Live performance
The artist(s): Chris Thompson, baritone Chris Thompson has been hailed “as a lyric baritone possessing a rare combination of velvet tone, comic timing, and elegant stage deportment.” A favorite with Lyric Opera San Diego, he helped inaugurate their newly renovated North Park Theatre in 2005 as Dandini in Rossini’s Cenerentola. Additionally, he has sung regionally and internationally in principal roles in operas ranging from: The Barber of Seville, The Merry Widow, The Mikado, The Marriage of Figaro, Die Fledermaus, to the title role in a staged version of Elijah. In concert, Chris has sung Bach’s B minor Mass, Magnificat, St. John Passion, and St. Matthew Passion; Requiem by Faure, Brahms, and Willan; Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabeus, and Monteverdi’s Vespers among many others. A strong advocate of new music, Chris has appeared in several world premieres including: Guest from the Future, The Scrimshaw Violin, Box and Cox and Hester Prynne at Death. In addition, Chris made his Off-Broadway debut in Fermat’s Last Tango (Original Cast Recordings) and is a featured soloist on Impetuosities (Albany Records), a CD of music by New York composer Joshua Rosenblum. Other recent musical theatre credits include Fred/Petruchio in Kiss Me, Kate, Georges in La Cage aux Folles, and Enjolras in Les Misérables with Coeur d’Alene Summer Theatre. Chris joined the faculty of the University of Idaho in the fall of 2003 where he teaches voice, is Director of the Opera/Musical Theatre Studio, and is musical director for the Idaho Repertory Theatre. His conducting credits include: Oklahoma!, The Man of La Mancha, The Pirates of Penzance, My Way: A Musical Tribute to Frank Sinatra, A Chorus Line, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, and the northwest premiere of Michael Ching’s opera, Corps of Discovery, based on the journals of Lewis and Clark. Chris returns to Lyric Opera San Diego in 2009 to conduct Cole Porter’s Anything Goes.
Engineer(s): Jason Slote and Chubby Smith