MEET OUR 2020 JUDGES
VERA LÚCIA CALÁBRIA
Stage director, dramatic coach, and arts administrator, has over 30 years of experience in opera and classical music. Born in Brazil, she began at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich followed by San Francisco Opera as assistant to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.
CHRISTOPHER CANO
Head of Music & Director of the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio. A seasoned recitalist, orchestra soloist and collaborative pianist, Mr. Cano has performed throughout the US, Mexico, Israel, Europe and the Far East.
ANA MARÍA MARTÍNEZ
Grammy Award® winner Ana María Martínez is considered to be one of the foremost sopranos of her time, with an international career that spans the world’s most important opera houses and concert halls. Photo by Svetlana Pasedko.
Stage director, dramatic coach, and arts administrator VERA LÚCIA CALÁBRIA has over 30 years of experience in opera and classical music. Born in Brazil, she began at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich followed by San Francisco Opera as assistant to Jean-Pierre Ponnelle. Productions staged for San Francisco Opera include Carmen, Cavalleria rusticana/Pagliacci, La forza del Destino, Der fliegende Holländer, and Falstaff. Other credits include Madama Butterfly in Strasbourg and Cologne, Manon in Vienna, Munich, and at the Metropolitan Opera, Parsifal in Barcelona, Falstaff in Chicago, Tosca in Montpellier, Tannhäuser in Honolulu, and Carmen in Zurich, Cologne, Chicago, and Tel Aviv.
As director and dramatic coach, she now divides her time between main stage productions and work with young singers. In the last years she directed La Finta Giardinera and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges/L’Heure Espagnole at UCLA; Der fliegende Holländer at Los Angeles Opera; Il Barbiere di Siviglia at San Francisco Opera Center; and Cavalleria/Pagliacci at San Francisco Opera; The Queen of Spades at the Teatro Real, Madrid (Spain); Idomeneo and Aida at Los Angeles Opera; Il Barbiere di Siviglia at Opera Indianapolis; La Canterina and Gigantes y Cabezudos at CSULA; L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and Così fan tutte at CSU Fullerton; and Der Rosenkavalier at Israeli Opera; Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance and The Magic Flute at CSULA; Bluebeard’s Castle / L’Heure Espagnole, The Bear / La Navarraise, The Rape of Lucretia at Yale University, and Le Nozze di Figaro at the Shubert Theater for Yale University; Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte and Le Nozze di Figaro at Rice University, and Roméo et Juliette at Utah Opera.
Vera Lúcia Calábria has also collaborated on several video productions with Brian Large (II Trittico, Andrea Chenier and Nabucco from Milan’s La Scala; Der fliegende Holländer from Bayreuth, Lear from Munich), and Derek Bailey (Aida and Madama Butterfly from La Scala).
Besides her work as stage director, she does private coachings and works with the studio of Kathleen Martin in Laguna Niguel. She has conducted master classes and workshops on Commedia dell’Arte in opera at CSULA, UC Santa Barbara, and UCLA among others. Her work as as dramatic coach on role and Lied interpretation took her to Israeli Opera’s and the Staatsoper Berlin’s Young Artist Program, to Pepperdine University’s Songfest, to the Wagner Theatre Program in New York, the Los Angeles Opera Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program and to the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and has her teaching Performance Techniques at CSU Fullerton.She is fluent in Portuguese, German, Spanish, Italian, French, and English.
Christopher Cano
Head of Music & Director,
Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio
A seasoned recitalist, orchestra soloist and collaborative pianist, Mr. Cano has performedthroughout the US, Mexico, Israel, Europe and the Far East.
Having maintained his private studio in New York City since 2002, Mr. Cano has prepared singersfor appearances at the Metropolitan Opera, Teatro alla Scalla, Chicago Lyric Opera, and orchestralappearances with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra,London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic among others.
As a collaborative artist, he has played in the Master Classes of Licia Albanese, Fedora Barbieri,Anna Moffo, Lauren Flannigan, Martin Katz, Craig Rutenberg, and Suzanne Mentzer. Mr. Cano has alsoplayed for the master classes of Marilyn Horne in New York City at Carnegie Hall. As a studio pianist, Mr. Cano has had the distinct privilege of working with some of the great artists and teachers of singing including Marilyn Horne, Sherrill Milnes, Luciano Pavarotti, Marni Nixon, Patricia McCaffrey, Joan Patenaude-Yarnell, Rita Shane and Diana Soviero.
A native of Southern Arizona, Christopher Cano holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees inPiano Performance from the University of Arizona. Mr. Cano was also a full-scholarship student in theProfessional Studies Program of the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student of renownedpianist, Warren Jones.
Beginning with the 2017/18 season, Mr. Cano was appointed as the Head of Music and Directorof the Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio of Arizona Opera.
Arizona Opera Cast Members & Creatives | Arizona Opera (azopera.org)
ANA MARÍA MARTÍNEZ
(Photo by Svetlana Pasedko)
Grammy Award® winner Ana María Martínez is considered to be one of the foremost sopranosof her time, with an international career that spans the world’s most important opera houses andconcert halls. Her repertoire encompasses opera’s most intriguing and diverse leading ladies,and she engages her audiences season after season with signature roles, spellbinding debuts, anda myriad of captivating recordings. In addition to a full calendar of performances, Ms. Martinezhas recently taken on two exciting roles that expand her presence off-stage, including joiningRice University’s Shepherd School of Music as an Artist-in-Residence for the 2019-20 and2020-21 academic years and Houston Grand Opera as their first-ever Artistic Advisor.Ms. Martinez is known worldwide for her stunning portrayals of the title roles of Rusalka,Carmen, and Florencia in Florencia en el Amazonas, as well as Cio-Cio-San in MadamaButterfly, Elisabetta in Don Carlo, Solea in El Gato Montes, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni,Tatyana in Eugene Onegin, Mimi in La boheme, Nedda in Pagliacci, Liùin Turandot, Marguerite in Faust, Alice Ford in Falstaff, Desdemona in Otello, and Ameliain Simon Boccanegra, among many others. She has performed these leading ladies with theOpera National de Paris, Vienna Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, De Nederlandse Opera,Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Glyndebourne Festival, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, andThe Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Los Angeles Opera,San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, Opera de Puerto Rico, Santa Fe Opera, andDallas Opera. An alumnae of the Houston Grand Opera Studio, Ms. Martínez maintains a strongrelationship with the house in her adopted home city, and was the inaugural recipient of the LynnWyatt Great Artist Award, which is granted by HGO and Lynn and Oscar Wyatt. Ms. Martínez’s dynamic concert career includes engagements with some of the world’s mostcelebrated orchestras and conductors. She recently joined Esa-Pekka Salonen and London’sPhilharmonia Orchestra for the World Premiere of the oratorio Dreamers. Written by composerJimmy López of Peru and librettist Nilo Cruz of Cuba, Dreamers explores the immigrantexperience in the United States. Ms. Martinez has sung in concert at the Teatro alla Scala withthe Filharmonica della Scala, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, with the New York Philharmonicat Carnegie Hall, conducted by Alan Gilbert, the Puerto Rico Symphony, San AntonioSymphony, Seoul Philharmonic, English National Opera Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Symphony inMoscow, the Orquestra Sinfonica Brasiliera in Rio de Janeiro, BBC Symphony, BerlinPhilharmonic Orchestra, and the National Symphony of the Dominican Republic. She has joinedthe Boston Symphony, conducted by Bernard Haitink, the Ravinia Festival Orchestra, conductedby James Conlon, the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico, Washington National Opera Orchestra for aconcert with Bryn Terfel conducted by Plácido Domingo, the Turkish Opera and Ballet Theatrein concert with Dmitri Hvorostovsky, and the Esterhazy Festival in Austria in concert withJoseph Calleja. She voiced the role of opera singer Alessandra in season three of Amazon’sMozart in the Jungle.
Ms. Martinez won the Pepita Embil Award at the 1995 Operalia II, and has since been honored totour around the world in concert with Plácido Domingo. Highlights of their performancestogether include concerts at HSBC Arena in Rio De Janeiro as part of the World Cup.
Celebration, her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl conducted byGustavo Dudamel, the Abu Dhabi Festival in the United Arab Emirates, at the Arena di Verona,The Teatro Real in Madrid, as well as at the White House. Together, they inaugurated the DubaiOpera House, and at the Salzburg Festival they recorded a live DVD all-Zarzuela concertentitled Amor, Vida de Mi Vida. Ms. Martinez has also performed on international concert tourswith star tenor Andrea Bocelli. Highlights of their collaboration include her appearance on theEmmy nominated PBS TV special and DVD American Dream: Andrea Bocelli’s Statue ofLiberty Concert with the New Jersey Symphony, as well as her participation in his star-studdedperformance in New York’s Central Park which was recorded live, entitled Concerto: One Nightin Central Park. Ms. Martinez sings the title role in Manon Lescaut (Decca) recorded oppositeAndrea Bocelli with Plácido Domingo conducting the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana.Ms. Martinez was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico and proudly represented the island as anhonoree and performer in the 62nd Annual National Puerto Rican Day Parade in New York City. She received a Bachelor of Arts and a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School.
For more information please visit: www.anamarimartinez.com