San Francisco Opera Announces Cast Changes for THE MAKROPULOS CASE and MADAMA BUTTERFLY

San Francisco Opera today announced cast updates for the upcoming productions of Leoš Janá?ek's The Makropulos Case and Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly. The role of Albert Gregor in The Makropulos Case will now feature American tenor Charles Workman in his Company debut, replacing Scott Quinn who has withdrawn due to personal reasons. Italian tenor Vincenzo Costanzo will make his United States opera debut as Lt. B. F. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly in lieu of Maxim Aksenov who has withdrawn for personal reasons.

American artist Charles Workman is a versatile artist whose early career saw him in the forefront of Rossini and Mozart tenors while also being highly-regarded in early music, French Repertory and 20th-century and contemporary music. Following initial debuts at the Metropolitan Opera, Workman moved to Europe in 1995 where he has performed to great success with the leading opera companies and orchestras including the Paris Opéra, London's Royal Opera, Milan's La Scala, Moscow's Bolshoi, Madrid's Teatro Real, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and the companies of Geneva, Zurich, Lyon, Munich and Prague. Upcoming engagements include The Drum Major inWozzeck for Geneva; Nobile in Thomas Adès' The Exterminating Angel for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Edmund in Lear for Salzburg Festival and various roles in Honegger's Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher in Madrid.

The Makropulos Case opens October 14 for five performances, and stars renowned German soprano Nadja Michael in the role of Emilia Marty, along with baritone Stephen Powell and bass-baritone Dale Travis. Conductor Mikhail Tatarnikov makes his San Francisco Opera debut and director Olivier Tambosi returns to stage this powerful production from 2010. The opera is sung in Czech with English supertitles.

In November and December, tenor Vincenzo Costanzo will sing the role of Lt. B. F. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. A native of Naples, Italy, Costanzo has had a fast rising international career and has worked with such distinguished conductors and directors as Daniel Oren, Myung-whun Chung, Franco Zeffirelli and Liliana Cavani. He recently performed to great success the role of Pinkerton in Milan with La Verdi Orchestra, Florence, Piacenza and Venice; Verdi's Macbeth at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam; the role of Rodolfo in Luisa Miller at Madrid's Teatro Real; Nabucco at the Reggia di Caserta; and also sang Alfredo in La Traviata at the AIDS Gala at Deutsche Oper Berlin. Costanzo's future engagements include Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera in Piacenza and Modena; Madama Butterflyin Madrid and Venice; La Rondine in Berlin; Macbeth in Palermo; Simon Boccanegra in Liège and La Bohème in Salzburg.

Madama Butterfly returns to the War Memorial Opera House stage on November 6 for ten performances and features acclaimed Armenian soprano Lianna Haroutounian whom Opera Today hailed as "one of the major voices of our time." Conductors Yves Abel and Jordi Bernàcer will lead the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus in a revival of Jun Kaneko's colorful production directed by Leslie Swackhamer.

Tickets for both productions are now available. For more information, visit sfopera.com or call the San Francisco Opera Box Office at(415) 864-3330.

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