LA BOHEME

American tenor Christopher Oglesby made his San Francisco
Opera debut as an Adler Fellow during the 2018-2019 season
as Dancaïre in Carmen, later singing Benvolio in Roméo et
Juliette, Edmondo in Manon Lescaut, Jaquino in Fidelio, and
covering Ferrando in Così fan tutte during his subsequent
years as an Adler Fellow (2020, 2021).
During the 2021-2022 season, Oglesby’s continued
assignments with San Francisco Opera included a cover of
Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra and performances as First
Commissioner in Dialogues des Carmélites.

As a Resident Artist with Utah Opera during the 2017-2018 season, Oglesby sang Tybalt
in Roméo et Juliette and was the tenor soloist for Handel’s Messiah with the Utah Symphony.
As a participant of the 2018 Merola Opera Program, he debuted as Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress.
An active soloist and recitalist, Oglesby has performed for the SF Film Festival, Dallas
Puccini Society, Vallejo Festival Orchestra, and in the Schwabacher Recital Series at San
Francisco Opera. Oglesby is a recipient of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant.
Most recently, Christopher made his role and company debut with Sarasota Opera as
Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly during the 2022-2023 season, and a role and company debut
with West Edge Opera as Boris in Kát’a Kabanová in 2021.
Forthcoming seasons will include mainstage debuts as Rodolfo in La bohème and Edgardo
in Lucia di Lammermoor.

Vanessa Isiguen as Mimì, a seamstress

Acclaimed by the New York Times as “radiant”, American soprano Vanessa Isiguen will return to the Metropolitan Opera in the 2023‐24 season to cover the role of Liù TURANDOT and the dual role of Kitty/ Vanessa THE HOURS by Kevin Puts. She looks forward to making her her San Diego Symphony debut this season as Nila TRES MINUTOS by N. Benavides after a successful tour of tour premiere performances in Seattle and San Francisco. Ms. Isiguen is very proud to return to Seattle Symphony/Music of Remembrance as the soprano soloist for the premiereof PHOENIX by Sahba Aminikia. She also has engagements with Eugene Opera as Violetta in LA TRAVIATA.

During the 2022‐2023 season Ms. Isiguen made her Dublin debut in the title role of MADAMA BUTTERFLY with Lyric Opera of Ireland, and her Orpheus PDX debut as Almera DARK SISTERS by Nico Muhly which garnered high praise by OperaWire: “Vanessa Isiguen as Almera was resolute in her devotion to the prophet as her soprano soared thrillingly…” Ms. Isiguen made her New Orleans Opera debut as Mimì LA BOHÈME with Maestro Joseph Colaneri and had engagments as the soprano soloist with the Oregon Symphony, and Portland Youth Philharmonic in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and Eugene Opera as Mimì LA BOHÈME.

Previously Ms. Isiguen made her Florida Grand Opera debut as Cio-Cio-San MADAMA BUTTERFLY , winning praise from Palm Beach Arts, “Isiguen’s Butterfly was moving and beautifully sung… she has a big fresh voice with plenty of stamina for an opera that requires her almost constant presence, and serious acting chops that made her lovable, believable, and tragic on the stage…the performance was a triumph, and the audience loved her.” Vanessa was subsequently featured as a soloist at the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, UK singing the famous aria ‘Un bel dÌ, vedremo’, with Maestro Nicola Luisotti for the Insights Program Concert.

Other notable engagements include the starring role of Roberta Alden AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY by Tobias Picker and librettist Gene Scheer, conducted by George Manahan with Glimmerglass Opera Festival. She was featured in The New York Times video clip depicting her singing at the beginning of the eerily famous drowning scene. New York Arts wrote, “Vanessa Isiguen (Roberta) was completely convincing as the tragic heroine both vocally and dramatically”, and Classical Voice America described Vanessa as, “A strong, well rounded soprano who sang the fiendishly high and difficult role easily.” She sang the role of Spirit in the Metropolitan Opera workshop of THE SORROWS OF FREDERICK by Scott Wheeler, conducted by Steven Osgood, and the New York City premiere of the Spanish opera IL POSTINO by Daniel Catàn as Beatrice Russo. Vanessa made her debut with the Oregon Symphony as a featured soloist under the baton of Maestro Carlos Kalmar, and her Portland Opera debut as Mimì LA BOHÈME with Maestro George Manahan to rave reviews. Opera News boasts, “Vanessa Isiguen brought to Mimì good looks, a lovely soprano, and loads of personality… Si, mi chiamano Mimì had variety and nuance from spinto bloom to light chatter.”

Other roles include Nedda I PAGLIACCI, Liù TURANDOT, Magda LA RONDINE, Micaëla CARMEN, Manon, THAЇS, RUSALKA, La Contessa and Susanna LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, Donna Elvira DON GIOVANNI. Vanessa has performed with The Metropolitan Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Florida Grand Opera, Portland Opera, New Orleans Opera, Sarasota Opera, Opera Tampa, Vashon Opera, Opera Idaho, and Eugene Opera. She has won top prizes from Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, The Gerda Lissner Foundation NYC, Connecticut Opera Guild, Jenny Lind Competition, and the Bel Canto Competition. Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Music from UNC Chapel Hill, a Master of Music from Boston Conservatory, and a Professional Studies Diploma from Mannes College of Music – The New School in New York City where she studied with the revered soprano Ruth Falcon.

Luke Sutliff as Marcello, a painter 

American Baritone Luke Sutliff is a recent alumnus of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and is quickly starting to make his mark in the opera world.  Having premiered the title-role in Nico Muhly version’s of Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Santa Fe Opera, he makes a series of exciting company and/or role debuts this season: Silvio in I Pagliacci with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Opera North Carolina and the Seattle Opera, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Atlanta Opera.  In the summer Mr. Sutliff will reprise Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore at the Santa Fe Opera.   In concert he debuts in Tokyo with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi as the baritone solo in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8.  Future projects include a return to his home company, the Houston Grand Opera, in a leading role.

Last season at HGO, Sutliff sang the roles of Harvey in Dame Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers, Brühlmann (as well as covered Albert) in Werther, Sciarrone in Tosca, and A Cappadocian in Salome. He made his house debut as El Dancaïro in Rob Ashford’s production of Carmen and later performed Thierry and M. Javelinot in Dialogues of the Carmelites and Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette.  In concert he performed Fauré’s Requiem at A&M Methodist Church.  In the summer, Mr. Sutliff returned to the Santa Fe Opera, where he premiered the title-role in the Nico Muhly version of Monteverdi’s Orfeo while covering Pelléas in Pelléas et Mélisande.

Past summers at the Santa Fe Opera Mr. Sutliff sang El Dancaïro in Carmen, Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and covered Figaro in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia as well as Jon Seward in John Corigliano and Mark Adamo’s world premiere of The Lord of Cries.

The previous summers at Chautauqua saw him perform Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, conducted by Julius Abraham and directed by John Giampietro. After winning the Sigma Alpha Iota Philanthropies Competition, Sutliff was awarded a performance with the Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra under the baton of Timothy Muffitt. Additionally, he sang Belcore in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, Hucklebee in The Fantasticks, and covered Escamillo in Carmen. In addition to his operatic roles, he performed in masterclasses given by Matthew Rose and Ben Moore.

Brittany Olivia Logan as Musetta, a singer

Originally from California, soprano Brittany Olivia Logan returns to the Met for her third year with the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the Met’s 2023–24 season, she will sing Anna in Nabucco and cover Bianca in La Rondine. This spring, she will appear as Gerhilde in a concert production of Die Walküre with the Rotterdam Philharmonic under the baton of Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Recent engagements at the Met include her company debut as the Priestess in Aida and Clotilde in Norma. She recently returned to Wolf Trap Opera as a Filene Artist where she sang Marguerite in Faust to much critical acclaim. In addition to her repertory experience, she has performed in the premieres of several new works including Rashaad Newsome’s interdisciplinary work Assembly at the Park Avenue Armory and Will Todd’s opera Migrations at Welsh National Opera. In 2021, she won the Audience Choice Award at Houston Grand Opera’s Eleanor McCollum Competition and was a National Finalist in the Met’s Laffont Competition, where she received the Judith Raskin Award. She has since received the 2022 Membership Award from the Opera Index Vocal Competition, the Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, placed fifth in the Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition, and was a semifinalist in the Tenor Viñas Competition. She is an alumna of the Cincinnati Opera Young Artist Program, Ravinia Steans Music Institute, and Wolf Trap Opera Studio and holds degrees from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach, and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Eleomar Cuello Calles as Schaunard, a musician

Despite his young age, baritone Eleomar Cuello Calles, who recently made his debut at the State Opera in Stuttgart, Germany, in the title role of Don Giovanni (Mozart), already has a wide repertoire and more than a decade of professional experience. After his debut in 2020 in the new production of Roig’s Cecilia Valdés at Teatro de la Zarzuela, Madrid, he was invited again by the theatre to participate in Don Gil de Alcalá in 2022 as Don Diego. Between 2015 and 2020 he lived in Chile. During those years he sang in various stages of the country, singing roles such as the title role of Don Giovanni, Mamma Agatha in Le convenenze e inconvenenze teatrali (Donizetti), Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet), Schaunard in La bohème, Silvio in I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), and Apolo in L’Orfeo (Monteverdi). At the prestigious Municipal Theatre of Santiago he has sung Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, and Masetto in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Valentin in Faust (Gounod), Haly in L’italiana in Algeri (Rossini), Schaunard in La Bohème (Puccini) and Marques D’Obigny, and Baron Douphol in La Traviata, among others. He has also sung in Uruguay, Ecuador, France and Nicaragua. Since 2021 he resides in Florida, in the United States of America, where he made his debut as Belcore in L’elisir d ‘amore (Donizetti) with the Gulf Coast Symphony, and where he has also sung as a soloist in several opera companies, in roles such as Dulcamara in L’elisir d ‘amore with Vero Beach Opera, Angelotti in Tosca (Puccini), Gregorio in Romeo et Juliette (Gounod), and Morales in Carmen with the Naples opera, as well as Marcos in Gianni Schicchi (Puccini), and in Buoso’s Ghost (Michael Ching) with Florida Grand Opera. A graduate from the Academy of the National Lyric Theatre of Cuba, he began his career while still a teenager with that company, performing at the Grand Theater of Havana and the National Theater of Cuba, singing as a soloist in operas and zarzuelas such as Die Zauberflöte and Don Giovanni (Mozart), La Traviata (Verdi), La Bohème, and Madama Butterfly (Puccini), La serva padrona (Pergolesi), Cecilia Valdés (Roig), La verbena de la Paloma (Breton), La corte de Faraón (Lleó), and Las leandras (Alonso), among many others. He has won multiple international singing competitions, and was a finalist in the Metropolitan Opera Competition in New York in April 2023. In the summer of 2023 he will participate in the prestigious Merola program of the San Francisco Opera, USA. Among his upcoming performances are, during the 2023-2024 season, the title role of Gianni Schicchi, and Michele in Il Tabarro (Puccini), at the Oviedo Opera, Spain, the title role of Don Giovanni with Vero Beach Opera, and Silvio in I Pagliacci with Florida Grand Opera.

Stefan Egerstrom as Colline, a philosopher

Bass Stefan Egerstrom joins the roster at the Lyric Opera of Chicago for the 2023-24 season under the baton of music director Enrique Mazzola to cover the roles of Daland in Der fliegende Holländer with director Christopher Alden and Ramfis in Aida with director Francesca Zambello. He returns to Carnegie Hall to join the American Symphony Orchestra and Leon Botstein for Dvořák’s Requiem. Mr. Egerstrom makes his San Diego Opera debut singing Masetto in Don Giovanni with Yves Abel on the podium and will also travel to Tourtour to take part in The Fondation des Treilles Voice Academy in the fall which culminates in a final concert of French arias of Berlioz, Marais, Meyerbeer, and Verdi. Mr. Egerstrom returns to California in the spring to cover Hunding with San Diego Symphony and Music Director Rafael Payare when they present Act 1 of Die Walküre in concert. He joins the Baltic Opera Festival to cover Daland in Der fliegende Holländer and Timur in Turandot with Yaroslav Shemet and Keri-Lynn Wilson taking on conducting duties. Mr. Egerstrom reunites with Leon Botstein at the Fisher Center to sing the role of Brander in Berlioz’s La Damnation de Faust for Bard SummerScape.

As a former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, he appeared in Eugene Onegin (singing the roles of Captain and Zaretsky while covering Gremin) with Vassilis Christopoulos on the podium; worked on three productions conducted by Music Director Eun Sun Kim including La Traviata (covering Dottore Grenvil), Tosca (Jailer), and Fidelio (Second Prisoner); and was a participant of the 2019 Merola Opera Program, subsequently performing in the Schwabacher Summer Concert and the Merola Grand Finale.

Previous appearances include Hunding in Die Walküre and King René in Iolanta with Cincinnati’s Queen City Opera. As part of the “Opera Fusion: New Works initiative between Cincinnati Opera and University of Cincinnati-Conservatory of Music,” he performed in workshops of Ricky Ian Gordon’s Morning Star and Gregory Spears’s Fellow Travelers. Additional roles Mr. Egerstrom has performed include Sarastro (Die Zauberflöte), Siroco (L’Étoile), Carlino (Don Pasquale), Don Basilio (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), Dulcamara (L’Elisir d’Amore), Dr. Grenvil (La Traviata), and Kecal (The Bartered Bride). In concert, he has also been the bass soloist in Bach’s Johannes-Passion. A resident of Minneapolis, Mr. Egerstrom has performed with The Minnesota Opera in the world premieres of Kevin Puts’s Silent Night and Paul Moravec’s The Shining. He has also been a Young Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera, covering the roles of Prince Gremin in Eugene Onegin and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni.

In 2022, he was awarded The Richard F. Gold Career Grant from The Shoshana Foundation and a Sara Tucker Study Grant from The Richard Tucker Music Foundation. A native of Minnesota, Mr. Egerstrom received his bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Lawrence University and his master’s degree in voice from University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Alexander Adams-Leytes as Benoît, their landlord, and Alcindoro, a state councillor

Minneapolis native Alexander Adams-Leytes is a buffo specialist who is now performing his seventh Benoit/Alcindoro and his role performance debut with Opera Maine, though he previously covered Dulcamara in the 2021 production of “L’Elisir d’amore.” He has performed throughout the United States and Europe in roles including Don Magnifico in “Cenerentola,” Bartolo in “The Barber of Seville” and in “Le Nozze di Figaro,” Don Alfonso in “Cosi fan tutte,” Frank in “Fledermaus” and the Sacristan in “Tosca.” This May he will make his debut with Opera West in Santa Fe, alternating between Simone and the title role in “Gianni Schicchi.”