Florida Grand Opera Announces Casting For 2023–24 Season

Florida Grand Opera announces an exciting mix of internationally acclaimed artists, South Florida favorites, and rising stars for its 82nd consecutive season featuring three of the Lyric Stage's most popular titles.

In the season opener, La traviata, Mexican-American soprano Cecilia Violetta López returns in her "career-defining" and "compelling" signature role, Violetta Valery. She was last seen as Rosalba in 2018's Florencia in el Amazonas. Opera News named the native Idahoan one of opera's "25 Rising Stars" by and USA Today acclaimed her as one of "Idaho's Top Ten Most Influential Women of the Century." López has performed Violetta with Minnesota Opera, Opera Colorado, Opera Tampa, Opera Idaho, Ash Lawn Opera, The Northern Lights Music Festival, Madison Opera, Pacific Symphony and Virginia Opera. Her repertoire includes Adina (The Elixir of Love), the title role of Manon, Nedda (I pagliacci), Maria (West Side Story), Marguerite (Faust), Mimì (La bohème) the Countess (The Marriage of Figaro), and many others. She made her critically acclaimed European début as Norina in Don Pasquale with Zomeropera in Belgium. López has also appeared with Opera Las Vegas, LoftOpera, Opera Southwest, Opera Saratoga, Prototype Opera Festival, Opera San Luis Obispo, Madison Opera, and many others.

Award-winning Belarusian tenor Pavel Patrov makes his American debut at Florida Grand Opera as Violetta's lover, Alfredo. He is the winner of the First Prize and the Don Placido Domingo Ferrer Prize of Zarzuela of Operalia 2018, The World Opera Competition, and finalist of the Belvedere and Queen Sonja International Music competitions. His busy international career includes recent appearances as Tamino (The Magic Flute) at Wiener Staatsoper, Opéra National de Paris and Dresden Semperoper, the Verdi Requiem with Orquesta Sinfonica del Principado de Asturias, and Lensky (Eugene Onegin) at Teatro Massimo di Palermo. Previous highlights include his Wiener Staatsoper debut as Nemorino (The Elixir of Love) and Tamino (The Magic Flute), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) at Opéra National de Paris and Oper Graz the Duke (Rigoletto) for Opera Hong Kong and Bregenzer Festspiele, and Alfredo (La traviata) for Savonlinna Festival, among many others.

Baritone and former FGO Studio Artist Troy Cook last appeared at FGO as Enrico in 2017's Lucia di Lammermoor. The Kentucky native returns as Germont. Often acclaimed for his vocal and physical elegance, Cook has graced the stages of some of the world's greatest opera houses, including The Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Covent Garden, San Francisco Opera, La Monnaie (Brussels) and Opera Bilbao. He created the role of Father Palmer in Kevin Puts' and Mark Campbell's acclaimed Silent Night at Minnesota Opera and the role of John Cree in Puts and Campbell's Elizabeth Cree at Opera Philadelphia. Recent performances include his fourth different production as Marcello (La bohème) with Opera Philadelphia, his Virginia Opera debut as Major General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, Germont with Inland Northwest Opera, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Palm Beach Opera. Other frequently performed roles include Tonio (I pagliacci), Enrico (Lucia di Lammermoor), Rodrigo (Don Carlo), Valentin (Faust), and Ford (Falstaff), to name a few.

FGO's renowned Studio Artists round out the cast. Tenor Joseph McBrayer returns as Gaston, after his FGO debut season as Paolino in El matrimonio secreto and Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi and Buoso's Ghost. First-year artists making their FGO debuts include soprano Sarah Kennedy as Annina, Taylor-Alexis DuPont as Flora, baritone Joseph Canuto Leon as the Marchese D'Obigny, and bass-baritone Keith Klein as Doctor Grenville.

Ecuadoran stage director, conductor, and composer Chía Patiño makes her FGO with La traviata. Most recently, she directed Don Giovanni for the Aspen Music Festival and the Butler Opera Center, where she also directed her own adaptation of The Magic Flute: La Flauta Mágica de los Andes; Florencia en el Amazonas for Opera Tenerife, Orpheus & Eurydice for Seattle Opera, Suite Española: Exploring Iberia and Exploring the Caribbean for Houston Grand Opera, La Cenerentola and Tosca for Northern Lights Music Festival. Her work has been produced in the United States, Spain, Ecuador, Colombia, Guatemala, United Arab Emirates, and Egypt.

Conductor and composer Joe Illick, former Interim Artistic Director of FGO's predecessor Greater Miami Opera, returns to the FGO podium for the first time since 1993. Currently the Composer-in-Residence and Music Director Emeritus of Fort Worth Opera, he has a long career in artistic administration and has conducted at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, San Francisco Opera (Merola), Teatro Lirico d'Europa, Minnesota Opera National Tour, Stadttheater Aachen, Vienna Chamber Opera and the Covent Garden Ensemble, among many others. Maestro Illick and FGO General Director and CEO Susan T. Danis formerly worked together at Lake George Festival Opera (now Opera Saratoga).

Utah Opera's production boasts scenic design by Peter Dean Beck. The costumes by Allen Charles Klein were especially designed for Florida Grand Opera. Tony Award-winning designer Rick Fisher will create the lighting design.

Fresh from his triumphant Metropolitan Opera house and role debut as Radames in Aida, tenor sensation Limmie Pulliam makes his FGO debut as Canio in FGO's mid-season production of I pagliacci. Noted by the San Francisco Chronicle for his "full-throated vocal power, and intimate lyricism," Pulliam is a rising star whose recent appearances include house and role debuts as Manrico in Los Angeles Opera's Il trovatore, a company debut in his signature title role in Otello with The Cleveland Orchestra, and a company debut in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with The Philadelphia Orchestra. He has been heard in leading roles with Tulsa Opera, San Diego Opera, Carnegie Hall, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Vashon Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, the Ojai Festival, and many others.

Kearstin Piper Brown will make her FGO debut as Nedda. The American soprano has been busy with debuts, recently appearing on PBS's Great Performances in Lynn Nottage and Ricky Ian Gordon's Intimate Apparel at the Lincoln Center Theater, with Santa Fe Opera in the world premiere of This Little Light of Mine, at Carnegie Hall debut singing the music of J.S. Bach and Margaret Bonds with the Cecilia Chorus of New York, a world premiere at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and with Opera Parellèle in The Shining. Her repertoire includes Musetta in La bohème, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, Violetta in La traviata, and Bess in Porgy and Bess, a role she has performed worldwide. She is in demand as an interpreter of new music and has premiered a number of roles, including Mrs. McDowell in the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork's Rise for Freedom: The John P. Parker Story with Cincinnati Opera and Epiphany Proudfoot in the world premiere of Mark Scearse's Falling Angel at the Center for Contemporary Opera.

Baritone Robert Mellon makes his FGO debut in the role of Tonio. Acclaimed by Opera News for his "excellent comic timing," and "domineering baritone, gleaming like polished copper," Mellon has recently appeared as Marcello in La bohème with Pensacola Opera, Tonio in I pagliacci with Opera Tampa, Figaro in La nozze di Figaro with Syracuse and Tri-Cities Operas, and George in Of Mice and Men with Livermore Valley Opera. Repertoire includes Papageno (The Magic Flute), Iago (Otello), the title role in Falstaff, Escamillo (Carmen), and Leporello (Don Giovanni). He is a favorite at Pensacola Opera, InSeries Opera, and Union Avenue Opera, and has also recently appeared at Kansas City Lyric Opera, Tulsa Opera, San Diego Opera, and Detroit Opera.

Rising star baritone Eleomar Cuello returns to the FGO stage in the role of Nedda's lover Silvio, after his appearance last season as Marco in Gianni Schicchi and Buoso's Ghost. Cuello left the FGO stage and immediately won a finalist's position in the 2023 Metropolitan Opera Competition, a place in San Francisco Opera's prestigious Merola program, and a debut at the Stuttgart State Opera in Germany in the title role of Don Giovanni. A young singer of immense promise, Cuello already enjoys an international career, including performances in Cecilia Valdés and Don Gil de Alcalá at Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid; Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Masetto (Don Giovanni), Valentin (Faust), and many others with the prestigious Municipal Theatre of Santiago; and a variety of performances in Uruguay, Ecuador, France, Nicaragua, and Cuba. Locally, Cuello has appeared with the Gulf Coast Symphony, Vero Beach Opera, and Opera Naples. Upcoming engagements include the title role of Gianni Schicchi and Michele in Il tabarro at Oviedo Opera, Spain.

Second-year Studio Artist, tenor Joseph McBrayer, will take on the role of Beppe.

I pagliacci is conducted by FGO favorite, Gregory Buchalter, whose most recent appearances on the podium included  last season's Tosca and the 2022's A Streetcar Named Desire. Currently Music Director of Varna International and Muzika! The Grand Strand Music Festival, his conducting engagements have included The Metropolitan Opera, the Vienna Volksoper, the Savonlinna Opera Festival in Finland, the Spoleto Festival, the New Opera World Festival in Moscow, the Vienna Summer Music Festival, and many others. He received glowing reviews for his work with the American Premiere of Mercadante's I Due Figaro, Von Winter's Das Labyrinth, and Donizetti's Olivo e Pasquale with New York's Amore Opera, and was the first American to conduct with the Kazakhstan State Opera.

Maestro Buchalter once again teams up with another beloved FGO veteran, stage director Jeffrey Marc Buchman, who most recently directed FGO's Tosca, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Agrippina. Hailed by Opera News as "a formidable talent," Buchman is known as an innovator. He recently served as Artistic Director for Live Arts, a dynamic multimedia arena event involving 1,200 performers on four stages, including the Grand Rapids Symphony, Grand Rapids Ballet, Opera Grand Rapids and Broadway Grand Rapids. Contemporary productions include As One (Laura Kaminsky) for Hawaii Opera Theatre and Opera Colorado, 27 (Ricky Ian Gordon) for Michigan Opera Theatre, and the world-premieres of Carson Kievman's Tesla, Fairy Tales: Songs of the Dandelion Woman, and Intelligent Systems. He has directed for Atlanta Opera, Opera Tampa, Opera Carolina, Lyric Opera Baltimore, Toledo Opera, Intermountain Opera, Mobile Opera, Syracuse Opera, Sugar Creek Symphony & Song, Anchorage Opera, the Orlando Philharmonic, the Miami Summer Music Festival, and Opera Naples, among many others.

I pagliacci's production comes from Sarasota Opera, with scenic design by David Gordon and costumes by the indispensable Howard Tsvi Kaplan. Tony Award winner Rick Fisher returns as lighting designer.

Closing out the season is Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. Soprano Rebecca Krynski-Cox, last seen at FGO as Stella in 2022's A Streetcar Named Desire, returns as the doomed seamstress Mimì. Hailed by The New York Times as a "vibrant soprano...with a secure, appealing sound and eye-opening volume," she recently debuted the title role in Beethoven's Fidelio with Opera Company of Middlebury, joined Charleston Opera Theater as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, returned to Dayton Opera as the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, and returned to Indianapolis Opera as Pamina in The Magic Flute. On the international scene, she premiered the role of Raja in Dschungel and jumped in with six hours' notice to sing Fiordiligi in Cosí fan tutte at the Luzerner Theater, and covered the First Lady in The Magic Flute for Theater Basel.

Italian tenor Davide Giusti makes his American debut at Florida Grand Opera as the poet Rodolfo, a role he has previously performed at Teatr Wielki (Warsaw, Poland), Opéra de Toulon, the Bolshoi Opera, Grand Opéra Avignon and Theater Basel. Key roles include Alfredo (La traviata), Rinuccio (Gianni Schicchi), the Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto), and Fenton (Falstaff). Giusti's career takes him all over Europe, with performances at Opéra Nice, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Opéra Royale de Wallonie, Teatro Regio di Parma and Opéra de Montpellier, among many others. He can be heard as Tebaldo in I Capuleti ei Montecchi on the Glossa label.

In the role of the artist Marcello, baritone Craig Verm makes his FGO debut. His "strapping physique and winning stage presence" combined with his "arrestingly vibrant" voice recommend him to leading roles such as the title roles in Billy Budd (Teatro Municipal de Santiago, Des Moines Metro Opera) and Don Giovanni (Pittsburgh Opera, Dallas Opera). Frequently sought after for new works, Mr. Verm created the role of Doug Hansen in Judy Talbot's Everest at Dallas Opera, later singing the role with London's Barbican Centre, Austin Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City. He has appeared at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, the Netherlands' Nationale Reisopera, Seiji Ozawa's Ongaku-juku Festival, Santa Fe Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Arizona Opera, Madison Opera, Tulsa Opera, Florentine Opera, and Opera Philadelphia, among many others.

The role of the irrepressible Musetta will be shared by first-year Studio Artists Sara Kennedy (April 6, 9; May 2) and Taylor-Alexis DuPont (April 7; May 4). Kennedy, an award-winning soprano known for her powerful interpretations of Mozart heroines, has recently debuted with Opera Arlington as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) with Teatro Grattacielo/Camerata Bardi Vocal Academy and Painted Sky Opera. She was a 2022 Sarasota Opera Winter Season Apprentice Artist and an Opera Fellow at OperaFest Sewanee, where she won the prestigious Jacqueline Avent Concerto Competition.

Mezzo-soprano DuPont made her professional debut in 2019 as a member of the Metropolitan Opera's Grammy award winning production of Porgy and Bess, following up with house and role debuts as Moth in A Midsummer Night's Dream at Santa Fe Opera and as a featured soloist with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra. Most recently, she won first place at the 25th Lotte Lenya Competition and debuted with Washington National Opera as Phoebe in The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson. She has appeared with Virginia Opera, Heartbeat Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, and Opera Philadelphia, among others.

Rounding out the cast are first-year FGO Studio bass-baritone Keith Klein as Colline, first-year FGO Studio baritone Joseph Canuto Leon as Schaunard, and South Florida favorite and Samuel M. Townsend FGO Studio Manager, bass-baritone Neil Nelson, as Benoit/Alcindoro.

Jamaican-American bass-baritone Neil Nelson is an FGO and South Florida favorite. Most recently, he appeared to great acclaim in FGO's 2022-23 season as the Sacristan in Tosca, and as the Emperor Claudius in Agrippina and Count Monterone in Rigoletto during the 2021–2022 season. He also serves as the Samuel M. Townsend Studio Artist Program Manager, and is responsible for guiding the artistic development of FGO's exclusive cadre of early-career performers. A graduate of The New England Conservatory of Music with a degree in music performance, Mr. Nelson has performed operatic roles domestically and abroad with prestigious companies such as Tatarstan Opera Theatre and Ballet (Kazan, Russia), Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Orlando Opera, Opera Naples and many others.

FGO's own Matt Cooksey returns to stage direct after his very successful Barber of Seville in spring 2023. Shortly prior, he made his professional mainstage debut at Indianapolis Opera directing a world premiere double-bill of Brundibár by Hans Krása and Vedem by Lori Laitman and assisted Metropolitan Opera director Paula Suozzi in her production of Falstaff at the Aspen Opera Theater. He has directed five touring presentations for elementary and middle school audiences, including two original pieces – The Three Sillies and The Tales of Cats and Mice – and his adaptation of Berlioz's Beatrice and Benedict. Cooksey is FGO's Director of Artistic Operations, having previously served as Artist Services Manager and Studio Artist Program Manager.

Conductor Joseph Mechavich returns to the podium, having last appeared at FGO at the helm of 2019's Werther. Maestro Mechavich is well-established as a leader of breakthrough productions of contemporary opera such as Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, Moby-Dick, Great Scott, Out of Darkness: Two Remain and Three Decembers. Carlisle Floyd's Susannah, Cold Sassy Tree, Of Mice and Men, and Wuthering Heights; Bohlmer's Riders of the Purple Sage, Puts' Silent Night, Talbot's Everest, Catan's Florencia en el Amazonas, and Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire. He is no less in demand for standard repertoire and has conducted at Deutsche Oper Berlin, Cape Town Opera, Calgary Opera, New Zealand, Washington National Opera, Minnesota Opera, and Madison Opera, among others. He serves as Principal Conductor and Artistic Consultant at Kentucky Opera.

The production comes from Sarasota Opera with sets by David Gordon and costumes by Howard Tsvi Kaplan. The innovative Barry Steele, noted for his special effects storm scene in 2023's Barber of Seville, returns as lighting designer.

"We have packed an unbelievable amount of truly thrilling talent into this season," says FGO Executive Director and CEO Susan T. Danis. "I am tremendously excited to introduce so many electrifying artists to South Florida, and to welcome back so many who have already earned the title of 'favorites' with our audiences. I know our patrons will love this lineup as much as we do."

Subscriptions to the 2023–24 FGO season are currently on sale at fgo.org or by calling (800) 741-1010. Single ticket sales will begin on September 5, 2023.

Florida Grand Opera produces classic grand opera, contemporary work, and new commissions in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Founded in 1941 as the Opera Guild of Greater Miami by Arturo Di Filippi, it merged with Opera Guild of Fort Lauderdale in 1994 and is now under the leadership of Susan T. Danis. Florida Grand Opera is the oldest producing arts organization in the state of Florida and the seventh oldest opera company in the United States. Its Florida Grand Opera Studio trains the opera stars of tomorrow, whose work supporting the world-class artists starring on FGO's stages and performing in the community brings some of the greatest music ever composed to all of South Florida. Its 2023–24 season takes place at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale, and features Giuseppe Verdi's La traviata, Ruggero Leoncavallo's I pagliacci, and Giacomo Puccini's La bohème. All FGO productions feature projected translations in English and Spanish. For more information, please visit fgo.org.

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