Faculty

BIOS Summer Opera Intensive 2009

In 1991, Brian Asawa’s career was launched when he became the first countertenor to win the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Since 1993 he has appeared in opera houses world wide singing signature rules such as Tolomeo for Seattle Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Bordeaux Opera, Opera Australia, Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Paris Opera at Palais Garnier. Future engagements include Tolomeo in Handel’s Giulio Cesare at Netherlands Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Theatre de al Monnaie, Brussels. Fyodor in Boris Gudonov in the highly acclaimed Willy Decker production for Netherlands Opera and Prince Gogo in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre for Theatre de la Monnaie, Brussels.

Hailed by the San Francisco Chronicle for having a voice of “extraordinary passion and power” and her “grand but emotionally transparent” characterizations, Susana Poretsky’s 2006-2007 season includes her first performances of Margaret in San Diego Opera’s Wozzeck,where she will return in coming seasons as Fenena in Nabucco. She also rejoined the New York City Ballet as soloist in Alexei Ratmansky’s Diamond Project, a work she premiered in the 2005-06 season and returns to the Metropolitan Opera for Die Ägyptische Helena. Also active on the concert stage, Ms. Poretsky has appeared with every major orchestra in Israel, performing most frequently with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Zubin Mehta. She was invited to sing Leonard Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony for the composer and conductor’s 75th Anniversary and sang the same piece for her New York Philharmonic debut under the baton of Kurt Masur as well as L'Orchestre de Paris. She also recently sang Mozart's Requiem at the Teatro San Carlo in Napoli, Mozart's Mass in c-minor, and Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, Verdi's Requiem at the Liguria Festival, and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the Golda Meir Performing Center in Tel-Aviv.

Composer, pianist and arts educator Nicolas Reveles is a San Diego County native. He holds a doctorate in piano from the Manhattan School of Music in New York and spent five seasons as the pianist for Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project. A former professor of music at the University of San Diego, Dr. Reveles is currently the Geisel Director of Education and Outreach for San Diego Opera and is the host of "OperaTalk with Nick Reveles" on UCSD-TV. His latest composition project is a collaboration with librettist Jack Montgomery on an operatic version of Sleeping Beauty

Recent directing engagements for Cynthia Stokes include Cyrano for Michigan Opera Theatre and Opera Company of Philadelphia, Margaret Garner at Opera Carolina and Cincinnati Opera, Il trovatore at The Florentine Opera as well as new commissions for Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera and San Diego Opera. An accomplished stage director, her theatrical credits include: San Diego Repertory Theatre, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, American Conservatory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, and New York Theatre Workshop. Ms. Stokes studied with the late Wesley Balk at The Minnesota Opera’s New Music Theatre Ensemble. Upcoming projects include: Marriage of Figaro at Dallas Opera, Madama Butterfly at Opera Company of Philadelphia and Romeo et Juliette at San Diego Opera.

 

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