Scalia/Ginsburg
Tickets Available 27 April
Meet the Artists
Peter Scott Drackley (Scalia)
American tenor Peter Scott Drackley has been acclaimed as having shown “vocal confidence […] his luminous head voice blooming with expansive and penetrating phrases.” by Opera News and as bringing “the performance to an awestruck standstill with his exquisite singing. He cuts a fine figure throughout the performance, with an intense stage presence.” by Opera Today. A recent grant awardee of the Olga Forrai Foundation, Mr. Drackley recently made role debuts as Radamés (Aïda) with Opera Carolina, Calaf (Turandot) with Opera Grand Rapids, and Turiddu/Canio (Cavalleria Rusticana/i Pagliacci) with Festival of the Atlantic, and made his international debut singing Rodolfo (La bohème) with Nevill Holt Opera, and covering Cavaradossi (Tosca) with English National Opera. He joined the Ravinia Festival and Chicago Symphony Orchestra as the First Armored Man (Magic Flute), and looks forward to singing Flirtatious Man/First Son/Honorable Colonel (The Nose) with Chicago Opera Theater and returning to Anchorage Opera to perform Alfredo (La Traviata).
Mr. Drackley’s 2019-2020 season included his role debut as Cavaradossi (Tosca) with Opera in the Heights, Rodolfo (La bohème) with Opera Idaho, and Scalia (Scalia/Ginsburg) with Opera Carolina and Opera Grand Rapids. His performances as Cavaradossi (Tosca) with Anchorage Opera and Radamés (Aïda) with Raylynmor Opera were cancelled due to Covid-19, and he joined Opera Omaha for a radio performance Opera Outdoors concert, singing excerpts from Turandot, Ernani, and Otello.
Other operatic highlights include Rodolfo (La bohème) with Anchorage Opera and Utah Festival Opera, Pollione (Norma) with Winter Opera St. Louis, Turiddu (Cavalleria Rusticana) with Boheme Opera New Jersey, Il Duca di Mantova (Rigoletto) with Anchorage Opera, Macduff (Macbeth) with LoftOpera, and Riccardo (Un Ballo in Maschera) with Opera in the Heights. Mr. Drackley has also received awards from many operatic competitions, including 3rd Place in the McCammon Voice Competition, 2nd Place in the New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera Competition, 2nd Place in the Nicholas Loren Vocal Competition, and was the winner of the Michael Ballam Concorso Lirico International Competition.
Mr. Drackley is a frequent concert soloist, having sung Verdi’s Requiem and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Helena Symphony, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Norwalk Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with the Lancaster and Richmond Symphonies, and Schubert’s Mass in G at Carnegie Hall. He performed the first excerpts of Antonin Scalia in Derrick Wang’s opera Scalia/Ginsburg at the Supreme Court for Justice Scalia and Justice Ginsburg, a concert that was featured on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
A native of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Mr. Drackley received his education at Peabody Conservatory, and trained as a Studio Artist with Sarasota Opera, covering Avito (L’amore dei Tre Re) and singing the Chaplain of the Monastery (Dialogues des Carmélites); as an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, covering Der Tambourmajor (Wozzeck) and The Governor (Candide); as an Ensemble Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera singing singing Pirelli (Sweeney Todd), and singing Chekalinsky while covering Gherman (Pikova Dama); and as an Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera, covering Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor) and covering Alfred (Die Fledermaus).
Kelly Guerra (Ginsburg)
Lauded as “exquisite” in the SF Chronicle for her performance as Renata in Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, Peruvian-American mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra continues to light up stages as a versatile and passionate performer. Recent work includes Carlotta in Hector Armienta’s Zorro with Opera Santa Barbara, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Princeton Festival and New Jersey Light Opera, the title role in Astor Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires with Kentucky Opera, Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Scalia/Ginsburg with Chautauqua Opera Company and the Princeton Festival and the title role in Luisa Fernanda with Opera Williamsburg.
This fall marks her debut at The Metropolitan Opera, where she will be singing and dancing under director and choreographer Deborah Colker as one of the Niñas in a new production of Golijov's flamenco opera Ainadamar.
Kelly’s 2024-25 engagements include Jo March in Mark Adamo’s Little Women with Fort Worth Opera, the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Glacier Symphony, Isabella in L’italiana in Algeri with Anchorage Opera and Opera in the Heights, María in María de Buenos Aires with Madison Opera and Mrs. Fox in Fantastic Mr. Fox with Opera Omaha.
A strikingly versatile performer, Kelly feels at home with many styles and eras of vocal music from Mozart to Héctor Lavoe. In the spring of 2022, she made her Los Angeles Philharmonic debut under the baton of John Adams in the Noon to Midnight Contemporary Festival, and she premiered Katherine Balch’s orchestral song cycle Illuminate with the California Symphony. Kelly was lauded as “brilliant” by the Santa Barbara Independent for her performance as Lupita in the mariachi opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna with Opera Santa Barbara (2021). During the 2021-2022 season she toured in the cast of (…Iphigenia) by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding in the role of Iphigenia Unbound, which was noted as “beautifully sung” (Washington Post).
Guerra won first place in Santa Barbara’s Performing Arts Scholarship Foundation competition in 2018, prior to her residency as a Young Artist with the Opera Santa Barbara Chrisman Studio. Also in 2018, Kelly was a recipient of a travel grant to Germany for language study from the Max Kade Foundation while completing her DMA at UC Santa Barbara. There Guerra "created a sensation" (BravoCalifornia) singing the role of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro.
As a recitalist, Guerra has been featured at the Lucerne Festival, the Tanglewood Music Center, Chautauqua Symphony Chamber Music, and the Bard Music Festival. Guerra has performed as a soloist with several ensembles including the Albany Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Garden State Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now, Contemporaneous, Opera Parallèle and BluePrint.
A first-generation American and native of Southern California, Kelly champions Spanish-language repertoire to welcome more diverse audiences into the concert hall.
Hans Tashjian (Commentator)
Hans Tashjian, a bass-baritone whose voice has been described as "rumbling and sumptuously lush" continues to expand his repertoire with esteemed opera companies throughout the US. In the 2023-2024 season Mr. Tashjian joined Opera Essentia as the title role in Handel’s Imeneo, Teatro Nuovo as Callistene in Donizetti’s Poliuto, Salt Marsh Opera as le Fauteuil and L’Arbre in L’enfant et les sortilèges, and Opera Essentia as Hercules in Handel’s Admeto. In concert he premiered John Sichel’s formidable song cycle Paradoxides, joined Queens Symphony for a concert of opera arias and duets, sang Monteverdi's Vespers with Connecticut Choral Society, appeared with the Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival in excerpts from Silvestrov’s Stille Lieder, and appeared with American Opera Projects for the First Glimpse concert, part of the Composers & the Voice program of which Hans is a singer-in-residence.
Recent highlights include his return to the Metropolitan Opera, covering Député Flamand 2 in Don Carlo, covering the Bass Pit Singers in Brett Dean’s Hamlet, and debuting as Count Ceprano in Rigoletto, as well as his performances as Méphistophélès in Faust with Opera Baltimore, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Teatro Nuovo, and Billy in the world premiere of The Snowy Day at Houston Grand Opera.
Tashjian's impressive credits include a wide range of roles, from the title role in Aleko and el Capitán in Florencia en el Amazonas to Enrico in Anna Bolena, Gremin in Eugene Onegin, Ferrando in Il trovatore, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, Melchtal in Guillaume Tell, Banco in Macbeth, and Wurm in Luisa Miller. A frequent concert soloist, Mr. Tashjian has appeared with Orchestra Nexus, The Ukrainian Contemporary Music Festival, Charleston Symphony, Jackson Symphony, Chelsea Symphony, the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, the Bach Chorus of Pittsburgh, the Bach Music Festival of Canada, the Canadian Chamber Orchestra of NYC, in concert at NYU’s La Maison Française, and as soloist with the New Jersey Conservatory's performance of the Rachmaninoff Vespers, and Beethoven's 9th Symphony.
A sought-after interpreter of new works, Tashjian has workshopped Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Fallen Giant for American Lyric Theater and joined AOP for The Stonewall Operas. He appeared with Harlem Stage in the new opera The Swann and developed and performed the role of Donald in Julian Grant and Mark Campbell's The Nefarious, Immoral but Highly Profitable Enterprise of Mr. Burke & Mr. Hare.
Tashjian holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Carnegie Mellon University.