Werther Artist Biographies

Joseph Beutel (Le Bailli)

Joseph Beutel, , joins Minnesota ’s Resident Artist program after spending the summer as a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist, where he covered Méphistophélès in and the Catholic Priest in The Last Savage. Previous roles have included the Impresario/Direttore in the young artist production ofViva La Mamma! at , Benoit and Alcindoro in La bohème for South Texas Lyric Opera; Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Mustafà in L’italiana in Algeri, Simone in , Le Roi in and Herr Reich in Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor for IU Opera ; and the Sergeant in Pirates of PenzanceWestern Michigan University.

Mr. Beutel is a district finalist of the National

Council Auditions in 2011 and a Palm Beach Opera Competition

Encouragement Award recipient in 2010 and 2011. For this season, he will appear as the British Major in Silent Night, Le Bailli in , Raimondo in and the Bonze in Madame Butterfly.

Christoph Campestrini (conductor)

Conductor Christoph Campestrini resides in and received his musical education in the United States. He studied in at the Juilliard School while simultaneously majoring in philosophy and languages at Columbia University. In addition to German and English, he speaks Italian, French, Russian and Spanish.

Following his studies at Juilliard and Columbia, he was the only European chosen to be admitted to the founding class of the prestigious Yale University Affiliate Artists Program. While at Yale, he worked with prominent conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Kurt Sanderling.

After his return to Europe he started an active international career, conducting more than 80 Symphony Orchestras on all 5 continents. Among them are the London Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Sinfonie Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Stuttgart Philharmonic, Cologne Radio Symphony, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Moscow Radio Symphony, Prague Radio Symphony, Prague Philharmonia, Vienna Radio Symphony, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Orchestre Lamoureux Paris, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Queensland Philharmonic, Israel Sinfonietta and many others. He has worked with such soloists as Gidon Kremer, Julian Rachlin, Rudolf Buchbinder, Sharon Kam, Julia Fischer and Emmanuel Pahud.

Equally in demand as an accomplished opera conductor, Campestrini has served as principal conductor at the prestigious Essen Aalto Musiktheater and the Essen Philharmonic Orchestra, where he conducted more than 15 different in over 100 performances. Other opera credits include the Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf (Die Zauberflöte), Opera Lyra Ottawa (Le nozze di Figaro), Austin Lyric Opera (Don Giovanni), and Carinthian Summer Festival, Cremona Opera, National Opera of Vietnam, Zagreb National Opera and the Hong Kong Opera Academy.

Season 2011–2012 brings a Beethoven Gala with the Indianapolis Symphony and Lang Lang as soloist, his debut with the Rochester Philharmonic, and a production of Massenet’s Werther in the pit of the Minnesota Opera.

Among last season’s North American highlights figured engagements with the Vancouver Symphony, Toledo Symphony, Grand Rapids Symphony, and Quebec Symphony, in addition to an appearance at the Round Top Festival. He also appeared for a New Year’s concert at the in Torino, and led the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal and the Nürnberg Symphony as well as L'Orchestre philharmonique Royal de Liège at Vienna’s Musikverein and the opening concert of the Carinthian Summer Festival.

During the 2009–2010 season he returned to the Sakai City Opera with Massenet's Cendrillon, debuted with the Indianapolis Symphony, the Orquesta Sinfonica de Navarra (Spain), the Hungarian Radio Symphony Budapest and returned for re-engagements with orchestras such as Calgary Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic and Brno Philharmonic. He also made a return to Yale Opera with Le nozze di Figaro.

The conductor’s 2008–2009 season debuts included Opera Lyra Ottawa in performances of Le nozze di Figaro with the National Arts Centre Orchestra in the pit, as well as Sakai City Opera in Osaka, Japan with a performance of Rusalka. The National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan was another debut. Additionally, he was re- engaged to the San Antonio, Toledo and Oregon symphonies, the latter in a subscription series. The 2007–2008 season was perhaps one of Campestrini’s most important seasons yet. Major debuts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Florida Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Huntsville Symphony, the Texas Music Festival, The International Festival-Institute at Round-Top and the Seoul Philharmonic figured alongside re-engagements with the Colorado Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony.

In Europe, he maintains a permanent relationship with the Czech State Philharmonic Brno, which he conducts in several programs each season as well as on tour. In addition, he works with orchestras such as the Camerata Salzburg, Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the Slovak Philharmonic.

Roxana Constantinescu (Charlotte)

Roxana Constantinescu had already enjoyed several earlier competition successes in Belgium-Concours de Chant Verviers, - Competizione , Romania-Ionel Perlea and Mihail Jora Competitions or Germany-Paul and Helga Hohen Competition, but it was as the winner of the prestigious ARD Music Competition-Munich in September 2006 that her international career was launched. Ms Constantinescu subsequently joined the Ensemble at in the 2007–2008 season making her house debut as Cherubino–Le nozze di Figaro, conducted by .

In Vienna, where Roxana remained in the Ensemble through the end of the 2009–2010 season, further roles and experience to date have included Zerlina in Don Giovanni; Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia; Siébel in Faust; Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette; Lola in Cavalleria rusticana; Nicklausse in Les contes d’Hoffmann; Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos and Fjodor in Boris Godunov, among others.

The 2010–2011 season’s highlights include the debut as Donna Elvira in a new production of Don Giovanni at the Vienna State Opera, the title role in La Cenerentola in a new staging at the Minnesota Opera, a company debut with the and new productions of Oberon and Così fan tutte at Theatre du Capitole in Toulouse.

This season features Miss Constantinescu’s debut with the Opera as Despina in Così fan tutte, her first appearance at the Deutsche Oper Berlin with Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, a new production of Werther with Minnesota Opera, a new staging of Les contes d’Hoffmann as Nicklausse at Theater an der Wien and a tour in South America.

After her prize-winning success in Italy, Miss Constantinescu was invited to make her debut as Angelina in La Cenerentola at the Teatro Politeama di Lecce and went on to appear as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Austria’s Tirol Festival. It was also as Rosina that Roxana enjoyed great acclaim in Cologne when she took over the opening night at short notice in September 2007.

Other operatic appearances to date have included Ramiro in La finta giardiniera and Hermia in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Munich’s Prinzregententheater; Conception in L’heure espagnole at Italy’s Teatro Diego Fabbri; Holofernes in Juditha Triumphans at Munich’s House of Art and Prince Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus at both Bucharest’s State Opera and Essen’s Philharmonie.

As a concert singer, Roxana Constantinescu is in high demand and had recently her concert debut at Carnegie Hall and ’s Symphony Hall singing Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by . The subsequent compact disc recording was nominated for a Grammy awards.

Roxana enjoys an ongoing relationship with Helmuth Rilling and has performed with him around the world in music by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn, and also presented the world premiere of Messiah by Sven David Sandström at the Oregon Bach Festival. Other conductors with whom Roxana Constantinescu has enjoyed collaborations include Gerd Albrecht, Marco Armiliato, , Paolo Carignani, Dan Ettinger, Adam Fischer, Manfred Honeck, Graeme Jenkins, Sir Neville Marriner, Kirill Petrenko, Christoph Poppen, Yannik Nézet-Séguin, Peter Schneider, Marco Zambelli, Sebastian Weigle and Franz Welser-Möst.

Also an avid recitalist Roxana Constantinescu has performed in Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Vienna’s Musikverein, Bucharest, Frankfurt, Munich and Washington as well as extensively in the Far East. Even at this early stage in her career, Roxana Constantinescu has already participated in numerous recordings for Haenssler Classic, OEHMS Classics, SWR, CSO-Resound, Artmode Records, Weltbild and Carus Verlag.

Born in Bucharest, Roxana Constantinescu first studied percussion and piano at the George Enescu Music Academy, continuing with voice at the National University of Music. In 2003, she was awarded an Erasmus Scholarship to attend Vienna’s prestigious University of Music and Fine Arts, and a DAAD scholarship enabled her to attend postgraduate studies at the University of Music and Theater in Munich with Edith Wiens.

Jessica Jahn (costume designer)

Jessica Jahn danced professionally in New York City before beginning a career in design. She has had the opportunity to work on various projects with directors such as Tina Landau, Kevin Newbury, Robert O’Hara and Carl Andress, artist Michael Counts, as well as writers Eisa Davis, Norah Ephron and Charles Busch.

New York: Monodramas at ; Love, Loss and What I Wore at the Westside Theatre; Die Mommie Die! at New World Stages (winner of the Lucille Lortel Award). Regional: In the Red and Brown Water at the Alliance Theatre, La Cenerentola at Glimmerglass Opera; Il trovatore, and at Minnesota Opera; Life Is A Dream (world premiere) at Santa Fe Opera; and Die Leibe der Danae at Bard Summerscape. Upcoming: Maria Stuarda at Houston Grand Opera, La bohème at Central City Opera and at Minnesota Opera.

John Robert Lindsey (Schmidt)

Colorado native John Robert Lindsey is a recent graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder where he earned his Master of Music in vocal performance under the tutelage of Julie Simson. Past engagements include Tenor Soloist in the Messiah by Handel, Sam Polk in Susannah by Floyd, the character of Stage Manager in Our Town by Rorem and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni by Mozart. Mr. Lindsey was met with numerous successes in competitions in the recent past. He was a regional finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions for the past two years, as well as taking third place in 2010 and first place in 2011 at the prestigious Denver Lyric Opera Guild competition.

For Minnesota Opera’s 2011–2012 season, Mr. Lindsey will appear as Jonathan Dale in Silent Night, Schmidt in Werther, Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor and Goro in Madame Butterfly.

Angela Mortellaro (Sophie)

Soprano Angela Mortellaro returns to the Minnesota Opera's Resident Artist program for a second season, singing the roles of Despina in Così fan tutte, Madeleine in Silent Night, Sophie in Werther, the title role in the second cast of Lucia di Lammermoor and Kate Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly. Last season, she was seen as Amore in Orpheus and Eurydice, Clorinda in Cinderella and Annina in . Ms. Mortellaro has sung the role of Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with both PORTOpera and Sarasota Opera. She was a Caramoor Opera Bel Canto Young Artist and a Chautauqua Opera Apprentice Artist, where she sang Edith in The Pirates of Penzance and Anna Gomez in The Consul. For Orlando Opera Company, Ms. Mortellaro sang Sister Genovieffa in Suor Angelica, Sally in Die Fledermaus and Clorinda in La Cenerentola. The also appeared as Clorinda for Aspen Opera Theatre as well as Frasquita in its production of . Internationally, she has performed Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro for Operafestival di .

Ms. Mortellaro has a master of music degree in vocal performance from Rice University (Houston, Texas), where she sang Diana in La Calisto, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Sandrina in La finta giardiniera and the Governess in The Turn of the Screw. She completed her bachelor of music degree at the University of Wisconsin (Whitewater).

Allen Moyer (set designer)

Recently: Orfeo ed Euridice for the Metropolitan Opera, directed by Mark Morris, The Last Savage (scenery and costumes) and The Tales of Hoffmann for Santa Fe Opera, for Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Virginia (scenery and costumes) for the Wexford Festival, for the , plus many productions for , Houston Grand Opera, Scottish Opera, Washington National Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Welsh National Opera, L’Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome), Seattle Opera and several productions for New York City Opera, including Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson’s The Mother of Us All, Il trittico, Il viaggio a Reims and La bohème (also broadcast on Live from ). Mr. Moyer also designed the premiere of the Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie’s The Grapes of Wrath, , Il trovatore and Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Minnesota Opera, the Delibes ballet Sylvia for The San Francisco Ballet and Romeo and Juliet: On Motifs of Shakespeare (for the Mark Morris Dance Group), both choreographed by Mr. Morris.

Broadway: Lysistrata Jones, the musical Grey Gardens (Tony/Drama Desk/Outer Critic’s Circle nominations and the 2006 Hewes Award from the American Theater Wing), After Miss Julie, Little Dog Laughed, Twelve Angry Men (including the national tour) and The Constant Wife. Extensive theater credits include productions for Playwright’s Horizons, The Public Theater/NYSF, Second Stage, The Roundabout Theatre, Signature Theatre Company, The Drama Dept., the Guthrie, Manhattan Theater Club and Lincoln Center Theater Company.

Upcoming: Die Fledermaus (Canadian Opera Company), Alice in Wonderland (Opera Theatre of St. Louis).

Moyer is the recipient of a 2006 OBIE Award for sustained excellence.

Kevin Newbury (stage director)

Kevin Newbury is a theater and opera director based in New York City. Recent opera credits include Maria Stuarda and Roberto Devereux (Minnesota Opera), Die Liebe der Danae (Bard Summerscape), Virginia (Wexford Opera Festival), Life is a Dream and Falstaff (Santa Fe Opera), Eugene Onegin (Opera Theatre of St. Louis), Roberto Devereux (L'Opéra de Montréal), El niño (San Francisco Symphony), Hänsel und Gretel (Virginia Opera), Rappahannock County (Virginia Arts Festival, National Tour), La Cenerentola (Glimmerglass Opera) and Bernstein’s Mass (Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Grammy nomination). Recent New York theater credits include Candy and Dorothy (GLAAD Media Award Winner, Drama Desk Nominee), The Second and Kiss and Cry (GLAAD Nominee). Upcoming engagements include the world premieres of The Gospel According to Mary Magdelene (San Francisco Opera), Oscar (Santa Fe Opera and Opera Compay of Philadelphia), Doubt (Minnesota Opera), Oceanic Verses (River-to-River Festival/NYC, Barbican/UK) and Fellow Travelers (NYC). Other upcoming projects include Maria Stuarda (Houston Grand Opera), Roméo at Juliette (Palm Beach Opera), Galileo Galilei (Portland Opera), La bohème (Central City Opera), Anna Bolena (Minnesota Opera) and the film Mothra is Waiting.

Rodolfo Nieto (Johann)

Werther marks bass- Rodolfo Nieto’s third return to the Minnesota Opera stage since completing his two-year stint as one of the Opera’s Resident Artists. Earlier this season, he performed the role of Scottish Soldier in the world premiere of Silent Night. Mr. Nieto’s roles during his seasons as a Resident Artist included the Third Inquisitor and Spanish Captain in Casanova’s Homecoming, the Friend of Nottingham in Roberto Devereux, Colline in La bohème, the First Guard in Salome and, most notably, Joseph in Wuthering Heights.

Last summer, Mr. Nieto performed the role of Guglielmo in Così fan tutte with the Green Mountain Opera Festival. For Cedar Rapids Opera Theater, he has appeared as Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte (2009), the Imperial Commissioner in Madame Butterfly (2006) and Pooh-Bah in The Mikado (2005). During the 2008 season, Mr. Nieto was an Opera Colorado Young Artist, where he sang the roles of Don Magnifico and Alidoro in Cinderella and Godofredo in La Curandera.

Nathaniel Peake (Werther)

– performs February 4 A 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Winner, American tenor Nathaniel Peake has been admired for “his ringing tone and effortless phrasing” (San Francisco Chronicle). The Lansing State Journal awarded him with a “Thespie” award for Best Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of the title role of Bernstein’s Candide. In a recent production of L’amico Fritz, Mr. Peake was lauded for his “brilliant performance in the title role, deploying a clarion tone that moved as deftly through the graceful ease of Act I as through the more emotionally urgent writing of the latter acts.” (San Francisco Chronicle).

An exciting season for 2011–2012 includes a return to the San Francisco Opera as Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, a new production by Jun Kaneko, conducted by Rory Macdonald, and debuts with Seattle Opera as Pinkerton in Puccini’s and Edgardo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Minnesota Opera. Mr. Peake will return to Syracuse Opera in a role debut as Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata and to Wolf Trap Opera for his title role debut in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann and as Pirelli in Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd.

Nathaniel Peake began the 2010–2011 season performing Pinkerton in a new production of Madama Butterfly at Houston Grand Opera as well as Scaramuccio in Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Arturo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor. He also presented a recital at the Morgan Library with legendary mezzo-soprano as part of The George London Foundation recital series. In the summer of 2010, Mr. Peake was seen on the stages Wolf Trap Opera as Sultan Soliman in Mozart’s Zaïde, Albazar in Rossini’s Il turco in Italia and Snout in Britten’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream. He also performed in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra.

Gabriel Preisser (Albert)

Praised for his power and presence both as a singer and actor by the Houston Chronicle, Gabriel Preisser originally hails from the small town of Apopka, Florida. Most recently, he received rave reviews for his performance of Lt. Gordon in the world premiere of Kevin Puts’ Silent Night with Minnesota Opera and will be reprising the same role with the Opera Company of Philadelphia next year. Indeed, Mr. Preisser has made a name for himself performing new works with composers such as Daniel Catán, Daron Hagen, Ricky Ian Gordon and Robert Aldridge. He was the title role in Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry, Tom Joad in Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath, Riolobo in Catan’s Florencia en el Amazonas and Antonio in Hagen’s New York Stories. made note of his “beautifully sung and beautifully portrayed” Yamadori for Kentucky Opera’s Madame Butterfly last fall, and his Masetto at Utah Festival Opera was played “with a delicious mixture of jealous outrage and bewilderment … commanding the spotlight with vocal talent.” Mr. Preisser is truly comfortable on any stage and in a wide range of repertoire from Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia to Prince Ottokar in Der Freischütz. Other major roles include Danilo in The Merry Widow, the title role of Don Giovanni, John Brooke in Adamo’s Little Women, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Achille in Giulio Cesare, the Shoe Salesman and Puppet in Argento’s Postcard from Morroco and Ubalde in Lully’s Armide with such companies as Des Moines Metro Opera, Mercury Baroque, Utah Festival Opera, Pensacola Opera and the Moores Opera Center. Upcoming he can be seen as Yamadori in Madama Butterfly with Minnesota Opera, Bob Baker in Wonderful Town with Skylark Opera, and as the baritone soloist for Mississippi Valley Orchestra’s Carmina burana.

Mr. Preisser was honored as a district winner in the 2010 Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition and won the American finals of the International Lirico Concorso Competition this past summer. He graduated summa cum laude from Florida State University with a double major in vocal performance and commercial music and completed a Masters in Voice at the University of Houston

James Valenti (Werther)

– performs January 28, 31, February 2, 5 American tenor has been hailed for having a voice of Italianate beauty, for his handsome stage presence, ardent singing and for his elegant musicianship in performances with the leading opera companies of the world. He studied at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia and made his professional debut at the age of 25 as Rodolfo in La bohème (Rome Opera). Other performances include Alfredo Germont in La traviata ( London and Japan Tour with , and , Metropolitan Opera New York with and , Canadian Opera Company Toronto, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Salzburg Festival), Duke of Mantua in (Maggio Musicale Florence, Dallas Opera, Palm Beach Opera), Rodolfo ( Milan with Gustavo Dudamel, Dresden , Miami, Santander Spain, Tokyo, Minnesota Opera), Werther (Opéra de Lyon, Tokyo), Faust (Trieste), Lt. Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (Royal Opera House filmed in 3D on DVD, Paris Opéra – Bastille, , Marseilles, Chicago, Vancouver, San Francisco and on a PBS Live from Lincoln Center telecast), Roméo (Minnesota Opera) and Maurizio in (Washington DC). James has recorded for Virgin/EMI Classics with Ms. Gheorghiu.

Considered one of the brightest rising stars of his generation, James was the winner of the prestigious 2010 Richard Tucker Award and 2009 Award. Plans include concerts in Toronto, Copenhagen and St. Petersburg, Russia, Alfredo (Royal Opera House London with Marina Poplavskaya and Leo Nucci, Bavarian State Opera Munich, Dallas Opera), Faust (Royal Opera House London with Rene Pape and Dimitri Hvorostovsky), Werther (Minnesota Opera) and Lucia di Lammermoor (Opera Australia Sydney). He looks forward to future debuts in Zurich, , Santa Fe Opera and a return to the Met.

D.M. Wood (lighting designer)

D. M. Wood’s recent design credits include Hänsel und Gretel (Virginia Opera), Il trittico (Royal Opera House – Covent Garden), Die Liebe der Danae (Bard Summerscape), co-design for the world premiere of Anna Nicole (Royal Opera House – Covent Garden), Moskva, Cheremushki (Long Beach Opera), Green Sneakers, Orpheus and Euridice and Glory Denied (Urban Arias, Washington, D.C.), Mary Stuart, Roberto Devereux, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Il trovatore (Minnesota Opera); Roberto Devereux (L’Opéra de Montréal), Annie Get Your Gun (co-design: Young Vic, London), La Cenerentola (Glimmerglass Opera), Die Zauberflöte (Houston Grand Opera); The Sound of a Voice/Hotel of Dreams (Long Beach Opera), Les Miserables (Copenhagen, Denmark), Tosca (Canadian Opera Company), La Cleopatra/Oedipus Rex (Operahaus Graz, Austria), (Savonlinna Opera, Finland) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Lyric Opera of Kansas City).

Ms. Wood’s work in theater includes designs for American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.), Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF), Primary Stages (NYC), NYSF – the Public Theatre, Children’s Theater Company (Minneapolis), Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Baltimore Centerstage, Trinity Repertory Company and the Philadelphia Theatre Company.

Upcoming designs include Roméo et Juliette (Palm Beach Opera), the world premiere of Wild Swans (A.R.T. and the Young Vic, London) and Anna Bolena (Minnesota Opera).