Timur Bekbosunov

A Soldier / First Vagabond

Credits: Hollywood Bowl: Boris Godunov (Father Missail), Disney Hall: Devotchka, LA Philharmonic: Schnittke Symphony #4 (soloist), Oedipus Rex (Shepherd cover) staged by Peter Sellars. Santa Cecilia Academy: Silvano Sylvano, American Repertory Theatre: Oedipus (Singer), The Hague Festival: Crescent City (Ghost Cop), Opera Boston: Nixon in China (Soldier), South Pacific (Quale), Salem Philharmonic: Jabberwocky, Opera Kansas: Mr Choufleuri (Babylas), Hawaii Performing Arts Festival: Threepenny Opera (Macheath). USC: The Rake's Progress (Tom), Powder Her Face (Electrician) with Thomas Ades, CalArts: Satyricon, Platee.

Mark Bringelson

Loudspeaker/Jailer

At LBO: Tiger Brown in Threepenny Opera, Beethoven as a skater-punk in No Mozart at The Vault, and the ensembles of Motezuma, La Perichole, and Orpheus & Euridice, the latter in Bellmont Olympic Swimming Pool. At Summerskate Festival in New York:  Patachon in Offenbach’s Les Deux Aveugles, Ba Ta clan, and Tulipitan. At Redcat in Disney Hall:  Benny in Last Resort. At Orphean Circus at Bootleg: The 99-Cent Show, etc. Film work includes major roles in Heathers, Paul Anderson’s Soldier, Lawnmower Man, Austin Powers, and Jim Jarmusch’s western, Dead Man, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.

Ivy Chou

Costume Designer

Ivy Y. Chou (Costume Designer) has had the honor of designing for East West Players, Cornerstone, Lodestone, La Jolla Playhouse, Malashock Dance, The Sledgehammer, Theatre Rhino, as well as for TV and film. A native Angeleno, Ivy received her MFA from UCSD, her BA from UC Berkeley, and was awarded the Garland Award in 2006 for PERA PELAS (Boston Court and Antaeus Co.), an Honorable Mention Garland Award in 2007 for HUCK AND HOLDEN (Black Dahlia), and has been highlighted in the October 2007 issue of LA STAGE as an Artist to Watch. She is extremely excited to be working on this project!

Dean Elzinga

Death / Peasant

Dean Elzinga has sung feature roles at Metropolitan Opera and Los Angeles Opera. He has appeared in leading roles with Seattle Opera, NY City Opera, Vienna VO, Glimmerglass, Vancouver, Pittsburgh, Des Moines, and other opera companies across the US and Canada. He has sung leading parts in the world's great concert halls, such as Avery Fisher and Alice Tully in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, RAI Torino in Italy, Disney Hall, and the Hollywood Bowl. He has garnered praise in repertoire ranging from Bach to Wagner, and he is a champion of modern music. Previously at LBO, he sang Hagen in The Ring. (deanelzinga.com)

Andrew Fernando

Man with the Mule

US based Filipino baritone Andrew Fernando is the winner of the 2003 Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition, Was resident artist of Opera Pacific and a San Francisco Opera Merola Program graduate. He appeared as principal artist with New York City Opera, Opera Pacific, Virginia Arts Festival, Opera San Jose, Singapore Lyric Opera, Cultural Center of the Philippines, Chicago Opera Theater, Eugene Opera, Syrnix Concerts Orchestra, Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Hong Kong Arts Festival/Los Angeles Opera and Bangkok Symphony. More notable as the title role in Rigoletto, Marcello in La Boheme and Escamillo in Carmen.

Benito Galindo

Second Vagabond

Benito Galindo’s opera appearances include Long Beach Opera, Opera Idaho, Opera Seabrook, Mexico’s Teatro Estado as well as major performing arts centers in San Luis Obispo, Tampa, Costa Mesa and the Lied Center in Lincoln, Nebraska. Recent oratorio assignments have included the Durufle Requiem with the San Francisco Chorale, the Bach B Minor Mass with the Cypress Master Chorale, and Messiah with Orange County Symphony. The current season includes the roles of Peter in Hansel and Gretel in the new Gallo Center with Townsend Opera, Papageno in the Magic Flute with Opera Seabrook and the Botswain in HMS Pinafore in Centennial Hall in Tucson.

Doug Jones

Harlequin / Man with the Donkey

Doug Jones, tenor, has performed with Paris Opera Bastille, Covent Garden, Netherlands Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Grand Theatre de Geneva, Stadttheater Basel, Teatro Liceu in Barcelona, New Israeli Opera Tel Aviv, Opera de Bordeaux, as well as the festivals of Salzburg, Bregenz and Aix-en-Provence. In the US, he has sung with the opera companies of San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, Seattle, Hawaii, Arizona, Dallas, Detroit, Tulsa and Austin. His Long Beach credits include Semele and Cunning Little Vixen. Upcoming plans include Falstaff in Pittsburgh and Seattle, as well as Magic Flute in Bordeaux and Toulouse.

TANYA KANE-PARRY

Coreographer

Tanya directs and choreographs theatre, opera and dance. Credits include Tosca Jumps!, a multimedia adaptation of Puccini’s opera, presented at the Los Angeles Theatre Center, Highways and the Luckman Intimate; Supreme Being by Richard Foreman; Romeo and/y Juliet(a), a Spanglish Re-Mix with Quantum Theatre. She has directed Carmen (Pacific Repertory Opera), The Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi (CSULA), The Medium by Menotti (CSULA). At LA Opera she has been the Assistant Director on Madama Butterfly, Carmen, The Broken Jug, The Dwarf and The Merry Widow. Tanya teaches Acting, Viewpoints and Experimental Theatre at CSULA.

Jesse Merlin

The Loudspeaker / The vagabond

Jesse Merlin has performed 36 leading operatic roles, specializing in top characters like Leporello, Bartolo, Méphistophélès and Don Pasquale. A former Resident Artist with Opera San Jose, he also created the starring role of President Dodgeson in The Beastly Bombing, which ran for over a year in LA and New York; he reprised the role with Opera aan het Ij in Amsterdam in February. Merlin recently headlined a national Gilbert & Sullivan tour with Opera A La Carte, and performs the role of Oscar Wilde in Carved in Stone at Theater Asylum in Hollywood starting in June. Further details at www.jessemerlin.com

Andreas Mitisek

Stage Director & Conductor

A native of Austria. LBO's current Artistic & General Director. He recently conceived, directed and conducted LBO's The Diary of Anne Frank. He has also conducted a number of LBO productions including Die Schweigsame Frau, Jenufa, Elektra, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Semele, The Threepenny Opera and The Ring of the Nibelung. Guest Conductor at opera companies in the U.S. and Europe. Recently conducted Joruri in Tokyo, Don Giovanni for Seattle Opera, Madama Butterfly for Orlando Opera, American Premiere of Jane Eyre by Michael Berkeley for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Eugene Onegin for Teatro Municipal in Santiago de Chile.

Alan E. Muraoka

Scenic Design

Alan has been working in the entertainment industry as a production designer and art director for film and television as well as a theatrical set designer for over 20 years. Production design credits include BaadAssss, Weapons, Edmond. Most recently, he was Art Director for the television miniseries The Company and the film Little Miss Sunshine. Theatrical projects include Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and Vincent in Brixton for the Old Globe theatre in San Diego. In addition, Alan has designed productions for Palm Beach Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Tri-Cities Opera and June Opera Festival in Princeton, New Jersey. Alan earned his BA in Music History at Yale University and MFA in Theatrical Design from New York University. Alan has also been an adjunct lecturer at USC Center for Film and Television. LBO credits: Schubert's Winterreise, Grigori Frid's The Diary of Anne Frank and Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice.

Roberto Perlas Gomez

Emperor / King

Roberto Perlas Gomez, baritone, has performed over seventy roles with opera companies throughout the United States. These include his signature role of Figaro with Sacramento Opera, Opera San Jose, Nevada Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Opera Idaho, and Acorde Opera in Mexico, among others. This January in Stockton will mark his ninth production in the role. Most recently, he made his European debut in Verona as Chou en-lai in Nixon in China in the Italian premiere of the John Adams opera. In 1996, Mr. Gomez was in Manila, to create the title role of Rizal in an opera honoring the centennial of the Philippine national hero.

Peabody Southwell

The Drummer

Peabody Southwell, mezzo-soprano, made her Long Beach Opera debut this season as the Fox in Janácek's The Cunning Little Vixen & Ramiro in Vivaldi's Motezuma. Peabody recently completed her Master's degree from UCLA after graduating from the Manhattan School of Music in 2005. Recent roles include Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dame Quickly in Falstaff, & Jenny in Three Penny Opera. She won the 2008 Concerto Competition & premiered Mark Popeney's Harvest Moon with Neal Stulberg & UCLA's Philharmonia. Last June she represented UCLA in a scenes recital, which she performed in Venice, Italy at the Teatro La Fenice.

Suzan Hanson

Girl Soldier / Peasant's Daughter

Suzan continues to work in Opera, Music Theater and Theater and is thrilled to once again be working with Andreas and LBO. Recent roles: Pat Nixon in NIXON IN CHINA (Arena di Verona), Eurydice in ORPHEUS X (World Premiere- ART, Edinburgh International Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival), Brunnhilde in SIEGFRIED and GOTTERDAMERUNG (Long Beach Opera, Pittsburgh Opera Theater), Fiordiligi (Sacramento Opera. Opera Companies: San Francisco, Connecticut, Arizona, Tel Aviv, Madrid, Spoleto, Florence Theater Companies; Old Globe, Denver Center, San Jose Rep, National Tour of MASTER CLASS Recordings: THE TENDER LAND (Koch).

Dan Weingarten

Lighting Design

Dan WeingartenDan is a Los Angeles-based designer who is thrilled to be working with LBO again. credits include: Rock of Ages (LA and Las Vegas Productions) Romeo and Juliet (Boston Court, Ovation Nominee), The Rover (Actors Gang, Garland Award), Great Men of Science (The Lost Studio, Garland and LA Weekly Award), Catch the Fish (New School for Drama, Winner NY Fringe Festival). Dan recently created the lighting design for the East West Player's Pippin and The Santa Barbara Theater's production of Doubt. Dan is a member of the faculty at Loyola Marymount University. Dan's lighting design for the Long Beach Opera are Schubert's Winterreise, Grigori Frid's The Diary of Anne Frank and Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Euridice.