Mozart: Il re pastore

Cast:

NEC Philharmonia

First Violin             
Victoria Pan
Aileen Chung
Eric C. Chen
Leonard Fu
Esther Yang

Second Violin        
Yebin Yoo
Leonardo Barbosa
Jordan Hadrill
Arun Asthagiri

Viola                       
Karlie Roberts
Eric Cheng
Anna Mann
Nathan Emans

Cello                       
Jasmine Pai
Adithya Muralidharan
Claire Park

Bass                        
Diego Martinez

Flute                     
Zoe Cagan
Nnamdi Odita-Honnah

Oboe/English horn
Ryoei Kawai
Elias D. Medina

Bassoon                  
Kylie Hansen
Morgan Pope

French horn           
Helen Wargelin
Jenna Stokes

Trumpet                 
Cameron Abtahi
Kimberly Sabio

Harpsichord
Robert Tweten

Synopsis
 

The opera is set in Sidon, Phoenicia, in 332 BC. Alexander the Great (Alessandro) has just conquered the city, overthrowing the tyrannical usurper Strato.

Act One

– In the Pastures

The shepherd Aminta sings of his beloved, Elisa, who enters and tells him that her mother finally supports their union. She also tells Aminta that Alexander has refused to rule Sidon himself and has instead set out to find the rightful heir to the throne, who has been brought up in humble obscurity, unaware of his true identity.

Two strangers enter and interrogate Aminta. One of them offers to introduce Aminta to Alexander, but Aminta refuses, saying that he is happy with his life and leaves to tend his flock. The strangers are in reality Alexander himself and a Phoenician counselor, Agenore. Alexander, impressed by Aminta’s candor and nobility, is convinced that the shepherd is really Abdolonimo, the rightful heir to the throne of Sidon.

Agenore recognises his beloved Tamiri, daughter of the deposed tyrant Strato, who has been hiding out at Elisa’s and disguised as a shepherdess. Agenore is unable to persuade Tamiri to reveal herself to Alexander, but vows to come back to her soon. To Tamiri’s great joy and relief, he reassures her that he still loves her. Elisa now returns to tell Aminta that her father has consented to their marriage, but before they can leave Agenore arrives to proclaim that Aminta is the hidden, rightful king. He gives Aminta a royal garment and tells him that he is to go to Alexander to be crowned. Aminta and Elisa are astounded, and though Aminta is worried that this will change everything and somehow prevent them from having a life together, Elisa impresses on him that he must go to Alexander immediately.

Act Two

– The Greek Camp

Elisa is looking for Aminta, but Agenore prevents her from seeing him. Aminta enters looking for Elisa as well, but before he can go after her, Alexander comes in to ask why Aminta isn’t yet wearing the royal clothing he sent, and sends him off to get ready for his coronation. Alexander regrets not being able to forgive Tamiri publicly, and worries about the damage this will do to his reputation. When Agenore mentions that he knows where Tamiri is hiding, Alexander, blithely unaware of anyone’s amorous attachments, decides that it would be a political masterstroke for Aminta to marry Tamiri, thereby bringing peace and reconciliation between the two factions in Sidon. Duty and honour prevent the horrified Agenore from protesting the idea.

– A Cave

Aminta understands that he can’t both be king and remain true to Elisa, and when Agenore arrives he ambiguously declares that he has made up his mind to fulfill his duty. Agenore assumes that Aminta has decided to take the throne and Tamiri’s hand in marriage. He urges Aminta to love Tamiri, but Aminta tells him that he doesn’t need to schooled in how to love his intended. Elisa is devastated when she hears from Agenore that Aminta is to marry Tamiri, while Tamiri is appalled that Agenore could so readily give her up to someone else.

– The Greek Camp

Alexander is impatient to get things going, Tamiri enters and tells him of Agenore’s sacrifice and of their love for each other. Elisa likewise opens her heart to Alexander, imploring him to help. Aminta then arrives still in his shepherd’s clothes, renouncing his royal position in favour of his flock and marriage to Elisa. Alexander, moved by such courage and honesty, appoints Aminta and Elisa to the throne of Sidon, and promises Tamiri and Agenore another kingdom to rule. All ends happily.

Biographies

Yeon Jae Cho, AMINTA
Yeon Jae Cho is a Korean soprano with a wide-ranging repertoire who has performed in numerous operas, including the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni, First Dame in Die Zauberflöte, and Giorgetta in Il Tabarro, and in concerts such as the British and American Vocal Music Society Recital, Seoul National University Tuesday Concerts, Winner Concert of Music Education News Concours and the 3rd and 4th Young Artist Concert at Seoul Arts High School. She also participated in performnaces of Beethoven Symphony No. 9, Mahler Symphony No.2, and The Messiah by G. F. Händel at the Seoul Arts Center. 
        She has won the first prize in a number of competitions, including the Korean Voice Competition, the German Lieder Competition, the Korea Mozart Orchestra Music Competition, the Yun-Art National Music Competition. She has also received awards from many competitions such as the Sungjung Music Competition, the Suri Music Concours, Chun-Chu Music Competition, Music Education News Concours, the Shinye Music Competition as well as the Berlin International Music Competition. Cho was the recipient of the Lee Dae Woong Music Scholarship Association and selected as a Young Artist of the Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation.
        Cho graduated from Seoul Arts High School and received her Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Vocal Performance from Seoul National University with honors. She is pursuing a Graduate Diploma in Opera Studies at New England Conservatory, where she studies with Bradley Williams.  Yeon Jae Cho makes her American debut in this performance of Il Re Pastore. 

Loren Graziano, ELISA
Canadian coloratura soprano, Loren Graziano is currently pursuing her Graduate Diploma in Voice Performance under the tutelage of Lisa Saffer. Last spring, Loren graduated from the University of Toronto with a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance, and, in 2018, graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree. Most recently, Loren had the pleasure of debuting as Olympia in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffman at the Halifax Summer Opera Festival in 2019. Loren has been featured on stage and in recital across Toronto, including Opera Atelier’s 2019 production of Mozart’sIdomeneo (Chorus), the University of Toronto Opera’s production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Chorus), Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing (Chorus), and as a soloist in the University of Toronto Vocalis series.  Loren has also been involved in the choral and ensemble work at UofT, including the early music ensemble Schola Cantorum lead by Daniel Taylor, the MacMillian Singers conducted by Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt, and the Opera Undergrad Ensemble. Loren has had the pleasure of being a part of several prestigious summer programs, such as St. Andrews by the Sea, the Cornish-American Song Institute, Opera NUOVA, Oberlin in Italy, COSI: Centre for Opera Studies in Italy Apprentice Program, and the Orford Music Summer Academy.

Philippe L’Esperance, ALESSANDRO
Praised for his “agility, range, and pleasant timbre” (Opera News), tenor Philippe L’Esperance is the current Artist Diploma candidate in Opera at New England Conservatory and a recent graduate of the Manhattan School of Music. At MSM, he was featured as Mathew in Tobias Picker’s Emmeline, Prince Ramiro in Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Sandor Barinkay in J. Strauss’s Der Zigeunerbaron and Tito in Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. Philippe was a Gaddes Festival Artist and Gerdine Young Artist with the Opera Theater of Saint Louis, where he appeared as Lucano in Monterverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, Giuseppe in Verdi’s La Traviata and as Jake in Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath. With the Chautauqua Institution’s Voice Program, he has appeared as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore, Prince Karl Franz in Romberg’s The Student Prince, and Peter Quint in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. This summer, Philippe was selected as a Young Artist with the Merola Opera Program in San Francisco where he will perform the role of Man with Old Luggage in Argento’s Postcard from Morocco. Recently, Philippe has appeared as a Young Artist with Palm Beach Opera, The Chatauqua Institution Voice Program, New York Festival of Song, and three summers with Opera Theater of Saint Louis. He made his Carnegie Hall debut this past year as a soloist on Manhattan School of Music’s Centennial Gala.

Anthony León, AGENORE
American born, Cuban and Colombian tenor, Anthony León, holds a Bachelor of Music degree concentrating in vocal performance from La Sierra University in Riverside, California, studying under Javier Gonzalez. He currently studies voice under Bradley Williams, pursuing a master’s degree in Vocal Performance at New England Conservatory. Anthony has starred in fully staged leading roles such as Mr. Owen in Postcard from Morocco, Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore, Tamino in The Magic Flute, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, and Frederic, in the operetta, The Pirates of Penzance at La Sierra University. Anthony loves many facets of music and has also taken up composing along with his other endeavors. The American premiere of his piece, Tus Ojos, was performed at Carnegie Hall in New York City along with the La Sierra University Wind Ensemble in 2018. Most recent honors include selection as a winner for the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Los Angeles District, being named “Best up-and-comer” in the Inland Empire Magazine’s “Best of the Best 2019” list and the Wendy Shattuck ‘75 Presidential Scholarship for Vocal Studies. In 2018, he was chosen as a finalist for the Palm Springs Opera Guild Vocal Compe-tition. He has also won the 2018 Grand Prize, the Spetch-Guy award, for the 60th Annual Concerto Competition at La Sierra University and second place for the Classical Singer Convention National Competition. Other notable honors that Anthony has received include first place in the Hal Leonard Vocal Competition, selection as a first prize winner for the Redlands Bowl Young Artist Competition, first prize in the 2016 Marguerite Marsh Vocal Competition, first prize for the 2016 Raincross Chorale Competition, and third prize in the 2015 Promising Young Artist Scholarship Competition Recital.

Theodora Nestorova, TAMIRI
Bulgarian-British-American soprano, researcher, and teacher Theodora Ivanova Nestorova loves creating interdisciplinary and cross-cultural musical connections. She was a 2018-2019 Fulbright Study/Research Grant Recipient to Vienna, Austria, studying MA Lied/Oratorio at the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Wien and conducting voice science research. Theodora graduated with a BM (Voice Performance/Musicology) from Oberlin Conservatory in 2018 and is currently in the second year of her MM in Vocal Pedagogy at New England Conservatory.  The 2018-2019 first-place winner of the American Prize in Vocal Performance (Art Song), Theodora is an avid early and contemporary musician. She has recorded world premiere compositions at the Bulgarian National Radio, with the Indictus Project, and has performed in NEC's  Liederabend Series in Jordan Hall, Balabanov’s House Music Days International Festival, Wien Modern Festival, Bang on a Can, and Emmanuel Music’s The Bach Institute.  An emerging opera singer, Theodora’s recent operatic credits include scenes from The Bartered Bride, Serse, and Radamisto [New England Conservatory Opera],  Clorinda (La Cenerentola),  Noémie (Cendrillon), and Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel) [Schlosstheater Schönbrunn], as well as Oberto (Alcina) [Oberlin Opera Theater], and Amore (L’incoronazione di Poppea) [Oberlin in Italy]. Theodora was a featured soloist in Mozart’s Requiem (St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Brookline), Handel’s Messiah (Credo Music—Oberlin), and Haydn’s Die Schöpfung  (Oberlin Mozart Players).  As a vocalist and scholar, Theodora was awarded the Pan American Vocology Association’s Best Student Presentation for her original vibrato research and has presented at the National Opera Association conference and Voice Foundation’s New Investigator Research Forum while maintaining an active private voice and language teaching studio.  She is a formerly competitive figure skater and pentalinguaphile with a passion for traveling internationally. Theodora is delighted to make her role debut as Tamiri in NEC Opera & Orchestra's innovative production of Mozart's Il re pastore. Visit: theodoranestorova.com 

Jaeeun Shin, AMINTA
Soprano Jaeeun Shin has received attention for her beautiful voice and delicate expression. She graduated from Korea National University of Arts and has won numerous prizes, including ‘Rising Stars Competition’, ‘The Korea Voice Competition’, Music Education News Competition’. Also, she has appeared in various operas, including Don Pasquale, Die Zauberflöte, Giulio Cesare, and Xerxes. She is actively playing in the United States, Europe and Korea. She is currently studying with Lorraine Nubar at New England Conservatory.

Logan Trotter, ELISA
Soprano Logan Trotter is currently pursuing her master’s degree at New England Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Karen Holvik. Her stage performance includes opera, concert works, and new music. During her first semester at NEC, Logan sang in the Touring Children’s Opera, Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing. She loved teaching elementary students around Boston all about opera and classical music! During the summer of 2019, Logan sang the role of Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with North Carolina Summer Opera.Past roles include Euridice in Orfeo ed Euridice and First Knitter in Game of Chance with University of North Carolina School of the Arts Undergrad Opera Scenes. In Logan’s third year at UNC School of the Arts, she made her Mainstage debut with the A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute as Yniold in Debussy’s Impressions de Pelléas.
        Along with performing in operas and recitals, Logan has a passion for collaborating with living composers and singing new works. She premiered Aaron Wong’s Songs of Uncertainty for two sopranos and mixed chamber ensemble during her first year at NEC. She also premiered several different pieces written by composers at UNC School of the Arts. These include, Thomas Little’s Yonnondio for soprano and electronics and Scott Shea’s Solar and Night Music for soprano and piano.
        Logan has traveled to Salzburg, Austria to attend the Frost School of Music Salzburg summer program and Urbania, Italy to attend Si parla, si canta. Logan has also frequented many programs in the U.S. including the Opera Theater of the Rockies Vocal Arts Festival and the Washington National Opera Institute for Young Singers. Logan received her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts under the direction of Marion Pratnicki.

Kate Wood, TAMIRI
Soprano Kate Wood is a second-year master’s student in vocal performance studying with Carole Haber. At NEC, Kate has appeared in Argento’s Postcard from Morocco as the Lady with a Hand Mirror, as well as in filmed excerpts of Handel’s Theodora  (Theodora) and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice (Euridice). Additionally, she has recently sung the role of La Fée for Due Donne Productions’ animated adaptation of Massenet’s Cendrillon. Other recent opera roles include: Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Echo in Christopher Cerrone’s All Wounds Bleed, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Morgana in Alcina, Gretel and Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel, Zerlina in Don Giovanni, Papagena in Die Zauberflöte, Cynire in Echo et Narcisse, and Belinda in Dido and Aeneas. On the concert stage, Kate has appeared as a soloist in performances of Christopher Cerrone’s song cycle I will learn to love a person with Brooklyn Opera Works, Handel’s Messiah with the Choral Society of the Moriches, and Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Missa Solemnis in C with the Bay Area Friends of the Fine Arts Festival. A graduate of Westminster Choir College, Kate has also performed major works as a chorister with such leading orchestras as the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra.

 Robert Tweten, Conductor
Described by Opera News as conducting “brilliantly” with an “unerring sense of balance, blend, and drama,” Conductor Robert Tweten has worked extensively throughout North America and is currently the Head of Music Staff with The Santa Fe Opera, and the Music Director of Graduate Opera Studies for New England Conservatory. Recent performances have included Turandot with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Rigoletto with Calgary Opera, Faust with San Antonio Opera, and Silent Night with Utah Opera.  
        An active operatic conductor, Tweten has enjoyed a long relationship with Utah Opera/Symphony where he returned in January 2021 to conduct Light on the Horizon, a concert filmed for the USUO On Demand streaming series. Robert has conducted extensively in his native Canada, with companies including: Vancouver Opera, Edmonton Opera, Canadian Opera Company, and Calgary Opera. Top  American collaborations include Kentucky Opera, Dayton Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Tulsa Opera, Opera Birmingham, Madison Opera, El Paso Opera, Sarasota Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he served as an Assistant Conductor.  
        Equally at home as a recitalist and chamber musician, Tweten has performed with many of this generation's most prominent singers throughout many of the world's most prestigious concert halls and festivals, including Wigmore Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Chicago's Orchestra Hall, Carnegie Hall, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, and the Salzburg Festival.  
        This year marked Tweten's thirtieth season with the Santa Fe Opera where he serves as Head of Music Staff. Operas conducted during his tenure with SFO include Ermione, Katya Kabanova, Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, The Pirates of Penzance, and performances of the Grammy winning The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs.  
                Robert is currently in his fourth season on the NEC opera faculty as Music Director where he has conducted productions of Later the Same Evening, Le nozze di Figaro and Postcard From Morocco.  

Damien Francoeur-Krzyzek, Musical Preparation
Damien Francoeur-Krzyzek’s teaching and performing career incorporates his unique and diverse background as a pianist, classical singer, linguist, and opera coach. A faculty member of New England Conservatory since 2007, he has also served on the music staff of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis since 2008.  Formerly the Principal Coach of Boston Lyric Opera, he prepared 13 productions for that company over four consecutive seasons, including Dvořák’s Rusalka, for which he served as Czech diction coach. Additionally, Francoeur-Krzyzek has worked as rehearsal pianist for Opera Colorado, and diction coach for Opera Boston’s The Bartered Bride and Béatrice et Bénédict.  In addition to his academic and operatic duties, Francoeur-Krzyzek has privately coached professional singers for roles at national and international opera companies. He has studied and coached more than a dozen languages to date, including Russian, Dutch, Catalan, and Polish. An active performer, Francoeur-Krzyzek collaborates regularly with vocalists and instrumentalists throughout New England.

Steven Goldstein, Stage Director
Steven Goldstein,a member of theNEC Opera Department faculty, is a founding member of the Atlantic Theater Company in New York. Performance highlights include Our Town on Broadway with Spalding Gray; the premiers of Boys’ Life, Oh Hell, The LIghts (Lincoln Center Theatre); Romance, The Vosey Inheiritance, The Water Engine, Shaker Heights (Atlantic Theater Company); Intimate Apparel (Center Stage Baltimore); Big Fish (SpeakEasy Theatre Co.); I Was Most Alive With You (Huntington Theater). He has made appearances in the TV shows quarterlife, Law & Order and The Guiding Light, and in films films including The Untouchables, Signs and Wonders, The Spanish Prisoner, The Night We Never Met, Homicide, House of Games and Things Change. As a professional singer, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in 2011 and has sung in many performances with the New York City Opera, Seattle Opera, LA Opera, Vancouver Opera, Cleveland Opera, Israeli Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Odyssey Opera, and Gotham Chamber Opera. His most recent directing credits at NEC include: Die Zauberflöte, La Finta Giardiniera, Dialogues of the Carmelites, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Der Kaiser von Atlantis.  Other directing credits include: Street Scene, Spring Awakening, A Little Night Music, La Tragédie de Carmen, La Traviata, and Die Fledermaus.

Timothy Steele, Musical Preparation
Timothy Steele is an active vocal coach, collaborative pianist, and conductor, and has taught for twenty-nine years on the opera faculty at New England Conservatory.  He has conducted for outreach tours with the Boston Lyric Opera and is a former music director for Opera Providence.  He has served as assistant conductor/pianist for over 190 productions with twenty-five opera companies, including Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Boston Lyric Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, Wolf Trap Opera, Central City Opera, and Opera Maine.  He assisted with the Pulitzer Prize winning opera Madame White Snake for productions in Boston and Taiwan and the Ouroboros Trilogy in 2016, and for three years collaborated with WaterFire-Providence on a unique and popular series of opera evenings.  In Boston he has performed with Emmanuel Music, the Handel and Haydn Society, and the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, among others.