Cast & Creative

Alexandra Enyart has been called “one of Chicago’s greatest operatic gifts” (Chicago Theatre Review) and “a podium talent to watch”(Chicago Classical Review). She’s performed with Opera Columbus, Australian Contemporary Opera Company, Opera Orlando, and many others around the country and globe. She has served as a Chicago Sinfonietta Fellow and as a “Turn the Spotlight” fellow with Chicago Opera Theatre music director, Lidiya Yankovskaya. In 2017 Alexandra won the CODA conducting competition and in 2018 she won CCM’s ALEXANDRA ENYART Mozart Overture Conducting Competition. Alexandra CONDUCTOR served as a panelist at the Opera America conference in 2021 and serves currently on the Artistic Advisory Council ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT for American Opera Projects. Alexandra is as comfortable on the podium as she is in the opera pit having made her international debut in Tomsk, Russia with the Tomsk Philharmonic Orchestra in 2016 while finishing her Master’s in Orchestral Conducting from the University of Louisville. At the same time she also worked as the apprentice conductor with the Louisville Orchestra and Kentucky Opera as well as the Assistant Conductor for the Louisville Youth Orchestra. In 2019 she returned to Louisville to conduct Orchestra Enigmatic. As a transgender conductor Alexandra strives to create a more equitable and diverse musical world. As such she has successfully chartered “Faulty Systems”, an annual program in which activists and artists come together to share stories of underrepresented communities or ideas through music, speech, poetry, dance and other mediums. Alexandra also helped to launch the Chicago Vocal Arts Consortium’s sing–thru program, which functions to create an accessible space for young artists to experiment with musical styles and traditions following their education. Alexandra believes that to conduct is an honor and privilege, and continues to work to support and strengthen the musical community of which she is privileged to be a part.

CONTACT

Donna Choate 678-778-1573

donna@encoreatlanta.com

Winner of the Adelaide Bishop Award and the OPERA America Director-Designer Showcase, Stephanie Havey has staged productions for Seattle Opera, Opera de Montreal, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Hawai’i Opera Theatre, Michigan Opera Theatre, Atlanta Opera, Opera Omaha, New York City Opera, and others. Her new productions have been featured at Boston Lyric Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Tulsa Opera, Finger Lakes Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Lyrique-en-mer Festival International de Belle-Ile, Curtis Institute of Music, and STEPHANIE HAVEY Carnegie Mellon University. She has also been a member STAGE DIRECTOR of the staging staff at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and The Santa Fe Opera. Ms. Havey is ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT sought after as a collaborator for the development of new opera, staging new works with Opera Philadelphia for their Double Exposure event, OPERA America’s New Works Forum, and is in her fourth season of developing new works as the Resident Stage Director for North American New Opera Workshop. During her two seasons as the first Resident Artist Stage Director for the Pittsburgh Opera, she received rave reviews for her new production of Il matrimonio segreto and directed numerous productions and a staged recital series in the Opera Studio. Ms. Havey is the Director of the Tomita Young Artist Program at Finger Lakes Opera and the Artistic Director of the Oberlin Conservatory Summer Opera Intensive. Her extensive work with Young Artist training programs includes the OPERA America Career Blueprints Program, Curtis Institute of Music, Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Mannes School of Music at The New School, Manhattan School of Music, Carnegie Mellon University, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Central City Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera North, University of Delaware, and the Florida State Opera. She has also been the Director of Opera Workshop at Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee State University in Nashville.

EMMA ANTENEN

SCENIC DESIGNER

ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT Emma Antenen is a freelance scenic designer based in Brooklyn, New York. She currently works as a designer and an associate for Alexander Dodge. Emma has worked primarily in theatre, but is always looking for new and exciting projects! Recent credits include Romeo and Juliet (The Woolgatherers), Hidden Away: A Pirate Musical (CO/LAB Theater Group), and Adam Minus Josh (Willow Theatricals). As an associate/assistant set designer, she has worked with Alexander Dodge, Jason Ardizzone-West, Ann Beyersdorfer, Caite Hevner, and Brittany Vasta on their Off-Broadway, Regional, Touring and International productions. Emma is from Atlanta, GA and received her BFA in Theatre Design and Technology from Syracuse University.

Erik Teague is a freelance designer based in the Washington, D.C. Originally hailing from Georgia, he is delighted to make his return to the South. Previous works of note: The Threepenny Opera (The Atlanta Opera); The Cunning Little Vixen, La bohéme, Ariadne in Naxos, Odyssey, Wilde Tales, Trouble in Tahiti, The Flying Dutchman (The Glimmerglass Festival); Lohengrin (Opera Southwest); Hansel and Gretel (New Orleans Opera); Rent, Blackbeard (Signature Theatre); Acoustic Rooster (The Kennedy Center); The Lion, The Unicorn ERIK TEAGUE and Me (Washington National Opera); The Touchstone COSTUME DESIGNER (Wolf Trap Opera); Master and Margarita, The Wild Party, Equus (Constellation Theatre); The Phantom of the Opera, ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT Richard III, The Trial, Titus Andronicus, Sleepy Hollow, The THE BIG TENT SERIES, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Man in the Iron Mask (Synetic SPRING 2021 Theater); Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Actor’s Express); Podcast host for Come As You Are, an interview show and part of The Atlanta Opera Podcast series centering LGBTQ+ opera artists. Winner of one Helen Hayes award and two Suzi Bass awards for excellence in costume design. erikteaguedesign.com

MARCELLA BARBEAU

LIGHTING DESIGNER

ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT THE BIG TENT SERIES, SPRING 2021 Marcella Barbeau (she/her) is a lighting designer based in New York City. Her recent credits include: You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown (Village Theatre), The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs (co-design, Austin Opera), Five Guys Named Moe (Playhouse on Park), Club Hertz: Live! (Alliance Theatre), Murder on the Orient Express (Sierra Rep), The Threepenny Opera, The Threepenny Carmen (The Atlanta Opera) Pelléas et Mélisande (Boston University Opera Institute). She has assisted designers at the English National Opera, National Theatre Mannheim, National Theatre Munich, Boston Lyric Opera, American Repertory Theatre, and Cincinnati Opera. As a Chinese American designer, Marcella actively seeks to collaborate and amplify the voices of fellow BIPOC artists of all intersectionalities. She received her Master of Fine Arts from Boston University and frequently visits her hometown of St. Louis, Missouri.

MELANIE STEELE

WIG & MAKEUP DESIGNER

ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT THE GOLDEN TICKET, 2011 Melanie Steele lives in Atlanta where she works with The Atlanta Opera, Fox Theatre, The Alliance Theatre, Atlanta Ballet, as well as working in film and television. Steele recently toured with the national Broadway tour of The Lion King. She has designed wigs and makeup for The Santa Fe Opera, Austin Opera, Central City Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Baltimore Opera, Kentucky Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Bard SummerScape, Opera Festival of New Jersey, Opera Pacific, Opera North Carolina, and Saratoga Springs Opera. Some of Steele’s work can be seen in Opera News, Makeup Artist Magazine, Seventeen, Time, Newsweek, Glamour, Voyage Atlanta, IMDB and Texas Monthly Magazine.

Off-Broadway credits include: These Paper Bullets! Drama Desk Nomination (Atlantic Theater Company); Skeleton Crew (Atlantic Theater Company, Geffen Playhouse, Yale Rep); Until the Flood (Rattlestick Playwrights Theatre, Goodman, Milwaukee Rep, St. Louis Rep, ACT Seattle, Portland Center Stage); White Guy on the Bus (59E59, Delaware Theatre Company); Chix 6 (LaMama). Regional credits: Kleptocracy (Arena Stage) Grounded (Alley Theatre); Christmas Carol, A Streetcar Named Desire (Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre); Two Trains Running NICHOLAS HUSSONG (Arden Theater); The Mountaintop (Playmakers Rep); Ella PROJECTIONS DESIGNER (Delaware Theatre); Million Dollar Quartet (Berkshires Theatre Group). Also designs with FEAST, Listen&Breathe, ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT Urban Bush Women, Korean Expo, Virginia Museum of Art, Marc Jacobs, Esperanza Spaulding, Enchantment Theatre Company, White Heron, Lantern Theatre Company, Abrons Art Center, Tiny Dynamite, Premieres NYC, Ars Nova, Cantata Profana, Nashville Symphony, Hartford Symphony. International designs: National Center for Performing Arts in Beijing, Jiangsu Center for the Performing Arts in Nanjing, Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Arcola in London, Traverse in Edinburgh, as well as Galway, Vienna, and Toronto. Nicholas was the Artistic Associate at Triad Stage in Greensboro, North Carolina where he continues to design new works based on Appalachian life written by Preston Lane. 70th and 71st Tony Awards (CBS). Yale School of Drama MFA and Senior Lecturer at New School for Drama. NewNeighborhood.net

Jon has enjoyed a sprawling career in the arts, beginning as an Atlanta-based sound designer, working with such companies as Theatrical Outfit, Kenny Leon’s True Colors, Synchronicity Theatre, and many more. Most recently he served as Director of Production for the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre, and City Springs Theatre Company with such clients as: LiveNation, AEG, and Outback Entertainment. He is working on projects for the Atlanta Hawks and Music Matters. Jon’s endeavors have put him in the forefront of live event management, production management, streaming event services, and film media.

JON SUMMERS

SOUND DESIGNER

ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT THE BIG TENT SERIES, FALL 2020

Hailed as “one of the most powerful and beautiful baritone voices you could hear”(The Side Balcony), American baritone Lucia Lucas is making waves on the operatic mainstages. Lucas has resided in Germany for the past decade and has performed in cities all over the globe include Dublin, London, Brussels, Berlin, Torino, Essen, Daegu, Korea and the US. She made her role debut as Wotan in Die Walküre with Theater Magdeburg to great critical acclaim. Lucas’ portrayal of the role was considered “a powerfully clear-singing” and “dramatically LUCIA LUCAS intense Wotan”(Volksstimme). She also made a triumphant debut in the title role in Don Giovanni with Tulsa Opera. HANNAH “The Sound of Identity,” a cutting edge documentary by ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT Kirkpatrick & Kinslow Productions centered on Lucia’s life culminating in her performance in Tulsa was released June 1, 2021 by Shout! Studios and can be viewed on Starz and Hulu. In the past season, Lucia made her début with English National Opera as Public Opinion in a glitzy new production by Emma Rice of Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, performed the baritone soloist in Cage’s Europeras 1 & 2 with Wuppertal Oper, and made an appearance on Houston Grand Opera’s serial web opera entitled “Star Cross’d.” Additionally, she performed in a concert recital with Justin Kim at National Sawdust in New York, and sang the World Premiere of Die Neuen Todsünden (The New Deadly Sins) with the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Upcoming engagements include the title role in Rigoletto and Balstrode in Peter Grimes for Theatre Magdeburg, performances with the Monheim Musikfestival, Kunstfest Weimar, the Ragazze Quartet, and the Venetian Arts Society. She will also join the Metropolitan Opera for their productions of Iphigénie en Tauride and Tosca and star in two World Premiere productions, one with Theater St. Gallen and one with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2023.

Mezzo-soprano Blythe Gaissert has established herself as one of the pre-eminent interpreters of some of the brightest stars of new classical music. A true singing actress, she has received critical acclaim for her interpretations of both new and traditional repertoire in opera, concert and chamber repertoire. Recent performances include the role of Georgia O’Keefe Today It Rains with American Opera Projects and Opera Parallele, Gertrude Stein in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27 for Intermountain Opera, Bozeman, Walker Loats in Mikael BLYTHE GAISSERT Karlsson’s Echo Drift for American Opera Projects at the Prototype Festival, Hansel in Hansel Und Gretel with HANNAH San Diego Opera, Sadie in Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning ATLANTA OPERA DEBUT Star with On-Site Opera, the role of Hannah After in As One with American Opera Projects, Opera Colorado, Opera Columbus, Opera Idaho, Opera Memphis, New York City Opera and San Diego Opera, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Sarasota Orchestra, Berio in Folk Songs and Siegrune in Die Walkuere with the Dallas Symphony and Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the Orquesta Sinfónica y Coro RTVE conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. Ms Gaissert’s engagements include world premieres by John Adams, Tom Cipullo, Mohammed Fairouz, Renee Favand-See, Yotam Haber, Martin Hennessy, Gabriel Kahane, Laura Kaminsky, Mikael Karlsson, Gilda Lyons, Jorge Martin, Jessica Meyer, Robert Paterson, Glen Roven and Richard Pearson Thomas. Companies with whom Ms. Gaissert has performed include the Aldeburgh Festival, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Lyrique en Mer, Metropolitan Opera, Opera Saratoga, San Diego Opera, Sarasota Opera and Tulsa Opera. Ms Gaissert’s debut album Home, comprised of world premieres written specifically for her, was released in 2021 to superb reviews and reached Number 1 in the Billboard Classical Charts.