“Viva Verdi” Spotlights Young Opera Stars
On Sunday, May 17, at 4 p.m. at Richardson Auditorium, the Princeton Symphony Orchestra (PSO) presents Viva Verdi!, an opera featuring excerpts from Giuseppe Verdi’s most popular works and spotlighting gifted young opera stars Michelle Johnson, soprano; Margaret Lattimore, mezzo soprano; Zach Borichevsky, tenor; and Hugh Russell, baritone.
“Verdi was a prolific Romantic composer who sought out subject matter outside of the Grand Opera tradition and which touched on the human condition surrounding women and love in society. While honoring Verdi, we wanted to introduce Princeton to some of today’s ascending opera stars who will lend a poignant vibrancy to the excerpted scenes, independent of a staged setting,” explains conductor Rossen Milanov.
Select members of the Princeton High School (PHS) Choir will join in on the Aida finale, bringing their own season to a close, which included performing with the orchestra at the annual PSO Holiday POPS! concert in December. The PSO values its ongoing partnership with the PHS fine choir, which is under the direction of Vincent Metallo.
Michelle Johnson made her debut with the Opera Company of Philadelphia as the title role in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut. Recent performances include the Glimmerglass Music Festival and Opera Santa Barbara as Aida; Leonora in Il Trovatore and Alice Ford in Falstaff with Opera in the Heights; and Verdi’s Requiem with Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias (OSPA) in Oviedo, Spain under the direction of Rossen Milanov, who is also OSPA’s music director.
Grammy nominated mezzo-soprano Margaret Lattimore gained acclaim in recent seasons for her versatility in performing the works of Handel, Rossini, and Mozart alongside Mahler, Verdi, and Wagner. Following her 2014 debut with Des Moines Metro Opera as Mrs. De Rocher in Dead Man Walking and Ragonde in Le Comte Ory, she is performing in the Metropolitan Opera’s current season in Die Zauberflöte, The Merry Widow, Les contes d’Hoffmann, and The Rake’s Progress.
Zach Borichevsky is a graduate of the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. He will make his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in the spring of 2016. Borichevsky recently made an acclaimed European operatic debut as Rodolfo in La Bohéme with the Finnish National Opera. This season he makes his U.K. operatic debut as Alfredo in La Traviata with Glyndebourne Touring Opera. Further highlights this season include role debuts as Lensky in Eugene Onegin with Arizona Opera, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Carolina and Toledo Opera, and Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly for Teatro Municipal Santiago de Chile.
Canadian baritone Hugh Russell provides the deep register needed to perform as Germont in La Traviata and the Count in Il Trovatore. He is widely acclaimed for his performances in the operas of Mozart and Rossini, and is regularly invited to perform with symphony orchestras throughout North America. At the center of his orchestral repertoire is Orff’s popular Carmina Burana, which Russell has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Toronto Symphony, and Vancouver Symphony. In the current season, Russell performed as Falke in Die Fledermaus with the Vancouver Opera.
Ticket prices for Viva Verdi! range from $30 to $75 and can be purchased by calling (609) 497-0020 or at www.princetonsymphony.org. The ticket price includes admission to the 3 p.m. pre-concert talk.