“The Promise of Living” from The Tender Land

Previously at Lyric: Berta|The Barber of Seville (2019|20)

Second-year soprano Mathilda Edge, originally from Chandlerville, Illinois, is an alumna of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she earned her master’s degree in Vocal Performance. She is the recipient of a 2019 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. She has also won or placed in the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award Competition; Indiana District and Central Region Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions; Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition; and Opera Columbus’ Cooper-Bing Competition. Edge has performed as Fiordiligi/Così fan tutte, First Lady/Die Zauberflöte, Sandman/Hänsel und Gretel, Romilda/Xerxes, The Milliner/Der Rosenkavalier, and Cio Cio San/Madama Butterfly. She was a former member of the Merola Opera Program, and was a Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist in 2018, where she covered the title role in Ariadne auf Naxos.

Mathilda Edge is sponsored by Maurice J. and Patricia Frank.

Lyric debut

Italian soprano Maria Novella Malfatti, a first-year Ryan Opera Center member, debuted in 2020 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam as Azema/Semiramide. She sang at Amsterdam’s Dutch National Opera in Kurt Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny under the baton of Markus Stenz. During the 2018/19 season, she performed at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl in Austria as Musetta/La bohème and as the soprano soloist in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion; and in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Previous performances in Erl include Tamiri/Il re pastore, Cleone/Ermione, the Shepherd/Tannhäuser, and soprano soloist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. Malfatti was a finalist in the 52^nd international vocal competition of s'Hertogenbosch. She graduated in Master Classical Voice at the Conservatorium in Amsterdam, after completing her studies in voice and violin at the Conservatorio L. Boccherini in Lucca.

Maria Novella Malfatti is sponsored by two Anonymous Donors.

Lyric debut

First-year Ryan Opera Center soprano Denis Vélez, from Puebla, Mexico, holds a bachelor’s degree in operatic singing from Mexico’s Superior School of Music. She was a national winner of the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In Mexico’s most important platform for rising talent, the National Singing Contest Carlo Morelli, her performance earned her First Prize, the French Opera Award and the Francisco Araiza Special Award, resulting in a scholarship for a week of master classes with Mr. Araiza. Her repertoire includes the Countess and Susanna/The Marriage of Figaro, Bastienne/Bastien und Bastienne, Fiordiligi/Così fan tutte, Adina/The Elixir of Love, and Mimì/La bohème. For the past two years, Vélez has been an active member of Mexico’s National Opera Chorus at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes.

Denis Vélez is sponsored by The C.G. Pinnell Family.

Lyric debut

Originally from Bennington, Vermont, first-year mezzo-soprano Katherine Beck was most recently heard onstage at the Met, where she competed as a semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions in February 2020. That same week, she was a winner of a prestigious George London Foundation award. In 2019, Beck portrayed Karolka/Jenůfa and covered Dorabella/Così fan tutte at The Santa Fe Opera. She is a former artist of the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio, where she was heard as Mary Johnson/Fellow Travelers, Cherubino/The Marriage of Figaro, Catherine Wright/Shining Brow, Madeleine Audebert/Silent Night, and Flora/La traviata. At Opera Colorado in 2018, Beck sang Lisette/Gerald Cohen’s Steal a Pencil for Me (world premiere). The mezzo has numerous recital and chamber-music credits, including two summers as a fellow of the Tanglewood Music Center.

Katherine Beck is sponsored by Sasha Gerritson and Eugene Jarvis and the Thierer Family Foundation.

Lyric debut

First-year Ryan Opera Center mezzo-soprano Katherine DeYoung, originally from Traverse City, Michigan, recently finished her second year as a member of the Michigan Opera Theatre Studio program. DeYoung is a 2019 Award Winner from The William Matheus Sullivan Musical Foundation. That same year, she was a participant in the Neue Stimmen Competition and was a finalist and Online Viewers’ Choice Award winner in Houston Grand Opera's 31st Eleanor McCollum Competition. In 2020, she was a national semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. In the 2018/19 season with Michigan Opera Theatre, DeYoung portrayed the Sandman/Hänsel und Gretel, the Old Lady/Candide, and the Mother/Amahl and the Night Visitors. She also covered Olga/Eugene Onegin and performed Mae and covered Ma Joad/The Grapes of Wrath. A former Apprentice Singer with The Santa Fe Opera, DeYoung holds a master’s degree in voice performance from the University of Houston.

Katherine DeYoung is sponsored by lead sponsors Dr. and Mrs. Mark F. Kozloff and cosponsors Cynthia Vahlkamp and Robert Kenyon.

Previously at Lyric: Laura|Luisa Miller (2019|20)

Mezzo-soprano Kathleen Felty, from Lubbock, Texas, is a second-year member of the Ryan Opera Center. She holds Bachelor Degrees in Music and Business Administration from Texas Tech University and a Master of Music from the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Her Fletcher performances include Charlotte/Werther, Angelina/La Cenerentola, Unulfo/Rodelinda, Miss Jessel/Turn of the Screw, Geneviève/Impressions de Pelléas, Dinah/Trouble in Tahiti, Komponist/Ariadne auf Naxos, and Paula/Florencia en el Amazonas. Felty is a former apprentice artist of The Santa Fe Opera, where she received the Katharine Mayer Award and covered Komponist/Ariadne auf Naxos. She also participated in Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute Program for Singers. Felty is a four-time District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a winner of the Charlotte Opera Guild Vocal Competition (2018), and the Heafner Williams Vocal Competition (2019).

Kathleen Felty is sponsored by Heidi Heutel Bohn, Lawrence O. Corry, and Robert C. Marks.

Previously at Lyric: Lawrence Brownlee and Friends: The Next Chapter (2020|21)

First-year Ryan Opera Center tenor Lunga Eric Hallam, born and raised in Khayelitsha, South Africa, founded a nonprofit organization called Phenomenal Opera Voices the same year he enrolled at the University of Cape Town College of Music where he received his diploma and postgraduate (with honors) degrees in music training . Recent engagements as a Young Artist at Cape Town Opera include Tebaldo/I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Edgardo/Lucia di Lammermoor, and Roberto/Maria Stuarda, as well as Ramiro/Cinderella at Cape Town Conservatory. Hallam competed as a semifinalist in the 2019 Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition and the 2019 Voice of South Africa International Singing Competition.

Lunga Eric Hallam is sponsored by Richard W. Shepro and Lindsay E. Roberts and Ms. Gay K. Stanek.

Previously at Lyric: Lawrence Brownlee and Friends: The Next Chapter (2020|21)

First-year Ryan Opera Center tenor Martin Luther Clark graduated with a master’s degree in opera from the Curtis Institute of Music, where he appeared with the Russian Opera Workshop in concert performances of both Vaudemont/Iolanta and King Charles/The Maid of Orleans during the 2019 summer season. With Curtis Opera Theatre, Clark sang the roles of First Sailor/Dido and Aeneas, Tobias Ragg/Sweeney Todd, and Don Ottavio/Don Giovanni. He has also been heard with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City as a Resident Artist, and in numerous roles and Galas with University of North Texas Opera, The Dallas Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Opera in Concert, Opera North, and Wolf Trap Opera.

Martin Luther Clark is sponsored by the Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation, Inc., Sally and Michael Feder, and Richard O. Ryan.

Previously at Lyric: Lawrence Brownlee and Friends: The Next Chapter (2020|21)

Baritone Leroy Davis is a first-year member of the Ryan Opera Center. Recent highlights include debuts at the Lincoln Center Theater as George Armstrong in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s Intimate Apparel; Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Pastor, Layabout Man, James, Kaboom/Terence Blanchard and Kasi Lemmon’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones (world premiere) as a Gerdine Young Artist; the Phoenicia Festival as Belcore/The Elixir of Love; Boston Opera Collaborative as Leporello/Don Giovanni; and Odyssey Opera as Ernesto Malcom/Giovanni Pacini’s Maria, Regina d'Inghilterra. Davis was also seen as the Forester/The Cunning Little Vixen, Hannah Before/Laura Kaminsky’s As One, Joe St. George/Tobias Picker’s Dolores Claiborne, and Pablo Picasso/Tom Cipullo’s After Life at Boston University’s Opera Institute. The baritone previously participated in the artist programs of Chautauqua Opera and Milwaukee’s Florentine Opera.

Leroy Davis is sponsored by the Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation.

Previously at Lyric: 3 roles since 2018|19, most recently Yamadori/Madama Butterfly (2019|20).

Puerto Rican baritone Ricardo José Rivera, a third-year member of the Ryan Opera Center, has portrayed Guglielmo/Così fan tutte at the International Vocal Academy of Rome; sung several recitals with the American Masters of Opera Academy in Moscow; and performed in scene and concert presentations as a participant in Tel-Aviv’s International Vocal Arts Institute. He has had repeat engagements at the Performing Arts Center of San Juan and at the University of Puerto Rico Theater, including Don Pasquale, Gianni Schicchi, and Don Quixote/Ravel’s Master Peter’s Puppet Show (part of the 2016 Casals Festival). Rivera recently earned his master’s degree at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. In 2018/19, Rivera sang Schaunard/La bohème and Baron Douphol/La traviata and appeared in concert with the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago (Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn).

Ricardo José Rivera is sponsored by the Mrs. Myung S. Chung Family, Drs. David H. Whitney and Juliana Chyu, and Drs. Joan and Russ Zajtchuk.

Previously at Lyric: 6 roles since 2018|19, most recently First Prison Guard |Dead Man Walking, the Bonze|Madama Butterfly, and Sourin|The Queen of Spades (all in 2019|20).

Third-year bass-baritone David Weigel, a native of Asheville, North Carolina, is an alumnus of Furman University (Bachelor of Music), the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (Master of Music), the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (Professional Artist Certificate), and the University of Michigan (Doctor of Musical Arts). He was a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program in 2013 and in 2017. He has performed the title role, Leporello, and Masetto/Don Giovanni, Colline/La bohème, Don Basilio and Fiorello/The Barber of Seville, Figaro/Le nozze di Figaro, Bottom/A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Friar Laurence/Romeo and Juliet, Spencer Coyle/Owen Wingrave, the Bonze and Prince Yamadori/Madama Butterfly, the Speaker/The Magic Flute, Moralès/Carmen, Rambaldo/La rondine, Frank/Die Fledermaus, and Melchior/Amahl and the Night Visitors. In concert the bass-baritone has sung Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Handel’s Messiah, the Requiems of Mozart, Verdi, and Fauré, Brahms’s German Requiem, Debussy’s L’enfant prodigue, and Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem. Most recently he performed Figaro/Le nozze di Figaro with Aspen Music Festival. In Lyric Opera’s 2018/19 season he sang The Voice of Neptune/Idomeneo, First Minister/Cendrillon, and Dr. Grenvil/La traviata.

David Weigel is sponsored by Lois B. Siegel, Michael and Salme Harju Steinberg, and Mrs. J.W. Van Gorkom.

Previously at Lyric: Second Prison Guard|Dead Man Walking, Commissioner|Madama Butterfly, and Narumov|The Queen of Spades (all 2019|20).

Bass Anthony Reed is a second-year member of the Ryan Opera Center and an alumnus of the Curtis Institute of Music and the Merola Opera Program. Reed was previously seen at Wolf Trap Opera as Frère Laurent/Roméo et Juliette. A former Adler Fellow with San Francisco Opera, his highlights on stage there include King of Egypt/Aida, Speaker/Die Zauberflöte, and Dottore Grenvil/La traviata. Reed recently sang Don Basilio/The Barber of Seville with Annapolis Opera and Haydn’s Creation with North Carolina Master Chorale. Additionally, his repertory encompasses such major roles as Sarastro/Die Zauberflöte and Don Magnifico/La Cenerentola, among others. In October 2020, Reed will appear in a virtual concert with Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago as a part of their Collaborative Works Festival.

Anthony Reed is sponsored by J. Thomas Hurvis.

Previously at Lyric: Lawrence Brownlee and Friends: The Next Chapter (2020|21)

First-year Ryan Opera Center pianist Chris Reynolds is currently a doctoral candidate at The Juilliard School. He recently concluded his run as performance pianist for Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s chamber opera Intimate Apparel at the Lincoln Center Theater. Other recent performance venues include Bayreuth, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, WQXR, the Kyoto Summer Music Festival, and National Sawdust. A two-time winner of the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital Auditions, he has been a fellow at SongFest and Aspen, as well as a Schwab Rising Star at Caramoor as part of the New York Festival of Song Emerging Artist Series.  Reynolds has worked at the Metropolitan Opera and Lincoln Center Theater as an opera coach/répétiteur, and he holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School.

Chris Reynolds is sponsored by Nancy Dehmlow, Loretta N. Julian, and Philip G. Lumpkin.