ON STAGE

Zorro

Lobero Theatre | Friday, April 19 at 7:30pm & Sunday April 21, 2024 at 2:30pm

Genre: Adventure Opera
Running time: 2 hours
Language: Sung in English and Spanish with surtitles
Venue: Lobero Theatre

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The season will close on Friday, April 19th, and Sunday, April 21st, 2024 at the Lobero Theatre, with the company premiere of Hector Armienta’s swashbuckling adventure Zorro. Premiered in 2022 at Opera Southwest, Zorro is based on the adventures of Johnston McCully’s legendary pulp hero, the dashing masked vigilante who defends the commoners and indigenous peoples of California against tyrannical officials. Tenor Xavier Prado stars in the title role and soprano Oriana Falla is his beloved Ana Maria, both in their company debuts. Mezzo soprano Kelly Guerra returns as the high-born Carlotta, baritone Bernardo Bermudez portrays the hero’s nemesis Moncada. Anthony Barrese, who conducted the 2022 premiere, will lead the Opera Santa Barbara Orchestra and Chorus in his company debut. The production, which will feature sets and projections by Daniel Chapman (Madama Butterfly, 2019), will be directed by Octavio Cardenas, who last directed Cruzar la cara de la luna in 2021.

Location

Lobero Theatre
33 E Canon Perdido St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Cast & Credits

DIRECTION

Director:
Octavio Cardenas

Conductor:
Anthony Barrese

ARTISTS

Zorro:
Xavier Prado

Carlotta de Obragón:
Kelly Guerra

Ana Maria:
Oriana Falla

Géneral Moncada:
Bernardo Bermudez

Toypurina:
Jessica Gonzalez Rodriguez

Sergeant José Maria Gomez:
Omar Rodriguez

direction

Stage Director

Stage director Octavio Cardenas captivates audiences with his visionary, visceral, and physical style of directing. Born in the city of Guadalajara, Mexico, Opera News has praised him for creating “an immersive theater experience” while the Dallas Morning News hailed him for bringing “every character and situation to life.” Recent projects include Papermoon’s production of Barber of Seville with Opera Delaware, Lohengrin by Salvatore Sciarrino as a pop-up digital opera installation: a site-specific opera for COVID times in collaboration with artist Lance McGoldrick and Opera Southwest, Cruzar la cara de la Luna with Opera Santa Barbara, and the world premiere of Zorro by Hector Armienta with Opera Southwest. Mr. Cardenas’ recent productions of Silent Night for Fort Worth Opera and Lyric Opera of Kansas City were described as “a breathtaking realization” with “many brilliant touches.” The Kansas City Star called the Lyric Opera’s production “one of its finest performances in recent memory.” Other recent productions include La bohème for Minnesota Opera to which the Star Tribune acclaimed, “what makes the production a success, is Octavio Cardenas' staging." His production of As One for UrbanArias was acclaimed by MD Theater Guide, “Under the direction of Octavio Cardenas, the two stars playfully make great use of both stage and energetic space—it seemed the theatre condensed and expanded with Hannah’s journey.” As the former Director of Opera for Baylor University, Mr. Cardenas directed productions of L’elisir d’amore, The Turn of the Screw, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Die Fledermaus, Man of La Mancha, La finta giardiniera, HMS Pinafore and Rita. He was Visiting Director of Opera at Chapman University where he directed Florencia en el Amazonas by Daniel Catán. He was a Resident Artist at Minnesota Opera for 4 seasons and has served as the Head of Directing Staff at Des Moines Metro Opera where he directed very successful site-specific productions of María de Buenos Aires in a Black Box, Rappaccini’s Daughter at Des Moines Botanical Gardens, Galileo Galilei at a Planetarium, The Tender Land on a corn field and La bohème for the main stage. He has also been on the directing staff at Chautauqua Opera and is currently a Professor of Opera at The Eastman School of Music where he will be directing Florencia en el Amazonas. He received his Master of Fine Arts in Theatre from UCLA, a Master of Music from the University of South Carolina, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Centenary College in Louisiana.

artists

Zorro

Mezzo-soprano Kelly Guerra makes her Opera Omaha debut in Suor Angelica as La Zelatrice. Most recently, she performed the title role in Astor Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires with Kentucky Opera, reprised the role of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in Derrick Wang’s comic opera Scalia/Ginsburg at the Princeton Festival, debuted with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of John Adams in the Noon to Midnight Contemporary Festival, and premiered Katherine Balch’s orchestral song cycle Illuminate with the California Symphony. In the 2021-2022 season she toured …(Iphigenia) by Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding, appearing as Iphigenia Unbound. Upcoming engagements include Cruzar la Cara de la Luna with West Edge Opera and a return to the Princeton Festival as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia.

A strikingly versatile performer, Kelly feels at home with many styles and eras of vocal music from Mozart to Héctor Lavoe. 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).

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, where she prepared the roles of Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Donna Rosa (ll Postino) and Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette). 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, and the Bard Music Festival. Guerra has performed as a soloist with several ensembles including the Albany Symphony, Santa Barbara Symphony, Opera Hispánica, Garden State Philharmonic, The Orchestra Now, Contemporaneous, Opera Parallèle and BluePrint.

She holds a D.M.A from UC Santa Barbara, her master’s in music from the Bard College Conservatory, and her bachelor’s from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she graduated with an award of Vocal Excellence.

A first-generation American and native of Southern California, Kelly champions Spanish language repertoire to welcome more diverse audiences into the concert hall.

kellyguerramezzo.com