2017 Schwabacher Debut Recital Series Concludes, 5/30

The 2017 Schwabacher Debut Recitals series concludes on Sunday, April 30 at 5:30 p.m., with a recital by a trio of San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows featured with collaborative pianist Warren Jones in a program of Italian and French repertoire. Within the intimate Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater at the Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera, soprano Amina Edris, tenor Amitai Pati and baritone Andrew G. Manea will perform a selection of romantic songs and duets by Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, Francesco Santoliquido, Georges Bizet, Reynaldo Hahn and Gabriel Fauré.

The April 30 recital is the fourth and final presentation of the 2017 Schwabacher Debut Recitals series at the Taube Atrium Theater, which boasts the innovative Meyer Sound Constellation® acoustic system.

As one of the leading collaborative pianists in the world, Warren Jones regularly performs with many of today's best-known artists including Stephanie Blythe, Bo Skovhus and Eric Owens, and has partnered with performers such as Marilyn Horne, Kathleen Battle, Samuel Ramey, Barbara Bonney and James Morris. His commitment to supporting young performers has led to a long and distinguished affiliation with Merola Opera Program and San Francisco Opera Center.

Egypt-born New Zealand soprano and second-year Adler Fellow Amina Edris made her San Francisco Opera debut as Frasquita in 2016's Carmen and recently appeared as Tina in Jonathan Dove's Flight with Opera Parallèle. She will portray Countess Ceprano in Verdi's Rigoletto with San Francisco Opera this summer from May 31 to July 1. Tenor Amitai Pati is a first-year Adler Fellow who also hails from New Zealand. He will make his Company debut in Rigoletto as the courtier Borsa alongside his sister-in-law Amina Edris and brother Pene Pati (The Duke of Mantua). Romanian-American baritone and first-year Adler Fellow Andrew G. Manea was a 2016 participant in the Merola Opera Program and was recently a semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Manea will make his San Francisco Opera debut as Marullo in Rigoletto.

Since 1983, the Schwabacher Debut Recitals have introduced the artistry of many acclaimed international singers including Anna Netrebko, Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Brian Asawa and Thomas Hampson. The annual series showcases exemplary artists who have participated in the prestigious training programs of the San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program, whose performance-oriented residencies offer intensive individual coaching and performance opportunities to young professional international artists. The recitals allow Bay Area audiences to experience exciting young talent perform a wide-ranging and eclectic repertoire of song literature in the intimate setting of the Taube Atrium Theater.

The Schwabacher Debut Recitals are endowed in perpetuity by the generosity of the late James Schwabacher and sponsored by the Jack H. Lund Charitable Trust. A celebrated Bay Area singer, recitalist, scholar and teacher, James Schwabacher was a co-founder of the Merola Opera Program.

Tickets & Information

Schwabacher Debut Recitals take place at the Dianne and Tad Taube Atrium Theater, a state-of-the-art performance venue utilizing the Constellation® acoustic system from Berkeley-based Meyer Sound. The Taube Atrium Theater is part of San Francisco Opera's Diane B. Wilsey Center for Opera, located on the fourth floor of the Veterans Building (401 Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco).

Tickets (general admission seating) for the Schwabacher Debut Recitals are $30. Tickets may be purchased at the San Francisco Opera Box Office in person, by phone at (415) 864-3330, or online at sfopera.com. Student rush tickets, subject to availability, are available for $15 at the Taube Atrium Theater 30 minutes prior to the performance (limit of two tickets per person; valid ID is required). Artists, programs, schedules and ticket prices are subject to change.

2017 SCHWABACHER DEBUT RECITAL

Presented by San Francisco Opera Center and Merola Opera Program

Recital takes place at the Taube Atrium Theater in the Wilsey Center for Opera

(Veterans Building, 401 Van Ness Avenue, Fourth Floor, in San Francisco)

Program subject to change.

Sunday, April 30, 5:30 p.m.

Warren Jones, piano

Amina Edris, soprano

Amitai Pati, tenor

Andrew G. Manea, baritone

PROGRAM:

Francesco Santoliquido -

I canti della sera [Manea]

L'assiolo canta

Alba di luna sul bosco

Tristezza crepuscolare

L'incontro

Giuseppe Verdi - [Pati]

Il poveretto

Il tramonto

In solitaria stanza

Lo spazzacamino

Gioachino Rossini -

Serate Musicali [Edris]

La promessa

L'invito

La pastorella delle Alpi

Serate Musicali

La serenata [Edris & Pati]

I marinara [Pati & Manea]

Georges Bizet - [Pati]

Chanson d'Avril

Absence

Ouvre ton cœur

Reynaldo Hahn - [Edris]

L'heure exquise

Fêtes galantes

À Chloris

Le printemps

Gabriel Faurè -

Poème d'un jour, Op. 21 [Manea]

Rencontre

Toujours

Gabriel Faurè -

2 Duets, Op. 10

Puisqu'ici-bas toute âme [Edris & Pati]

Tarentelle [Edris & Manea]

About the Artists

Recently named Artist in Residence at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Jersey,Warren Jones enjoys a notably eclectic career that has taken him to virtually every corner of the musical world. He performs with some of today's best-known artists: Stephanie Blythe, Anthony Dean Griffey, Bo Skovhus, Eric Owens-and is the Robert and Mercedes Eichholz Principal Pianist for the Santa Barbara-based chamber music group Camerata Pacifica. He has partnered such great performers as Marilyn Horne, Håkan Hagegård, Kathleen Battle, Samuel Ramey, Christine Brewer, Barbara Bonney, Carol Vaness, Judith Blegen, Salvatore Licitra, Tatiana Troyanos, Thomas Hampson, James Morris and Martti Talvela. He is a long-time member of the faculty of Manhattan School of Music as well as the Music Academy of the West. He has been an invited guest at the White House to perform for state dinners in honor of the leaders of Canada, Russia and Italy; and three times the invited guest of the Justices of the United States Supreme Court for musical afternoons in the East Conference Room at the Court. A graduate of New England Conservatory and San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Jones currently serves on the NEC Board of Visitors. His discography contains thirty-one recordings in a wide range of repertory. His conducting repertory is similarly varied: he has led critically-acclaimed performances of Mascagni's L'Amico Fritz, Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Mozart's Die Zauberflöte; and in 2014 he conducted the world premiere of a new operatic version of A Christmas Carol at the Houston Grand Opera. Jones's most recent conducting credit with Merola Opera Program was Donizetti's comedy Don Pasquale in 2015, but he continues to be a member of its faculty.

Egyptian-born, New Zealand soprano Amina Edris is a second-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow who made her Company debut as Frasquita in Carmen. She will be featured this year with the Company in Rigoletto in the summer and Elektra and La Traviata in the fall. Edris recently appeared as Tina in Jonathan Dove's Flight with Opera Parallèle. She was a participant of the 2015 Merola Opera Program. Roles in her repertory include Norina (Don Pasquale), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Serpina (La Serva Padrona), Adina (L'Elisir d'Amore) and Gilda (Rigoletto). Edris is a winner of the prestigious Sydney Eisteddfod McDonald's Operatic Aria Competition and the Deborah Reidel award in the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Bel Canto Award Competition 2013, as well as being awarded a Western Regional Special Encouragement Award in the 2014 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Edris holds a Bachelor of Music from University of Canterbury, a Master of Music from Wales International Academy of Voice, and a post-graduate diploma from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Tenor and first-year San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow Amitai Pati will make his San Francisco Opera debut as Matteo Borsa in Rigoletto this summer and will return in the fall as Gastone in La Traviata. Of Samoan descent, Pati received his M.A. in Advanced Vocal Studies at the Wales International Academy of Voice under the tutelage of tenor Dennis O'Neill and participated in the 2016 Merola Opera Program. He performed his first principal role as Ferrando in Così fan tutte with the program. Pati won the Lexus SongQuest in 2012 and the Waiariki Institute of Technology NZ Aria in 2015. In 2014, he was invited to be a part of the Young Singers Project in Salzburg, Austria, where he appeared in performances and concerts including La Favorite with El?na Garan?a, Juan Diego Flórez and Ludovic Tézier, and sang the tenor solo in a production of Mozart's Spatzenmesse. Pati is an experienced choral singer, having performed and toured with the New Zealand Youth Choir, the Graduate Choir and the Auckland University Choir. He has sung in master classes with Joseph Rouleau, Della Jones, Dame Josephine Barstow, Dame Anne Murray, Maestro Richard Bonynge and Dame Kiri Te Kanawa. Pati, along with his brother Pene Pati and their cousin Moses Mackay, comprise the successful New Zealand vocal trio SOL3 MIO, which mixes both classical and contemporary music.

Currently in his first year as a San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, baritone Andrew G. Manea will make his San Francisco Opera debut as Marullo in Rigoletto this spring and will return in the fall in La Traviata. Recently named a semi-finalist of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the Romanian-American baritone was also a participant of the 2016 Merola Opera Program. He appeared as Irons Hans/Wolf in their production of Conrad Susa'sTransformations. In 2015, he also performed Escamillo (Carmen) in Wuhan, China, The Forester (The Cunning Little Vixen), and the title role of Don Giovanni. Other competitions for Manea include the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition (finalist), Opera Columbus Cooper-Bing International Voice Competition and Giulio Gari Foundation (career grant recipient). Manea is a student of Bill McGraw and has worked with opera luminaries such as Marilyn Horne, Warren Jones, Lorin Maazel and James Morris.