BTCS 2023/2024 PRODUCTION:

Phèdre: Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie

Anticipated release summer 2024

Filming Summer 2023

Hippolyte - Allegra Durante

Aricie - Helena Waterous

Phèdre - Liz Kiger

La Grande Prêtresse / La Bergère - Hannah Shanefield

Diana - Melissa Hartt

Thesèe - Brian Alvarado

Tisiphone - Tis Kaoru Zamler-Carhart

Prêtresse 1 / La Bergère - Sarah Richards

Prêtresse 2 - Audrey Nicholson

Prêtresse 3 - Caroline Cao

Crew:

Director/Producer - Liz Kiger

Cinematography - Matthew Kyle Levine, Eric Thirteen, & Svala Johannsdottir

Audio - Samn Johnson & Shea Glasheen

Music Directors - Liz Kiger & Nicola Canzano

Harpsichord - Nicola Canzano

Baroque Winds - Gaia Saetermoe-Howard

Hippolyte - Allegra Durante

Allegra Durante, soprano and multihyphenate, has taken on roles including Oscar (Un Ballo in Maschera), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Morgana (Alcina), Echo (Echo et Narcisse), Papagena (Die Zauberflöte), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), and Giulietta in Romeo & Giulietta, a pastiche of scenes from I Capuleti e i Montecchi interwoven with text from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. She was delighted by this opportunity to revisit Amore, a familiar and favorite role, in the relatively unfamiliar setting of a filmed production. In her now-abundant spare time ("thank you," 2020) she designs graphics, sews costumes, and is earning a degree in Psychology from CCNY.

Aricie - Helena Waterous

Philadelphia-based soprano Helena Waterous has received international praise for her unique vocal beauty, expressivity, and versatility as a singer and performer. She has performed in opera theaters and recital halls across the US and Europe and has recently made her film debut with the Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society. Recent credits include Elettra (Idomeneo, Montclair Opera), Poppea (L'incoronazione di Poppea, Trentino Music Festival), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi/Buoso's Ghost, Montclair Opera), Eurydice (Orfeo ed Euridice, BTCS), and her role debut with Chicago Summer Opera as Mrs. Grose in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw. Helena is a graduate of Indiana University and the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam, and currently teaches voice at the Cali School of Music (Montclair State University) while getting her Artist Diploma.

La Grande Prêtresse / La Bergère - Hannah Shanefield

Boston-based soprano Hannah Shanefield earns enthusiastic acclaim on operatic, concert, and recital stages alike. Recent performance highlights include the titular role of Siri in the premiere of The Secret Life of Siri by Luisa Matthynssens, Diana in Cavalli's La Calisto, F. Couperin's Trois Leçons de Ténèbres, and J.S. Bach’s BWV 150 and 169. A diverse repertory enthusiast, she is passionate about championing new music and the works of underrepresented composers. Hannah holds her Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the New England Conservatory and Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance with a minor in Music History from The Hartt School.

Diana - Melissa Hartt

Melissa considers singing her lifelong passion and source of joy. She has studied classical voice since the age of ten. In 2011, she graduated from Hunter College, where she majored in music with a concentration in vocal performance. Since then, she has sung with musical outfits of a variety of genres ranging from from metal to folk-rock. She is excited to return to her operatic roots by being involved in such a compelling project.

Thesèe - Brian Alvarado

Brian J. Alvarado "sings with a liquid baritone of great charm," "a highly attractive legato," and "precise patter elocution” (Parterre Box). His early music and baroque credits include Nettuno in La liberazione di Ruggiero with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble (for which Oberon’s Grove praised his "voice of power and warmth"), Seneca in Killer Queen Opera's filmed production of L'incoronazione di Poppea, and the Adonis cover in Venus and Adonis with New Camerata Opera. In concert, he has performed Melisso in Alcina with OperaRox Productions, Caronte in L'Orfeo with the New York City Guitar Orchestra, and bass solos in Handel’s Messiah with the Brooklyn Contemporary Chorus and Susquehanna University's Symphony Orchestra, Keiser’s Markuspassion at the Nahant Music Festival, and Bach’s BWV 147 with the Saint Peters Bach Collegium. The native Bronxite has appeared chorally at Lincoln Center’s David Geffen Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Met Museum of Art, and National Sawdust, among many others.

Phèdre - Liz Kiger

Liz Kiger is a Turkish-American non-binary soprano vocalist, violinist, and opera director specializing in Baroque performance practice. They are currently adjunct faculty and the director Collegium Musicum at Columbia University and are also the founder and director of the Brooklyn Telemann Chamber Society, one of the first primarily digital opera companies, focused on providing LGBTQIA emerging artists with opportunities reinterpreting Baroque operas as feature films, thereby bringing opera to new audiences through inclusion and accessibility. They have most recently performed as soprano soloist for Couperin’s Trois Leçons de Ténèbres (Three Lessons of Darkness) (1714) and Strozzi’s Lagrime mie (lamento) for Columbia University’s Operatic Feminisms Conference, alongside directing an abridged production of Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum. Upcoming engagements include Olinto in Olinto pastore HWV 143 with Shenandoah Bach Festival and Charpentier’s Jonathas in selections from David et Jonathas.

Tisiphone - Tis Kaoru Zamler-Carhart

Tis Kaoru Zamler-Carhart (they/them) is a New York-based designer, photographer, writer, singer, and composer. Tis regularly performs and records medieval music, as well as operas and song cycles written for their voice by contemporary composers (Jason Cady, Andrew Noseworthy, Samn Johnson, Kyle Tieman-Strauss). Their own work as a composer includes opera, dance, theater, chamber music, and solo vocal music. Tis’s literary work is published by Punctum Books (https://punctumbooks.com/titles/the-goths-other-stories-2nd-edn/) and their photography has been exhibited in galleries and museums across Africa. Tis teaches transdisciplinary design at Parsons School of Design, and formerly taught medieval music and Latin at the Royal Conservatoire The Hague, Netherlands. https://

www.tiskaoru.com/

Prêtresse / La Bergère - Sarah Richards

Moving effortlessly from Renaissance and Baroque classics to contemporary opera and “new music,” soprano Sarah Richards demonstrates an enviable command of multiple periods and genres. She has recently performed as a Young Artist at Duke Chapel under the direction of Dr. Philip Cave, as well as the soprano soloist in Fauré’s Requiem in D Minor and Pergolesi’s challenging Stabat Mater. Ms. Richards also frequently performs newly composed works including Glenn Rudolph’s Children of the Seraphim and is a professional core member of the Bach Choir of Pittsburgh. Her operatic roles include La Musica in L’Orfeo and Amore/Damigella in L’incoronazione di Poppea by Claudio Monteverdi under the direction of Avi Stein and Sigrid T’Hooft. She has also sung the roles of Aldimira in Franceso Cavalli’s L’Erismena at Amherst Early Music Festival under the direction of Julianne Baird and Richard Stone and Euridice in a concert version of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at East End Song Studio. She also promotes the performance of sacred Baroque music as one of the founding members of the vocal trio Halcyon Voices. Based currently in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Ms. Richards studied with Steven Rickards and Dana Marsh at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, where she earned her Master’s Degree in Early Music Voice.