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 Amy Johnson, soprano
(Salome)
Our Toledo Opera audience will remember soprano Amy Johnson’s
exciting portrayal of Santuzza in last season’s production
of Cavalleria Rusticana. Recently,
Ms. Johnson made her European debut as Giorgetta in Il
Tabarro with Vlaamse Opera in Belgium. She went on to
perform the title role in Strauss’s Ariadne auf
Naxos at the Prague National Theater and won special
acclaim for her portrayal of Tosca at New York City
Opera. Recent appearances include leading roles with Glimmerglass
Opera, New York City Opera (PBS Live from Lincoln Center, Fiordiligi
in Così fan tutte and Donna Anna in Don
Giovanni), Michigan Opera Theater and the opera companies
of Arizona, Indianapolis (Tatiana in Eugene Onegin and
Fiordiligi), Kentucky, Orlando (Marguerite in Faust),
Portland (Desdemona in Otello), Tampa (Rosalinde
in Die Fledermaus, Liu in Turandot and
Leonora in Il trovatore) and Rosalinde with Virginia
Opera.
 Deanne Meek, mezzo-soprano
(Herodias)
Mezzo-soprano Deanne Meek recently reprised her acclaimed
performance of Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream both
in France and on tour in Athens. She returns to Utah Opera
for Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Opera North
for Meg Page in Falstaff, as well as to the Teatro
Real in Madrid as Kristina in The Makropulous Case. Among
Ms. Meek’s other engagements are appearances with the
English National Opera as Ruggiero in Alcina, Dorabella
in Così fan tutte at Opéra National
du Rhin and Rossweisse in Die Walküre at the
Châtelet in Paris. A frequent presence on the
stage of the New York City Opera, she has appeared as Cherubino
in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zerlina in Don Giovanni,
Hänsel in Hänsel und Gretel and Diana
in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, and
Harriet Mosher in the New York premiere of Tobias Picker’s Emmeline. Ms.
Meek has presented solo recitals in the United Kingdom, Paris,
New York, Baltimore, Washington DC, St. Louis and the Pacific
Northwest.
 Adam Klein, tenor (Herod)
Career highlights have included appearances with the Metropolitan Opera as Steva
in Jenufa, the Chevalier in Les Dialogues des Carmélites and
Elemer in Arabella. At San Francisco Opera he was Tchekalinsky in Pique
Dame and Iskra in a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Mazeppa.
He has also been heard as Don José in Carmen with Atlanta Opera
and Cavaradossi in Tosca, as Quint in The Turn of the Screw with
New York City Opera, and the title role in Otello with Opera Delaware.
He performed Erik in Der Fliegende Holländer with Spoleto Festival
(USA) and Atlanta Opera, the Duke in Rigoletto with Central City Opera,
Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Dallas Opera and the title role
in Les Contes d’Hoffman with Opera Pacific. His discography
includes Mime in Siegfried with the State Symphony of Russia on the
Naxos label, and the Doctor in Robert Ashley’s Improvement: Don
Leaves Linda on the Elektra/Nonesuch label. Mr. Klein recently performed
with Toledo Opera as Don José in our production of Carmen.
 Bradley Garvin,
bass-baritone (Jochanaan)
Bass-baritone Bradley Garvin has appeared, most notably,
with The Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Houston
Grand Opera, Arizona Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Pittsburgh
Opera and Palm Beach Opera, among many others. During the
2008-2009 season, he returns to the Lyric Opera of Chicago
as the Banker and Theater Director in Lulu, joins
Houston Grand Opera as Monterone in Rigoletto, and
the Speaker in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan
Opera. In oratorio, he has appeared at the Brooklyn Academy
of Music in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, with
the National Chorale in Washington in Bach’s Mass
in B Minor, with Philharmonia Virtuosi for Haydn’s Creation,
the Bach Consort of Washington for St. John Passion and
the Columbus Symphony Orchestra for Honegger’s Christmas
Cantata. He is the winner of numerous vocal competitions,
including the Washington DC International Vocal Competition,
George London Vocal Competition, Placido Domingo International
Vocal Competition, and the William Matheus Sullivan Award.
 Marc Schreiner,
tenor (Narraboth)
A devotee
of modern works, tenor Marc Schreiner has been seen as Peter
Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the
Screw with Nashville Opera, Albert in Benjamin Britten’s Albert
Herring, and The Magician in The Consul with
Des Moines Metro Opera. He toured with the Lincoln Center
Festival and The Edinburgh Festival in Houston Opera’s
production of Four Saints in Three Acts. Recent
performances include The Duke in Rigoletto with
Syracuse Opera, Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola with
Des Moines Metro Opera and the romantic leads in The
Mikado and The Gondoliers with the Gilbert
and Sullivan Society of Houston. A native of Rollingstone,
Minnesota, Mr. Schreiner received a Bachelor’s Degree
in Music Education from Simpson College, and a Masters in
Vocal Performance from the University of Houston, Texas.
 James
Marvel, Stage Director
James Marvel hails from the world of the theater but has,
during the past few seasons, emerged as one of American opera’s
most talked about young stage directors with intelligently
crafted interpretations of many of the standard works of
operatic literature, including La bohème (Opera
Santa Barbara and Boheme Opera of Trenton, New Jersey), Madama
Butterfly (Virginia Opera, Tampa Opera, Piedmont Opera,
and Opera Longview), Faust (Opera Santa Barbara
and Augusta Opera), Rigoletto (Utah Festival Opera), La
traviata (Nevada Opera Theater and Boheme Opera), Falstaff (Intermezzo
Opera), Le Nozze di Figaro (Asheville Lyric Opera
and Intermezzo Opera), Cavalleria Rusticana (Opera
of the Hamptons), Roméo et Juliette (Boston
University’s Opera Institute), and Die Fledermaus (Knoxville
Opera and Intermezzo Opera). He has also worked on critically
acclaimed productions of two works by Philip Glass: Akhnaten (Teatr
Weilki in Lodz, Poland) and Galileo Galilei (Boston
University Opera Institute).
Recent engagements include productions of The
Rake’s
Progress for the San Francisco Opera Merola Program Faust for
Shreveport Opera, Tosca for Longview Opera and
Opera Santa Barbara; new productions of Turandot and Le
Nozze di Figaro for Utah Festival Opera, and new productions
of Die Zauberflöte for Asheville Lyric Opera
and for the Opera Company of Brooklyn. This season, he
will direct Les Pêcheurs des Perles for
Opera Boston, Lucia di Lammermoor for Syracuse
Opera and for New Orleans Opera, Il Trovatore for
the Utah Festival Opera, and scenes for Santa Fe Opera.
International credits include work at the 5th International
Theater Festival in Budapest, Hungary; the Istropolitana
Theatre Festival in Bratislava, Slovakia, the Viola Stage
in Prague, Czech Republic, Teatr Wielki in Lodz, Poland,
the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland, the Wadham Theatre and
Burton-Taylor Theatre in Oxford, England. Theater credits
include repeat engagements with the Passage Theatre Company
in New Jersey, Clarence Brown Theatre in Tennessee, Williamstown
Theatre Festival, and the Inter-Act Theatre Company of Philadelphia.
He also directed the Southern premiere of a new Christopher
Durang play at the Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans.
James
Marvel was born and raised in New Orleans and received his
B.A. in World Literature from Sarah Lawrence College and
Oxford University, England. He holds an M.F.A. in Theatre
Arts from the International Actor Training Academy and conducted
additional studies at Charles University in Prague, Czech
Republic. He is a recipient of the Classical
Singer Magazine’s
award for “Stage Director of the Year” in May,
2008.
 Clayton G. Peterson,
Designer
Mr. Petersen, scenic designer for Salome, is
a native of Colorado. He received his BFA in theatre and
design from Loretto Heights College in Denver. He has worked
in the theatre for over twenty years filling the roles
of designer, technical director, stage manager and stagehand.
In addition to his theatrical work, he is known as a fine
artist and teacher. At The University of Tennessee at Knoxville
and at The School of Art in Bowling Green Stage University,
he has studied performing and fine arts. He holds master’s
degrees both in painting and in the theatre arts. He has
lived in France, where he studied the Flemish technique of
Jan van Eyck. His paintings are known for their strong integration
of classical and contemporary techniques, dramatic presentation
and their highly spiritual emotional and intellectual content.
Thomas Conlin, Conductor
 Thomas
Conlin is a regular guest conductor with symphony orchestras,
ballet companies and opera companies on five continents,
most recently in Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Croatia,
Egypt, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, Poland,
Russia, Spain, Turkey and throughout the United States.
Many of Conlin’s programs feature works by Barber, Bernstein,
Copland, Gershwin and other fellow Americans, and he is a champion
of music of our time, but his international career includes conducting
Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov in Russia, Beethoven and Brahms
in Germany, Mozart and Mahler in Austria, Debussy and Ravel in
France, Verdi and Puccini in Italy, Grieg in Norway and Sibelius
in Finland. Last season he led the Eastern European premiere of
Bernstein’s West Side Story at the National Opera
of Croatia, in Zagreb.
Maestro Conlin’s recording of George
Crumb’s Star-Child, on which he conducts the Warsaw
Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, won the 2001 Grammy Award for
Best Contemporary Classical Composition. His music video, Symphonic
Wonderworks, won the Gold Award (1st Prize) at the 1992 Houston
International Film Festival and was nominated for a Telly Award.
His CD of Crumb’s A Haunted Landscape was nominated
for an Indie Award as Best Orchestral Recording of 2002, and his
latest CD on the Bridge label, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Echoes
of Time and the River, was released in 2004 to great acclaim.
The first in a series of recordings of works by the Brazilian composer
Camargo Guarnieri was released on the Naxos label last Year.
Conlin has collaborated in opera and concert
with renowned vocalists Kathleen Battle, Marilyn Horne, Robert
Merrill, Sherrill Milnes, Roberta Peters, Giorgio Tozzi and Frederica
von Stade, in ballet with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Edward Villella
and Violette Verdi, and with instrumentalists Emanuel Ax, Alicia
de Larrocha, James Galway, Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern.
For Toledo Opera he has conducted recent productions of Romeo
and Juliet, Don Pasquale, The Turn of the Screw,
La traviata, Sweeney Todd, Don Giovanni, La bohème, The
Crucible, The Barber of Seville, Faust, Madama Butterfly, Pagliacci,
Cavalleria Rusticana, Il trovatore, Amahl and the Night Visitors,
The Marriage of Figaro, Tosca and Così fan tutte, and
seven of TO’s Opera Galas: Three Tenors! – the
Next Generation, A Night in Old Vienna, The Greatest Wagner Concert
Ever!, Opera Goes to the Movies, From Russia with Love, Richard Strauss:
the Last Great Romantic and From Broadway to the Met. |
