Porgy and Bess

18 / 60

P R O F I L E S | L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
28 | N O V E M B E R 1 7 - D E C E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4
ERIC OWENS (Porgy)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Vodník/Rusalka (2013-14);
title role/ Hercules (2010-
11); General Leslie Groves/
Doctor Atomic (2007-08).
The celebrated bass-
baritone, a Philadelphia
native, returns to his hometown this season
to portray Philip II/Don Carlo with Opera
Philadelphia. He also sings Wagner’s Dutchman
at Washington National Opera. Owens was
heard last season as Sarastro/Die Zauberflöte
at the Metropolitan Opera, Handel’s Hercules
at the Canadian Opera Company, Alberich/
Ring cycle at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, and as
bass soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic.
He also mentored the next generation of
opera stars for the “American Voices” project
at Washington’s Kennedy Center, at the
invitation of Renée Fleming. Owens has created
numerous challenging roles in contemporary
repertoire, including the title character/Elliot
Goldenthal’s Grendel (world premiere at Los
Angeles Opera, subsequently Lincoln Center)
and – in operas by John Adams – General Leslie
Groves/Doctor Atomic (San Francisco, DVD,
Grammy-winning CD) and the Storyteller/A
Flowering Tree (Peter Sellars’s New Crowned
Hope Festival in Vienna, CD). His operatic
versatility encompasses Alberich/Ring cycle
(Metropolitan Opera – HD, DVD, CD); his
debuts at San Francisco Opera (Otello) and
Covent Garden ( Norma); Rigoletto and Il
trovatore (Los Angeles); Die Zauberflöte (Paris);
A riodante and L’Incoronazione di
Poppea (London); and The Rape of Lucretia
(Glimmerglass Opera). A Houston Grand
Opera Studio alumnus, Owens has been heard
at HGO in six roles, among them Aristotle
Onassis/Jackie O (world premiere, CD),
Ramfis, Sarastro, and Méphistophélès.
ADINA AARON (Bess)
Lyric Opera debut
The American soprano
has won great praise
internationally in a variety
of lyric and spinto roles.
Highlights in her 2013-
14 season included
her Washington National Opera debut as
Leonora/La forza del destino, a work in which
she previously triumphed in Cologne. She first
attracted international attention as Aida in
Franco Zeffirelli’s production in Busseto, Italy;
Aaron’s greatly acclaimed portrayal was telecast
throughout Europe and released on DVD. She
has reprised Aida at the Savonlinna Festival
in Finland, the Opéra de Marseille, Cologne
Opera, the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège
(Belgium), and most recently last season at
the Aalto-Theater in Essen, Germany. Aaron’s
successes in Verdi repertoire also include Un
ballo in maschera (Erfurt), Don Carlo (Tel Aviv,
Kiel), Il trovatore (Marseille, Avignon, Montreal,
Anchorage), Falstaff (Bilbao, Toulon), and the
Requiem (Stuttgart, Cologne, Marseille). After
making her role debut as Tosca in Stuttgart,
Aaron repeated the role in Essen and returns to
it later this season in Marseille. Other successes
range stylistically from Vitellia/La clemenza di
Tito (Cologne) and Fiordiligi/ Così fan tutte
(Tel Aviv) to Rosario/Granados’s Goyescas
(Montpellier Festival), Mimì/La bohème (Tel
Aviv), the title role/Madama Butterfly (Miami),
and the title role/Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha
(Paris’s Théâtre du Châtelet).
ERIC GREENE (Crown)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Jake/Porgy and Bess
(2008-09).
The baritone has achieved
significant successes
onstage with both European
and American companies.
Most recently, he portrayed Queequeg/Jake
Heggie’s Moby Dick at Washington National
Opera and made his first forays into Wagner:
as Melot/Tristan und Isolde in concert with the
Puerto Rico Symphony at the Casals Festival,
Donner/Das Rheingold at Palermo’s Teatro
Massimo, and Gunther/Götterdämmerung with
Opera North in the United Kingdom. He also
starred with Opera North as Billy Bigelow/
Carousel in a much-acclaimed new production.
With another important British company,
BirminghamOpera, Greene created the leading
role of Segismundo/Life is a Dream by Jonathan
Dove and Alasdair Middleton and portrayed
Prince Ivan Khovansky/ Khovanshchina. His
major U.S. appearances include Jake/Porgy
and Bess (Francesca Zambello’s production
at Los Angeles Opera), Escamillo /Carmen
(Opera Philadelphia), Robert Garner/Richard
Danielpour’s Margaret Garner (world premiere,
Michigan Opera Theatre), Ping/Turandot
(Opera Philadelphia), and eight productions at
Virginia Opera. Greene is a former winner of
Maryland’s Leontyne Price Vocal Competition
and also former first-place winner in both the
Rosa Ponselle All-Marylanders Competition
and the NAACP ACT-SO competition.
JERMAINE SMITH
(Sportin’ Life)
Previously at Lyric Opera:
Sportin’ Life/Porgy and
Bess (2008-09).
The tenor is closely
associated with the role of
Sportin’ Life, in which he
has appeared in Japan, Germany, Sweden,
Austria, The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, and
Norway. He has also sung the role with major
American companies, including the Hollywood
Bowl, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Pacific,
Washington National Opera, and Los Angeles
Opera (the latter two in Francesca Zambello’s
production). Venues that have most recently
acclaimed his portrayal include the Teatro San
Carlo (Naples), Seattle Opera, Tanglewood
(Boston Symphony Orchestra), Paris’s Opéra-
Comique, the Théâtre de Caen, the Granada
Festival, the Opéra de Luxembourg, and
the Santa Fe Symphony. His other operatic
repertoire includes the title role/ Joshua’s Boots
(world premiere at Opera Theatre of Saint
Louis, revival at Kansas City Lyric Opera),
Henry Davis/ Street Scene and Zodzetrick/
Treemonisha (both with Opera Theatre of Saint
Louis). He has made numerous appearances
with the St. Louis Symphony. An alumnus of
New England Conservatory and the University
of Missouri-St. Louis, Smith is a faculty member
of Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis.
KAREN SLACK (Serena)
Lyric Opera debut
The soprano’s portrayal of
Serena has been seen at
both San Francisco Opera
(DVD) and Washington
National Opera. Among her
most recent engagements
have been Sister Rose/Jake Heggie’s Dead Man
Walking (Madison Opera, Des Moines Metro
Opera), the title role/ Tosca and Leonora /Il
trovatore (Arizona Opera), Violetta /La traviata
(Sacramento Opera, West Bay Opera), and
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Alabama
Symphony). She will sing the Beethoven work
later this season with the Quad City Symphony.
Slack attracted considerable attention in her
Metropolitan Opera debut as Verdi’s Luisa
Miller, which was broadcast internationally.
Other important operatic engagements
include Aida (Lyric Opera of Kansas City),
Desdemona/Otello (Melbourne Symphony),
and Cilla/Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner
opposite Denyce Graves (Michigan Opera