Transitions

Opera Cultura hired Sandra Bengochea, a performing artist, educator, and producer, as executive director. Héctor Armienta, who previously held the title of general director, will continue as artistic director.

Arizona Opera has welcomed Samuel Carroll, a voice teacher and previously artistic administrator at Des Moines Metro Opera, as director of artistic operations and the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio.

San Diego Opera hired Llewellyn Crain as chief development officer. Crain has previously directed development departments at San Diego’s The Old Globe and the Kansas City Symphony.

Opera Philadelphia announced that General Director and President David B. Devan will step down at the end of the 2023–2024 season after 18 years with company, 13 of them as its leader.

Opera Memphis named Kathryn Elliott as director of education and Shelbi Sellers as director of partnerships. Elliot most recently served as a secondary-school choir director, and Sellers is singer, actor, dancer, and choreographer.

Cedar Rapids Opera appointed Thaddeus Ennen, a baritone who has performed with the company, as general director.

Calgary Opera announced that General Director and CEO Heather Kitchen will step down at the end of 2023.

Austin Opera announced that its principal conductor and artistic advisor, Timothy Myers, will take on the mantle of music director beginning in the 2023–2024 season.

Pamela Pantos stepped down as president and CEO of Central City Opera.

Opera Lafayette appointed conductor Patrick Dupré Quigley, founder and artistic director of the vocal ensemble Seraphic Fire, as artistic director designate. He succeeds Ryan Brown, who will step down in July 2025.

Christina Scheppelmann, general director of Seattle Opera, announced she will depart at the end of the 2023–2024 season to become general director of La Monnaie/De Munt in Brussels, Belgium.

At Opera Columbus, Rachel Will was promoted from creative programs director and associate producer of the Cooper-Bing Competition to director of advancement.

Kudos

The Music Critics Association of North America bestowed its annual Best New Opera award to composer Nicole Lizée and librettist Nicolas Billon for R.U.R. a torrent of light. The opera, which is the first Canadian work to receive this honor, premiered in 2022 at Tapestry Opera, directed by Michael Hidetoshi Mori.

Terence Blanchard, composer of the operas Fire Shut Up in My Bones and Champion, is one of the 2024 recipients of the National Endowment for the Arts’ Jazz Masters Fellowships, which carry awards of $25,000.

The Kennedy Center named soprano Renée Fleming as one of the five recipients of this year’s Kennedy Center Honors. The honorees will be celebrated at a December 3 gala.

The Dallas Opera named countertenor Kangmin Justin Kim as its Maria Callas Debut Artist of the Year for his performances as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel. The annual award, voted on by the Dallas Opera’s subscribers, recognizes a particularly outstanding company debut.

 San Francisco Opera awarded its highest honor, the San Francisco Opera Medal, to soprano Nina Stemme for her artistic contributions to the company over the past two decades.

San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program presented tenor Rolando Villazón with the Merola Distinguished Alumni Award, the organization’s highest honor.

The Stage Managers’ Association awarded a 2023 Del Hughes Award for Lifetime Achievement to Brett Finlay, who has stage managed opera productions for over 40 years, including at Opera Philadelphia, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Diego Opera, Seattle Opera, and Spoleto Festival USA, among many others.

The World Health Organization named sopranos Renée Fleming and Pretty Yende as goodwill ambassadors for arts and health. They were selected for their artistic achievement and advocacy for the arts’ role in health and well-being.

In Memoriam

At press time, Opera America Magazine received the sad news of the death of soprano Renata Scotto. A full obituary will appear in the Winter 2024 issue.

The Italian diction coach Corradina Caporello died on June 2 at age 79. A native of Rome who earned a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Caporello began teaching Italian diction at The Juilliard School in 1984 and later taught concurrently at the Curtis Institute starting in 1995. She coached Italian operas for companies including Houston Grand Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Santa Fe Opera and taught at numerous summer opera programs.

The English character tenor Graham Clark died on July 6 at age 81. Clark established his career at U.K. companies including Scottish Opera, English National Opera, and the Royal Opera House before gaining international recognition at the Bayreuth Festival beginning in the 1980s. Stateside, he performed at the Metropolitan Opera 82 times from 1985 through 2010, garnering particular notice for his Mime in the Ring, Captain in Wozzeck, and Herod in Salome.

The lyricist Sheldon Harnick, who collaborated with composer Jerry Bock on musicals including Fiddler on the Roof and Fiorello!, died on June 23 at age 99. on Broadway, Harnick made forays into the world of opera, writing the librettos for Jack Beeson’s Captain Jinks of the Horse Marines (1975) and Henry Mollicone’s Coyote Tales (1998), both of which premiered at Lyric Opera of Kansas City. More recently, he worked with Mollicone on the 2016 opera Lady Bird: First Lady of the Land, about the life of Lady Bird Johnson.

Tenor Kenneth Riegel died on June 28 at age 85. Riegel made his professional debut in 1965 at the Santa Fe Opera, appearing in the U.S. premiere of Werner Henze’s König Hirsch, and went on to sing lyric tenor roles with New York City Opera from 1969 to 1974. He made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 1973 and performed over 100 times with the company, notably singing the title role in the 1984 Met premiere of La clemenza di Tito. He enjoyed a long association with the Paris Opera, where he sang Alwa in the 1979 world-premiere staging of Berg’s three-act Lulu and the Leper in the 1983 world premiere of Messiaen’s St. François d’Assise. Riegel sang at numerous other houses throughout the U.S. and Europe, including San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Vienna State Opera, La Scala, and Covent Garden.

Kaija Saariaho, the prolific Finnish composer lauded for her richly textured works, died on June 2 at age 70. Saariaho is perhaps best known globally for her celebrated first opera, L’Amour de loin, written with librettist Amin Maalouf and based on the La vida breve by 12th-century troubadour Jaufré Rudel. The opera premiered in 2000 at the Salzburg Festival and was first seen in the U.S. in 2002 at the Santa Fe Opera. It has been staged numerous times since, including in 2016 at the Metropolitan Opera, when it became only the second work by a woman composer to be presented by the company. Saariaho went on to write the operas Adriana Mater (2006), also with Maalouf, and Only the Sound Remains (2015). Her final opera, Innocence, was a triumph when it premiered in 2021 at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence; it will receive its U.S. premiere at San Francisco Opera in June 2024 and its Met premiere in the 2025–2026 season.

The German singer Gabriele Schnaut, who alternated between soprano and mezzo-soprano repertoire, died on June 19 at age 72. Though her career was centered mostly in Europe, she appeared 28 times at the Metropolitan Opera from 1996 to 2004, singing Brünnhilde in the Ring, the title role of Elektra, and the Dyer’s Wife in Die Frau ohne Schatten.