About Me.
Soloists for Handel Messiah
December 8, 2024
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Letitia Stevens Soprano
The voice of British soprano Letitia Stevens has been described as “soaring,” “a powerful…a great voice,” and “a voice that moves people.” Recently the Boston Musical Intelligencer wrote that she sang with a “blissful lyricism” and “handled her line reverently.” In 2023 she won third prize in The American Prize: Women in Art Song. She has appeared in art song recitals throughout the Boston area, in the UK and in southwest France with pianist Bonnie Donham. She has premiered songs by pianist and composer Leonardo Ciampa at Mechanics Hall, Worcester, created the soprano solos in the premiere of Ciampa’s Requiem for William, at Methuen Memorial Music Hall, and, with him, given concerts of opera arias, including for Renegade MAC of Rhode Island and the Menotomy Concert Series at Arlington Town Hall. In 2023 she premiered the role of Anna Wheil in The Visit by Needham-based composer, Ellen Bender. Since returning to singing soprano after many years singing mezzosoprano, she has performed roles such as Fiordiligi, Cosi fan tutte; the Countess, Marriage of Figaro; Queen of the Night, Magic Flute; Rosalinde, Die Fledermaus; Nella, Gianni Schicchi; Madame Goldentrill, Der Schauspieldirektor; Isabella, Forbidden Love; and Cleopatra, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, with Opera 51, Rhode Island Opera on Tap, Greater Worcester Opera, Cambridge Chamber Ensemble, Connecticut Lyric Opera, in their Young Artists’ Program, and Lyric Opera Studio Weimar. She also performs regularly with Boston Bel Canto Opera in their concerts of opera arias and ensembles. On the concert platform she has appeared with the Carlisle Chamber Orchestra in Mozart’s Exsultate Jubilate, and has been soprano soloist in Fauré’s Requiem. Upcoming work includes covering Donna Elvira, Don Giovanni with Opera 51, Hugo Weisgall’s The Stronger with Hope and Anchor Opera at the Providence Fringe, Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915, and concerts at Mechanics Hall, and with Boston Bel Canto Opera. Full details can be found at: www.LetitiaStevens.com
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​Joanna Porackova Alto
Ms. Porackova has been hailed for her "heartfelt sense of the inner drama, huge range" (BostonGlobe), he aring majesty" (Opera News), "passion, and skill" (New York Times), “technicalmastery” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), and as a “great artist” (Boston Musical Intelligencer), and “phenomenal dramatic soprano” (AmericanRec ord Guide). She has had a wide-ranging career spanning the contralto, mezzo soprano,and soprano repertoire. She has performed internationally as a invited guest artist with the prestigious Beaulieu Abbey (UK); Paris International Conservatory; and Tel Aviv Diaspora Museum, Israel;Gerlesborgsskolen, Sweden Recital Concert Series; and has been engaged with the Paris Opera Bastille, Grand Theatre de Tours(France), Stadttheater Bern (Switzerland); Würzburg and Stralsund(Germany), Klagenfurt (Austria), Hong Kong Opera, and the Aix en Provence, Easter Salzburg Festivals, in Die Walküre with the Berlin
Philharmonic, and Opera North Festival (Canada). She has also performed in the Berlin Philharmonic Concert Series conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. She has worked under the direction of James Conlon, Jean Yves Ossonce, Henrik Nanassi, Daniel Klajner, Richard Travers,Jonathan McPhee, Gil Rose, Mark Churchill, Francisco Noya, Steven Karidoyanes, Cynthia Woods, Thomas Bo, Jeffrey Brody, Jeffrey Rink, and the late Alan Lannom and John Oliver. She has performed in concerts and operas in the USA, including Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NY; the Washington National; in Connecticut, Baltimore, Fort Pierce, and Anchorage, and with the Boston Bel Canto, Comm onwealth Lyric, Boston Lyric Operas, Operaat Florham, NJ, and Opera Boston; as well as the NY, Chicago, and Boston Wagner Society Concert series. As a soprano she sang the title roles of Isolde, Norma, Turandot, Medea, Salomé, Tosca, Aïda, Rusalka, La Wally, and Brünnhilde, as well as Gerhilde in Die Walküre, leading Verdi roles, and Magda Sorel in The Consul under the direction
of Gian Carlo Menotti himself, and the Anaide in Mose in Egitto. As amezzo sang Komponist in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the title role of Carmen. She has also performed with Masterworks Chorale, ChorusPro Musica, Ars Musica Chorale, NY, Harvard Radcliffe Chorale, Boston Civic, Plymouth, Longwood, Salem and the Cambridge
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​Alan Schneider Tenor
Mr. Schneider has appeared in opera, operetta, and music theatre productions with many
companies in his native New England andelse where, including Odyssey Opera, Opera
Boston, Sarasota Opera, OperaDelaware, Florida Grand Opera, The Huntington Theatre
Company, Opera New England and Boston Bel Canto Opera. Highlights of his 25-year association with Boston Bel Canto opera include the 2000 Verismo Gala, the 2001 Verdi Centennial Gala, Il Conte di Lerma in Don Carlo (announcing the great Jerome Hines’s entrance for his final operatic performance), Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor in 2003, and tenor soloist in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem in 2004. In recent years, he has begun singing the Heldentenor repertoire, giving complete performances of Tristan in Tristan und Isolde (2019), and Siegmund in Die Walkuere (2023), with the Wagner in Vermont Festivalin Brattleboro, Vermont. He will return to Vermont in August of 2025 to Concert engagements have included the Kalamazoo, Springfield (MA), Chautauqua and Omaha Symphonies, The Bellingham (WA) Festival of Music, Providence Singers, Albany Pro Musica, and the long-running Mohawk Trail Concerts in Charlemont, Massachusetts. Equally at home onstage or backstage, Mr. Schneider has directed a number of productions, including Riders to the Sea (Vaughan Williams)and Signor Deluso (Pasatieri) at UMass/Amherst, Handel’s Acis and
Galatea at Boston University, Mozart’s La finta giardiniera at The Longy School of Music, and Puccini’s La Bohème and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro with Panopera, a company he founded in Northampton, Massachusetts, and ran for five years. Recently, most of his theatrical energies have gone into the running of an independent scenery construction business in the Pioneer Valley of Western Mass, where he resides. A proponent and frequent performer of new music, he has created roles in world premieres of works by composers Eric Sawyer, Daniel Pinkham, Paula Kimper and others. Recordings of several of these works have been released on the Albany, Arsis, and BMOP/sound labels. In the summer of 2001, he took part in the Glimmerglass Opera Young American Artists Program, appearing in Le nozze di Figaro and Chabrier's L'Etoile. The summer before, he performed roles in La rondine, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Street Scene with the Chautauqua Opera, and was
chosen by that company to receive a Shoshana Foundation Richard F. Gold Career Grant. He has also been the grateful recipient of career support grants from Boston Lyric Opera and the Wagner Society of New York.
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​Fred Furnari Baritone
Lyric bass Fred Furnari came to singing while mid-career as a Registered Nurse. Under the
tutelage of his mentor, Dan Sullivan, he began his singing career with the role of Sarastro in the Des Moines Metro Opera’s Opera Iowa tour, and was awarded placement in that company’s prestigious Apprentice Artist program for two consecutive years. After studying for an Artist Diploma at the Hartt School, he was awarded a scholarship to study at University of Cincinnati’s Opera Theater and the Music Festival of Lucca (Italy). Fred went on to sing such roles as the Commendatore and Alcindoro with the Crested Butte Music Festival, and Sparafucile, Simone, and Un Vieillard Hébreuat the St. Petersburg Opera Company, Florida. Fred now studies with teacher Sharon Daniels and coach Timothy Steele. Closer to home, Fred has performed the roles of Timur at the Opera Company of Middlebury, Basilio and Alcindoro at Barn Opera, and many roles at Longwood Opera. In addition to singing as the bass soloist in numerous concert performances, Fred is in regular rotation in Boston Lyric Opera’s chorus, and was selected by that company to sing the roles of the Jailor in Carmen, as well as Zuniga in BLO’s groundbreaking production of “Carmen on the Common.” Fred lives with his partner Steve in Roslindale, Massachusetts. When he is not singing, he can be found cycling and gardening with his partner, growing tomatoes and dahlias in his garden, enjoying time with his family, or “In Cucina,” learning new cooking and barbecue techniques.
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