Merola Concludes All Female-Directed Summer Festival With Merola Grand Finale

Merola Opera Program's 2024 Summer Festival comes to a triumphant conclusion with the Merola Grand Finale, where the best and brightest of tomorrow's operatic stars offer up a sampling of opera's greatest hits and hidden gems. This celebratory concert features all 29 of this year's young artists, chosen from more than 1,300 international applicants, performing dazzling operatic selections on the stage of the War Memorial Opera House. With a full orchestra conducted by Steven White and stage direction by 2024 Merola Stage Director Anna Theodosakis, this evening showcases the extraordinary talent, dedication, and passion of the 2024 Merola participants, who collectively hail from 13 states and seven countries. A reception with the artists is held immediately following the performance (additional ticket required - $85). The Merola Grand Finale will be presented 7:30pm, Saturday, August 17, 2024 at the War Memorial Opera House, 301 Van Ness Ave, San Francisco. For more information or to purchase tickets ($25/$40/$50/$65, $10 for ages 25 and under or those attending their first Merola production), the public may visit merola.org/summerfestival or call the San Francisco Box Office at 415-864-3330.

The repertoire for the Merola Grand Finale will showcase selections from a wide range of operas and musical theatre pieces. Audiences will enjoy arias, duets, trios, quartets, and ensemble pieces from works including Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia and L'italiana in Algeri, Donizetti's Don Pasquale and Lucia di Lammermoor, Mozart's Così fan tutte, Bellini's Norma and I puritani, Beethoven's Fidelio, Mascagni's L'amico Fritz, Richard Strauss' Das Rosenband and Die ägyptische Helena, Johann Strauss' Die Fledermaus, Massenet's Werther, Gounod's Roméo et Juliette, Blanchard's Fire Shut Up in My Bones, Heggie's Dead Man Walking, Tchaikovsky's Iolanta, Young-Sup Choi's “Longing for Diamond Mountain” (그리운 금강산), Kalman's Die Czárdásfürstin, and Noël Coward's “I'll See You Again” (from the film Bitter Sweet)

The young artists performing are: Lucy Joy Altus, New York, New York (Mezzo-Soprano); Moriah Berry, Atlanta, Georgia (Soprano); Nathan Bryon, Geurie, Australia (Tenor); Michael John Butler, Bowie, Maryland (Tenor); Hannah Cho, Seoul, South Korea (Soprano); Sujin Choi, Seoul, South Korea (Pianist/Coach); Alexa Frankian, Oakville, Ontario, Canada (Soprano); Julian Garvue, Seattle, Washington (Pianist/Coach); Simona Genga, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Mezzo-Soprano); Viviana Aurelia Goodwin, Tulsa, Oklahoma (Soprano); Lydia Grindatto, Tijeras, New Mexico (Soprano); Giorgi Guliashvili, Rustavi, Georgia (Tenor); Elizabeth “Hanje” Hanje, Vestavia Hills, Alabama (Soprano); Mary Hoskins, Saratoga Springs, New York (Soprano); Sihao Hu, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China (Baritone); Hyemin Jeong, Seoul, South Korea (Pianist/Coach); Donghoon Kang, Seoul, South Korea (Bass-Baritone); Yedam Kim, Paris, France (Pianist/Coach); Ji Youn Lee, Seoul, South Korea (Pianist/Coach); Lindsay Martin, San Diego, California (Mezzo-Soprano); Tessa McQueen, Loveland, Colorado (Soprano); Kara Morgan, Andover, Minnesota (Mezzo-Soprano); Angelo Silva, Houston, Texas (Tenor); Benjamin R. Sokol, Westbury, New York (Bass-Baritone); Hyungjin Son, Seoul, South Korea (Baritone); Samuel White, Columbia, South Carolina (Tenor); Justice Yates, Leesburg, Florida (Bass-Baritone); Olivier Zerouali, Middletown, Delaware (Baritone)

ABOUT Steven White

Praised by Opera News as a conductor who “squeezes every drop of excitement and pathos from the score,” Steven White is one of North America's premiere operatic and symphonic conductors. Since his acclaimed Metropolitan Opera debut in 2010, conducting performances of La traviata, he has returned to The Met to participate in critically fêted productions of Don Carlo, Billy Budd, The Rake's Progress, and Elektra. White's other operatic engagements have included performances with New York City Opera, L'Opera de Montréal, Vancouver Opera, Opera Colorado, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Baltimore Opera, New Orleans Opera, and many others. In recent seasons he has conducted Rigoletto with San Diego Opera, Otello and La traviata with Austin Opera, La traviata with Utah Opera, and a world premiere staged production of a brand-new Bärenreiter edition of Gounod's Faust with Opera Omaha. Among the many orchestras White has conducted are the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Moscow Philharmonic, the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, the Mozarteum und Salzburg Kulturvereinigung Orchestra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the New World Symphony Orchestra, the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony, the Nashville Symphony Orchestra, the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, the Florida Philharmonic, the Fort Worth Symphony, and London's Philharmonia Orchestra.

ABOUT DIRECTOR ANNA THEODOSAKIS

Stage director and choreographer Anna Theodosakis (Merola ‘24) is a rising figure on the operatic scene. Her directing and assistant directing credits include Edmonton Opera, the University of British Columbia, the Canadian Opera Company, Glenn Gould School, Brott Opera, Against the Grain Theatre, Saskatoon Opera, The Banff Centre, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Parks Canada, Musique 3 Femmes, Muskoka Opera Festival, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, MYOpera, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Theodosakis also has a background in choreography, with credits including Massenet's Cendrillon, Gershwin's Of Thee I Sing, Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore, Offenbach's Orphée aux enfers, Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Weill's Street Scene. Theodosakis currently teaches acting and dance for the University of Toronto's Opera Division. She served as a sessional lecturer in Theatre Techniques and Staging & Directing for the University of British Columbia.  

ABOUT MEROLA OPERA PROGRAM

The Merola Opera Program is widely regarded as the foremost opera training program for aspiring singers, pianists, and stage directors. Merola nurtures the opera stars of tomorrow through master classes and private coaching with opera's most accomplished singers, conductors, and directors. Participants also receive training in operatic repertoire, languages, diction, acting, stage movement, and professional development. Offered free of charge to all participants, the Merola Opera Program is unique in the industry in many ways. It is the only young artist program to provide financial support to developing artists for five years following their participation, offering aid for essential career development expenses including coaching, language classes, and audition travel. Since Carrie-Ann Matheson and Markus Beam formed the new Merola artistic team in 2021, the program has redoubled its efforts to provide exciting new curricula and added focus on preparing the burgeoning artists for extramusical aspects of a performance career. Learn more at merola.org.

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