Léandre et Héro Cast

William G. Ludtke has been a member of the staff and faculties of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Elmhurst College, Elmhurst, Illinois, Marin Opera, Cinnabar Theater in Petaluma, CA and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. While living in Chicago, Bill formed his own grass roots opera company which performed over 50 operas covering repertoire from Mozart to Hindemith during the company’s existence. He is currently musical and artistic director of the Handel Opera Project in Berkeley, California and music director and organist at the First Church of Christ, Scientist, also in Berkeley, California. His compositions have received broad public and critical acclaim in performances by many Bay Area musical organizations including the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the San Jose Symphony, the Diablo Symphony, the Oakland Civic Orchestra and such choral organizations as the San Francisco Chorale Artists, San Francisco Chamber Singers, Piedmont Children’s Choirs and the Cantabile Choral Guild. His Symphony No. 3, which received a Mu Phi Epsilon award, was premiered by the Oakland East Bay Symphony and received a subsequent performance by the Cascade Symphony in Seattle, Washington. His works have also been performed throughout America and in Europe (Austria, France, Germany and England) and have been aired on the local radio stations KDFC, KQED, KKHI and most recently on KUSF. He has received awards from The American Composers Forum, the Meet the Composer Program, the American Guild of Organists, ASCAP, Mu Phi Epsilon, the American Music Center in New York City, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Irvine Foundation, San Francisco Art Commissions, the City of Oakland Cultural Funding Program and the Alice M. Ditson Fund of Columbia University.

Daphné Touchais was born in Greece and from a very early age begun studying music. At the age of fifteen she moved to France and studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris (CNR). A prize-winner in the 2004 Macon Voice Competition , she was awarded the 1st Prize in the International Baroque Competition of Chimay, 2005 (Belgium) presided by William Christie. Daphné’s career led her all over Europe: from the Netherlands, where she made her debut as Papagena in Die Zauberflöte under Ton Koopman and Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at the Concertgebouw, to Germany (Cupidon in Offenbach’s Orphée aux Enfers in Köln), Ireland (title role in Donizetti’s Rita and 1st Nymph in Rusalka at Wexford Festival), the UK (recording of Ariane et Barbe-Bleue by Dukas with the BBC Orchestra), Belgium (Iphis in Haendel’s Jeptha) and Switzerland (Zdenka in Arabella in St Gallen). In France she has sung at the Châtelet (Mrs Segstrom in Sondheim’s A Little Night Music), at the Opéra Comique (Isabelle in Grétry’s L’Amant Jaloux and Fiorella in Les Brigands by Offenbach), at the Cité de la Musique (Eurydice in Orpheus by Telemann), in Lyon (La Musica in Monteverdi’s Orfeo), in Toulouse (Tebaldo in Don Carlo), in Bordeaux (Oscar in Un Ballo in Maschera, Valetto in L’Incoronazione di Poppea , Celia in Lucio Silla, Agnès in Die Schule der Frauen by R. Liebermann), in Ambronay Festival (Charite in Cadmus et Hermione by Lully), in Sully Festival (Mrs Silberklang in Mozart’s Der Schauspieldirektor, Tonina in Salieri’s Prima la Musica poi le Parole), and has worked with conductors such as Ton Koopman, David Stern, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Jérémie Rohrer, Christophe Rousset, Paolo Olmi and François Xavier Roth, in addition to our esteemed director of the Handel Opera Project, William G. Ludtke.

Karen Wells retired in June 2025 from her Berkeley Unified School District position of 31 years as director of the Bands and Orchestras at Berkeley High School. In her tenure at BHS, the Band and Orchestra program grew from a single orchestra of 25 musicians to 6 classes, and upwards of 200 musicians. In addition, she spearheaded both the BHS International Baccalaureate Music program and the BHS AP Music Theory class and regularly taught 3-4-5 th graders the joys of beginning recorder, band, and orchestra instruments. Karen has helped guide new music teachers both in the Berkeley schools, as a Beginning Teacher Support Advocate (BTSA) and at St. Mary’s College. In September of 2025, she began supervising music teacher candidates through San Jose State University. For fifteen years, she was associated with the Mills Teachers Scholars, and led the professional development for district music teachers through this program. One of her greatest joys is counting her many former students as current colleagues. An active performer on the clarinet, Karen’s playing credits include many Northern California Orchestras, most notably, the San Francisco Opera Center and the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera. She is super excited to share the stage once again with the Handel Opera Project, albeit with a Mozart piece!