Opera San José Launches Season With All-New ROMEO & JULIET

Opera San José will launch its 40th anniversary season with an all-new production of Charles Gounod's Romeo and Juliet, directed by OSJ General Director/CEO Shawna Lucey, in her first production since taking the helm of the company. Romeo and Juliet follows on the heels of Lucey's critically acclaimed La Traviata for San Francisco Opera, which is scheduled to be remounted at Los Angeles Opera this fall. Conducted by OSJ Director of Music Joseph Marcheso, Shakespeare's beloved story of feuding factions and illicit love will be brought to life at the historic California Theatre in downtown San Jose for six performances. Several artists will be making role debuts, including rising star tenor Joshua Sanders as Romeo and two dazzling sopranos who will take on the role of Juliet: Melissa Sondhi and Jasmine Habersham. A feast of impassioned French music, famous melodies, and a timeless story, Romeo and Juliet will be sung in French with English and Spanish supertitles, September 9-24, 2023 (performance dates/times below) at the California Theatre, 345 South First Street, San Jose. For more information or to purchase tickets ($55–$195), the public can visit operasj.org or call 408-437-4450 (open Monday through Friday, 9:00am–5:00pm).

“Romeo and Juliet is an opera for everyone, offering adventurous sword fights, lively dancing, stunning costumes and sets. At its heart is the thrilling exploration of young love, and how social divisions can create life or death dramatic stakes,” said Shawna Lucey. “Collaborating with this vibrant and passionate cast and the best creative professionals in the area, I am looking forward to bringing this production to life.” 

Additional casting includes Vartan Gabrielian as Frère Laurent, Efraín Solís as Mercutio, Courtney Miller as Gertrude, Alex Boyer as Tybalt, WooYoung Yoon as Benvolio, Robert Balonek as Count Capulet, Ryan Bradford as Pâris, Ken Kellogg as The Duke, Andrew Fellows as Grégorio, and Melisa Bonetti as Stéphano. The chorus is comprised of Fallon Nunes, Catherine Williams, Rachel Beninghof, Kyounghee Lee, Else Coty, Danielle Imai, Rachel Steinke, Emerson McAlister, Michael Mendelsohn, Eric Mellum, Michael Kim, and Michael Kuo. 

The creative team for this production is Joseph Marcheso (Conductor), Shawna Lucey (Director), Steven C. Kemp (Scenic Designer), Anshuman Bhatia (Lighting Designer), Caitlin Cisek (Costume Design/Coordinator), Heather Sterling (Hair & Makeup Design), Johannes Löhner (Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master), and Michelle Ainna Cuizon (Assistant Director). 

Gounod followed his popular opera Faust with Romeo and Juliet, which made its world premiere at the Théâtre Lyrique in Paris on April 27, 1867 and joined the canon of opera favorites. It is perhaps best known for a series of soaring duets for the title roles, as well as the exhilarating waltz "Je veux vivre." Gounod's score is set to a French libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Shakespeare's enduring tragedy, Romeo and Juliet. The opera brings to vivid life the rivalry between the two warring families – the Capulets and Montagues – and takes audiences to the masked ball at the Capulet's palace in which the lovers first meet, the Capulet's garden where Romeo risks death to catch a glimpse of his true love, kindly Frère Laurent's cell where the pair are married, Juliet's chamber where she learns she has been promised to another, and the tomb in which the couple have their final tragic encounter. 

Immediately preceding the opening night performance of Romeo and Juliet, the Opera San José Emeritus Council will host its 40th Anniversary Celebrity Dinner. Beginning at 4:30pm on Saturday, September 9, participants will enjoy a lavish dinner at Il Fornaio at the Westin St. Claire and have the opportunity to join celebrity guests including Barbara Day Turner, Larry Hancock, Joseph Marcheso, Shawna Lucey, Eugene Brancoveanu, Christopher James Ray, Susan Gundunas, Daniel Cilli, Stephen Guggenheim, Sandra Rubalcava-Bengochea, Christopher Bengochea, and Adam Flowers, while celebrating four decades of operatic excellence. After the performance, guests will also be invited to mingle with the cast at an after party. Tickets (beginning at $150 per person) can be purchased at operasj.org/event/40th-anniversary-celebrity-dinner. 

 

Artist Bios:

 

Joshua Sanders (Romeo)
 

Tenor and Opera San José Artist-in-Residence Joshua Sanders makes his company debut at Opera San José in its all-new production of Romeo and Juliet. Later this season, he will also cover Don Ramiro in Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Rossini's La Cenerentola and will make his debut at Nashville Opera as Tamino in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. During the 2022-23 season, Sanders joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera for Robert Carsen's Der Rosenkavalier and debuted as Goro in Puccini's Madama Butterfly with Palm Beach Opera, where he also covered Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte. In 2017, Sanders made his international debut at Teatro Regio Torino as Der Hirte in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. In concert, he made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 as a soloist in Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music. Sanders has appeared as a guest soloist with the New Jersey Symphony as the titular character in Berlioz's Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie, and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Lee Mingwei's Sonic Blossom Exhibit, featuring the music of Schubert. He has also performed at New York City's iconic Public Theater in a cabaret curated by Justin Vivian Bond for New York State's “NY PopsUp” concert series. 

Melissa Sondhi (Juliet)
 

Soprano Melissa Sondhi returns to Opera San José as the inaugural Wadhwani Artist-in-Residence this season, where she will make three role debuts, including Juliet, Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, and Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas. Her previous appearances with the company include Barbarina in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and the First Witch in Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Local critics have applauded Sondhi for “a voice that is nothing short of wowing” (TheatreEddys) and for her “effortless performance” (Opera Tattler). Previous roles include Musetta in Puccini's La bohème (San Francisco Opera Guild), Le feu and Le rossignol in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges (Air Opera Collective), Angelina in Arthur Sullivan and William Schwenck Gilbert's Trial by Jury (Lyric Theatre of San José), and Giannetta in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore (Pocket Opera). In 2023, Sondhi won first place in the Adult Classical Voice category at the Los Angeles Semifinals of the Music International Grand Prix competition and was also a semifinalist in the Orpheus Vocal Competition in 2021.

Jasmine Habersham (Juliet)
 

Hailed as “exquisite” (Broadway World) and for possessing a “well-controlled, silvery tone and had an alluring presence” (Opera Today), American soprano Jasmine Habersham returns to Opera San José for this all-new production of Romeo and Juliet. She was last seen with the company as Pip in Moby Dick during the 2018-19 season. Habersham has performed with The Atlanta Opera, Opera North (UK), Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Madison Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Minnesota Opera, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Seattle Opera, Utah Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Central City Opera, Kentucky Opera, the Brevard Music Center, and Berkshire Opera. Some of her notable performances include Katie Jackson in the world premiere of Joel Puckett's The Fix with Minnesota Opera, Clara in Porgy and Bess with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Adina in L'elisir d'amore with the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice, Pamina in The Magic Flute with Opera Theatre of St. Louis: Opera on the Go, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with Cincinnati Opera, Yum-Yum in the The Mikado with Kentucky Opera, Esther in Intimate Apparel with Cincinnati Opera Fusion, and Clara in Porgy and Bess with Utah Festival Opera. 

Vartan Gabrielian (Frère Laurent)
 

Bass-baritone and Opera San José Artist-in-Residence Vartan Gabrielian's 2023-24 season marks numerous role and house debuts – including his company debut with Opera San José. Later this season, Gabrielian will make a festival debut as Nick Shadow (Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress) at the Verbier Festival, a house debut as Dottore Grenvil (Verdi's La traviata) at the Paris Opera and appear as Fasolt (Wagner's Das Rheingold) at Edmonton Opera. A sought-after concert performer, Gabrielian will also be performing Handel's Messiah with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra at the end of 2023. Highlights from the 2022-23 season include Masetto and Commendatore (Mozart's Don Giovanni) at the National Arts Centre, Nourabad (Bizet's Les pêcheurs de perles) at the Vancouver Opera, and a return to the Canadian Opera Company to perform Dottore (Verdi's Macbeth) and cover Figaro (Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro), Banquo (Macbeth), and Angelotti (Verdi's Tosca).

Efraín Solís (Mercutio) 
 

Baritone Efraín Solís has been hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle for his “theatrical charisma and musical bravado,” with a performance that “would be hard to top.” He was last seen at Opera San José in its all-new production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro during the 2022-23 season. A familiar face to local opera audiences, Solís recently appeared in West Edge Opera's production of Cruzar, where the San Francisco Chronicle applauded his performance, noting  “Solís created yet another in the series of impeccably etched performances that have marked his career in the Bay Area.” A graduate of the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship, Solís was seen at Opera San José and again at Florida Grand Opera as Charlie in Heggie's Three Decembers and at Utah Opera as Escamillo in Peter Brooks' La tragédie de Carmen, as well as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera San José and Opera Southwest. His debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as the Peasant in Schönberg's Gurrelieder and return to the role of Schaunard in La bohème with Fort Worth Opera were unfortunately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Solís has also performed with Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Carolina, Toledo Opera, Opera Memphis, Livermore Valley Opera, Philharmonia Baroque, Virginia Opera, West Edge Opera, Washington Concert Opera, Century Chamber Orchestra, and Opera Saratoga. He is an alumnus of the prestigious Merola Opera Program in association with San Francisco Opera. 

Courtney Miller (Gertrude)
 

Praised by Opera News for her “fluent musicality,” and applauded for her captivating stage presence and excellent sense of comic timing, mezzo-soprano Courtney Miller makes her company debut with Opera San José, where she will serve as an Artist-in-Residence for the 2023-24 season. Earlier in 2023, Miller debuted with Pocket Opera as Nancy in Britten's Albert Herring and was a fellow of the Somatic Songs with 3340 Recitals. Her new art song recital, Tell me the truth about love, will tour in 2024. Career highlights include Sister St. Charles in Francis Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites (San Francisco Opera), Hannah in Mieczysław Weinberg's The Passenger (Detroit Opera), Olga in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (Florida Grand Opera), Meg in Mark Adamo's Little Women (Madison Opera), and Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro(Opera Saratoga). 

Alex Boyer (Tybalt)
 

Tenor Alex Boyer returns to Opera San José, where some of his favorite performances include Manrico in Verdi's Il trovatore, Rinuccio in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi, Canio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, the title role in Gounod's Faust, Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca, the title role in Mozart's Idomeneo, and many others. Boyer continues to gain recognition for his commanding voice and dramatic portrayals of the lyric and spinto tenor repertoire. San Francisco Chronicle applauded Boyer's performance in Festival Opera's production of Pagliacci, noting his “large, potent sound that brought a welcome measure of anguish and dark menace to the role of Canio; his delivery of the famous showpiece 'Vesti la giubba' lacked nothing in the way of grit and vocal power.” Most recently, he has been seen as Tichon in Janáček's Káťa Kabanová with West Edge Opera, Cavaradossi in Puccini's Tosca with Hawaii Opera Theatre, and as Captain Ahab in Jake Heggie's Moby Dickwith Chicago Opera Theater. Boyer has performed with the Dallas Opera, San Francisco Opera, Island City Opera, West Edge Opera, Livermore Valley Opera, and Opera Idaho. He is an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program and the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers.

WooYoung Yoon (Benvolio) 
 

Tenor WooYoung Yoon makes his Opera San José debut following his role debut in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica  with Maestro John Nelson. This past season Yoon performed Almaviva in Rossini's The Barber of Seville with Knoxville Opera and the New York City Opera, Beethoven's 9th Symphony with the Lubbock Symphony, returned to the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica for Christus am Ölberge with Maestro Nelson, and made his Carnegie Hall debut as tenor soloist in Mozart's Regina coeli. Last summer he performed Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with the New York City Opera in Bryant Square Park. A 2022 Opera Index Membership award winner, the Korean tenor's recent opera credits include Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Tito in La clemenza di Tito, and Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at the Manhattan School of Music. A 2018 Merola participant, he returned the following season to appear in the Schwabacher Recital Series, before joining the New Jersey State Opera as Rodolfo in La bohème. As a young artist at the Trentino Music Festival, he made his role debut as Don José in Carmen. He reprised the role the following season for the Martina Arroyo Foundation. A 2019 Grand Prize Winner in the Orpheus Competition, Yoon was a Metropolitan Opera National Council Eastern Regional Finalist, a finalist in the Harbin competition, a semi-finalist in the Zachary Competition, and won the Grand Prix Prize at the Talents of the World Voice Competition, as well as the Audience Favorite Award. 

 

Robert Balonek (Count Capulet)
 

Baritone Robert Balonek returns to Opera San José after covering the roles of the Count in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro and Ford in Verdi's Falstaff last season. Aside from classic operas, Balonek has worked with modern composers in world premiere operas, including works by Ricky Ian Gordon, Mohammed Fariouz, David Guerrero, Gerald Cohen, and Stefania De Kenessey. He has also performed a wide variety of oratorios including the title role in Handel's Saul, as well as the bass-baritone soloist for Haydn's Creation Mass, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, and many Messiahs and Requiems. Professional recordings include Prospero in Lee Hoiby's Tempest and Father Francis in Lucas' Confession for Albany Records. 

Ryan Bradford (Pâris)
 

Baritone Ryan Bradford makes his company debut with Opera San José in its all-new production of Romeo and Juliet. Last year, he made his Lincoln Center debut with Chamber Music Society Lincoln Center in the world premiere chamber opera, A Song by Mahler by Marc Neikrug. Bradford has performed with the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and The Royal Conservatory in Toronto, Opera Santa Barbara, Hidden Valley Opera, and Santa Cruz Symphony. A Marc and Eva Stern Fellow with LA Opera and Songfest, and a Shreveport Opera resident artist, he has also performed with Oakland Symphony, San Rafael Symphony, Rapides Symphony, Livermore Valley Opera, and Rogue Valley Symphony, as well as joined Chamber Music Silicon Valley as a vocal fellow. An Opera Colorado resident artist, a Mosher Studio Artist, and a graduate student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Bradford has premiered the role of Michael in the world premiere opera Ours (Estacio, Chafe) with Opera on the Avalon. He has received distinction from the East Bay Opera League, Florida Grand Opera Young Patronesses, and Pacific Musical Society.

 

Ken Kellogg (The Duke)
 

Making his Opera San José debut, bass Ken Kellogg has made a career playing foundational roles in opera repertoire including the title role in Mozart's Don Giovanni, Mephistopheles in Gounod's Faust, Don Alfonso in Mozart's Così fan tutte, Ramfis and Il Re in Verdi's Aida, Colline in Puccini's La bohème, the title role in Handel's Hercules, Sparafucile in Verdi's Rigoletto, and Fasolt in Wagner's Das Rheingold. Jeanine Tesori and Tazewell Thompson's opera Blue was written for him and was named the Best New Opera of 2020 by the Music Critics Association of North America. Kellogg has been involved with several new operas including the workshop of Jake Heggie's Moby Dick at San Francisco Opera and the West Coast premiere of Terence Blanchard's Champion: An Opera in Jazz with Opera Parallèle. He has been a guest at the Opera America's New Works Forum in New York, where among other roles, he brought to life the character of Sam Bankhead in Dan Sonenberg's opera The Summer King about the life of Negro League great, Joshua Gibson. He has worked at houses including San Francisco Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, Seattle Opera, Atlanta Opera, Washington Concert Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Tampa, Opera Memphis, Opera North Carolina, and Opera Parallèle, and is set to make several role and house debuts. His European debut was in the role of Sarastro at Opera de Oviedo where he returned to sing the devil himself, Mephistopheles in Faust.  He in an Alumnus of the Adler Fellowship Program at San Francisco Opera and the Domingo-Caftriz Emerging Artist Program at Washington National Opera.  

 

Andrew Fellows (Grégorio)
 

Baritone Andrew Fellows returns to Opera San José following his appearance as Jailer in Puccini's Tosca last season. He first appeared with the company in its production of Bizet's Carmen during the 2021-22 season. Fellows made his professional debut in 2019 singing the roles of Man One & Two, while covering the role of Elder McLean, in Festival Opera's production of Carlisle Floyd's Susannah. During the pandemic Fellows took part in Lisette Oropesa's masterclass series, followed by his return to the stage in the role of Rodin's Apprentice in the world premiere of A Jake Heggie Triptych with Festival Opera. Other roles include his debut as Figaro in the Stanford University Opera department's production of Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, as well as Escamillo with Varna International Music Festival's production of Bizet's Carmen, under the baton of Gregory Buchalter. 

Melisa Bonetti (Stéphano)
 

Mezzo-soprano Melisa Bonetti makes her company debut with Opera San José this season as an Artist-in-Residence, appearing as Stéphano in Romeo and Juliet and as Maddelena in Verdi's Rigoletto. Hailed by Opera Today as “a warm, supple mezzo that struck all the right impressions,” Bonetti is a versatile singer whose experience encompasses a mix of new works, large traditional operas, and concerts. In 2024, Bonettiwill appear as Lola in Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana with the Helena Symphony. Recent highlights include the lead role in New Latin Wave and National Sawdust's premiere of Paraíso by Sokio and Natasha Tiniacos, and appearances as mezzo-soprano soloist at Carnegie Hall for Bach's Magnificat and Christmas Oratorio with The Cecilia Chorus of New York, as well as soloist at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center and the Kimmel Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra in a concert of Ancient Tang Poems with the iSing! International Festival.  

 

Joseph Marcheso (Conductor)
 

Joseph Marcheso, Music Director and Principal Conductor of Opera San José, was most recently seen conducting OSJ's production of Puccini's Tosca during the 2022-23 season. He has conducted more than 25 productions for OSJ, including the company premiere of Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's Moby Dick, the West Coast premiere of Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell's Silent Night, and the world premiere of Mark Weiser's Where Angels Fear to Tread, among others. As staff conductor and cover at San Francisco Opera, Marcheso has served on many productions, including the San Francisco premiere of John Adams's Nixon in China, the world premiere of Mark Adamo's The Gospel of Mary Magdalene, and Heggie and Scheer's It's a Wonderful Life (cover). Prior to joining OSJ, Marcheso was on the conducting staff for Washington National Opera's Manon Lescaut and served as the Music Director for the Amato Opera in New York City. 

 

Shawna Lucey (Director)
 

Shawna Lucey is an acclaimed American theater and opera director, whose work has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, and other major houses around the world. Her legacy production of Puccini's Tosca launched San Francisco Opera's 99th season in 2021. It was followed in 2022 by her centennial celebration, ground-breaking legacy production of Verdi's La traviata, which will be re-staged this fall at Los Angeles Opera. Lucey made her directorial debut with Opera San José in 2018 with La traviata, brilliantly staged with skill and imagination, offering a compelling contemporary viewpoint. Her directorial work has been seen across the U.S., from the Met to Dallas Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Santa Fe Opera, and many others. Lucey also boasts an international reputation, staging works in Spain, Russia, and Germany, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Bolshoi Theater, and Schauspiel Hannover, among many others, and has assisted esteemed directors, including Stephen Lawless, Lee Blakeley, John Caird, Peter Schumann, and Francesca Zambello. Lucey holds BAs in Theater and Italian from the University of Texas at Austin, received her MFA in Directing & Movement from the Boris Shchukin Theatre Institute of the Vakhtangov Theater in Moscow, and received her MS in Non-Profit Management from Columbia University in 2023. She has also served as an adjunct professor in Speech and Theater at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, encouraging the next generation of artists while teaching courses on acting, design, stage management, and directing. She serves on the Board of Directors of Team San José as well as the Board of the Theatre Preservation Fund in San Jose. 

Opera San José (OSJ) is a flagship arts organization of Silicon Valley. Maintaining a resident company of artists, OSJ presents four mainstage productions annually in San José's beautifully restored, magnificent California Theatre. It also regularly broadcasts fully produced productions from its state-of-the-art Heiman Digital Media Studio. OSJ specializes in role debuts, serving as an artistic incubator for established and emerging artists and administrators, producing world-class operatic performances for diverse audiences throughout the Bay Area and around the globe. More information is available at operasj.org.

The California Theatre is one of the most magnificent, best-preserved examples of 1920s-era lavish motion picture palaces. Lovingly restored at the turn of the 21st century, its opulently ornamented interiors were completely refurbished, including the elaborately stenciled entry foyer ceiling and magnificent gallery. With only twenty rows of seats in the orchestra section, five rows in the grand tier, and six in the mezzanine, every seat has an excellent view of the stage. With just over 1,100 seats, The California is comparable to England's Glyndebourne and Venice's historic Teatro la Fenice and is in the select ranks of the world's most intimate opera houses.

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