Karah Son - Madama Butterfly*

A pupil of the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala, Karah Son specialized under the guidance of Mirella Freni. She made her operatic debut as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro at the National Theater in Seoul.

Mrs. Son recently performed as Liù in Turandot at the Teatro Filarmonico in Verona, at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia in Valencia, as Mimì in La Bohème at the Teatro Lirico in Cagliari and took part in Zandonai’s Francesca da Rimini at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo. The role of Liù marked also her debut in Turandot at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna for the 2012 season’s opening night. Karah Son successfully sang Madama Butterfly in Tampere; Aida at the Sejong Center in Seoul and then in Halle; Turandot at the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy under Rani Calderon.

Amongo her future plans, Madama Butterfly in Leipzig, Warsaw and Goteborg.

Andriy Yurkevych - conductor

After his debut at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome, he earned an impressive reputation at international level with many invitations at the Monte Carlo Opera, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, the Bayerische Staatsoper, the Liceu in Barcelona, the Teatro Municipal in Santiago (Chile), the Greek National Opera and the San Francisco Opera. Mr. Yurkevych enjoys a continuous and successful collaboration with the world famous soprano Edita Gruberova, working with her in numerous  productions. Among his most notable past engagements: Norma in Paris (Salle Pleyel), Nice and Cologne; The Swan Lake,  Anna Bolena and Il Mago di Oz  in Florence; Norma in Palermo; Evgenij Onegin, La Traviata and Macbeth in Gdansk; The Pique Dame, Der Fliegende Holländer, Rigoletto, Madama Butterfly and Nabucco in Warsaw; Roberto Devereux in Zürich, Vienna and Madrid; Aida in Riga; The Swan Lake in Rome; Lucia di Lammermoor in Budapest. In Berlin he recently conducted L’Elisir d’Amore (Staatsoper) and Anna Bolena (Deutsche Oper).

Active also on the symphonic field, he boasts a repertoire that spans from Mozart to the main Russian composers, such as Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Glinka, Mussorgsky, Shostakovich. Andriy Yurkevych conducted symphonic concerts with the Orchestra I Pomeriggi Musical in Milan and the Münchner Symphoniker, being immediately reinvited. Mr. Yurkevych also served as Music Director of the National Theatre in Odessa and as General Music Conductor at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre of Republic of Moldova in Chisinau. As Music Director at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, in the 2014-2015 season Mr. Yurkevych will also conduct Maria Stuarda (new production), Guillaume Tell (new production), Nabucco as well as symphonic concerts.

Other upcoming projects include: Roberto Devereux in Madrid; Norma in Tokyo; Anna Bolena in Zurich and Vienna with Anna Netrebko.

Mariusz Trelinski - director

Stage director and artistic director of the Polish National Opera, Mariusz Trelinski, began his career in cinema and theatre before moving to the world of opera. He has revived the classical genre and bestowed on it the dynamism of our times. His highly acclaimed Madame Butterfly premiered at the PNO in Warsaw in 1999 was transferred two years later by Plácido Domingo to the Washington National Opera.

Since then, Trelinski has worked regularly with the world’s leading theatres and conductors, such as D. Barenboim, K. Nagano, L. Maazel, V. Gergiev and C. Rizzi. Subsequent opera productions include: Otello (PNO), Don Giovanni (Los Angeles), The Queen of Spades (Berlin, Tel Aviv), Andrea Chénier and La Bohème (Washington), King Roger (St. Petersburg, Edinburgh), Boris Godunov (Vilnius), Orfeo ed Euridice (Bratislava), two one-act operas, Aleko and Iolanta with Anna Netrebko in the title role (St. Petersburg, Baden-Baden) and Onegin (Valencia, Bologna). His version of La traviata (PNO 2010, Savonlinna 2013), was set in the spirit of Bob Fosse’s film All That Jazz. Later productions include Turandot, The Flying Dutchman, Manon Lescaut, a co-production with the La Monnaie and Cardiff theatres. His production, Henze's Boulevard Solitude at the Welsh National Opera, was hailed by “The Times” as  “better than perfect”.

M° Trelinski recently made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera in New York with Iolanta and Bluebeards Castle.