Maryland Lyric Opera (MDLO) continues its reinvention with its first fully staged production—Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, with three performances. This production is the first addition of a full-scale grand opera production to the Washington-Baltimore region’s opera calendar in recent memory and features rising young stars nurtured by the company’s flagship program, the Maryland Lyric Opera Young Artist Institute.
Music Director Louis Salemno conducts the 50 Member MDLO Orchestra and 32 member MDLO Chorus. Stage Director Nick Olcott directs the production in his previous home theater, where he directed as a faculty member of the Maryland Opera Studio. Joan Sullivan-Genthe lights Robert O’Hearn’s sets, which were originally designed for Florida Grande Opera. The elaborate costumes are designed by Suzanne Mess and Allan Charles Klein.
Soprano Maeve Höglund, a recent winner of the Opera Awards Bursary, makes her anticipated role debut as the tragic Lucia at the Thursday and Saturday performances. She joined the MDLO Young Artist Institute in the summer of 2018 and performed with MDLO as Konstanze and First Lady in An Evening of Mozart in October.
Joining her are two alumni of the MDLO Young Artist Institute and the Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program: tenor Yi Li as Edgardo and bass Wei Wu – recently Grammy nominated for his role as Kobun in the world premiere production of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs as Raimondo. Yi Li continues with MDLO after his role debut as Dick Johnson in MDLO’s recent concert production of La Fanciulla del West and as Tamino and Pedrillo in MDLO’s An Evening of Mozart. South KoreanAmerican baritone SeungHyeon Baek returns to MDLO as Enrico, having sung the role of Sonora in La Fanciulla del West and Papageno in MDLO’s An Evening of Mozart.
For the Friday performance, rising South Korean-American soprano and MDLO Young Artist Institute alumnus Nayoung Ban leads the cast in the celebrated title role, also for the first time. Ban was seen earlier this season as Blonde, Pamina, and Second Lady in MDLO’s An Evening of Mozart. Alongside her are baritone Daniel Scofield as Enrico and 26 year-old Chinese tenor Yongxi Chen in role of Edgardo. MDLO Institute and DomingoCafritz graduate Hunter Enoch steps into the role of Raimondo.
Singing all three performances are Manhattan School of Music senior Daiyao Zhong as Alisa, Chinese tenor Yang Chen as Normanno, and Lebanese-American tenor Roy Hage as the murdered suitor Arturo.
Lucia: Maeve Höglund * / Nayoung Ban * Enrico: SeungHyeon Baek * / Daniel Scofield Edgardo: Yi Li *± / Yongxi Chen *† Raimondo: Wei Wu *± / Hunter Enoch *± Arturo: Roy Hage (all dates) Alisa: Daiyao Zhong * (all dates) Normanno: Yang Chen * (all dates) * Almnus of MDLO Young Artist Institute ± Alumnus of Washington National Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program † MDLO Beijing Competition Winner
Conductor: Louis Salemno Director: Nick Olcott Set Designer: Robert O’Hearn Costume Designer: Suzanne Mess & Allan Charles Klein Lighting Designer: Joan Sullivan-Genthe Chorus Master: Steven Gathman Concert Master: José Miguel Cueto Assistant Conductor: Husan Park
This is a fully staged production with grand sets and costumes for three performances only Thursday, January 24 @ 7:30 p.m. Friday, January 25 @ 7:30 p.m. Saturday, January 26 @ 2:00 p.m. Performances are at the Clarice Smith Center for Performing Arts at the University of MD, College Park, MD.
Tickets start at $25. Student tickets are $10. Tickets available through The Clarice Box office
