Mitridate, re di Ponto
Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Vittorio Amedeo Cigna-Santi
Conducted by David Angus
Directed by James Darrah
Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre
Friday, September 13, 2024 | 7:30PM
Sunday, September 15, 2024 | 3:00PM
Preshow lecture will take place one (1) hour prior to curtain.
Passions and rivalries collide in this star studded production of Mozart’s rarely performed work. When family patriarch Mitridate is presumed dead, his children Farnace and Sifare return home to stake claims to his money, his power — and his fiancée Aspasia. With a bristling score written by Mozart at the age of 14, Mitridate explores the tensions of a fractured family amidst jealousy, aging, betrayal, and desire.
BLO Music Director David Angus conducts and stage director James Darrah leads an extraordinary cast that includes Brenda Rae as Aspasia, John Holiday as Farnace, and celebrated tenor Lawrence Brownlee in the title role.
Listen to a broadcast recording of Mitridate through WCRB in Concert. Sign up on our email list for updates!
When the opera opens, family patriarch Mitridate is presumed dead. His children Farnace and Sifare return home to stake claims to his money, his power — and his fiancée Aspasia. Farnace turns his back on his father’s wishes; Sifare remains loyal to Mitridate but falls deeply in love with Aspasia, who returns the feeling. Mitridate’s unexpected return throws the fractured family further into chaos. Alliances are broken and remade, new lovers and enemies enter the picture, and a looming conflict promises to reshape the family for good. Ultimately, the threat of mortality opens Mitridate’s heart to unintended love and forgiveness.
Lawrence Brownlee | Mitridate
Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera, both as a singer on the world’s top stages, and as a voice for activism and diversity in the industry. Brownlee’s 2021/22 season included his role debut as Platée, Platée, Opéra National de Paris; and Lindoro, L’italiana in Algeri, Opernhaus Zürich. He appeared in Washington National Opera’s “Come Home: A Celebration of a Return” concert to open The Kennedy Center’s 50th Anniversary Season. In the 2022/23 season, Brownlee returned to The Metropolitan Opera as Tamino, Die Zauberflöte; and sang Le Comte Ory with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Amidst the challenges of COVID-19, Brownlee emerged as a pivotal voice in classical music’s shift toward digital programming and the resurgence of conversations around racial justice. In spring 2021, Brownlee joined The Juilliard School as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty Member. He serves as artistic advisor for Opera Philadelphia, an Ambassador for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited, and an Ambassador for Opera for Peace. He is a Grand Prize Winner of the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. In October 2019, he had the distinct honor of singing at Jessye Norman’s funeral in her hometown of Augusta, Georgia.
Brenda Rae | Aspasia
American soprano Brenda Rae melds high-flying vocal pyrotechnics with keen emotional commitment, creating memorably detailed characters and irresistibly engaging performances in an eclectic portfolio of demanding principal roles. Current European engagements include Amina, La Sonnambula, Wiener Staatsoper; and Maïma, Barkouf, Opernhaus Zürich, which she reprised in December. Ms. Rae returned to the Bayerische Staatsoper as Konstanze, Die Entführung aus dem Serail under Ivor Bolton; and then brought her acclaimed Zerbinetta, Ariadne auf Naxos to Hong Kong, on tour with the same company. In recital, Ms. Rae appeared at the University of Wisonsin-Madison. Future engagements include returns to the Metropolitan Opera, the Opernhaus Zürich, and the Staatsoper Berlin.
The 2022/23 season featured her return to Bayerische Staatsoper as the title role in Claus Guth’s new production of Semele, and her return to Opernhaus Zürich as Maïma in Max Hopp’s new production of Offenbach’s Barkouf. She appeared at Opéra Bastille as Ophélie, Hamlet; and as Lucia, Lucia di Lammermoor. Ms. Rae also returned to the Wiener Staatsoper in one of her signature roles, Königin der Nacht, Die Zauberflöte; and as Norina, Don Pasquale.
Vanessa Goikoetxea | Sifare
Vanessa Goikoetxea’s latest successes include Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder under the direction of Maestro Riccardo Frizza at the Auditorium Manzoni in Bologna; her debut as Rusalka, Rusalka, Opéra de Nice and Tenerife Auditorium; and Tosca, Tosca, Teatro de la Maestranza and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
Notable roles include Donna Anna, Don Giovanni, Covent Garden; Sabina, Hadrian, Teatro Real; Rosario, Goyescas, Opéra de Limoges; Micaëla, Carmen, Seattle Opera; Fiordiligi, Cosi fan tutte, Teatro de la Maestranza; Vitellia, La clemenza di Tito and Valencienne, The Merry Widow, Gran Teatre del Liceu; Mimì, La bohème, ABAO in Bilbao and Semperoper in Dresden; Susana, La verbena de la Paloma and Nedda, Pagliacci, Teatro Colón; Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni, Ópera de Oviedo; Alice Ford, Falstaff, Saito Kinen Festival in Japan; Armilla, La Donna Serpente, Festival Valle d’Itria; Hanna Glawari, The Merry Widow and Jenny Hill, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Korea National Opera Seoul. She has performed Poulenc’s Gloria under the baton of Erik Nielsen and Berg’s Sieben Frühe Lieder under Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero with the BOS Orquesta Sinfónica de Bilbao. She opens the season at the Teatro Massimo in Palermo with the opera Gisela! and sings Marzelline at the Teatro Campoamor.
John Holiday | Farnace
Having performed at world-renowned venues such as Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and the Philharmonie de Paris, John Holiday began his 2023/24 season as a featured soloist with the Handel and Haydn Society for Handel’s Messiah in November. His season continued in January with Handel’s Agrippina with the Dutch National Opera in the role of Nerone. In February, he performed at Washington Adventist University in a recital alongside world-renowned bass Morris Robinson and more, followed by a recital at Pensacola Opera. In March, Holiday was featured by Jazz at Lincoln Center for an American Songbook recital, and joined the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra for Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in a program conducted by Jaime Martín. In spring 2024, Holiday will be a featured soloist in the premiere of Luna Pearl Woolf’s oratorio Number Our Days at PACNYC with Trinity Church Wall Street, afterwards returning to The Metropolitan Opera to reprise his roles in the restaging of Kevin Puts’s The Hours following last season’s highly anticipated stage premiere. To finish out the season, Holiday will perform as Prince Go Go, Le Grand Macabre, Bayerische Staatsoper. Holiday will also appear at Arizona Opera and the University of Michigan for recitals and masterclasses.
Angela Yam | Ismene
Angela Yam has sung with the New York City Ballet, Santa Fe Opera, Boston Baroque, Chautauqua Opera, and Opera Saratoga. She is honored to return to Boston Lyric Opera as an Emerging Artist for the 2024/25 season.
Recent credits include the title role of Cavalli’s La Calisto, Opera Memphis; Josephine Young (cover), An American Soldier, Perelman PAC NYC; Johanna, Sweeney Todd, Chautauqua Opera and Opera Saratoga; and Diana, Iphigénie en Tauride, Boston Baroque.
She has premiered several operas, including Kenji Oh’s The Emissary, Opera Parallèle; Ellis Ludwig-Leone’s The Night Falls, BalletCollective; and Jones & Tinley’s ICELAND, Overtone Industries.
Yam’s concert appearances include Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, New York City Ballet; Rossini’s Petite mese solennelle, Opera Saratoga; and Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine, Music at Co-Cath. Yam was a 2023 New York City District winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, and her self-directed visual recital was awarded 3rd place in the 2022 American Prize Competition.
Charles Sy | Marzio
Canadian tenor Charles Sy has received international recognition. As an ensemble member at the Staatsoper Stuttgart, Mr. Sy has appeared onstage as Nemorino, L’elisir d’amore; Tamino, Die Zauberflöte; Elvino, La Sonnambula; Almaviva, Il barbiere di Siviglia; Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni; Nemorino, L’elisir d’amore; and Don Ramiro, La Cenerentola. Notable concert performances include appearances as the tenor soloist in Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Messiaen Festival au Pays de la Meije, and as the tenor soloist for the Mozart Requiem with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with Sir Andrew Davis. Further important engagements include Mr. Sy’s Carnegie Hall debut as the Evangelist and Tenor Soloist in Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium, his debut with Nationaltheater Mannheim as Hippolyte in Hippolyte et Aricie, and the role of Belfiore in La finta giardiniera with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Mr. Sy is an alumnus of The Juilliard School and the University of Toronto.
Alexis Peart | Arbate
Alexis Peart, mezzo-soprano, is a returning Jane & Steven Akin Emerging Artist with Boston Lyric Opera, where in the 2023/2024 season she performed as Tisbe, La Cenerentola; Big Stone, Eurydice; Angelina, La Cenerentola Educational Outreach Touring Production; and Dorothée (cover), L’Amant Anonyme. She is a 2023 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition New England Region Encouragement Award Winner and Boston District Winner. Recent roles have included Dorabella, Cosí fan tutte; Carmen, La Tragédie de Carmen; Jo, Little Women; Ruggiero, Alcina; Brittomara, If I Were You; Taller Daughter, Proving Up; Giulio Cesare, Giulio Cesare; Der Trommler, Der Kaiser von Atlantis; and Ada Lovelace in the world premiere workshop of Ruehr’s The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage. She can be heard on Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Odyssey Opera’s Grammy-nominated recording of Anthony Davis’ X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, and on several art song recordings released by PARMA Recordings, LLC. Ms. Peart is a two-time alumna of the Wolf Trap Opera Studio and has worked with companies including the Princeton Festival, Chautauqua Opera Company (Studio Artist), Rochester Oratorio Society, and Castle of Our Skins.
David Angus | Conductor
DAVID ANGUS Now in his fourteenth 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.
James Darrah | Stage Director
James Darrah’s work as a Los Angeles-based director, designer, screenwriter, and producer is leading the trailblazing exploration of the intersection of film, television, and opera + new music. He is the Artistic Director and CCO of Long Beach Opera, and from 2014-2020 was the Artistic Director of ONE, an opera artists’ residency program with Opera Omaha. He was a first-time GRAMMY® nominee producing David T. Little’s acclaimed opera Soldier Songs as a film with Opera Philadelphia in 2022 and was Creative Director for Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra’s digital season in 2020/21, directing 16 collaborative short films in a new orchestral series called Close Quarters. He also devised and directed two film projects with Boston Lyric Opera: a new animated feature-length film of Philip Glass’s Edgar Allan Poe adaptation The Fall of the House of Usher and the world premiere of desert in, an acclaimed first-of-its-kind merger of episodic television and opera with composer Ellen Reid. He is deeply committed to development of new opera and directed the award-winning world premieres of Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves and Proving Up, Reid’s Pulitzer Prize-winning prism with LA Opera, and Academy Award winner John Corigliano’s The Lord of Cries with Santa Fe Opera.
Adam Rigg | Set Designer
Adam Rigg is a New York-based set and costume designer for opera, theatre, and dance. They are a big fan of queer historical fiction novels and Mary Blair. Rigg is a Tony Award nominee (2022, Best Scenic Design of a Play, The Skin of Our Teeth) and the winner of a Lortel Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, Drama Desk Award, Henry Hewes Design Award, and Princess Grace Award.
Credits include productions for Lincoln Center / Beaumont, Soho Rep, The Public Theater, Mark Taper Forum / Center Theatre Group, New York Theatre Workshop, Theater an der Wien (Austria), Signature Theatre Company, The Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Teatro Municipal (Brazil), Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yale Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Atlantic Theater Company, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Manhattan Theatre Club, Kennedy Center, Berkeley Rep, Norwegian National Opera, and Theatre for a New Audience.
Adam has been a resident artist with their performance collective I Am A Boys Choir at the Public Theater (Devised Theater Working Group) and Mabou Mines. They hold a BA from UCLA and an MFA from Yale School of Drama.
Molly Irelan | Costume Designer
Molly Irelan is an LA-based costume designer. She prides herself on a holistic approach to her work and is formally trained in the history and construction of garments as well as costume design. Irelan holds a Bachelor’s degree in costume history and design from the University of Redlands (2010), an Associate degree in fashion design from the Art Institute of Portland (2012), and a Master’s in costume design from UCLA (2016).
Opera design credits include: The Elixir of Love, The Marriage of Figaro, and Cold Mountain, Music Academy of the West; Amadigi and Orphée, UCLA; Rev 23, Prototype Festival; and the Pulitzer Prize-winning p r i s m in Los Angeles, New York, São Paulo, and the Kennedy Center. For screen, Irelan designed for the opera miniseries desert in and feature Mirror Flores. In 2022, she designed La Clemenza di Tito, San Francisco Conservatory of Music; The Tragedy of Carmen, Velaa Island; The Central Park Five, Long Beach Opera; Eugene Onegin, Music Academy of the West; and The Marriage of Figaro, Handel and Haydn Society. Most recently, Irelan designed the world premiere of Kate Soper’s The Romance of the Rose (2023) as well as The Feast (2023), a collaboration between Long Beach Opera and Martha Graham Dance Company.
Pablo Santiago | Lighting Designer
Pablo Santiago is a live performance and digital film lighting designer. Winner of the Kinetic Lighting Award for Distinguished Achievement in Theatrical Design, Henry Award, Richard Sherwood Award, Stage Raw Award, and multiple Ovation Award nominations. Originally from Chiapas, Mexico, Santiago moved to the United States as a high school student and went on to study film at the University of San Diego. After working fifteen years on major motion pictures, Santiago changed course and returned to school to study lighting design for the stage. He received his MFA from UCLA. His designs aim to find evocative images that embody the emotional moment of the show – images that can spark the imagination of the audience to worlds beyond the stage. Santiago has worked at Boston Lyric Opera, The Kennedy Center, Teatro Municipal São Paulo Brazil, Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera, Opera Omaha, Detroit Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Long Beach Opera, Prototype Festival, The Industry, Opera Columbus, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Opera Santa Barbara, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Goodman Theatre, Arena Stage DC, BAM-Harvey Theater, Geffen Playhouse, Mark Taper Forum, Denver Center, Los Angeles Theatre Center, Broad Museum, Kirk Douglas Theater, and Hollywood Bowl.
Hana Kim | Projection Designer
Hana Kim’s Broadway credits for projection design include The Old Man and the Pool, Summer 1976, and The Outsiders. Off-Broadway/New York work includes The Harder They Come and the Lucille Lortel-nominated The Visitor, and Eve’s Song, The Public Theater; Everything Rises, BAM; and Magdalene, Prototype Festival. In new music and opera, she has designed for L’Orfeo, Santa Fe Opera; Sweet Land, The Industry; and The Anonymous Lover, LA Opera. Regional work includes projects with Geffen Playhouse, OSF, South Coast Rep, Magic Theatre, and A.C.T, among others. Kim’s accolades include the Princess Grace Award, Sherwood Award from Central Theatre Group, Helen Hayes Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Distinguished Achievement Award, and others.
Ronell Oliveri | Wig/Makeup Designer
Ronell Oliveri has been designing wigs and makeup for opera, theatre, ballet, and film for the past 20 years for such companies as Minnesota Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Central City Opera, and The American Repertory Theater at Harvard University. Currently, she is the resident wig and makeup designer for Opera Colorado and Opera Omaha. As a wig and makeup artist her professional credits include engagements with Chicago Lyric Opera, LA Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and Boston Ballet. She was a Primetime Emmy nominee as key makeup artist for her work in television. Her work can also be seen in several Broadway shows including Wicked, All The Way, and Waitress. Recent engagements include Boston Lyric Opera’s Cavalleria Rusticana, Opera Omaha’s Don Pasquale, and Central City Opera’s 2023 summer festival. Upcoming engagements include Opera Omaha’s The Last Dream of Frida and Diego, Pacific Symphony’s La bohème, Opera Columbus’s Eugene Onegin, and Opera Colorado’s Samson and Delilah.
Angie Jepson | Intimacy Director/Fight Director
ANGIE JEPSON is an intimacy director, fight choreographer, actress, and professor based in the Boston area. She is thrilled to return to the BLO after serving as Intimacy Director on Bluebeard’s Castle | Four Songs, La Cenerentola, and The Anonymous Lover. Her fight and intimacy work has been seen onstage at theaters including the Manhattan Theatre Club, the Huntington Theatre Company, Trinity Repertory Company, Merrimack Repertory Theatre, Gloucester Stage, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, SpeakEasy Stage Company, Greater Boston Stage Company, Central Square Theater, and at several universities in the Boston area. She is currently on the faculty of the Brown/Trinity MFA Acting program, and at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she teaches in the theatre and opera departments. She is a certified intimacy director with Intimacy Directors and Coordinators, and a certified teacher with the Society of American Fight Directors. She holds an MFA in Acting from Brandeis University.
The Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre
219 Tremont Street | Boston, MA | 02116
