Rockwell Blake (born January 10, 1951) is an American operatic tenor, particularly known for his roles in Rossini operas. He was the first winner of the Richard Tucker Award.

Born and raised in in Plattsburgh, New York, Blake was the son of a fur farmer who raised mink. He studied music first at the State University of New York at Fredonia and then at The Catholic University of America. On leaving Catholic University, he served for three years in the United States Navy as a member of the Sea Chanters male chorus and later as a soloist with the US Navy Band. During that time, he continued his voice training with Renata Carisio Booth, who had been his teacher since his school days in Plattsburgh.

He made his solo opera debut in 1976 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. as Lindoro in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri, and made his debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera House in 1981 in the same role, with Marilyn Horne as his Isabella. He went on to become one of the leading Rossini singers of his generation, singing regularly at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro since his debut there in 1983. He made his La Scala debut in 1992 as Giacomo in La donna del lago. It was La Scala's first production of the opera in 150 years and was staged to mark the bicentenary of Rossini's birth.

Chris Merritt (born 1952, Oklahoma City) is an opera singer. He studied piano, singing, dance and drama at Oklahoma City University where he made his first stage appearance in Jacques Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann in a university production. At age 21, he was accepted into the summer season Apprentice Program for Singers at the Santa Fe Opera. His principle voice teachers in Oklahoma were Jack Harrold and Florence Birdwell.

His high-lyrical tenor voice makes him well-suited to the bel canto roles, such as those by Rossini.

He made his official debut in 1975, as Caius in Verdi's Falstaff. Auditions at the Metropolitan Opera won him a part in I Puritani in 1981, and that was the performance which brought him international attention and marked the beginning of a very successful career.

His Met debut took place on November 30, 1990, when he sang the role of Idreno in Rossini's Semiramide which was not very successful, however. He much improved the next year when he sang there the role of Arturo in I puritani along with Edita Gruberova. Successively he performed at the Met also in principal roles in Rusalka (in 1997), and Káťa Kabanová (in 2005, being, so far, his last appearance at the Met).

June Anderson (born December 30, 1952) is a Grammy Award-winning American coloratura soprano. Originally known for bel canto performances of Rossini, Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini, she was the first non-Italian ever to win the prestigious Bellini d'Oro prize. Subsequently, she has extended her repertoire to include a wide variety of other roles, including those from the Russian repertoire and works by Richard Strauss. In 2008, Anderson was elevated to "Commandeur" of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government and in 2007 received a "Victoire d'honneur" at the "Victoires de la Musique Classique" in Paris.

Anderson has performed in noted opera houses including La Scala, Covent Garden, La Fenice, Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Colón Theater. She has collaborated with conductors Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Charles Dutoit, Zubin Mehta, Riccardo Muti, Seiji Ozawa, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Kent Nagano and Michael Tilson Thomas, and has sung opposite Luciano Pavarotti, Alfredo Kraus, Plácido Domingo, José Carreras, Carlo Bergonzi, Roberto Alagna, Rockwell Blake, Jerry Hadley and Salvatore Fisichella. Anderson has had an extensive recording career, dating from the 1980s to the present.