Be Careful Who You Burn

Praised for her “impassioned performance” (Seattle Times) in the title role of Aida at Seattle Opera, American soprano Alexandra LoBianco has established herself as a dramatic soprano of remarkable versatility, musicality, and consistency. This season, she performs Il trovatore (Leonora) in Opera Colorado’s semi-staged production and appears in concert with the Madison Symphony Orchestra.

LoBianco’s career highlights include Fidelio (Leonore) at Wiener Staatsoper and North Carolina Opera, Die Walküre (Brünnhilde) at Seattle Opera and North Carolina Opera, La fanciulla del West (Minnie) at Des Moines Metro Opera, and Turandot (title role) at Des Moines Metro Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and Maryland Lyric Opera. She has also performed Cavalleria rusticana (Santuzza) at Seattle Opera, Falstaff (Alice Ford) at Santa Fe Opera, and Der Rosenkavalier (Marianne Leitmetzerin) at the Metropolitan Opera, featured in the Met’s Live in HD series. Additional roles include Elektra (Chrysothemis, Fourth Maid) and Die Walküre (Helmwige) at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Tosca (title role) at North Carolina Opera, Minnesota Opera, Seattle Opera, and Portland Opera, and Un ballo in maschera (Amelia) at Florida Grand Opera.

Recent seasons have included Rusalka (Foreign Princess) at Canadian Opera Company and Hansel and Gretel (Mother) at Lyric Opera of Chicago. LoBianco made a thrilling Wiener Staatsoper debut stepping in as Leonore in Fidelio while under contract for Turandot (title role) and later returned for Die Walküre (Helmwige) and Brünnhilde cover while on tour in Japan. Her repertoire also includes Die Walküre (Sieglinde), Suor Angelica (title role), Madama Butterfly (title role), Don Giovanni (Donna Elvira), La bohème (Mimì), The Consul (Magda Sorel), and Jonathan Dove’s abridged Ring Cycle (Brünnhilde).

“A formidable display of vocal power and dramatic assurance,” mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel made her début with The Metropolitan Opera in Lucia di Lammermoor (Alisa), her début with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Roméo et Juliette (Gertrude), her Carnegie Hall début in Mozart’s Coronation Mass, and her New York Philharmonic début alongside Eric Owens in In Their Footsteps: Great African American Singers and Their Legacy. This season, she performed in Roméo et Juliette (Gertrude) with LA Opera and Aida (Amneris) with Dayton Opera.

In the 2023-24 Season, Nansteel had house débuts with LA Opera in Highway 1, USA (Aunt Lou), the Atlanta Opera in Die Walküre (Rossweisse), and she will sing Il trovatore (Azucena) with Opera Santa Barbara and Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud) with Opera San Antonio. Nansteel will be seen with the Utah Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and act three of Wozzeck, and she joins the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola for their 150th Anniversary celebration of Verdi’s Requiem.

In the 2022-23 Season, Ms. Nansteel returned to the Metropolitan Opera in La traviata (Annina) and for their concert tour of Otello, and she had her house début with San Francisco Opera in their productions of Eugene Onegin and Dialogues des Carmélites. Nansteel also débuted a role in Aida (Amneris) for both Opera Grand Rapids and Finger Lakes Opera, performed in Hänsel und Gretel (Gertrud) for New Orleans Opera, appeared as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem for Orchestra Iowa, and performed in Suor Angelica (Mother Abbess) for Opera Omaha.

Tenor John Pickle is an established and versatile force on both the operatic and concert stages. Recent performances include Turandot with Opera Delaware (Calaf), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Akron Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with Canton Symphony, and concerts with Cleveland Pops and Pittsburgh Festival Opera. In the 2022-23 Season, Pickle performed in Cavalleria rusticana (Turiddu), with Opera Colorado, Carmen (Don José) with Pacific Opera Victoria, and a concert of opera’s greatest hits with Maryland Opera. Additional engagements include Pagliacci (Canio) with Opera Colorado, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Memphis, Dayton Opera, and Opera Delaware; The Flying Dutchman (Erik) with Los Angeles Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Mobile Opera, and Utah Festival Opera; Tosca (Cavaradossi) with Nashville Opera, Intermountain Opera Bozeman, Opera Southwest, Tri-Cities Opera, and Townsend Opera; Madama Butterfly (Pinkerton) at Pacific Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, Cleveland Opera Theater, and Dayton Opera; and Carmen (Don José) with Opera Tampa, Nevada Opera, and Opera Louisiane.

Concert engagements in recent seasons included Verdi’s Requiem with Dayton Philharmonic, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra, Akron Symphony, Opera Grand Rapids, Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, and DCINY in Carnegie Hall and Barcelona’s famed Palau de la Música Catalana; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Dayton Philharmonic, Springfield Symphony, The Orchestra Now, Lima Symphony, Long Bay Symphony, and National Chorale; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Dayton Philharmonic; Beethoven’s Missa solemnis with Utah Festival Opera; Kodaly’s Te Deum with Oregon Music Festival, Eugene Suchon’s Psalm of the Carpathian Land with Sonomento and Kenwood Symphonies; and operatic greatest hits concerts with Florentine Opera, Santa Barbara Symphony, Lyric Opera of Virginia, Northwest Arkansas Symphony, Mobile Opera, Intermountain Opera Bozeman, Opera Idaho and the Boise Philharmonic, and St. Bart’s Music Festival.

Praised by The New York Times for “the evening’s richest instrument—powerful yet capable of softness,” Ricardo José Rivera makes several major Verdi role debuts in the 2024-25 Season, including Macbeth (title role) at Teatro Nuovo, Stiffelio (Stankar) at Sarasota Opera, and Il trovatore (Conte di Luna) in Opera Colorado’s semi-staged production. He also joins Pittsburgh Opera for Pagliacci (Silvio), Florida Grand Opera for Elixir of Love (Belcore), and Colorado Springs Philharmonic for Madama Butterfly (Sharpless), in addition to returning to Opera San José for The Magic Flute (Papageno). Future seasons include debuts with the Metropolitan Opera, New National Theatre Tokyo, and Utah Symphony, as well as returns to Sarasota Opera and Opera San José.

A sought-after interpreter of bel canto repertoire, Rivera has performed in Poliuto (Severo) at Teatro Nuovo, Roberto Devereux (Nottingham) at Washington Concert Opera, Ernani (Don Carlo) at Sarasota Opera, and Un ballo in maschera (Silvano) with Riccardo Muti conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Other recent highlights include Pagliacci (Silvio) at Opera San Antonio, Carmen (Escamillo) at Opera de Puerto Rico, La bohème (Schaunard) and Cavalleria rusticana (Alfio) at CulturArte de Puerto Rico and Dialogues des Carmélites at Houston Grand Opera. With Lyric Opera of Chicago, he sang Madama Butterfly (Sharpless, Yamadori), La bohème (Schaunard), and La traviata (Baron Douphol) as a member of the Ryan Opera Center.

On the concert stage, Rivera has performed Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra of the Dominican Republic, and El retablo de Maese Pedro (Don Quijote) at the Casals Festival. He is a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant, a first-prize winner of the Saengerbund Competition, and a third-prize winner in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (Gulf Coast Region).

Commanding bass Young Bok Kim has recently dazzled audiences in Attila (title role), The Magic Flute (Sarastro), Rigoletto (Sparafucile), Verdi’s Requiem (bass soloist), and La battaglia di Legnano (Barbarossa) at Sarasota Opera. A favorite with Sarasota audiences, he returned in 2024 for Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo) and reprised Rigoletto (Sparafucile) at Opera Delaware and Opera Baltimore. He made his Opera Colorado debut in 2023 in Turandot (Timur).

A native of Korea, Kim frequently performs on Korean stages, including Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso) at National Opera of Korea and Seoul Metropolitan Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo) and The Magic Flute (Sarastro) at National Opera of Korea, and Semiramide (Nino’s Ghost) at City Opera of Seoul. In the U.S., he made his New York City Opera debut in La bohème (Colline) and later appeared in Carmen (Zuniga), The Magic Flute (Sarastro), and Madama Butterfly (Bonze), the latter featured in the 2008 Emmy Award-winning broadcast. He has also performed with Dallas Opera, Utah Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Boston, El Paso Opera, and Teatro Grattacielo, among others.

Kim’s extensive repertoire includes Aida (Ramfis), Il trovatore (Ferrando), Don Carlos (Philip II), Simon Boccanegra (Fiesco), Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent), La forza del destino (Padre Guardiano), Norma (Oroveso), Faust (Mephistopheles), Eugene Onegin (Prince Gremin), and I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Capellio). He holds degrees from Chung-Ang University, Mannes College of Music, and the Juilliard Opera Center and has performed under conductors such as Julius Rudel and James Conlon.

An esteemed mezzo-soprano, known as one of the Rocky Mountain region’s most celebrated artists, Marcia Ragonetti has been praised for her “captivating” characterizations (Cherubino, Carmen, Augusta Tabor, Rosina, Siebel, Nicklausse, Prince Orlofsky) as well as her “radiant, effervescent” singing over an illustrious forty-three-year career. That career had its start in 1982 as a chorister and quickly evolved under the expert tutelage of Nathaniel Merrill and Louise Sherman, co-founders of Opera Colorado, to her first featured role as Inez in Il trovatore in 1985, with over twenty OC productions to follow. A career highlight was appearing in the gala inauguration concert and stellar opening production of Carmen for the Ellie Caulkins Opera House in 2005. Her international debut was in Sweeney Todd as the Beggar Woman, a role she first sang with Opera Colorado and then toured to four Emilia-Romagna cities in Italy. Her concert repertoire is vast and varied and she is especially proud to claim a twenty-two-time guest appearance record with the Colorado Symphony alone. Musical theatre credits include garnering Henry nominations for “Outstanding Actress” for her virtuosic portrayals of Maria Callas in Master Class and Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. Her love of intimate, cabaret-style shows finds her continuing to create and perform bio-based revues of Gershwin, Porter, Kern, Weil, and others. She is delighted and honoured to have come full circle—40 years later—as your insightful guide to this Verdi masterpiece.

For the past twenty-plus years, Rachael Harding has built her career around dance—as a professional dancer, teacher, and choreographer. She received her B.F.A. in Dance and a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Arizona and a M.F.A in Dance from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She began her professional career as a dancer in Denver’s Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble. She is currently the resident choreographer for Denver’s professional jazz dance company, Davis Contemporary Dance Company, a performer with Nu-World Contemporary Danse Theatre, co-owner/director of Boulder Jazz Dance Workshop, and owner/director of Miss Rachael’s Dance in Denver, where she is inspired to share her passion for the arts with young dancers every day. She has had the distinct honor of dancing in past Opera Colorado productions, including Nixon in China, The Pearl Fishers, Rusalka, and Josephine, and choreographing for Rusalka, Aida, The Barber of Seville, Josephine, and The Shining.

Appointed in 2015 as Opera Colorado’s first-ever music director, Ari Pelto’s “breathtaking wizardry in the pit” (The Denver Post) has been widely celebrated, with Pelto in demand at opera houses and concert halls throughout the United States. At the age of 24, Pelto was appointed Assistant Conductor at the Spoleto Festival and he has since gone on to conduct worldwide. International engagements include performances with Bochumer Philharmoniker and opera productions at New National Theatre of Tokyo and the Teatro Nacional Sucre in Quito, Ecuador. In 2004 he made his highly-praised debut with New York City Opera, conducting La Traviata, after which he became a regular, returning for productions of Madama Butterfly, La bohème, and Carmen. Recent successes include Eugene Onegin at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Lucia di Lammermoor at Virginia Opera, and La Voix Humaine at Chicago Opera Theater.

Iranian conductor and pianist, Sahar Nouri, has been Music Director of Lamont Opera Theater at University of Denver since 2019. She has also served at Opera Colorado as Chorus Master & Assistant Conductor since 2016. Ms. Nouri is the founder/director of Dandelion Opera Institute.

At the University of Denver, Ms. Nouri has conducted productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Die Zauberflöte, Alcina, Cabildo, Les mamelles de Tirésias, and The Little Prince.

Her work with Opera Colorado has included productions of Samson and Delilah, The Flying Dutchman, Don Giovanni, Turandot, Die tote Stadt, Rigoletto, Carmen, The Shining, Tosca, Cavalleria rusticana, Pagliacci, The Marriage of Figaro, La traviata, Falstaff, The Barber of Seville, La bohème, La fanciulla del West, and the world premiere of Steal a Pencil for Me (Gerald Cohen).

Previously, Ms. Nouri has been part of the music staff at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra at Bravo! Vail, Opera Parallèle, Opera North Carolina, Glimmerglass Festival, Utah Opera, Aspen Opera Theatre, Opera Steamboat, Merola Opera, Boston Conservatory of Music, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

An active performer, she has given numerous recitals around the US including those alongside international stars Mane Galoyan, Heidi Melton, and Matthew Polenzani. A multi-lingual coach, she has studied in Czechia, Italy, and Austria and is frequently in demand as a language coach.

Ms. Nouri is a former violinist who has performed with Tehran Philharmonic Orchestra and has won several prizes, for both violin and piano, in national music festivals and competitions in Iran.

Christopher Mattaliano has directed opera productions for The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Minnesota Opera, and New York City Opera. Internationally, he has worked with L’Opéra de Nice, L’Opéra de Montréal, Canadian Opera Company, Spoleto’s Festival dei Due Mondi, and Den Norske Opera. Past engagements include The Magic Flute at Washington National Opera, The Barber of Seville at Dallas Opera and Cincinnati Opera, Rigoletto at Opera Colorado, and Anna Bolena at AVA in Philadelphia.

He has directed numerous world premieres, including Hugo Weisgall’s Esther at New York City Opera, Fred Ho’s Journey Beyond the West at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Peter Westergaard’s The Tempest at Opera Festival of New Jersey. As General Director of Portland Opera from 2003 to 2019, he oversaw all artistic, financial, and administrative operations, directing acclaimed productions such as Pagliacci/Carmina Burana, Il viaggio a Reims, and Falstaff. He has also worked extensively with young artists, teaching and directing at The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, Yale University, and the Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Program.

Mattaliano is the founder of OrpheusPDX, a Portland-based opera company dedicated to producing professional opera on an intimate scale. Now in its third season, OrpheusPDX brings together an ensemble of artists in summer residence to create impactful and innovative performances.

Joe Beumer designs for opera, theatre, and dance nationally and internationally. Recent designs include Cavalleria rusticana(Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera), La Traviata (Palm Beach Opera), and the world premiere of State of the Jews (American Opera Projects – NYC). Previous designs for Opera Colorado include Daughter of the Regiment, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, Cavalleria rusticana, and The Barber of Seville. Other current projects include a new production of Der Schauspieldirektor & Iolanta (Göteborg Opera w/ Thomas C. Hase) and two new immersive shows for Virgin Voyages’ newest ship The Brilliant Lady. Additional credits and companies: Harmony (Broadway 2023), The Book of Mormon (Current National Tour), The Old Vic’s A Christmas Carol (First National Tour, Los Angeles), Prototype Festival, Atlanta Opera, Long Island Lyric Opera, Detroit Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Opéra de Montréal, Opéra National Bordeaux, Cincinnati Opera, Pacific Symphony, Portland Opera, Utah Opera, Playhouse on Park (CT), The Public, Atlantic Theater Company, Geva Theatre Center, Great Lakes Theatre, Syracuse Stage, BC/EFA’s Broadway Bares, New York Musical Festival (NYMF), Norwegian Cruise Lines, Cincinnati Shakespeare, Kansas City Ballet, and Dayton Ballet. Joe calls Brooklyn home, and he is a proud member of United Scenic Artists, Local USA 829.