazzetta, La Cambiale di Matrimonio, La Gazza Ladra, Recital di Belcanto, La Scala di Seta, Le Nozze di Teti e Peleo, La Cenerentola, Matilde di Shabran, L’Occasione fa il Ladro, The Barber of Seville, La Pietra del Paragone and L’Equivoco Stravagante.

In recent years he has performed with many important theaters in Italy such as La Scala Milan, Rossini Opera Festival, Santa Cecilia, San Carlo Naples, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Rome Opera, Teatro Regio Turin, Petruzzelli di Bari, Ravenna Festival, Teatro Regio diParma, Carlo Felice di Genova, Donizetti Bergamo Festival, Teatro Comunale Bologna, Teatro Massimo Palermo and Teatro Bellini Catania.

Outside of his native Italy, Paolo Bordogna has performed with the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opèra de Paris, Vienna State Opera, Teatro Real de Madrid, Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Wexford Opera Festival, Gran Teatre del Liceu de Barcelona, Sydney Opera House, Valencìa's Palau des Arts, NCPA Beijing, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, National Theatre Tokyo, Tchaikovsky Hall Moscow, St. Petersburg's Mikhailovsky Theater, Houston Grand Opera, Las Palmas, Seoul Performing Arts Center, and in Wiesbaden, Dusseldorf am Rhein, Karlsruhe, Wildbad Rossini Festival, Festival de Strasbourg, Bilbao, Marseille, La Coruna, Murcia and Santiago de Compostela.

His extensive discography includes the solo album Tutto Buffo for Decca.

Learn more at PaoloBordogna.com.

Italian bass-baritone Luca Pisaroni has established himself as one of the most charismatic and versatile singers performing today. Since his debut at age 26 with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Salzburg Festival, led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, he has continued to bring his compelling artistry to the world’s leading opera houses, concert halls, and festivals.

Luca Pisaroni began the 2019/20 season with a return to the Vienna State Opera to star as the Four Villains in The Tales of Hoffmann. He then sang the title role of Don Giovanni in a concert staging with the Sinfonieorchester Basel at the George Enescu Festival. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro and Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. After a successful tour with Il Pomo d’Oro the previous season, Pisaroni reunited with the ensemble for his role debut as Zoroastro in Handel’s Orlando on tour in Europe. He closed out the season starring in multiple productions of Don Giovanni, beginning with the title role for the Opéra National de Paris, singing Leporello at the Bavarian State Opera, and concluding with the title role at Opernhaus Zürich. His 2019/20 concert appearances include Mozart’s Requiem with the Orchester Wiener Akademie, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with NHK Symphony Orchestra and a concert with I Virtuosi del Teatro alla Scala at Zaryadye Hall in Moscow. In recital, he appeared at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence, at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, and at UBC Opera in Vancouver for the “Singer Behind the Song” series. He reunited with baritone Thomas Hampson for their acclaimed “No Tenors Allowed” concert series in Provo, Utah, and then at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

In the 2018/19 season, Pisaroni returned to the Teatro Real to sing Méphistophélès in a new production of Gounod’s Faust by La fura dels Baus, followed by an “utterly magnetic” (Opera Traveller) role debut as the four Hoffmann villains at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden. He later made his house debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu as Mustafà in L’Italiana in Algeri. Additionally, he returned to the Metropolitan Opera stage for his highly anticipated debut in the title role of Don Giovanni. Following this engagement, he then traveled to the Houston Grand Opera for the world premiere of Tarik O’Regan’s The Phoenix, where he created the role of the young Lorenzo da Ponte in a “splendidly rich, vibrant” (Opera News) portrayal. Pisaroni toured with Il Pomo d’Oro in a concert version of Händel’s Agrippina, and he returned to the Staatsoper Berlin as Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande. His operatic season concluded at the Royal Opera House in his premiere appearances as Escamillo in Carmen.

Learn more at LucaPisaroni.com.

Since his professional debut in 2019 at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Louis Lohraseb is establishing himself as an exciting young conductor of both symphonic and operatic repertoire. His performances have garnered praise from Opera News, The Wall Street Journal, and others, with Classical Music Daily writing: “Teatro dell’Opera’s good orchestra was conducted with ability by Louis Lohraseb, who has, no doubt, a merit in making this premiere vibrant and full of tension.”

The 2022/23 season will see Lohraseb make his mainstage debut at LA Opera, where he will lead Tosca, starring Michael Fabiano and Angel Blue. He will also debut with Sarasota Opera, leading Massenet’s Thérèse, return to Indiana University’s IU Opera Theatre to lead Don Giovanni, and conduct at Yale University, leading Yale Opera’s annual Opera Gala.

Engagements in the 2021/22 season included debuts with the Komische Oper Berlin conducting La Traviata and with Semperoper Dresden leading performances of Carmen, as well Indiana University for IU Opera Theatre’s production of La Rondine. He also returned to LA Opera as assistant conductor to music director James Conlon, as well as assistant conductor to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for The Clemency of Titus in August. Mr. Lohraseb is a recipient of the 2022 Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award. Engagements in 2020 were to have included his LA Opera mainstage debut conducting Roberto Devereux, as well as a return to Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, but these were canceled due to the pandemic.

Maestro Lohraseb is proud to have among his mentors James Conlon, Lorin Maazel, Arthur Fagen, Kevin Murphy, and David Effron. He was selected as the 2016 Conducting Fellow at the Chautauqua Music Festival, where he conducted and assisted in both operatic and symphonic literature. In 2018, he was an assistant conductor at the Glimmerglass Festival, after which he joined the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at LA Opera. A doctoral candidate at the Jacobs School of Music, he served as assistant conductor and opera coach for the IU Opera Theater. As the 2013 Conducting Fellow at the Yale School of Music, he studied with Shinik Hahm and served as assistant conductor to the Yale Philharmonia under such musicians as Peter Oudjian, John Adams and Krzysztof Penderecki. During his time at Yale, he founded the Amadeus Orchestra, served as music director of the Cheshire Symphony Orchestra, and was a conducting fellow at the Castleton Festival in Virginia in 2014.

Born to Iranian and Italian parents, he earned his Master’s Degree in conducting from Yale University in 2015 and graduated summa cum laude from SUNY Geneseo in 2013, where he was an Edgar Fellows honors student and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.

Rob Ashford is a Tony Award, Olivier Award, Emmy Award, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award winning director and choreographer. Broadway theater credits include Cat On A Hot Tin Roof, Frozen, Evita, How To Succeed, Promises, Promises, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Shrek, John Water's Cry Baby, Curtains and The Wedding Singer. London theater credits include The Entertainer, Romeo and Juliet, The Winter's Tale and Harlequinade all for the Kenneth Branagh Theatre Company, the Olivier Award winning productions of Anna Christie, A Streetcar Named Desire and Parade for the Donmar Warehouse, Macbeth at MIF and Park Ave Armory, Guys and Dolls, Evita and Frozen.

He directed and choreographed Peter Pan Live! and The Sound of Music Live! for NBC, both receiving DGA Award nominations, and he has directed and choreographed productions for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, English National Opera and La Scala. He choreographed and staged the 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2009 Academy Awards, winning the Emmy for Best Choreography for his work on Baz Luhrmann's 2009 Academy Awards production number featuring Hugh Jackman and Beyoncé. 

He has staged the Tony Awards for eight years, and has also staged tributes at the Kennedy Center Honors for Barbra Streisand, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jerry Herman, Barbara Cook, Tom Hanks, Shirley MacLaine and Meryl Streep. Films include choreography for Death On The Nile, Murder On the Orient Express, Disney's Cinderella, Ted 2, A Million Ways to Die in the West and Beyond The Sea.

Scott Pask's Broadway credits, designing both scenery and costumes, include The Pillowman with Billy Crudup and Jeff Goldblum, A Behanding in Spokane starring Christopher Walken and A Steady Rain with Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman. He was awarded his first Tony Award for the scenic design of Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman, which he originally designed for the National Theatre in London. 

His Broadway scenic design credits include The Book of Mormon (Tony Award), also presented in London’s West End, on tour in the UK/EU, Australia and the United States, and Tina Fey’s Mean Girls, (Tony nomination). He also designed the Broadway revivals of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and American Buffalo and the Broadway musicals The Prom, The Band's Visit and Waitress. His Broadway productions also include revivals of St. Joan and The Little Foxes and the new plays Casa Valentina, The Father with Frank Langella, and Blackbird with Jeff Daniels and Michelle Williams. He set a record with his designs for seven shows running simultaneously on Broadway: Something Rotten, Finding Neverland, It's Only a Play, Airline Highway, The Visit, An Act of God and The Book of Mormon. His design of Tom Stoppard’s The Coast of Utopia won the Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Hewes Awards for Best Scenic Design.

He was the first American scenic designer to be tapped to design a production for Cirque du Soleil, Amaluna. He has designed for the New York Shakespeare Festival, New York Theater Workshop, Playwrights Horizons, Manhattan Theatre Club, Atlantic Theater Company, Brooklyn Academy of Music, American Repertory Theater, ART’s Club Oberon, La Jolla Playhouse, Williamstown, Center Theater Group, Yale Rep, Old Globe, Chicago Opera Theater, Alliance Theater and the Walker Arts Center, Arizona Theatre Company and London’s Royal Albert Hall. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut with Peter Grimes in 2008 and recently designed The Barber of Seville for Lyric Opera of Chicago.

His work has been exhibited at the Prague Quadrennial, the Bruce Museum of Science and Art, the Leslie Lohman Gallery and the Met Gallery, and is in the permanent collection of the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio.

Learn more at ScottPaskStudio.com.

Catherine Zuber received a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award and an Outer Critics Circle Award Honor for her work on Broadway's Moulin Rouge! Select additional Broadway credits include Mrs. Doubtfire, My Fair Lady (Tony, Drama Desk & OCC Awards), Oslo, War Paint (Drama Desk & OCC awards), Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I (Olivier, Tony and OCC awards), Gigi (Drama Desk Award), The Royal Family (Tony Award), South Pacific (Tony Award), The Coast of Utopia (Tony Award), The Light in the Piazza (Tony Award) and Awake and Sing! (Tony Award).

She is a 2017 recipient of the Irene Sharaff Lifetime Achievement Award, and she was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2016.

Howard Harrison has been nominated six times as Best Lighting Designer in the Laurence Olivier Awards and won for his production of City of Angels (Donmar Warehouse) and Macbeth (Gielgud Theatre, Lyceum Theatre, Broadway).

His West End productions include Mamma Mia! (global), Blithe Spirit, Wind in the Willows, Mary Poppins (also Broadway), The Importance of Being Earnest, An Ideal Husband, Neville’s Island, Guys and Dolls, Witches of Eastwick, Ragtime and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

His work at The National, The Old Vic, Donmar Warehouse, Stratford East, Menier Chocolate Factory and Chichester Festival Theatre includes: South Pacific, Earthquakes in London, Private Lives, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Measure for Measure, The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, Saint Joan, Anna Christie (Knight of Illumination Award), Tales From Hollywood, Privates on Parade, Shining City, King Hedley, South Pacific, Shadowlands, Mack and Mable and The Truth.

His work in opera includes The Barber of Seville for Lyric Opera of Chicago and Nabucco for the Metropolitan Opera.

Since joining LA Opera in 2007, he has served as associate chorus director (since 2011) and assistant conductor, and he has worked closely with the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program. Before becoming Chorus Director, he previously directed the LA Opera Chorus for the Plácido Domingo 50th Anniversary Concert (2017) and for The Clemency of Titus (2019). One of his generation’s most respected pianists and vocal coaches, he has collaborated with major opera houses throughout the United States. He has assisted in the preparation of operas and vocal chamber music at the LA Philharmonic. As a pianist, he has partnered with Sondra Radvanovsky, J'Nai Bridges, Eric Owens, Brandon Jovanovich, Rodell Rosel, Dolora Zajick, Kate Lindsey and Susan Graham. He accompanied Joyce DiDonato at the 54th Grammy Awards, the first time the ceremony featured a performance by a classical singer.

In partnership with the Getty Villa and LACMA in Los Angeles and the Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., he has curated multimedia recitals which draw connections between the classical vocal repertoire and special exhibits in the museums. He is a frequent collaborator at Wolf Trap Opera as an assistant conductor, chorus master and recitalist. He has been a guest coach at the Opernfestspiele St. Margarethen, in Esterhazy, Austria, and he helped prepare Seattle Opera’s Ring cycle in 2013. He has been a guest faculty member for young artist programs at Utah Opera and Seattle Opera, and he is a part-time lecturer in vocal arts and opera at the University of Southern California. (JeremyMFrank.com)