Porgy and Bess

P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O

ERIC OWENS ( Porgy ) Previously at Lyric Opera: Vodník/ Rusalka (2013-14); title role/ Hercules (2010- 11); General Leslie Groves/ Doctor Atomic ( 2007-08). The celebrated bass- baritone, a Philadelphia

JERMAINE SMITH ( Sportin’ Life ) Previously at Lyric Opera: Sportin’ Life/ Porgy and Bess (2008-09). The tenor is closely associated with the role of Sportin’ Life, in which he

Aaron’s greatly acclaimed portrayal was telecast throughout Europe and released on DVD. She has reprised Aida at the Savonlinna Festival in Finland, the Opéra de Marseille, Cologne Opera, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège (Belgium), and most recently last season at the Aalto-Theater in Essen, Germany. Aaron’s successes in Verdi repertoire also include Un ballo in maschera (Erfurt), Don Carlo (Tel Aviv, Kiel), Il trovatore (Marseille, Avignon, Montreal, Anchorage), Falstaff (Bilbao, Toulon), and the Requiem (Stuttgart, Cologne, Marseille). After making her role debut as Tosca in Stuttgart, Aaron repeated the role in Essen and returns to it later this season in Marseille. Other successes range stylistically from Vitellia/ La clemenza di Tito (Cologne) and Fiordiligi/ Così fan tutte (Tel Aviv) to Rosario/Granados’s Goyescas (Montpellier Festival), Mimì/ La bohème (Tel Aviv), the title role/ Madama Butterfly (Miami), and the title role/Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha (Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet). Most recently, he portrayed Queequeg/Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick at Washington National Opera and made his first forays into Wagner: as Melot/ Tristan und Isolde in concert with the Puerto Rico Symphony at the Casals Festival, Donner/ Das Rheingold at Palermo’s Teatro Massimo, and Gunther/ Götterdämmerung with Opera North in the United Kingdom. He also starred with Opera North as Billy Bigelow/ Carousel in a much-acclaimed new production. With another important British company, BirminghamOpera, Greene created the leading role of Segismundo/ Life is a Dream by Jonathan Dove and Alasdair Middleton and portrayed Prince Ivan Khovansky/ Khovanshchina . His major U.S. appearances include Jake/ Porgy and Bess (Francesca Zambello’s production at Los Angeles Opera), Escamillo /Carmen (Opera Philadelphia), Robert Garner/Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner (world premiere, Michigan Opera Theatre), Ping/ Turandot (Opera Philadelphia), and eight productions at Virginia Opera. Greene is a former winner of Maryland’s Leontyne Price Vocal Competition and also former first-place winner in both the Rosa Ponselle All-Marylanders Competition and the NAACP ACT-SO competition. ERIC GREENE ( Crown ) Previously at Lyric Opera: Jake/ Porgy and Bess (2008-09). The baritone has achieved significant successes onstage with both European and American companies.

native, returns to his hometown this season to portray Philip II/ Don Carlo with Opera Philadelphia. He also sings Wagner’s Dutchman at Washington National Opera. Owens was heard last season as Sarastro/ Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera, Handel’s Hercules at the Canadian Opera Company, Alberich/ Ring cycle at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and as bass soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic. He also mentored the next generation of opera stars for the “American Voices” project at Washington’s Kennedy Center, at the invitation of Renée Fleming. Owens has created numerous challenging roles in contemporary repertoire, including the title character/Elliot Goldenthal’s Grendel (world premiere at Los Angeles Opera, subsequently Lincoln Center) and – in operas by John Adams – General Leslie Groves/ Doctor Atomic (San Francisco, DVD, Grammy-winning CD) and the Storyteller/ A Flowering Tree (Peter Sellars’s New Crowned Hope Festival in Vienna, CD). His operatic versatility encompasses Alberich/ Ring cycle (Metropolitan Opera – HD, DVD, CD); his debuts at San Francisco Opera ( Otell o) and Covent Garden ( Norma ); Rigoletto and Il trovatore (Los Angeles); Die Zauberflöte (Paris); A ri odante and L’Incoronazione di Poppea (London); and The Rape of Lucretia (Glimmerglass Opera). A Houston Grand Opera Studio alumnus, Owens has been heard at HGO in six roles, among them Aristotle Onassis/ Jackie O (world premiere, CD), Ramfis, Sarastro, and Méphistophélès. ADINA AARON ( Bess ) Lyric Opera debut

has appeared in Japan, Germany, Sweden, Austria, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and Norway. He has also sung the role with major American companies, including the Hollywood Bowl, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Pacific, Washington National Opera, and Los Angeles Opera (the latter two in Francesca Zambello’s production). Venues that have most recently acclaimed his portrayal include the Teatro San Carlo (Naples), Seattle Opera, Tanglewood (Boston Symphony Orchestra), Paris’s Opéra- Comique, the Théâtre de Caen, the Granada Festival, the Opéra de Luxembourg, and the Santa Fe Symphony. His other operatic repertoire includes the title role/ Joshua’s Boots ( world premiere at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, revival at Kansas City Lyric Opera), Henry Davis/ Street Scene and Zodzetrick/ Treemonisha (both with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis). He has made numerous appearances with the St. Louis Symphony. An alumnus of New England Conservatory and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Smith is a faculty member of Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis. KAREN SLACK ( Serena ) Lyric Opera debut have been Sister Rose/Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (Madison Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera), the title role/ Tosca and Leonora /Il trovatore (Arizona Opera), Violetta /La traviata (Sacramento Opera, West Bay Opera), and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Alabama Symphony). She will sing the Beethoven work later this season with the Quad City Symphony. Slack attracted considerable attention in her Metropolitan Opera debut as Verdi’s Luisa Miller, which was broadcast internationally. Other important operatic engagements include Aida (Lyric Opera of Kansas City), Desdemona/ Otello (Melbourne Symphony), and Cilla/Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner opposite Denyce Graves (Michigan Opera The soprano’s portrayal of Serena has been seen at both San Francisco Opera (DVD) and Washington National Opera. Among her most recent engagements

The American soprano has won great praise internationally in a variety of lyric and spinto roles. Highlights in her 2013- 14 season included

her Washington National Opera debut as Leonora/ La forza del destino , a work in which she previously triumphed in Cologne. She first attracted international attention as Aida in Franco Zeffirelli’s production in Busseto, Italy;

28 | N O V E M B E R 1 7 - D E C E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4