Triumph of Aphrodite

Rossen Milanov, conductor

Aubry Ballarò, soprano
Nicholas Nestorak, tenor
Hugh Russell, baritone
Columbus Symphony Chorus
Stephen Caracciolo, chorus director
Karla Buela and Austin Powers, BalletMet dancers
Remi Wörtmeyer, BalletMet artistic director

Aubry Ballarò, soprano

Quickly gaining attention for her “solid technique and heroic timbre” (Opera Today), lyric coloratura soprano Aubry Ballarò continues to build an international profile with notable debuts across Europe, Asia, and the United States.

In the 2025–2026 season, Ms. Ballarò makes her Asian debut as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor with Musica Viva Hong Kong, marking an important milestone in her growing global career. She begins the season as Micaëla in Carmen with Opera in the Park Portland and the soprano soloist in Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder with the Chautauqua Symphony. Later in the season, she debuts with Portland Opera as Musetta in La Bohème, performs Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, and returns to Opera Columbus in a co-production with the Columbus Symphony as Violetta in La traviata and with the symphony as the soprano soloist in Orff’s Trionfo di Afrodite.

Internationally, Ms. Ballarò made her Spanish debut in a solo gala with the RTV Slovenia Orchestra at the Auditorio Nacional de Madrid. She first came to European attention with her debut as Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor at State Opera Stara Zagora in Bulgaria, a company to which she later returned as Violetta in their 2023 production of La Traviata. In 2024, she debuted with the Sofia Philharmonic as the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem.

In the United States, recent highlights include her role debuts as Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Grand Rapids, Gilda in Rigoletto with Opera Columbus, and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte with The Princeton Festival. She has also been heard as Madame Herz in Mozart’s The Impresario with The Princeton Festival and as the soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Columbus Symphony.

Ms. Ballarò is recognized for both her “deep lyric color with unflagging flexibility” and her expressive interpretations. With an expanding repertoire that bridges bel canto, lyric roles, and concert works, she continues to establish herself as a versatile and compelling artist on international stages.

Nicholas Nestorak, tenor

Nicholas Nestorak is a tenor on the rise since joining the Metropolitan Opera roster in 2021 and making his highly anticipated Met début as Pang in their lavish production of Turandot. Also at The Met, he has covered Pang, Tanzmeister in Ariadne auf Naxos, Bardolfo in Falstaff, and Spoletta in Tosca. He returns this season as the Second Priest in the holiday presentation of The Magic Flute and covering the Waiter in Arabella.

Additional engagements last season included Goro in Madama Butterfly with Opera San Antonio and Austin Opera. Mr. Nestorak also took his acclaimed Spoletta to the Princeton Festival’s Tosca and joined Opera Maine to portray Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd. This season, he portrays Ralph Rackstraw in HMS Pinafore with Opera Grand Rapids. In concert, he will be heard as the tenor soloist for Stravinksy’s Pulcinella with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, as well as two rarely heard works, Dvorak’s The American Flag and Orff’s Trionfo di Afrodite, with the Columbus Symphony.

Mr. Nestorak has had recent success throughout the U.S. in a wide variety of repertoire, including Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and a different member of the Turandot trio, Pong, with Opera Grand Rapids; Prunier in La rondine with Opera on the James; Beppe in Pagliacci and Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Opera San Antonio; Pang with Opera Delaware; Borsa in Rigoletto with Pacific Symphony; Brighella in Ariadne auf Naxos for Lakes Area Music Festival; and Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Antonin Scalia in Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg, and Monsieur Vogelsang in Der Schauspieldirektor at the Princeton Festival. He performed Goro in Madama Butterfly with Knoxville Opera and Florida Grand Opera, Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte with Toledo Opera and Opera Grand Rapids, the Witch in Hänsel und Gretel with Brava! Opera Theater, and Grant Wood in Strokes of Genius, a new work about Cedar Rapids native Grant Wood, with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. He also made his critically acclaimed début as Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Roanoke.

Mr. Nestorak delighted audiences at the Glimmerglass Festival as Tobias in Stephen Sondheim’s gruesome favorite, Sweeney Todd, after he made his début at the festival as Monastatos in Die Zauberflöte the season before. He appeared in the title role of Albert Herring and Jupiter in Semele at Opera MODO; and as Lord Geoffrey in The Picture of Dorian Gray at Opera Fayetteville. Additional operatic engagements include the Physician in The Fall of the House of Usher; Borsa in Rigoletto and Spoletta in Tosca with Wolf Trap Opera; Pang in Turandot with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre, the role of Gastone in La traviata with Austin Lyric Opera, and a performance in Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins.

Hugh Russell, baritone

Baritone Hugh Russell has performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Houston Symphony, National Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Israel Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), Cincinnati Symphony, and Kansas City Symphony, among many others.

He has been honored to work with many eminent conductors, including Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Jaap van Zweden, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Manfred Honeck, Edo de Waart, Kent Nagano, Donald Runnicles, Steuart Bedford, Michael Christie, Hans Graf, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and Rossen Milanov.

Operatically, he has been featured in productions at Los Angeles Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Atlanta Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Arizona Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Vancouver Opera, Calgary Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Manitoba Opera, the Wexford Festival, and Angers-Nantes Opera.

Hugh has also been featured in recital at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, and in many appearances with the New York Festival of Song.

As a pianist, he has been featured in performance with Stephanie Blythe at a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Seattle Opera, and has also been featured in performance with Christine Brewer for Illinois Humanities.

In the coming season, Hugh will be featured in performance with pianist Craig Terry, and will return to North Carolina Opera to perform Papageno in Die Zauberflöte. He will also return to the New Mexico Philharmonic to perform his signature work, Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Karla Buela, dancer

Maria Karla Iglesias Buela began her studies at the age of ten at the National Ballet of Cuba School in Havana, Cuba. During this period she participated in different international and national competitions including the 2014 International Ballet Competition in Cape Town, South Africa, and the International and National Competitions in Havana, Cuba. Ms. Buela completed her studies in 2015, graduating with Gold. In that same year she joined the National Ballet of Cuba as a corps de ballet member. She eventually rose to Soloist where she had the opportunity to dance Swan Lake, Don Quixote, Giselle, Cinderella, Coppélia, Las Sílfides, La fille mal gardee and The Nutcracker in addition to works by renowned choreographers including Alexei Ratmansky, Alberto Méndez, Cathy Marston and Gemma Bond, among others.

She has been with BalletMet since the 2023-24 season.

Austin Powers, dancer

Austin Powers, born in Portland, Oregon, began his dance training at the age of five. He trained at Houston Ballet Academy, San Francisco Ballet School, Alonzo King LINES Ballet School, the Center for Movement Arts, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Dance.

Austin began his professional career in 2014 as a trainee with Ballet San Jose, and joined BalletMet in 2015, where he continues to perform. Austin also performs regularly with Chamber Dance Project in Washington D.C. He has danced original choreography by Cooper Verona, Myles Thatcher, Edwaard Liang, Matthew Neenan, Leiland Charles, Diane Coburn Bruning, Christian Denice, and Grace-Anne Powers. Some of his favorite roles have been Tybalt in Edwaard Liang’s Romeo and Juliet, 18+1 by Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, Dwellings by Christian Denice, Symphonic Dances by Liang, Fool’s Paradise and After the Rain by Christopher Wheeldon, Cacti by Alexander Ekman, and Herr Drosselmeyer in Gerard Charles’ The Nutcracker.

Austin has also collaborated with his wife, Grace-Anne, to choreograph and dance several works for San Jose’s Commons Arts Festival, and an original production of Amahl and the Night Visitors for Opera Project Columbus. In recent years he has had the honor and pleasure to work with the incredibly talented artists of BalletMet II as a rehearsal director and repetiteur. He has been with BalletMet since the 2016-17 season.

Remi Wörtmeyer, BalletMet artistic director

Born in Adelaide, Australia, BalletMet Artistic Director Remi Wörtmeyer is a multi-award-winning choreographer, dancer, designer (of décor, costumes and fashion) and teacher who trained in classical dance at The Australian Ballet School.

Formerly a principal with Dutch National Ballet, he also danced with The Australian Ballet and American Ballet Theatre and guested internationally, dancing on the world’s greatest stages including Sydney Opera House, New York’s Metropolitan Opera House, The London Coliseum and Sadler’s Wells, St Petersburg’s Alexandrinsky Theatre, New National Theatre Tokyo, the Grand Theatres of Shanghai and Hong Kong, National Centre for the Performing Arts Bejing, Palais de Congrès and Théâtre du Châtelet Paris.

Mr. Wörtmeyer’s one-act and evening-length choreographic works include creations for Dutch National Ballet, Queensland Ballet, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Benois de la Danse, and a bespoke pas de deux – Penumbra – for Roberto Bolle and Melissa Hamilton (Arena di Verona, 2022). Remi’s ballet Significant Others (on the subject of artists Sonia and Robert Delauney) headlined Atlanta Ballet’s spring season earlier this year.

Remi’s fashion and sculptural works have been exhibited by galleries in Amsterdam, Sydney and Berlin. His collaboration with haute couturier Ronald van der Kamp saw him debut his own high-end handmade sculptural jewellery as part of RVDK’s spring/summer 2023 collection at Paris Fashion Week.

Mr. Wörtmeyer was named Artistic Director of BalletMet in June 2024 where he will continue to choreograph new works for companies both domestically and abroad.

Since 1978, BalletMet has brought incredible dance to theaters, studios and classrooms in Central Ohio—and beyond. Located in the heart of downtown Columbus, BalletMet boasts a black box theatre performance space, seven dance studios, administrative offices and costume and scene shops.

Every year, BalletMet reaches over 100,000 audience members through local performances, touring shows, academy classes and extensive outreach. BalletMet maintains its commitment to the creation of new work and the re-staging of contemporary masterworks with the goal of ceaselessly stimulating audiences. BalletMet also operates a dance academy impacting more than 1,000 students each year. Classes offered include ballet, tap, modern and lyrical dance and are designed for all levels of experience, from the avid dance lover to the aspiring professional. In addition to performances and education, BalletMet impacts the community through free and open rehearsals, scholarships and more.

The American Flag, Op. 102 (1892-93)
by Antonín Dvořák (Nelahozeves, Bohemia, 1841 - Prague, 1904)

This is the first Columbus Symphony performance.

Duration: 21’

It was at the behest of his patron Jeannette Thurber that Dvořák wrote the most American work of his American period. When Mrs. Thurber invited the Czech composer to New York to become the director of the new National Conservatory she had founded, she asked him to write a cantata to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage. However, by the time the composer received the text for the cantata—the poem The American Flag by Joseph Rodman Drake—he was already working on his Te Deum, which was performed at the quadricentennial instead. He did set Drake’s poem the following year as requested, but the work did not receive its premiere until May 1895, by which time Dvořák had already returned to Prague.

As contemporaries attested, Dvořák spoke excellent English, and he had an ear not only for the meaning of Drake’s poem but also for its tone. In his cantata, he found just the right notes for the poet’s grandiose Romantic imagery. He drew on the idioms of church hymns, nationalist operas and military marches (with occasional echoes of Slavonic dances) to render Drake’s pathos and patriotic fervor in music. The image of the dying sailor who is comforted by the flag even as he draws his last breath prompted a powerful musical portrayal of a sea storm, followed by the finale, marked “Prophetic,” which concludes the work in a glorious quadruple fortissimo.

Trionfo di Afrodite (1951-53)
by Carl Orff (Munich, 1895 - Munich, 1978)

This is the first Columbus Symphony performance.

Duration: 43’ 

After the resounding success of his Carmina Burana, Carl Orff wanted to write a sequel. Eventually, he composed two: Catulli Carmina (1940-43) after poems by the Latin poet Catullus, and Trionfo di Afrodite, after Catullus, Sappho and Euripides (1951-53). The three works were later united under the collective title Trionfi (“Triumphs”).

Orff was an accomplished Classical scholar, and he was evidently aiming to give antique poetry a 20th-century sound. In the case of Trionfo di Afrodite (a concerto scenic, as the composer called it), the poetry was all about wedding rituals. Although Catullus (ca. 84-54 BCE), Sappho (ca. 630-570 BCE) and Euripides (ca. 480-406 BCE) belong to vastly different historical periods, they each wrote wedding poetry invoking the gods, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love, in particular. With a few exceptions, Sappho’s work survives only in fragments, yet there is evidence that Catullus knew more of her poetry than we do today. In the two long wedding poems that Orff used, the Roman poet enriched the Greek tradition with some Roman elements. The mythological memory of the event known as the “rape of the Sabine women” is undoubtedly at the root of Catullus’s representation of the Roman wedding, where the bride is forcibly removed from her family. Aphrodite (Venus) presides over the event, together with her two associate deities Vesper (Hesperus, the evening star) and Hymenaeus, the god of marriage. They are invoked to make sure that the wedding ritual is observed according to their laws.

For all its solemnity, the ritual is not without some crude jokes, as when the husband is commanded to give up his favorite boy lover, and when the crowd gathers outside the bridal chamber to comment on what’s going on inside. Orff evidently relished these down-to-earth moments, which he rendered with rich orchestration and powerful ostinatos (repeating rhythmic and melodic patterns).

However, Catullus’s poems represent only the official aspect of the wedding, and the poet provided no lines at all for the bride and the groom. Orff, for his part, gave them a voice by compiling a veritable collage of Sappho fragments, and here his musical style completely changed: the two soloists sing florid melodies free from any metric constraints, and the huge orchestra of the other movements is strongly reduced.

After an erotically charged love scene, the final movement brings us back to the public world. Here Orff turned to a hymn to Aphrodite from Euripides’s tragedy Hippolytus, praising the boundless power of the goddess, and ending the work on an ecstatic note.

Trionfo di Afrodite received its premiere at La Scala in Milan on February 14, 1953, under the direction of Herbert von Karajan, as part of a scenic production of the entire triptych. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf and Nicolai Gedda starred as the bride and groom. The triptych’s Italian title Trionfi suggests associations with Renaissance pageantry, in which an ancient ritual would be re-enacted — introducing yet another historical layer between Antiquity and the 20th century.

Texts and translations for The American Flag and Trionfo di Afrodite can be found in the booklets distributed by the ushers or by clicking here.

Notes by Peter Laki

Columbus Symphony Musicians

Columbus Symphony Chorus