Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 9 - Madama Butterfly

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 24 ZACHARY NELSON SHARPLESS Previously at Lyric: Four roles since 2016/17, most recently Paul/ The Listeners (2024/25) and Marcello/ La Bohème (2018/19). This season the baritone will sing Marcello in La Bohème at Pittsburgh Opera, and make a role and house debut as Don Pizarro in Fidelio with Utah Opera. Future seasons include his debut with Dallas Opera. Other recent highlights include a role debut as the titular Bluebeard in Bluebeard’s Castl e with Opera San José; one of his signature roles, Leporello, in Don Giovanni with Opera Omaha; and Alberich in his first performances of Das Rheingold and Siegfried with Atlanta Opera. In concert, he joined the Santa Fe Symphony for a New Year’s Eve concert of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. Nelson returned to Palm Beach Opera in the 2023/24 season, making his role debut as the Four Villains in Offenbach’s Les contes d’Hoffmann . Other appearances included Santa Fe Opera as Golaud in Pelléas et Mélisande ; Atlanta Opera as Marcello in La Bohèm e, and Arizona Opera as Leporello in Don Giovanni . In concert he joined the Utah Symphony for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony and Act 3 of Berg’s Wozzeck , and he appeared in recital with the Sag Harbor Song Festival. During the summer of 2024 he debuted the role of Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier with Santa Fe Opera, his 11th opera with the company. RODELL ROSEL GORO Previously at Lyric: 20 roles since 2005/06, most recently Spoletta/ Tosca (2021/22) and Goro/ Madama Butterfly (2019/20). The Grammy-nominated tenor and Ryan Opera Center alumnus appears regularly in major opera houses around the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Royal Ballet and Opera. He is primarily known for superb portrayals of character roles: Monostatos, Goro, Mime and Loge, Basilio, Tanzmeister, Spoletta, and the Four Servants in The Tales of Hoffmann . Recent highlights include appearances at the Metropolitan Opera and the Cleveland Orchestra as Monastatos in Die Zauberflöte , Boston Lyric Opera and Houston Grand Opera as Goro in Madama Butterfly , Austin Opera as Beppe in Pagliacci , and Calgary Opera as Loge in Das Rheingold . He made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Valzacchi in Der Rosenkavalier , opposite Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, and Sir Thomas Allen. He originated the roles of Ong Chi Seng in Paul Moravec’s The Letter at Santa Fe Opera, as well as Anthony Candolino in Terrence McNally and Jake Heggie’s Great Scott at Dallas Opera, which starred Joyce DiDonato and Frederica von Stade, conducted by Patrick Summers. As Monostatos in The Magic Flute , he debuted in the David McVicar production at the Royal Ballet and Opera, in the U.S. premiere of the Barry Kosky production at LA Opera, and in the Julie Taymor production at the Metropolitan Opera. In addition, he has sung the title role in Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg , Britten’s Albert Herring , as well as Tamino in The Magic Flute and Don José in Carmen . JONGWON HAN THE BONZE Lyric debut Currently an Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera, the Korean bass-baritone made his debut there in the summer of 2023 as The Bonze in Madama Butterfly and has since appeared as Tom in Un Ballo in Maschera , La Voce in Idomeneo , Colline in Bohème Out of the Box , 3rd and 4th Noble in Lohengrin , and Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte , along with numerous cover roles. This season, he sings Ceprano in Rigoletto and Second Knight in Parsifal , appears in the Adler Fellowship’s annual Rising Stars concert, and performs at the Grant Park Music Festival. Han made his professional debut at the Vernazza Opera Festival (Cinque Terre, Italy) and has been featured in concerts in Osaka, Japan; Seoul, South Korea; and New York City. Other recent engagements have included his debuts at Atlanta Opera as Schaunard in La Bohème and at Palm Beach Opera as The Bonze, and concert performances of Handel’s Messiah with Dayton Opera, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Penderecki’s Credo at the Oregon Bach Festival, Haydn’s Theresienmesse and Mozart’s Sparrow Mass with the New Choral Society, and Bach’s Cantata BWV 140 in Seoul. Han won Third Prize at the 2022 Operalia World Opera Competition and was a Grand Finalist in the 2021 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. SIHAO HU PRINCE YAMADORI Previously at Lyric: Second Nazarene/ Salome (2025/26). The first-year Ryan Opera Center baritone from Shenzhen, China, studied at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama in Cardiff. Hu participated in more than 50 performances across his homeland as well as abroad throughout his undergraduate studies. Highlights of his operatic experience include creating the title role of Tang Xian Zu for its world premiere in 2017 and reprising it at the Sydney Opera House, the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and the Janáˇcek Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno, Czech Republic. Other roles in his repertoire include Ping/ Turandot , Silvio/ Pagliacci , Barmann/ Falscher Verrat , Figaro/ Il barbiere di Siviglia , Chorèbe/ Les Troyens , Germont/ La traviata , the title role/ Don Giovanni , Guglielmo/ Così fan tutte , and Conte Almaviva/ Le nozze di Figaro . Formerly an artist at Theater Kiel in Germany, Hu participated in the 2024 Merola Opera Program in San Francisco. In 2019, he won the Chinese Golden Bell Award for Music, the only standing music-related comprehensive award in China. Sihao Hu is sponsored by Lead Sponsor Peter Scheuermann and cosponsors Drs. George Dunea and Sally Metzler-Dunea, Richard W. Shepro & Lindsay E. Roberts, and Ms. Gay K. Stanek.