Saturday, July 22 | 6:30PM
The luminous Spanish soprano Serena Sáenz makes her U.S. debut as Norina in Donizetti’s classic comedy, Don Pasquale. The stellar cast includes tenor Xabier Aduaga as Ernesto, tenor Alexey Lavrov as Dr. Malatesta, and baritone Lucas Meachem as Don Pasquale. Constantine Orbelian leads Festival Orchestra Napa in this enduring tale of love and deception. Jean-Romain Vesperini directs.
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Manetti Shrem Opera, underwritten by Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem.
Festival Orchestra Napa's appearance is made possible through a generous gift from Tatiana and Gerret Copeland, proprietors of Bouchaine Vineyards.
Performers
Grammy® Award winner Lucas Meachem is one of the most in-demand singers of the moment, captivating audiences with his "earnest appealing baritone" (New York Times). Meachem performs regularly at major opera houses around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris, and Los Angeles Opera where he gave his Grammy® Award-winning performance.
Young Spanish Soprano Serena Sáenz has been lauded by the press for her “musicality, good taste in ornamentation and luminous high notes with a good arsenal of bel canto resources” (Scherzo). In spite of her youth, Serena Sáenz is already a frequent guest at some of the most renowned opera houses in the world.
Xabier Anduaga was born in 1995 in San Sebastian, where he started singing in the Orfeón Donostiarra Choir. Already in his childhood, he sang as a soloist in sacred music concerts, and studied at the Centro Superior de Música in the Basque Region.
A graduate of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Mr. Lavrov made his Met company debut in the 12/13 season as the Herald in Otello and the Flemish Deputy in Don Carlo and has since appeared there as Silvio in Pagliacci, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Schaunard in La bohème, Ping in Turandot, Morales in Carmen, Count Dominik in Arabella, the Huntsman in Rusalka, and Yamadori in Madama Butterfly.
Opera Classic magazine called Constantine Orbelian the best vocal conductor of our time. Born in San Francisco, Orbelian has performed (on piano) and conducted orchestras all over the world, and was recently named Music Director of the New York City Opera.
Festival Orchestra Napa is an all-star ensemble that brings together principal players from major international orchestras and faculty from renowned colleges and conservatories, together with participants from the Frost School of Festival Napa Valley's Blackburn Music Academy. Centered around a core of Frost School of Music faculty, the orchestra also includes hand-picked musicians from ensembles such as the San Francisco Symphony, MET Opera Orchestra, Dallas Symphony, Houston Symphony, and Atlanta Symphony, among others.
Jean-Romain Vesperini is a widely acclaimed artistic director and producer of operatic performances on stages from La Scala to Paris, from The Bolshoi to Monte Carlo. A trained baritone, he is deeply connected to music, with a unique awareness of what a score brings to dramaturgy.
Venue
Charles Krug
