Aida
Music by Giuseppe Verdi
Libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni
Conducted by David Angus
Emerson Colonial Theatre
Sunday, November 10, 2024 | 3:00PM
Running time: 2 hours and 50 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission.
Don’t miss this one-night engagement of Verdi’s thrilling masterpiece. In the lands of ancient Egypt, commander Radamès must choose between his love for the Ethiopian princess Aida and his loyalty to his sovereign king. In this specially staged concert, Aida will captivate audiences with its heartrending arias, dramatic duets, and some of the most thrilling choral works ever to be performed.
BLO Music Director David Angus takes the helm of this production that features Michelle Johnson as Aida, Diego Torre as Radamès, Alice Chung as Amneris, Morris Robinson as Ramfis, and Brian Major as Amonasro. The Boston Lyric Opera Orchestra and Chorus perform Verdi’s thrilling score and join with Boston’s choral community, including the Back Bay Chorale, for the Act Two Grand Finale and Triumphal March.
Following the performance of Aida, audiences are invited to join us for The Opera Gala 2024, which will be raising funds in support of BLO’s free youth and community programs. For sponsorship and gala ticket information, click here.
Michelle Johnson | Aida
Soprano Michelle Johnson, a Grand Prize Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, has enjoyed a busy 2023/24 season. Notable performances included Tosca, Tosca, Madison Opera; The Nose, Chicago Opera Theater; Mimì, La bohème, Florentine Opera; and Turandot, Turandot, Opera Delaware.
Other recent performances include Tosca, Tosca, Opera Columbus; Mimì, La bohème, Nashville Opera; Aida, Aida, Opera Grand Rapids and Opera Carolina, Turandot, Turandot, Opera Southwest; Santuzza, Cavalleria rusticana and Emelda Griffith (cover), Champion, Boston Lyric Opera; and Bess, Porgy and Bess, Des Moines Metro Opera.
Johnson has made a name for herself as a highly sought-after Aida, performing Verdi’s tragic heroine with Glimmerglass Music Festival, Opera Santa Barbara, Knoxville Opera, Opera Idaho, and Sarasota Opera, among others. Adept in verismo repertoire, Johnson has also performed the title roles in the rarely performed Sakuntala and Fedora performed with Teatro Grattacielo.
Concert highlights include Verdi’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, and Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with esteemed orchestras worldwide. She has also collaborated with renowned conductors for special concerts, including an all-French opera concert with Maestro Michel Plasson in Montpellier, France, and an all-Verdi concert with The Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Rossen Milanov.
A distinguished alumna of the Academy of Vocal Arts, Boston University Opera Institute, and New England Conservatory, Johnson has been recognized with prestigious awards from organizations like the Sullivan Foundation, Gerda Lissner Foundation, and the Giulio Gari Foundation.
Alice Chung | Amneris
An honored recipient of several prizes, including for the Cooper-Bing Competition, Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition, the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, Shoshana Foundation, and Sullivan Foundation, American mezzo-soprano Alice Chung has dazzled audiences throughout the United States.
Selected role credits include Azucena (cover), Il trovatore; Carmen (cover), Carmen; Dame Quickly (cover) Falstaff; Die Hexe, Hänsel und Gretel; Dritte Dame, Die Zauberflöte; Eduige, Rodelinda; Ježibaba, Rusalka; La Zia Principessa, Suor Angelica; Maddalena, Rigoletto; Mrs. Grose, The Turn of the Screw; and Suzuki (Madama Butterfly).
On the mainstage, Ms. Chung has performed and worked with Arizona Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Hawai’i Opera Theatre, Houston Grand Opera, Kansas City Symphony, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Naples Philharmonic, Opera San Jose, San Francisco Opera, Tulsa Opera, United States Naval Academy, and West Edge Opera.
Ms. Chung trained at The Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and has participated in the prestigious Merola Opera Program, among others. Ms. Chung is the artistic director and co-founder of Wear Yellow Proudly.
Diego Torre | Radamès
Mexican-Australian Diego Torre has been a leading tenor at Opera Australia since 2011. Torre’s most celebrated roles include Radamès, Aida; Turiddu, Cavalleria rusticana; Canio, Pagliacci; Cavaradossi, Tosca; Pinkerton, Madama Butterfly; Edgardo, Lucia di Lammermoor; Rodolfo, La bohème; Gustavo, Un ballo in Maschera; The Duke, Rigoletto; Gabriele Adorno, Simon Boccanegra; Foresto, Attila; Rodolfo, Luisa Miller; Don Carlos, Don Carlos; and most recently, Ernani, Ernani and Eleazar, La Juive.
Torre’s recent international engagements have included Canio, Pagliacci in Kansas City; Dick Johnson, La fanciulla del West in Mexico City; Canio, Pagliacci, Grand Théâtre de Genève and Oviedo; Calaf, Turandot and Manrico, Il trovatore in Torino; Cavaradossi, Canio, and Turiddu in Genoa; and Zemlinsky’s Eine florentinische Tragõdie in Oviedo.
Torre holds a Bachelor of Music from the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He was a Domingo-Thornton Young Artist at Los Angeles Opera in 2008.
Brian Major | Amonasro
Charismatic baritone Brian Major’s 2023/24 season sees his return to the Metropolitan Opera covering the role of Malcolm X in X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. His schedule includes debuts with Opera Roanoke as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Marcello in La bohème with Florentine Opera, a concert debut with the esteemed Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and Amonasro in Aida with Opera Maine. Last season, he made a role debut as Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff with Maryland Lyric Opera and made a significant impact at The Metropolitan Opera, making his house debut as Baron Douphol in La Traviata, also covering Benny “Kid” Paret in Champion and Scarpia in Tosca with The Santa Fe Opera.
Morris Robinson | Ramfis
Bass Morris Robinson has performed with many of the world’s leading opera companies including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Teatro alla Scala, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Also a prolific concert singer, Mr. Robinson has appeared with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra; and at the BBC Proms and the Ravinia, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Cincinnati May, Verbier, and Aspen festivals. He also appeared at Carnegie Hall as part of Jessye Norman’s HONOR! Festival. In recital, he has been presented by Spivey Hall in Atlanta, the Savannah Music Festival, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Mr. Robinson’s first album, Going Home, was released by Decca. He is also a featured artist on the LA Philharmonic’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, which won the 2022 GRAMMY Awards for Best Choral Performance. An Atlanta native, Mr. Robinson is a graduate of The Citadel and is an alumnus of the Metropolitan Lindemann Young Artists Program. He is currently Artistic Advisor to the Cincinnati Opera.
Chelsea Basler | High Priestess
Grammy Award-nominated soprano Chelsea Basler continues to make her mark in an extensive array of operatic roles due to her unique combination of vocal appeal and artistry. During the 2022/23 season, Ms. Basler sang Musetta in La bohème at Boston Lyric Opera, returned to the Metropolitan Opera to cover Blanche in Dialogues des Carmélites, and made her role debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with Newport Classical. Ms. Basler enjoys a particularly strong relationship with BLO, which she initially joined as an Emerging Artist during the 2013/14 season, and where she most recently covered Eurydice in BLO’s 2024 production of Aucoin’s Eurydice.
Stefan Egerstrom | King of Egypt
During the 2024/25 season, bass Stefan Egerstrom joins Lyric Opera of Chicago under Enrique Mazzola to cover Rocco, Fidelio and Sparafucile, Rigoletto. He returns to Minnesota Opera as Don Basilio, Il Barbiere di Siviglia and makes his Boston Lyric Opera debut singing Il Re and covering Ramfis in Aida. With an emphasis on works by Wagner, Strauss, Verdi, and Beethoven, he has performed with the Metropolitan Opera, American Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Opera, The Orchestra Now, Baltic Opera Festival, Des Moines Metro Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and more, collaborating with conductors Yannick Neìzet-Seìguin, Sir Donald Runnicles, Eun Sun Kim, Rafael Payare, Yves Abel, Leon Botstein, among others, as well as stage directors Francesca Zambello and Christopher Alden. Egerstrom performed in the world premieres of Puts’s Silent Night and Moravec’s The Shining, as well as workshops of Gordon’s Morning Star and Spears’s Fellow Travelers. In 2022, he was awarded The Richard F. Gold Career Grant from The Shoshana Foundation and a Sara Tucker Study Grant from The Richard Tucker Music Foundation. A native of Minnesota, Egerstrom studied at Lawrence University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. He was a participant of the 2019 Merola Opera Program and is a former Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera.
Fred C. VanNess, Jr. | Messenger
Fred C. VanNess, Jr. is a 2024/25 Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist with Boston Lyric Opera, where he will sing Messenger, Aida. Past performances include Paris, Romeo and Juliet, Boston Lyric Opera; Amadou/Renty, Omar, Boston Lyric Opera; Russell Davenport, Freedom Ride, MassOpera; Voltaire/Pangloss, Candide, Opera del West; Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni, Toronto Summer Opera; Don José, Carmen, NEMPAC Opera Project; and Rodolfo, La bohème, Longwood Opera.
Mr. VanNess is a member of Castle of our Skins, an organization dedicated to celebrating Black artistry through music. Recent performances include Remember the Sea, Castle of our Skins; Tide Flowers, University of Rhode Island Artist Series; Elijah, Rhode Island Civic Chorale & Orchestra; Ballad of the Brown King, Portsmouth Pro Musica; Schöpfungsmesse, Concord Chorale; Judas Maccabeus, Handel by Candlelight; and solo recitals with Lake Charles Symphony, Salem Philharmonic, and Coushatta Casino Resort.
Mr. VanNess has developed and performed two one-man shows: When I Think of Home…, McNeese State University; and Beethoven to Broadway, Larcom Theatre. He received his GPD from Longy School of Music and MM from Louisiana State University. He was awarded first place for the North Shore Star and is a recipient of The Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana Career Grant.
David Angus | Conductor
DAVID ANGUS Now in his fifteenth year as Boston Lyric Opera’s music director, David Angus recently served as music director and conductor for the critically acclaimed online productions of desert in and The Fall of the House of Usher, as well as BLO’s backwards La Bohème and Anne Bogart’s striking production of Bluebeard’s Castle. In addition to his work with BLO, he just conducted a new Sweeney Todd at the Royal Opera in Stockholm, The Marriage of Figaro in Prague, and several recordings of new American works with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Prior to his time at BLO, Angus was music director of The Glimmerglass Festival and Chief Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of Flanders. He has led orchestras and choirs throughout Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, including the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and several Danish orchestras. Born in England, he has conducted most of the major orchestras in Great Britain, including the London Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra, most of the BBC orchestras, the London Mozart Players, and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He recently debuted with the Toscanini Orchestra in Parma and the Porto Symphony Orchestra in Portugal. He returned to Wexford Festival Opera, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the LPO, and the Huddersfield Choral Society, as well as to his former orchestra in Belgium. Angus was a boy chorister at King’s College under Sir David Willcocks and read music at Surrey University. He was a conducting fellow at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, where he won several prizes for opera conducting.
Nathan Troup | Staging Coordinator
American director Nathan Troup maintains a body of work spanning standard operatic repertoire, new work premieres, uniquely curated site-specific projects, gala events, and distinct collaborations with multidisciplinary artists. Current projects include La traviata at Eugene Opera; new productions of Salome for Des Moines Metro Opera and La bohème for Intermountain Opera Bozeman; and a newly formed creative collaboration with soprano Karen Slack. Recent credits include Wozzeck with Boston Symphony Orchestra; John Williams’ 90th birthday celebration at Tanglewood; new productions of Proving Up and Così fan tutte at Boston University and Susannah and L’étoile at Boston Conservatory at Berklee; and ongoing collaborations with Santa Fe Opera and Des Moines Metro Opera’s Apprentice Artist Program. Troup’s work has been seen at Glimmerglass, Wolf Trap, Ireland’s Wexford Festival, and the Castleton Festival. A Boston-based artist, he’s served as artistic consultant for projects at the Museum of Fine Arts, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston Lyric Opera, TEDxCambridge, and serves on the board of directors for Guerilla Opera. A highly sought-after educator, clinician, and advocate for emerging operatic talent, Troup serves on the opera faculties of Boston University’s Opera Institute and is Professor of Opera at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.
Aja M. Jackson | Lighting Designer
Aja M. Jackson is driven by an unyielding passion for her craft and a profound belief in light’s capacity to enrich storytelling. Aida is her debut with Boston Lyric Opera. She served as Associate/Assistant on Broadway productions of Fat Ham and Lempicka, and her Off-Broadway credits include A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet, Rock and Roll Man, and Monsoon Wedding. Regional credits include Hear Word, ART / The Public Theater Under the Radar Festival; John Proctor Is The Villain, The Band’s Visit, and The Art of Burning, The Huntington Theatre Company; Lost In Yonkers, The Art of Burning, Pride and Prejudice, and Simona’s Search, Hartford Stage; The Nerd, Alley Theatre; A Doll’s House, Harvey, World Goes Round, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Behold, a Negress, Everyman Theatre; Fences, Shakespeare and Company; World Goes Round Olney Theatre; Pimpinone and Ino, Boston Early Music Festival; and Goddess, Berkeley Repertory Theatre. Jackson has designed for dance projects like Hot Water over Raised Fists, Modern Connections, collaborated with Ailey II and Hubbard Street Dance Chicago, and served as Resident Lighting Designer for movement company HoldTight. In 2022, she was awarded OEAA Outstanding Lighting Design for Kinky Boots. She is a proud member of USA 829.
Jeff Grantz | Projections Designer
Jeff Grantz is the founder and director of ILLUMINUS and serves as the Director of Creative Technologies at Design Communications, Ltd. in Boston. Previously, he owned and directed the creative technology studio Materials & Methods and co-produced New York’s first Nuit Blanche Festivals. He also founded and directed Boston’s ILLUMINUS Festival; PRAVAfest in Bethesda, Maryland; and UNBOUND in Baltimore and D.C. Grantz is an alumnus of the Rhode Island School of Design, where he later taught in the departments of Industrial Design, Interior Architecture, and Foundation Studies. A multidisciplinary designer, creative technologist, and public art advocate, Grantz has spent the past 30 years exploring a variety of creative fields. He excels in enhancing human experiences, bi-directional candle burning, and leveraging business development opportunities as an excuse to have drinks with friends.
Emerson Colonial Theatre
106 Boylston Street | Boston, MA 02116
