Ravinia 2025 Issue 4

PAVILION 7:30 PM FRIDAY, AUGUST 1, 2025 Morgan Freeman’s Symphonic Blues Experience with the CHICAGO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA MARTIN GELLNER, conductor † ANTHONY “BIG A” SHERROD • JACQUELINE “JAXX” NASSAR KEITH JOHNSON • ADRIENNE “LADY ADRENA” ERVIN MARK YACOVONE • ADRIAN “REV SLIM” FORREST • LEE WILLIAMS orch. DAVID O’ROURKE “Crossroads” MARTIN GELLNER from Robert Johnson’s Cross Road Blues EP (1937) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” from Blind Willie Johnson’s Columbia Records recording (1927) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “You Gotta Move” from Mississippi Fred McDowell’s You Gotta Move (1965) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “Death Letter Blues” from Son House’s Father of Folk Blues (1965) orch. DAVID O’ROURKE “Dust My Broom” MARTIN GELLNER from Elmore James’s Trumpet Records recording (1951) orch. DAVID O’ROURKE “Thrill Is Gone” MARTIN GELLNER from B.B. King’s Completely Well (1969) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “Cadillac Assembly Line” from Albert King’s Cadillac Assembly Line (1976) orch. DAVID O’ROURKE “Born Under a Bad Sign” MARTIN GELLNER from Albert King’s Born Under a Bad Sign (1967) orch. DAVID O’ROURKE “Hard Times” MARTIN GELLNER from Ray Charles’s The Genius Sings the Blues , (1954) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “Somebody Knockin’ On My Door” from Eric Clapton’s Slowhand at 70 (2015) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “Travelling Riverside Blues” from Led Zeppelin’s Coda (1982) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “I’ll Take You There” from The Staple Singers’ Be Altitude: Respect Yourself (1972) orch. DAVID O’ROURKE “Tried and Tried” MARTIN GELLNER from Anthony “Big A” Sherrod’s Right On Time (2016) orch. DAVID O’ROURKE “Someday” MARTIN GELLNER from Anthony “Big A” Sherrod’s Right On Time (2016) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “I Lied to You” from Sinners original soundtrack (2025) orch. MARTIN GELLNER “Bring It On Home to Me” from Sam Cooke’s The Best of Sam Cooke (1962) † Ravinia debut CELESTE MORALES Mexican American so- prano Celeste Morales is a recent winner of the Dietrich Memorial Award at the Opera In- dex Vocal Competition. This year, celebrating Opera Ithaca’s 10th anni- versary, she creates the role of Sunny in Laura Kaminsky’s Lucidity , having debuted with the company last April as Mrs. Grose in Britten’s Turn of the Screw . Morales held fellowships at Ravinia’s Steans Institute in the summers of 2022 and 2023, making her Chicago Symphony Or- chestra debut during the latter residency singing a Tchaikovsky aria. She also spent two summers with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program— singing such roles as Rosalba in Catán’s Florencia en el Amazonas , Alice in Verdi’s Falstaff , and Su- zel in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz —and was a finalist auditioning for the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago. Her previous stage credits include Madame Lidoine in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites , Donna Anna and Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni , the Mother in Humper- dinck’s Hansel and Gretel , Desdemona in Verdi’s Otello , and the Countess in Mozart’s The Mar- riage of Figaro . Morales was featured in Hearing In Color’s performance documentary Latinidad: la gente y la música , and she sang the title role of Nathan Felix’s La Malinche for Hispanic Heritage Month at The Museum of Art in her native San Antonio, recently reprising the performance for the inaugural Opera Austin Festival. EDMOND RODRIGUEZ A singer and actor from Miami, tenor Edmond Rodriguez is immersed in classical music, art song, opera, musical theater, and film and television music. He earned critical praise during his 2022 fellowship at Tan- glewood performing as the Young King in the American premiere of George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love and Violence . Committed to featuring contemporary music in his repertory, Rodriguez recently debuted with the Los Angeles Philhar- monic in Steve Reich’s Traveler’s Prayer and pre- miered Derrick Skye’s Song of the Ambassadors opera at REDCAT. After his fellowship at Ravin- ia’s Steans Institute in 2023, he made his Carnegie Hall debut as a Young Artist in Renée Fleming’s SongStudio. On the theater stage, Rodriguez has sung as Anthony in Sweeney Todd , Oronte in Handel’s Alcina , Thomas Edison in Robert Co- hen’s A Fragile Filament , Basilio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro , the Fisherman in Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol , the Man with the Old Luggage in Argento’s Postcard fromMorocco , and La Rainette in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges . He is also fea- tured on soundtracks to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker , Encanto , Black Panther: Wakanda For- ever , Nope , and Wicked . RAVINIA.ORG  • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 71