Audiences will have the opportunity to witness live performances of the stars of tomorrow’s opera in a free open-air performance, when the acclaimed Merola opera program presents its 2021 Merola Grand summer festival. Final at Golden Gate Park Bandshell. This free concert will feature 27 talented artists, selected from over 800 international applicants to participate in this year’s program.
Merola 2021 director Audrey Chait will lead her fellow young artists through an exciting array of selections from some of opera’s most brilliant works. The Merola Grand Final will be presented at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 31 at Golden Gate Park Bandshell, John F. Kennedy Drive and Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive, San Francisco. Admission is free and open to the public. (A limited number of reserved seats are available for Merola Gold Circle members and above.)
The concert will also be recorded, with free on-demand streaming available to Merola members from August 20 and to the public from September 3. For more information or to become a member of Merola, visit www.merola.org.
The Merola Grand Finale will feature singers and pianists in an array of duets, quartets and ensemble selections from a range of operas including Carmen, L’elisir d’amore, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress, Semele , Romeo and Juliet, Faust, Pagliacci, Rigoletto, Béatrice and Bénédict, La bohème, Der Rosenkavalier, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Florencia en el Amazonas and Die Fledermaus. Musical accompaniment will be provided by this year’s exceptional pianists.
Interpreters include:
Bryan Banowetz, pianist / coach
Gabrielle Barkidjija, mezzo-soprano
Gabrielle Beteag, mezzo-soprano
Emily Blair, soprano
Ben Brady, bass baritone
Victor Cardamone, tenor
Andrew Dwan, bass baritone
Catherine Goode, soprano
Edward Graves, tenor
Erica Xiaoyan Guo, pianist / coach
Gabriel Hernandez, tenor
Magdalena Kuźma, soprano
Philippe L’Espérance, tenor
· Thomas lynchbaritone
Jesse Mashburn, mezzo-soprano
Samson McCrady, baritone
Celeste Morales, soprano
Nikola Printz, mezzo-soprano
Laureano Quant, baritone
· Ashley Marie Robillard, soprano
Mikayla Sager, soprano
Anna Smigelskaya, pianist / coach
Shiyu Tan, pianist / trainer
Johanna Will, soprano
Marika Yasuda, pianist / coach
Tianchi Zhang, tenor
The concert will be directed by Merola 2021 director Audrey Chait, whose recent directing credits include Marie Begins’ world premiere for Westminster Opera Theater (online release) as well as her new adaptation of The elisir d’amore for Tri-Cities Opera. Other works include The Telephone for Parea Recital Series (online release), Gallantry for Northern Kentucky University (online release), Don Pasquale for Opera Las Vegas and L’inganno felice for Opera Southwest. Chait’s production L’elisir d’amore for Winter Opera St. Louis was also nominated for a St. Louis Theater Circle Award for Best Opera. She holds a BA in Literary Arts from Brown University and an Artist Diploma from the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati and is the current Resident Director of the Recital Series. Parea.
The Merola Opera program is widely regarded as the premier opera training program for aspiring singers, pianists / coaches and directors. Merola nurtures the stars of tomorrow’s opera with masterclasses and private coaching with opera’s most accomplished singers, coaches, conductors and directors. Participants also receive training in opera repertoire, languages, diction, acting, stage movement and professional development. Offered free of charge to all participants, the Merola Opera program is unique in the industry in many ways. It is the only young artist program to provide financial support to developing artists for five years after their participation, offering assistance with essential career development expenses, including coaching, language courses and travel to the artist. ‘hearing. In the summer of 2020, the company launched the Merola Artists Emergency Fund to provide much needed financial assistance to artists who have lost their salaries and incurred unreimbursed expenses as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
