Meet Our Cast

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Brent Reilly Turner (Canio)

American tenor Brent Reilly Turner has been critically acclaimed across the United States. His appearances in opera, concert and recital have been characterized as having a full, dramatic timbre, energetic personality and unique honesty. Recent engagements for Mr. Turner include multiple company debuts: with West Bay Opera as Florestan in Fidelio, Heartbeat Opera as Don Jose in Carmen, Opera Birmingham as Don Jose in The Tragedy of Carmen, and Pacific Opera Victoria as Florestan in Fidelio.    
 

Other recent engagements include debuts with Austin Opera as Carlson in Of Mice and Men, Atlanta Opera as the Kronprinz in Silent Night, and his return to Austin Opera for their production of Bizet’s Carmen. Mr. Turner's Wagnerian repertoire includes roles such as Siegmund in Die Walküre, the title role of Lohengrin, Erik in Der fliegende Holländer, and Froh/Loge in Das Rheingold. Other roles include Max in von Weber's Der Freischütz, Bacchus in R. Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos, Florestan in Beethoven's Fidelio, Don Jose in Bizet's Carmen, Sam Polk in Floyd's Susannah, and Eisenstein in J. Strauss' Die Fledermaus.

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https://www.brentturner.com/

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https://www.youtube.com/user/theeoperaboy/featured

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Sarah Beckham-Turner (Nedda)

A true singing actress, soprano Sarah Beckham-Turner has earned critical acclaim for being “soulful and affecting. . . with a bright and gorgeous controlled soprano.”  For her performance in New York City Opera’s Angels in America, The New York Times hailed her as “best. . . wry even in desperation as Harper, her voice cool yet vibrating with vulnerability,” and The Observer said, “the only singer who scaled the requisite peak of greatness was Sarah Beckham-Turner. . . Ms. Beckham-Turner is both an artist and a star.”

 

Upcoming singing performances for Beckham-Turner include Nella in Gianni Schicchi with Opera Ithaca; Woman 3 in the world premiere of Letters you will not get: Women’s Voices from the Great War with American Opera Projects, the title character in Suor Angelica with West Texas A&M Opera and Barber’s beautiful Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with Chamber Music Amarillo.

 

Sarah has performed with companies throughout the United States including, Rosalba (Forencia en el Amazonas) with New York City Opera; Nedda (I Pagliacci), Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) and Baroness (La Vie Parisienne) with First Coast Opera; Josephine (H.M.S. Pinafore) with Opera New Jersey; Fiordiligi (Cosi fan Tutte) and Desdemona (Rossini’s Otello) with Opera in the Heights; Mabel (Pirates of Penzance), Antonia (Man of La Mancha), Fiordiligi and Elena (The Italian Straw Hat) with Amarillo Opera; Fiordiligi with Asheville Lyric Opera, Mimi (La Bohème) with Center City Opera Theater Philadelphia; and Frasquita (Carmen) with Lyric Opera Virginia. 

 

Sarah is a member of Opera Cowgirls, an all-female performing group that makes opera more accessible to those who might not normally attend an opera performance.  Opera Cowgirls make appearances with opera companies, festivals and bars throughout the United States. 

 

Beckham-Turner is Assistant Professor of Voice and Opera at West Texas A&M University where earlier this year she directed Ned Rorem’s Our Town to great critical acclaim.  In 2021 she will direct Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore.

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http://sarahbeckham-turner.com/index.html

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https://vimeo.com/434027561

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8J4S2Lodcc

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Andy Papas (Tonio)

Native Bostonian Andy Papas has been praised by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel for being “delightfully ridiculous”, and by the Albany Times-Union for his “irresistible hijinks”. Most recently he was seen as Mr. Bumble in Oliver! at The New Repertory Theater and as the Messenger in AIDA with the BYSO. Andy was fortunate to make his Alaska debut last November, singing Dr. Bartolo in The Barber of Seville for Anchorage Opera. Last summer, he sang Pandolfe in Cendrillon with The Opera Company of Middlebury, where he had previously been seen in L’Italiana in Algieri. A frequent performer in Washington State, Andy was Alberich in Der Ring an einem Abend last spring with Pacific Northwest Opera, and he sings the title role in Don Pasquale for PNWO this fall. In the Pacific Northwest, he has also appeared as Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Spalanzani in The Tales of Hoffmann, as the Baritone Soloist in Beethoven No. 9, and as Benoit/Alcindoro for Vashon Opera. St. Louis audiences have heard Andy twist his tongue as the Major General (The Pirates of Penzance) and Ko-Ko (The Mikado) for Union Avenue Opera, and he returns to UAO next summer for his third Bartolo. The first commercial recording of Marc Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock (Bridge Records) features Andy as the gangster “Bugs”, a role he performed with Opera Saratoga in 2017. With Opera Saratoga, Andy also performed Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow, and he was cover for the title role in Falstaff. Last spring he made his Jordan Hall Debut with The Shakespeare Concerts. Andy has sung leading and featured roles with Boston Lyric Opera, Skylight Music Theater, Pacific Opera Project, and The Lyric Stage of Boston, among others. Go Blue!

 

http://andypapas.com/

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Martin Bakari (Beppe)

Praised by Opera News as a "vocally charismatic" performer with a "golden tenor,” Mr. Bakari has recently joined Atlanta Opera and Arizona Opera for Charlie Parker's Yardbird, Seattle Opera for Eugene Onegin and Porgy & Bess, Cincinnati Opera for La traviata and Le nozze di Figaro, Syracuse Opera for Così fan tutte, Portland Opera for Philip Glass' In the Penal Colony and a David Lang double bill, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for Abyssinian Mass, Fort Worth Opera for Porgy & Bess, and On Site Opera for Ricky Ian Gordon's Morning Star and Michi Wiancko's Murasaki's Moon. Upcoming engagements include Charlie Parker's Yardbird at Pittsburgh Opera, Porgy & Bess at Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and a solo recital at NYC's Neue Galerie museum. A 2018 George London Competition award winner, Mr. Bakari's recording of Grigory Smirnov's Dowson Songs (Naxos Records) was featured by Opera News as a "Critic's Choice" album. Mr. Bakari is an alumnus of the Juilliard School, Boston University, and the Tanglewood Music Center.

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https://www.martinbakari.com/

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https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKKHJKQoyNNq4NYauKu72pw

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Christopher Job (Silvio)

Praised for his “commanding sonority” (Opera News) and described as “handsome, agile and with a voice to match” (Boulder Daily Camera), Bass-Baritone Christopher Job is a “rising star on the American opera scene.” (Grand Junction Free Press)   A house favorite at The Metropolitan Opera since the beginning of his career, he has been featured in six of their “Live in HD” broadcasts, and has appeared in numerous other productions such as Tosca, Der Rosenkavalier, Roberto Devereux, Werther, Macbeth, and The Nose; among others.  Several of these productions can be found on DVD, including his Grammy-Nominated recording of Der Rosenkavalier, and he was also featured on their 50th Anniversary Lincoln Center Gala. He returns to the Met next season for Manon Lescaut, Macbeth, Le nozze di Figaro, La Cenerentola, La Traviata, Tosca, and The Magic Flute. 

 

He recently made his L.A. Philharmonic debut under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen, and then returned for his Hollywood Bowldebut in Verdi's Otello with Gustavo Dudamel. As a Southern California native, Mr. Job is thrilled to be making his L.A. Opera debut this season in La Traviata under James Conlon. This July he will join Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra in Vail, Colorado to perform Puccini's Tosca, and soon after, will begin recording Handel's Messiah with the Royal Philharmonic at the famed Abbey Road Studios.

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Other notable credits include engagements with New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Virginia Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Opera Colorado, Glimmerglass Opera, Lyric Opera Baltimore, Des Moines Metro Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Charlottesville Opera, Princeton Festival, Odyssey Opera, Opera Idaho, Opera Fort Collins and Fargo-Moorhead Opera, singing roles such as Escamillo (Carmen), Figaro (Le nozze di Figaro), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Olin Blitch (Susannah), Dulcamara (L'elisir d'amore), Alidoro (La Cenerentola), Colline (La Bohéme), among many others. He created the role of Senator Thomas Jordan in the world première of Pulitzer Prize-winner Kevin Putz’ The Manchurian Candidate with Minnesota Opera, and was seen as Aguirre in the U.S. Premiere of Wuorinen's Brokeback Mountain with New York City Opera. 

 

Mr. Job made his Italian debut at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna as Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Il Podestà in Rossini’s La Gazza Ladra. He made his French debut as Alidoro in La Cenerentola with Le Festival Lyrique de Belle-Île En Mer.

 

An experienced concert artist, Mr. Job has performed at the Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, Spain, as well as numerous performances at Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. He is in high demand for his interpretations of Handel's Messiah, Beethoven's 9th Symphony and Verdi's Requiem. 

 

Spanning into the musical theater repertoire, Mr. Job was featured as the opening workman soloist in the pre-Broadway production of Bernstein’s On The Town at Barrington Stage Company under the direction of Tony-Award winning director John Rando and Emmy-Award winning choreographer Joshua Bergasse. Under the baton of Rob Fisher, he has performed at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher Hall with the New York Philharmonic, where he was featured in the Cockney Quartet in My Fair Lady, sharing the stage with Kelsey Grammer and Brian Dennehy. Last summer he took on the dynamic roles of the Wolf and Prince in Sondheim's Into the Woods with Charlottesville Opera. 

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Mr. Job is a Grand Prize Winner of the Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition, and a second place winner of The Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions for both the Upper Midwest Region and the Rocky Mountain Region. He received his Masters degree in Vocal Performance from Northwestern University and his undergraduate degree in Vocal Performance from Cal State Fullerton.

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https://www.christopherjob.com/

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https://www.youtube.com/user/bassomephisto

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