San Diego Opera Adds The Bel Canto Trio to 2019-2020 Season

San Diego Opera has announced addition to its 2019-2020 season with the Bel Canto Trio for one-night-only on Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 7:30 PM at The Conrad Preby Performing Arts Center in the Baker-Baum Concert Hall (7600 Fay Ave, La Jolla, CA 92037). In 1947 Columbia Artist Management created The Bel Canto Trio, featuring tenor Mario Lanza, soprano Frances Yeend, and bass-baritone George London. From 1947-1948 the Trio performed 86 concerts throughout the United States, Mexico, and Canada to critical and popular acclaim and was responsible for Mario Lanza's stardom. To celebrate the 70th anniversary of this tour, Columbia Artist Management created a new Bel Canto Trio starring tenor Joshua Guerrero, soprano Hailey Clark, and bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee to embark on another tour. The new Trio will perform the original program that toured the United States in the 1947-1948 season with some of opera's greatest arias, duets and trios from Rigoletto, Faust, I lombardi, La traviata, Manon Lescaut, La bohème, The Barber of Seville, and many others. They will be joined by Christopher Allen on piano. These are the first performances of The Bel Canto Trio at San Diego Opera and the first performances by the Company at The Conrad. Tickets are on sale now and begin at $35.

About the Artists

Hailey Clark, Soprano

San Diego Opera debut. Notable appearances for soprano Hailey Clark include Lucio Cinna in Lucio Silla, the 5th Maid in Elektra, and Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress for Theater Basel, Musetta in La bohème for Salzburg Landestheater, Freia in Das Rheingold for North Carolina Opera, and Micaëla in Carmen for Florida Grand Opera. She made her German debut as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte at the Stuttgart Opera, a role she also performed for Central City Opera. She made European debut at the Salzburger Landestheater in the Austrian premiere of Brokeback Mountain for which she received the Österreichischer Musiktheaterpreis (Austrian Music Theater Prize in Opera) in the category of 'Best Female Leading Role'. As a member of the young artist program at the Florida Grand Opera she sang Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte and Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly. Other appearances include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni for North Carolina Opera, Leïla in The Pearl Fishers and Dika/Alecto in Lysistrata for Fort Worth Opera, Merry in The Mighty Casey with Opera Saratoga, and Anne Trulove in The Rake's Progress with UM Opera Theatre. She is a two-time Regional Finalist of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, a 2015 International Finalist in the Competizione dell'Opera Italian Arias Competition (Linz, Austria), and a grant recipient from the Santa Fe Opera: "Award for Outstanding Apprentice." She is also the 2014 First Place Winner of the Heafner-Williams Competition, prize winner of The Charlotte Opera Guild Competition and Shreveport Singer of the Year Competition, and completed a five-city Concert Tour of China and Inner Mongolia in 2009 as a winner of the Charles A. Lynam National Vocal Competition. She holds a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Michigan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Maryland School of Music. She is also a proud alumnus of the Freie Universität Berlin's FU-Best program.

Joshua Guerrero, Tenor

Grammy-award winning tenor Joshua Guerrero made his Company debut in this season's One Amazing Night. Notable appearances include Alfredo in La traviata at Washington National Opera his house debut at Houston Grand Opera as Arcadio in Daniel Catán's Florencia en el Amazonas and Rodolfo in La bohème at the Canadian Opera Company. He made his Glyndebourne Festival debut as Pinkerton in a new production of Madama Butterfly and returned to the Santa Fe Opera in the same role. He was seen as the Duke in Rigoletto for his debuts with the Canadian Opera Company and Michigan Opera Theatre, as well as his first performances of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at Florida Grand Opera. Mr. Guerrero returned to the Los Angeles Opera in his role debut as Macduff in Macbeth. He debuted in the same role in Barrie Kosky's production at the Zurich Opera and made his London debut at the English National Opera as the Duke in Jonathan Miller's Rigoletto. In concert, he toured Europe with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolivar Orchestra singing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and sang Haydn's Creation with Dudamel and the LA Philharmonic. He made his Baltimore Symphony Orchestra debut with Marin Alsop in Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 and was a featured soloist at the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Gala at Carnegie Hall. He was heard in a concert of opera arias and duets with soprano Joyce El-Khoury and the NDR Radiophilharmonie, which was broadcast on television throughout Germany. He has sung Greenhorn in Jake Heggie's Moby-Dick and a new production of John Corigliano's Ghosts of Versailles at LA Opera. He made his European operatic debut as Gabriele Adorno in Simon Boccanegra at Opéra National de Bordeaux and then was seen as Nemorino in The Elixir of Love at Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville. He made his Santa Fe Opera debut as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette. In concert, Mr. Guerrero has been seen in Verdi's Requiem with the Santa Fe Symphony. He made his role debut as Rodolfo in La bohème with Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela in Caracas. Mr. Guerrero appeared at a special gala honoring Plácido Domingo at the Salzburg Festival. As a member of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera, his appearances include his mainstage debut as Normanno in Lucia di Lammermoor, followed by the role of Steve Hubbell in A Streetcar Named Desire. He also appeared in the Cathedral production of Jonah and the Whale and made his debut at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Conlon singing the role of the Messenger in Aida. Mr. Guerrero was the second prize-winner at Plácido Domingo's Operalia Competition in 2014 and the recipient of the 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation. He is a Grammy award winner for Los Angeles Opera's recording of Corigliano's Ghosts of Versailles (Best Opera Recording).

Nicholas Brownlee, Bass-baritone

San Diego Opera debut. American bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee is a first prize winner of the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, winner of the Zarzuela prize at Operalia, and Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions grand prize winner. Nicholas joined the ensemble at Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe where he was heard as Enrico in Anna Bolena, Melisso in Alcina, and as Friar Laurent in Berlioz's Roméo and Juliette. A former Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist at Los Angeles Opera, he sang Nourabad in The Pearl Fishers and debuted with the Israeli Opera as Colline in La bohème. He made his debut with the Houston Symphony Orchestra in Dvorák's Te Deum and with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra in Verdi's Requiem. Notable engagements include his Metropolitan Opera debut as the First Soldier in Salome and a return to Los Angeles Opera for productions of Tosca, The Tales of Hoffmann, and Salome. He debuted at Teatro de São Carlos in Lisbon as Escamillo in Carmen and sang Stravinsky's Les Noces with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Other recent role debuts at Los Angeles Opera include The Speaker in The Magic Flute, the Bonze in Madama Butterfly and Captain Gardiner in Moby-Dick. He also sang Colline in La bohème conducted at Los Angeles Opera, as well as a debut at The Atlanta Opera in the same role. With the LA Philharmonic, he was seen as the Doctor in Pelléas et Melisande. He was part of the inaugural Young Artist Vocal Academy with Houston Grand Opera, apprentice artist with the Wolf Trap Opera Company, and winner of the 2014 Palm Springs Vocal Competition. He was awarded the 2016 Sara Tucker Study Grant and 2017 Richard Tucker Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation.

Christopher Allen, Music Director

San Diego Opera debut. Music Director Christopher Allen is the recipient of the 2017 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award. His conducting career was launched by the Bruno Walter Conducting Award and Memorial Career Grant and has been fostered by Plácido Domingo and James Conlon, who brought him to Los Angeles Opera as an Associate Conductor. Notable appearances include Ne Quittez Pas at Opera Philadelphia, Candide at New England Conservatory, The Barber of Seville at Michigan Opera Theatre, The Marriage of Figaro at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, a program of Bernstein repertoire with the Atlanta Symphony, and a debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago conducting the Rising Stars Concert. Featured in Musical America's "25 Stars Still Rising," Mo. Allen has recently conducted a new production of La traviata at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Cold Mountain at North Carolina Opera, The Daughter of the Regiment at Atlanta Opera, Impressions de Pelléas at North Carolina School of the Arts, and The Barber of Seville at Aspen Music Festival. As The John L. Magro Resident Conductor for Cincinnati Opera, he has joined the company for three consecutive seasons to conduct Barrie Kosky's production of The Magic Flute, Tosca, and the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon's Morning Star, in addition to leading the Cincinnati Symphony in the annual Washington Park Concert each summer. Nominated as a finalist in the International Opera Awards in the "Newcomer" category, he made his UK debut conducting The Barber of Seville at the English National Opera and his Asian debut conducting the same work at the Daegu Opera House. He made his Los Angeles Opera conducting debut in Patrick Morganelli's Hercules vs. Vampires, and returned to the company to lead musical preparation for The Ghosts of Versailles, which won a Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording.

Purchasing Tickets

Single tickets start at $45 for all mainstage performances. Single tickets start at $25 for all d?"tour Series operas. One Amazing Night tickets start at $45. Children prices exist, please visit www.sdopera.org or call 619.533.7000 for more information.