SERIO
(Sing Entire Role In Opera)
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Our Season
SERIO (Sing Entire Role in Opera) is Pittsburgh’s opera company for singers. At its core, SERIO provides local talent with the opportunity to sing a complete role, fully staged and costumed—both to provide professional development to classically-trained artists and to introduce to the Pittsburgh audience some of the area’s finest unrepresented talents.
About Our Founder
Louisa Jonason made her New York debut as Norina in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, directed by Gian Carlo Menotti and conducted by James Conlon. Her New York City Opera debut was in the title role of Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, a role which would become her signature role internationally. Under the tutelage of Beverly Sills, she also sang the title roles in Tosca and Norma as well as Liu in Turandot, Pamina in Magic Flute, Micaela in Carmen, Mimi in La bohème and both Margerite and Elena in Boito’s Mephistophele.
Jonason went on to perform Elizabetta in Don Carlo (Verdi) with the Dallas Opera, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Mozart) with Illinois Opera, Leonora in Il Trovatore (Verdi) with the Florida Grand Opera and Santuzza in Cavalleria Rusticana (Mascagni) and Nedda in I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo)—both with Anton Coppola conducting. Her International appearances included Vitellia in Mozart’s La Clemenza Di Titto in Nice, France, and Nedda in I Pagliacci at The National Theater in Taiwan.
Jonason gave a solo recital in Alice Tully Hull, which was presented through Columbia Artists, was the soprano soloist in Verdi’s Requiem in Carnegie Hall, New York City, sang Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony throughout Japan and was soprano soloist in Britten’s War Requiem with the North Carolina Symphony.
World premieres included Darius Milhaud’s Christopher Columbus at Whitman Hall, Brooklyn, and many roles in operas by Seymour Barab including The Queen in Sleeping Beauty at Symphony Space in New York. Jonason has been Artistic Director of The After Dinner Opera Company (New York), American Singers Opera Co. (New York) and The D’Angelo Opera Theatre (Mercyhurst University, Erie, PA). Visit her website for more information.
Jonason served as the head of the D’Angelo Department of Music at Mercyhurst University in Erie, PA, for many years—recently retiring and moving to Pittsburgh to be closer to her family. She founded SERIO in 2024 to fill a void she saw in Pittsburgh’s art scene, providing opportunities for classically-trained musicians seeking roles in operas.
