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Lucas Meachem Announces 23/24 Season: Teatro Real, LA Opera, Chicago and Baltimore Symphonies, World Premiere in Dallas and more
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Baritone Lucas Meachem Announces 2023/2024 Season Highlights
Opening LA Opera’s Season in the Title Role of Don Giovanni
World Premiere of The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at The Dallas Opera
Soloist with the Chicago and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras
Madama Butterfly at The Metropolitan Opera and Teatro Real
Il Trittico at Staatsoper Hamburg
“a solid, dignified presence” – Opera News
New York, NY (August 21, 2023) – With a “magisterial presence” and “youthful luster” (OperaToday), GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Lucas Meachem proudly announces his upcoming 2023/24 season engagements, including a slate of operatic roles both in the United States and Europe. Debuts in Puccini's Il Tabarro and Il Trovatore represent a new vocal direction for Meachem as he shifts to styles reminiscent of Verdi and Verismo, characterized by a richer sound with long and resonant high notes and greater dramatic emphasis.
Following a special recital with mezzo-soprano Susan Graham and pianist Bradley Moore celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival on August 17, in which he stepped in last minute for baritone Thomas Hampson, Meachem begins the season in the title role of Don Giovanni at Los Angeles Opera from September 23 through October 15, 2023. Called “one of the finest Don G’s of our era” by Chicago Classical Review, Meachem will star in the role alongside Guangun Yu (Donna Anna), Isabel Leonard (Donna Elvira), Anthony León (Don Ottavio), Craig Colclough (Leporello), Meigui Zhang (Zerlina), Alan Williams (Masetto), and Peixin Chen (Commendatore). The opera will be led by conductor James Conlon and directed by Kasper Holten, with production design from Es Delvin, who is known for their innovative stage designs for modern musical stars such as Beyoncé, Adele, and U2.
Following his role as Don Giovanni, Lucas Meachem will star in the world premiere of a new opera, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly at The Dallas Opera from November 3 to 11, 2023. Directed by Leonard Foglia, the opera was composed by Joby Talbot with libretto by Gene Scheer and centers around a journalist named Jean-Dominique Bauby, played by Meachem, who wakes from a coma unable to move or speak and defies the odds to write a memoir of his experiences. The opera features mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke (Sylvie) and soprano Andriana Chuchman (Sandrine/Mercedes) alongside Meachem, as well as a stellar cast including Richard Croft (Abbe Faria), Deanna Breiwick (Claude), Kevin Burdette (Papinou), Andrew Bidlack (The Doctor), Jocelyn Hansen (Lea), and Martin Luther Clark Jr. (The Orderly).
Meachem travels to Hamburg, Germany to star in a Puccini double bill as Gianni Schicchi in Il Trittico and Michele in Il Tabarro at Staatsoper Hamburg from January 21 to February 1, 2024. The cast also includes Elbenita Kajtazi, Katja Pieweck, Stefano La Colla, Selene Zanetti, and Oleksiy Palchykov, led by conductor Alexander Joel.
Following Hamburg, Meachem makes his debut in the role of Il Conte de Luna in Il Trovatore at Teatro Comunale di Bologna in Italy from February 18, 2024 to February 25, 2024. The opera will be conducted by Renato Palumbo and directed by Davide Livermore, and Meachem will star alongside Roberto Aronica, Marta Torbidoni, and Chiara Mogini.
Meachem performs as featured soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from April 11-13, 2024, in Mendelssohn’s enduring nineteenth-century oratorio, Elijah. In a full-scale production featuring a flaming chariot and Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s full ensemble including the Chicago Symphony Chorus, the James Conlon-led performance will also feature soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha, mezzo-soprano Ashley Dixon, and tenor Issachah Savage.
He performs with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from April 18-20, 2024, in a program featuring Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 and Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony. Joining Meachen will be soprano Melody Moore, with conductor James Conlon leading the vocalists and orchestra. Performances take place at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall on April 18 and the Music Center at Strathmore on April 20.
Meachem returns to the Metropolitan Opera from April 26 through May 11, 2024 for performances as Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, led by conductor Xian Zhang in her debut at the Met Opera. The Italian-language opera, composed by Giacomo Puccini, tells a tragic story centered around main character Cio-Cio-San, performed by Aleksandra Kurzak, Eleonora Buratto, and Asmik Grigorian. Madama Butterfly will be directed by Carolyn Choa, with production by Anthony Minghella, the English National Opera, and the Lithuanian National Opera.
Lucas Meachem closes his exciting 2023/24 season with an additional run of Madama Butterfly at Teatro Real in Madrid, Spain from June 30 through July 22, 2024. This production will be led by conductors Nicola Luisotti and Luis Miguel Méndez and will continue to feature Meachem’s “perfect for the occasion” (Parterre Box) portrayal of Sharpless.
Lucas Meachem Season Calendar
September 23 to October 15, 2023
Los Angeles Opera Presents Don Giovanni
Los Angeles, CA
Link: www.laopera.org/performances/202324-season/don-giovanni/
November 3 to November 11, 2023
The Dallas Opera Presents The Diving Bell and the Butterfly [World Premiere]
Dallas, TX
Link: https://dallasopera.org/performance/diving-bell-and-the-butterfly/
January 21 to February 1, 2024
Staatsoper Hamburg Presents Il Trittico and Il Tabarro
Hamburg, Germany
Link: www.staatsoper-hamburg.de/en/schedule/event.php?AuffNr=212637#pagenav
April 11 to April 13, 2024
Chicago Symphony Orchestra Presents Elijah
Chicago, IL
Link: https://cso.org/performances/23-24/cso-classical/mendelssohn-elijah/
April 18 to April 20, 2024
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Presents Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony
Baltimore, MD
Link: https://my.bsomusic.org/overview/18299
April 26 to May 11, 2024
Metropolitan Opera Presents Madama Butterfly
New York, NY
Link: www.metopera.org/season/2023-24-season/madama-butterfly/
June 30 to July 22, 2024
Teatro Real Presents Madama Butterfly
Madrid, Spain
Link: www.teatroreal.es/en/show/madama-butterfly-0
About Lucas Meachem
GRAMMY Award-winning baritone Lucas Meachem, dubbed the “rock star of opera” by Opera Pulse, continues to captivate audiences worldwide with his “earnest, appealing baritone” (The New York Times). Known for his mastery of many of the leading operatic roles, Meachem is a consummate artist with a unique warmth and passion for both audiences and his colleagues.
Celebrated by Opera News as a “masterful musician” with an “instrument of striking finish, smooth and solid throughout its range,” Meachem has previously sung career-highlight roles including Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Royal Opera House, the title role in Nabucco at Oper im Steinbruch, and several roles with the Metropolitan Opera: Marcello in La Bohème, De Siriex in Fedora, General Rayevsky in Prokofiev’s War & Peace, Silvio in Pagliacci, and Mercutio in Roméo and Juliette. His Teatro alla Scala debut in Massenet’s Thaïs was praised as the “most impressive performance of the evening” (Opera Online), with his portrayal of Athanaël, alongside Marina Rebeka’s Thaïs, described as “possibly one of the great duos experienced at La Scala in recent decades” (Beckmesser).
When Covid struck and performances were canceled abruptly, Meachem was one of the first classical musicians to livestream a recital from the opera stage, just days after lockdown on March 23, 2020. With debut performances as Rodrigo in Don Carlos at Dallas Opera indefinitely postponed, he and his wife, pianist Irina Meachem, arranged a live-streamed program from the Winspear Opera House. The concert, recorded on smartphones with just two other people in the room, amassed more than 25,000 views on Instagram and Facebook, setting the standard for digital performances during the pandemic. While theaters were dark, Meachem continued to perform on the physical and digital stages, singing his “signature role for good reason” (Opera News) as Figaro in San Francisco Opera’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia for an innovative “drive-in” experience. Meachem then filmed a movie version of Pagliacci as the romantic lead Silvio with the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Named the winner of San Francisco Opera’s inaugural “Emerging Star of the Year” Award in 2016, Meachem has gone on to prolific careers in both the U.S. and Europe. He marked his 50th role debut as Athanaël in Thaïs (Minnesota Opera). Other U.S. highlights include the roles of Chorèbe in Les Troyens, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Valentin in Faust at Chicago Lyric Opera; Don Giovanni with Chicago Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, New Orleans Opera, and Cincinnati Opera; Germont in La traviata at Washington National Opera; Guglielmo in Così fan tutte at Dallas Opera; Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Los Angeles Opera; and the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia at San Diego Opera, Opera Colorado, Houston Grand Opera, and Los Angeles Opera – where he also gave his GRAMMY Award-winning performance as Figaro in The Ghosts of Versailles.
In Europe, Meachem has performed the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Vienna Staatsoper, Royal Opera House, and Den Norske Opera; the title role in Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne Festival and Semperoper Dresden; and the title role in Britten’s Billy Budd at Opéra national de Paris. He has also appeared as Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and Royal Opera House; Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan under the baton of Seiji Ozawa; the title role in Eugene Onegin with Komische Oper Berlin and Opéra national de Montpellier; Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles at Bilbao Opera; and Escamillo in Carmen with Teatro Regio di Torino and Opéra national de Paris. He has performed with Teatro Real de Madrid in the world premiere of El Viaje a Simorgh, as Frank/Fritz in Die Tote Stadt, and as Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride.
Meachem’s first solo album, Shall We Gather, was released in September 2021 under Rubicon Records. Featuring his wife, Irina Meachem, at the piano, the album was praised by BBC Music Magazine for “vibrant and committed performances,” with Meachem delivering “a heartbreakingly beautiful performance.” The New Yorker called this album of American songs “a plea for togetherness in a divided country. Meachem’s voice—a substantial and propulsive lyric baritone with pillowy edges—records beautifully.”
In July 2020, the Meachems founded the Perfect Day Music Foundation (PDMF), a foundation built to promote inclusivity and diversity by using classical music as a relevant medium to address current issues through a traditional art form. The foundation’s annual competition, using social media in its application process to raise awareness for new compositions, centers around a yearly theme highlighting a key demographic of classical music.
Born in North Carolina, Lucas Meachem studied music at Appalachian State University, the Eastman School of Music, and Yale University before becoming an Adler Fellow with the San Francisco Opera. He and wife Irina Meachem travel the world with their son, Cash. Learn more at www.lucasmeachem.com.
Photo Credit: Nate Ryan
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