Ani Maldjian
Vixen Sharp Ears
Soprano Ani Maldjian returns to LBO for a 3rd season, after premiering The Diary of Anne Frank in ‘07 and ‘08. This season, she made her debut with Festival Opera as Tytania and makes her debut with Atlanta Opera in La Cenerentola, opposite Jennifer Larmore. In March, she makes her debut with Opera Santa Barbara in The Merry Widow. Last season, she sang with Seattle Opera and made her international debut in Greece. She has performed over 25 major operatic roles and earned degrees from Cal Arts and CSUN, with additional opera training at Seattle Opera, San Francisco Opera, Music Academy of the West, Aspen Festival, and OperaWorks.
Michael Chioldi
The Forester
Known for his “beautiful voice and incredible stage presence” (New York Times), baritone Michael Chioldi is quickly becoming one of the worlds premiere operatic baritones. He has performed at nearly every major American opera house, including The Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, San Diego Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Spoletto USA and Santa Fe Opera. Internationally he has traveled extensively in Japan with Maestro Seiji Ozawa, and has recently appeared in Brazil, France, Germany, and Canada. He made his debut with LBO as The Barber in The Silent Woman in 2004.
Kristina Driskill
The Forester's Wife/Owl/Mrs. Pasek
Mezzo-soprano Kristina Driskill has performed roles including the title role in La Cenerentola, Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Sesto (Giulio Cesare), Dido (Dido & Aeneas) and Siebel (Faust) with companies including Dallas Opera, Utah Festival Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Opera Theatre & Music Festival of Lucca. She recently sang the role of The Dark Woman in Tony Caruso's Final Broadcast by Paul Salerni, which she repeated for a performance recorded by Albany Records. Ms. Driskill is on voice faculty at Chapman University and is completing her Doctoral degree from West Virginia University.
Doug Jones
Schoolmaster
With over ninety roles in over seventy operas, American tenor Doug Jones has proven himself to be one of the most versatile character tenors performing today. His repertoire embraces all styles from Monteverdi to premieres of new works by composers such as Gyorgi Ligeti, Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Luca Lombardi and Tobias Picker. New roles recently performed include Basilio/Curzio Le Nozze di Figaro, Four Servants The Tales of Hoffmann, Piotr, M. Triquet Eugene Onegin and Narrator/Filch/Matt The Three Penny Opera.
Peabody Southwell
Fox
Peabody Southwell, mezzo-soprano, makes 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.
Andrew Fernando
Dog/Badger/Harašta
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.
Jesse Merlin
Priest
In San Francisco, Paris, Los Angeles and New York, Bass-Baritone Jesse Merlin has performed 36 leading operatic roles, specializing in top comic characters like Leporello, Bartolo, Frank and Don Pasquale. A former Resident Artist with Opera San Jose, he created the starring role of President Dodgeson in The Beastly Bombing, which ran for over a year in LA and New York. He reprises the role in Amsterdam in February 2009. Future engagements include a national Gilbert & Sullivan tour with Opera A La Carte, and the role of Oscar Wilde in Carved in Stone in LA. For further details, please visit: www.jessemerlin.com
Melissa Simpson
Pepik/Grasshopper/Fox Cub/Chicken
Melissa Simpson received a Masters of Music from the University of Southern California in the vocal arts program. She received her Bachelors of Music degree with an emphasis in performance at CSULB. She has performed with Long Beach Opera, Utah Festival Opera, and in the Opera Pacific Ensemble of Repertory Artists in principal roles as well as with many local symphonies as a soloist.
Laura Parker
Frantisek/Cricket/Fox Cub/Chicken
Laura Parker has specialized in contemporary opera in Los Angeles. She performed leading roles in Thomas Adès’ Powder Her Face, Philip Glass’ Galileo Galilei, the west coast premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s Miss Lonelyhearts, and the world premiere of Tony Caruso’s Last Broadcast. She performed with Los Angeles Opera this fall in Suor Angelica, and will make her San Diego Lyric Opera debut as Princess Helene in Oscar Strauss’ A Waltz Dream this spring. Laura is also known for her improvisational skills, having improvised arias and scenes for Classical Singer and Opera America events, as well as at the Hollywood Ford Amphitheater and Second City Improv. She holds music degrees from Boston University and USC.
Adriana Manfredi
Woodpecker/Fox Cub/Chicken
Adriana Manfredi, Mezzo-soprano, completed her MFA at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and BMus./BM at Oberlin College and Conservatory. Recent solo credits include Haydn's Harmoniemesse, Andriessen's The City of Dis (world premiere, LA Master Chorale at Walt Disney Concert Hall), Lord Nelson Mass (LA Master Chorale/ LA Chamber Orchestra), Tehellim by Steve Reich at the Skirball Cultural Center, and feature film soundtracks including Lady in the Water and Click. Ms. Manfredi teaches in the Opera Conservatory of the Orange County High School of the Arts, and resides in Long Beach.
Michael Foreman
Rooster/Innkeeper
Mr. Foreman has performed Ferrando in Cosi fan tutte, Alfredo in La Traviata, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Candide in Candide and Tony in West Side Story among many others. Mr. Foreman has also been a recipient of many awards, including an Encouragement Award from the 2006 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Sigma Alpha Iota, The Leni FeBland Foundation, The Nancy Hooker Memorial Scholarship, 2006 Orange County Tomorrow’s Stars and won 3rd place as well as the Audience Choice Award in the Long Beach Mozart Festival.
Cheri Stark
Henn/Fox Cub/Chicken
Soprano Cheri Stark graduated from USC’s Thornton School of Music in Vocal Arts. She has gained valuable operatic performance experience with USC Opera, Chamber Opera of USC, Intimate Opera Company, Repertory Opera Company, Fresno Opera League, and the California Opera Association. Ms. Stark recently received her Master’s degree in Spiritual Psychology and developed a workshop called “The Conscious Performer.” She is starting a practice as a life-coach for performing artists. Cheri performed the one-woman opera The Diary of Anne Frank with Long Beach Opera’s Educational Outreach Program in 2008 and will reprise the role this year.
Andreas Mitisek
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.
Ken Cazan
Director
Ken Cazan is Resident Stage Director for the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. He has directed more than 100 productions for more than 40 opera companies, including the Santa Fe Opera, Central City Opera, Atlanta Opera, Canadian Opera, Seattle Opera, Opera Theater of St., Opera Omaha, Opera Pacific, Michigan Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Portland Opera , Virginia Opera, Florida Grand Opera, The Juilliard School and, in Italy, Teatro Fenice in Venice, Italy and the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.
Alan 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.
Jacqueline Saint-Anne
Costume Design
Born in Panama and raised in Europe, Emmy Award winning Costume Designer, and former President of the Costume Designers Guild, JACQUELINE SAINT ANNE is designing the USC Thornton Opera’s Don Giovanni in April and the Chicago Opera Theatre’s Owen Wingrave in May. At USC, Jacqueline has designed The Rape of Lucretia, Summer and Smoke, I Capuletti e I Montecchi, Powder Her Face and Miss Lonely Hearts. Currently, she is designing Christina, a feature film and “Webisodes” for Heroes the popular television series. Jacqueline joins the Long Beach for the first time with The Cunning Little Vixen.
Dan Weingarten
Lighting Design
Dan 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.
