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Harry Bicket
Artistic Director, The English Concert
From: Liverpool, England.
LA Opera: Giulio Cesare (2001, debut); The Coronation of Poppea (2006); Alcina (2021). Upcoming: Rodelinda (2023)
About: Internationally renowned as an opera and concert conductor of distinction, Harry Bicket is especially noted for his interpretation of baroque and classical repertoire. Since 2007, he has been Artistic Director of The English Concert, one of Europe’s finest period orchestras. In 2013, following regular guest appearances for Santa Fe Opera, he became chief conductor and in 2018 assumed the music directorship. This summer, he will conduct Pelléas et Mélisande and Orfeo there. In 2019, he also performed Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Renée Fleming. He studied at the Royal College of Music and the University of Oxford. Earlier this year, he conducted La Clemenza di Tito with Bergen National Opera. His many projects with The English Concert this season include Ariodante for Paris Opera’s Palais Garnier. Earlier this season, he also returned to the Chicago Symphony for a collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet and conducted The Marriage of Figaro with the Canadian Opera Company. 

Steven Fox
Artistic Director, The Clarion Choir
From: New York City, New York.
LA Opera: debut. 
About: Steven Fox is artistic director of the Clarion Choir and the Clarion Orchestra in New York, and music director of Cathedral Choral Society at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. The 2022/23 season sees his conducting debuts with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Ballet. In previous seasons, he has conducted the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, Opéra de Québec, Chicago’s Music of the Baroque, San Francisco’s Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, Juilliard415, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Portland’s Cappella Romana, and Toronto’s Theatre of Early Music. His performances have taken him to prestigious international theaters including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall and David H. Koch Theatre, Brooklyn Academy of Music, London’s Barbican Centre, St. Petersburg’s Grand Philharmonic Hall, Paris’s Theatre des Champs Elysée, and the Vatican.

Brandon Cedel
Bass-Baritone
Zadok
From: Hershey, Pennsylvania.
LA Opera: debut.
About: A recent graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, he was an ensemble member of Oper Frankfurt from 2016-19. Highlights in his 2022/23 season include Dan Brown in the Metropolitan Opera premiere of The Hours by Kevin Puts; the title role in Hercules at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival; the title role in Don Giovanni for the Atlanta Opera and a return to the Glyndebourne Festival as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Recent appearances include Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro for the Glyndebourne Festival, Opera Philadelphia and Stuttgart State Opera; Masetto in Don Giovanni for the Metropolitan Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago; Leporello in Don Giovanni and Argante in Rinaldo for the Glyndebourne Festival; and Colline in La Bohème and Basilio in The Barber of Seville for the Canadian Opera Company.
BrandonCedel.com

Ann Hallenberg
Mezzo-Soprano
Solomon
From: Västerås, Sweden.
LA Opera: debut.About: Ann Hallenberg regularly appears in major opera houses and festivals, including La Scala in Milan, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Real Madrid, Theater an der Wien, Opernhaus Zürich, Opéra National de Paris, Théâtre de La Monnaie in Brussels, Netherlands Opera, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, Staatsoper Berlin, Salzburg Festival, Salzburg Whitsun Festival and Edinburgh Festival. Her recent engagements include the title role in Agrippina at the Drottningholm Festival, Juditha in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans in Rome with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Handel’s Donna, che in ciel at the BBC Proms in London with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra, Dejanira in Handel’s Hercules at the Handel Festival in Karlsruhe, Haydn’s Arianna a Naxos and Scena di Berenice at London’s Barbican with the Academy of Ancient Music and Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Berlin Philharmonic. 

Niamh O'Sullivan
Mezzo-Soprano
Second Harlot
From: Cork, Ireland.
LA Opera: debut. 
About: After studying at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, she joined the Opera Studio at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich from 2016 to 2018. Her performances this season include her English National Opera debut as Mercédès in Carmen, also covering the title role, and returns to Irish National Opera for Donnacha Dennehy’s The First Child and for her role debut as Charlotte in Werther, and to Wexford Festival Opera in Félicien David’s Lalla-Rouhk. Her numerous roles in Munich include Hansel in Hansel and Gretel, Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and the Secretary in The Consul. Other highlights include her 2018 Irish National Opera debut as Tisbe in La Cenerentola, followed by appearances as Mercédès in Carmen, Alva in The First Child and Asteria in Bajazet in a co-production with Covent Garden. Last year, she appeared at the Zurich Opera as Wellgunde in Das Rheingold and as Meg Page in Falstaff opposite Sir Bryn Terfel.

Miah Persson
Soprano
Solomon's Queen / First Harlot
From: Örnsköldsvik, Sweden.
LA Opera: debut.
About: In her distinguished career, she has performed Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel and Pamina in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera; Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and Zerlina in Don Giovanni at Covent Garden; Poppea in The Coronation of Poppea and the Governess in The Turn of the Screw at Milan’s Teatro alla Scala; Fiordiligi, Susanna and Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier at the Vienna State Opera; the Governess, Fiordiligi, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress at the Glyndebourne Festival; and Donna Elvira at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona. Highlights of the 2022/23 season include The Turn of the Screw with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in both Budapest and Vicenza, the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro at Opéra National de Paris, Haydn’s The Creation with Orchestre Symphonique Montreal and Verdi’s Requiem with the Oslo Philharmonic.

Elena Villalón
Soprano
Queen of Sheba
From: Houston, Texas.
LA Opera: debut.
About: Cuban-American soprano Elena Villalón recently completed her tenure with the Houston Grand Opera Studio. This season, she joined the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt, debuting as Iole in Hercules in a new production by Barrie Kosky and also appearing as Atalanta in Xerxes. Appearances elsewhere include a return to Houston Grand Opera as Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and a return to the Dallas Opera as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel. Recent performances include Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day with Boston Baroque house and role debuts at the Dallas Opera as Tina in Jonathan Dove’s Flight, Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro with Austin Opera and Nannetta in Falstaff with the Santa Fe Opera, as well as continued collaborations with Houston Grand Opera, where she created the role of Amy in the world premiere of Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day and debuted the role of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette.
ElenaVillalon.com