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At the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
West Coast premiere: Matthew Aucoin's Crossing
Aucoin’s endlessly imaginative toolkit of effects and sublime playing by members of the LA Opera Orchestra, conducted by the composer, created an absorbing aural landscape
The season’s notably diverse concert offerings included two concert performances of Crossing, an opera composed and conducted by Artist in Residence Matthew Aucoin, presented at The Wallis in Beverly Hills. Inspired by poet Walt Whitman’s experiences tending to wounded soldiers during the Civil War, this haunting, compassionate work is intricately scored for chamber orchestra, with beautifully detailed choruses.
Matthew Aucoin, a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient, was named LA Opera's first ever Artist in Residence, a position he held from 2016 to 2020. He has conducted LA Opera productions of Akhnaten (2016) and Rigoletto (2018), as well as concert performances of his own opera Crossing (2018) and performances of Joby Talbot's new score for the film Vampyr (2018). In 2020, he conducted the world premiere of his newest opera, Eurydice, in Los Angeles; the opera will subsequently be presented by the Metropolitan Opera.
He will return to LA Opera in 2021 for a chamber music program (which will include music he has composed) entitled Veils of Desire.
Born in 1990, he is an American composer, conductor, writer and pianist. In the 2014/15 season, he conducted the premieres of two of his operas: Crossing at Boston’s American Repertory Theater (directed by Diane Paulus); and Second Nature, a chamber opera for the young, at Lyric Opera of Chicago. He wrote the libretti for both works. He is currently at work on a new opera for the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater’s New Works program. In the coming season, he will conduct the premiere of his new orchestral work, commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. His new song cycle, set to texts by James Merrill and co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, New York, and Wigmore Hall, London, will be premiered by tenor Paul Appleby and pianist Ken Noda at recitals in New York, Boston, Chicago, Notre Dame, and Miami. Violinist Jennifer Koh will premiere Aucoin’s new solo violin work at the New York Philharmonic Biennale and the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival.
He is also at work on a piano concerto commissioned by The Gilmore for pianist Charlie Albright. This season, he makes conducting debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Music Academy of the West (Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, as well as his own chamber opera Second Nature); the Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy (The Marriage of Figaro); and he returns to the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. In recent seasons, he has appeared as a conductor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Rome Opera Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (a special event featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma) and Juilliard Opera (Eugene Onegin). (MatthewAucoin.com)
From: Rancho Cucamonga, California. LA Opera: Herald in Otello (1986, debut). As of his closing performance as Eurydice's Father in Eurydice (2020), he has appeared in 168 performances of 32 roles, including the title roles of Billy Budd (2000), The Barber of Seville (1991, 1997) and Don Giovanni (1994). He will return in 2022 in The Brightness of Light.
Rod Gilfry is a two-time Grammy nominee, singer and actor who has performed in all the world's music capitals and appears on over 30 recordings. He is acclaimed worldwide in opera, musicals, recitals and cabaret. His 75-role repertoire includes 13 leading roles he has created in new operas. Recent performances include LA Opera productions of David Lang's solo opera the loser and Matthew Aucoin's Crossing, and Jake Heggie's It's a Wonderful Life at the San Francisco Opera. He recently created the role of Claudius in Brett Dean's Hamlet at the Glyndebourne and Adelaide Festivals, a role he reprised in the 2021/22 season at the Metropolitan Opera.
Other appearances for the season include the Marquis de la Force in Houston Grand Opera’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and Robert McNamara in the world premiere of Huang Ruo and David Henry Hwang’s The Rift at the Washington National Opera.
In 2019, he began a tour of Kevin Puts’ The Brightness of Light with Renée Fleming at the Tanglewood Festival, which was later performed with the National Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Future performances of The Brightness of Light are scheduled for the Aspen Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Oregon Symphony.
Future seasons will find Mr. Gilfry singing Alfonso in Così fan tutte with the Dallas Opera, Scarpia in the Houston Grand Opera’s Tosca, Claudius in Dean’s Hamlet and Bartolo in The Marriage of Figaro at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera.
He earned advanced degrees from California State University Fullerton and the University of Southern California. From 1987 to 1989 he was a member of the Frankfurt Opera ensemble, and from 1989 to 1994 he was a member of the Zurich Opera ensemble. He is in his 14th year as a professor of vocal arts at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music, but will retire from that position in December 2022 to make more time for performing.
Winner of the Birgit Nilsson prize at the 2016 Operalia competition, tenor Brenton Ryan is hailed by Opera News for his “remarkable tonal suavity and refined phrasing,” and is widely recognized as a singer of great vocal diversity and dramatic depth.
Winner of the Birgit Nilsson prize at the 2016 Operalia competition, he is quickly establishing himself as a singer of great vocal diversity and dramatic depth. Mr. Ryan returns to the Metropolitan Opera in the 2018/19 season to sing both Spoletta in Sir David McVicar’s production of Tosca and Monostatos in the Julie Taymor production of The Magic Flute. Mr. Ryan also makes his European debut singing Pedrillo in a new production of The Abduction from the Seraglio with Opéra de Monte-Carlo, returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis singing Nero in Tim Albery’s production of The Coronation of Poppea, and returns to Opera Philadelphia for his role debut as Lysander in the U.S. premiere of Robert Carsen’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Orchestral engagements include Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, conducted by Bramwell Tovey.
The 2017/18 season saw Mr. Ryan’s return to the Metropolitan Opera as Spoletta in a new production of Tosca, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume, which was broadcast to theatres around the world as part of the Met’s Live in HD program. Mr. Ryan also made his house debut with Opera Philadelphia as Monostatos in the Barrie Kosky production of The Magic Flute and his house debut with Santa Fe Opera singing the role of Dancing Master in Ariadne auf Naxos. Additional engagements included his house debut with Dallas Opera singing both Gastone in La Traviata and Florian in Der Ring des Polykrates, as well as a return to LA Opera singing John Wormley in concert performances of Matthew Aucoin’s Crossing. Concert work included his debut with Virginia Symphony Orchestra for Orff’s Carmina Burana.
An alumnus of LA Opera's young artist program (2014 to 2016), he made his LA Opera debut as Gastone in La Traviata. His many appearances as a young artist include, most notably, Léon in The Ghosts of Versailles (2017 Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording), Beppe in Pagliacciand Monostatos in The Magic Flute. He most recently returned to Los Angeles as Pedrillo in The Abduction from the Seraglio (2017) and as John Wormley in Matthew Aucoin's Crossing (2018).
Highlights of previous seasons include Mr. Ryan’s house and role debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Pedrillo, his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Der Narr in Wozzeck conducted by Sir Andrew Davis, and his house debut with San Francisco Opera as Janek in Oliver Tambosi’s production of The Makropulos Case. He has also sung Henrik in A Little Night Music in his house debut with Houston Grand Opera.
Additional operatic engagements include his house debut with San Diego Opera as Gastone in La Traviata, his house debut with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis singing the roles of Titorelli, Flogger, and Student in the U.S. premiere of The Trial by Philip Glass, the Male Chorus in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia, Belfiore in Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, and Bardolfo in Falstaff as a Filene Young Artist at Wolf Trap Opera Company, Tony in West Side Story, and Léon in The Ghosts of Versailles at the Aspen Music Festival and School, Mosca in John Musto’s Volpone, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, Captain Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera, and the Prince in Conrad Susa’s Transformations.
Mr. Ryan’s concert appearances include semi-staged performances of Wozzeck, which received a 2018 Grammy for Best Opera Recording, and Ravel’s L’heure Espagnole, both with the Houston Symphony under Hans Graf, his Los Angeles Philharmonic debut in Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with both the Lexington Philharmonic and Rice University, Mozart’s Requiem with the Omaha Symphony, and Elijah at DePaul University. Recital work includes his debut at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and concerts with the New York Festival of Song at both Caramoor and Merkin Hall in New York City. Mr. Ryan is a 2012 alum of the Music Academy of the West.
A graduate of Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, Mr. Ryan also holds a Bachelor of Music degree from DePaul University. He is featured in the film In Our Nature, starring John Slattery, Zach Gilford, Gabrielle Union, and Jena Malone, singing a selection from Pagliacci. (BrentonRyan.com)
Freddie Stowers
Davóne Tines
Davóne Tines
Freddie Stowers
Messenger
Messenger
Ensemble: Reid Bruton, Jason Francisco, Abdiel Gonzalez, Theo Hoffman, Omar Crook, Gregory Geiger, Juan Carlos Heredia, Charles Lane, Sal Malaki, Todd Strange, James Martin Schaefer, Joshua Wheeker
Presented in concert at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts
LA Opera Off Grand and Matthew Aucoin’s residency made possible by a generous grant fromThe Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Additional support from Contemporary Opera Initiative chairpersons Barry and Nancy Sanders and a consortium of generous donors
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