Mozart’s Così fan tutte: The Dangerous Game of Love ^2024-2025

Rafael Payare’s prodigious musicianship, technical brilliance and charismatic presence on the podium have made him one of the world’s most sought-after conductors. A graduate of the celebrated El Sistema music education program in Venezuela, Mr. Payare began his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. Since winning the prestigious Malko International Competition for Young Conductors in Denmark in 2012, Maestro Payare’s career has advanced rapidly. Since 2015, he has served as Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival, founded by his mentor the late Lorin Maazel. He was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 to 2019 and in 2019, took up the position of Music Director of the San Diego Symphony. In recent years, Rafael Payare has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including those of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Chicago and Paris. He has also made important opera debuts at the Glyndebourne Festival, Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, and most recently at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In the 2022-2023 season, Payare became the ninth Music Director in the history of the OSM.

To consult:
rafaelpayare.com
Long biography

Austrian-English soprano Anna Prohaska made her debut at the age of 18 with the Komische Oper Berlin, in the role of Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. Soon after, she performed with the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, becoming a member of its ensemble at 23. Though the Staatsoper remains her artistic home, she enjoys an extraordinary international career with some of the world’s greatest opera houses and orchestras. Anna has collaborated with conductors such as Barenboim, Rattle, Jordan, Dudamel and Jacobs. In huge demand on the concert circuit, Anna has performed regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic since her debut there at 24, as well as the Vienna Philharmonic under Boulez, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jansons, Harding, Blomstedt and Nézet-Séguin, the LSO under Rattle, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Dudamel.  

Montreal-born mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier is internationally acclaimed both by audiences and critics for her vocally and dramatically captivating role portrayals. Her repertoire includes, among others, Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier), Charlotte (Werther), Nicklausse (Les contes d’Hoffmann), the title role in Carmen, Prinz Charmant (Cendrillon), Ascagne (Les Troyens), Judith (Bluebeard’s Castle), Jane Seymour (Anna Bolena), as well as many roles in operas by Mozart. Guest engagements have taken her major cities including Vienna, Paris, London, New York, Milan, Munich, Berlin, Salzburg, Barcelona, Florence, Rome, Geneva, Hamburg, San Francisco, Washington, Brussels, and Montreal. She has also worked with conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Daniele Gatti, Ingo Metzmacher, Ádám Fischer, Philippe Jordan, Louis Langrée, Marc Minkowski, Jérémie Rhorer, Kent Nagano, Emmanuelle Haïm, Sir Andrew Davis, Daniel Barenboim, Sir Colin Davis, Placido Domingo, James Conlon, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and with directors such as Willy Decker, Damiano Michieletto, Frank Castorf, Dimitri Tcherniakov, Barrie Kosky, Stefan Herheim, Claus Guth, Laurent Pelly, Pierre Audi, and Christoph Walz. 

  

Praised for his “wonderfully sweet–toned, lyric tenor voice that is an instrument of great beauty,” (Classical Review) American Matthew Swensen has emerged as one of the most versatile and charismatic tenors of his generation. Recent projects include Handel’s Samson with the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart, Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with the New Orleans Opera, a debut at the Rheingau Music Festival in Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang Symphony, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the NDR Orchestra. Other European credits include Ferrando in Così Fan Tutte with Adam Fischer (after giving his first performance in the role under Zubin Mehta) as well as Fenton in Falstaff (with Sir John Eliot Gardiner) and Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress (with Daniele Gatti), all at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He also made several concert appearances in Florence, Dresden and Leipzig with conductors such as Franz Welser-Möst and Alain Altinoglu. 

Jenny Daviet is a French soprano renowned for her compelling theatrical presence and flowing musicality, as well as for her excellence in an eclectic repertoire that embraces opera and contemporary music. Her performance of Messiaen’s Poèmes pour Mi with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano garnered unanimous praise, as did her brilliant performance in the title role of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at the Malmö Opera. Daviet also performs with the Orchestre de Caen, notably in works by Knussen and George Benjamin. Her Asian debut in Taichung saw her perform in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In 2024–2025, she will make her debut as Mireille in Battistelli’s 7 Minuti at the Opéra de Lyon, and with the Freiburger Kammerorchester in Mozart’s Great Mass in C minor. Jenny Daviet’s collaborations with prestigious ensembles and renowned conductors testify to her talent and versatility. 

Long recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time, American baritone Thomas Hampson has received countless international honours for his unique artistry and his cultural leadership. Hampson’s operatic repertoire comprises more than 80 roles, and his discography includes more than 170 albums that have garnered multiple nominations and awards including GRAMMY Awards, the Edison Award, and the Grand Prix du Disque. Thomas Hampson is an honorary professor of Philosophy at the University of Heidelberg and an honorary member of London’s Royal Academy of Music. In addition to several doctorates honoris causa, he was named Kammersänger of the Wiener Staatsoper and Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the Republic of France. He is the co-founder and Artistic Director of the Lied Academy Heidelberg, and in 2003, he established the Hampsong Foundation, where the art of song serves to promote intercultural dialogue and understanding. 

Andrew Megill is recognized as one of the leading choral conductors of his generation, known for his unusually wide-ranging repertoire, extending from early music to newly composed works. He has prepared choruses for the American Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the National Symphony, and the New York Philharmonic, and he has worked with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Charles Dutoit, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Alan Gilbert, Kurt Masur, and Kent Nagano. He is Director of Choral Activities at the University of Illinois and serves as Associate Conductor and Director of Choral Activities of the Carmel Bach Festival, as well as Artistic Director of the ensemble Fuma Sacra. He taught at Westminster Choir College and has been a Guest Conductor for the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. Broadcast by Public Radio International and the BBC, his work can be heard on numerous recordings, including those of Magnussen’s Psalm (Albany Records), Haydn’s Masses (Naxos), and works by Caleb Burhans (Cantaloupe).