Cast and Crew ⋆

Vismaya Lhi (artistic director/soprano) Nedda spintosoprano Vismaya Lhi was adopted into the U.S. from South Korea when she was a small child. Although she was having serious language problems when she first arrived, her mother says that she sang complete songs off the radio before speaking her first English words. She garnered top honors and her degrees from the University of California at Santa Cruz and continued her professional vocal studies with Lilyan Loran. She has sung in Italy, Mexico, Canada and across the U.S. in concert, opera and theatre. Venues and musical organizations have included The Santa Cruz Baroque Festival, Andanza Spanish Arts, Verismo Opera, Phénix Opera, The San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Theatre Flamenco, The Cabrillo Music Festival and the Methow Valley Chamber Music Festival. In addition, she has premiered new works by various composers including Five Songs on poems by Gabriela Mistral by Dusan Bogdanovic at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City; these songs were written and dedicated to her. During the last years of his life, she worked closely with the late Joaquin Nin-Culmell (who was the last living student of Manuel Falla) for whom she premiered and recorded several new songs. Production/Conducting credits include Verdi’s Il Trovatore, Leoncavallo’s – I Pagliacci and Puccini’s – Madama Butterfly. Onstage Opera roles include the title roles in Tosca and Carmen, Leonora – Il Trovatore, Santuzza – Cavalleria Rusticana and Amelia – Un Ballo in Maschera. As the founder/Artistic director of Teatro Mistral, she envisions an ongoing intersection and reconception of music, opera-theatre and dance. She maintains a private studio in San Francisco where she teaches voice, piano, public speaking and musicianship.

Hanna Socorro (soprano – Nedda) is a NYC-based operatic soprano who is honored to be returning to her native Bay Area to perform the role of Nedda in Teatro Mistral’s production of Ruggero Leoncavallo’s masterpiece, Pagliacci. This is her second production with Teatro Mistral since making her debut as La Dama in Macbeth (Verdi). She has also sung the roles of La Voce & La Ciesca in Phenix Opera’s double bill production of Lucrezia (Respighi) & Gianni Schicchi (Puccini), respectively. She most recently starred in the title role of Opera Cultura’s production of Frida, a modern opera chronicling the difficult life of famed Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo, written by Robert Xavier Rodriguez. Hanna currently resides in Brooklyn, NY where she and her husband own and operate an Italian restaurant, which has become a setting for their acclaimed “Opera-tivo,” a seasonal concert of curated opera and musical theatre classics performed and produced by Hanna Socorro.

Senen Bagos Jr. – (tenor – Canio) has performed with Phenix Opera in Lucrezia as Collatino and Gianni Schicchi as Gherardo. In 2015, Senen started singing full opera with Verismo Opera as Pagliacci, Don Jose, Rodolfo, and Pinkerton. He is a choir member at St. Catherine of Siena in Vallejo and sings throughout northern California. He has performed with Solano Choral Society, Vallejo Choral Society, The Well Tempered Voices, North Bay Opera, Pocket Opera, and Jarvis Conservatory.

Tristan Robben (Michele), has sung with numerous Bay Area Opera companies including North Bay Opera, Bay Shore Lyric, Teatro Mistral, Verismo Opera and Goat Hall Productions. He counts Escamillo (Carmen), The Count di Luna (Il Trovatore), Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana) , Iago (Otello), Michele (Il Tabarro), Scarpia (Tosca), Renato (Un Ballo in Maschera), Fafner (Das Rheingold), Tonio (I Pagliacci) and Ford (Falstaff) in his onstage repertoire. www.tristanrobben.com

Sidney Ragland – (tenor – Peppe) is a tenor based in the Bay Area. He recently made his 2022 debut at the Lyric Opera Studio Weimar in Germany where he sang the role of Eisenstein in their production of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus. This past June, he made his debut with the Berkeley Chamber Opera singing the title role and Hussar in their production of Stravinsky’s Mavra. He has also performed with the Chautauqua Opera Company in New York during their 2018 and 2019 seasons where he performed the roles of Lil’ B Man in Vid Guerrerio’s adaptation Figaro! (90210) and Bishop in Corgliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles, and covered the roles of Léon in Ghosts of Versailles and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni. Sidney made his debut with Opera San José in 2016, covering the role of Arturo in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, covering the role of Count Almaviva, and singing the role of Sergeant in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia. Sidney is a student of Jane Randolph.

Ethan Williams (tenor – Peppe, Nov.6th/ensemble) is a San Francisco based tenor with a Bachelor of Music from San Francisco State University. His recent roles include Belfiore in Mozart’s La finta giardaniera and Oronte in Handel’s Alcina. He has also sung in the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, Santa Rosa Symphony and was a soloist for Redwood Empire. He currently cantors at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church.

Rodrigo Castillo – (baritone – Silvio) Baritone Rodrigo Castillo is a singing actor living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area. A Sonoma County native, he attended Santa Rosa Junior College and graduated from Sonoma State University as a Bachelor of Music in Classical Vocal Performance. He continued his operatic education with the Le Chiavi Institute for Bel Canto Studies in Houston, Texas, and has traveled to Germany to study and perform. Mr. Castillo has performed with Verismo Opera, in the roles of Barone Douphol in La Traviata, Marcello in La Boheme, and Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, and with Music to My Ears as Bob in Menotti’s The Old Maid and the Thief. He is no stranger to musical theater or operetta, and has performed Pirelli in Sweeney Todd and covered Enjolras & Javert in Les Miserables at Santa Rosa Junior College, and as Jehan in The Hunchback of Notre Dame Music with to my Ears. His choral repertoire includes the solos in Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzer, Handel’s Messiah, and Orff’s Carmina Burana. Mr. Castillo is happy to join Teatro Mistral as Silvio in Pagliacci.

Ari Bocian – (conductor) Ari Bocian graduated from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee with a master’s degree in Orchestral Conducting in 2018. Ari also earned a bachelor’s degree in Cello Performance from the San Francisco Conservatory in 2014. Ari has appeared regularly with Verismo Opera in Vallejo and Berkeley, conducting performances of La Traviata, Rigoletto, Carmen, La Boheme, Faust, Un Ballo in Maschera, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Madama Butterfly. While at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Ari served as the assistant conductor for their productions of Dead Man Walking and Eugene Onegin. After his graduation from the Boston Conservatory at Berklee, Ari conducted the West Coast premiere of Lady Bird: First Lady of the Land at Bay Shore Lyric Opera. Additionally, Ari has served as the assistant conductor for both the South Valley and Nova Vista Symphonies; was a finalist for the Assistant Conductor position with both the Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra and the Los Angeles Youth Orchestra; and has conducted the San Jose Youth Symphony, the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, the Astoria Symphony Orchestra, the University of North Texas Symphony Orchestra, the University of Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Brookline Symphony Orchestra, the Mission Chamber Orchestra, the Miami Beach Music Festival Orchestra, and the Redwood Symphony Orchestra. Ari’s most recent appearance on the podium was in April of 2022, when he served as a last-minute replacement to conduct a full-length orchestral concert in San Jose that served as a benefit for Ukraine.

Emily Crawford (soprano) Ensemble Soprano Emily Crawford works with local Bay Area opera companies like Teatro Mistral in both their fully staged productions (Witch in “Macbetto) and concert series, and Phenix Opera (Venilia in Respighi’s “Lucrezia” and Nella in “Gianni Schicci”). In addition to singing, Emily teaches voice both in the traditional sense and through her Youtube series, “Easy as Do Re Mi”. Emily hopes to bridge her singing and teaching to engage in operatic outreach, thereby helping audiences fall in love with opera who may not think to seek it out.

Singing is a passion for Ellen. Her happiest time was when she was a teenager singing in a church choir in Hongkong. Invested half of her first full-time paycheck in a voice lesson at 18 and has never looked back. Started singing with chorus groups in the U.S., then was seduced by opera. Sang for 10-12 years with the Ina Chalis Opera Ensemble (SF Community Music Center) as well as Verismo Opera (Vallejo) in chorus, ensemble, comprimario roles and was also cast in principal roles which included Queen of Night in Magic Flute, Adalgisa in Norma, Gilda in Rigoletto, Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Rosalinda in Fledermaus and Oscar in Un Ballo. Is currently under the tutelage of vocal coach Vismaya Lhi.