Leona Mitchell has emerged as one of America's leading Lyric-spinto sopranos, and is in demand the world over for opera, concerts, recitals and television appearances. She has been a particular favorite at the Metropolitan Opera, where she has performed for eighteen consecutive seasons, and where 11 of the 15 roles she has sung there since her sensational debut as Micaela in Carmen have been in operas by Puccini or Verdi. It was at the Metropolitan Opera that Ms. Mitchell premiered the eagerly awaited production of Aida in 1988. She has sung nearly two hundred performances of this beloved opera throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
Leona Mitchell has appeared with the most prestigious opera companies around the world, ranging from Chicago and San Francisco to those of London, Paris, Rome, Vienna, Berlin, Buenos Aires and many others, including Sydney, Australia, where she appeared in her 20th season in a lavish new production of Ariadne in 1997. She is also a favorite with important conductors and orchestras such as Maestros Kurt Masur, James Du Priest, Zubin Mehta, George Pretre, James Levine, Ming Wung Chung, Seji Ozawa, Lorin Maasel, Julius Rudel, Nello Santi and Alain Lombard. Ms. Mitchell has successfully appeared with the orchestras of New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, San Francisco as well as those of Israel, Scotland, London, Monte Carlo, Tokyo and many others.
Miss Mitchell is a highly regarded recitalist, and has been presented in concert at New York’s LincolnCenter, the San Francisco Opera, and the University of California at Los Angeles, Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Her numerous recitals have also included acclaimed performances in such important venues as Paris, Geneva, Sydney, Madrid, Hong Kong, Bordeaux and Tokyo. Her triumphant Alice Tully Hall recital debut-a tribute to the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-was acclaimed by audience and critics alike.
Her ravishing vocal opulence and commanding presence have led to frequent television appearances in the United States and abroad. Ms. Mitchell’s performances in Carmen, Ernani, the Metropolitan Opera Centennial Gala and Zeffirelli’s lavish production of Turandot were telecast over PBS’s "Live from the Met" series and later released as commercial video cassettes. She was seen coast-to-coast on the Gala Statue of Liberty Concert telecast live from Central Park over the ABC-TV network with Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic, the Kennedy Center Honors program and the PBS "Live from LincolnCenter" series with Luciano Pavarotti.
In addition, Leona Mitchell has appeared on the Dick Cavett Show, the Merv Griffin Show, the CBS Morning Program and Jerry Lewis’s Muscular Dystrophy Telethon. In Europe and elsewhere abroad, Leona Mitchell has been featured in telecasts of Il Trovatore and Manon Lescaut sponsored by the Teatro Colon from Buenos Aires and the Verdi Requiem under the auspices of the Bordeaux Opera. Also her live performance of Aida from Orange for the highly coveted opening of the Orange Festival with Maestro George Prete, was put on video in 1996.
Miss Mitchell then made her triumphant return to open Aida in Rome’s prestigious Caracalla Festival to rave reviews. She then appeared as the Nubian Princess in a Victorio Rossi production of Aida in Frankfurt , and later essayed this same role to deafening applause and rave reviews in a new production with the Bordeaux Opera under the baton of Maestro Alain Lombard. She then continued on to Toulouse for a gala performance of the Verdi Requiem. Leona Mitchell was again heard in the Verdi Requiem in a sensational, gala, command performance at the RoyalPalace in the Principality of Monaco with Maestro James Du Priest.
Dr. Linda Di Fiore, mezzo-soprano and Regents Professor, has performed professionally for over thirty years as a soloist in opera, oratorio, recital, and musical theatre. Her career has included guest performances throughout the United States with such groups as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, Bach Aria Festival in New York City, Orlando Opera, Pensacola Oratorio Society, Wichita Opera, Music Theatre of Wichita, Winter Haven Messiah Society, North Florida Arts Opera Series, Longview Opera, Orchestra of New Spain, Arlington Choral Society, Richardson Symphony, San Angelo Symphony and the Da Ponte String Quartet. An active song recitalist, she has performed recitals in Innsbruck, Austria; Rome, Venice, Cremona, Mantua and Castelfrano-Veneto, Italy; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Washington, D.C. In addition, Dr. Di Fiore has toured Scotland and England as an oratorio soloist and has lectured for the Smithsonian Institution in Vienna and Prague for its music festival tour of those two cities.
Dr. Di Fiore joined the faculty of the University of North Texas in 1996. She is in demand as clinician and has presented master classes for the Voice Centre in Toronto; Conservatory of Music in San Juan; Steffani Conservatory in Castelfranco-Veneto, Italy; University of British Columbia in Vancouver; Eastman School of Music, Fort Worth Opera, Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point, Seagle Arts Colony, Kansas City Lyric Opera, Orlando Opera, as well as many other universities and colleges throughout the United States. In the summers, she teaches and performs in the Casalmaggiore International Festival in Italy. She will once again teach a highly popular master class for Opera in the Ozarks in early June for the 2007 Season.
Erick Wolfe
Erick Wolfe, nationally recognized teacher of stage combat, has been choreographing & performing fights for festivals for the last eleven years. Erick has hosted many workshops at Tulsa University as well as the stage combat courses at Opera in the Ozarks. Erick is also very active in teaching Improvisational acting and Stage Movement classes.
His unique style of stage combat blends historical, eastern, and fantasy to provide a smooth, high-energy fight. He specializes in non-typical weapons such as: axe and shield, mace and shield, war hammers, 2 handed broadswords, case of rapiers (two rapiers), poll arms, cut-and-thrust sword and buckler (small shield), and Eastern weapons.
