Stars

Conductor

Director and Designer

Full Cast

Opera Story

Composer

OLGA CHERNISHEVA, Aida.
Chernisheva’s career highlights include Maria in Mazeppa, Polina in Pique Dame, Brigitta in Iolanta, Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress, Mlle. Jouvenot in Adriana Lecouvreur, and Ninetta in Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges with the Bolshoi Opera; and Musetta in La Bohème with the Bolshoi Opera, Sweden's Malmo Opera Theater, and San Francisco Opera Center's Merola Opera Program. Concert highlights have included the title role in Rachmaninoff's Francesca da Rimini with Dicapo Opera Theatre; Bach's Mass in B-minor at the Nizhny Novgorod Concert Hall, at the Grand Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory, and with Russia's Saratov Opera Theater; Bach's Easter Oratorio at Moscow's Cathedral Catholic Church; Mahler's Fourth Symphony at the Grand Hall of the Moscow State Conservatory; and Carmina Burana at the Grand Hall of Moscow's Gnessin College.

VIOREL SAPLACAN, Radames.
Romanian lyrico-spinto tenor Viorel Saplacan currently performs as a principal soloist in Bucharest with the Romanian National Opera, with the State Opera of Timosoara, and with opera companies throughout Romania and in other major Eastern and Western European cities. His repertoire includes: Cavaradossi in Tosca, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Calaf in Turandot, Alfredo in La Traviata, Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana, Canio in Pagliacci, Don Jose in Carmen, Radames in Aida, and the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto.

GALIA IBRAGIMOVA, Amneris.
Russian mezzo-soprano Galia Ibragimova is a laureate of the Vincenzo Bellini Competition (Italy, 1995) and the Belvedere Competition (Vienna, 1996), and the winner of the 1997 Angelica Catalani Competition (Italy). Since 1998 she has been a soloist with the State Opera of Prague. Her appearances there have included the title role in Carmen, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Azucena in Il Trovatore, Amneris in Aida, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, Olga in Eugene Onegin, and others. Her chief international triumphs have included guest appearances as Amneris in Japan (with José Cura as Radames, 2001). Taking part in the Wagner Festival at Wels, Austria, she was Waltraute in Die Walkure (2001); at Dublin's Opera Festival she made a guest appearance in the role of Countess Coigny (Giordano's Andrea Chénier, 2002); and at the Opera Festival of Gars, Austria, she sang Carmen (2003).

SCOTT CONNER, The King of Egypt
Scott Conner, from Olathe, Kansas, made his professional operatic debut singing the role of Colline in La Bohème opposite Marcello Giordani with the WGO in February 2008. Scott followed this success with the role of Wagner in Faust opposite Samuel Ramey, also with the WGO, and several roles at Mobile Opera, The Kansas City Lyric Opera, and Opera New Jersey, among others. A WGO Young Artist, Scott recently won the Metropolitan Opera’s District competition. In December 2008, he will make his international debut singing the role of Colline with Lviv State Opera and Odessa National Opera in the Ukraine. Scott’s upcoming engagements include the roles of Nourabad in The Pearl Fishers and Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville with Wichita Grand Opera this season, as well as the roles of Masetto and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Cleveland Opera in November of 2009. This will be Scott’s second season as a Wichita Grand Opera Young Artist.

PAUL SMITH, Messenger
His performance career has brought him to more than ten countries including engagements with the Deutsches Nationaltheater (Weimar), Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Düsseldorf), the Prague State Opera, Théâtre des Arts Opera de Normandie, and the Cairo Opera. His operatic repertoire includes such important roles as Romeo, the Duke, Faust, Almaviva, Pinkerton, Lensky, Belmonte, Ferrando, and Tamino. Comfortable on the musical stage as well, he performed Piangi in both the London and Hamburg productions of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera. He joined the faculty at Wichita State University in the fall of 2008.