2025 Schwabacher Recital Series Concludes With Leah Crocetto and Carrie-Ann Matheson
The performance is on April 10.
By: Stephi Wild Mar. 27, 2025
The Schwabacher Recital Series, presented by Merola Opera Program and San Francisco Opera Center, will conclude its 41st season on Thursday, April 10 in the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera.
The third concert of the series showcases the artistic collaboration between soprano Leah Crocetto and pianist Carrie-Ann Matheson. The program features music by Clara Schumann, Richard Strauss, Sergei Rachmaninoff and Giuseppe Verdi, with a selection from Stephen Sondheim’s Follies and “I’ll Be Seeing You,” famously recorded by Billie Holiday. Baritone Lester Lynch will join Crocetto for a duet from Verdi’s Aida—Crocetto made her role debut as Aida with San Francisco Opera in 2016.
Described by The New York Times as possessing an “agile coloratura technique and a feeling for the Italianate style . . . with warmth, full penetrating sound and tenderness,” American soprano Leah Crocetto’s recent career highlights include the title roles of Aida and Luisa Miller, Liù in Turandot and Mimì in La Bohème with San Francisco Opera; Aida and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites with Washington National Opera; Odabella in Attila at Teatro Petruzelli; Aida with the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Australia and Seattle Opera; Alice Ford in Falstaff and Leonora in Il Trovatore with Oper Frankfurt; Mimì and the title role of Tosca with Pittsburgh Opera; Eleonora in the first US performances of Donizetti’s L’Assedio di Calais with the Glimmerglass Festival; Desdemona in Otello and the titular character in Rossini’s Semiramide with Opera National de Bordeaux; Anna in Maometto II with the Canadian Opera Company; Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with Santa Fe Opera; Desdemona with English National Opera; and Elisabetta di Valois in Don Carlo with Opera Philadelphia. A graduate of the Merola Opera Program (2008) and Adler Fellowship Program (2009–11), Crocetto is a Grand Finals Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.
Carrie-Ann Matheson has a multi-faceted international career as a pianist, conductor and educator. She is the Artistic Director of the world-renowned San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program. A native of Canada, Matheson began her career at the Metropolitan Opera as assistant conductor, prompter, pianist and vocal coach. Following her time at the Met, she joined the conducting and coaching staff at Opernhaus Zürich and also worked at Salzburger Festspiele and the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival. As a recital pianist, her collaborations with many of the world’s leading opera singers include Piotr Beczała, Benjamin Bernheim, Diana Damrau, Joyce DiDonato, Jonas Kaufmann and Rolando Villazón. Her debut CD, Douce France, with tenor Benjamin Bernheim was recently released on the prestigious Deutsche Grammophone label. Matheson made her conducting debut in 2015 at Opernhaus Zürich, where she led works such as La Finta Giardiniera, Don Pasquale and Iphigénie en Tauride. Passionate about nurturing the next generation of artists, Matheson has been master class clinician and guest coach at Canadian Opera Company, Opernhaus Zürich, Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Music Academy of the West, Yale University and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is also an International Coaching Federation certified personal and leadership coach, specializing in working with artists who are striving to achieve their full potential.
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