CHRISTIAN PURSELL COUNT MONTERONE
Christian Pursell is a dynamic, impassioned actor with unmatched stage presence, an enthralling, powerful voice, and a mastery of musical genres from baroque to musical theater, including bel canto and romantic opera.
Last season, Mr. Pursell debuted the role of Tom in the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’ s opera This House at Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and made his Metropolitan Opera house debut as Sciarrone in Tosca. In addition, he joined the Bach Ensemble of St. Thomas featuring members of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, returned to Seattle Symphony to perform Fauré’ s Requiem, performed the title role in Mendelssohn’ s Elijah with San Jose Symphonic Choir, and visited Portland Baroque Orchestra as a soloist in Handel’ s Messiah. He also performed as The Prosecutor in Blind Injustice with MasterVoices, and Aman in Stradella’ s Ester with Haymarket Opera. This season brought a house debut with Dayton Opera as Escamillo in Carmen, role and house debuts with the Teatro Colón as Cassandro in Mozart’ s La Finta Semplice, and Chicago Opera Theater as Falstaff in Salieri’ s operatic setting of the Shakespeare play, and an appearance as a guest soloist in Handel’ s Messiah at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco with the American Bach Soloists. Mr. Pursell will also make a house debut with Seattle Opera as Escamillo in Carmen and sing Monterone in Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’ s concert performances of Rigoletto. Next season, he will make another role and house debut as Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with Lyric Opera of Kansas City.
PEIXIN CHEN SPARAFUCILE
Peixin Chen is recognized for his majestically resonant bass voice and keen dramatic instinct that he brings to a wide range of roles on the international opera stage. He has worked with an illustrious array of conductors and directors including Harry Bicket, James Conlon, Gustavo Dudamel, James Gaffigan, Eun Sun Kim, Sebastian Lang- Lessing, Nicola Luisotti, Lorin Maazel, Enrique Mazzola, Zubin Mehta, Giancarlo del Monaco, Andrés Orozco- Estrada, Michel Plasson, David Pountney, James Robinson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Sellars, Patrick Summers, Francesca Zambello, and Jaap van Zweden.
The Chinese bass made his debut at the Salzburger Festspiele in Prokofiev’ s The Gambler and a debut at the Festival d’ Aix en Provence in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. Additional credits include a debut at the Teatro Real in Rigoletto, a Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in a new production of the French, five act version of Verdi’ s Don Carlos, multiple productions at the Metropolitan Opera, and many performances at the Houston Grand Opera, which is considered the bass’ home company.
Peixin Chen’ s dynamic concert career includes performances with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and San Diego Symphony, among others.
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