Brian Stokes Mitchell

Dubbed “the last leading man” by The New York Times, Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a career that spans more than 40 years in Broadway, television, film, recordings and concert appearances with the country’s finest conductors and orchestras.

Mr. Mitchell received Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle awards for his star turn in Kiss Me, Kate. He also gave Tony-nominated performances in Man of La Mancha, August Wilson’s King Hedley II, and Ragtime. Other notable Broadway shows include Kiss of the Spider Woman, Jelly’s Last Jam, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and most recently in Shuffle Along. His off-Broadway credits include Do Re Mi, Carnival, Kismet and The Bandwagon at City Center Encores and Much Ado About Nothing at the Delacorte Theatre’s Shakespeare in the Park. Regional credits include Sweeney Todd at the Sondheim Celebration at The Kennedy Center with Christine Baranski and The Light in the Piazza at the Los Angeles Opera with Renee Fleming. Stokes was four days from opening LOVE/LIFE at City Center Encores when all of Broadway, and most of the country, shut down due to the pandemic. However, that didn’t stop him from performing. Even while recovering from COVID in March of 2020, he received unexpected acclaim and attention for singing “The Impossible Dream” from his apartment window every night for a number of weeks during the pandemic, in honor of essential workers.

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OPERADELAWARE GUEST ARTISTS

Soprano Vanessa Becerra

Peruvian- and Mexican-American soprano Vanessa Becerra is a recent graduate of LA Opera’s prestigious Young Artist Program praised for her “bold and bright” singing (Opera News), “full, beautifully focused” instrument (The Wall Street Journal), and “charismatic and eloquent” presence (San Francisco Chronicle).

In the 2022-23 season, Vanessa debuts the roles of Marie in La fille du régiment (Minnesota Opera), Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Omaha), Carolina in El matrimonio secreto (Florida Grand Opera), Despina in Così fan tutte (Opera Theater of St. Louis), and Juliette in Roméo et Juliette (Boston Lyric Opera) for which she received praise from the Boston Globe for her “clarity, luster, and charisma”. She revisits La mujer in El Milagro del Recuerdo (Houston Grand Opera) and this summer joins Madison Opera and Madison Symphony Orchestra for their annual Opera in the Park celebration. OD patrons will remember Vanessa’s stunning performance as Sophie in Werther (2017).

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Tenor William Davenport

William Davenport has received attention for his strong yet lyric tenor and Italianate style. The Baltimore Sun raves, “William Davenport has the makings of a significant tenor. There’s an immediately expressive and appealing quality in the timbre, one with quite an Italianate tint…” Upon his role debut of the Duca in Rigoletto with the Italian Opera Festival of Orange County, Italian News reported, “The biggest ovation, however, was for William Davenport. The young tenor demonstrated a huge vocal ability.” His other leading roles include Edgardo with the Baltimore Concert Opera, the title role in Les Contes Hoffman, Alfredo in La traviata, Riccardo in Oberto and Un Ballo in Maschera at the Academy of Vocal Arts.

His other recent engagements include Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia Valencia, OperaDelaware, Baltimore Concert Opera, Orlando Philharmonic, Rodolfo in La bohème with Opera Naples under the baton of Ramón Tebar, Ernesto in Don Pasquale with Opera Naples, Roberto Devereux at Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova, Arnold in Guglielmo Tell with the Southern Illinois Music Festival, Gennaro in Lucrezia Borgia alongside Mariella Devia with the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia Valencia, and Alfredo at the Teatro Carlo Felice di Genova. Having just sung his first Lenski in Eugene Onegin, Mr Davenport looks forward to upcoming Opera Galas with OperaDelaware, Opera Southwest, and the Costa Rican National Symphony Orchestra. He will also be revisiting two of his favorite roles as Rodolfo in La bohème, and as Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with Charleston Opera Theater.

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Mezzo-Soprano Marie Engle

Marie Engle is an American lyric mezzo-soprano based in New York. Her operatic roles include Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Wichita Grand Opera), Ramiro in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera (Juilliard Opera), Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Chautauqua Institute), and Mercédès in Bizet’s Carmen (Chautauqua Institute). She will make her debut as Dorabella in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in 2022. Marie studied at the Chautauqua Institution during the summers of 2018 and 2019 and was a Young Artist at OperaDelaware in 2020.

Marie is an active recitalist and chamber musician and spent the summers of 2021 and 2022 at the Marlboro Music Festival and School. She performed Hindemith’s Des Todes Tod, Loeffler’s 4 poèmes op. 5, Libby Larsen’s Sifting Through the Ruins, Schumann’s Spanisches Liederspiel, Reger’s 5 Duette op. 14, Brahms’ Drei Quartetten op. 64 and various informal concerts on the Potash Hill campus. In 2019, Marie joined Matthew Polenzani and Julius Drake in their Carnegie Hall recital performance of Janáček’s The Diary of One Who Disappeared and later that year made her orchestral debut of Mahler’s “Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” with the Chautauqua Festival Symphony Orchestra. Marie has won awards from the Gerda Lissner and Grand Stage Song Competitions and has performed on WQXR’s Midday Masterpieces. She made her Pierrot Lunaire debut at Juilliard’s Chamberfest in 2018.

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Baritone Eric McKeever

American operatic baritone Eric McKeever has won consistent praise for his voice of “power and brilliance” (Chicago Tribune) and “considerable flexibility and a communicative presence enhanced by expressive, crystalline diction.” (Opera News)

2021-2022 brought about several exciting projects including joining Indianapolis Opera in the title role of Don Giovanni, a role and house debut as Papa-Daddy in the World Premiere of Why I Live at the P.O. with Urban Arias, as well as covering Monforte in New Amsterdam Opera’s I Vespri Sicilani. He returned to Salt Marsh Opera for their “Opera in the Park” and joins OperaDelaware as an Artist-in-Residence performing Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte. In the spring of 2022, he joined the roster of On Site Opera covering the title role in Gianni Schicchi and made his debut with Teatro Grattacielo as the Banditore (Tebaldo cover) in Zandonai’s rarely-performed Giulietta e Romeo. He returns to Opera Columbus as Henry “Box” Brown in a new production of Vanqui by Leslie Savoy Burrs and makes his Opera on the James debut in their summer park concert.

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OD Blog

Meet the Artists: Opening Night at The Grand