Merola Opera Program Releases Schedule of Summer 2015 Performances & Artists

SAN FRANCISCO, February 4, 2015 - Twenty-three singers, five apprentice coaches, and one apprentice stage director, representing seven countries, will participate in the 58th season of the Merola Opera Program from June 8 to August 22, San Francisco Opera Center Director Sheri Greenawald announced today. More than 800 artists vied this year for the 29 coveted spots in the highly selective summer opera training program. Nearly one third of this season's artists come from countries outside the United States, including artists from Australia, China, Italy, New Zealand, Russia and South Korea, and the US artists hail from 15 states, including California, New York, Illinois, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Idaho.

Opera luminaries Jane Eaglen, Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, James Morris, and Antony Walker will offer public master classes for the 2015 Merola artists as part of their intensive 11-week training program beginning June 8. Guest teachers Richard Battle, Steven Blier, Deborah Birnbaum, Alan Darling, Peter Grunberg, Robin Guarino, Bruce Lamott, Kevin Murphy, Ann Murray, John Parr, and Cesar Ulloa provide training in voice, foreign languages, operatic repertory, diction, acting and stage movement. Apprentice coaches and the apprentice stage director have a 12-week program.

The 2015 training program culminates in the Merola Opera Program Summer Festival, beginning Thursday, July 9with the artists performing in the Schwabacher Summer Concert, directed by Roy Rallo and conducted by Valéry Ryvkin, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a free outdoor afternoon concert at Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco on Saturday, July 11. The program will feature extended, semi-staged scenes from the operatic repertoire. The Merola artists perform two one-hour operas on a double bill, Menotti's The Medium, about a séance gone awry, and Puccini's comic opera Gianni Schicchi, on Thursday, July 23 and Saturday, July 25 in the newly-renovated and intimate Cowell Theater at Fort Mason. Mark Morash conducts and Peter Kazaras directs.

Donizetti's Don Pasquale, led by director Nic Muni and conducted by pianist and conductor Warren Jones, will be presented on Thursday, August 6 and Saturday, August 8 at the Cowell Theater. The festival concludes with the participants singing in the annual Merola Grand Finale, an operatic showcase with full orchestra, led by conductor Antony Walker and directed by Merola Opera Program apprentice stage director Mo Zhou on Saturday, August 22 at the War Memorial Opera House.

ABOUT MEROLA OPERA PROGRAM

Led artistically by San Francisco Opera Center Director and internationally acclaimed soprano Sheri Greenawald, the Merola Opera Program is an independent nonprofit organization that operates in collaboration with the San Francisco Opera. Founded in 1957 and named for San Francisco Opera's founder, Gaetano Merola, the Program is recognized as one of the most prestigious operatic training programs in the world. The Merola Opera Program typically receives more than 800 applications for approximately 29 positions. Throughout the summer, the Merola artists participate in master classes and private coaching with opera's most accomplished singers and performers. Participants, who include singers, apprentice coaches and an apprentice stage director, also receive training in operatic repertory, foreign languages, diction, acting and stage movement. The Merola program artists appear in public performances throughout the summer. The Merola Opera Program Summer Festival includes two staged operas, a scenes program and a concert.

Offered free of charge for all participants, the Merola Opera Program is unique in the industry in many ways. Merola is the only young artist program to provide financial support to developing artists for five years following participation. In the past year alone, more than $150,000 was distributed to more than 100 artists, supporting their essential career development costs including coaching, language classes, and audition travel.

Fourteen internationally acclaimed Merola alumni-thirteen singers and one conductor-will appear with the San Francisco Opera in 2015: René Barbera (2008), Catherine Cook (1990), Leah Crocetto (2008), Mark Delavan (1985), AJ Glueckert (2012), Susan Graham (1987), Thomas Hampson (1980), Philip Horst (1999), Bryan Hymel (2001), Daveda Karanas (2007), Daniela Mack (2007), Nadine Sierra (2010), Alek Shrader (2007), Philippe Sly (2011) and Patrick Summers (1986, 1987). In addition, only Merola graduates are considered for participation in the San Francisco Opera's Adler Fellowship program. In 2015, the Merola Opera Program will have four returning Merola artists, Alex DeSocio (2013), Edoardo Barsotti, Kirill Kuzmin, and Scott Russell (2014).