Hailed as a “coloratura tour de force” (Opera News), Alexandra Batsios is garnering attention as a promising operatic talent. She made her St. Petersburg Opera debut as Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and also appeared with the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. During the 2014/2015 season, she made two role debuts as the Queen of Shemakha in Rimsky-Korsakov’s The Golden Cockerel at Sarasota Opera and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail at Opera North (NH). She returned to St. Petersburg Opera in 2016 to make her role debut as Leonora in Il trovatore. 54 THE FLORIDA ORCHESTRA | 2016-2017 As a studio artist with Sarasota Opera, she covered Adele in Die Fledermaus, made her debut as Berta in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and covered Hélène in Verdi’s Jérusalem. In 2013, she made her professional debut as Annina (La Traviata), Clorinda (La Cenerentola), and Flora (The Turn of the Screw) with Palm Beach Opera; she also premiered the role of Yadwiga in Ben Moore’s Enemies, A Love Story. Equally at home on the concert stage, her repertoire includes Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C minor, Orff’s Carmina Burana, and Bach’s Magnificat. As a member of the Westminster Symphonic Choir, she sang under the batons of Alan Gilbert, John Adams, Helmuth Rilling, Sir Roger Norrington, and Michael Tilson Thomas. Her awards include top prize at the 2015 Sullivan Foundation competition, third place in the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, and third place in the Midwest regional of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, among others. She holds performance degrees from Millikin University and Westminster Choir College. Mexican mezzosoprano Claudia Chapa has recently been seen in such theatrically dynamic roles as Azucena in Il Trovatore with Winter Opera St. Louis and Opera in Williamsburg and Madame Flora in The Medium and the Witch in Hänsel Und Gretel with Opera in the Heights. Upcoming engagements include Azucena in Il Trovatore with the St. Petersburg Opera Company, Mary in The Flying Dutchman with Austin Opera, Verdi’s Requiem with the Alabama Symphony and Dryade in Ariadne Auf Naxos with Austin Opera. Other recent engagements include Dame Quickly in Falstaff with Winter Opera St. Louis and Opera in the Heights, Marthe in Faust with Indianapolis Opera, the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Glimmerglass Festival, and her professional operatic debut with Austin Lyric Opera. Other roles in Chapa’s operatic repertoire include Alisa in Lucia di Lammermoor, Gertrude in Roméo et Juliette, and Aunt Cecilia in Little Women. Her performance of Madame de Croissy in Les Dialogues des Carmélites earned her the prestigious Silverman Award from the International Vocal Arts Institute, Tel Aviv. On the concert platform, Chapa has been heard in Verdi’s Requiem, Manuel de Falla’s El Amor Brujo, and Handel’s Messiah including performances at Carnegie Hall with the Distinguished Concerts International New York series. Chapa received her training from the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas-Austin. She is an alumnus of the prestigious young artist programs of the International Vocal Arts Institute (both in Blacksburg, Virginia, and Tel Aviv, Israel), Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Glimmerglass Festival, for which she was chosen as a young artist for two consecutive seasons. ALEXANDRA BATSIOS Soprano CLAUDIA CHAPA Mezzo-Soprano
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