The Rose Elf

Described as “utterly original” by The New York Times and named a 2023 Musician to Watch by the Washington Post, David Hertzberg is a composer from Los Angeles.

In the spring of 2020, the debut recording of his opera The Wake World, which premiered at Opera Philadelphia in 2017 and won the Music Critics Association of North America’s Best New Opera Award, was released on Tzadik. Lauded as “a rapturous nirvana” by the Financial Times and “astonishingly imaginative” by the BBC, the recording was included among The New York Times Best Classical Albums of 2020. This was followed shortly by the release of his chamber opera The Rose Elf, which premiered in the catacombs of Green-Wood Cemetery in 2018 and was dubbed WQXR’s Opera Event of the Year. Opera News listed the album as one of the Year’s Best Recordings, calling it “a kaleidoscopic, narcotic vision” that The New Yorker wrote “blooms with warmth and depth”. That same year David was awarded the Andrew Imbrie Award from The American Academy of Arts and Letters and named a Guggenheim Fellow.

David is currently working on his next opera, Grand Hotel, a site-specific operatic fugue in four acts for the Los Angeles-based company The Industry, as well as a one-act symphonic monodrama entitled HQ, to premiere in 2024.

Highlights of recent seasons have included the premiere of his Chamber Symphony with the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the cantata Sunday Morning with New York City Opera at Lincoln Center, the orchestral works for none shall gaze upon the Father and live and Spectre of the Spheres with the Pittsburgh and Kansas City Symphonies, four premieres of chamber works on the Concert Artists Guild series at Carnegie Hall, his orchestral cantata Nympharum and large ensemble work femminina, oscura at Alice Tully Hall, as well as performances at Tanglewood and the Kennedy Center.

David has held residencies at Opera Philadelphia, Dumbarton Oaks, Young Concert Artists, Copland House, Yaddo, and MacDowell, and received distinctions from Juilliard, Harvard, Tanglewood, BMI, ASCAP, and the International Opera Awards, which shortlisted him for Newcomer of the Year in 2018. He studied at Juilliard and Curtis.

Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.

Andersen’s fairy tales, consisting of 156 stories across nine volumes, have been translated into more than 125 languages. They have become embedded in Western collective consciousness, accessible to children as well as presenting lessons of virtue and resilience in the face of adversity for mature readers. His most famous fairy tales include “The Emperor’s New Clothes”, “The Little Mermaid”, “The Nightingale”, “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”, “The Red Shoes”, “The Princess and the Pea”, “The Snow Queen”, “The Ugly Duckling”, “The Little Match Girl”, and “Thumbelina”. His stories have inspired ballets, plays, operas, and animated and live-action films.

Award-winning American mezzo-soprano Lisa Marie Rogali has been praised for her “nuanced voice” and “spontaneity” on the stage. Opera News described her début performance with Minnesota Opera as “…a tour de force of diction, precision and pizzazz.” Ms. Rogali is quickly establishing herself as a versatile performer of opera and musical theatre as well as contemporary and concert music.

This season, Ms. Rogali joins Detroit Opera’s Resident Artist Program, singing the roles of Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Lapak in The Cunning Little Vixen, and covering Dodo in Breaking the Waves. She will also make her role début as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with North Carolina Opera.

Last season, Ms. Rogali débuted the roles of Princess/Lucy/Fancy Doll #1 in the world premiere of Edward Tulane with Minnesota Opera. She also performed her first Hansel in Opera Birmingham’s production of Hansel and Gretel this spring. On the concert stage, she was featured as the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Naples Philharmonic, as well as Mozart’s Requiem with The Masterwork Chorus. Additionally, she performed Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with Williamsport Symphony Orchestra as part of their “Love & Romance” concert. Additionally, she returned to The Glimmerglass Festival to sing Stéphano in Roméo et Juliette and Paquette in Candide.

Ms. Rogali has been featured in roles on the stages of companies including Minnesota Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Opera Birmingham, and Opera Saratoga. New to mezzo-soprano repertoire, she has already garnered attention for her success in the zwischenfach world. Some of her most notable operatic roles to date include: Mercédès in Carmen, Tina in Flight, Lisette in La rondine, Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi, Musetta in La bohème, Elle in La voix humaine, and Blanche de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites. Ms. Rogali’s versatility extends to the musical theatre realm as well, where she has performed and covered leading roles such as Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, Louise in Gypsy, and Maria in The Sound of Music.

On the competition circuit, Ms. Rogali has earned top accolades from a variety of prominent organizations. Recently, she was awarded Third Place in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (Eastern Region), Second Place in the Orpheus Vocal Competition, First Place in the Dorothy Lincoln Smith Classical Voice Competition, Fourth Place in the Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition, and Second Place in the American Traditions Vocal Competition. She has also won awards from the Lotte Lenya Competition, Jensen Foundation, Career Bridges, and Opera at Florham Competition, among others.

Ms. Rogali received her M.M. in Vocal Performance from The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and her B.M.E. in Music Education from The Pennsylvania State University.

Praised for her exquisite tone, enthralling stage presence, and thrilling versatility, Madeline Ross made her Carnegie Hall debut in 2019 as a jazz soloist where she “scatt[ed] to beat the band” (NY Concert Review). She has performed with Portland Opera, Resonance Ensemble, The Oregon Symphony, 45th Parallel, Portland Opera To Go, and Opera Theater Oregon, and was recently hailed for “effortlessly nailing” her performance as Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Oregon ArtsWatch). She won first prize at the National Association of Teachers of Singing classical voice competition in 2020 and has recently returned from a performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. premiering An African American Requiem with Resonance Ensemble and NEWorks Philharmonic Orchestra. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Renegade Opera, Portland’s unconventional opera company. Upcoming engagements include an experimental theater production with Shaking the Tree Theatre and a role debut as First Wood Sprite in Dvorak’s Rusalka with Portland Opera (Spring 2023).

Brandon Michael has been recognized for his beautiful and versatile tenor voice and his dynamic stage presence. Last summer, Brandon sang the role of Agenore in Mozarts “Il Re Pastore” with Orpheus PDX and is thrilled to sing with the company again this summer in “The Rose Elf”. Brandon has been performing opera and musical theater for three decades. Brandon has been a regular chorus member with the Portland Opera since 2022. With Inland Northwest Opera, Brandon performed the roles of Goro, Spoletta and Basilio/Don Curzio. In concert, Brandon is regularly heard with Portlands Resonance Ensemble and will be featured on an album they are recording this summer. Brandon sings with Portland Symphonic Choir and was the Tenor Soloist for the Rachmanoniv Vespers and understudy for the Puccini Messa Di Gloria with Vancouver Symphony. Brandon has sang the tenor solo in Beethovens 9th with the Spokane Symphony. This summer Brandon will sing Nemorino in a concert version of Elisir D’Amore with Ping and Woof Opera. Brandon teaches voice and performance and repertoire at Clackamas Community College.

Viewed as “a broad, resonant baritone that is exquisitely controlled throughout his entire range,” Zachary Lenox has performed leading roles across North America. Notable roles include Silvio in PAGLIACCI, Marcello in LA BOHEME, Marullo in RIGOLETTO, Count Almaviva in LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Guglielmo and Don Alfonso in COSI FAN TUTTE, Papageno in DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, Father in HANSEL AND GRETEL, Sid in ALBERT HERRING, Gianni Schicchi and Betto in GIANNI SCHICCHI, and Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. PINAFORE.

Mr. Lenox has appeared with Portland Opera, Eugene Opera, Tacoma Opera, Opera Parallèle, Opera Bend, Pacific Music Works, Cascadia Chamber Opera, Portland Summerfest, Portland Chamber Orchestra, Portland Concert Opera, Eugene Concert Choir, Bravo Northwest, and the Astoria Music Festival.

Concert appearances include Bass Soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Samson, and Judah Maccabeus, Mozart’s Requiem, Verdi Requiem, Faure Requiem, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Schubert’s Mass in G, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Bach’s Coffee Cantata, Christmas Cantatas, as well as BWV 56.

Zachary is a past winner of the Pacific Northwest Sings competition as well as the MONC Idaho/ Montana District Auditions. He received his B.M. and M.M. from the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam.

Powerfully compelling, Deanna Tham is known for her captivating and tenacious spirit on and off the podium. She is currently Associate Conductor of the Oregon Symphony and Music Director of the Union Symphony Orchestra.

Previously, Tham was the Assistant Conductor of the Omaha Symphony, following her tenure as Assistant Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony and Principal Conductor of the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestras. She has performed at the Proms in Royal Albert Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Seiji Ozawa Hall at the Tanglewood Music Center working with Maestros James Ross, Joseph Young, and Sir Antonio Pappano, as well as renowned artists Isobel Leonard and Joyce DiDonato. Highlights of the 2019-2020 season included leading the Jacksonville Symphony’s first educational Martin Luther King Jr. tribute concert and the Union Symphony’s first city-community Pops on the Plaza collaboration of Latin American pop and classical music. Additional recent engagements include Assistant Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra (NYO-USA and NYO2) and Assistant Conductor of the Chicago Sinfonietta with Maestro Mei-Ann Chen. Tham has also regularly guest conducted with the Boise Philharmonic and Ballet Idaho, is a cover conductor for the San Francisco Symphony, and has worked with world-renown soloists in a variety of genres including Melissa White, Capathia Jenkins, and Cherish the Ladies. Her past positions include those with the Boise Philharmonic Youth Orchestra, Louisville Youth Orchestras, and American Chamber Opera.

Tham is also equally at home with a variety of musical genres. These projects include full-feature blockbuster movie scores, collaborations with Cirque Musica, Broadway artists, pop cover groups like Jeans ’n Classics, and independent artists like Silent Film Score connoisseur and composer, Ben Model.

Tham is a staunch advocate of music education from school education engagement and youth orchestral performing opportunities to lifelong learning. In 2018, Tham and the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestras made their debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California. Previously, she has worked with the Louisville Youth Orchestras and the Boise Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. Tham has also created and presented educational concert series in a variety of formats. She has written original school-curriculum-based programs for numerous symphony orchestras and collaborated with organizations including Really Inventive Stuff, the Louisville Ballet Academy, and the International Culinary Arts and Sciences Institute.

Tham is a second-place winner in the Youth Orchestra Conductor division of the American Prize. She was invited as a scholarship participant to the 2015 Conductors Guild Conductor/Composer Training Workshop at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music working with renowned conductors Marin Alsop and James Ross. Additionally, she was the recipient of the 2015 Wintergreen Summer Music Academy Conductor’s Guild Scholarship where she worked with Master Teacher Victor Yampolsky. In 2013, Tham’s work with the National Music Festival was featured on National Public Radio as well as American Public Media. She has also made appearances at the Cadaques Orchestra International Conducting Competition.

Tham has been the Music Director of the American Chamber Orchestra. Her work with the company includes a groundbreaking semi-staged version of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, staged in English for the South Chicago community. During her time with the company, she worked with many talented musicians, including those who sing with the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She made great strides making the company a strong presence in the Chicago area and has sold recordings of her work with the company on iTunes.

Tham holds a Professional Studies Certificate from the Cleveland Institute of Music in Orchestral Conducting studying with Maestro Carl Topilow. She received her Master of Music in conducting with conducting program honors from Northwestern University studying with Dr. Mallory Thompson. There, she additionally worked with Dr. Robert Harris, Victor Yampolsky, and Dr. Robert Hasty, making her equally at home in wind, orchestral, and vocal settings. Tham received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in horn performance studying with Dennis Abelson, Zachary Smith, Bob Lauver, and Steven Kostyniak at Carnegie Mellon University.

Jerry studied the teachings of Jacques Lecoq at the Hayes-Marshall School of Theatre Arts. After co-founding Imago Theatre with Carol Triffle, he staged two works by Richard Foreman: Samuel’s Major Problems and Symphony of Rats.

He has adapted magical realism literature for the stage, incorporating multimedia, puppetry and stage illusion in Verdad (in collaboration with Triffle) and Half Light. His modern adaptations of classics include Blood Wedding, The Imaginary Invalid, Exit the King, and Uncle Vanya. His adaptation of Sartre’s No Exit on a moving stage played at the Tony-award-winning American Repertory Theatre and Hartford Stage Company. Among the arts organizations he has staged work for are BodyVox, The Portland Opera and The Oregon Symphony.

Jerry’s staging of Caryl Churchill’s A Number saw its United States premiere at Imago Theatre in 2003. His canon of original silent works entitled “Opera Beyond Words” erupted onto the Imago stage from 2009 to 2011 with Apis, or the Taste of Honey; The Cuban Missile Crisis; Tick Tack Type; Stage Left Lost and Zugzwang, followed shortly by critically-acclaimed stagings of three Harold Pinter plays: The Lover, The Caretaker, and The Homecoming. Additional productions include Yukio Mishima’s The Black Lizard and The Lady Aoi, Pimento & Pullman, Hughie, Savage/Love, and Medea. He co-created and co-directed with Carol Triffle their award-winning touring shows FROGZ, ZooZoo and La Belle, Lost in the World of the Automaton.

Awards include Oregon Arts Commission Fellowship, Portland Theater Guild Fellowship, Best Director by the Independent Reviewers of New England, the New York Dance Film Award, and Portland Theatre awards for acting, light design, choreography, and best original play.

Recent directing projects include The Seafarer and Port Authority (by Conor McPherson) and original works My Bedroom is an Installation and Voiceover (co-writer with Drew Pisarra). Opera direction with The Portland Opera includes The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, The Little Match Girl Passion, In The Penal Colony (designer and director), and with Eugene Opera, Lucy (director).

Alex is happy to be working with Orpheus PDX. As a scenic designer, she has worked with Third Rail Repertory, Shaking the Tree Theatre, Oregon Children’s Theatre, The Theatre Company, Bag&Baggage Productions, Portland Shakespeare Project, Broadway Rose, Crave Theatre, Salt and Sage Productions, Passinart, Fuse Theatre Ensemble, CoHo Productions, Imago Theatre. Alex is Shaking the Tree Theatre’s resident scenic artist. She is also an oil painter, with work recently shown at Lunaria Gallery and The Remains Gallery. She holds a bachelor’s degree in art and theatre from Augustana University (SD). More at www.designbyalexmeyer.com.

Sumi is a sculptor and designer whose works include large-scale public commissions in metal and glass. She creates properties and costumes for dance and theatre and has designed original and experimental works with Imago Theatre and world premieres with Milagro Theatre. She designs and builds kinetic sculptural sets for dance and opera, including Skinner|Kirk Dance Ensemble and Portland State University’s opera program. She is resident properties designer for Oregon Ballet Theatre and PSU. Sumi is delighted to collaborate with OrpheusPDX.

Originally from Portland, Solomon has created original works in drama, opera, dance, and music across the U.S., Canada, Dominican Republic, Germany, Greece, Italy, Russia, and Slovenia. Highlights include Otello (Festspielhaus Baden Baden, Germany); Il Trovatore (Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Teatro Regio di Parma, Italy); Oedipus (Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, Greece; Ancient Theatre of Pompeii, Teatro Olimpico di Vicenza, and Teatro Mercadante di Napoli, Italy) all with Robert Wilson; Macbeth (directed by John Doyle at Classic Stage Company, NYC); The Shape of Things (created by Carrie Mae Weems at the Park Avenue Armory, NYC); Duat (Soho Rep, NYC); and Men on Boats (World Premiere: Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb, NYC).

Solomon’s work in dance, dance/theatre and avant-garde music includes original full-length pieces with Alethea Adsitt, Jennifer Archibald, Jonah Bokaer, Christine Bonansea, Joshua Beamish/MOVE, Maria Chavez, Ximena Garnica/Leimay, Lane Gifford, Invisible Anatomy, LoudHound Movement, Martha Graham Dance Company, Ofelia Loret de Mola, Patrick Lovejoy, Belinda McGuire, Stefanie Nelson, Patricia Noworol, The Nerve Tank (as resident designer), Jennifer Harrison Newman, Jen Shyu, Waxfactory, and four major works as associate set designer with Bill T. Jones.

Solomon was the associate lighting designer on the Broadway production of Jitney and its national tour, which earned lighting designer Jane Cox a tony nomination. Other associate credits include two seasons at the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy (with AJ Weissbard); the Holland Festival in Amsterdam (for Tyler Micoleau); and at Minnesota Opera (with Steve TenEyck) among many others.

With students, Solomon served as a guest artist with Bard, Barnard, Connecticut College, City College, Columbia, DeSales, East Stroudsburg, Fordham, NYU/Tisch, The New School, Princeton, University of the Arts, University of Rochester, Quinnipiac, Willamette, and Yale. He is Assistant Professor of Scenic/Lighting Design at Portland State University.

He holds a BFA from Ithaca College and an MFA from the Yale School of Drama, where he was a Stanley R. McCandless Fellow and a George Harrison Senie Scholar.

Sara has designed wigs and makeup for theatre, opera and dance companies all over the country including Portland Opera, Oregon Ballet Theater, Opera San Jose, Indianapolis Opera , Orlando Opera , New Orleans Opera , Tulsa Opera, Ft. Worth Opera, Chautauqua Opera, The Wildwood Festival, The Western Opera Theatre Tour, TheatreWorks, Marin Theatre Company, The Willows Theatre Company, San Jose Stage Company, Diablo Light Opera Company, and the Aurora Theatre. She has also worked for the San Francisco Opera, San Francisco Ballet, Mark Morris Dance Group, Spoletto Festival USA and on several films and television shows including Metal Lords, Wild, Grimm, Shrill, and Leverage.