Originally from Colorado, soprano Tessa McQueen was a 2024 National Finalist in the Laffont Competition, now in her second year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program, the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Opera Saratoga Young Artist Program, and the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program at Central City Opera. She holds degrees in voice from Oklahoma City University, where she graduated with honors, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
A beloved mainstay of the repertory, Verdi’s great tragedy stirs the soul and breaks the heart like only opera can. A trio of captivating artists—Lisette Oropesa, Rosa Feola, and Ermonela Jaho—alternate in the touchstone soprano role of Violetta Valéry, the ill-fated Parisian courtesan fighting for love before her time runs out. Tony Award–winning director Michael Mayer conjures a dreamy setting that matches the poetry and passion of the unforgettable score.
A treasured holiday tradition, Mozart’s heartwarming fairy tale takes the stage in the Met’s abridged, English-language production by Julie Taymor—the Tony Award–winning director of Broadway’s The Lion King. Featuring some of opera’s most popular melodies and brought to life with colorful sets and costumes and dazzling puppetry, it’s perfect for audiences of all ages.
Completed in 1893, Richard Strauss’s very first opera is rarely performed today. The ASO’s presentation marks its first performance in New York City in this century. A riveting story of love, guilt and renunciation, Guntram reveals a young Strauss positioning himself as the successor to Wagner. In his very first opera, Strauss’s mastery of orchestral writing combines with the ethereal melodic arcs that anticipate his later, famous operas, from Salome and Elektra to Der Rosenkavalier. Following a 2023 presentation of Strauss’s Daphne, the ASO brings another operatic rarity by Richard Strauss to center stage.
Performance Time: approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission
An annual summer tradition, the Metropolitan Opera’s popular concert series in New York City parks continues with a free outdoor recital series at SummerStage. Three of today’s most exciting young stars– Tessa McQueen, Hannah Jones, and Sunghoon Han– come together for an effervescent evening of favorite arias, duets, and ensembles, accompanied by Mariam Bombrun.
Celebrate Mozart’s 268th birthday with the City Choir of Washington! Be swept away by the beauty and solemnity of W.A. Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor on January 28, 2024 (the day after Mozart’s birthday) in the stark grandeur and quiet majesty of National Presbyterian Church.
The Met’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition is a nationwide program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in their artistic and professional development. Each season, more than 1,000 applicants participate in a series of auditions leading up to the Grand Finals Concert—featuring the Met Orchestra, conducted this season by Evan Rogister—in which a small group of finalists compete for cash prizes and the chance to launch a major operatic career. Since the program’s inauguration nearly 70 years ago, the competition has discovered generations of star singers, including Jessye Norman, Frederica von Stade, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Stephanie Blythe, Sondra Radvanovsky, Lawrence Brownlee, Lisette Oropesa, Jamie Barton, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nadine Sierra, and Ryan Speedo Green.
Assisted by Rachel Chao and Tom Jaber, Piano
Alban Berg: Sieben Frühe Lieder
Nacht
Schilflied
Die Nachtigall
Traumgekrönt
Im Zimmer
Liebesode
Sommertage
PAUSE
Henri Duparc: La vie antérieur
Chanson Triste
Le Manoir de Rosemonde
Extase
Phidylé
PAUSE
Jerome Kern: Smoke gets in your eyes
Long ago and far away
All the things you are
Tessa McQueen (Nedda) and Olivier Zerouali (Silvio) sing the great love duet from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with Sihao Hu (Tonio).
Conductor Louis Lohraseb
Directors Omer Ben Seadia (Merola ‘14) and Anna Theodosakis (Merola ‘24)
Bay Area audiences are invited to revel in the drama passion and melody of classic opera, as the Merola artists present extended scenes from works by Donizetti, Gounod, Leoncavallo, Massenet, Puccini, and Richard Strauss, among others. Performed with a full orchestra, the Schwabacher Summer Concert will be conducted by the internationally renowned Maestro Louis Lohraseb, with direction by Omer Ben Seadia (Merola ‘14) and Anna Theodosakis (Merola ‘24).
This production will be a semi-staged concert of scenes, performed with orchestra.
Originally from Colorado, soprano Tessa McQueen was a 2024 National Finalist in the Met’s Laffont Competition, now in her second year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the Met’s 2024–25 season, she made her company debut as the Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, will sing the Priestess in Aida, and cover Chloë in The Queen of Spades. Recent operatic engagements include singing Nedda in Pagliacci and covering Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Merola Opera Program’s Schwabacher Summer Concert Series, covering Marguerite in Faust at Wolf Trap Opera, the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia and the title role of L'Incoronazione di Poppea at Rice University. On the concert stage, she has appeared as a soprano soloist in Mozart’s Grand C-minor Mass with the Washington City Choir and John Rutter’s Requiem with the Rice Chorale. In addition to her success in the Laffont Competition, she won third place in the 2023 Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, third place in the 2022 Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition, and was the recipient of the 2022 Young Artist of the Season Award from Central City Opera. She is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Opera Saratoga Young Artist Program, and the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program at Central City Opera. She holds degrees in voice from Oklahoma City University, where she graduated with honors, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
Originally from Colorado, soprano Tessa McQueen was a 2024 National Finalist in the Laffont Competition, now in her second year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program, the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Opera Saratoga Young Artist Program, and the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program at Central City Opera. She holds degrees in voice from Oklahoma City University, where she graduated with honors, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.
A beloved mainstay of the repertory, Verdi’s great tragedy stirs the soul and breaks the heart like only opera can. A trio of captivating artists—Lisette Oropesa, Rosa Feola, and Ermonela Jaho—alternate in the touchstone soprano role of Violetta Valéry, the ill-fated Parisian courtesan fighting for love before her time runs out. Tony Award–winning director Michael Mayer conjures a dreamy setting that matches the poetry and passion of the unforgettable score.
A treasured holiday tradition, Mozart’s heartwarming fairy tale takes the stage in the Met’s abridged, English-language production by Julie Taymor—the Tony Award–winning director of Broadway’s The Lion King. Featuring some of opera’s most popular melodies and brought to life with colorful sets and costumes and dazzling puppetry, it’s perfect for audiences of all ages.
Completed in 1893, Richard Strauss’s very first opera is rarely performed today. The ASO’s presentation marks its first performance in New York City in this century. A riveting story of love, guilt and renunciation, Guntram reveals a young Strauss positioning himself as the successor to Wagner. In his very first opera, Strauss’s mastery of orchestral writing combines with the ethereal melodic arcs that anticipate his later, famous operas, from Salome and Elektra to Der Rosenkavalier. Following a 2023 presentation of Strauss’s Daphne, the ASO brings another operatic rarity by Richard Strauss to center stage.
Performance Time: approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes, including one 20-minute intermission
An annual summer tradition, the Metropolitan Opera’s popular concert series in New York City parks continues with a free outdoor recital series at SummerStage. Three of today’s most exciting young stars– Tessa McQueen, Hannah Jones, and Sunghoon Han– come together for an effervescent evening of favorite arias, duets, and ensembles, accompanied by Mariam Bombrun.
Celebrate Mozart’s 268th birthday with the City Choir of Washington! Be swept away by the beauty and solemnity of W.A. Mozart’s Great Mass in C Minor on January 28, 2024 (the day after Mozart’s birthday) in the stark grandeur and quiet majesty of National Presbyterian Church.
The Met’s Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition is a nationwide program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in their artistic and professional development. Each season, more than 1,000 applicants participate in a series of auditions leading up to the Grand Finals Concert—featuring the Met Orchestra, conducted this season by Evan Rogister—in which a small group of finalists compete for cash prizes and the chance to launch a major operatic career. Since the program’s inauguration nearly 70 years ago, the competition has discovered generations of star singers, including Jessye Norman, Frederica von Stade, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Denyce Graves, Stephanie Blythe, Sondra Radvanovsky, Lawrence Brownlee, Lisette Oropesa, Jamie Barton, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Nadine Sierra, and Ryan Speedo Green.
Assisted by Rachel Chao and Tom Jaber, Piano
Alban Berg: Sieben Frühe Lieder
Nacht
Schilflied
Die Nachtigall
Traumgekrönt
Im Zimmer
Liebesode
Sommertage
PAUSE
Henri Duparc: La vie antérieur
Chanson Triste
Le Manoir de Rosemonde
Extase
Phidylé
PAUSE
Jerome Kern: Smoke gets in your eyes
Long ago and far away
All the things you are
Tessa McQueen (Nedda) and Olivier Zerouali (Silvio) sing the great love duet from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci with Sihao Hu (Tonio).
Conductor Louis Lohraseb
Directors Omer Ben Seadia (Merola ‘14) and Anna Theodosakis (Merola ‘24)
Bay Area audiences are invited to revel in the drama passion and melody of classic opera, as the Merola artists present extended scenes from works by Donizetti, Gounod, Leoncavallo, Massenet, Puccini, and Richard Strauss, among others. Performed with a full orchestra, the Schwabacher Summer Concert will be conducted by the internationally renowned Maestro Louis Lohraseb, with direction by Omer Ben Seadia (Merola ‘14) and Anna Theodosakis (Merola ‘24).
This production will be a semi-staged concert of scenes, performed with orchestra.
Originally from Colorado, soprano Tessa McQueen was a 2024 National Finalist in the Met’s Laffont Competition, now in her second year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the Met’s 2024–25 season, she made her company debut as the Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, will sing the Priestess in Aida, and cover Chloë in The Queen of Spades. Recent operatic engagements include singing Nedda in Pagliacci and covering Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Merola Opera Program’s Schwabacher Summer Concert Series, covering Marguerite in Faust at Wolf Trap Opera, the Female Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia and the title role of L'Incoronazione di Poppea at Rice University. On the concert stage, she has appeared as a soprano soloist in Mozart’s Grand C-minor Mass with the Washington City Choir and John Rutter’s Requiem with the Rice Chorale. In addition to her success in the Laffont Competition, she won third place in the 2023 Palm Springs Opera Guild Competition, third place in the 2022 Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition, and was the recipient of the 2022 Young Artist of the Season Award from Central City Opera. She is an alumna of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, the Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Opera Saratoga Young Artist Program, and the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation Artists Training Program at Central City Opera. She holds degrees in voice from Oklahoma City University, where she graduated with honors, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.