ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Elizabeth Askren CONDUCTOR

From: New York, New York

Dallas Opera: debut

Career highlights: The 2022/2023 season marks several important mainstage debuts for Maestra Askren, including Des Moines Metro Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, and Opéra de Dijon. She has recently collaborated with Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Opéra de Paris’ Academy, and the Paris Philharmonic’s La Maestra competition, as well as The Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors, of which she is both a proud alumna and Master Teacher. Her award-winning Transylvanian Opera Academy incorporates performance, personal development, and community outreach. She is also the creator of MaestraMagic!™, an edutainment series on thedallasopera.TV introducing children to music and the arts. Maestra Askren is regularly invited as a guest speaker and moderator. Her TEDx talk, “Why Classical Music is the Wave of the Future,” garnered 3000+ views in 24 hours. She is published in three languages, and is regularly featured in American and European media.

Michael Cavanagh DIRECTOR

From: Winnipeg, Canada

Dallas Opera: debut

Career highlights: Mr. Cavanagh is a Canadian opera stage director with a career spanning more than two decades. He has directed more than 140 productions at companies throughout North America and Europe. His 7 productions at San Francisco Opera include Nixon in China, which he also mounted in five cities including Dublin, Ireland and Stockholm, Sweden. In the United States, he has also directed for the opera companies of Philadelphia, Boston, Hawaii, Austin, Kansas City, Minnesota, and San Diego, among others. He is currently Artistic Director and Head of Opera at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm, where he had a great success with his new Aida and recently opened a hugely successful production of Sweeney Todd

From: Seattle, Washington

Dallas Opera: La bohème (2018/2019, debut, Rigoletto (2022/2023), Das Rheingold (2022/2023)

Career highlights: Mr. Rom has designed settings for more than 250 productions and in 2015, he was named as a finalist in the designer of the year category for the International Opera Awards in London. His designs have frequently been featured in the Prague Quadrennial International Design exhibition, San Francisco Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, Seattle Opera, Washington National Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Vancouver Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Minnesota Opera, and many more. In 2014, he designed the European premiere of Silent Night for the Wexford Festival. The Irish Times Theatre Awards named it audience choice and best opera production of 2014. Mr. Rom teaches design at Montclair State University.

From: Oakland, California

Dallas Opera: The Aspern Papers (2012/2013, debut)

Career highlights: Ms. Hoffman has designed costumes for opera, dance and theatre regionally, internationally, and in New York City. Her credits include collaborations with theatre artists such as Mark Lamos, Julie Taymor, Eliot Feld, and Mikhail Baryshnikov, opera directors Robert Carsen, David Alden, Christopher Alden, Keith Warner, and entertainer Bette Midler. Her work has been seen on many stages in New York City, including the Public Theatre, The New Victory Theater, The Second Stage, The Theatre for a New Audience, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, The Joyce, and The New York City Opera. On her Broadway debut, she earned a Tony nomination and an Outer Critics Circle Award for her designs for The Green Bird, directed by Julie Taymor. Ms. Hoffman’s collaborations in opera have taken her to the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, the Paris Opera, the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, and The Tokyo Opera Nomori, among others. In the United States, she has designed costumes for the San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera, the Houston Grand Opera, the Los Angeles Opera, the Minnesota Opera, the Portland Opera, the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and the Lincoln Center Festival.

From: Dublin, Ireland

Dallas Opera: debut

Career highlights: Ms. Cox is a lighting designer for theater, opera, dance and music. She has been nominated for two Tony awards, for her work on Jitney (2017) and on Machinal (2014). Ms. Cox has also been nominated for four Drama Desk awards and three Lortel awards, and in 2013, was awarded the Henry Hewes Design Award for her work on The Flick. In 2016, she was awarded the Ruth Morley Design Award by the League of Professional Theater Women, and a British What’s Onstage award for her work on Hamlet. Designs include The Marriage of Figaro at San Francisco Opera; Fefu and her Friends at Theater for a New Audience in NYC, directed by Princeton alumna Lileana Blain-Cruz; King Lear with Glenda Jackson on Broadway, directed by Sam Gold; a new musical adaptation of Secret Life of Bees (the design was nominated for a Drama Desk Award 2020); The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by fellow faculty member John Doyle; a theatrical adaptation of Ta-Nehisi Coates book Between The World and Me, directed by Kamilah Forbes and a revival of True West on Broadway, directed by British director James McDonald.

From: New York, New York

Dallas Opera: debut

Career highlights: Mr. Partier is currently the Lighting Director at San Francisco Opera. Recent designs include Carmen (Washington National Opera & San Francisco Opera), Boheme out of the Box, Fidelio, Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci, Adlers in Concert (Marin Civic Center) & Verdi Requiem Mass (San Francisco Opera), Postcard from Morocco (Merola Opera), Fascinating Rhythm, Shall We Dance (Transcendence Theater Company), Rich Girl (Florida Studio Theater), This Wonderful Life (Luna Stage) The Net Will Appear and The Clearing (59E59), Colored (Kyle Marshall Choreography/Actor’s Fund Theater), Mary Poppins, Kiss Me Kate, and Singin’ in the Rain (Merry Go Round Playhouse), Red (Arkansas Repertory Theater), A Midsummer Nights Dream (Schloss Werdenberg – Buchs SG, Switzerland), The Book of Mountains and Seas, PrEP or Blue Parachute, Getting There (New Conservatory Theater Center), and All the Rage (The Barrow Group). As Lighting Director: John Cameron Mitchell’s Origins of Love (National Tour), Aftermath (World Tour), and Trigger (US Tour). Member USA829

From: Dallas, Texas

Dallas Opera: The Barber of Seville (2006/2007, debut), 45 productions since 2006/2007

Career highlights: Mr. Zimmerman has worked with numerous opera companies around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, and those of St. Louis, Santa Fe, Paris, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minnesota, Santa Barbara, Amsterdam, and more. His career extends to Broadway, where he has worked with such shows as Wicked, Rocky Horror, Show Boat, South Pacific, and Evita. Some of his personal clients include Renée Fleming, Joyce DiDonato, Susan Graham, Patricia Racette, Martha Stewart, and Ricky Martin. Mr. Zimmerman has also worked with DIFFA Fashion Runway, Dallas Fashion and Art, and Yelp.com Fashion Magazine; credits include spreads in Opera News, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker. TV and film credits are Glamour Magazine’s Women of the Year, Margaret (starring Anna Paquin), and Hostiles (starring Christian Bale and Rosemund Pike).

From: Kharkov, Ukraine

Dallas Opera: Chorus Master (1990/1991-present)

Career highlights: Chorus master for 33 Seasons, Mr. Rom graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory of Music with a master’s degree in choral conducting. He has been a coach at numerous companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and the Cincinnati, Ravinia, and Savonlinna festivals. An Honorary Visiting Professor at Finland’s Sibelius Academy and the Helsinki Conservatory of Music, Mr. Rom was a Visiting Professor at the Savonlinna Opera Festival Music Institute for ten years. He also staged and musically prepared Eugene Onegin while in Finland. Mr. Rom was a founder of the Grace Choral Society of Brooklyn, New York, of which he was Music Director for 19 years.

From: Malverne, New York

Dallas Opera: debut

Career highlights: In the 2022/2023 season, Ms. Gotimer returns to Arizona Opera for her debut in the title role of Tosca. In seasons prior, Ms. Gotimer made main stage debuts in Carmen (Micaëla), Così fan tutte (Fiordiligi), and A Little Night Music (Mrs. Anderssen). During her tenure as a resident artist with Pittsburgh Opera, Ms. Gotimer appeared as the title role in Handel’s Alcina, Elettra in a reimagining of Mozart’s Idomeneo, and covered Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème With Crested Butte Opera Studio, Ms. Gottimer performed as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Musetta in La bohème. Other roles in her repertoire include the title role in Suor Angelica, Magda in La Rondine, Nedda in I Pagliacci, and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte.

From: San Antonio, Texas

Dallas Opera: Don Giovanni (2017/2018, debut)

Career highlights: In the 2022/2023 season, Mr. Portillo returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Tamino in The Magic Flute, Nadir in The Pearl Fishers with Austin Opera, Tonio in Le fille du régiment with Minnesota Opera, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni in Osaka, Japan, a reprisal of Mark Adamo’s latest work The Lord of Cries for a recording and performance with Boston’s Odyssey Opera, and Alfredo in La traviata with El Paso Opera, where Mr. Portillo was once a young artist. In concert, he performs the title role in Jephtha with Dame Jane Glover and Music of the Baroque in Chicago, a solo orchestral recital of Britten’s Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings and select opera arias with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, and an outreach recital at the Mexican Cultural Institute under the auspices of Vocal Arts DC.

From: Woodstock, Maryland

Dallas Opera: debut

Career highlights: Ms. Decker recently finished as an ensemble member of The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Plans for the 2022/2023 season include a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Isolier/Le Comte Ory, as well as to Cincinnati Opera as Alisa/Lucia di Lammermoor and Kate Pinkerton/Madama Butterfly. On the concert platform, Ms. Decker sings Ruggiero/Alcina with Les Violons du Roy under the baton of Jonathan Cohen. A passionate song interpreter, she was named one of Caramoor’s 2018 Schwab Vocal Rising Stars and was a participant in the inaugural season of Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall. She has given recitals produced by the Cincinnati Song Initiative, and recently performed a solo recital at Carnegie Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center.

From: Raleigh, North Carolina

Dallas Opera: Madame Butterfly (2016/2017, debut), OperaPops! (2020/2021), The Barber of Seville (2021/2022)

Career highlights: Mr. Meachem kicks off the 2022/2023 season as Don Giovanni at Ravinia Festival, followed by performances as Escamillo in Carmen with Canadian Opera Company and Opéra national de Paris, De Siriex in Fedora with the Metropolitan Opera, and Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Los Angeles Opera. Other season highlights include guest soloist appearances with Atlanta Symphony and a return to Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at San Francisco Opera. Meachem’s recent performances include Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at Royal Opera House, Marcello in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, and the title role in Nabucco at Oper im Steinbruch. In 2020, Lucas founded Perfect Day Music Foundation (PDMF) with his wife, pianist Irina Meachem. The foundation aims to represent inclusivity and diversity of people today by using classical music as a relevant medium to address current issues through a traditional art form. Mr. Meachem’s first solo album, Shall We Gather, featuring Irina at the piano, was released on Rubicon Records in September 2021.

From: Malibu, California

Dallas Opera: Die Zauberflöte (2019/2020, debut), Das Rheingold (2022/2023)

Career highlights: Ms. Newman begins her 2022/2023 season with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony. In the 2021/2022 season, Newman made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, as well as covered the role of Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos She joined the Alabama Symphony Orchestra as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and sang the leading role of Clara in The Light in the Piazza with Central City Opera.