Artist Information

Sanford Sylvan, Cardillac

From Schubert's Die Schöne Müllerin and the Passions of J.S. Bach to the operas of John Adams, American baritone Sanford Sylvan displays a remarkable range of vocal expression and communicative power. On the concert stage and in recordings, his radiantly pure, lyric tone, clarity of diction and profound understanding of both words and music speak directly and intimately to his audience.

Deeply committed to the art of the vocal recital, Mr. Sylvan and his long-time collaborator, pianist David Breitman, have performed extensively throughout the United States and Europe, in major venues in London, New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Their recitals and recordings have earned exceptional praise from critics and audiences, including three Grammy nominations for Best Classical Vocal Performance.

In the realm of opera, Mr. Sylvan is an acclaimed Mozartean. His portrayals of Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte have been seen internationally, including PBS Great Performances. He has been much acclaimed for the role of Leoprello in Don Giovanni, which he sang for his Glyndebourne Festival debut in 1994 and with New York City Opera where he has since become a regular performer in such operas as The Magic Flute, Ariodante and most recently The Rape of Lucretia. Sanford Sylvan has become closely associated with the productions of renowned directors: Peter Sellars in works of John Adams, and Andrei Serban. He has developed longstanding relationships with major composers who have written for him: John Adams' Nixon In China (Chou En-Lai), the title role of The Death of Klinghoffer and The Wound Dresser; and numerous works of John Harbison. He was in the US premiere of The Lighthouse by Peter Maxwell Davies, the world premiere of Philip Glass' The Juniper Tree, and sang Sir Michael Tippett's The Ice Break at the BBC Proms, recorded for Virgin Classics. In Spring 2003, Mr. Sylvan's appeared with New York City Opera in the role of Collatinus in Britten's The Rape of Lucretia. In summer 2005 he made his Gilmmerglass Opera debut in Mozart's Cosi fan tutte.

Sanford Sylvan has performed with many of the leading orchestras of the world including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Detroit Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouworkest, London Symphony, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich, Academy of Ancient Music, Melbourne Symphony, Australian Chamber Orchestra and the NHK (Japanese Broadcasting Corporation) Symphony. He has collaborated with such conductors as Simon Rattle, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Herbert Blomstedt, Christopher Hogwood, Kent Nagano, Bruno Weil , Roger Norrington, and Edo De Waart, among many others. The Los Angeles Philharmonic commission Steven Stucky's American Muse for him, and the premiere was conducted by Esa Pekka Salonen. More recent performances include debuts with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under Herbert Blomstedt, the Minnesota Orchestra under Yakov Kreizburg and the Kansas City Symphony and Civic Orchestra of Chicago, both under Anne Manson. His return performances include the BBC Symphony in London, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, VARA Symphony Orchestra at the Concertgebouw, Orchestra of St. Luke's at Carnegie Hall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he sang Haydn's Creation for the first week of subscription concerts in their new Walt Disney Concert Hall in fall 2004.

Sylvan's festival appearances have included the Edinburgh, Tanglewood, Vienna, Holland, Schleswig-Holstein and Ojai. He has longstanding relationships with the Carmel Bach Festival and the New England Bach Festival where he performs annually. In 2003, he made his debut with the Oregon Bach Festival under Helmuth Rilling, where he returned this summer. As a chamber musician he has performed, toured and recorded with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Music from Marlboro, Ensemble Sequentia, Emmanuel Music and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players with whom he recorded John Harbison's Words from Paterson.

Sanford Sylvan's recordings are known throughout the world and appear on the Nonesuch, Decca, Harmonia Mundi, Musicmasters, Bridge, Koch, Virgin Classics, New World and CRI labels. A Grammy and Emmy Award winner for his role in John Adams' Nixon In China, he has received Grammy nominations for his recording with David Breitman, L'Horizon Chimérique which features chanson of Gabriel Fauré, Beloved That Pilgrimage, a program of American songs with music by Barber, Copland and Chanler, and for John Adams' The Wound Dresser.

Steven Sanders, The Officer

Hailed by Opera News as “dynamic” and The New York Times as “impressive”, tenor Steven Sanders has performed with many prestigious opera companies including New York City Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Boston, Chautauqua Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Amarillo Opera, and the Opera Institute at Boston University. Engagements for the 2009-2010 season include debuts with Toledo Opera as Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia and with Boston Lyric Opera as Arbace in Idomeneo as well as a return to the role of Alfred in Die Fledermaus and performances of Don Ottavio with Opera New Jersey. This fall Mr. Sanders also looks forward to adding title role of Faust to his expanding repertoire. In the spring of 2008 he made his New York City Opera debut in Purcell’s King Aurthur and returned to Wolf Trap Opera to perform the role of Oronte in Handel’s Alcina.
Additional engagements for the 2008-2009 season included Alfred in Die Fledermaus and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. In concert he was recently seen with Distinguished Concerts International where he performed as tenor soloist in the Mozart Requiem and Haydn’s Mass in the Time of War at Lincoln Center in New York. In addition to the many mainstream roles Mr. Sanders excels in lesser performed roles such as Chairman Mao in Nixon in China by John Adams, Galileo in Galileo Galilei by Philip Glass, Howard Boucher in Dead Man Walking by Jake Heggie, and The Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia by Benjamin Britten.

An accomplished concert artist, he has also been heard as a soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Dallas Wind Symphony, Beethoven Mass in C Major with Boston’s Masterworks Chorale, and in the Mozart Requiem with Ballet Austin and the Norwalk Symphony in Connecticut. On June 1st of 2008 Mr. Sanders made his Carnegie Hall debut as the tenor soloist in Mozart Vesperae Solennes de Confessore.

A native of Chickasha, Oklahoma, Mr. Sanders holds degrees in Music Education from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma from which he received the 2004 Distinguished Young Alumni Award. He received his Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from Oklahoma City University where he sang the roles of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Alfredo in La traviata, Sam in Street Scene, and Ruggero in La rondine. Mr. Sanders went on to receive a Certificate of Performance from Boston University.

Sol Kim Bentley, The Daughter

Soprano Sol Kim Bentley, a two-time Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions regional finalist, most recently understudied the title role in their world premiere of Zhou Long’s Madame White Snake (performing the role for an  invited  dress rehearsal),  sang the role of Tosca with Longwood Opera, and was the Roll Seller in Opera Boston’s New England premiere of Shostakovich’s The Nose. In May of 2011 she will understudy the title role in Opera Boston’s production of Donizetti’s Maria Padilla in addition to appearing as Bianca di Francia. Also with Opera Boston she has understudied Elvira (Ernani) and Agathe (Der Freischütz). She has sung with Commonwealth Opera as the soprano soloist for their annual Messiah sing, in The Threepenny Opera (Polly) and Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. Other performances include Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus (Connecticut Lyric Opera), Mimi in La Bohème (Riverside Theatre Works), and Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro (Granite State Opera). A former apprentice with Virginia Opera and Central City Opera, she currently performs the role of Lucy in The Telephone and the title role in Little Red Riding Hood, both for Opera Boston’s outreach program.

Frank Kelley, The Cavalier

Frank Kelley has previously appeared with Opera Boston in productions of La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, The Bartered Bride, The Nose, The Consul, La Vie Parisienne and The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny.  Recent and upcoming engagements include Grandpa Joe in the world premiere of The Golden Ticket with Opera Theater of St. Louis, the role of Eddie Fislinger in Elmer Gantry with Florentine Opera and Nashville Opera, Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro with Opera Grand Rapids; Spoletta with Florentine Opera, The Beggars Opera with Aston Magna, Turandot with Concert Opera Boston as well as The Bach St. Matthew Passion with the Baldwin-Wallace Bach Festival and the Schütz and Bach St. Matthew Passions with Emmanuel Music. Other highlights include Stravinsky’s Pulcinella Suite with the St. Louis Symphony, Master of Ceremonies in The Queen of Spades with the National Symphony Orchestra, Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine with National Arts Centre Orchestra, the St. John Passion with Emmanuel Music and the Berkshire Choral Festival and The Messiah with Richmond Symphony and International Music Foundation in Chicago. Recent recordings include the title role in Monteverdi’s Orfeo; The Prairie by Lukas Foss; Rameau's Orfée, and A Full Moon In March by John Harbison.  Other recordings include:  three Deutsche Harmonia Mundi CD’s with the ensemble Sequentia: “Aquitania”, “Shining Light”, and “Saints”; a Teldec release of Stravinsky’s Renard with Hugh Wolff and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra; a London recording of Bach Cantatas with The Bach Ensemble led by Joshua Rifkin, and Kurt Weill’s Das Kleine Mahagonny with Kent Nagano, available on London videotape and on CD from Erato.

Janna Baty, The Lady

Hailed by The London Financial Times for her "eloquent dignity and vibrant tone" and by The Boston Globe for her "sumptuous tone and vivid theatrical presence," soprano Janna Baty enjoys an exceptionally versatile career.  Recent engagements include appearances with the Hamburgische Staatsoper, Orchestre National du Capitole Toulouse, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Yale Symphony, Tallahassee Symphony, Hartford Symphony, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogatá (Columbia), Eugene Opera, Opera North, and Boston Lyric Opera.  She has sung under Seiji Ozawa, Michel Plasson, Carl Davis, Robert Spano, Steuart Bedfored, Shinik Hahm, and Paul Moravec, among others. She has appeared at the Aldeburgh and Britten Festivals in England, the Semanas Musicales de Frutillar Festival in Chile, and the Tanglewood and Norfolk Festivals in the U.S.  Her most notable opera roles include the Duchess (Powder Her Face), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Donna Anna and Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Vittelia (La Clemenza di Tito), Madame Lidoine (Dialogues of the Carmélites), Lady Billows (Albert Herring), Musetta (La Bohème), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), Dinah (Trouble in Tahiti), the Mother (Amahl and the Night Visitors), the Contessa di Folleville (Il viaggio a Rheims), Mrs. Grose (The Turn of the Screw). 

Equally at home in both standard and contemporary repertoire, she appears regularly with such noted contemporary ensembles as Collage New Music, Auros Group for New Music, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, and has worked alongside many composers including Bernard Rands, Sydney Hodkinson, Peter Child, Christopher Lyndon Gee, Fred Lerdahl, Yehudi Wyner and John Harbison, on performances of their music. Winner of several international competitions, most notably the XXI Concurso Internacional de Ejecución Musical "Dr. Luis Sigall" (Chile), she has given concerts across Europe, the U.S. and South America, in the company of such distinguished musicians as violist Nobuko Imai, pianists Claude Frank, Peter Frankl, and Christopher Lyndon Gee, and guitarist Stephen Marchionda. She can be heard on the critically-acclaimed recording of Lukas Foss's opera Griffelkin (Chandos, 2003); and on Vali: Flute Concerto/Deylaman/Folk Songs No. 10 (Naxos, 2004), on which she sings orchestral songs in Persian by Iranian composer, Reza Vali. A graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and Yale School of Music, she is married to acclaimed jazz guitarist and singer Doug Wamble.

David Kravitz, The Gold Merchant and Provost Marshall

Baritone David Kravitz has been widely praised for the “power, character” and “resonance and fluency” of his singing (Boston Globe; Opera News), his “brilliantly natural” acting and “perfect comic timing” (Boston Globe; St. Louis Post-Dispatch), his “eloquent” and “superb” diction (Boston Phoenix; Boston Herald), and his “drop-dead musicianship” (Boston Globe) on both the operatic and the concert stages.

In the 2010-2011 season, Mr. Kravitz sings the Businessman in Intermezzo for his debut at New York City Opera, and appears as the United Nations Delegate in the world premiere of Tod Machover’s Death and the Powers at Opéra de Monte-Carlo, with subsequent performances of the work that season at Chicago Opera Theater and in Boston in a production by the American Repertory Theater. He also returns to Opera Boston as the Provost Marshall and Gold Merchant in Hindemith's rarely performed Cardillac, sings Handel's Messiah for his debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, covers Matthias Goerne in Britten's War Requiem with the Saito Kinen Festival under Seiji Ozawa, and appears as Nick Shadow in The Rake's Progress with Emmanuel Music.

In the summer of 2009, he joined Glimmerglass Opera for Dr. Grenvil in La traviata and Mr. Kofner in The Consul. In the fall of 2009, he sang his first Germont in La traviata with the Pioneer Valley Symphony, and later joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Elijah (solo bass, covering Elijah) and MacMillan’s St. John Passion (covering Christus), Opera Boston for Baron Grog in La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein, and traveled to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Lord Salt in the world premiere of The Golden Ticket.

In the 2008-2009 season, Mr. Kravitz sang Prince Ottokar in Der Freischütz and Krusina in The Bartered Bride with Opera Boston, and joined the Philadelphia Orchestra for Handel's Messiah. The 2007-2008 season included returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Levine for Berlioz’s Les Troyens, to Opera Boston for Handel’s Semele, to Opera Theatre of St. Louis for Martin y Soler’s Una Cosa Rara, and to Boston Baroque for Purcell’s King Arthur. Mr. Kravitz joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion under Bernard Haitink; he performed Handel's Messiah in Carnegie Hall; he joined the Lincoln (NE) Symphony under Edward Polochick for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion; and he returned to Emmanuel Music for Bach’s B Minor Mass, to the New England Philharmonic for Mahler’s Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen, and to the Cantata Singers for Carmina Burana and for the Boston premieres of Kurt Weill’s Flight of Lindbergh and Charles Fussell’s High Bridge.

The 2006-2007 season included Ko-Ko in The Mikado with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, the title role in Wozzeck with the New England Philharmonic, and performances under the baton of James Levine in the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s production of Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron. Mr. Kravitz joined the roster of New York City Opera in the 2005-2006 season, responsible for the leading role of Olivier in Strauss’s Capriccio; his other opera roles include Leporello and the title role in Don Giovanni, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, Nick Shadow in The Rake’s Progress, and Captain Corcoran in HMS Pinafore.

Mr. Kravitz’s concert performances include Handel’s Messiah in both Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, his “sensational” Boston Symphony Hall debut with Grant Llewellyn and the Handel & Haydn Society as Apollo in Handel’s Apollo e Dafne, and solo appearances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s under Roger Norrington, Boston Baroque under Martin Pearlman, the Cantata Singers under David Hoose, and Emmanuel Music’s renowned Bach Cantata Series under Craig Smith. As a chamber musician, Mr. Kravitz presented Brahms’ Neue Liebeslieder Walzer with the Boston Chamber Music Society; an all-Mozart concert with renowned soprano Lisa Saffer; and works by Samuel Barber and Charles Fussell with Boston’s Fibonacci String Quartet.

Mr. Kravitz’s commitment to new music has led to his presentation of world or regional premieres of numerous contemporary works, including Edward Cohen’s opera The Bridal Night and Andy Vores’ song cycle Goback Goback with Collage New Music (the latter was named one of the best classical performances of 2003 by the Boston Phoenix); John Harbison’s Four Psalms with Cantata Singers (recently released on CD by New World); Tod Machover’s Resurrection with Boston Lyric Opera; James Primosch’s Songs and Dances from “The Tempest” and Thomas Whitman’s opera The Black Swan with Philadelphia’s Orchestra 2001; and George Rochberg’s Sacred Song of Reconciliation with Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Mr. Kravitz is also active as a recording artist and, in addition to Harbison’s Four Psalms, can be heard on Koch International Classics’ recordings of Bach’s Cantata BWV 20 and St. John Passion (1725 version) with Emmanuel Music, and on New World’s recording of Peter Child’s Estrella with Cantata Singers.

Before devoting himself full-time to a career in music, Mr. Kravitz had a distinguished career in law that included clerkships with U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Stephen Breyer. He later served as Deputy Legal Counsel to the Governor of Massachusetts.

Gil Rose, Conductor

Music Director for Opera Boston

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Nic Muni, Director

Opera Boston debut

As a freelance stage director, Nic Muni has directed over two hundred productions with companies in North America, Europe, and Australia.  His fruitful relationship with the Houston Grand Opera and Seattle Opera has resulted in two acclaimed co-productions: Il Trovatore, which has been seen in Seattle, Houston, Tulsa, Melbourne, Vancouver, the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto and at the San Francisco Opera, and Norma, which has been presented in Seattle, Houston, Cincinnati and Los Angeles. Additional work with Houston Grand Opera includes the world premiere of Jackie O, an opera based on the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis that was also presented at Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada.   The Minnesota Opera is another company which fostered his early work, where he has directed Rusalka, Don Giovanni, Rigoletto, and two world premieres: Libby Larsen's Frankenstein, The Modern Prometheus, and Robert Moran's From the Towers of the Moon. Mr. Muni has served as Artistic Director for two companies, Tulsa Opera (1987-93) and Cincinnati Opera (1996-2005).  Recently completed projects include the US premiere of Wagner’s  Das Liebesverbot  at Glimmerglass Opera; Postcard from Morocco—Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and L'amico Fritz--San Francisco Opera Merola Program; Carmen—Boston Lyric Opera, Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda/Trouble in Tahiti—Portland Opera. Of Mice and Men—Cincinnati Conservatory of Music.  Upcoming projects include Il Barbiere di Siviglia--Indiana University Opera Theater; Cendrillon (Direction and design)--Miami University Opera; Cardillac--Opera Boston; La Vida Breve/Master Peter's Puppet Show--Manhattan School of Music; Giulio Cesare--CCM.