Micaele Sparacino General Director

Cast and staff for La Sonnambula

Soloists

Tatiyana Abiyakiy, soprano, as Amina
Antonio Giuliano, tenor, as Elvino
Eduardo Castro, bass baritone, as Count Rodolfo
Joyce Lundy, soprano, as Lisa
Matthew Osifchin, baritone, as Alessio
Susan Sevier, contralto, as Teresa
John Turner, tenor, as the Notary

Artists' biographies

Chorus

Chorus Master: Cora E. Alter

Solo Quartet: Jennifer Hosmer, Cora Alter, John Turner, Matthew Osifchin

Sopranos: Susan Friedman, Jennifer Hosmer, Sara Kerkhoff, Linda Merchlinsky, Rebecca Napoco

Altos: Cora Alter, Lynn Burress, Josey Pia, Eve Moscicki, Bonnie Sarf

Tenors: Ronnie Hardcastle, Mark Kilbane, Noel Nazario, Ron Pawdkowski, John Turner

Basses: Mark Moverman, Ben Robles, Edmund Sallis, Maurice Singer, Dave Webster

Camerata

Daniel Lewin, violin I
Stefano Natrella, violin II
Larry Laffoon, viola
Harriet Kaplan, violincello
Leeza Wildgen, piano concertato
Mark Husey, organo concertato

Staff

Micaele Sparacino, General Director
Stephen Brown, Associate Conductor
Leeza Wildgen, Principal Coach, Accompanist
Cora Alter, Chorus Master
Steve Behrens, website and program design
Kenneth Borden, Archivist, Auditions Coordinator
Joy Rodman, Box Office
Andre Manley, Production Engineer

Artists’ biographies, La Sonnambula

Tatiyana
Abiyakiy
Soprano
as Amina

Ms. Abiyakiy, former principal artist of the Bolshoi Theater and leading guest artist throughout Europe and now the United States, makes her Washington operatic debut in these performances.

Her repertoire includes Gilda (Rigoletto), Lucia di Lammermoor, Rosina (Barbiere di Siviglia), Violetta (La traviata), Semiramide and her signature role of the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), which she has also sung with the Kirov in St. Petersburg. Ms. Abiyakiy recently performed a solo recital at the International Mozart Festival in Salzburg.

She has won many distinguished vocal competitions, including the Marian Anderson Vocal Competition; the International Competition of Bilbao, Spain; the Francisco Vinyas Competition in Barcelona, Spain; and the Uzbekistan National Competition.

Although Ms. Abiyakiy sings a few Russian roles, including The Queen of Shemakhan (Le Coq d'Or) and Marfa (The Tsar's Bride), she specializes in the Italian leggiera repertoire. Indeed! Her voice is Slavic in timbre yet Italianate in training and style. Her mentor for many years was the great Italian baritone, Gino Bechi, who persuaded her to specialize in the bel canto operas. Her teacher and coach now is her mother, the acclaimed dramatic soprano Galina Abiyakiy, also a former Bolshoi star.

Ms. Abiyakiy now resides in the Washington area, where she maintains a large studio of voice students. She has given recitals for the U.S. Department of State, the Arts Club of Washington, the Friday Morning Music Club, the National Symphony and the Phillips Collection, and appeared in a live broadcast on WGMS-FM. She will return to Opera Bel Canto next season as Donizetti's demented heroine in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Antonio Giuliano
Tenor
as Elvino

Sgt. First Class Giuliano, U.S. Army, returns for his fifth lead tenor role with Opera Bel Canto.

SFC Giuliano has performed with the Army Chorus since 1988. He has represented his country around the world, performing as a soloist to packed houses and standing ovations. He has performed for heads of state and served as soloist at funeral services for President Reagan. Off-duty, he has thrilled audiences in lead roles with Opera Bel Canto, serving as principal tenor in its three full-length productions last season and starring in our benefit gala tribute to Mario Lanza last spring.

He has appeared with nearly every instrumental ensemble in the Washington region. He has sung leading operatic tenor roles, such as Rodolfo in La Bohème, Alfredo in La traviata, Manrico in Il trovatore, Alfred in Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus and Nemorino in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore. In New York he sang in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia with the National Lyric Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor with the New York Repertory Opera, and Verdi's Luisa Miller with Opera Nova. He has sung tenor solos in the Verdi and Mozart Requiems, Bach Magnificat, Bach Cantata BWV 140, "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme," Handel's Messiah, Orff's Carmina Burana, Puccini's Messa di Gloria and Mozart’s Mass in C.

Eduardo Castro
Bass Baritone
as Count Rodolfo

Mr. Castro emigrated from his native Peru in 1991 and has completed coursework at George Mason University and Catholic University of America, where he performed major roles in fully staged operas.

Mr. Castro first performed with OBC in last year’s Rigoletto and has been involved with the Baltimore Opera since 2000 and performed with the Maryland Opera Society, the Catholic University Opera and the BPC Opera. His past roles have included Dr. Dulcamara in Donizetti's L’Elisir d’Amore, Germont in Verdi's La traviata, Frank in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauss, Cappellio in Bellini’s I Capuleti ed i Montecchi, Schaunard and Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème, Alfonso in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Masetto in Mozart's Don Giovanni, and Dr. Dulcamara and Ferrando in Il trovatore with the Maryland Opera Society.

Joyce Lundy
Soprano
as Lisa

Ms. Lundy began her singing career at age 12, as a member of the adult choir of Augustana Lutheran Church, and made her professional operatic debut in 2000 as Nella in the production of Gianni Schicci by the Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore.

She won the vocal competition of the National Association of Teachers of Singing in 2000 and was a runner-up in competitions of the Leontyne Price (2000) and Maryland Opera Society (2001) competitions.

Ms. Lundy appeared with the Friends in Music Ministries’ productions of Glen Burleigh’s Born to Die, as Mary. She made her first appearance with the Wolf Trap Summer Opera Company in the Washington premiere of Kurt Weill’s Street Scene, as Mrs. Davis.

She performed the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah with the McLean Symphony and Messiah Community Chorus in 1999 and was featured in the National Symphony Orchestra and Metropolitan Community Chorus Messiah Sing-in at the Kennedy Center in 2001.

A native of Washington, she earned her bachelor’s degree vocal performance at Bucknell University and her master’s in operatic performance at the University of Maryland.

She is a vocal instructor at the Levine School of Music and Washington Bible College and a vocal coach for several Washington area choirs.

Matthew Osifchin Baritone
as Alessio

Mr. Osifchin was born in Doylestown, Pa., where he began studying voice with Neal Tracey. He went on to complete his bachelor's degree at Indiana University, where he performed the roles of Melisso in Handel's Alcina and a Señor in Bernstein’s Candide. He performed with Opera Bel Canto for the first time last fall in Rigoletto.

He recently finished graduate work at the University of Maryland, where he studied with Francois Loup and Dominic Cossa. He performed the role of Don Alfonso in Cosi fan Tutte, as well as the Four Villains in Les Contes d'Hoffmann.

Susan Sevier
Contralto
as Teresa

Ms. Sevier sang in Opera Bel Canto’s productions of Rigoletto, La Traviata and Petite Messe Solennelle. She made her New York City debut as Fricka and Erda in the West Side Opera Company production of Wagner’s Das Rheingold. She premiered with New York’s DiCapo Opera Theater as Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.

In May, she made her debut at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore as Rossweisse in a performance of Act III of Die Walkure, featuring James Morris as Wotan.
A protégé of Maestro Sparacino, she sang with his previous company, Opera Camerata of Washington, in the Washington premiere of Rossini’s original scoring of Petite Messe Solennelle and Adriana Lecourvreur.

Ms. Sevier appeared at the Ashlawn Summer Festival as the Second Lady in Die Zauberflöte and Bloody Mary in South Pacific. She debuted “Remembering Him,” a song cycle for contralto and viola composed for her by Mark Adamo.

In 2002, she made her Baltimore operatic debut with the Peabody Opera as Maurya in Ralph Vaughn-Williams’s Riders to the Sea and as the Third Lady in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. She was seen in Peabody’s production of Britten’s Albert Herring. Other recent roles include Zita in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and La Zia Principessa in Puccini’s Suor Angelica, as well as Flosshilde in Wagner’s Die Götterdämmerung at the Shaker Mountain Music Festival with the Albany Symphony Orchestra in 2002.

Her European appearances include Litanie, K.195, with the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg, Austria; an all-Bellini recital hosted by the Rubini Society’s Stage International de Bel Canto in Crouttes, France; an all-Rossini recital hosted by the Rubini Society at the Festival de L’Orne, Planches, France; and concerts in Munich, Germany.

Last summer she appeared with the Bourgas Opera and Philharmonic Society in Bulgaria, as Olga in Tschaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin and as the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte. In August she appeared as Waltraute in Die Götterdämmerung in Altenberg, Germany. She will return to Opera Bel Canto next season in the title role of Rossini’s Tancredi.

John Turner
Tenor
as the Notary

Mr. Turner is singing in his third production with Opera Bel Canto, after performing in the chorus of Rigoletto and La traviata.

He has also appeared with the Summer Opera Theater Company, the Bethesda Music Festival, Eldbrooke Opera, the Victorian Lyric Opera Company and Bel Cantanti.

His repertoire includes Gastone (La traviata), and other character roles including Usciere (Rigoletto), Captain (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Page (Amahl and the Night Visitors), the Contadini soli (Pagliacci), and the Peasant solo (Eugene Onegin).

He is a member of the vocal studio of Dr. Harry Dunstan.

Mark Husey
Organo concertato

Mr. Husey has been widely acclaimed as a musical Renaissance man for his gifts as a conductor, organist, accompanist and tenor.

Since accompanying Opera Bel Canto’s production of Donizetti's La Favorita last spring, he has been heard on National Public Radio with the Empire Brass and the Miami Bach Society. More recently he performed Duruflé's Requiem at the Union Church in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

He is one of the few organists receiving critical acclaim from Opera News, for a 1995 performance of his original organ transcription of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta for Opera Camerata of Washington, under the baton of Micaele Sparacino.

Mr. Husey was accompanist to the Westminster Choir under Joseph Flummerfelt in Spoleto Festivals in the United States and Italy in 1993.He has served as Organist and Choirmaster at Saint Patrick's Episcopal Church in Washington and at historic Saint John's Church in Baltimore, and conducted Saint John's Choir at Washington National Cathedral and at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina.

Now living in Miami, Mr. Husey is on the faculty rosters of the schools of music at Florida International University and the University of Miami, where he works with their vocal and choral departments, respectively. He serves as Organist and Choirmaster at Sunrise Presbyterian Church of Miami Lakes and sings in the professional chorus of Florida Grand Opera.

Cora Alter
Chorus Master

Ms. Alter has been a professional musician for more than 40 years. As a performer, she has appeared with the Washington Opera, the professional chorus of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Opera Camerata of Washington, the Shir Chadash Chorale and other groups. She also has been a church and synagogue soloist.

She has played cello in various orchestras and has conducted choral and orchestral groups. She was Chorus Master for the Shir Chadash Chorale and for Opera Camerata of Washington, and has been Musical Director for productions by Montgomery Playhouse and Rockville Musical Theater.

She has produced and sung at the Kennedy Center and performed with the Washington Opera at the White House during the administration of President Kennedy, likely the only time there has been a staged opera production there.

Ms. Alter began her formal music training at the Dalcroze School of Music, continuing at the High School of Music & Art, both in New York City. She earned a bachelor's degree in music education at Queens College, City University of New York, and has done graduate study in voice at the Douglas College of Music, Rutgers University, and the Chicago Conservatory of Music, Roosevelt University, and has studied with several private teachers.

A strong advocate of musical experiences for children, Ms. Alter for many years was a music specialist and then director for the Arts Day Program of the Roundhouse Theater, Montgomery County, Md. This program provides creative arts experiences for children of elementary school age. She also teaches classes about opera and operetta for the Institute for Learning in Retirement at Frederick Community College.

Leeza Wildgen
Piano concertato, principal coach and rehearsal pianist

Ms. Wildgen is a native of St. Petersburg, Russia, where she studied piano at the famed Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory.

Now a Washington-area resident, she works with the Levine School of Music and the Rome School of Music at Catholic University. She is also the pianist for Cedar Lane Unitarian Church.

She accompanies the vocal students of Maestro Sparacino in his studio and is often called upon to coach the students in Russian diction and vocal repertoire.