The Gershwins®’ Porgy and Bess®

British conductor Lee Reynolds is renowned for his energy, commitment, and technical precision. Whether conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a film adaptation of Ravel’s L’Enfant et les Sortilèges or Kurt Weill’s Street Scene—the latter previously at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo—or leading productions at the Stuttgart State Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, and Welsh National Opera, Reynolds delivers musical interpretations rich in detail. He frequently appears as a guest conductor with leading European orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Filarmonica Toscanini, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Krakow Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra, and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. This season marks his debuts with the Brussels Philharmonic and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. His symphonic repertoire ranges from the great classics to contemporary music, though he holds a special affinity for American music from the first half of the 20th century. His profound affinity with the works of Bernstein, Gershwin, Korngold, Barber, and Weill enables him to interpret these pieces with the same depth he brings to major works of the classical repertoire.

Born in Monaco in 1960, Jean-Louis Grinda began his career in 1981 as Artistic Secretary at the Opéra d’Avignon and the Chorégies d’Orange. From 1986 to 1999, he served as Director of the Grand Théâtre de Reims. In 1996, he was appointed General and Artistic Director of the Opéra Royal de Wallonie (Liège), a position he held until 2007. There, he established an eclectic programming policy and made his directorial debut with Singin’ in the Rain, which received the 2001 Molière Award for Best Musical Production, and staged a highly acclaimed Ring cycle. Since then, he has directed more than fifty operas and musicals, from Paris to San Francisco, Tel Aviv, Montreal, Hong Kong, Santiago de Chile, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rome, and Paris. He served as Director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo from 2007 to 2022. During these fifteen years, he notably expanded the repertoire, increased the number of performances, and implemented initiatives aimed at opening the theatre more widely to new audiences, particularly younger ones. In 2015, together with Cecilia Bartoli, he founded the orchestra-in-residence of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Les Musiciens du Prince – Monaco. He has also been Director of the Chorégies d’Orange from 2016 to 2026. Among his recent and ongoing projects are Lucrezia Borgia, Carmen, L’Enfant et les Sortilèges and L’Heure espagnole, La Damnation de Faust, Un ballo in maschera, and Porgy and Bess.

Since his professional first professional steps in 1982, Monegasque set designer Rudy Sabounghi has divided his time between theatre and opera. Major venues for which he has created sets include opera houses in Vienna, Tokyo, Zurich, Milan, London, Nantes, and Avignon, as well as theatres in Berlin, Rome, New York, and the Comédie-Française, and the festivals of Aix-en-Provence and Avignon; there, he has collaborated with numerous directors and choreographers such as Giorgio Strehler, Luc Bondy, Klaus-Michaël Grüber, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, and Lucinda Childs. The 2000s saw the start of a close co-operation with Jean-Louis Grinda—director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo from 2007 to 2022—resulting in gran productions by the two artists, including Don Giovanni, La damnation de Faust, and, of course, the current Porgy and Bess. Notably, within the Principality, Sabounghi collaborated on the Red Cross Gala for nine years. Deeply committed to passing on his expertise, he regularly works with scenography students at two major French institutions: the TnS (Théâtre National de Strasbourg) and the ENSATT (École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Techniques du Théâtre) in Lyon.

French costume designer Stéphanie Putégnat began her career in her native Provence, working with institutions such as the the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, the Nice Opera, and the Théâtre Anthéa. Fascinated by the art of costume in all its forms, she works across both haute couture and stage costume design, notably managing tour logistics for the Palazzetto Bru Zane under the artistic direction of Christian Lacroix. She also collaborates with character designer Agostino Cavalca on productions directed by the duo Moshe Leiser and Patrice Caurier, staged at the Zurich Opera House, La Fenice in Venice, and the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Spain. Her work has taken her to the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Hong Kong Opera, and the Vienna State Opera, working alongside directors such as Jean-Louis Grinda and Davide Livermore. Since 2022, Stéphanie Putégnat has also served as Head of the Costume Department at the Chorégies d’Orange. Porgy and Bess marks her debut as a costume designer at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo.

Over a career spanning some forty years in the performing arts, French scenographer & lighting designer Laurent Castaingt has divided his time between theater, dance, and opera, constantly seeking to explore diverse artistic worlds. He has worked on numerous major stages around the globe, including the Paris Opéra Bastille, Opéra-Comique and ​the Comédie-Française, the Vienna State Opera, the Liceu in Barcelona, the San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and the Chorégies d’Orange among dozen others. He has also worked extensively with the Opéra de Monte-Carlo—where he recently designed the set and lighting for Pelléas et Mélisande and will now returns to the delight of local audiences for Porgy and Bess. He collaborates with a wide range of artists—such as Alfredo Arias, Jean-Louis Grinda, Roman Polanski, and Sylvie Testud—and has worked on virtually all stage productions featuring Alain Delon, an actor whose extensive theatrical career is often overlooked. His passion for his craft led him to publish a book in 2023 titled Le Théâtre de la Lumière – « The Theatre of Light » (Éditions Deuxième Époque), which focuses on the art of stage lighting. Laurent Castaingt has received three nominations for the French Molière Award for Best Lighting Design.

Born in Italy, Eleonora Rodigari graduated in Set Design and Lighting Design from the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera, after which she completed the Lighting Design program at the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Immediately afterwards, she joined that very same Scala’s team as Assistant Lighting Designer for Zeffirelli’s Aida, Adolphe Adam’s Le Corsaire choreographed by Anne-Marie Holmes, and the revival of Nureyev’s Don Quixote ballet. She also contributed to the creation of the new permanent lighting installation for the Teatro alla Scala Museum under the artistic direction of Pier Luigi Pizzi. She regularly collaborates with Etienne Pluss, Bruno de Lavanère, and Laurent Castaingt, with whom she co-designed the lighting for this production of Porgy and Bess . Her professional experience, both on the opera stage and for the theatre, includes Hong Kong, Lyon, Avignon, Stockholm, Tours, Naples, and Rome operas Opera, as well as the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. She will be currently working as Assistant Set Designer for Fidelio as directed by Jean-Romain Vesperini in Portugal; for the world premiere of Dreamers at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, directed by Claus Guth; and for Norma at Dutch National Opera & Ballet, directed by Jetske Mijnssen.

A choreographer, dancer, jazz singer, and teacher, Caroline Roëlands specialises in major musicals, revues, and American-style vaudeville—distinct from the French theatrical genre of the same name, this refers instead to the transatlantic equivalent of the music hall. Active on both sides of the Atlantic, she has performed at venues ranging from the Théâtre Mogador, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Casino de Paris to the vast world of Broadway in New York, where she choreographed many of the repertoire's most famous productions—such as Grease and The Fiddler on the Roof, to name just two well-known works to European audiences. She has created choreography for shows featuring Nicole Croisille, Jeff Panacloc, and at Disneyland Paris, as well as for Roberto Alagna during his highly acclaimed musical foray into the world of Al Capone. Her talents have been sought after for French television series like En famille and Une famille formidable, while Bob Fosse entrusted her with choreography for his film Star 80. It is worth recalling that Fosse directed the eight-time Oscar-winning film Cabaret; Caroline Roëlands paid him a stirring tribute during a special program dedicated to him on the French national radio station France Culture. Finally, she joined Ariane Mnouchkine—founder of the “École Nomade du Soleil”—for an itinerant masterclass in Amiens.

A graduate of the École des Beaux-Arts in Saint-Étienne, Julien Soulier began his career creating films for planetariums, developing a visual language sensitive to both space and storytelling. In 2008, he joined set designer Rudy Sabounghi—creator of the sets for the Porgy and Bess production featured here—as a set design assistant. He subsequently shifted his focus to video design, notably for a highly acclaimed production of Un Ballo in Maschera at the Chorégies d’Orange in 2013. Since then, he has collaborated with Sabounghi on numerous opera and theater productions, including Tosca and Don Carlos in Trier (Germany), Il Turco in Italia performed in Vienna and Monte-Carlo, Tristan und Isolde in Liège, and many other operas and theatrical works. He also works with Emmanuelle Favre—renowned for her set designs for the Paris Olympic Games—on video designs for concerts, musicals and operas, such as Das Rheingold and Reyer’s Sigurd in Marseille, creating designs that deliberately lend a "heroic fantasy" aesthetic to certain scenes.

South-African born Antoinette Huyssen is Chorus Master at Cape Town Opera and also directs the Cape Town Chamber Choir. She holds a Master's degree cum laude in classical voice from the University of Cape Town (UCT). She also holds a Postgraduate Diploma from the same University and a distinction for the Trinity College London, and completed her Bachelor of Music degree at the UCT in piano and classical guitar in 2001. Antoinette Huyssen was a student conductor at the Drakensberg Boys' Choir school in 2003 and, commencing that year, she studied choral conducting under the Norwegian conductor, Kåre Hanken. She was Director of Music of the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town from 2006 to 2012, during which time she had the opportunity to conduct several of their concerts together with orchestra, including Handel’s Messiah.  She lectured in voice at Stellenbosch University from 2016 to 2021 and taught singing for the South African Army. She worked as a vocal coach and accompanist at the College of Music, UCT, from 2010 until 2017. As a soprano, Antoinette is a frequent oratorio soloist together with the Philharmonia Choir of Cape Town and the Symphony Choir of Cape Town. Antoinette enjoys performing Art Song repertoire and has sung for the Songmakers’ Guild on several occasions. Other great passions of hers are historically informed performance practice and ensemble singing.

American bass-baritone Michael Sumuel takes on the title role of Porgy—a part he previously performed in Washington and at the Houston Grand Opera last season. It is worth recalling that in 1976, Houston was the first major "classical" opera house in the United States to open its doors to a work that had previously been relegated to the realm of Broadway productions, at least within the country. Sumuel has been cast in the title role for the fiftieth anniversary of that landmark production. On stages across the US and abroad, he has distinguished himself in roles such as Alberich in Berlin (in a critically acclaimed Ring Cycle), Leporello in Munich, Figaro in Sydney, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly (in Toronto, Glyndebourne, Santa Fe, and Los Angeles), Don Giovanni in Chicago, Escamillo in Oslo, and Masetto in San Francisco. He also embraces the Baroque repertoire—with frequent forays into the works of Bach (including both Passions, the Magnificat, and the Christmas Oratorio) and Handel—as well as the oratorio genre, performing the Requiems of Mozart (with the New York Philharmonic), Brahms, and Fauré, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Furthermore, he delights in exploring the more specialised world of contemporary works, notably X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, in which he sings the title role.

Fresh from the Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera in New York—and following her studies and a promising early career in her native country - California-born soprano Brittany Olivia Logan has already performed numerous leading roles. These include the Priestess in Aida and Clotilde in Norma (both at the Met), the Countess in Le nozze di Figaro, Liù, Mimì, Marguerite, and many others. American critics have praised her voice as radiant, powerful, clear, and rich. She was recently heard alongside Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Die Walküre in Rotterdam. She also embraces the demanding path of contemporary works, such as Will Todd’s opera Migrations—commissioned by the Welsh National Opera in Cardiff to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower’s 1620 departure from Plymouth—and the title role in Lalolavi at Cincinnati Opera (part of its Black Opera Project), the first-ever "Afrofuturist" opera in the repertoire.

Following his studies and a promising start to his career in his native country, South African baritone Bongani Justice Kubheka attended masterclasses with renowned figures such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Susan Bullock, and Richard Bonynge. After performing numerous leading roles in South Africa—including Don Giovanni, Don Basilio, the Commendatore, and Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola—he soon rose to international prominence, notably at La Fenice in Venice. Although the COVID-19 pandemic forced him, like many emerging artists of his generation, to forgo engagements in Hanover, Parma, and Venice, these opportunities have merely been postponed; next season, he will join the resident ensemble of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he is set to perform the roles of Escamillo, Masetto, and the title role in Il barbiere di Siviglia. He is no stranger to the world of Porgy and Bess, having previously performed the role of Crown at the São Paulo Opera in Brazil. Bongani Justice Kubheka won First Prize at the WDR Young Stars Competition in Germany and was a finalist in the Operalia competition in London.

Soon after winning the Metropolitan Opera’s Beverly Sills Award, American soprano Leah Hawkins was invited to sing several major roles—including Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites at the Dallas Opera—and was subsequently engaged by the Met to sing Serena in Porgy and Bess and later Leonora in Il Trovatore. She will soon perform the title role in Tosca at La Monnaie in Brussels, adding to her track record of leading roles on major stages that also include the Paris National Opera, the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and the Washington National Opera. Equally at home in opera and concert settings, she has performed Verdi’s Requiem at the Met under Yannick Nézet-Séguin—a conductor with whom she soon reunited for Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Philadelphia—and appeared at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel. The Opéra de Monte-Carlo has invited her to perform the role of Serena in Porgy and Bess, a part she has already sung at various venues throughout the United States.

It is precisely in the role of Clara—which she portrays in this production—that American soprano Brandie Inez Sutton recently made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, a house where she had previously appeared in Massenet’s Cendrillon and as the First Niece in Britten’s Peter Grimes. She has truly made the role her own, having performed it not only in New York but also in Vienna and St. Louis. Brandie Inez Sutton is equally at home as Pamina in The Magic Flute or Violetta in La Traviata as she is in the Broadway musical repertoire, contemporary opera premieres, and even the world of pop music. She also frequently performs major solo works with orchestra, such as Carmina Burana. Initially, Brandie Inez Sutton had chosen a career in biology—a subject she studied at university—but the director of the university choir in which she sang noticed her exceptional vocal gifts and steered her toward an operatic career that has since taken her to Hamburg, Dresden, Frankfurt, Vienna, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Geneva. In Porgy and Bess, she opens the vocal fireworks with the iconic solo "Summertime."

Gabonese mezzo-soprano Adriana Bignagni Lesca  has established herself as a prominent figure on the international opera scene. She is distinguished by a warm, velvety timbre that borders on the contralto range, as well as by an expressive vocal depth that combines power and nuance in her performances. Trained at the Bordeaux Conservatory under Maryse Castets, she boasts an extensive repertoire spanning from the Baroque era to contemporary music; recent engagements have taken her to the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse, the Opéra de Tours, the Paris National Opera, and the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Her international engagements are equally numerous—including Hamburg, Barcelona, ​​Zurich, Berlin, and the Salzburg Festival—covering major roles ranging from Mozart and Offenbach to Dvořák, Janáček, Luciano Berio, Wagner, Rameau, and John Adams. She readily extends her artistic explorations into the realm of popular song, particularly through traditional Gabonese music, which she champions in stylistically eclectic concerts. In this spirit, she created the "Afro-lyric" show Arelacoyava, blending classical operatic singing, trance-like Pygmy chants, Afrofunk, flashes of electronica, contemporary music, traditional blues, and earthy rhythms borrowed from hip-hop.

Porgy and Bess is some kind of a signature work for American bass-baritone Donovan Singletary; he has performed the roles of both Jake and Crown at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the English National Opera in London, the Dutch National Opera, Seattle Opera, and La Scala in Milan—an ideal track record for this genre-defying repertoire. He has also been heard in other roles such as Leporello, Escamillo, Figaro and Capulet in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. These performances have taken him to Glyndebourne, Washington, the BBC Proms, Atlanta, Fort Worth, and even the Baltic states. Beyond the opera stage, he distinguishes himself in works such as Verdi’s Requiem as well as in the art song and Lieder repertoire—performing at venues including Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall, and the Berliner Philharmonie. Finally, he has received a Grammy Award for the video recording of this same work with the Metropolitan Opera.

Following his studies and a promising start to his career in his native country, the boisterous and flashy role of Sportin’ Life is a familiar one for American tenor Chauncey Packer. As a matter of fact, he has performed it at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, Washington National Opera, Opéra-Comique in Paris, La Scala in Milan, and in San Francisco and Atlanta, as well as on tour across Europe with the New York Harlem Theatre. After Monte-Carlo, he is set to reprise the role at the Komische Oper Berlin. International critics have highlighted the tenor’s versatility: he is an opera singer, certainly, but also an actor equally at home on major operatic stages, in the realm of Broadway and even in progressive rock. His stage roles range from Don José to Alfredo, Rodolfo to Pinkerton, and Tamino or Cavaradossi to Amon in Philip Glass’s Akhnaten, and he often tackles the the oratorio repertoire, including works such as Messiah and Mozart’s Requiem. On record, he appearsin Porgy and Bess for Decca, as well as on the DVD of the same work in Francesca Zambello’s San Francisco production, as well as Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha in a new historically accurate orchestration.