Artist Information

Sean Panikkar, Bénédict

Opera Boston debut

 A recent graduate of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship, Sean Panikkar quickly is becoming known for his “surpassing musicality and passion, commanding self-confidence and gorgeous expression.” The American tenor of Sri Lankan heritage made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2007-2008 season as Edmondo in Manon Lescaut, conducted by James Levine, and his European operatic debut as Gomatz in Mozart’s Zaïde at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in a production directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Louis Langrée.

During the present season, the tenor debuts as Narraboth in Salome both at Washington National Opera in the company’s new Francesca Zambello production under the direction of Philippe Auguin and at the Saito Kinen Festival in performances conducted by Omer Meir Wellber. He brings his acclaimed portrayal of Prince Tamino in Die Zauberflöte both to New Orleans Opera for his company debut and to the Minnesota Orchestra for a debut there in performances under the baton of Music Director OsmoVänskä. Mr. Panikkar debuts at Santa Fe Opera as Kodanda in a new production of Menotti’s rarely produced The Last Savage directed by Ned Canty and conducted by George Manahan. He returns both to Pittsburgh Opera as Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues of the Carmelites and to the Metropolitan Opera as Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette sharing the stage with Angela Gheorghiu and Piotr Beczala. His concert work includes performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Michael Christie and the Phoenix Symphony, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Raymond Leppard and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as a solo recital presented by Pro Musica Detroit.

Julie Boulianne, Béatrice

Opera Boston debut

Winner of the Prix Lyrique Français, French-Canadian Julie Boulianne has been acclaimed for the agility and expressive power of her dark-hued mezzo-soprano in a wide repertoire, with a special focus on the music of Mozart and Rossini. Possessing a voice The New York Times calls “subtle and pure,” she distinguished herself in the role of Isolier in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory while still a member of the Juilliard Opera Center.

After summer performances of Elisa in Handel’s Tolomeo at Glimmerglass Opera, directed by Chas Rader-Shieber, Julie Boulianne opens the 2010/2011 season of Pacific Opera Victoria in her signature role of Rossini’s La Cenerentola. She makes her Metropolitan Opera debut as Diane in Stephen Wadsworth’s production of Iphigénie en Tauride, conducted by Patrick Summers, and returns to that company as Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette, under the baton of Plácido Domingo. She also essays the role of Fragoletto, the young hero of Offenbach’s opéra bouffe, Les Brigands, at both Opéra de Toulon and Opéra Comique in Paris, and joins the Cincinnati Symphony for Mozart’s Coronation Mass.

Kelley O'Connor, Ursule

Previously with Opera Boston:  Federico García Lorca, Ainadamar, 2007

Possessing a voice of uncommon allure, musical sophistication far beyond her years, and intuitive and innate dramatic artistry, the Grammy® Award-winning mezzo-soprano Kelley O'Connor has emerged as one of the most compelling performers of her generation. During the 2011-12 season, the California native’s impressive calendar includes the world premiere of a new oratorio by John Adams, The Gospel According to the Other Mary, commissioned and performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel. Ms. O’Connor brings “her smoky sound and riveting stage presence” (The New York Times) to performances as Ursule in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict with Opera Boston, and to her signature role as Federico García Lorca in a Peter Sellars staging of Golijov’s Ainadamar at Teatro Real in Madrid. She sings her first performances of Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Michael Christie at the Colorado Music Festival and Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Edinburgh Festival.

In June 2011 the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra released a recording of Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, featuring Ms. O’Connor. Neruda Songs has highlighted her prominence as one of the world’s leading concert artists in two significant European debuts: performances with David Zinman and the Berliner Philharmoniker as well as with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. Additionally, the work served her Carnegie Hall debut in a performance with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink.

Andrew Funk, Somarone

Previously with Opera Boston: Kaspar, Der Freischutz, 2008, Rocco, Fidelio, 2010

Possessing “a fresh, firm tone and good stage presence” (L’Opera), bass Andrew Funk is generating excitement in opera houses and concerts halls throughout the country. With a large and varied repertoire, he has performed music from the Baroque and classics of Beethoven, Berlioz, Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and Wagner, to works of contemporary composers. He is a frequent guest artist with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, making his debut in the world premiere of the opera Amistad, and since appearing in the companies’ productions of La Gioconda, Roméo et Juliette, Tosca, The Magic Flute, Salome and Aida, among others.

Noted engagements over the past two seasons include Rocco in Fidelio with Opera Boston, Osmin in Abduction from the Seraglio with Arizona Opera, Banquo in Macbeth with Opera Lyra Ottawa, First Soldier in Salome at the San Francisco Opera, Kaspar in Der Freischutz with Opera Boston, bass soloist in the L’Opera de Montreal Gala, and three roles with Chicago Opera Theater: Commendatore in Don Giovanni, Besso in Cavalli’s Giasone and Publio in La Clemenza di Tito. He also returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago in performances as Pistola in Falstaff and One Armed Man in Die Frau ohne Schatten, as well as covering Gremin cover in Eugene Onegin, Osmin in Abduction from the Seraglio and King Mark in Triston and Isolde.

In the contemporary repertoire, Mr. Funk was chosen by Philip Glass and the Tony Award winning director Mary Zimmerman to sing the world premiere performances of Glass’ opera Galileo Galilei in both Chicago and New York. For this opera, Andrew Funk portrayed four characters – Pope Urban VIII, Cardinal Barberini, Simplicio and the Father of Merope.

Mr. Funk made his debut with the Los Angeles Opera in 2004 in a John Cox and David Hockney production of Die Frau ohne Schattenunder the musical direction of Kent Nagano. Later that year, he performed the role of Don Pedro with The Santa Fe Opera in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, and subsequently made his debut with the Anchorage Opera in Don Giovanni. During the summer 2005, Andrew Funk was engaged by the Seattle Opera for their Ring Cycle where he sang Hagen in Götterdämmerung and covered the role of Fafner in both Das Rheingold and Siegfried. In 2006, Mr. Funk returned to the Santa Fe Opera in the role of Zuniga in Carmen, as well as the First Nazarene in Salome.

Heather Buck, Hero

Previously with Opera Boston:  Previously with Opera Boston: Laoula, L’étoile, 2006; The Maid, Powder Her Face, 2003, Annchen, Fidelio, 2008

In the 2011-12 season Heather Buck sings as Hero in Béatrice et Bénédict with Opera Boston, and as soloist in Carmina Burana with North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, under Grant Llewellyn. Her 2010-11 season included her return to the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for its production of Nixon in China, and her reprisal of the role of Angel in Dusapin's Faustus: The Last Night at the Concertgebouw. She also sang Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos with Toledo Opera; Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Opera Columbus; appeared as soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall to perform Fanny Mendelssohn's Musik für die Toten der Cholera-Epidemie and Louis Spohr's Die letzten Dinge; and in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, also performed with the American Symphony Orchestra (conducted by Leon Botstein).

Recent engagements include Lulu Baines in Elmer Gantry with Florentine Opera (recorded for the Naxos label, released 2011); Adina in L'elisir d'amore with Toledo Opera; the title role in The Ballad of Baby Doe with Intermountain Opera; the title role in the American premiere of Wolfgang Rihm's monodrama Proserpina with Spoleto Festival USA; Gilda in Rigoletto with Nickel City Opera; Henry Cowell's Atlantis with American Symphony Orchestra; Juliette in Roméo et Juliette, Maria in West Side Story (both semi-staged), and as soloist in a concert titled "Stars Under the Stars," all with Opera Naples; featured soloist in an evening of opera highlights with Kentucky Symphony Orchestra; Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte with Florentine Opera, Ännchen in Der Freischütz with Opera Boston, and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance with Indianapolis Opera.

On the concert stage she has performed songs by Thomas Larcher and George Crumb for the American Composers' Forum; Previn's Vocalise for Soprano, Solo Cello and Orchestra at New York's Le Poisson Rouge in celebration of the composer's 80th Birthday; soloist in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics; in Messiah with the Handel and Haydn Society and Pacific Symphony; Carmina Burana with San Antonio Symphony Orchestra; Handel's Jeptha with Choral Society of Durham; Tan Dun's Water Passion after St. Matthew at the White Nights Festival in Russia; and both Barber's Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mozart's Requiem with Westchester Philharmonic. She has sung Mahler's Symphony No. 8 at the Bard Music Festival; Beethoven's Die Ruinen von Athen with the American Symphony Orchestra; Mozart's Mass in C Minor with the National Arts Centre Orchestra; Bach's Mass in B Minor with Baltimore Choral Arts Society; and the world premiere of Ezra Laderman's Brotherly Love with the Philadelphia Singers.

David McFerrin, Claudio

Opera Boston debut

Praised by The New York Times for his “appealingly textured sound” and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel for his “fine dramatic impact,” the young baritone David McFerrin has sung with some of the country’s leading opera companies and is a critically acclaimed performer of concert and recital repertoire. Recent operatic performances have included Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Miami’s Seraphic Fire and Mr. Webb in the New York premiere of Ned Rorem’s Our Town with the Juilliard Opera Center. This past summer he made his international debut as Taddeo in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri at the Rossini Festival in Wildbad, Germany, and next summer sings Guglielmo in Boston Midsummer Opera’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte.

Mr. McFerrin’s concert performances have ranged from Mozart arias with the Miami Symphony to Bernstein Broadway classics at the Blossom Music Festival. This season he makes his Carnegie Hall debut with Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and the Israel Philharmonic in Bernstein’s Concerto for Orchestra. Other recent engagements have included concerts with the New York Festival of Song and the Five Boroughs Music Festival, a performance of Eliot Carter’s Songs of Robert Frost as part of the composer’s centenary celebration at the Juilliard Focus Festival, and a residency with the French Early Music ensemble, Les Arts Florissants. Last year he performed Schubert’s epic song cycle Die schöne Müllerin in New York, Florida and Minnesota, and gave recitals as a member of the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago. Mr. McFerrin has been a soloist in Bach’s St. John Passion, Gounod’s St. Cecelia Mass, Handel’s Messiah and Joshua, Haydn’s Creation, Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem and the Fauré and Duruflé Requiems.

In 2008, Mr. McFerrin was awarded a Richard F. Gold Career Grant from the Shoshana Foundation, given annually to promising young American opera singers. He has also been a regional finalist the past two years in the Metropolitan Opera National Council competition, recently placing 2nd in the New England Region. Mr. McFerrin is a former member of the Santa Fe Apprentice Artist program. He has also been a Young Artist with the Sarasota and Central City operas, and completed a two-year residency in the Florida Grand Opera Studio. A native of western Massachusetts, he holds degrees from Carleton College and the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and recently completed an Artist Diploma in Opera at The Juilliard School.

Robert Honeysucker, Don Pedro

Previously with Opera Boston: Miller, Luisa Miller, 2004; Siroco, L'étoile, 2006; Zurga, The Pearl Fishers, 2007, Don Fernando, Fidelio, 2010

Phil Thompson, Leonato

Opera Boston debut

Gil Rose, Conductor

Music Director for Opera Boston

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David Kneuss, Director

Previously with Opera Boston: La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, 2010

David Kneuss has just completed his nineteenth season as the Executive Stage Director of the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Kneuss has also directed productions for the opera companies of San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Boston, Bonn, Germany and the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, Italy. In Japan, he has directed Falstaff, Tosca, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte and Pélleas et Mellisande for the Hennesey Opera Series. Beginning in 2000, he directed the Da Ponte trilogy of Mozart operas (Le Nozze di Figaro, Così fan Tutte and Don Giovanni) to launch the new Seiji Ozawa Ongaku-Juku Opera Project in Japan and followed with Die Fledermaus.  In the fall of 2005, his production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia for the Ongaku-Juku was performed in Beijing and Shanghai, China before touring Japan. Summer of 2007, Kneuss directed Carmen and a reprise of Die Fledermaus in 2008 also for Ozawa and the the Juku Opera Project.

Having a career-long association with Seiji Ozawa, David Kneuss first staged opera for Ozawa and the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, collaborating on productions of Tosca, Boris Godunov, Fidelio, Orfeo ed Euridice, Béatrice et Bénédict, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, Pique Dame, Salome, Idomeneo, Falstaff, Stravinksy's A Rake's Progress, and Madama Butterfly. Pique Dame, staged initially at Tanglewood in 1990 and then at Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall in October 1991, was named as one of 1991's Best Musical Events by the New York Times. A Rake's Progress and Madama Butterfly were voted Best Opera Production for 1995 and 1999, respectively, by Richard Dyer of the Boston Globe.

In 1996, Mr. Kneuss created a critically acclaimed Les Mamelles de Tirésias (Poulenc) which was performed at the Saito Kinen Festival, filmed by NHK for Japanese release, and performed again at the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 1997. In the summer of 2001, Mr. Kneuss staged Ravel’s L’heure Espangole at the Tanglewood Music Center and staged Falstaff in the year 2000, both of which were conducted by Mo. Ozawa. Last summer, Mr. Kneuss created a production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream also for the Tanglewood Music Center.

 In the summer of 1999, at the Saito Kinen Festival, Mr. Kneuss directed Damnation of Faust, the first outdoor opera production at Matsumoto Castle in Matsumoto, Nagano.  His recent Peter Grimes, a joint venture between the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino and the Saito Kinen Festival of Matsumoto, began as a production at the Tanglewood Music Center to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the American premiere of that opera.  This event was featured in a film entitled A Tale of Tanglewood.  In September 2007 Mr. Kneuss directed The Queen of Spades also for the Saito Kinen Festival.

Robert Perdziola, Scenic and Costume Designer

Previously with Opera Boston: La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, 2010

Robert Perdziola has designed sets and costumes in the United States for the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Skylight Opera Theatre, Glimmerglass Opera, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School of Drama.  Last year Robert received a Helpmann nomination for his “Arabella” costumes at the Sydney Opera House.  In 2006, He designed costumes for the world premier of David Carlson and Colin Graham’s new opera, “Anna Karenina,” performed at the Florida Grand Opera and OTSL.  In the UK he has designed “Le Nozze di Figaro” and “Cosi Fan Tutte”  at the Garsington Opera in England.  Other works in Europe include “Cosi Fan Tutte” (Opera Monte Carlo, ) and Gounod’s “Faust” (Niedersachsische Staatsoper Hannover).  His designs for theatre are frequently seen at the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington DC, the Signature Theatre, and Arena Stage.  Robert is the recipient of three Helen Hayes Awards for costume design (“The Country Wife,” “Don Carlos,” and “Lady Windermere’s Fan”) and the Irene Sharaff Young Master Award. Ballet designs include works for American Ballet Theatre, San Francisco Ballet, and Miami City Ballet.

Christopher Ostrom, Lighting Designer

Mr. Ostrom’s career with Opera Boston spans 14 seasons and nearly 40 productions, most recently Maria Padilla, Cardillac, Fidelio, La Grande- Duchesse de Gérolstein, Tancredi, The Bartered Bride, Ernani, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, The Pearl Fishers, Semele and the North American premiere of Peter Eötvös’ Angels and America. Other credits include Stiffelio, The Crucible, Vanessa, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, Once Upon a Mattress, The Cunning Little Vixen, The Consul and Werther (Chautauqua Opera), The Crucible (Mobile Opera), Tosca (Opera Providence) The Magic Flute and Rigoletto (Tulsa Opera), Inventing Van Gogh (Asolo Rep), And Now Ladies and Gentlemen, Miss Judy Garland (Backyard Productions), Dido and Aeneas, Hansel and Gretel and Albert Herring (New England Conservatory) and the world premiere of Eric Sawyer and John Shoptaw’s Our American Cousin (Academy of Music, Northampton MA). Other credits include productions for Lyric Stage, New Repertory Theatre, Stoneham Theatre, Cape Repertory Theatre, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Provincetown Repertory Theatre, Boston Ballet, Snappy Dance Theatre, Northeast Youth Ballet, Massachusetts Youth Ballet, Toronto Symphony, National Arts Center (Ottawa), Christmas Revels, The Walnut Hill School, Northeastern University, Quinnipiac University and The Boston Conservatory.