Operapalooza! Oct 6 Performers

Matthew Youngblood is a native of Benton, Kentucky. He holds degrees in voice performance from Florida State University and Vanderbilt University. During his studies at FSU, Mr. Youngblood served as a Graduate Assistant and maintained a studio of undergraduate voice students. Past roles include Lord Tolloller in Iolanthe, Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi, and Florville in Il Signor Bruschino with Bronx Opera, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte with the Queens Summer Vocal Institute, Javier in Luisa Fernanda, Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro with Florida State Opera. He is also experienced in Oratorio, having sung solos in the Mozart Requiem with the Blair School of Music, the St. John Passion and Messiah with Florida State University as well as Uriel in Haydn’s Creation with the Tallahassee Community Choir. Mr. Youngblood is a two year winner of the Hannah J. Beaulieu voice competition at Florida State University.

Versatile mezzo-soprano Sara Henry has charmed audiences around the world, singing leading and supporting roles in more than 50 different operas. Highlights of her career have included the roles of Semiramide (Semiramide), Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice) Diana (La Calisto), Adalgisa (Norma), and Giovanna Seymour (Anna Bolena), as well as a host of Handelian heroes, including the title roles in Xerxes, Ariodante, and Giulio Cesare. In addition to singing, she is known for writing and producing witty English language adaptations of classic operatic repertoire. This March, she will appear in the title role of Bizet's Carmen with Palisades Opera.

Joanie Brittingham is a soprano, writer, and the editor of Classical Singer Magazine. Praised for “dramatic versatility” (Opera News), “meltingly beautiful” interpretations (Forbes), “lovely soprano” and “lucid diction” (New York Times), “captivating stage presence” (New York Classical Review), and “full-bodied voice” (Tulsa World), all while demonstrating “strength and resistance” (Opera Wire) throughout “outstanding solo work” (New York Concert Review), Brittingham has performed at Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, and Symphony Space and with Riverside Theatre, the New Ohio Theatre, Fresh Squeezed Opera, New Amsterdam Opera, Opera on Tap, Chelsea Opera, the New Works Festival with OPERA America, American Lyric Theatre, and VHRP Live, among others. Brittingham is the author of Practicing for Singers and has contributed to many classical music textbooks. Brittingham’s writing has been described as “breathless comedy” and having “real wit” (New York Classical Review). Brittingham is the librettist for the opera Serial Killers and the City, which premiered with Experiments in Opera, and will be a part of New Wave Opera's Night of the Living Opera. On Instagram and TikTok: @joaniebrittingham.

Brian J. Alvarado’s ‘liquid baritone of great charm,’ ‘precise patter elocution,’ and ‘highly attractive legato’ (Parterre Box) has featured recently as both Falke in La Chauve-Souris and the Baritone in The Four Note Opera (Festival d’art vocal de Montréal; Orchestre Classique de Montréal), Silvio in Pagliacci (New Rochelle Opera), Angelotti in Tosca (Opera Vermont), Eugene Johnson in Blind Injustice (Opera Theatre of the Rockies), Tom in Un ballo in maschera (Opera Project Columbus), and Mountararat in Iolanthe and Simone/Filiberto in Gianni Schicchi/Il Signor Bruschino (Bronx Opera). He has portrayed an ‘appropriately sardonic Leporello' (Indie Opera Podcast) with Bronx Opera, Long Island Lyric Opera, Lighthouse Opera, and Amore Opera. Other roles include Papageno and Sprecher (Die Zauberflöte), Dandini (La cenerentola), Schaunard (La bohéme), Betto (Gianni Schicchi), Frank (Die Fledermaus), Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), and the title roles in Venus and Adonis, The Sorcerer, and Sweeney Todd. Solo concert work includes Handel's Messiah, Bach’s BWV 147, Keiser's Markuspassion, Haydn’s Nicolaimesse, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore and Missa Brevis in G Major, Schubert's Mass in G, and Gounod’s St. Cecilia Mass. The Bronx native has appeared chorally at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and National Sawdust, among many others. He is excited to return to Prelude Opera, where he has previously appeared as The Wolf/Woodsman in Little Red Riding Hood, and Osmin in The Billy Goats Gruff.

Bass-baritone Jonathan Z. Harris is a native New Orleanian opera singer, recitalist, and actor based in New York City. A two-time Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Jonathan has previously been an Apprentice Artist with Sarasota Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Chautauqua Opera. He has also sung with Opera Company of Middlebury, Bronx Opera, Opéra Louisiane, and dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, among others. Roles include Leporello (Don Giovanni), Don Alfonso (Così fan tutte), Papageno (The Magic Flute), Publio (La clemenza di Tito), Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Peter Quince (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring), and the King (Eight Songs for a Mad King). Theatre credits include Salome and The Importance of Being E(a)rnest Hemingway with M-34 and Love & Geography with Piehole. Jonathan holds degrees in theatre arts from Brown University and in music from the University of Michigan. www.jonathanzharris.com

Shane Brown was born in Ocean City, NJ and began singing classical music at a young age. After performing in community opera and operetta and graduating from ChARTer Tech High School for the Performing Arts, Shane went on to study voice at Rutgers University. Since then, Shane has regularly appeared in opera roles and concert performances, as a chorister and soloist, as well as voice acting in the greater New York area. More recently, Shane has become specialized in new music as a regular performer with the New York based Curiosity Cabinet Ensemble, Fresh Squeezed Opera, and more. By day, Shane works as an office manager where he brings the skills learned on stage to the corporate world. Coming up, Shane is set to debut the role of The Devil in the premiere of Whitney George's No Man's Land in 2025.

Praised by critics for her "brilliant high notes", along with "stunning" and "impressive" coloratura, soprano Elizabeth Treat has performed leading roles with Bronx Opera, Washington Opera Society, Light Opera of New Jersey, Utopia Opera, Opera Theatre of Montclair, Regina Opera, Opera Camerata of Washington, Amore Opera, and Prelude Opera. Notable roles include Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, the title role in Flotow's Martha, Marie in La Fille du Régiment, Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Career highlights include a 2019 solo debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, and several American premieres with Metropolitan Opera conductor Gregory Buchalter. Elizabeth holds performance degrees in both piano and voice, with highest honors. Offstage, Elizabeth is a director in corporate finance and an amateur nature photographer.

Seth Gilman is a graduate of Mannes College of Music, with a master's from the University of Michigan. Seth is active in new and early music. He is proud to have premiered many works by living composers, both established and emerging. Recent performances of note have included Untitled Theater Company # 61's Cabaret in Captivity, concerts with Opera on Tap and New Brew, and the premieres of Experiments in Opera's Five Ways to Die, of Natalie Elizabeth Weiss's opera about Ida Craddock, Borderland, of Larry Lipkis's opera, Simonetta, with the American Chamber Opera Company, and of chamber works with Random Access Music. In addition to performing, Seth has been a music critic for Examiner.com and curated shows for New Brew and Spectrum, the latter in which selected ensembles explored performance of new music on historical instruments, and early music according to principles of contemporary performance practice.

Sarah Ziegler Blair is a musical theater performer and writer. She is the co-writer of Just Between the All of Us (winner of the Reva Shiner Comedy award with a production at the Bloomington Playwright's Project), The Brontës (production at The Space Theatre in London), Alex Gold: Stuck on Repeat (available for licensing), In BeTween (available for licensing), and The Teens ‘n Tweens Songbook (available for purchase). Sarah is a graduate of Hamilton College and The Boston Conservatory. Favorite roles include Little Red Riding Hood in Little Red Riding Hood: A Children's Opera (with the fabulous Prelude Opera!), Jane in Leave it to Jane (Musicals Tonight!), Laurey in Oklahoma! (Tent Theatre, MO), Jane in Pirates! (Huntington Theatre), and Annie Oakley in Annie Get Your Gun (Millbrook Playhouse). Sarah is the founder of Musical Muffins, music classes for babies and toddlers with original tunes. Most of all, Sarah loves spending time writing and performing silly songs with her sons, Arlo and Hughie.

Christine Pulliam Melamed founded Prelude Opera in 2017 with the production of Three Little Pigs. As an opera pianist she has worked for Bronx Opera, the Atlantic Music Festival, Masterworks Festival, Opera Company of Brooklyn and Dramma per Musica. A piano instructor since 1994, she was previously on the piano faculty of the Levine School of Music in Washington D.C. and also taught piano and music history at The King’s College. Past solo and chamber performances include the Opus Nine Ensemble, The Washington Sinfonietta, University of Wisconsin, and Malacañang Palace in the Philippines. A fan of new music, she has premiered piano works by Frank Felice and Benjamin C. S. Boyle and an operetta by Joshua Bornfield. A native of Indianapolis, Ms. Melamed graduated from Butler University summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance and minor in journalism. She received a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Maryland and a Master of Music in collaborative piano from The Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.