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1-17 of 17
- Zheng Cao was born to parents Mao Yuan Cao and Xiao Jiao Huang in Shanghai, China. Her sister Dan Cao, four years her senior, is her only sibling. As an undergraduate, she attended Shanghai Conservatory of Music. In 1988, Cao moved to the United States to attend American University in Washington, D.C. to study English and sing. She then began attending Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. In July 1990, she began performing as a mezzo-soprano at the Chinese Community Church in Washington DC. In 1993, Cao earned a Master's degree from the Curtis Institute of Music.
In 1994, Cao was accepted to the Merola Opera Program, a San Francisco training program at the San Francisco Opera Center for opera singers, coaches, and stage directors. There, Cao sang the role of Dorabella in the Italian-language opera buffa Cosi fan tuttle.
She was subsequently chosen to be an Adler Fellow for the San Francisco Opera. While in the two-year performance-oriented residency for promising young artists, Cao debuted in the role of Nicklausse in the opera fantastique The Tales of Hoffmann when she covered for an ailing Susan Quittmeyer.
In 1998, Cao performed in Beethoven's 9th Symphony at the Nagano Winter Olympics as a soloist for an opening ceremony concert conducted by conductor Seiji Ozawa. She subsequently appeared with Ozawa as Marguerite in Berlioz's La damnation de Faust at the Saito Kinen Festival, as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, in A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and for the Ozawa's farewell concert singing Beethoven's Choral Fantasy in Tanglewood Music Center.
Returning to the San Francisco Opera stage many times, Cao performed roles including Suzuki, Cherubino, Idamante in Idomeneo and Siebel in Faust. She sang the role of Suzuki at Le Grand Theatre de Geneve, Washington Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and San Diego Opera. She later returned to San Diego Opera to sing the role of Siébel and appeared at Michigan Opera Theatre, Kentucky Opera, and Washington Opera as Rosina in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.
At the Los Angeles Opera, she appeared as Penelope in Il ritorno d'Ulisse in patria by Monteverdi and Zerlina in Don Giovanni, a role she also sang at Opera Pacific. She made her debut at Opera Pacific as Nicklausse. At Houston Grand Opera she debuted in Janacek's Kata Kabanova singing Varvara, and later returned to sing Cherubino.
Cao performed on the concert stage with the Philadelphia Orchestra where she sang Mozart's Requiem. She sang Handel's Messiah with both the National Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic. She performed Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the San Francisco Symphony, and Das Lied von der Erde with the Sacramento Symphony and China Philharmonic and on a tour of the Canary Islands. Composer Jake Heggie wrote a number of songs for her, and she performed and recorded many of his compositions.
To celebrate the Beijing Summer Olympics 2008, Cao toured some former Summer Olympics cities as one of China's cultural ambassadors to give a series of concerts with the China Philharmonic. The tour was cut short by the Sichuan earthquake in Western China, but not before she had performed for and met Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican.
Cao performed the world premiere of two opera roles, Magali in Salsipuedes by Daniel Catán and Ruth Young Kamen in Stewart Wallace's The Bonesetter's Daughter, the latter with a libretto by Amy Tan based on her book of the same name. The role of Ruth was created for Cao, and the opera had its world premiere at San Francisco Opera in 2008.
While at Curtis in Philadelphia, Cao also performed on a cruise ship, where she first met actor Troy Donahue in the early 1990s while he worked as an acting teacher. After Cao received her master's degree from Curtis, she and Donahue moved to Santa Monica, California and became a couple. Donahue traveled with Cao to cities where she performed when he was not away doing personal appearances on cruises and at film festivals or acting in Hollywood. They became engaged in 1999 and remained together until his death in September 2001 from a heart attack at the age of 65. Cao then moved back to San Francisco.
In April 2009 Cao, a non-smoker, was diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer which resulted in brain, liver and bone metastases. She was initially treated successfully with radiation therapy for bone tumors and Gamma Knife radiation therapy for several brain lesions as reported on ABC News's "Good Morning America".
Shortly after her diagnosis of lung cancer in 2009, she met Dr. David Larson, a radiation oncologist at the University of California, San Francisco and at Washington Hospital in Fremont, California, where he treated her with Gamma Knife radiation therapy for several brain tumors. Their doctor-patient relationship turned to friendship and later to a romantic relationship, and they were married in December 2010 in San Francisco. Throughout her four-year battle with lung cancer, Cao was treated three more times for brain lesions, twice with Gamma Knife radiation therapy and once with whole brain radiation therapy.
The chemotherapy Cao received shrunk Cao's lung and liver tumors by over 50% in the first three months. This allowed her to continue to perform on the opera stage, singing with Pittsburgh Opera and Vancouver Opera. After 16 months the drug stopped working, and Cao began a series of both common chemotherapy and clinical trials.
The results of these treatments were mixed, and Cao's last public performance was in 2011 with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra where she sang Nathaniel Stookey's Into the Bright Lights with words by her close friend and mentor, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade.
Zheng Cao died from complications from lung cancer at her home in San Francisco on February 21, 2013 at age 46. - Composer
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Roland Kovac was born on 7 November 1927 in Vienna, Austria. He was a composer and actor, known for Lautlose Jagd (1965), Samanka (1982) and 48 Stunden bis Acapulco (1967). He was married to Claudia Doren. He died on 20 February 2013 in Samedan, Graubünden, Switzerland.- César Arredondo was an actor, known for Infiltradas (2011), Mujeres de Lujo (2010) and Adrenalina (1996). He was married to Gabriela Medina. He died on 20 February 2013 in Talagante, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile.
- Nini Durand was born in 1921 in Rodez, Aveyron, France. She was an actress, known for Kamouraska (1973), Jeudi-théâtre (1962) and Filles d'Ève (1960). She died on 20 February 2013 in Hudson, Quebec, Canada.
- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Kenji Eno was a director and writer, known for Enemy Zero (1996), D2 (1999) and D no Shokutaku (1995). He was married to Yuka. He died on 20 February 2013 in Tokyo, Japan.- Dása Deylová was born in 1929. She was an actress, known for Kam doskáce ranní ptáce (1987), Lék pod kuzi (1988) and Proc se vrazdí starsí dámy (1982). She died on 20 February 2013.
- Born in Hayward, California, David spent most of his life as a teacher of psychology, philosophy and orientation classes at the University of Phoenix and other local colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was a victim of the foreclosure crisis in Las Vegas, as a result of expenses incurred during the hospitalization and subsequent death of his wife Bernell.
- Actor
Sönke Rowedder was born on 26 January 1960 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. He was an actor. He died on 20 February 2013 in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.- Set Decorator
- Art Department
- Art Director
Pere Daussà was born on 23 February 1947 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. He was a set decorator and art director, known for Dinner of Murderers (1989), Garum (Fantastic Contradiction) (1988) and Más allá de la muerte (1986). He died on 20 February 2013 in Barcelona, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.- Antonio Roma was born on 13 July 1932 in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina. He died on 20 February 2013 in Buenos Aires, Federal District, Argentina.
- Blanka Sléglová was born on 5 February 1920 in Prague, Czechoslovakia [now Czech Republic]. She was an actress, known for První políbení (1935), Venousek a Stázicka (1939) and Deti na zakázku (1938). She died on 20 February 2013 in Wien, Austria.
- Maggie Peters Ross was born on 6 February 1937 in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA. She was an actress, known for The Halloween That Almost Wasn't (1979). She died on 20 February 2013 in Warwick, New York, USA.
- David McKay was born on 25 September 1936 in Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA. He died on 20 February 2013 in Friendswood, Texas, USA.
- Richard Blackmarr was born on 3 June 1929 in Rockville Center, New York, USA. He was married to Bernadine Alice (Smith) Robinson. He died on 20 February 2013 in Durham, North Carolina, USA.
- Barrie Irving was born on 6 October 1942 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, UK. He died on 20 February 2013 in Cambridgeshire, England, UK.
- Tissy Bruns was born on 1 January 1951 in Zeitz, German Democratic Republic. She died on 20 February 2013 in Berlin, Germany.
- Terry Wilkinson's Group was born on 9 August 1931 in Campsie, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He died on 20 February 2013 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.