Soprano Angela Meade and tenor Michael Fabiano both featured in The Metropolitan Opera documentary film “The Audition” The Academy of Vocal Arts’ final production of the season is Donizetti’s most famous and celebrated opera, Lucia di Lammermoor. Performances are scheduled for May 2, 5, and 7 in the Helen Corning Warden Theater at AVA, May 9 at the Gordon Theater at Rutgers/Camden, May 12 and 14 at Centennial Hall, Haverford, and May 16 at Central Bucks South High School in Warrington. All performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Maestro Christofer Macatsoris conducts the AVA Opera Orchestra and award-winning resident artists. Among them are soprano Angela Meade, who made her Metropolitan Opera debut last season in Ernani, and tenor Michael Fabiano, who debuted at La Scala Milan last spring, and will make his Metropolitan Opera debut next season in Verdi’s Stiffelio. Joshua Major, Director of Opera Studies at the University of Michigan stage directs the production.

Gaetano Donizetti’s tale of feuding Scottish families, a political marriage, and the tragedy that follows is set in 17th century Scotland, and is based on Sir Walter Scott’s novel “The Bride of Lammermoor.” Lucia di Lammermoor will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. For tickets or more information, contact 215-735-1685 or www.avaopera.org.

SYNOPSIS: In the feud between the Scottish families of Ravenswood and Lammermoor, Enrico (Lord Henry Ashton of Lammermoor) has gained the upper hand over Edgardo (Edgar of Ravenswood), killing his kinsmen and taking over his estates. But, by the time of the opera's action, Enrico's fortunes have begun to wane. In political disfavor, he stakes all on uniting his family with that of Arturo (Lord Arthur Bucklaw), whom he means to force his sister, Lucia, to marry. Lucia relents after being deceived that Edgardo, whom she loves, is pledged to another. Hearing of the wedding, Edgardo bursts in to claim Lucia as his own, but too late – her signature on the marriage contract to Arturo is complete. Driven to madness, Lucia stabs and kills Arturo in the bridal chamber, then falls dead herself. Edgardo, informed of the tragic passing of Lucia, kills himself, vowing to join her in heaven.

The Artists:
CHRISTOFER MACATSORIS, conductor
Maestro Macatsoris began his conducting career in Italy at the Conservatory in Milan. He went on to study conducting privately with such famed maestri as Fausto Cleva, Max Rudolf, and Tullio Serafin, and studied composition with Vincent Persichetti. Among his many performance credits are appearances with Philadelphia Lyric Opera Company, Pennsylvania Opera Company, San Francisco Opera Center, and numerous regional opera companies. In 1970, Max Rudolf invited him to The Curtis Institute of Music, where he taught and conducted for seven years. Mr. Macatsoris was the music director of the weekly NBC-TV program, Opera Theatre, and was music director and conductor for two seasons with the Opera at Ambler Festival. As a pianist, he toured with Metropolitan Opera singers in recital programs.

As music director of AVA since 1977, he has led acclaimed performances of ll trittico, Madama Butterfly, Don Giovanni, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Albert Herring, which was broadcast on PBS. In addition, many operas received their Delaware Valley premieres at AVA under his baton, including Idomeneo, La finta giardiniera, Deidamia, Capriccio, Un giorno di Regno, and Wargo’s A Chekhov Trilogy. Mr. Macatsoris has appeared at The International Corfu Festival, Greece, in 1981 and 1982, leading performances of The Rape of Lucretia, La sonnambula, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Così fan tutte. He has conducted in many regional American houses and has been on the conducting staff of San Francisco Opera Company. In great demand as a lecturer and for master classes, he has conducted them at major universities, including Johns Hopkins, Tulane, Loyola of New Orleans and SUNY-Buffalo. He frequently serves as a panel judge for the National Council Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera, and earns high praise for his interpretive abilities and total commitment to excellent opera theater. This past season Maestro Macatsoris celebrated thirty years as AVA’s Music Director.

JOSHUA MAJOR, stage director
Toronto-born Joshua Major is in his 15th year on the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he oversees the Opera Program, both teaching and directing. He began his stage directing career over 20 years ago at the age of 23 with La cenerentola for Opera Omaha. Soon after, Mr. Major worked as an assistant to Rhoda Levine at Juilliard, Cynthia Auerbach at both Chautauqua Opera and New York City Opera and William Gaskill at the Welsh National Opera. Mr. Major has worked as a stage director for the past 20 years throughout the United States and Canada developing on impressive repertoire of productions. Some recent engagements include L’elisir d’amore for Cleveland Opera; The Marriage of Figaro for Tulsa Opera; Lucia di Lammermoor for Indianapolis Opera; La bohème and Carmen for Opera Omaha; The Magic Flute and Lakme for Michigan Opera Theatre; La traviata for Opera Theatre of St. Louis; The Marriage of Figaro and L'Enfant et les Sortileges for Music Academy of the West; Little Women for Central City Opera and Opera Omaha; Cosi/Cosa for Orchestra of St. Lukes and the Lincoln Centre Institute; Der Kaiser Von Atlantis and La bohème for Yale University Opera; and Eugene Onegin, Cendrillon and Il tabarro for the Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv. Mr. Major is the current Artistic Director of the Pine Mountain Music Festival located in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This summer festival produces a 5 week season of Opera, Symphony and Chamber Music. In addition, he continues to be associated with Joan Dornemann’s Israel Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, where he has directed annually since 1993.

ANGELA MEADE, soprano (Lucia)
With a voice hailed as “limpid and pure with the ability to hold audiences breathless,” soprano Angela Meade is being called one of the most promising young talents on the opera scene. Ms. Meade has won virtually every major international voice competition, including being a grand prize winner in the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and first place in both the opera and operetta divisions of the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Competition, the first singer in the competition history to win first place in both categories. The New York Times wrote of her Met semi-finals performance, “Angela Meade powered out a ‘Casta Diva’ from Bellini’s ‘Norma’ that left everyone breathless.” In 2008, Ms. Meade once again took the operatic community by storm winning an unprecedented nine national and international competitions in four short months, culminating in her first place win at the Jose Iturbi Foundation Competition, which awards the largest prize of all vocal competitions.

Currently a resident artist at Philadelphia’s Academy of Vocal Arts, Ms. Meade’s operatic credits include critically acclaimed performances of Elvira in Verdi’s Ernani at the Metropolitan Opera, Agathe in Der Freischütz, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, and Leonora in La forza del destino, all for the Academy of Vocal Arts, as well as the title role in Handel’s Agrippina, Mme. Herz in Der Schauspieldirektor, Die Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. She covered international superstar Renée Fleming for the Metropolitan Opera’s 2008 Opening Night Gala in the final scene of Strauss' Capriccio, as well as covering the soprano soloist for the Met’s Pavarotti tribute performance of the Verdi Requiem. This past fall, Ms. Meade was featured in the title role of Anna Bolena at AVA, and followed right after with her Dallas Opera debut as Elisabetta in Roberto Devereaux.

Upcoming engagements include her final season with the Academy of Vocal Arts where she will sing the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor. She will also make debuts with the Allentown Symphony in a concert of arias and with Symphony in C singing Strauss’ Vier letzte lieder. Finally, she will debut at the Caramoor Music Festival in the title role of the notoriously difficult and rarely performed Semiramide.

Ms. Meade is affiliated with Astral Artistic Services in Philadelphia.

MICHAEL FABIANO, tenor (Edgardo)
Mr. Fabiano recently performed his first Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Opera Colorado. He began the current season as Rodolfo in La bohème to open the 50th anniversary season of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. In the summer of 2008, he was featured in two important orchestra debuts - the Philadelphia Orchestra as Rodolfo in a concert performance of La bohème where he "earned an ovation for his golden-toned singing in Rodolfo's first-act aria. Caressing the music with a firm, vibrant voice, he molded the phrases elegantly and rose effortlessly to a gleaming high C", and the Minnesota Orchestra as Alfredo in La traviata, under Mº Litton. Last spring he made his La Scala Milan debut as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi under Mº Chailly. He also performed the Rossini Stabat Mater in Spoleto in a gala concert honoring Thomas Schippers, which was recorded for television. This followed his debut with the Greek National Opera in Athens as Rinuccio, and in the title role of Stravinsky's Mavra. Mr. Fabiano was a 2007 winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Other awards include a 2007 Sarah Tucker Study Grant, and prizes in numerous competitions, including 1st Place in the Zachary Competition in 2007, in the 2006 Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation Competition and both 2nd Place and the José Carreras Prize for the best tenor in the 2006 Julián Gayarre Competition, held in Pamplona, Spain. He has also been the recipient of the Grand Prize in the 2005 Florida Grand Opera Competition Junior Division, and was the recipient of a 2007 George London Foundation Encouragement Award to a Tenor in Memory of James McCracken.

At AVA, he has performed Des Grieux in Manon and in Act II of Manon Lescaut, Lensky in Eugene Onegin, Il Duca in Rigoletto, Roberto in Le Villi, Froh in Das Rheingold, Anatol in Barber's Vanessa, the tenor soloist in the Rossini Stabat Mater, and Donello in La fiamma.

Mr. Fabiano holds a Bachelor of Voice from the University of Michigan, and is currently in his fourth and final year at The Academy of Vocal Arts. Upcoming engagements include his debut at the Metropolitan Opera next season in Stiffelio. He will also debut at the Semperoper Dresden, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro San Carlo, Napoli, and the Paris Opera. Roles in preparation include Faust, Ruggero and MacDuff.

FACT SHEET

Lucia di Lammermoor
By Gaetano Donizetti
Libretto by S. Cammarano, after The Bride of Lammermoor by Sir Walter Scott
Sung in Italian with English supertitles
Produced by the AVA Opera Theatre
K. James McDowell, executive director and producer
Christofer Macatsoris, music director and conductor
Joshua Major, stage director / Peter Harrison, set designer / Val J. Starr, costume designer

Cast
Lucia – Angela Meade / Colleen Daly / Jessica Rose Cambio
Edgardo – Michael Fabiano / Raffaele Sepe
Enrico – Christopher Bolduc / Josué Ceron
Raimondo – Ben Wager / Nicholas Masters
Arturo – Taylor Stayton
Alisa – Nina Yoshida Nelsen
Normanno – Noah Van Niel

Performance dates, times, and locations:
Saturday, May 2, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 7, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m. Helen Corning Warden Theater, AVA
Saturday, May 9, 7:30 p.m. Walter K. Gordon Theater, Rutgers / Camden
Tuesday, May 12, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 14, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m. Centennial Hall, Haverford
Saturday, May 16, 2009 @ 7:30 p.m. Central Bucks South High School, Warrington, PA

Tickets
Regular: $48 and $83 (premium seating)
Seniors: $40 and $75 (premium seating)
Students: $28 and $63 (premium seating)

Patrons may purchase tickets online at www.avaopera.org
For tickets or more information, contact 215-735-1685 or visit www.avaopera.org

The Academy of Vocal Arts
The mission of The Academy of Vocal Arts, founded in 1934 by Helen Corning Warden, is to provide tuition-free vocal and opera training of the highest quality, and financial support during training, to exceptionally talented and committed young singers who have the potential for international stature, and to present them in professional performances that are accessible to a wide community.

Gifted singers come from throughout the world to seek the exceptional guidance and training that The Academy of Vocal Arts offers. AVA’s four-year program is unique, not only because it is a fully tuition-free institution that focuses solely on operatic training, but also because it has established a niche as an organization that produces opera. Admission is determined by competitive annual auditions, with an average of 8 to 10 singers admitted each year. The total roster of resident artists is purposely kept low and averages 25-30 in total. Those who are accepted receive training equivalent to more than $70,000 per year. A faculty of individuals who are among the finest in their fields provides intensive training in voice, acting, stage combat, repertoire, languages, and other related subjects necessary for an operatic career.

Over the past seven decades, outstanding singers of international stature have attended AVA, including David Adams, Lando Bartolini, Gwendolyn Bradley, Thomas Carson, Elizabeth Carter, Richard Clark, Dominic Cossa, John Darrenkamp, Joyce DiDonato, Harry Dworchak, Ryan Edwards, Wilhelmina Fernandez, Allan Glassman, Vernon Hartman, Nancy Herrera, Luis Ledesma, James Morris, Stuart Neill, John Packard, James Pease, David Poleri, Julien Robbins, Valerian Ruminski, Jane Shaulis, Hugh Smith, Ruth Ann Swenson, Indra Thomas, Richard Troxell, Victoria Vergara, Stephen West, Beverly Wolff, and currently making their mark in the opera world, recent graduates Burak Bilgili, Stephen Costello, Ellie Dehn, Othalie Graham, Eglise Gutierrez, Tracie Luck, Ailyn Perez, Dongwon Shin, and James Valenti.