Ravinia 2026 Issue 1

SARAHDUFRESNE Canadian soprano Sarah Dufresne was a mem- ber of the Jette Parker Artists Program at Lon- don’s Royal Opera House from to and was an Associate Artist with e Mozartists for the – season. is season she joins the ensemble at the Bavarian State Opera, where she will make role debuts including Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni , Clorinda in Rossini’s La Cenerentola , and the First Lady in Mozart’s e Magic Flute . Dufresne’s future engagements also include a return to Opéra de Montréal in her signature role of Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto , con- cert performances of arias from both Auber’s and Massenet’s Manon with Orchestre Métro- politain and Handel’s Messiah with the Victoria and Seattle Symphonies, and debuts with the New York Philharmonic (Or ’s Carmina bu- rana ) and Toronto Symphony (Mahler’s Sym- phony No. ). Highlights of this past year have included her La Scala debut as Frasquita in Bi- zet’s Carmen , portraying Gilda for her Canadian Opera Company debut and with Vancouver Op- era, Lisa in Bellini’s La sonnambula at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl, and a return to the Royal Op- era House as Woodbird in Wagner’s Siegfried . Recent seasons have also seen Dufresne make her BBC Proms and Edinburgh Festival debut as Suor Genovie a in Puccini’s Suor Angelica , sing Ophélie in omas’s Hamlet and Nora in Vaughan Williams’s Riders to the Sea with Opéra de Montréal, debut with Bavarian State Opera as Semele in Strauss’s Die Liebe der Danae , and sing her rst Gilda with Victoria Opera. In concert, she has also sung the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida with the Orchestre Métropolitain and Car- mina Burana for her Montreal Symphony de- but. Dufresne’s credits at London’s Royal Opera House included Voce dal Cielo in Verdi’s Don Carlo , Barbarina in Mozart’s e Marriage of Figaro , Papagena in e Magic Flute , Gianetta in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore , Frasquita in Carmen , e Dew Fairy in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel . In she was awarded second prize in the aria division of the Concours Musical Inter- national de Montréal and a grant from the Sylva Gelber Foundation while being named one of Canada’s top classical musicians under . Sarah Dufresne is making her Ravinia and Chi- cago Symphony Orchestra debuts. BRENTONRYAN Tenor Brenton Ryan has carved a singular path through the operatic landscape, equally at home in the wit of Mozart and the re of Wagner as well as in demand on such stages as the Met- ropolitan Opera and Bavarian State Opera. e season ahead will feature his debuts with Ko- mische Oper Berlin as Edmund in Reimann’s Lear and with Boston Lyric Opera as Mitch in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire . He also re- turns to Bavarian State Opera as Robert Wil- son in John Adams’s Doctor Atomic , the Met as Valzacchi in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier , and San Francisco Opera as Loge in Wagner’s Das Rheingold for its new Ring cycle. In the past year, Ryan made his Salzburg Easter Festival debut as Loge with the Berlin Philharmonic, also join- ing the orchestra in that role at Berlin’s Phil- harmonie, and he returned to the Met as e Incredible in Giordano’s Andrea Chénier and to Bavarian State Opera as Don Basilio in a concert of Mozart’s e Marriage of Figaro and as the Steersman in Wagner’s e Flying Dutchman on the company’s tour to Shanghai. Ryan has built several deep relationships with American and European companies over his career, including with Bavarian State Opera, where he has ad- ditionally sung Missail in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov , the Second Jew in Strauss’s Salome , Tanzmeister in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos , and role debuts as Der Schulmeister and Mücke in Janáček’s e Cunning Little Vixen . His more than performances at the Met have included Pedrillo in Mozart’s e Abduction from the Se- raglio , Monostatos in Mozart’s e Magic Flute , Spoletta in Puccini’s Tosca , Der Narr in Berg’s Wozzeck , and Eros in John Adams’s Antony and Cleopatra , among other roles. At San Francisco Opera, Ryan’s house debut as Janek in Janáček’s e Makropulos A air was followed by creating the role of Eros, as well as appearances as Tri- quet in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin , Chaplain in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites , Novice in Britten’s Billy Budd , Don Curzio in e Marriage of Figaro , and Nick in Poul Ruders’s e Hand- maid’s Tale . He was a Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist at Los Angeles Opera and has sung Der Narr, Basilio, and Monostatos at Lyric Op- era of Chicago. Brenton Ryan is making his Ra- vinia and Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuts. MORRIS ROBINSON Atlanta native Morris Robinson completed undergraduate studies at e Citadel in South Carolina, going on to train his bass voice at the Boston University Opera Institute and enter the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, making his company debut in Beethoven’s Fidelio . He has since ap- pearedmore than Met performances, includ- ing Verdi’s Il trovatore (Ferrando), Aida (King), and Nabucco (High Priest), Strauss’s Salome (Nazarene), Berlioz’s Les Troyens (Mercury), Wagner’s Tannhäuser (Reinmar), and Mozart’s e Magic Flute (Sarastro). Across his career, Robinson has added extenseively to his reperto- ry: Ram s in Aida and Zaccaria in Nabucco , as well as the title role of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and roles in Mozart’s e Abduction from the Seraglio (Osmin) and Don Giovanni (Commen- datore); Verdi’s Rigoletto (Sparafucile), La forza del destino (Padre Guardiano), and Don Carlos (Grand Inquisitor); Puccini’s Turandot (Timur) and Madama Butter y ( e Bonze); and Wag- ner’s Das Rheingold (Fasolt), Tristan und Isolde (King Marke), and e Flying Dutchman (Da- land). ese credits have included appearanc- es with San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dallas Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Volksoper Wien, and Opera Australia. He was Artistic Advisor to the Cin- cinnati Opera during – , and in he won a Grammy Award as a soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. with the Los Angeles Philhar- monic. A proli c concert singer, Robinson has been a guest of the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Philadelphia Orchestra, and At- lanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Na- tional, and San Francisco Symphonies, as well as the BBC Proms and the Mostly Mozart, Cincin- nati May, Tanglewood, Verbier, and Aspen Fes- tivals, among many other ensembles and ven- ues. Morris Robinson has previously appeared in seven operas at Ravinia— e Abduction from the Seraglio and Don Giovanni in , Rigoletto in , Puccini’s Tosca in , e Magic Flute in , Aida in , and Idomeneo in — and performed a solo concert in , also lead- ing a master class for the Steans Institute Singers Program that season. RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 81 GILLIANRIESEN(RYAN);LAWRENCEBROWNLEE(ROBINSON)