Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi/ An Evening of Opera

Suor Angelica & Gianni Schicchi
Two, one-act operas by Giacomo Puccuni
with performances by Jeanne Robison & Richard Zeller

Join Biola Conservatory’s Opera Theater for it’s 19th season with performances of Giacomo Puccini’s magnificent Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi. 

A drama of redemptive love.  A comedy of deceit and pure fun.  A nun seeks eternal salvation for her sin while a cunning con artist works to get rich quick in this double-bill of one-act operas by Giacomo Puccini. They are two of the trio of operas known as Il trittico (the Triptych.) Featuring one of opera’s most beloved arias, “O mio babbino caro,” Gianni Schicchi is paired with Suor Angelica in a night of deep emotion and uproarious laughter. Both are opera gems by Italy’s most romantic and dramatic composer.

The production features Metropolitan Opera baritone Richard Zeller singing the title role of Gianni Schicchi and Dr. Jeanne Robison as the Principessa in Suor Angelica. They are joined by almost 30 students from the Conservatory’s Voice and Opera program singing in dramatic roles. This masterful combination is directed by Zeller and Robison and will be sung in Italian with projected English supertitles. Tragedy and comedy come together in two beloved Puccini operas: it has something for everyone!

Dr. Jeanne Robison, Voice Area Coordinator at Biola, received her bachelor's degree in music education and her master's degree in voice performance at Kent State University where she studied voice with Donna Pegors and opera with James Stuart. She continued her graduate studies, earning a doctor of musical arts degree in voice performance at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied opera direction under Italo Tajo and voice with Nancy Carr and Patricia Berlin.

Dr. Robison has sung numerous roles with college opera workshops and professional companies, including the Ohio Light Opera Company, Duluth-Superior Opera Association, Des Moines Metro Summer Opera Festival, and the CCM Opera Theatre and Opera Studio, and has performed with regional orchestras in Ohio, Mississippi, and Arkansas. In 1998 she sang the role of Donna Elvira in the Rome Festival's production of Don Giovanni, and The Queen of the Night with the Opera Festival di Roma, a role she reprised in 2001 with the Biola Opera Theater.

Dr. Robison has pioneered opera programs at three universities including Delta State University, John Brown University, and Biola University. She began her directorial training at CCM where she served as an Assistant Director to renowned director and bass Italo Tajo, studied make-up with Lenna Kaleva, and costuming with W.K. Fauser. Dr. Robison was the first doctoral vocal performance candidate at CCM to study opera direction and production as her secondary field, and was the first student to include direction as part of her doctoral lecture recital, Verdi as Stage Director. In 1990, she participated as a director in theWesley Balk Institute. Dr. Robison has directed more than 25 productions including scenes from numerous operas, productions of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance, Patience, The Mikado, and H.M.S. Pinafore; one-act operas including Menotti's The Telephone, The Medium, and The Old Maid and the Thief; Puccini's Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi; and since coming to Biola has mounted four Mozart classic's: Cosi fan tuttè, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, and The Magic Flute.

Richard Zeller joined the voice faculty as Associate Professor in 2014. One of America's foremost baritones, Richard Zeller is internationally acclaimed for both his concert and opera roles. He is known for his sonorous dramatic voice, a compelling stage presence and outstanding musicianship.

Richard Zeller’s opera engagements have included 12 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera; in 2002-2003 he appeared at the Met in three new productions; as Ernesto in Bellini’s Il Pirata with Renée Fleming; in the lead role of Eddie in William Bolcom's opera, A View from the Bridge, based on Arthur Miller's play; and as Chorebe in Berlioz's Les Troyens, conducted by Maestro James Levine. His other performances and assignments at the Met have included the title role in Verdi’sMacbeth, the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème, Barak in R. Strauss’ Die Frauohne Schatten, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Carlo in Verdi’s Ernani, Rangoni and Schelkalov in Mussorgsky’sBoris Godunov in two different productions, Thoas in Gluck’s Iphigenie en Tauride, Kothner in Wagners’s Die Meistersinger, Sprecher in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, as well as performances of smaller roles in other operas including Giordano’s Andrea Chénier, Charles Gounod’s Faust, and Verdi’s Rigoletto.

Richard Zeller is highly regarded in the concert field and has sung with virtually all the major orchestras in the USA, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra,National Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, and San Diego Symphony, to name a few. International orchestra credits include the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Vancouver Radio Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Ottowa Symphony, Nord Deutscher Rundfunk (Hannover), MDR Sinfonieorchester (Leipzig), Dresden Staatskapelle, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Prague Autumn Festival), Tokyo Philharmonic, Cesky Krumlov Festival (Czech Republic), Korea Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra (Norway), Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo (in a command performance for Prince Rainier and Prince Albert of Monaco), as well as a performance for the Spanish Royal Family in Madrid with conductor Helmuth Rilling.

Highlights of past seasons include appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the baton of James Levine in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, and the title role in F. Mendelssohn’s Elijah with both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Ravinia and in a nationwide radio broadcast with the Cleveland Orchestra as well as G.F. Handel’s Messiah with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Richard Zeller was also featured in 2001 in a nationwide TV Broadcast of Live from Lincoln Center singing the Mozart Requiem with the Mostly Mozart Festival, conducted by Gerard Schwarz. His performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall include Orff’s Carmina Burana, G.F. Handel’s Messiah, Verdi’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, Bloch’s Sacred Service, Catalani’s La Wally, and many others.

During 2008-2009 season, Richard Zeller returned to Scottish Opera to sing Germont in David McVicar’s new production of La Traviata, a role he reprised with Portland Opera in the USA. He also performed the title role of Verdi’s Falstaff in Portland at PSU Opera directed by Tito Capobianco and appeared at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall with American Symphony Orchestra as the lead role of Signor Rivière in Luigi Dallapiccola’s opera Volo di notte and at Lincoln Center Jazz with Deborah Voigt and The Collegiate Chorale as Grand-Pretre/Hercule in Gluck’s Alceste. Zeller’s concert engagements during that season included Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Louisiana Philharmonic, and Spokane Symphony, and Carmina Burana with the Buffalo Philharmonic at Artpark. Highlights of the 2009-2010 season included J.S. Bach's B minor Mass with Charlotte Symphony, a Carmina Burana with Richmond Symphony, F. Mendelssohn’s Elijah at Winter Park Festival, the Johannes Brahms Requiem with Portland Symphonic Choir and an Opera Gala in Lodz, Poland.

Richard Zeller’s recordings include the critically acclaimed Merry Mount by Howard Hanson for Naxos, Deems Taylor’s Peter Ibbettson with Naxos, and the world premiere of Henri Lazarof's Fifth Symphony on Centaur Records - all recorded with Gerard Schwarz and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. He has recorded Dvorak's Te Deum with Zdenec Macal and theNew Jersey Symphony Orchestra for Delos, and David Schiff’s Gimpel the Fool for Naxos, as well as Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 for Centaur Records, and Virgil Thompson's Lord Byron and Aaron Copland's The Tender Land for Koch International.