Lesley Dill conceived the opera, Divide Light in 2005. She is an American artist working at the intersection of performance, language, and fine art. Lesley Dill: Performance as Art, at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas, was a survey of the artist’s more than a twenty-year career in performance. These performances have been done at the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Kitchen, Webster Hall, and the Guggenheim Museum. In 2017 she was named a fellow of The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. The artist is currently represented by Nohra Haime Gallery in New York and Arthur Roger Gallery in New Orleans.
Lesley Dill lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, and is so happy that her opera will be re-performed at Dixon place!

Sarah Fraser is an NYC-based opera stage director. Recent engagements include: La Cenerentola and The Magic Flute with Salt Marsh Opera, La Traviata and The Impresario with the North Shore Music Festival; Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine and Puccini’s Suor Angelica for Opera Manhattan, and Amahl and the Night Visitors with Opera Kansas. As an assistant director at the Castleton Festival, her credits include: Otello, A Little Night Music, and The Turn of the Screw. She graduated with a M.M. in Opera Stage Directing from Florida State University, where she directed the regional premiere of John Musto’s Later the Same Evening. 

Whitney George is a composer and conductor who specializes in the use of mixed media to blur the distinctions between concert performance, installation art, and theater. Utilizing a wide variety of material including literary texts, silent film, stock footage, and visual arts, George’s compositions are characterized by an immersive theatricality that thrives on collaboration in all phases of the creative process. Her affinity for the macabre, the fantastic, and the bizarre frequently gives rise to musical programs that evoke the traditions of phantasmagoria and melodrama, challenging musicians to experiment with their stage personae, and audiences to widen the scope of their attention. For more information, visit www.whitneygeorge.com

Ed Robbins Director of Projections /Producer and Filmmaker of Divide Light film 2008: Ed Robbins is an award winning documentary filmaker. He has done films in Iraq, Pakistan, Syria,Jordan,Thailand,Burma , Rwanda, South Sudan , and all through the U.S. Robbins developed the concept for the Divide Light animations. He conceived the overall look, feel and approach of the projections and defined a story arc each for the animations. We are fortunate to have him make the 2018 Divide Light film! He lives in Brooklyn and teaches at the Columbia Journalism School in NYC.

Erik Bagger has added over 40 roles to his repertoire, within the past decade.  Highlights include: Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), Albert (Albert Herring),  Alfredo (La Traviata), and Rodolfo (La Bohème).  He has performed with Bronx Opera, The Martina Arroyo Foundation, North Shore Music Festival, Opera Noire, International Lyric Academy of Rome, and in concert at Carnegie Hall.  He has garnered raves from renowned publications, including The New York Times and Broadway World. He holds M.M. and B.M. degrees, magna cum laude, from The Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College, where he received The Brooklyn College Opera Theatre Award.

Scott Lindroth was praised as “sonorous” and “a highlight” by Opera News. His recent engagements include Mr. Gobineau in Menotti’s The Medium with NCO, and soloist in the Astoria Choir’s Brahms’ Requiem. Other roles include Valentin (Faust), Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Harlequin (Ariadne auf Naxos), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Top (The Tender Land), Marcello (La bohème), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Marco (Gianni Schicchi) and Mandarin (Turandot). Mr. Lindroth placed second in the Opera Theater of Connecticut Voice Competition, and was a finalist in the Liederkranz Vocal Competition.

Baritone Stan Lacy’s debut as Sid (Albert Herring) garnered praise as a “sensual” portrayal of a “working class ladies’ man.”  Stan was heard in the roles of Lescaut(Manon), Ford (Falstaff), Tarquinius (Rape of Lucretia), and Ping (Turandot).  At home in difficult, contemporary repertoire, other roles include Mittelstaedt in the American premiere of Van de Vate’s All Quiet on the Western Front,  Remo in Elisha’s new serialist opera A Certain Quiet, Count Almaviva in Titus’ Rosina, and Boaz in Ruth by Philip Hagemann. He is a co-founder of New Camerata Opera working to bring opera to new audiences young and old.

Described  as  “a  superb  singing  actress,” soprano  Alexandra  Lang is  rapidly  gaining  recognition  for  her  musical integrity,  distinct  vocal  color  and  versatility.  A  native  of  Atlanta,  she  currently  resides  in  New  York  City.  Ms. Lang has enjoyed performances at the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the Boston Public Library, The Great Hall at Faneuil Hall, Fenway Park, Jordan Hall, the Dimenna Center for Classical Music,  Bruno  Walter  Auditorium  at  Lincoln  Center,  and  Carnegie’s  Weill  Recital  Hall.  Recent  operatic  roles  include: the  title  role  in  Anna  Bolena, Leonore  (Fidelio),  Donna  Anna  (Don  Giovanni),  Chrysothemis  (Elektra),  and  the  title  role  in  Ariadne  auf  Naxos.

Tenor Victor Khodadad has been singing on the regional circuit since making his debut as Lenksy in “Eugene Onegin” with Opera Theater of CT in 2004. Praised for the “fluidity of his line” (The Duke), a “lyricism well suited to the French repertoire” (Romèo) and a voice that’s “clear, sweet and ringing in the crucial A and B-flat regions that tug at the heart-strings” (Rodolfo) he has sung the leading tenor repertoire across the United States at companies such as Mississippi Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Connecticut Lyric Opera, National Music Festival and the Atlanta Symphony under the baton of Donald Runnicles.

Mezzo-soprano Eva Parr has performed actively throughout the New York area since 2009. Most recently Eva appeared as Mrs. Nolan in Menotti’s The Medium with New Camerata Opera, a company for which she serves as a co-founder. Favorite roles include Carmen (Carmencita in Bed-Stuy), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Tisbe (La Cenerentola), La Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi), Meg (Falstaff), and Hansel (Hansel und Gretel). She has performed with several companies including the Bronx Opera, DiCapo Opera, The North Shore Music Festival, Opera Lirico d’Europa, Amore Opera, Opera Manhattan, The Garden State Philharmonic, and New Camerata Opera.

Julia Tang performs actively in New York City with New Camerata Opera in the past year. She has studied and performed with The National Opera Institute in Brooklyn, IIVA in Italy, Intermezzo Elardo Young Artist Program in Belgium, and New York Lyric Opera. Tang holds B.M and M.M. degrees from the Conservatory of Music of Brooklyn College. Her performance highlights include: Cherubino and Marcellina (Le nozze di Figaro), La Suora Infermiera (Suor Angelica), Filipyevna (Eugene Onegin), Dunyasha (Tsar’s Bride), and Sorceress (Dido and Aeneas). Last Fall, she was invited as an alto soloist to Grace Episcopal Church in Nyack.

Barbara Porto is an American soprano who has been praised for her vocal clarity and engaging stage presence. This season, she performed the role of Monica in Menotti’s The Medium with New Camerata Opera and The Curiosity Cabinet ensemble.  Other operatic credits include Oberto (Alcina), Mademoiselle Silberklang, Zerlina, Barbarina, Crobyle (Thaïs), Servilia (La Clemenza di Tito), Anna Gomez (The Consul), and Giannetta (L’Elisir d’Amore). Equally committed to new music, Barbara “glistened like a jewel” as Rebecca Manchester in Kevin Wilt’s one-woman show, Prix Fixe, with Fresh Squeezed Opera in June 2017.  Barbara holds a M.M. Performance degree from the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, and is a student of Mark Schnaible.