The Broad Stage Celebrity Opera Series Returns with Diana Damrau & Nicolas Testé

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage's 2019/20 Celebrity Opera Series commences with Diana Damrau (soprano) and Nicolas Testé (bass) on Saturday, May 16, 2020. James Conlon, Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera (since 2006) and Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (since 2016), conducts the orchestra.

Tickets are on sale now to members and go on sale to the general public on October 16 at thebroadstage.org or by calling 310-434-3200. The Celebrity Opera Series is made possible by generous support from The Lloyd E. Rigler-Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation. The Foundation continues to make contributions to strengthen the concert series at The Broad Stage and enrich the cultural life of Los Angeles.

Soprano Diana Damrau has been performing on the world's leading opera and concert stages for two decades. Her vast repertoire spans both lyric soprano and coloratura roles including the title roles in Lucia di Lammermoor (La Scala, Bavarian State Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House), Manon (Vienna State Opera, Metropolitan Opera) and La Traviata (La Scala, Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House, Opéra national de Paris and Bavarian State Opera) as well as Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte (Metropolitan Opera, Salzburg Festival, Vienna State Opera, Royal Opera House, Bavarian State Opera).

On the occasion of her album Grand Opera, which is dedicated to the works of Giacomo Meyerbeer, Diana Damrau was awarded with the OPUS Klassik as Female Singer of the Year. Further on, in February 2018, Diana Damrau performed in the most renowned concert halls in Europe interpreting together with tenor Jonas Kaufmann and pianist Helmut Deutsch Hugo Wolf's Italienisches Liederbuch. The according live album was released by Warner/Erato. Themed VERDIssimo, she toured Europe again in spring 2018.

In addition, Diana Damrau made her debut in the title role in Maria Stuarda at the Opernhaus Zürich. In summer 2018 she gave a concert at the Open-Air-Event "Klassik am Odeonsplatz" in Munich, together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Cristian Măcelaru as well as at the Salzburg Festival.

In December 2018, she starred as the title role in a new production of La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera. Moreover, Diana Damrau is "Artist in Residence" at the Barbican Centre London in 2018/19.

In the 2019/20 season she continues her fruitful collaboration with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons and presents, in selected European cities and at the Carnegie Hall in New York, the four last songs by Richard Strauss. In addition she is going to perform recitals with Sir Antonio Pappano and returns to the Scala di Milano in Roméo et Juliette, the Bavarian State Opera in I Masnadieri and the Metropolitan Opera in Maria Stuarda.

French bass Nicolas Testé studied piano, bassoon, and music history in Paris before embarking on a career as a singer. Having studied at the Opéra National de Paris and Centre de Formation Lyrique, in 1998 he was awarded with the Second Prize at the "Voix Nouvelles" competition.

In 2018/19, Nicolas Testé began his season at the Opéra national de Paris as Marcel in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots led by Michele Mariotti. He returned to The Metropolitan Opera to star in Penny Woolcock's production of Bizet's Les Pêcheurs de perles as Nourabad, under the baton of Emmanuel Villaume, followed by a performance at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées as Hérode in Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ. He traveled to Barcelona to sing Claudius in Thomas' Hamlet at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, and returned to Paris in the spring for his highly anticipated debut as Sarastro in Robert Carsen's production of Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. Completing his season, Mr. Testé reprised his portrayal of Claudius in a concert version of Hamlet at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

James Conlon, one of today's most versatile and respected conductors, has cultivated a vast symphonic, operatic and choral repertoire. He has conducted virtually every major American and European symphony orchestra since his debut with the New York Philharmonic in 1974. Through worldwide touring, an extensive discography and videography, numerous essays and commentaries, frequent television appearances and guest speaking engagements, Mr. Conlon is one of classical music's most recognized interpreters.

Mr. Conlon is Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera (since 2006) and Principal Conductor of the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Torino, Italy (since 2016), where he is the first American to hold the position since the orchestra was founded in 1931. He has been Principal Conductor of the Paris Opera (1995-2004); General Music Director of the City of Cologne, Germany (1989-2003), simultaneously leading the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Cologne Opera; and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra (1983-1991).

Mr. Conlon has served as the Music Director of the Ravinia Festival, summer home of the Chicago Symphony (2005-15) and is now Music Director Laureate of the Cincinnati May Festivala??the oldest Choral Festival in the United Statesa??where he was Music Director for 37 years (1979-2016), marking one of the longest tenures of any director of an American classical music institution. As a guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera, he has led more than 270 performances since his 1976 debut. He has also conducted at leading opera houses and festivals including the Wiener Staatsoper, Salzburg Festival, La Scala, Teatro dell'Opera di Roma, Mariinsky Theatre, Covent Garden, Chicago Lyric Opera, and Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.

Photo Credit: Jürgen Frank

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