The The Hispanic Society Museum & Library
​and Sonnambula present

​​Apolo y Dafne

a zarzuela by Sebastián Durón and Juan de Navas (c. 1697)

Monday, June 28, 2021, 6PM (EST)

SONNAMBULA
Elizabeth Weinfield, Artistic Director

Jude Ziliak, Violin/Leader
Toma Iliev, Violin
Elizabeth Weinfield, Viola da gamba
Amy Domingues, Cello
Christa Patton, Baroque Harp
James Kennerley, Harpsichord/Music Direction
Esteban La Rotta, Music Direction (in absentia)

Stage Direction by Elena Araoz

starring

BRIANA HUNTER as AMOR
NOLA RICHARDSON as APOLO
CAMILLE ZAMORA as DAFNE

Briana Hunter (Amor) has been hailed by Opera News as “a mesmerizing mezzo-soprano with a fiery theatrical presence and dynamic vocalism.” Ms. Hunter began the 2019-2020 season in performances of Augusta Read Thomas’ Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun with the Santa Fe Opera. Following her acclaimed performances creating the role of Mother in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue at the Glimmerglass Festival, she reprises the role this spring for her debut at the Washington National Opera. A graduate of the Gerdine Young Artist Program, she returns to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis in May for her role debut as Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus. Ms. Hunter recently debuted under the auspices of New York City Opera and American Opera Projects as Hannah Before in Laura Kaminsky’s As One at the Kaufman Music Center in New York. Additional recent performances include creating the role of Dee Dee Reyes in Hillard and Boresi’sThe Last American Hammer with UrbanArias in Washington, D.C.; Annie and Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess at the Glimmerglass Festival; and Giovanna in Rigoletto and Gertrude Stein in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27 at Michigan Opera Theatre, for which she won the EncoreMichigan award for Best Performance in an Opera. At the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, she performed the role of Flora in La Traviata for Patricia Racette’s directorial debut, as well as Pvt. Stanton in the world premiere of An American Soldier. 
She made her Lincoln Center Theater debut in a gala performance of Camelot starring Lin Manuel Miranda, and a few months prior joined LCT for a workshop of Intimate Apparel by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage, directed by Bartlett Sher. Additional roles include the title role of Carmen with the Music Academy of the West and Mercédès at Michigan Opera Theatre, El Paso Opera and Knoxville Opera; Jo in Little Women, Wowkle in La fanciulla del West, and Madeleine Audebert in Silent Night at Michigan Opera Theatre; Rachel in the world premiere of Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom with American Opera Projects; Play by Play in the world premiere ofBum Phillips: An All-American Opera at LaMama Experimental Theater; and Ida in Die Fledermaus at Sarasota Opera. As an Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera, she covered the roles of Lucinda in the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain and Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, and performed the roles of Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Ruggiero in Alcina for the Apprentice Artist scenes. An accomplished stage actress, Ms. Hunter has worked with Tony and Academy Award winning playwright Mark Medoff in a production of his playGunfighter–A Gulf War Chronicle, in addition to developing and starring in an original double bill titled Infinite Variety/For Every Passion Somethingunder the direction of the Royal Shakespeare Company and presented in a two-week run at the Fringe Festival in Scotland. At the Manhattan School of Music she performed in the institution’s first ever production of The Vagina Monologues, in addition to singing with the American Musical Theater Ensemble for productions of Godspell and Ragtime. Ms. Hunter is a Lotte Lenya Competition finalist and winner of the Lys Symonette Award from The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. She participated in the I SING BEIJING program where she performed at The National Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Hunter holds a M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music and a B.A. from Davidson College. Originally from Malvern, Pennsylvania, she currently resides in New York City.
Making her mark as an “especially impressive” (The New York Times) soprano, Australian/American Nola Richardson (Apolo) was born in Sydney, Australia but sadly lost her Australian accent after her family emigrated to Colorado when she was six. She began her musical studies on the violin at age seven and continued with vocal studies at Illinois Wesleyan and the Peabody Conservatory. Performing the works of J.S. Bach has become the cornerstone of her career and she has gratefully received First Prize in three vocal competitions focusing on his works. These honors have catapulted her to the forefront of Baroque ensembles and symphonies around the country, where she has been praised for her "astonishing balance and accuracy,” “crystalline diction,” and “natural-sounding ease” (Washington Post). In recent seasons she has made debuts with the Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Colorado Symphonies (Handel's Messiah); filmed arias with the Atlanta Symphony for a documentary about J. S. Bach; made appearances at the Lincoln Center with the American Classical Orchestra; and performed with a wide range of Baroque ensembles including the American Bach Soloists, the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, the Colorado Bach Ensemble, and the Madison Bach Musicians. Past operatic highlights include her debut at the Kennedy Center with Opera Lafayette (Fraarte in Handel's Radamisto) which drew praise for her “particularly appealing freshness and directness”
(Washington Post), and a “standout” performance (Opera News) as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with the Clarion Music Society. Nola is also a devoted chamber musician and has performed, toured, and recorded with Grammy®-nominated ensembles Seraphic Fire, Clarion, Musica Sacra and Trinity Wall Street. She is the first and only soprano to receive the prestigious DMA degree in Early Music Voice from Yale, where she attended the Institute of Sacred Music. Her upcoming season will include performances with the American Bach Soloists, the Grand Rapids and Kansas City Symphonies, Musica Angelica, Seraphic Fire, and debuts with Ars Lyrica Houston, and the Tuscon Baroque Music Festival. Nola is an Athlone Artist and resides in NYC.
​In collaboration with artists ranging from Yo-Yo Ma to Sting, Soprano Camille Zamora (Dafne) has garnered acclaim for her “dramatic and nuanced” (The New York Times) interpretations of repertoire ranging from Mozart to tango. She is known for her “dignity and glowing sound” (The New York Times) in “luminous, transcendently lyrical” performances (Opera News) that “combine gentility and emotional fire” (The Houston Chronicle). Camille has sung with many of the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies, including Orchestra of St. Luke’s, London Symphony Orchestra, LA Opera, Houston Grand Opera, and Glimmerglass Opera. Her recent recordings include If the night grows dark (Si la noche se hace oscura): 5 Centuries of Spanish Song, which debuted on the Billboard Classical Top Ten; The Last Sorcerer, an Opera News Critic’s Choice; and The Long Christmas Dinner with American Symphony Orchestra, a New York Times Classical Playlist Choice and Opera News Recording of the Year. Hailed as a leading interpreter of classical Spanish song by NBC Latino and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Camille has performed on five continents and in live broadcasts on PBS, Deutsche Radio, and the BBC. She has performed and recorded principal roles in the zarzuelas La Verbena de la Paloma, La Revoltosa, Luisa Fernanda and La Tabernera del Puerto, and her concerts of classic Spanish song (arranged for her by Grammy® Award winner Jeff Tyzik) have been 
presented with Dallas Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Orlando Philharmonic, St. Louis Symphony, Florida Symphony, Edmonton Symphony, and more. In Spring 2021, Camille performed concerts of Spanish arias and boleros with Cincinnati Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Buffalo Philharmonic, and Virginia Symphony, for virtual and in-person audiences. Camille is the Co-Founder of Sing for Hope, a leading “arts peace corps” that produces initiatives – including the Sing for Hope Pianos in public spaces from the Bronx to Beirut, and from Aspen to Athens – that make the arts accessible to all. She has been honored as a Kennedy Center Citizen Artist and named one of CNN’s Most Intriguing People. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Camille serves on the boards of Juilliard and Grameen Creative Lab.