Plans for the 2024 Merola Grand Finale

The specific selections to be performed at the annual Merola Grand Finales have not yet been totally finalized. However, the Merola Opera Program has now released the list of operas that will provide excerpts for the program. That list includes the following:

• Gioachino Rossini: Il barbiere di Siviglia and L'italiana in Algeri
• Gaetano Donizetti: Don Pasquale and Lucia di Lammermoor
• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Così fan tutte (K. 588)
• Vincenzo Bellini: Norma and I puritani
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Fidelio
• Pietro Mascagni: L'amico Fritz
• Richard Strauss: “Das Rosenband” (from the Opus 36 set of four songs) and Die ägyptische Helena
• Johann Strauss: Die Fledermaus
• Jules Massenet: Werther
• Charles Gounod: Roméo et Juliette
• Terence Blanchard: Fire Shut Up in My Bones
• Jake Heggie: Dead Man Walking
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Iolanta
• Young-Sup Choi: “Longing for Mountain Keum-kang”
• Emmerich Kálmán: Die Csárdásfürstin
• Noël Coward: “I’ll See You Again” from his operetta Bitter Sweet

All of this season’s Merolini will participate. In alphabetical order they are:

• Lucy Joy Altus, New York, New York (Mezzo-Soprano)
• Moriah Berry, Atlanta, Georgia (Soprano)
• Nathan Bryon, Geurie, Australia (Tenor)
• Michael John Butler, Bowie, Maryland (Tenor)
• Hannah Cho, Seoul, South Korea (Soprano)
• Sujin Choi, Seoul, South Korea (Pianist/Coach)
• Alexa Frankian, Oakville, Ontario, Canada (Soprano)
• Julian Garvue, Seattle, Washington (Pianist/Coach)
• Simona Genga, Toronto, Ontario, Canada (Mezzo-Soprano)
• Viviana Aurelia Goodwin, Tulsa, Oklahoma (Soprano)
• Lydia Grindatto, Tijeras, New Mexico (Soprano)
• Giorgi Guliashvili, Rustavi, Georgia (Tenor)
• Elizabeth “Hanje” Hanje, Vestavia Hills, Alabama (Soprano)
• Mary Hoskins, Saratoga Springs, New York (Soprano)
• Sihao Hu, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China (Baritone)
• Hyemin Jeong, Seoul, South Korea (Pianist/Coach)
• Donghoon Kang, Seoul, South Korea (Bass-Baritone)
• Yedam Kim, Paris, France (Pianist/Coach)
• Ji Youn Lee, Seoul, South Korea (Pianist/Coach)
• Lindsay Martin, San Diego, California (Mezzo-Soprano)
• Tessa McQueen, Loveland, Colorado (Soprano)
• Kara Morgan, Andover, Minnesota (Mezzo-Soprano)
• Angelo Silva, Houston, Texas (Tenor)
• Benjamin R. Sokol, Westbury, New York (Bass-Baritone)
• Hyungjin Son, Seoul, South Korea (Baritone)
• Samuel White, Columbia, South Carolina (Tenor)
• Justice Yates, Leesburg, Florida (Bass-Baritone)
• Olivier Zerouali, Middletown, Delaware (Baritone)

The conductor will be Steven White, and 2024 Merola Stage Director Anna Theodosakis will account for the staging of the entire production. The performance will begin at 7:30 pm. on Saturday evening, August 17. Ticket prices will be $65, $50, $40, and $25. Those aged 25 and under or attending their first Merola performance will be admitted for $10. The venue will be the War Memorial Opera House, which is located at 301 Van Ness Avenue on the northwest corner of Grove Street. Further information will be available by calling the Box Office at 415-864-3330.