Toledo Opera returns to Valentine Theatre with Celebrazione del Coro

Published Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Toledo Opera will present Celebrazione del Coro on Friday, April 21, at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 23, at 2 p.m. at the Valentine Theatre, 400 North Superior, Toledo, Ohio. Celebrazione del Coro, a concert of great operatic choruses and arias, will feature the 62-member Toledo Opera Chorus, Toledo Opera Children’s Chorus, and featured soloists accompanied by Toledo Symphony Orchestra. Toledo Opera will also host a free Pre-Opera Talk one hour before each show in the Grand Lobby of the Valentine Theatre. Local scholars provide historical context and insight and are available to take questions after the talk.

Toledo Opera’s 2022-2023 season concludes with Celebrazione del Coro – a grand choral showcase, curated especially for the greater Toledo Community and performed by a chorus of Toledo-area residents. The Toledo Opera Chorus is at the heart of Toledo Opera’s musical activity and in this concert, they are featured. Musical highlights will include famous choruses and arias from popular operas by Bizet, Verdi, Wagner, Rossini, and much more. Soloists include: Christine Lyons, soprano; Lindsey Anderson, mezzo-soprano; Alex Richardson, tenor; Corey Crider, baritone; Sara Mortensen, soprano; Brendan Boyle, tenor; and Matthew Payne, baritone. Celebrazione del Coro will be conducted by Kevin Bylsma. The concert will be presented in multiple languages, with supertitles.

Christine Lyons is a critically acclaimed soprano who has been hailed a “true virtuosa” by Broadway World, exclaimed a “revelation” by Gay City News, and praised for her “potent soprano” by Opera Magazine. She has performed leading opera roles at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and Carnegie Hall, and most recently starred as Norma at Winter Opera St. Louis, Bellini’s La Straniera at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Leonora (Il Trovatore) at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C., and Madama Butterfly with Baltimore Concert Opera, among many others. A highly-decorated competitor, Ms. Lyons is the first African-American woman to win the Grand Prize in the Mary Trueman Art Song Vocal Competition in New York and has garnered top awards from the Gerda Lissner Foundation, Vocal Arts DC Discovery Art Song Competition, Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing International Vocal Competition, New York Lyric Opera National Vocal Competition, Rochester International Vocal Competition, The American Prize for Women in Opera Competition, and Washington International Competition. Ms. Lyon’s television and theatrical credits include season six of House of Cards (Netflix), a national tour, workshops, and residencies with Theater of the Stars, Fingerlakes Music Theater, Goodspeed Opera House, Pittsburgh Music Theater, People’s Light, and Portland Center Stage.

Critics have described American Opera singer Lindsey Anderson as a formidable presence. Recently, The Toledo Blade, praised her portrayal of Augusta Tabor in The Ballad of Baby Doe, saying. "Her work is simply a tour de force of both musicianship and acting. Her voice is massive, replete with color, even across all registers, and she is clearly always in control of her musical line.” Ms. Anderson holds Master's and Bachelor's degrees in Vocal Performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and Saint Mary's College of Notre Dame, respectively. Ms. Anderson has performed roles in many opera houses and concert halls throughout the United States including Carnegie Hall (Mezzo soloist, Ralph Vaughan Williams Magnificat), Toledo Opera (Augusta Tabor, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Julia Child, Bon Appétit!), Seattle Opera (Third Lady, Die Zauberflöte), Opera Grand Radids (Turandot), Virginia Opera (Dame Quickly, Falstaff), Sarasota Opera (Leonore, Fidelio), Winter Opera St. Louis (Augusta, The Ballad of Baby Doe, Katisha, The Mikado) Des Moines Metro Opera (Mrs. Sedley, Peter Grimes, Trainbearer, Elektra), New Amsterdam Opera (Leonora, La Favorita), Central City Opera (Public Opinion, Orpheus in the Underworld), Union Avenue Opera (Rossweisse, Die Walküre, Woglinde, Götterdämmerung), Opera Company of Middlebury (Turandot, Turandot), and Opera North (Marcellina, Le nozze di Figaro, Julia Child, Bon Appétit!, Mother, Amahl and the Night Visitors).

American tenor Alex Richardson’s stage presence has been described as “powerful, sympathetic, and fully-fleshed,” his voice “capable of both ringing top notes and sweet, floated tones” (Opera News). A frequent performer with the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Richardson has sung the roles of the Shepherd (Tristan und Isolde) under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, the 4th Jew (Salome), and has covered the roles of Loge (Das Rheingold), the First Knight (Parsifal), Lucas (The Exterminating Angel), and Alwa (Lulu). Mr. Richardson has performed the title roles in Werther (Boston Lyric Opera), Peter Grimes (Princeton Festival), and Franco Faccio’s Amleto (world premiere at Opera Southwest), along with the roles of 2nd Jew (Salome) (Boston Symphony and Opera San Antonio), soloist in Szymanowski’s King Roger (Boston Symphony Orchestra), the Steuermann (Der fliegende Holländer) (Princeton Festival), Molqi (The Death of Klinghoffer) (Long Beach Opera), Romeo (Roméo et Juliette) (St. Petersburg Opera), Rodolfo (La Bohème) (Opera Western Reserve), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte) (Fort Worth Symphony and Orlando Symphony), Fenton (Falstaff) and Will Tweedy in Carlisle Floyd’s Cold Sassy Tree (Amarillo Opera), Alfred (Die Fledermaus) and Camille (The Merry Widow) (Opera Southwest).

Celebrated in the leading dramatic and classic music theatre roles for his “gorgeous baritone, with expression and power to spare,” baritone, Corey Crider recently joined the roster of The Metropolitan Opera for their production of Don Carlos. Last season, the baritone performed his lauded Scarpia (Tosca) with Gulfshore Opera, appeared as soloist (Messiah) with Evansville Philharmonic, and as the Artistic Director of Tapestry Productions, arranged, directed, and starred in the post-COVID remount of Remove the Veil! - an opera/rock fusion event celebrating the best music of the last 400 years. Under the baton of the late Lorin Maazel, Mr. Crider has bowed on stages in Beijing as Bartolo (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, Italy A Escamillo (Carmen) the Munich Philharmonic as Marcello (La bohème), and the great maestro’s own Castleton Festival (Gianni Schicchi; Sharpless/Madama Butterfly). Most recently, Mr. Crider has appeared with Toledo Opera as Alfio in the double bill production of Suor Angelica & Cavalleria Rusticana.

Additional featured soloists – soprano and Toledo Opera Resident Artist, Sara Mortensen; tenor and Toledo Opera Resident Artist, Brendan Boyle; and baritone and Toledo Opera Resident Artist Matthew Payne will bring international artistic prowess of their own.

For Toledo Opera’s Executive Director Suzanne Rorick, it is the high level of artistry combined with the larger-than-life operatic works which make this a performance not to be missed, “This is a beautiful concert of great opera pieces from a variety of large-scale operas – operas not typically undertaken by Toledo Opera. We’ve put these choruses and arias together in a thrilling performance which highlights the chorus of Toledoans who work tirelessly alongside us all year to produce extraordinary opera for the Toledo community. This is a group of highly trained, professional singers, who devote their time and energy to Toledo Opera and we can’t wait to feature them. With this concert we are also proud to reintroduce the Toledo Opera Children’s chorus for the first time since February of 2020. So please join us for the glorious conclusion of our 2022-2023 opera season.”

Toledo Opera will perform Celebrazione del Coro at the Valentine Theatre on Friday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, April 23 at 2 p.m. To learn more about Celebrazione soloists and production team and to buy tickets, visit: toledoopera.org. For media access, please contact Rachael Cammarn at rcammarn@toledoopera.org.