Verdi’s majestic Requiem

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

Soprano Joyce El-Khoury was born in Lebanon and raised in Canada. To date, she has performed over 30 leading roles in the world’s greatest opera houses.

Her 2023–2024 season opens with a production of Liszt’s Sardanapalo at the LisztFest in Budapest. She also makes two debuts in Verdian roles this season, including Elisabetta in Don Carlo at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo followed by Amelia in Simon Boccanegra at the Finnish National Opera. She returns to Canada for La Reine Garçon at the Opéra de Montréal, then on to the Birgit Nilsson Days Festival to sing Amelia in Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera, and will also make her New National Theatre Tokyo debut in Puccini’s Tosca. In concert, Joyce joins the Berlin Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester for an Italian opera gala, and will appear as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra. She will reunite with Serouj Kradjian for a recital in Toronto inspired by her Lebanese heritage. Upcoming seasons include international engagements: Paris, Vienna, Dallas, Rouen and Montpellier.

Upcoming seasons will be marked by milestones for Tunisian-Canadian mezzo-soprano Rihab Chaieb, including a debut at Opernhaus Zürich as Charlotte (Werther), the title role in Carmen at Glyndebourne Festival and with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Claire (Melancholia) with the Royal Swedish Opera, Dorabella (Così fan tutte) at Seiji Ozawa Music Academy, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and returns to the the Bayerische Staatsoper and to the Metropolitan Opera.

Among numerous concert stage appearances, Rihab Chaieb has performed with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Kent Nagano and Johannes Debus. She has recorded Bach’s Mass in B minor and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (on Deutsche Grammophon’s DG Stage) with Orchestre Métropolitain under Nézet-Séguin. She also reprised Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.

Rihab Chaieb appeared in numerous productions at the Metropolitan Opera as a former member of the Lindemann Young Artist Program. She later returned to the Met singing Zerlina in Don Giovanni under Cornelius Meister.

Bass Adam Palka has performed on prestigious opera stages around the world, including Teatro alla Scala, Staatsoper Berlin, Staatsoper Hamburg, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Royal Opera House, Teatro Real in Madrid, Opéra national de Paris, Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Düsseldorf.

This season, Palka will perform Filippo II (Don Carlo), the title role in Boito’s Mefistofele and Oroveso (Norma) at the Staatsoper Stuttgart. He’ll also be singing Méphistophélès with the Canadian Opera Company. Other roles this season include Timur (Turandot) and Gremine (Eugene Onegin) at the Gran Teatredel Liceu; Méphistophélès (Faust, Gounod), Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville) and Vodnik (Rusalka) at the Wiener Staatsoper; Verdi’s Requiem with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra; Count Walter (Luisa Miller) at the Staatsoper Hamburg. He will also be returning to the Royal Opera House as Timur.

Palka has also sung Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9^. with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Verdi’s Requiem with the Philharmonie de Paris and the Orchestre national du Capitole de Toulouse

A precociously gifted pianist, Oreste Cosimo decided to devote himself to singing and became the winner of several prominent international voice competitions. He made his debut at 21 as Ismaele in Nabucco, subsequently singing principal roles before being selected by Riccardo Muti in 2016 for the Italian Opera Academy. He was a member of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, training with Renato Bruson, Gregory Kunde, Luciana D’Intino, and Vincenzo Scalera and appearing in La traviata, Nabucco and Hänsel und Gretel at La Scala, before moving to Vienna in 2018 to study with Ramón Vargas. Cosimo has held many leading roles in operas from Mozart through Verdi and Puccini for celebrated opera houses under famous conductors. Recent appearances include Rigoletto, La traviata, Lucia di Lammermoor, La bohème, Les contes d’Hoffman, and Lucrezia Borgia, and in the symphonic repertoire, Puccini’s Messa di gloria, Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle, Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi’s Messa da Requiem, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Rossini’s Stabat Mater.