David Angus is Music Director of Boston Lyric Opera, following a very successful period as Music Director of Glimmerglass Opera. He conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra every Season and is also Honorary Conductor of the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, where he was Chief Conductor for many years and built the orchestra into one of the most exciting young orchestras in Northern Europe. Mr. Angus now conducts opera all over Europe and North America. He began his career working at Glyndebourne, where he conducted a wide range of operas, and he went on to work in Italy and then across Europe. In the concert hall, he performs particularly in the UK and Scandinavia, and next Season will also see him in Italy, Ireland and Portugal, as well as returning to his former orchestra in Belgium. He has recorded many CDs and broadcasts regularly on classical radio channels.

John Conklin has designed sets on and off Broadway, at the Kennedy Center, and for opera companies around the world, including The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Bastille Opera in Paris, The Royal Opera and the opera houses of Munich, Amsterdam, and Bologna, among others. Locally, his work has been seen in Boston Lyric Opera’s recent productions of La Bohème (2015), Werther (2016), The Merry Widow (2016), and Greek (2016), as well as at the American Repertory Theater and Boston Ballet. Additionally, Mr. Conklin develops lecture series and community events for BLO that enrich the audience experience and strengthen the presence of opera in Boston’s arts community. He is on the faculty at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and was a recipient of the 2011 National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors.

D.M. Wood returns to Boston Lyric Opera after designing for BLO’s 2015 production of La Bohème. Recent designs include Don Giovanni (Northern Ireland Opera); Star Wars en Concert (Orchestre National de Lyon); L’Heure Espanole |Gianni Schicchi (Opéra National de Lorraine); 4.48 Psychosis (Royal Opera House, Lyric Hammersmith); Maria Stuarda (Seattle Opera); Kansas City Choir Boy (Kirk Douglas Theatre, American Repertory Theater, Prototype Festival); Don Giovanni (Bergen Nasjonale Opera), Norma (Gran Teatre del Liceu and San Francisco Opera); Anna Bolena (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Don Bucefalo, Silent Night and Salomé (Wexford Festival Opera); Euryanthe and Die Liebe der Danae (Bard Summerscape); La Favorite (Oper Graz); Candide and the World Premiere of L’Importance d’être Constant (Opéra National de Lorraine); The Importance of Being Earnest (Northern Ireland Opera); El Chico de Oz (Teatro Municipal); L’Enfant et les Sortilèges (The Bolshoi), and Il Trittico (Royal Opera House, Covent Garden). Ms. Wood’s design for Suor Angelica (part of Il Trittico at the Royal Opera House) won the U.K.’s 2012 Knight of Illumination Opera Award.

FIGARO

Making his Boston Lyric Opera debut, Evan Hughes’ engagements include Guglielmo in Così Fan Tutte, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Angelotti in Tosca, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Schaunard in La Bohème, Achilla in Giulio Cesare (The Semperoper Dresden); Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Leporello in Don Giovanni (Komische Oper in Berlin); Theseus in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Aix-en-Provence Festival) and the Protector in Written on Skin (Tanglewood Festival, American Premiere); concert credits include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Ensemble Intercontemporain (Paris Philharmonie), and Elliott Carter’s The American Sublime with James Levine and the Met Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. An alumnus of The Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Mr. Hughes attended the Curtis Institute of Music and was a regional winner and a national Semi-Finalist in the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

BARTOLO

David Cushing’s recent opera appearances include the title roles of Don Pasquale and The Marriage of Figaro, Frère Laurent in Roméo et Juliette, and Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This Season, Mr. Cushing performed the roles of Trulove in BLO’s production of The Rake’s Progress; Frère Laurent/Duke in Roméo et Juliette (Opera Tampa); Police Officer in Der Rosenkavalier (Boston Symphony Orchestra); Commendatore/Masetto in Don Giovanni (Bar Harbor Music Festival), and as a soloist in Philip Glass’ Symphony No. 5 (The Washington Chorus). He is a BLO Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist alumnus and will be featured in BLO’s 2017/18 Season as Angelotti in Tosca and Donald in The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare.

CHERUBINO

Emily Fons’ 2016/17 Season includes performances of Angelina in La Cenerentola (Opéra de Lille); Dorabella in Così Fan Tutte (Opera Omaha); Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Florentine Opera). In concert, she will be heard in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Cleveland Orchestra, with Franz Welser-Möst). Recent credits include Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus (New Orleans Opera); Cherubino in The Marriage of Figaro (Canadian Opera Company); Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Lyric Opera of Baltimore); and Stephano in Roméo et Juliette (Santa Fe Opera). In concert, she appeared with the Madison Symphony in Christmas concerts and with the Indianapolis Opera in their Crescendo series. Future projects include appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, San Diego Opera, North Carolina Opera, and Kentucky Opera. Ms. Fons completed her Master’s Degree in Opera and Music Theatre at Southern Illinois University and received her undergraduate degree from Luther College where she was awarded the Brudos Prize. This is her Boston Lyric Opera debut.

BASILIO

Matthew DiBattista returns to Boston Lyric Opera after playing Flute in the 2011 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He has sung with such conductors as Charles Dutoit, Seiji Ozawa, Keith Lockhart, Sir Andrew Davis and Robert Shaw. Mr. DiBattista has performed over 60 different roles to date, spanning the operatic repertoire. He has been on the roster of The Metropolitan Opera and performed the past four Seasons with Lyric Opera of Chicago where he recently sang Normano in Lucia di Lammermoor. Other credits include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Glimmerglass Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Cincinnati May Festival, New Orleans Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Omaha, Tulsa Opera, Opera Boston, Virginia Opera, Opera Colorado, Tanglewood, Long Beach Opera and has appeared for eight of the last nine Seasons as principal artist with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

ANTONIO

Simon Dyer is a 2016/17 BLO Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist who was last seen as the Keeper of the Madhouse in Boston Lyric Opera’s production of The Rake’s Progress. Dyer was a young artist at The Glimmerglass Festival in 2016 and will spend the summer of 2017 as a member of the Apprentice Singer Program at Santa Fe Opera. He will then join the Florida Grand Opera studio for their 2017/18 season where he will sing the role of Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and 1st Nazarene in Salome. Recent appearances include Giorgio in La Gazza Ladra, and Rev. Hale (cover) in The Crucible (Glimmerglass Festival); Luka in The Bear and Mr. Grinder in The Zoo (Odyssey Opera); Superintendent Budd in Albert Herring (Boston Opera Collaborative); Prophet/King in Dark Sisters, Melisso in Alcina, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, Immigration Officer in Flight and Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress (The Boston Conservatory). In concert, he recently appeared as the soloist in Verdi’s Requiem in London, at a recital at the MFA Boston and as curator of John Cage’s SongBooks also at the MFA. He returns for more collaborations with the MFA in the Fall of 2017 to curate and perform a newly devised work.

BARBARINA

Sara Womble is a 2016/17 BLO Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist making her mainstage debut. In the summer of 2016, she was an Apprentice Artist at Opera NEO, where she sang Zerlina in Don Giovanni. Ms. Womble received her Master’s degree from Boston University, where her roles included La Fée in Cendrillon, Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas, Ruth Baldwin in Later the Same Evening, and Presendia in Dark Sisters. During the 2015/16 Season, Sara was a semi-finalist in the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition, the Rochester Oratorio Society Competition and the Cooper-Bing International Vocal Competition. Before her singing career, Ms. Womble graduated Phi Beta Kappa and magna cum laude from Duke University, where she double-majored in English and Vocal Performance. She will return for BLO’s 2017/18 Season as Shepherd Boy in Tosca.

BRIDESMAID

Emma Sorenson recently debuted as Isabelle Eberhardt in Chicago Fringe Opera’s production of Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar: The Lives and Deaths of Isabelle Eberhardt. This summer, Ms. Sorenson will be returning to the role as a Young Artist understudy with Cincinnatti Opera’s Hänsel und Gretel later this summer. She is a 2016/17 BLO Jane and Steven Akin Emerging Artist, and she made her debut with the Company as Frou Frou in the 2016 production of The Merry Widow, and will be returning next season to sing the role of Mary Paterson in The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare. Recently, Ms. Sorenson was engaged as an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera where she sang the role of Javotte in Manon, and Flower in Rappaccini’s Daughter. She has also performed several mainstage roles with The Boston Conservatory including Lucretia in The Rape of Lucretia, and Dritte Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Ms. Sorenson is the recipient of the 2016 Encouragement Award at The Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions in the St. Louis district, and previously won the Ileana Ingraham Encouragement Award at the auditions in the Kansas City district. She also recently advanced to the Second Round of the 2017 Classical Singer Competition in the Emerging Professional category.