2013 Summer Festival Program

Transcription

41st Festival Season
Above: Lorna Bieber, Birds & Flowers (detail), 2008. 120 gelatin silver prints. Courtesy of the artist.
Top: Scott Robert Hudson, Wild Horse, 2010. Horse skull, acrylic, wood, metal, fire. Courtesy of the artist.
Bottom: Margaret Whiting, Deforestation, 2012. Installation with law books. Courtesy of the artist.
Forty-First
Festival
Season
FAULCONER GALLERY
Romeo and Juliet Gounod
Peter Grimes Britten
Elektra Strauss
Through September 8, 2013
FROM A DISTANCE: THE ART OF LORNA BIEBER
July 19 – September 8, 2013
WILD HORSES: AN INSTALLATION BY SCOTT ROBERT HUDSON
And
MARGARET WHITING: ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS
Open daily 11 am-5 pm. Free and open to the public.
For more information visit grinnell.edu/faulconergallery
GRINNELL COLLEGE
The Lauridsen Family Endowment is
the 2013 Season Presenting Sponsor
2
Des Moines Metro Opera
Contents
3-5
40th Anniversary Season Retrospective
6-8Welcome
9
Board of Directors and Administrative Staff
10-11 41st Festival Season Events
20-21All About Des Moines Metro Opera
26-33 Romeo and Juliet
34-41 Peter Grimes
42-45 A Centenary Retrospective of Britten’s Operas
46-53 Elektra
54-55Director Profiles
56-59 Company Profiles
60
Festival Staff
62-63Orchestra
70-75Apprentice Artist Program
76-77Internship Program
78-79OPERA Iowa
80-81Guild
82
Foundation
83Encore Society
85-93Donors
94-95 Production History
96Advertisers’ Index
Mission
Des Moines Metro Opera’s mission: TO PRODUCE
opera as a living art form through performance
and composition, TO OFFER a stage for Americantrained principal artists, TO PROVIDE a high-caliber
apprentice artist experience that provides extraordinary
opportunities for young emerging artists to perform
and to participate, and TO DEVELOP regional audiences
of all ages through educational outreach programs.
A Look Back: 40th Anniversary Season
Don Giovanni Mozart
3
4
Eugene Onegin Tchaikovsky
La Rondine Puccini
5
Welcome to Des Moines Metro Opera
It’s a delight to welcome you to Des Moines Metro
Opera’s 41st Festival Season—one of the most
remarkable line-ups we have ever assembled.
We begin with Gounod’s glorious setting of
Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, which
returns to the festival repertory after a 25-year
absence. Central to our mission, this production
features a cast of rapidly rising professional
talent whose performances will be recorded
for later broadcast by Iowa Public Television.
The operas of composer Benjamin Britten have
been a core component of our repertory from
the first season in 1973. We proudly celebrate
the centennial of his birth by presenting a new
production of his most significant contribution
to the international repertory, Peter Grimes. In
2012 we pledged to present an opera new to
our company each season. We continue that
effort this season with Strauss’ monumental
musical drama Elektra—a work that only the most
secure opera companies can produce.
The idea to bring these three ambitious scores into
one season began tempting me three years ago.
I am proud of our commitment to enhancing the
vitality of opera performance through an evolving
repertory that encompasses a variety of styles.
We continue to demonstrate that opera is a
thriving, contemporary art form by encouraging
creative directors and designers on our mainstage
to approach their work in fresh and unique
ways, but the central ingredient to the success
of any festival season is an array of spectacular
singers. This season you’ll hear 13 remarkable
principal singers in their company debuts.
Last year approximately 45% of our audience
traveled to the festival from outside the Des
Moines metro area, from 33 other states, three
foreign countries and 66 counties in Iowa.
According to a recent economic impact study,
Des Moines Metro Opera contributed more
than $1 million in labor income and more than
$4 million to metro area industries. Through the
festival and our educational outreach activities,
the company reached over 20,000 attendees
living outside the metro area, who contributed
more than $200,000 in regional economic
activity. In 2013 we also celebrate the 20th
anniversary of the Des Moines Metro Opera
Foundation and the visionary leaders whose
commitment to fiscal responsibility positioned
the company today as a leader of sustainable arts
funding in the industry. This news means that
your investment in DMMO is a sound decision.
Even as we are enjoying the 2013 season, work
has already begun on the repertory for next
year—which will feature three operas new to
42nd Festival Season
Photo by Paige Peterson
6
our company and our first work from the 21st
century. After a 15-year absence from our stage,
Verdi’s most intimate and personal opera, La
Traviata, returns. Fans of The Barber of Seville
will be wild about Rossini’s sparkling farce, Le
Comte Ory—a company premiere. Few operas
of the last decade have enjoyed the acclaim of
Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and its company
premiere in our 2014 season is not to be missed.
Only subscribers will have first access to our
fourth opera of the season, The Tragedy of Carmen,
an exhilarating reduced version of the famous
late 19th century opera, to be performed at
the new Des Moines Social Club. It’s Carmen
unplugged! Finally, for the 2013 holiday season
we will offer Menotti’s family classic Amahl and
the Night Visitors at Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre
on December 6 and 7, in celebration of the life
and contributions of longtime friend of the
company, the late Wendy Waugaman. For both
of these additional performances, subscribers
will have earliest access to tickets, so visit Dennis
Hendrickson in the box office at intermission to
secure your reservations today.
Thank you for coming this season—and to those
whose enthusiasm has been followed by financial
support, we are deeply grateful. If you haven’t,
I hope you will consider joining them. It takes
all of us working together to nurture a thriving
opera company!
Michael Egel
General and Artistic Director
La Traviata Verdi
Dead Man Walking Heggie
Le Comte Ory Rossini
December 6 & 7, 2013
Amahl and the Night Visitors
July 2014 Subscriber Benefit
The Tragedy of Carmen
June 27-July 20
2014
8
From the President
Board of Directors
Officers
Welcome to the 2013 Summer Festival Season
for Des Moines Metro Opera. You are about
to witness one of the most monumental
seasons in the company’s history and one of
the most diverse and creatively challenging
opera festivals in the entire country. Michael has
chosen and cast a wonderful slate of singers
and operas that will live on in the memories of
all who witness them, including you.
It is my honor and privilege to serve with the
Board of Directors to support Michael Egel
and the dedicated staff for this most exciting
year. You, the audience, have been given
opportunities to support Des Moines Metro
Opera as well—through a purchased ticket, a
charitable donation, including Des Moines Metro
Opera in your estate plans, being a volunteer,
joining a guild or any number of ways vital to
the continued success to our company. I’d like
to personally thank all individual and corporate
donors who participated in the annual campaign
this season and to offer a challenge to all to do
what you can to contribute to Des Moines Metro
Opera’s annual fund and its industry-leading
endowment, an endowment that is proof of the
sustainability of this art form and this company.
One of the highlights of this year for the Board
of Directors occurred in February in New
York City.At their National Opera Trustees
Recognition event in New York City on February
22, Opera America hosted representatives of
opera companies from across the United States.
At that event, long-time friend of Des Moines
Metro Opera Cherie Shreck was honored as
“Trustee of the Year” for her meritorious service
to DMMO. Cherie’s remarkable tenure with
DMMO over several decades includes terms as
a Board Member and President, a Guild Member
and President and as a Foundation Trustee. Her
exemplary leadership of the first campaign for
endowment in 1992, which exceeded its goal by
three million dollars, was greeted by a standing
ovation from those assembled in New York. I
am pleased to welcome Cherie back to active
service on the DMMO Board of Directors this
summer and congratulate her on this honor.
Des Moines Metro Opera contributes to the
cultural health of our community. It reaches
more than 40,000 people annually, many of
whom are children who are treated to the
OPERA Iowa Educational Touring Troupe which
visits 70 communities in our state and region.
Many of those children wouldn’t have access to
another performing arts performance in their
school the rest of the year. Des Moines Metro
Opera also contributes to the economic health
of our community. A recent development report
President
E.C. Muelhaupt, III
President-Elect
Adrienne McFarland
Vice-President of Development
Bryan Boesen
Secretary
Holly Logan
Treasurer
Barbara Cappaert
At-Large
Patricia Barbalato
Counsel to the Board
James H. Gilliam
Directors
shows that Des Moines Metro Opera accounted
directly or indirectly for $4.37 million coming
into the metropolitan area, in addition to the
millions of dollars that the company spends in
this community. More than 20,000 people who
live outside of our metro area enjoy Des Moines
Metro Opera in one way or another every year.
That’s an incredible thing.
This past year the company achieved a historic
milestone; it evolved to an organizational structure
of unified leadership with Michael Egel assuming
the role of General and Artistic Director. Michael
has proven that he knows the company and
its unique position in the opera world and will
maintain its reputation for artistic excellence
and fiscal responsibility. We have full confidence
that he will lead the company into even more
remarkable artistic heights in the future as well.
The Board of Directors congratulates Michael.
Now it is time for the curtain to rise and one of
the three wonderful operas of the 2013 Summer
Festivals to unfold for you. You are truly a part
of a cultural gem in this state, the Midwest and
the entire country, and we hope this won’t be
your last time to sit in one of these seats and
enjoy the majesty of this magnificent art form,
brought to you intimately by one of the most
creative, interesting and remarkable performing
arts organizations in the world.
E.C. Muelhaupt, III, President
DMMO Board of Directors
Pat Brown
Terri L. Combs
Virginia Croskery
Stephanie DeVolder
Bryan Hall
Bruce Hughes
Kevin Jones
Patrick Kelly
Nitin Khanna
Susie Kimelman
Linda Koehn
Michael LaValle
Elvin McDonald
Diane Morain
Melanie Porter
Leo Skeffington
Judy Watson
Bernie and Linda White (ex-Officio)
Honorary Directors
Mary Beh
Frank R. Brownell, III
James Collier
Patty Cownie
Chuck Farr
Barbara Gartner
Jo Ghrist
Sara Hill
Charlotte Hubbell
Shirlie Katzenberger
Mary Kelly
Nancy Main
Janis Ruan
Mary Seidler
Cherie Shreck
Marilyn Vernon
Doyle Woods
Foundation Board of Trustees
President
Bruce Hughes
Treasurer
Denise Wieland
Secretary
Elaine Raleigh
James Berens
Michael Egel
Marshall Flapan
Carlton King
William Lozier
Adrienne McFarland
Tom McKlveen
E.C. MuElhaupt, III
Administrative Staff
General and Artistic Director
Michael Egel
Art Director
Kimberly Udrovich
Principal Conductor & Music Director
David Neely
Box Office Manager & Education Director
Dennis Hendrickson
Director of Finance
Elaine Raleigh
Administrative Assistant
Chari Kruse
Director of Development
Leslie L. Garman, CFRE
Director of Production
Christopher Brusberg
Development Coordinator
Greg Van Den Berghe
Orchestra Personnel Manager
Mark Dorr
Director of Marketing and Communications
Nick Renkoski
Artistic Director Emeritus and Founder
Robert L. Larsen
9
10
41st
Season
Events
Overture
November 15, 2012
Save the Date: November 1, 2013
Wine & Food Showcase
February 15, 2013
Save the Date: February 21, 2014
Opera
Ball
May 3, 2013
Save the Date:
April 11, 2014
Photos by Jen Golay
11
2013 EXHIBITION SCHEDULE
ANNUAL LANDSCAPE SHOW
DAVE GORDINIER | ROD MASSEY | DAVID OTTENSTEIN | JOHN PRESTON
OPENING RECEPTION JUNE 14, 2013 5–7 PM ON VIEW JUNE 14–JULY 20, 2013
WORKS ON PAPER
RICHARD BLACK | JOEL ELGIN | PAULA SCHUETTE KRAEMER | JOHANNA MUELLER | LARRY WELO | AMY WORTHEN
OPENING RECEPTION JULY 26, 2013 5–7 PM ON VIEW JULY 26–AUGUST 31, 2013
NEW WORK
TIMOTHY FRERICHS | GARY OLSON | LEE EMMA RUNNING
OPENING RECEPTION SEPTEMBER 6, 2013 ON VIEW SEPTEMBER 6 – OCTOBER 5, 2013
NEW WORK & GALLERY NIGHT
SHARON BOOMA | KAREN CHESTERMAN | PETER FELDSTEIN
OPENING RECEPTION OCTOBER 11, 2013 5 – 9 ON VIEW OCTOBER 11– NOVEMBER 29, 2013
NEW WORK
MICHAEL BRANGOCCIO | WENDY ROLFE | SMALL WORKS SHOW
OPENING RECEPTION DECEMBER 6, 2013 5 – 7 PM ON VIEW DECEMBER 6, 2013 – JANUARY 25, 2014
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BRINGING CULTURAL TOURISTS TO IOWA We
welcomed visitors and patrons from 33 states
and three foreign countries in 2012, and 45%
of our audiences came from outside the Des
Moines Metro area. According to Opera America,
Des Moines Metro Opera is second in the nation
among summer opera festivals in the number of
visitors attracted to performances from outside
its home state.
All
About
REACHING THE NEXT GENERATION Beyond
our regular season, Des Moines Metro Opera
reaches a year-round audience of nearly 26,000
young people and adults with such programs
as the OPERA Iowa Educational Touring Troupe,
the Apprentice Artist Program, Raising VoicesRising Stars and OPERAtion Opera.
A NATIONAL PROFILE Our productions are
covered and reviewed by national magazines
Opera News and Opera Now, and the company
has been featured in the pages of The New York
Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Kansas
City Star in recent years.
FINANCIAL STABILITY While Des Moines Metro
Opera can certainly claim artistic stature among
leading American opera companies, when it
comes to endowment fundraising it is without
peer. The company’s endowment ratio—nearly
five times its annual operating budget—is
the highest in the opera field, thus ensuring
longevity and demonstrating that a decision to
invest in DMMO is a sound one.
Eugene Onegin 2012
In 2012 Opera News magazine praised Des Moines
Metro Opera’s 40th Anniversary Season: “The
enviable success of the season—planned entirely
by Artistic Director Michael Egel...and the happy
news of David Neely’s appointment as DMMO’s
first ever music director as of September 2012,
portend some exciting operatic growth at Des
Moines Metro Opera.” We are delighted to launch
the 2013 Festival Season and the education
programs and special events that will make this
year the strongest yet for opera in Iowa.
We’re proud to be among the leading American
festival companies, and we are grateful to our
contributors and our audiences for helping to
create this special experience: some of the most
remarkable emerging vocal talent of our time,
singing in a unique theatre with the members of
the festival orchestra in extraordinary productions—
all combine to make Des Moines Metro Opera
the choice destination in central Iowa each
summer for stunning vocalism, professional
theatre and educational initiatives in music.
Here is what your generosity makes possible:
INTIMACY 100% of the seats in our 467-seat theatre
are closer to the center of the stage than the
front row at the Metropolitan Opera or the Lyric
Opera of Chicago, so you are engaged in the action.
DRAMA The scale, combined with the focus on
storytelling—all of Des Moines Metro Opera’s
productions are sung in original language and
feature English titles projected above the stage—
helps to turn beautiful music into powerful drama.
DYNAMIC REPERTORY Standard operatic
masterpieces have consistently been presented
alongside works from our own land and in our
own language. Our new commitment to
presenting at least one opera new to our
company each season began in 2012 with
Eugene Onegin and continues this season
with Elektra. Our 2014 season will feature an
expanded repertory with performances added
in the greater Des Moines area and three opera
titles that will be DMMO and Iowa premieres!
OUTSTANDING ARTISTS Central to Des Moines
Metro Opera’s mission is to provide a stage for
rapidly rising American-trained principal artists.
Each season the roster of the Metropolitan
Opera features many artists who have appeared
with the company.
CONTRIBUTING TO THE DES MOINES ECONOMY
Each year, Des Moines Metro Opera increases the
volume of scenery, props and other production
items created from locally-purchased materials.
The company employs substantial numbers of
artists and attracts contributors and ticket buyers
who patronize Des Moines and Indianola-area
shops, restaurants and hotels for the festival
season. According to a recent economic impact
study, in 2011 Des Moines Metro Opera contributed
more than $1 million in labor income and more
than $4 million to metro area industries. The
company attracted over 20,000 attendees living
outside the metro area who contributed more
than $200,000 in regional economic activity.
AFFORDABLE PERFORMANCES Tickets cost as
little as $25, and the entire audience is invited to
interact and socialize with artists following our
performances in a meet-and-greet event that
has become a hallmark of the company.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
21
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WE PUT THE STORY BACK
IN “NEWS STORY.”
26
Romeo
and Juliet
Charles Gounod
27
28
Roméo et
Juliette
(Romeo and Juliet)
by Charles-Francois Gounod
An opera in three acts
Libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré after
William Shakespeare’s play
First performance: Paris; Théâtre Lyrique,
April 27, 1867
Performed in French with English supertitles
above the stage
Previously performed at Des Moines Metro
Opera in 1986
Intermission between Acts
June 21 | June 28 | July 6 | July 11 7:30 pm
June 23 | July 14 2:00 PM
Above:
Romeo and Juliet:
The Tomb Scene,
‘Noise again! then
I’ll be brief’, 1790.
Joseph Wright
(1734-1797). Derby Museum and
Art Gallery, UK
Cast
Anterior:
“Romeo et Juliet”
Scene from “Romeo
and Juliette” opera
by Charles Gounod
(1818-1893).
c.1880., French
School, (19th
century) / Private
Collection / ©Luisa
Ricciarini/Leemage
/ The Bridgeman
Art Library
Juliette
Sara Gartland
Production
†
Conductor
Kostis Protopapas *
Roméo
Jason Slayden * †
Stage Director
Linda Ade Brand
Frére Laurent
Jeffrey Tucker *
Cover Conductor
Aaron Breid *
Mercutio, friend of Roméo
Craig Verm *
Assistant Stage Director
Christine Seitz
Stéphano, page to Roméo
Sarah Larsen *
Chorus Master
Lisa Hasson
Capulet
Tony Dillon
Musical Preparation
Sheldon Miller *
Yasuko Oura
Tybalt, nephew of Lady Capulet
Heath Huberg * †
Gertrude, nurse to Juliette
Susan Shafer *
Scenic Designer
R. Keith Brumley, Scenery and various
props courtesy of Lyric Opera of Kansas City
The Duke
Kyle Albertson *
Lighting and Video Designer
Barry Steele
Paris, a young count
Christopher Scott *
Costume Supervisor
Robin McGee
Grégorio, servant to Capulet
Kenneth Stavert *
Make-Up/Hair Designer
Sarah Hatten for Elsen and Associates, Inc.
Benvolio, nephew of Montague
Stefan Barner *
Costumes
A.T. Jones and Sons, Inc., Baltimore
Frére John
Anthony Udrovich
Choreographer
John de los Santos
* Mainstage debut
Stage Combat Director
Brian Robertson
†
Former Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist
Production Stage Manager
Brian August
Synopsis
SETTING: Verona, The Renaissance
PROLOGUE
A chorus recounts the feud between the Montagues
and Capulets and the story of their children, the
star-crossed lovers Roméo and Juliette.
Act I
Scene 1: At the Capulets’ masked ball, the host
presents his daughter Juliette, who is eagerly
received by her cousin Tybalt and her suitor
Paris. While the revelers exclaim at her beauty,
Juliette rhapsodizes on her joy. As the host
leads his guests off, Roméo, a Montague, and
his friends steal into the palace. When Roméo
sees Juliette at a distance, he falls instantly in
love and eventually approaches her. Roméo
rushes off before he is caught by Tybalt, who
identifies him as Montague’s son. Capulet restrains
him, however, and orders the party to continue.
Scene 2: Later that night, Roméo hides near the
Capulet palace until Mercutio and other friends
stop calling for him. His adoration of Juliette ends
when the girl comes out to her balcony to lament
her attraction for an enemy. The two reunite and
ecstatically pledge their love but are interrupted.
They tenderly bid each other good night.
Act II
Scene 1: Roméo appears at Friar Laurence’s cell
at daybreak, followed by Juliet and her nurse
Gertrude. The priest agrees to marry the young
lovers in the hope that it will end the feud
between their families.
Scene 2: Outside Capulet’s house, Romeo’s page
Stéphano provokes a fight with Gregorio and
other Capulets. Mercutio protects Stéphano and
is challenged by Tybalt, who insults Roméo when
he tries to make peace. Mercutio duels Tybalt to
defend the Montague honor and is slain, and Romeo
kills Tybalt in retaliation. The Duke of Verona stops
the bloodshed, banishing Roméo from the city.
Act III
Scene 1: In Juliet’s bedroom, the lovers exchange
words of adoration at dawn before Romeo
reluctantly leaves for exile. Capulet and Friar
Laurence greet Juliet with news that she is to
wed Paris that day, but the priest gives her a
sleeping potion that will make her appear dead.
Juliet drinks the potion, and when the Capulets
arrive to lead her to the church, she collapses.
29
Director’s Notes
Linda Ade Brand
Life-changing events often happen so quickly. No
one plans the accident, the tornado, the bullet.
And this great and impetuous love between Romeo
and Juliet has a similar suddenness and impact. It’s
a lot like watching a car wreck in slow motion. We
know what’s going to happen, and yet we cannot
look away. And we don’t want to look away. This is
one of the great love stories! We’re swept along in
the wake of their love, their passion, their terrible
devotion to each other. They’re so beautiful—
perpetual youth cast in amber, forever young, and
forever perfect.
They’re also dead.
A few weeks ago I went to one of those funerals
celebrating the life of a young person who simply
should not have died. But there was a robbery
and at the end of it Aaron Markarian was dead. He
was 23. Gifted at singing. Gifted at friendship. A
romantic. He and his high school girlfriend would
climb out onto her roof and read—wait for it—the
love scenes from Romeo and Juliet. How did I learn
this? His pastor told that story at his funeral.
See, I’m an optimist. I want deaths—any time, any
where—to mean something. At the very least I want
death to be a release from pain, at best a sacrifice
for another. Romeo and Juliet’s love and death is
both release and sacrifice. They stop their families
from perpetuating their feud. We don’t get to see
that scene fully played out at the end of the opera,
but to me, Gounod told that part of the story in
the overture. The music is so fraught, so filled
with emotion. So we’re going to begin our telling
of the tale at the end, with every parent’s worst
nightmare: the call in the night.
Young lives cut off too soon leave such terrible
voids. Maybe the challenge is for us to fill those
empty places with renewed attention and
appreciation for our lovers, spouses, children and
friends. Let’s listen to our kids. Let’s listen to our
enemies. Let’s not assume there will always be
time to apologize for the harsh word. Then maybe
Romeo and Juliet—and Aaron—and everyone like
them—will not have died in vain. n
Scene 2: In a gloomy tomb, Roméo soliloquizes
on his beloved Juliette, whom he believes dead.
In despair he takes poison, only to see Juliette
awaken. They hail a new life, but Roméo soon
falters. He bids farewell to the frantic girl, who
grasps his dagger and stabs herself. The lovers
then die praying for God’s forgiveness. n
Romeo and Juliet tapestry design by R. Keith Brumley
30
When two performers have an instinctive rapport
onstage, we speak of that today as “chemistry.”
If ever an opera required a special chemistry
between its two leading artists, it is Charles
Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette. During the
performance you are attending, listen to the
expressive detail of the central couple’s crucial
scenes. You will sense that the music “works”
only because the soprano and tenor have
achieved a deep-rooted understanding of each
other’s musical approach; thus, a constant giveand-take is possible, and the mutual coloring of
a phrase or word actually becomes possible.
Many critics have commented that Roméo seems
to be one long love duet, but the work offers much
more, for the core and the heart of Shakespeare’s
tragedy emerge strongly, even movingly. As with
Vincenzo Bellini before him, Leonard Bernstein
after him, and countless other composers, Gounod
was powerless to resist the attraction of the
best-known love story of them all.
Portrait of the Sculptor
Paul Lemoyne,
ca.1810-1811.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique
Ingres (1780-1867).
(The Nelson-Atkins
Museum of Art, Kansas
City, Missouri.
Purchase: William
Rockhill Nelson Trust,
32-54. Photo: Louis
Meluso)
Prior to Roméo, Gounod composed seven stage
works, including the fragrant Mireille (a work ripe
for revival in America) and prior to that, Faust,
soon to begin its reign of several decades as the
world’s most popular opera. But not even that
work’s premiere matched the acclaim accorded
the first night of Roméo et Juliette at the Théâtre
Lyrique in 1867.
Without Hector Berlioz, the opera might never
have been written. As a student in Paris in 1841,
Gounod had been overwhelmed by a rehearsal
of the Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette oratorio (“that
strange, passionate, convulsive music, which
revealed to me such new and colorful horizons”).
Already fascinated by the Shakespeare tragedy,
Gounod felt especially awed by the finale of
the older man’s work and said so himself when
visiting Berlioz a few days later.
It was extraordinary that the Opéra de Paris
would give so utterly inexperienced an
operatic composer such a major opportunity
Roméo et
Juliette:
On October 29, 1787, the 31-year-old Mozart sat
at the keyboard in the orchestra of the Nostitz
Theater in Prague to lead the world premiere of
The Libertine Punished, or Don Giovanni. The
theater held about 800 patrons and the impact
of the opera—from the thunderous D minor first
chords of the overture to the terrifying appearance
of the Commendatore’s statue near the end—
must have been extraordinary in this intimate space.
in Prague early in 1787. Mozart clearly wanted to
collaborate again with Figaro librettist Lorenzo
da Ponte, who was also working on two other
operatic projects. The pair settled on the Don
Juan story perhaps because a one-act version
by composer Giuseppe Gazzaniga and librettist
Giovanni Bertati had just been given in Venice,
and it could become the basis for their own work,
a common practice at the time. Da Ponte, with
his excellent classical education, was undoubtedly
familiar with previous iterations of the story,
which would also help speed things along.
Gounod finds vocal splendor in Shakespeare’s romantic classic
by Roger Pines
The commission for Don Giovanni resulted
from the great success of The Marriage of Figaro
This Page:
Portrait of
Charles-Francois
Gounod (181893) 1841 (oil
on canvas),
Lehmann, Henri
(Karl Ernest
Rudolf Heinrich
Salem) (1814-82)
/ Conservatoire
National de
Musique, Paris,
France / Archives
Charmet / The
Bridgeman Art
Library
Opposite Page:
Juliet, 1877
(oil on canvas),
Dicksee, ThomasFrancis (1819-95)
/ Sunderland
Museums &
Winter Garden
Collection,
Tyne & Wear,
UK / © Tyne &
Wear Archives &
Museums / The
Bridgeman Art
Library
Gounod (1818-1893), a native Parisian, was already
one of the most widely respected musicians in
France at the time of Roméo. Raised by his pianist
mother, he studied at the famous Paris Conservatoire
and won the Prix de Rome, but he did not accept
his vocation without momentary doubts; in fact,
he seriously considered the priesthood and,
like Des Grieux in Manon, even studied for
several months at the St. Sulpice seminary.
The clergy’s loss was music’s gain, although
religious compositions were to form a substantial
portion of Gounod’s output in the future.
With five years as a Paris church’s choral director
behind him, Gounod had produced a variety of
sacred choral works by his late twenties. Intensely
attracted to the operatic stage, he desperately
wanted to locate the right text, the right theater,
and the right connections. As if by magic, the right
person did appear: celebrated mezzo-soprano
Pauline Viardot, who brought him to the attention
of the Opéra. The result was a commission for
Sapho, which was written especially for Viardot.
It was extraordinary that the Opéra de Paris
would give so utterly inexperienced an operatic
composer such a major opportunity, but Viardot
wielded tremendous influence, and no request of
hers could be denied. Gounod’s operatic career
began with the opening of Sapho in April of 1851.
The public enjoyed it, the critics rather less so,
but with Viardot’s encouragement, Gounod was
solidly launched.
More than 15 years would pass before Gounod
would give the world his own Roméo. Following
the premiere of Mireille (1864), he was attracted
by a Schiller play and was already working on
an operatic version when the Barbier/Carré
libretto was presented to him. Roméo took
him little more than a year to compose, and he
confessed to justifiable pride in the final product.
Léon Carvalho, director of the Théâtre Lyrique,
received the score from Gounod in August 1866.
The timing of the premiere would be just right
for Paris: The great Exposition was due to open
in April of 1867, so not just Parisians, but visitors
from all over the world would have a chance to
appreciate the glories of the new opera.
31
32
Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, both extremely
experienced librettists (they had been responsible
for Faust), accomplished a minor miracle with
their adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and
Juliet. The opera’s focus remains on the lovers
(what other opera contains four love duets?),
but why shouldn’t it? We may long a bit for
imperious Lady Capulet, Romeo’s sad servant
Balthasar, and definitely for a more fleshed-out
version of Juliette’s betrothed, Count Paris.
Still, the opera’s audience will find much of
the play’s language intact, along with most of
the important characterizations. Perhaps in
tribute to Mozart’s Cherubino and other highly
effective “trouser roles,” Barbier and Carré add
the impish figure of Stephano; with his mocking
serenade, “Que fais-tu, blanche tourterelle,”
he inadvertently provides the impetus for
the confrontation between the Capulet and
Montague families, which leads to the deaths of
Mercutio and Tybalt.
If one has certain reservations, dramatically
speaking, they stem from the necessity to
conform to French operatic tradition. Thus the
score (composed within an unwieldy five-act
structure) includes a purely decorative 18minute ballet, as well as an ensemble known
as the “Epithalamium,” both prior to Juliette’s
ill-fated wedding to Count Paris. This material
brings the drama to a screeching halt, and one
can easily understand conductors’ and directors’
wish to eliminate it from stage performance.
The
Reconciliation of
the Montagues
and Capulets,
1855. Frederic
Leighton (18301896). Private
collection
Truly, no part in Roméo is without
its challenges.
All the play’s memorable episodes are here:
each of the lovers’ major scenes together, plus
the Capulet ball, the marriage, the duel, and
the events before and after Juliette’s potiontaking. This is all traversed with the elegance
that was Gounod’s own, along with a dramatic
vividness that one perhaps might not have
anticipated. Consider just the first act, beginning
with the initial pages: the hair-raising prelude,
followed by the chorus “Vérone vit jadis,” in
which a certain rhythmic punch is definitely
required. Could we ask for a more ebullient
party tune than the opening of the ball, or more
appropriate arias for Capulet, Mercutio, and
Juliette? Gounod also shows his innate sense of
dramatic timing, moving with inevitability and
force from the lovers’ lilting “Ange adorable” into
a powerful finale, in which Roméo and Juliette
learn each other’s identities.
Obviously, the leading roles require lyric voices,
but how lyric? Roméo floats easily through
long lines, but also pulls back into fine-spun
pianissimo singing, and soars to exposed top
notes. And yet, there is a certain weight that
colors the voice in the third-act ensemble and
remains there for the duration of the role. In the
death scene, when Juliette comes back to life,
Roméo’s cry of “Juliette est vivante!” demands
a particular gutsy vehemence that your average
Don Ottavio or Nemorino cannot manage. No,
Roméo is the province of a heavier lyric voice,
one with tremendous reserves. Certainly the
ardor of Shakespeare’s young lover is all there;
you need only listen to the second-act soliloquy,
the equivalent of the “What light through yonder
window breaks?” speech, here given a treatment
approaching the sublime.
Like her tenor, Juliette, too, is no picnic for an
excessively light sound. Yes, it takes fabulous
flexibility to coruscate through the high notes
of the opening “Ecoutez! Ecoutez!”—two high
Romeo and Juliet, 1793.
Jules Salles-Wagner (18141898). Private collection
Ds within 60 seconds!—and the coloratura of
the famous waltz (Gounod yielded to Carvalho’s
wife, the first Juliette, whose demands for
vocal display pieces in any role were infamous).
But Juliette does become a woman, vocally
speaking; there is a great deal of middle-register
singing, needing the utmost subtlety and
expressiveness (think of that declamation on
monotone Es and E-flats in Act Three—not easy!).
In one respect, one can equate Juliette with
Faust’s Marguerite and Mireille’s title role: They
all begin quite light, but then midway in the opera
take off into something significantly heavier—
Marguerite with her “spinning aria,” Mireille with
her large-scale “desert aria,” and Juliette with
the spectacular “potion aria.” In each piece, the
voice is suddenly transformed into a “juicier,”
more thrusting, more powerful instrument.
Even in smaller roles, Gounod was clearly asking
for a certain standard of vocalism, whether
stylistically or in terms of sheer sound. There is
a marvelous buoyancy and lightness of touch in
Capulet’s greeting to his guests, and later in the
opera the composer asks for all the fullness of
tone at a bass-baritone’s command. The latter is
certainly the case with Friar Laurence, more of
a “pure” bass: deep, rock-steady tone is the beall, end-all (but not at the expense of sensitive
projection of text, always essential in French
opera). Tybalt, the secondary tenor role, needs
genuine incisiveness; Gertrude, a cushiony
contralto warmth; and Stephano—just as much
a soprano role as mezzo—the ability to scurry
right up to high C and field a terrific trill as well.
Truly, no part in Roméo is without its challenges.
Juliette’s waltz and Roméo’s previously mentioned
“Ah, lève-toi soleil” may be the opera’s bestknown numbers, but in fact, my desert-island
excerpt belongs to Mercutio—his exhilarating
“Mab, la reine des mensonges.” Although barely
two-and-a-half minutes long, this high-spirited
character’s ballade sums up everything that
makes French repertoire so enchanting: the
exquisite, indivisible connection between word
and note; the contrast between effervescence
and soulfulness (I shiver with pleasure on that
heavenly rise to the soft top note on “O vierge!
elle effleure ta bouche”!); and above all, a
hard-to-define aura of classiness that is one of
opera’s greatest joys. n
Reprinted by permission of Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Roger Pines, dramaturg of Lyric Opera of Chicago,
regularly contributes articles to OPERA
America, International Record Review, Opera
News, Opera, The Times (London), and major
recording companies.
33
34
Peter
Grimes
Benjamin Britten
35
36
Peter Grimes
Opus 33
by Benjamin Britten
An opera in a prologue and three acts
Libretto by Montagu Slater after
George Crabbe’s poem The Borough
First performance: London; Sadler’s Wells,
June 7, 1945
A new production performed in English with
English supertitles above the stage
Previously performed at Des Moines Metro
Opera in 1991
By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.,
publisher and copyright owner
Intermissions after Act I and Act II
June 22 | July 2 | July 5 | July 13 7:30 pm
June 30 2:00 PM
Cast
Production
Above:
Detail of Peter
Grimes backdrop
design by R. Keith
Brumley, inspired
by the work of
John Piper
Peter Grimes, a fisherman
Roger Honeywell *
Conductor
David Neely
Boy (John), his apprentice
Zachary Koeppen *
Stage Director
Kristine McIntyre
Ellen Orford, a widow and school mistress
Sinéad Mulhern *
Associate Conductor
Wilson Southerland *
Anterior:
Seaford Head,
1933. John Piper
(1903-1992).
Private collection.
Courtesy of
Mascalls Gallery / ©
Estate of John Piper
Captain Balstrode, retired merchant skipper
Todd Thomas
Octavio Cardenas
Auntie, landlady of “The Boar”
Susan Shafer *
Chorus Master
Lisa Hasson
Niece 1, a main attraction of “The Boar”
Sara Ann Mitchell *
Musical Preparation
Sheldon Miller *
Allen Perriello
Niece 2, a main attraction of “The Boar”
Dana Pundt
Bob Boles, fisherman and Methodist
Corey Bix †
Swallow, a lawyer
Jeffrey Tucker *
Mrs. (Nabob) Sedley, a widow
Kathryn Day *
Rev. Horace Adams, the rector
George ross Somerville *
Ned Keene, apothecary and quack
Craig Verm *
Hobson, a carter
Kyle Albertson *
Dr. Crabbe
Dan Jacobsen *
Scenic Designer
R. Keith Brumley
Barry Steele
Costume Designer
Robin L. McGee
Sarah Hatten for Elsen and Associates, Inc.
Lisa Kelly
* Mainstage debut
†
Synopsis
SETTING: The Borough, a small fishing
town on the east coast of England in
the years following World War II
Prologue
During a coroner’s inquest, Swallow
questions Peter Grimes about the death of
his apprentice at sea. Grimes testifies that
the boy died when they ran out of drinking
water. Though Swallow rules the death
accidental, he warns Grimes not to take
on another apprentice unless he provides
a woman to care for him. The fisherman
replies that this is his intent. When the hall
empties, Ellen Orford promises to help Grimes.
Act I
Balstrode spies a storm and from the harbor,
Grimes calls for help to land his boat, but only
Balstrode and Ned Keene respond. Keene
tells Grimes he has found a new apprentice
for him. Balstrode tries to convince Grimes
to join the merchant marine, but he wants
to earn enough money to get married to
Ellen. That night, at the storm’s height, Auntie
unwillingly admits a group of fishermen and
other townspeople to her tavern, The Boar.
Grimes enters, declaiming a poetic fantasy
that mystifies the onlookers. Hobson and
Ellen arrive with John, the new apprentice,
and Grimes takes the boy back out into the
storm to his hut, over angry protests.
Act II
Ellen is concerned about the new apprentice’s
torn clothes and bruised neck. She asks
Grimes to let the boy have some rest, but he
strikes her. Auntie, Keene, and Bob Boles see
the incident and inform the townspeople.
Despite Ellen’s protests, Boles rallies a mob
and leads it off to apprehend Grimes. At his
hut, Grimes orders John to dress for work.
Raving to himself, Grimes imagines making
enough money to marry Ellen, but his vision
turns to the dead apprentice. As the mob is
heard approaching, Grimes rushes John out
the back door and, in his haste, the boy falls
over the steep cliff. Grimes escapes from the
mob and the villagers depart.
Act III
A few nights later a dance is under way at
Moot Hall. Mrs. Sedley tries to interest Keene
in a theory that Grimes has murdered his
apprentice. Balstrode enters with Ellen, who
is carrying the apprentice’s wet jersey. When
they leave, Mrs. Sedley calls for Swallow, who
orders Grimes’s arrest. Several hours later
Grimes staggers in, exhausted and raving.
Balstrode tells him to sail out of the harbor
and sink his boat. As dawn breaks, the villagers
begin their daily chores, while the coastguard
reports a sinking vessel out at sea. n
37
Director’s Notes
by Kristine McIntyre
Since I believe that there is in every man the spirit
of God, I cannot destroy... The whole of my life has
been devoted to acts of creation (being by profession
a composer) and I cannot take part in acts of
destruction. -Benjamin Britten
Peter Grimes is an opera born of war. Conceived
during Britten’s self-imposed exile in the United States
as a conscientious objector at the beginning of WWII,
outlined during his return voyage to England in 1942
and composed at the Suffolk coast in 1944, the opera
speaks of a society still plagued by the brutality of
war. Hearing the opera at its premier - just a month
after Germany surrendered—critic Edmund Wilson
wrote, “This opera could have been written in no
other age, and it is one of the very few works of art
that have seemed to me, so far, to have spoken for
the blind anguish, the hateful rancors and the willful
destruction of these horrible years… it is the chronicle
of an impulse to persecute and to kill which has
become an obsessive compulsion…”
The destruction of the war years was everywhere in
Britain and was well-chronicled by War Artists sent
by the British government to record and preserve
artistically both the ruins and that which survived. John
Piper (a friend and colleague of Britten’s) was sent to
paint the bomb-destroyed Coventry Cathedral and his
abstract, strangely colorful paintings of it became some
of the most iconic images of the war in Britain. His
disjointed landscapes, as well as the works of Graham
Sutherland and Henry Moore, were on display to the
British public and have been particularly influential in
our vision of this shell-shocked and turbulent time.
Peter Grimes chronicles the struggle of the individual
against the masses, in this case a society that has
become small and mean, vicious and intolerant.
Grimes himself—both rebel and reactionary—refuses
to bow and scrape to the burghers of the Borough but
is desperate to be accepted by them. He is, at heart,
entirely conventional. He wants nothing more than
safe harbor from the storms of life—enough money
to gain respectability and marry Ellen Orford. Peter
Pears, the first Grimes, also saw him as an artist, a
visionary. But Grimes will forever remain an outsider,
and belongs more to the sea from which he comes
and to which he will return.
The unforgiving sea, the fractured town, the outsider
desperate to belong—Grimes is perhaps the most
human and most cautionary of Britten’s operas.
Though we hope to be as kind as Ellen or as decent
as Balstrode, when we are threatened Britten shows
us how easy it is to become like the residents of
The Borough. “The more vicious the society,” said
Britten, “the more vicious the individual.” We are
The Borough, we are Grimes, and we are all seeking
shelter from the storm. n
38
Opposite Page:
Portland
Foreshore.
John Piper
(1903-1992).
Southampton
City Art Gallery,
Hampshire, UK
Whilst staying with friends near Los Angeles
during the summer of 1941, Britten and Pears
came across an article by E.M. Forster on the
Suffolk poet George Crabbe (1751-1832) in a
back issue of The Listener. Britten (himself born
in Suffolk) later was to comment: “I suddenly
realized where I belonged and what I lacked,”
and even more revealingly, “that I must write
an opera.” Pears discovered a copy of Crabbe’s
poems, including “The Borough,” in which
is related the tragedy of the fisherman Peter
Grimes, in a rare book shop. His, and Britten’s
enthusiasm after making this discovery, is
obvious in a letter sent to their New York friend
Elizabeth Mayer on July 29th: “We’ve just
discovered the poetry of George Crabbe (all
about Suffolk) & are very excited—maybe an
opera one day…!!”
Right:
Benjamin Britten
(right) and Peter
Pears in Brooklyn,
c. 1940. Image
courtesy of www.
britten100.org.
Fiery
Visions
Inspired by a poem, Britten’s
tragedy Peter Grimes is a fire at sea
By Phillip reed
In April 1939 Benjamin Britten, accompanied by
the young English tenor, Peter Pears, sailed for
the New World. They first landed in Canada, but
after a few weeks settled in the United States,
principally in New York, where they were to
remain for two and a half years. The trip proved
to be a rite-of-passage experience for both men:
their relationship, both private and professional,
was cemented during this time; Pears’ voice and
intelligent musicianship enlarged and developed
in ways hitherto unsuspected by his friends and
former colleagues at home; and Britten began to
compose the first of what turned out to be a
whole chain of masterly vocal works for Pears—
for example, the “Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo”
(1940), itself a public expression of their private
love for one another.
The remainder of 1941 and the early part of 1942
were spent working on a draft synopsis and
libretto for an opera based on Peter Grimes. Prior
to Britten’s departure from the United States in
March, Serge Koussevitky, the Russian émigré
conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
gave a sequence of hugely successful performances
of Britten’s three-movement Sinfonia da Requiem.
The composer told him about his plans for an
opera based on Crabbe but lamented the realistic
possibility of actually writing a work, as it would
mean finding an enormous amount of time free
from other commitments. As a young, relatively
impoverished composer, he needed a commission
to make the opera become a reality. Koussevizky
immediately agreed to offer Britten a commissioning
fee of $1,000; in return Britten was required to
dedicate the work to the memory of Koussevitzky’s
recently deceased wife.
It was also probably Koussevitzky who suggested
that Britten should attend a performance of George
Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in New York in 1942.
When Britten heard Porgy and Bess in the theater—
for the first and only occasion—ideas for Grimes
were already taking shape in his mind. It is therefore
perhaps not altogether surprising that Gershwin’s
remarkable opera would prove to be a potent
influence on Grimes, especially in view of some
of the close dramatic parallels and correspondences
which, however consciously or unconsciously,
played a role in the making of Grimes.
Some of the general parallels are obvious: in
Porgy as in Grimes, the fishermen go about their
daily business; the community (i.e. the chorus)
is as central to Gershwin’s dramatic concept
as it is to Britten’s; and the protagonist of each
opera is crippled—Porgy physically, Grimes
psychologically. The advent of the storm in
Porgy leads to its use as a musico-dramatic
device which provides a clear precedent for
a similar procedure in Peter Grimes. In Act II,
Scene 4 of Porgy, the storm, already established
in the preceding scene, blows Crown into
Serena’s room. The bursting open of the
door accompanied by the music of the storm
anticipates in a quite remarkable fashion the
similar sequences of events in Grimes (Act I,
Scene 2), at the center of which is Grimes’s
visionary E major aria “Now the Great Bear
and Pleiades.” (The tonality and calm mood of
this aria echo not Gershwin but Verdi, another
important source for Grimes. Compare the
closing moments of Act I of Otello, where Otello
sings on a repeated E the words “Già la pleiade
ardent in mar discende,” and Grimes’s repeated
E naturals at “Now the Great Bear and Pleiades!”)
Britten and Pears continued working on the draft
libretto during their Atlantic crossing, but soon
after their arrival in Liverpool on April 17th, 1942,
Britten began to cast around for a suitable librettist.
Not unexpectedly he turned to another friend
and collaborator from the 1930s, the left-wing
poet, playwright and novelist Montagu Slater, for
whose plays Easter 1916 and Stay Down Miner
Britten had composed incidental music in 1935
and 1936 respectively. Britten reported the
success of his find to Elizabeth Mayer on May 4th:
M. has taken to Grimes like a duck to water & the
opera is leaping ahead. It is very exciting—I must
write and tell Koussey about it. He has splendid
ideas. It is getting more and more an opera about
the community, whose life is “illuminated” for
this moment by the tragedy of the murder [i.e.
the deaths of Grimes’s boy apprentices]. Ellen
Orford is growing in importance, & there are
fine minor characters, such as the Parson, pubkeeper, ‘quack’ apothecary, & doctor.
39
40
By the end of the summer he was able to tell
Mrs. Mayer of the successful completion of the
first complete draft of the libretto, which he
described as “excellent.”
Britten’s references to Grimes in his 1942
correspondence refer to the development of the
libretto, not to the music. On two early typed
libretto drafts, one of which certainly dates from
1942, Britten made important marginal notes in
which he succinctly describes the kinds of music
he intended to write, dividing the entire opera
into a sequence of smaller, more manageable
units, in the manner of an 18th- or 19th-century
“number opera,” i.e. “recitative,” “aria,” “ensemble,”
etc. The annotations concerning the six orchestral
interludes are of a different nature: they suggest
that the interludes were intended from the
outset to have a programmatic function within
the overall structure. For example, against
Interlude I Britten writes “every-day, grey
seascapes;” Interlude III is described as “Sunny,
Sparkling music;” while Interlude IV reads “Boy’s
suffering fugato.” How fascinating it is to see
that one of the opera’s most distinctive and
memorable features, the orchestral interludes—
where the composer, as it were, steps into the
stage action and comments—was intact in the
structure from the planning stage.
All was not plain sailing and inevitably
tensions and frustrations would occasionally
prove too much for the composer
Development of the libretto continued in 1943.
Britten wrote to Pears (by now earmarked for
the title role) on March 11th:
I am going to do lots of work on P. Grimes
today, to see what really is wrong with it. And
then I shall write a long letter to Montagu
& hope he can fix it a bit. I am sure it isn’t
fundamentally hopeless, there are too many
things I like about it.
To Erwin Stein, the Austrian-born former pupil
of Schoenberg, working as an editor at Britten’s
publishers, Boosey & Hawkes, Britten remarked
the following day:
…one bit of good work I’m doing is on the opera
libretto—I am finding lots of possibilities of
improvement, especially the character of Grimes
himself which I find doesn’t come across nearly
clearly enough. At the moment he is just a
pathological case—no reasons & not many
symptoms! He’s got to be changed a lot.
The composer shows himself perfectly aware
of the complexities and problems of Grimes’
character, in particular the difficult psychology
of the anti-hero. The latter has been a facet of
the work that has occupied commentators
ever since.
Peter Grimes was quite madly exciting. Really
tremendously thrilling. The only thing you must
remember is to consider that the average singer
hasn’t much gift for intensity of his own bat,
so make sure that the tempi etc. make a tense
delivery inevitable.
in October he informed Pears that the scoring
was “going quite fast—done about two-thirds
[of the] prologue in a day & a half.” The full
score was finished, as he told Mary Behrend,
on February 10th, 1945. “I have actually just this
moment written ‘End’ to the opera score.”
At precisely the same time Britten was revising and
refining Slater’s draft libretto, shaping it to his
musical purpose, we find him, perhaps somewhat
unexpectedly, studying the score of Richard Strauss’
Der Rosenkavalier, which he had requested from
his (and Strauss’s) publisher, Ralph Hawkes.
Britten thanked Hawkes on March 12th:
All was not plain sailing, and inevitably tensions
and frustrations would occasionally prove too
much for the composer. For example, in June,
1944 he wrote to Pears:
Plans for an April premiere proved unfeasible
and the first performance took place at the
Sadler’s Wells Theatre on June 7th, 1945, a
month after VE Day. The extraordinary events of
that triumphant first night have gone down in
operatic history and secured Britten’s place as an
international figure. It was, quite simply, an
occasion that altered the course of English opera
forever. It also marked the culmination of Britten’s
career to date, for, in a sense, everything he had
written previously was part of a long compositional
journey that led and fed into Peter Grimes, a
work acknowledged as a masterpiece from its
finest hearing and a touchstone of Britten’s
musical vocabulary up to 1945.
I can scarcely contain myself to write this note—
you see I’ve never seen a score of Rosenkavalier,
& I am impatient to see how the old magician
makes his effects! There’s a hell of a lot I can learn
from him! I am afraid my opera won’t be as lush or
glittering as this one—after all there is a difference
between Vienna & Suffolk!!—but I have great
hopes of it, once we get the libretto right.
Something of what Britten learned from the
“old magician” surely surfaces in the women’s
ensemble in Act II of Grimes, where the writing
for high voices must have been influenced by
the closing moments of Strauss’s opera.
My bloody opera stinks, & that’s all there is to it.
But I dare say that I shall be able to deodorize it
before too long—or I’m hoping so.
By the time the second act was finished in Britten’s
pencil draft, plans were being laid for a production
to be mounted by the Sadler’s Wells Opera
Company, with Pears in the title role and Joan
Cross playing the sympathetic Ellen Orford.
The majority of the draft was completed by the
autumn of 1944. On August 28th, 1844, Britten
told a friend that he was working “very fast,” and
that “it looks like a race between the war & it…to
be over first, but I pray the former will win!” and
After some understandable hesitation, composition
of Grimes began in January 1944. To Pears, the
future Peter Grimes, Britten described the first
days of work in a letter of January 10th:
Thank you for your kind letter about Peter Grimes.
I am so glad that the opera came up to your
expectations, & it is sweet & generous of you
to write so warmly about it. I must confess
that I am very pleased with the way it seems to
“come over the footlights,” and also with the way
the audience takes it, & what is perhaps more,
returns night after night to take it again! I think
the occasion is actually a greater one than either
Sadler’s Wells or me, I feel. Perhaps it is an omen
for English opera in the future. Anyhow I hope
that many composers will take the plunge & I
hope also that they’ll find the water not quite so
icy as expected!
Well, at last I have broken the spell and got
down to work on PG. I have been at it for two
days solidly and got the greater part of the
Prologue done. It is very difficult to keep that
amount of recitative moving, without going
round & round in circles, I find—but I think I’ve
managed. It is also difficult to keep it going fast
yet pain moods & characters a bit. I can’t wait to
show it to you. Actually in this scene there isn’t
much for you to do…It is mostly for Swallow,
who is turning out quite an amusing, pompous
old thing! I don’t know whether I shall ever be a
good opera composer, but it’s wonderful fun to
try once in a way!
A month later he could tell Pears that “After a
slow start PG is swimming ahead again,” and
that every note was being written with Pears’s
“heavenly voice” in mind. It was, of course, to
Pears that Britten would turn when trying out
passages from the opera at the piano. After one
such occasion, Pears wrote a letter to Britten
which reminds us of the value the composer
placed on the singer’s constructive criticism:
The significance of that triumphant first production
was not lost on the composer. He was quite
aware that what he had achieved made a special
resonance with far-reaching implications. A letter
he wrote to Imogen Holst (June 26th, 1945) makes
his understanding of the situation quite clear:
It was indeed an “omen,” for Britten himself and
for other British composers also. With Grimes,
Britten showed unequivocally that an English
opera could be meaningful and achieve not
only national but international recognition. The
foundation-stone of postwar British operatic life
had been laid. n
Phillip Reed is an authority on the life and works
of Benjamin Britten. The most recent of his
many publications on the composer is the third
volume (1952-56) of Letter from a Life: The
Selected Letter of Benjamin Britten.
Adrift, 1982. Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009). Used by permission.
41
42
première of Peter Grimes, Britten wrote of his
desire “to restore to the musical setting of the
English language brilliance, freedom, and vitality
that have been curiously rare since the death
of Purcell.” This was a bold statement from a
composer who had yet to compose or offer
an opera to the British public. Nonetheless, he
accomplished just that with the 1945 wartime
première of Peter Grimes at Sadler’s Wells
Theatre, London. The outcast represented
in Grimes must have taken on a special
resonance for Britten and Pears, who were both
conscientious objectors and thus at odds with
the war effort. Moreover, their personal lives
positioned them at society’s fringe. Some two
decades after the first performance, Britten
commented: “So many of the great things of the
world have come from the outsider, and that
lone dog isn’t always attractive. That is what I try
to portray in Peter Grimes.”
Benjamin Britten on
Aldeburgh Beach,
1959. Photo by
Hans Wild. Image
courtesy of www.
britten100.org.
A Centenary Retrospective of
Britten’s Operas: “Those Voices
That Will Not Be Drowned”
There can be no discussion of Benjamin Britten
that does not include both opera as a genre
and his inestimable contribution to it. Neither
can one invoke his legacy without its inexorable
bond to the English tenor Peter Pears, the love
of Britten’s life, sharing a nearly four-decade
romance. That connection is principally intense
for those familiar with the myriad recordings of
Pears’ voice, which many associate immediately
with Britten’s music. It was with Pears that
Britten decamped to America from 1939-1942.
And for Pears’ voice, Britten would write an
unequalled number of operatic roles and song
cycles by which the tenor became the world’s
leading authority and interpreter of his music.
the cover of night, and his musical-tonal
exploration sent him down paths that created
wholly distinctive perspectives on standard and
contemporary compositional techniques alike.
Britten could elicit grandeur and thundering
dynamics from thirteen instruments in his
chamber operas with just as much command
as that most poignant and tender of pianissimo
passages achieved from the full orchestra in his
large-scale operas. Themes emerge in Britten’s
works that struggle with and confront pacifism
and war, societal hypocrisy and faith, wanton
passion and unrequited love, and the gray area
that only perspective affords in defining right
and wrong.
In his operas Britten took the marginalized of
society and gave them voice. His characters
enjoyed the moonlit liberty provided by
Feeling a pull to return home to England, Britten
did so with a subject and a commission: Peter
Grimes. In his own program notes for the
In his most prodigious decade from 1945 until
1954, in his début opera’s long shadow, Britten
would compose six major operas: The Rape of
Lucretia, Albert Herring, The Beggar’s Opera, Billy
Budd, Gloriana, and The Turn of the Screw.
Britten embarked on a stark about-face with his
first chamber opera for a vastly reduced cast:
The Rape of Lucretia. Set outside of Rome in the
sixth century BC, the work is narrated by two
ever-present observers, the Male Chorus and
the Female Chorus. Britten avoids scrutiny by
his contemporaries—and detractors—by using
the Chorus roles to offer social commentary
on the modern era and issues of his time, all
the while couched in the ancient tropes of the
Greek tragedy. The Rape of Lucretia squarely
targets the rather forbidden topics of the loss
of innocence, misogyny, and power struggles
in male-dominated hierarchies. In the opera’s
dénouement, Lucretia stabs herself to death
after she is raped, lamenting her once-cherished
fidelity and purity.
In his next opera, Britten yet again approached a
new genre: that of comedy and lilting romance.
In Albert Herring, Britten evinces an assessment
of the community, this time the apparent village
idyll of the fictitious Loxford. Eric Crozier’s
English version of Guy de Maupassant’s French
short story is filled with wit and irony, often
mocking the English class establishment. In the
title role, Britten creates the archetypal “other,”
a social neophyte who is seldom far from his
mother’s apron strings; a young man who has yet
to discover himself. There is no dark side to this
work, apart from Albert enjoying a nighttime’s
amusement in the moonlight, courtesy of a little
spiked punch. The work is filled with Britten’s
ensemble writing at its finest: lively and crisp,
maximizing an otherwise economic score for the
thirteen-piece orchestra. (And he even manages
a masterful handful of Wagnerian quotes!)
Britten returned to the sea for his next major
operatic venture: Billy Budd. A work of nearly
immediate success, it is told through the
remembrances of an aging Captain Edward
Fairfax Vere, who is haunted by the events
leading up to the death of Billy Budd. Captain
Vere’s vile and browbeating Master-at-Arms,
Claggart, manipulates the stammering Billy into
an act of violence, which unexpectedly results in
Claggart’s death. Following a court martial, Billy is
sentenced to be hanged. Captain Vere knows the
truth about Billy’s innocence of spirit, but, bound
by his own sense of duty, refuses Billy’s repeated
appeals to spare his life. The entirely male opera
is filled with tender soliloquies juxtaposed against
massive choral numbers and seventeen solo
roles. Notwithstanding Billy’s death, Captain Vere
realizes that the very young man whose life he
did not save has redeemed him. Certainly the sea
was the all-encompassing presence that carried
Captain Vere and the HMS Indomitable, the very
sea that welcomed the eponymous Billy Budd
into its fathomless, dark embrace.
No ordinary ghost story, The Turn of the Screw
remains as psychologically disturbing today
as it was when Britten set about his operatic
treatment of Henry James’ 1898 novella. This
mysteriously dark tale has a rather insidious
bent to it in which the audience is afforded an
omniscient view of ghosts that may or may
not be visible to the characters onstage. A
newly hired governess has just arrived at the
country estate where a young sister and brother,
Flora and the troubled Miles, reside. The new
governess is convinced she is seeing the ghost of
the former governess Miss Jessell, a malevolent
presence that has yet to depart the children who
were once in her charge, as well as the ominous
former groundskeeper Peter Quint—also quite
dead—throughout the opera. It is known that
Quint and Miss Jessell had an indiscretion, and it
is implied that Quint sexually abused Miles. The
new governess loses her hold on sanity in an
attempt to protect the children. In Peter Grimes
there is no question of the abject innocence
and perhaps inadvertent abuses of the boy
apprentices; but in The Turn of the Screw, that
same innocence is not entirely clear from the
manipulative, not wholly pure Miles, who ends
up dead, suffocated in the governess’ arms.
Britten ratchets up the suspense by weaving in
questions of innocence and evil, the living and
the dead, reality versus nightmare. Due to these
lingering questions, the opera permits numerous
perspectives and interpretations.
43
44
Eight years later, the BBC offered Britten a
£10,000 commission in 1968 for a television
opera, resulting in Owen Wingrave. Following
the three Church Parables, which bore the
influence of his travels to the Far East, this was
the composer’s first large-scale opera since
1960. Picture frames of life-sized portraits of
the Wingrave generations overwhelmed the set
of the original production. The work explores
one man’s decisive pacifist stand that eschews
generations of familial military history and
obligation, but results in his own enigmatic
death in the very room where two previous
family deaths occurred. Owen Wingrave was,
in part, Britten’s non-violent opposition to the
Vietnam War, albeit less formidable than the
1962 War Requiem. When it was broadcast in
1970, the opera fell flat on the small screen
although recent years have seen revivals
garnering slightly more success.
Des Moines
Metro Opera’s
2005 production
of Britten’s
Gloriana, featuring
Gwendolyn Jones
in the title role
The reception to Britten’s operas did not always
garner critical and public acclaim, despite
the fact that the sales of his publications
and recordings set many twentieth-century
standards. In fact, Britten’s Coronation opera
was practically a debacle in the grandest of
fashions. Britten intentionally reserved the
numbering of his Opus 53 to coincide with
the 1953 Coronation year, dedicating Gloriana
“by gracious permission to Her Majesty Queen
Elizabeth II.” Gloriana recounts the tempestuous
love affair between Elizabeth I and the Earl
of Essex. Premièred in the presence of Her
Majesty, the somewhat static Gloriana received
a generally lukewarm response by the gentry in
attendance, with the exception of the Queen,
whose applause purportedly extended for not
less than eight minutes.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream is that most famous
of examples in which one finds freedom, joy, and
even true life in the mystical realm that is the dark.
This metaphor of the closeted homosexual
experience in mid-century England is barely as
veiled as any of Britten’s other semiautobiographical
insinuations. It does, however, prove the greater
fact that the preponderance of Britten’s music
occurs at the dead of night or employs related
forms (e.g., a serenade or nocturne). The
characters and Britten’s musical score couple to
make for an enchanting theatrical experience:
the two pairs of lovers lost in the forest, the playwithin-a-play of “Pyramus and Thisby” performed
by the rustics, each of the appearances of the
fairies and the mischievous Puck exacting Oberon’s
spite of Tytania—these three groups coalesce into
what is surely one of Britten’s greatest compositions.
Des Moines Metro Opera’s 2007 production of
Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
But after the “television opera,” Britten was
keen to dive headlong into what was to be his
final opera: Death in Venice, self-challenging
his compositional technique to the farthest
extremes of any of his operas. Musically, Britten
created pitch rows, selectively borrowing from
serial technique, while incorporating the Eastern
gamelan-influence richly into his score. Based
on the German novella by Thomas Mann, the
central character of Aschenbach—a writer who
feels he has lost his ability to express himself
any longer and travels to Venice seeking
inspiration—served as a reflection of Britten’s
own mortality. Aschenbach does truly find his
inspiration in the Ganymede-like quality of
the young Polish dancer boy Tadzio, to whom
Aschenbach ultimately reveals: “I love… you”
at the close of the first act. The opera ends as
Aschenbach is again resting by the sea, pining
over Tadzio, and beside which he exhales his
last breath at its shore. Britten felt a sort of dual
necessity in composing this opera, for Pears
had turned sixty in 1970 and Britten stated that
this “was probably Peter’s last major operatic
part.” As it happens, Pears made his Metropolitan
Opera début singing Aschenbach in Death in
Venice in 1974, his last major role indeed, just
two years before Britten’s death.
One of the most poignant of Britten’s pieces
composed in the gloaming of his life was the
Suite of English Folk Tunes: “A time there was…”
This orchestral work takes its title from the text
of the last song of the cycle Winter Words from
two decades earlier, the song: “Before Life and
After.” Having remained Britten’s favorite, it
never failed to move him to tears, for it posed
the ultimate question of the heart on the subject
of the couple’s routine separation one from the
other: “How long?” For Britten, death was quite
close; but Pears would echo the refrain, “How
long?” for an additional ten years.
Britten was one of those rare composers about
whom the word genius may genuinely be used
and warranted. One might also encounter
reviews and articles that assign to a specific
opera the label of “masterpiece”—except it is not
uncommon to see such distinction associated
with all of Britten’s operas. This is particularly
true as we gain more distance from these works’
premières and thus gain more objectivity in our
assessment. We might consider that, due to his
inventive approach to each successive opera,
perhaps every one of them is a masterpiece.
Many share this view. Surely in this frenzy of
Centenary Celebrations, one might not speak
otherwise above a hushed tone. n
Justin Vickers is an American lyric tenor,
professor, and British music researcher. Vickers
has contributed essays to the 2012 Coventry
Cathedral Golden Jubilee (The Bliss Trust),
writing about Arthur Bliss’s The Beatitudes in
the shadow of Britten’s War Requiem, and he
has a forthcoming chapter on Sir Peter Maxwell
Davies in The Sea and the British Musical
Imagination (Boydell & Brewer). Vickers wrote
his doctorate on Michael Tippett’s The Heart’s
Assurance (1951), a song-cycle composed for
Britten and Peter Pears.
In a year when Vickers is performing Britten’s
War Requiem in the US, and singing in
Aldeburgh, England, he is also presenting a
paper and performing at the Britten on Stage
and Screen conference in Nottingham. Vickers
is gratified to be co-organizing Benjamin Britten
at 100: An American Centenary Symposium
(October 24-27, 2013) on the campus of Illinois
State University, where he is Assistant Professor
of Voice.
Britten’s
Operas at
a Glance
Far from a solitary experience, an operatic
composer must work closely with the
librettist; some of the great anecdotes of
Britten’s life emerge from tales of these
relationships. The list below details Britten’s
operas, the première year followed by
revisions, and the respective librettists.
Paul Bunyan, Op. 17
(1941, revised 1975; W.H. Auden) *
Peter Grimes, Op. 33
(1945; Montagu Slater)
The Rape of Lucretia, Op. 37
(1946, revised 1947; Ronald Duncan)
Albert Herring, Op. 39
(1947; Eric Crozier)
The Beggar’s Opera, Op. 43
(1948; John Gay, Tyrone Guthrie) †
The Little Sweep, Op. 45
(1949; Eric Crozier) ‡
Billy Budd, Op. 50
(1951, rev. 1960; E.M. Forster and Eric Crozier)
Gloriana, Op. 53
(1953, rev. 1966; William Plomer)
The Turn of the Screw, Op. 54
(1954; Myfanwy Piper)
Noye’s Fludde, Op. 59
(1958; Chester Miracle Play) ‡
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Op. 64
(1960; Peter Pears and Britten)
Curlew River, Op. 71
(1964; William Plomer) §
The Burning Fiery Furnace, Op. 77
The Prodigal Son, Op 81
Owen Wingrave, Op. 85
(1970; Myfanwy Piper)
Death in Venice, Op. 88
(1973, rev. 1974; Myfanwy Piper)
*
†
‡
§
Operetta
Ballad-Opera (1728)
Children’s Opera
Church Parable
45
46
Richard Strauss
Elektra
48
Elektra, Opus 58
by Richard Strauss
Tragödie in one act
Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannstahl after
Sophocles’ Electra
First performance: Dresden; Hofoper, January 25, 1909
A company premiere performed in German with
English supertitles above the stage
By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc.,
publisher and copyright owner
No Intermission
June 29 | July 9 | July 12 7:30 pm
July 7 2:00 PM
Elektra is sponsored by Frank R. Brownell III
Above:
Detail from Girl
with Long Hair,
with a sketch for
‘Nude Veritas”,
1898-1899.
Gustav Klimt
(1862-1918)
Anterior:
Ashes, 1894.
Munch, Edvard
(1863-1944) /
Munch-museet,
Oslo, Norway
/ Index / The
Bridgeman Art
Library
Cast
Production
Elektra, Agamemnon’s daughter
Brenda Harris
Conductor
David Neely
Chrysothemis, her sister
Julie Makerov *
Stage Director
Dugg McDonough
Klytemnästra, their mother
Joyce Castle *
Associate Conductor
Aaron Breid *
Her Confidante
Emily Holsclaw *
Eve Summer *
Her Trainbearer
Lindsey Anderson *
Chorus Master
Lisa Hasson
A Young Servant
David Margulis *
Scenic Designer
R. Keith Brumley
An Old Servant
Brad Baron *
Costume Designer
Melanie Taylor Burgess, executed by
Seattle Opera Costume Shop
Additional costumes designed by
Robin L. McGee
Orest, son of Agamemnon
Philip Horst *
Orestes’ Tutor
Tony Dillon
Aegisth, Klytemnästra’s paramour
Corey Bix †
An Overseer
Megan Cullen *
1st Maid
Kathryn Day *
2nd Maid
Jill Phillips *
3rd Maid
Sarah Larsen *
4th Maid
Cassie Glaeser *
5th Maid
Rebecca Krynski
Costume Supervisor
Robin L. McGee
Barry Steele
Sarah Hatten for Elsen and Associates
Synopsis
Setting: Ancient Mycenae, the inner
courtyard of Agamemnon’s Palace
In the courtyard of the palace of Agamemnon,
murdered king of Mycenae, servant maids
comment on the wild behavior of Agamemnon’s
eldest daughter Elektra. After they leave, Elektra
bemoans her father’s murder at the hands of
her mother Klytemnästra and her mother’s lover
Aegisth. Calling on her father’s spirit, she vows
vengeance. She is interrupted by her younger
sister Chrysothemis, who urges Elektra to give
up her obsession with revenge so they both
can lead normal lives. As noises from within the
palace herald the approach of Klytemnästra,
Chrysothemis rushes off, leaving Elektra to face
their mother alone.
The queen staggers in. Drugs, loss of sleep
and fear of retribution have made a wreck of
her and she appeals to Elektra to tell her what
sacrifice to the gods will give her peace. Elektra
answers that it is Klytemnästra herself, and that
she and her banished brother Orest will wield
the ax. Klytemnästra is shaken, but when her
Confidante interrupts to report something she
laughs and leaves Elektra to ponder.
The mystery is explained when Chrysothemis
reappears with news that Orest is dead.
Stunned, Elektra tells her sister that she must
now help to kill Klytemnästra and Aegisth. After
her sister runs away in horror, Elektra digs for
the buried ax that killed Agamemnon. A stranger
interrupts her, saying he has come to inform
Klytemnästra of Orest’s death, and is eventually
revealed as Orest himself. Elektra falls into her
brother’s arms and tells him she has lived only
for his return.
Their reunion is cut short when Orest is
summoned before Klytemnästra. When screams
are heard from inside the palace, Elektra knows
he has killed their mother. When Aegisth arrives,
Elektra joyfully lights his way into the palace,
where he also meets his doom. While the halls
resound with tumultuous confusion, Elektra
begins an ecstatic dance. However, the release
of so much pent-up hate and joy proves too
much for her; when Chrysothemis returns,
Elektra falls lifeless. n
Director’s Notes
by Dugg McDonough
For me, the chance to create a new production
of Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s
riveting first collaboration has been, literally, a dream
come true. Unlike so many opera artists and fans
who have come to the art form through a Hänsel
und Gretel, a Carmen, or a La Bohème, my first fullblown exposure was Elektra, instantly addicting me
to the world of lyric theater that has occupied my
creative life of nearly four decades. Now the chance
to come full cycle with Strauss’ 58th opus has proven
to me that this masterpiece’s power and pathos are
as fresh, shocking, and unforgettable as ever!
The music and words for Elektra were destined to
be overwhelming, for Sophocles’ play, on which
the opera is primarily based, is one of the great
familial revenge tragedies in all of world drama.
The revenge in question is the motivation of our
title character, caused by the brutal murder of her
beloved father, King Agamemnon. Strauss wasted
no time in establishing the musical identity of the
slain monarch in his powerful opening orchestral blow, and throughout the performance, through
both words and music, we the audience are made
aware that all of the opera’s actions and emotions
result from this single death. And, as our DMMO
audiences will see, the very presence and image of
Agamemnon has come to dominate the visual world
of our production.
Thematically, Elektra is a tale driven by human
obsession and the power of such obsession to
destroy those for whom it has become their very
reason for living. Out of their early 20th century
consciousness, Strauss and Hofmannsthal wrapped
their version of Sophocles’ timeless characters in
a cloak of Freudian psychology that colors and
intensifies their story for modern audiences and
helps create a nonstop, roller coaster ride of musical
theater. The landscape of Elektra is a frightening and
decaying world out of balance that must be righted
through fire and blood, so that life (and death) can
result in ecstatic epiphanies and a violent climax. n
Choreographer
Eve Summer *
Brian Robertson
Lisa Kelly
* Mainstage debut
†
49
Elektra set design by R. Keith Brumley
50
Detail from Madonna,
1894-5 (oil on
canvas), Munch,
Edvard (1863-1944)
/ National Museum,
Oslo, Norway / The
Bridgeman Art Library
Giving
Voice to
Revenge
In Elektra, Strauss finds a muse amid the macabre
By Gavin Plumley
51
Agamemnon’s blood is still fresh on the walls.
Elektra runs wild through the palace. And soon
Orest will return home and all hell will break loose.
Richard Strauss, unafraid of dealing with the
deadliest of tales, followed his 1905 megahit
Salome by going darker and deeper into the
ancient world. Using Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s
rendition of Sophocles’s great tragedy, Strauss
summoned all his musical strength to tell
Elektra’s journey from embittered mourner
to triumphant avenger. Pitting her against
Klytämnestra, one of the most conflicted
gorgons in all opera, while imbuing Elektra’s
sister Chrysothemis with an affecting lyrical
heart, Hofmannsthal’s drama found a perfect
voice in Strauss’s kaleidoscopic score. Such was
the success of the collaboration that it spurred
the creation of Der Rosenkavalier, Ariadne auf
Naxos, Die Frau ohne Schatten, Die ägyptische
Helena, and Arabella; proof that, as in Elektra
itself, joy can emerge from tragedy.
Throughout Strauss’s early years he displayed
a voracious appetite for new literature. His
songs set poetry by Karl Henckel, John Henry
Mackay, Otto Julius Bierbaum, and Richard
Dehmel, while his orchestral tone poems
embraced the writing of Friedrich Nietzsche
and Alexander Ritter. In many ways his working
relationship with the innovative writer Hugo von
Hofmannsthal was inevitable. Hofmannsthal,
born in Vienna, was at the heart of the Austrian
city’s liberal avant-garde, questioning the
precepts on which contemporary society and
its ways of thinking had been built. With the
advent of Sigmund Freud and his investigations
into the unconscious, the psychosexual literary
fads of the time found clout in this weird new
science. Like Freud’s revolutionary study The
Interpretation of Dreams (published in 1899,
but dated 1900), Hofmannsthal and his peers
turned to the ancient world for precedents to
the conflicts and neuroses of modern life. It was
within this intoxicating environment that his
adaptation of Sophocles’s Electra was born.
Trimming the original Greek, Hofmannsthal’s
1903 play focused entirely on the relationship
between the murdering Klytämnestra and
Elektra, her avenging daughter. It proved a brutal
study in the desire for revenge. Two years after
its premiere, a similar tale opened in Dresden
called Salome. A bold operatic adaptation
of Oscar Wilde’s startling biblical drama, it
had been composed by the young Bavarian
composer Richard Strauss. But Hofmannsthal
already knew about the radical musician behind
this succès de scandale and had approached
Portrait of Richard Strauss, 1918. Max Liebermann (1847–1935).
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany.
Strauss in 1900 with an idea for a ballet. Sadly
Strauss declined the offer, but shortly after the
premiere of Salome he was back in touch. Strauss
first saw Hofmannsthal’s play in Berlin in the
autumn of 1905 (directed by the redoubtable
Max Reinhardt) and thought it would make a
terrific opera. At first Strauss wasn’t sure he
should follow one ancient tragedy with another,
but Hofmannsthal proved persuasive and work
began in earnest in 1906. Even if there were
surface similarities between Salome and Elektra,
the latter assumed a much more violent tone.
Salome had been perfumed, exotic, and often
delicate, while Elektra was visceral, earthy, and
violent. The sexual themes in Salome, constantly
brimming to the surface, remained more
subliminal (though equally dangerous) in Elektra.
And where Strauss’s first major operatic success
had provided the opportunity for one dominant
female role (the brilliant characterization of
Salome’s mother Herodias notwithstanding),
Elektra offered three highly contrasting women,
whose conflicts and confrontations stoke the
engine of this savage drama.
Salome had been perfumed, exotic, and often delicate, while
Elektra was visceral, earthy, and violent.
52
Elektra is the very heart of the piece. As the curtain
rises, a scurrying motif announces her presence
and she appears (according to the stage directions)
“like an animal darting to its lair.” Conceived by
Strauss as a heroic soprano, following in the vein
of Isolde and Brünnhilde, Elektra is one of the most
challenging parts in the repertoire. Spanning a
huge vocal range, Strauss provided a brilliant
motivic network to tell her tale. The Agammenon
theme, the thundering three-note fanfare that
starts the opera, reappears throughout. Echoing
Elektra’s every word—even providing a grotesque
bass tuba solo to mimic her mother and stepfather
in bed—the orchestra describes her motivation
and her fears. Its constant variation of textures
and themes brings a modern psychological
authority to her primordial confessions. Mixing
mournful music from the strings with more
bitter jabs of atonality, Elektra may be addled by
her grief, but she is resolute.
However vivid these passages, it is to Elektra
alone that the score and drama returns. Even
when Chrysothemis wants to break free of the
plan, pleading for compassion, Elektra’s motifs
pin her to the spot. She will not capitulate, and
her iron will propels the music and the drama
alike. Only when Orest appears (with his almost
religious music, including chorale-like tones
played by four Wagner tubas) does Strauss provide
a moment of calm and discretion. But it is brief:
Elektra will not be silenced and, as soon as Orest
goes into the palace, all hell breaks loose.
The maids reappear, providing a mirror to the
first scene—there are repeated brass salvos
and Elektra’s “Agammenon motif” sounds in
gory triumph. The lurching dance to which
Strauss had hinted in Elektra’s first scene now
dominates, as the score slowly creeps towards
the glisteningly pure tonality of C major.
Having been bitter, conflicted and aggressive,
Elektra’s music becomes ever warmer, clinging
to a jubilantly tonal idiom. In her search for
vengeance, Elektra has found musical peace and
her final moments are truly ravishing.
Mask of Agamemnon, c. 1500-1550 BC. National
Archaeological Museum, Athens, Greece.
Chrysothemis is a much meeker figure by
far. Compared with Elektra’s dynamism, she
only hopes for a better life. Her lilting waltz,
describing marriage and the prospect of
children, proffers a rare glimmer of light in
an otherwise dark world. Fittingly, it is to that
theme that Elektra returns when she tries to
persuade Chrysothemis to wield the axe. But
Elektra’s version of the waltz is riven with brute
determination and the constant repetition of the
Agamemnon motif. Nothing, not even her love
for her sister, will get in Elektra’s way.
In composing such a visceral but concise opera,
Strauss tapped the root of Hofmannsthal’s play.
His adaptation focused on Elektra’s revenge and,
in Strauss’s score, such concentration finds voice
in a resolute network of motifs and melodies.
An already vivid adaptation of Sophocles’s
tragedy became an even more searing operatic
experience. And although Elektra couldn’t quite
match the scandalous titillation and horror
created in Salome, there was no doubt that
Strauss had summoned the perfect language
with which to tell Elektra’s triumphant tale. n
As Chrysothemis has shown that she will be of
little help, Klytämnestra’s entrance leaves us in
no doubt of what has occurred. Strauss uses the
full gamut of his vast orchestra to describe her
procession with its “dragging of cattle, a muffled
scolding, a quickly choked shouting, the
hissing of a whip in the air.” After the growling
contrabass tuba, screaming woodwind, and
rute—percussive birch twigs to imitate incessant
whipping—Klytämnestra’s vocal line is decidedly
snarly and twisted. Strauss describes her nightmares
in equally horrendous colours. Veering away from
traditional harmony, Elektra and Klytämnestra’s
scene provokes the most extreme music Strauss
ever wrote. Elektra mocks her mother in falsely
lyrical tones, while Klytämnestra is increasingly
haunted by her memories.
Gavin Plumley is a London-based writer
who specializes in the history and culture of
Central Europe. Reprinted by permission of Lyric
Opera of Chicago.
Richard Strauss Operas at
Salome 2002
Der Rosenkavalier 1992
Ariadne auf Naxos 1980, 2004
Nothing, not even her love for her
sister, will get in Elektra’s way.
Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, c.1868. Frederic
Leighton (1830–1896). Ferens Art Gallery, Hull
Museums, UK.
Two Circus Artists or Snake Charmer and Clown, 1948. Max Beckmann
(1884-1950). Private collection.
53
54
Company Directors
Michael Egel
Artistic and General Director
Michael Egel of Indianola, Iowa,
was appointed General and
Artistic Director of Des Moines
Metro Opera in 2013, and Artistic
Director in September of 2010.
He previously served the company as the Artistic
Administrator/Director of Education from 19992010. He joined the festival staff in 1994 and is
marking his twentieth consecutive summer festival
season in 2013.
Egel’s responsibilities include both artistic direction
and overall management—specifically the areas of
strategic planning, opera production, fiscal stewardship
and community, donor and board relations. He
works closely with the year-round staff in the
day-to-day operation of the organization and with
the festival production and artistic teams on the
creation of the summer opera festival.
Egel is responsible for repertory selection, casting
of singers, selecting conductors and stage directors
for mainstage productions and oversight of the
company’s collaborations with creative and design
teams. During the summer festival season, he
David Neely
Music Director and
Principal Conductor
David Neely has appeared with
orchestras and opera companies
in the United States and abroad.
European engagements include
productions in Dortmund, Saarbrücken, Coburg,
Bonn, St. Gallen, Bielefeld, Kaisersautern, Halle, and
at the Eutiner Festspiele. His repertoire of over 70
stage works includes Otello, La forza del destino,
Carmen, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, La
Boheme, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Cenerentola, The
Bartered Bride, Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Werther,
and La Juive, and ballets such as Romeo and Juliet,
Swan Lake and Giselle. He has also conducted
musical theater works, including the Broadway
production of Chicago in Munich and Basel.
Performances of new works include the German
premiere of The Silver Tassie in Dortmund in 1999,
and, in 2006, the American premiere of Robert
Orledge’s completion of Debussy’s La Chute de la
Maison Usher at the University of Texas.
Engagements in the United States include returns
to Sarasota Opera for Die Fledermaus, Halka, La
Rondine, L’amico Fritz, and the SOA American
Mainstage Conductors and Directors
coordinates the activities of over 200 company
members. In 2008 he initiated the commissioning
of a major children’s opera on a subject from Iowa
history that was produced in conjunction with
the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and was
premiered in January of 2009.
His education credentials include a Bachelor
of Music in Performance and Education from
Simpson College and a Master of Music from the
University of Memphis. In March 2011 he was
named to the Des Moines Business Record “Forty
under 40” which serves to identify young leaders
making an impact in the Greater Des Moines Area.
He has previously been on the administrative and
directing staff at both Opera Memphis and the
Natchez Opera Festival and has served frequently
as an adjudicator for the Metropolitan Opera’s
National Council Auditions. During the last three
years, he has served on the steering committee for
the National Singer Training Forum with other
singer-training personnel at Opera America. He has
been a panelist for the National Opera Association
regarding career issues for young singers and has
contributed to national publications regarding the
auditioning process and training for singers.
Classics series that included The Crucible, Vanessa,
and Of Mice and Men. Symphonic engagements
include concerts with the Symphony Orchestra
Vorarlberg (Bregenz, Austria), the Dortmund
Philharmonic, the Bochum Symphony, the Eutin
Festival Orchestra, the University of Kansas
Symphony Orchestra, and University of Texas
Symphony and Chamber Orchestras.
Named Music Director and Principal Conductor of
Des Moines Metro Opera in 2012 (the first in the
company’s history), Neely has conducted here
since 2010, including works such as Don Giovanni,
Eugene Onegin, Dialogues of the Carmelites, La
Bohème, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Macbeth. From
2003-2009, he was an associate conductor at DMMO
and held the title of Bruno Walter Associate
Conductor in 2007. He also served as Co-Director
of the Apprentice Artist Program for five seasons.
He is also a valued educator, currently serving as
Associate Professor of Conducting and Director
of Orchestral Activities at the University of Kansas,
and previously as Music Director of the University
of Texas Butler Opera Center. He holds degrees
in Piano Performance and Orchestral Conducting
from Indiana University.
Linda Ade Brand
Stage Director, Kansas City, MO
Romeo and Juliet
DMMO History: Stage Director,
Apprentice Artist Program 1986-88,
1990-1994, 2005-2010; Assistant
Stage Director 1987, 1988, 1990-1994,
2005-2008; Stage Director, Opera
Iowa 1990-91, 1993-94, 2003
Recently: Stage Director, Die Fledermaus, La
Traviata, Opera Theatre of the Rockies; Little Women,
A Little Night Music, L’Enfant, Die Fledermaus, Opera
in the Ozarks; The Giver, Lyric Opera of Kansas City;
Three Tall Women, Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre;
La Bohème, University of Kansas
Upcoming: M. Butterfly, Metropolitan Ensemble Theatre
Sponsors: Marshall and Judy Flapan
Dugg McDonough
Stage Director, Baton Rouge, LA
Elektra
La Rondine 2012, Dialogues of
the Carmelites 2011, Susannah
2010; Co-Director, Apprentice Artist
Program 1993-2012; Apprentice Artist
Program, 1991-1992, 1981; Assistant
Stage Director, 1992, 1991, 1981
Recently: Artistic Director, LSU Opera at Louisiana State
University; Stage Director, Sweeney Todd, Pensacola
Opera; The Turn of the Screw, The New Moon, La
tragédie de Carmen, Impressions de Pelléas, LSU Opera;
Turandot, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra; Artistic
Advisor, L’elisir d’amore, Opera Louisiane
Upcoming: Stage Director, La Cenerentola, Pensacola
Opera; Così fan tutte, Die Sieben Todsünden, Trouble in
Tahiti, LSU Opera
Sponsor: The Fred Maytag Family Foundation
Kristine McIntyre
Stage Director, Portland, OR
Peter Grimes
Eugene Onegin 2012, La Bohème 2011
Recently: Stage Director, La Cenerentola,
Pittsburgh Opera; Don Giovanni,
Kentucky Opera; Un Ballo in Maschera,
Madison Opera, Of Mice and Men,
Utah Opera; Madama Butterfly, Arizona Opera; Così fan
tutte, Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Flight, Austin Lyric Opera
Upcoming: Stage Director, Elmer Gantry, Tulsa Opera;
Dead Man Walking, Madison Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor,
Anchorage Opera
Sponsors: James and Catherine Erickson/AndersonErickson Dairy Company and Cherie and Bob Shreck
Kostis Protopapas
Conductor, Athens, Greece
Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: Aïda, The Most Happy
Fella, La Fille du Regiment, Tulsa
Opera; All-Mozart program,
Westmoreland Symphony
Upcoming: Le Nozze di Figaro,
Elmer Gantry, Tulsa Opera; Madama Butterfly,
Opera Columbus
Sponsor: Joan Kuyper Farver Foundation/
The Kuyper Foundation
Principal Artists
Kyle Albertson
Bass-baritone, Ankeny, IA
Hobson, Peter Grimes; The Duke,
Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: Sweeney Todd, Sweeney
Todd, Syracuse Opera; Gus O’Neill, Later
the Same Evening, The Glimmerglass
Festival; Lescaut, Manon Lescaut, Opera
Grand Rapids
Upcoming: Don Pomponio, La gazzetta, New England
Conservatory; Rucker Lattimore, Cold Sassy Tree, Sugar
Creek Festival; Zuniga, Carmen, Dallas Opera Sponsors: John and Louise Grzybowski
Cory Bix
Tenor, Clarinda, IA Bob Boles, Peter Grimes; Aegisth, Elektra
DMMO History: Apprentice Artist
2001, 2002
Recently: Erik, Der Fliegende Holländer,
Los Angeles Opera, Savonlinna Opera
Festival, Hungarian National Opera;
Bacchus, Ariadne auf Naxos, Volksoper
Wien, Washington National Opera, Badisches Staatstheater
Karlsruhe, Fort Worth Opera; Prince, Rusalka, Oedipus, Oedipus Rex, Greek National Opera
Upcoming: Erik, Der Fliegende Holländer, Arizona
Opera; Bacchus, Ariadne auf Naxos, The Glimmerglass
Festival; Prince (cover), Rusalka, Lyric Opera of Chicago;
Sir Edgar Aubrey, Der Vampyr, New Orleans Opera
Sponsors: Barbara and Michael Gartner
55
56
Principal Artists
Joyce Castle
Mezzo-Soprano, Lawrence, KS
Klytemnästra, Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Marquise of Birkenfeld, The
Daughter of the Regiment, Fort Worth
Opera; Madame Flora, The Medium,
Central City Opera; Madame Sosostris,
The Midsummer Marriage, Boston
Modern Opera Project; Mother, The Consul, Arizona
Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, New Jersey Opera,
recorded for Newport Classics; Aunt Eller, Oklahoma,
Central City Opera
Upcoming: Marquise of Birkenfeld, The Daughter of
the Regiment, Seattle Opera; Madame Armfeldt, A Little
Night Music, Houston Grand Opera; Count Orlofsky, Die
Fledermaus, Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Special Project: The
Hawthorne Tree, vocal chamber work by William Bolcom in
honor of Joyce’s Castle’s 40th anniversary
Sponsors: Mary and Daniel Kelly
Kathryn Day
Mezzo-Soprano, New York, NY Mrs. Sedley, Peter Grimes, First Maid,
Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Annina, La Traviata, Giovanna,
Rigoletto, Governess, Pique Dame,
Metropolitan Opera; Suzuki, Madama
Butterfly, Portland Opera
Upcoming: Respectable Lady, The Nose, Metropolitan
Opera; Bronka, The Passenger, Houston Grand Opera
Sponsors: Barbara Graham and Diane Morain
Tony Dillon
Bass, Moline, IL
Capulet, Romeo and Juliet; Orest’s
Tutor, Elektra
DMMO History: 10 roles since 2001,
including Rambaldo Fernandez, La Rondine,
Zaretsky, Eugene Onegin 2012; Marquis de
la Force, Dialogues of the Carmelites 2011
Recently: Benoit/Alcindoro, La Bohème,
Festival de Musique de St. Barthelemy, Seattle Opera;
Messiah, Cheyenne Symphony
Upcoming: Benoit/ Alcindoro, La Bohème, Kentucky Opera
Sponsors: Judy and Phil Watson
Sara Gartland
Soprano, St. Paul, MN
Juliet, Romeo and Juliet
DMMO History: Alexandra, Regina,
Apprentice Artist Program 2008
Recently: Curley’s Wife, Of Mice
and Men, Utah Opera; Pat Nixon,
(cover), Nixon in China, Micaëla,
Carmen, San Francisco Opera; Echo,
All Wounds Bleed, American Lyric Theater Upcoming: Adina, L’elisir d’amore, Austin Lyric Opera;
Musetta, La Bohème, San Diego Opera
Sponsors: Pamela Bass-Bookey and Harry Bookey
and Holly and Neal Logan
Brenda Harris
Soprano, Riverside, CT
Elektra, Elektra
DMMO History: Donna Elvira, Don
Giovanni 2012; Madame Lidoine,
Dialogues of the Carmelites 2011;
Lady Macbeth, Macbeth 2010;
Agathe, Der Freischütz 2009
Recently: Abigaille, Nabucco,
Elisabetta, Roberto Devereux, Maria Stuarda, Minnesota
Opera; Leonore, Fidelio, Utah Opera; Turandot, Turandot, Sarasota Opera
Upcoming: Lady Macbeth, Macbeth, June Mathis, The
Dream of Valentino, Minnesota Opera
Sponsor: Frank R. Brownell III
Roger Honeywell
Tenor, Stratford, Canada
Peter Grimes, Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: Cavaradossi, Tosca, Portland
Opera; Frederick, Pirates of Penzance,
Vancouver Opera; Aegisth, Elektra,
Lyric Opera of Chicago; Antonio, The
Tempest, Opera du Quebec
Upcoming: Captain Vere, Billy Budd, Santiago, Chile;
Bob Boles/Peter Grimes (cover), Peter Grimes, Canadian
Opera Company; Bacchus, Ariadne auf Naxos, Pacific Opera
Sponsors: Janis and John Ruan III/The John Ruan
Foundation and Richard and Joan Schultz
Sarah Larsen
Mezzo-Soprano, Roseville, MN
Stéphano, Romeo and Juliet; Third
Maid, Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Tisbe, La Cenerentola,
Suzuki, Madama Butterfly, Seattle
Opera; Neris, Medea, The
Glimmerglass Festival; Sarelda,
The Inspector, Wolf Trap Opera
Upcoming: Maddalena, Rigoletto, The Secretary,
The Consul, Seattle Opera
Sponsors: Dr. Bernard and Dana Leman
Philip Horst
Bass-Baritone, Lansing, MI
Orest, Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Wozzeck, Wozzeck, New
Israeli Opera; Mandryka, Arabella, Oper
Frankfurt, Theater St. Gallen; Ostasio,
Francesca da Rimini, Fourth Gamble,
The Gambler, various roles, The
Nose, Metropolitan Opera; Simone, Eine florentinische
Tragödie, Greek National Opera; Tomsky, Pique Dame,
Komische Oper Berlin
Upcoming: Pizarro, Fidelio, English National
Opera; Geisterbote (cover), Die Frau ohne Schatten,
Gamekeeper (cover), Rusalka, Metropolitan Opera
Sponsors: Tom and Linda Koehn
Heath Huberg
Tenor, Milford, IA
Tybalt, Romeo and Juliet
2005, 2006
Recently: Nadir, Le Pêcheurs
des Perles, Cassio, Otello, Sarasota
Opera; Iago, Otello, Opera Southwest;
Almaviva, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Merola
Opera Program
Sponsors: Steven P. and Stephanie DeVolder
Zachary Koeppen
Boy Soprano, Norwalk, IA
John, Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: Band and Choir, Irving
Elementary, Indianola; Honor Choir
member; Boy Scouts of America
Sponsor: The H. Dale and Lois
Bright Foundation
Julie Makerov
Soprano, Los Angeles, CA
Chrysothemis, Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Mother, Hansel and Gretel,
Lyric Opera of Chicago; Queen of
Hearts, Alice in Wonderland, Opera
Theater of Saint Louis; Tosca, Tosca,
Canadian Opera Company
Upcoming: Senta, Der Fliegende Holländer, Los
Angeles Opera; Sieglinde, Die Walküre, American
Symphony Orchestra; Tosca, Tosca, Vancouver Opera
Sponsors: Fred and Charlotte Hubbell and Helen H.
and James W. Hubbell, Jr.
Sinéad Mulhern
Soprano, Dublin, Ireland
Ellen Orford, Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: Governess, The Turn of
the Screw, New Israeli Opera, Central
City Opera; Marquise de Merteuil,
Quartett (world premiere), Teatro alla
Scala; Mimì, La Bohème, Contessa, Le Nozze di Figaro, Wiener Staatsoper; Tatyana, Eugene
Onegin, Jenůfa, Jenůfa, Rosalinda, Die Fledermaus, Jenny,
Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Staatstheater
Wiesbaden, Singapore Symphony Orchestra
Upcoming: Marquise de Merteuil, Quartett, Opéra de
Lille; Contessa, Le Nozze di Figaro, Central City Opera
Sponsor: Daniel J. and Ann L. Krumm Charitable Trust
Susan Shafer
Contralto, New Wilmington, PA
Auntie, Peter Grimes; Gertrude,
Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: Klytaemnestra, Elektra,
Canadian Opera Company, San
Francisco Opera; Filipyevna, Eugene
Onegin, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis,
Pittsburgh Opera, Santa Fe Opera; Alte Nonne, Santa
Susanna, Bard Festival; Ulrica, Un Ballo in Maschera,
Paris Opera, Teatro Communale, Atlanta Opera,
Kentucky Opera, Pittsburgh Opera
Upcoming: Soloist, Durufle Requiem, Handel
Messiah, J.S. Bach Cantatas, A Retrospective Recital of
the solo literature of John Becker
Sponsors: Stanley and Mary Seidler/
The Seidler Foundation
Jason Slayden
Tenor, Houston, TX
Romeo, Romeo and Juliet
DMMO History: Apprentice Artist 2008
Recently: Laertes, Hamlet, Minnesota
Opera; Rodolfo, La Bohème, Vancouver
Opera; Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni, Wolf
Trap Opera; Ernesto, Don Pasquale,
Seattle Opera Young Artist Program
Upcoming: Fabriele, Simone Boccanegra, Kentucky Opera;
Il Duca di Mantua, Rigoletto, Opera Memphis; Rodolfo,
La Bohème, Arizona Opera; Cassio, Otello, Nashville
Opera; Don Ottavio, Don Giovanni, Austin Lyric Opera
Sponsors: Jim and Patty Cownie/Cownie Charitable Fund
Todd Thomas
Baritone, Philadelphia, PA Balstrode, Peter Grimes
DMMO History: Macbeth, Macbeth
2010; Ankarström, A Masked Ball
2008; Iago, Otello 2007; Rigoletto,
Rigoletto 2006
Recently: Rigoletto, Rigoletto, Opera
Manitoba, Michigan Opera Theater;
Count di Luna, Il Trovatore, Seattle Opera, Indianapolis
Opera, Manitoba Opera; Scarpia, Tosca, Michigan Opera
Theater, Opera Carolina, New York City Opera, Florentine
Opera; Dr. Metevier, War and Peace, Metropolitan Opera;
Tonio, I Pagliacci, Opera Omaha; Sharpless, Madama
Butterfly, Opera Omaha, Opera Carolina, Opera
Birmingham; Miller, Luisa Miller, Chautauqua Opera
Upcoming: Scarpia, Tosca, Florida Grand Opera;
Sharpless, Madama Butterfly, Opera Lyra; Iago (cover),
Otello, Lyric Opera of Chicago; Rigoletto, Rigoletto, Opera Birmingham
Sponsors: Nancy and Bill Main
Jeffrey Tucker
Bass, Chandler, AZ
Friar Laurent, Romeo and Juliet;
Swallow, Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: Bartolo, Le Nozze di
Figaro, Virginia Opera; Lautsprecher/
Der Tod, Der Kaiser von Atlantis,
Central City Opera; Sacristan, Tosca,
Syracuse Opera; Sparafucile, Rigoletto, Opera Saratoga
Upcoming: Pistola, Falstaff, Virginia Opera
Sponsors: James and Lois Berens
Craig Verm
Baritone, Pittsburgh, PA
Ned Keene, Peter Grimes; Mercutio,
Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: Albert, Werther, Lyric Opera
of Chicago; Sid, Albert Herring, Théâtre
du Capitole de Toulouse; Zurga, Les
Pêcheur de Perles, Tom Joad, The
Grapes of Wrath, Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet, Ping,
Turandot, Pittsburgh Opera; Escamillo, Carmen, Teatro
Municipal de Santiago; Papageno, Die Zauberflöte, Conte,
Le Nozze di Figaro, Florentine Opera; Ramiro, L’heure
espagnole, Nationale Reisopera
Upcoming: Billy Budd, Billy Budd, Teatro Municipal
de Santiago; Papageno, Die Zauberflöte, Marcello, La
Bohème, Pittsburgh Opera; Glass’ The CIVIL WarS, Los
Angeles Philharmonic; Zurga, Les Pêcheur de Perles,
Nashville Opera
Sponsors: Dr. Bruce L. Hughes and Dr. Randall Hamilton
57
58
Music, Directing
and Design staff
Aaron Breid
Music Coach, San Diego, CA
Cover Conductor, Romeo and Juliet;
Associate Conductor, Elektra
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO Debut
Recently: Assistant/Cover Conductor
and Chorus Master, Turandot, Nabucco,
Anna Bolena, Hamlet, Doubt, Minnesota
Opera; Guest Conductor, Ocala Symphony Orchestra,
Edina Chorale
Upcoming: Assistant/Cover Conductor, Manon Lescaut,
Arabella, Macbeth, The Dream of Valentino, Die Zauberflöte,
Minnesota Opera
Sponsors: Sunnie Richer and Roger Brooks
R. Keith Brumley
Scenic Designer, Kansas City, MO
Peter Grimes, Elektra, Romeo and Juliet
DMMO History: Resident Designer
for 11 seasons and over 19 productions,
including: Eugene Onegin, La Rondine
2012, Susannah, Macbeth 2010
Recently: Resident Scenic Designer,
Lyric Opera of Kansas City, La Bohème,
Florida Grand Opera; Romeo and Juliet, Opera Colorado;
A Masked Ball, Madison Opera; Turandot, Austin Lyric Opera
Upcoming: Set Designer, La Bohème, Lyric Opera of
Kansas City
Sponsors: Bryan Hall and Pat Barry
Octavio Cardenas
Stage Director, Guadalajara, Mexico
Assistant Stage Director, Peter Grimes
DMMO History: Assistant Director,
Eugene Onegin 2012, Don Pasquale
2010; Stage Director, Apprentice
Artist Program 2010-present
Recently: Assistant Director, Silent
Night, Opera Philadelphia; Dialogues of the Carmelites,
Rita, Baylor Opera; Assistant Director 2008-2012, The
Minnesota Opera
Upcoming: Stage Director, The Turn of the Screw,
Baylor Opera, Director of Opera, Baylor University
Sponsors: Charles and Marilyn Farr
Richard Cordova
Music Coach, New York, NY
DMMO History: Assistant Conductor,
The Barber of Seville 2009, Regina
2008, Otello 2007, Rigoletto 2006;
Apprentice Artist Program 1988,
2006-present
Recently: Conductor, The Wandering
Scholar/Savitri, Little Opera Theatre of New York;
Pianist/Vocal Coach, Land of Enchantment Opera Institute
Upcoming: Pianist/Vocal Coach, Land of Enchantment
Opera Institute
Sponsors: Joan Burke and Joshua and Susie Kimelman
John de los Santos
Stage Director/Choreographer,
San Antonio, TX
Choreographer, Romeo and Juliet
Program 2012
Recently: Stage Director/ Choreographer,
Sweeney Todd, Level Ground Arts; Hello
Again, Uptown Players; Cendrillon,
Kentucky Opera; Maria de Buenos Aires, Lexington
Philharmonic; Green Sneakers, Fort Mason Center
Upcoming: Director/Choreographer, Carousel, Ashlawn
Opera; The Pearl Fishers, Fort Worth Opera
Sponsors: J.C. and Sue Brenton
Sheldon Miller
Rehearsal Pianist, Chicago, IL
Chorus Rehearsal Pianist, Romeo
and Juliet, Peter Grimes, Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Resident Artist,
Minnesota Opera; Rehearsal Pianist,
King Roger, Tosca, Maometto II, Santa
Fe Opera; Nabucco, Anna Bolena, Doubt, Hamlet,
Turandot, Minnesota Opera
Upcoming: Rehearsal Pianist, Cold Sassy Tree, Sugar
Creek Symphony and Song
Sponsor: Paul Woodard
Christine Seitz
Stage Director, Columbia, MO
Assistant Stage Director, Romeo and Juliet
DMMO History: Madame Larina, Eugene
Onegin 2012; Assistant Stage Director, Tosca
2009, Susannah 2010, Dialogues of the
Carmelites 2011; Apprentice Artist Program
2006-present
Recently: Stage Director, Così fan tutte, La Cenerentola, Show
Me Opera, University of Missouri-Columbia
Upcoming: Stage Director, The Crucible, Show Me Opera
Sponsors: Easter Family Fund and Marian and Don Easter Fund
William Shomos
Elsen Associates, Wig and
Makeup Design Directed by Dennis Bergevin and Anne
Ford-Coates; Represented by Sarah
Hatten (pictured) and Brittany Crinson
DMMO History: Wig and makeup
design 1995-present Recently: Wig Master and Makeup
Designer, Lyric Opera of Chicago;
Designer, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Columbus;
Assistant Designer, Central City Opera, Los Angeles Opera
Sponsors: LeRoy and Carol Johnson
Lisa Hasson
Music Coach, Cincinnati, OH
Director, Apprentice Artist Program
Chorus Master, Romeo and Juliet, Peter
Grimes, Elektra
DMMO History: Chorus Master 2007present; Rehearsal Pianist, 2004-2005;
Apprentice Artist Program 2004-present
Recently: Chorus Master/Principal Coach, Tosca, Cendrillon,
The Prodigal Son, Don Giovanni, Kentucky Opera; Music
Director, Find Your Voice and Let’s Cook Up an Opera,
Cincinnati Opera Outreach; Accompanist, Vocal Arts
Ensemble; Guest Coach/Visiting Faculty, Miami University
Upcoming: Chorus Master/Principal Coach, La Bohème,
Simon Boccanegra, Romeo and Juliet, Composer Workshop:
Paul Moravec, Kentucky Opera Sponsors: Craig and Kimberly Shadur
Yasuko Oura
Music Coach, Chicago, IL
Rehearsal Pianist, Romeo and Juliet
Program 2009-2011
Recently: Principal Production Coach,
Carmen, Albert Herring, Le Nozze di
Figaro, Florentine Opera; Music Staff,
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Lyric Opera of Chicago
Upcoming: Principal Production Coach, La Traviata,
Giulio Cesare, La Bohème, Florentine Opera; Rehearsal
Pianist, La Bohème, Kentucky Opera
Sponsors: Marylee Lankamer and John D. and Mary M.
Ramsey Fund
Allen Perriello
Pianist/Music Coach, Gibsonia, PA
Rehearsal Pianist, Peter Grimes
Program 2011-present
Recently: Head of Music Staff,
Lucia di Lammermoor, Roméo et
Juliette, Tosca, Il Trovatore, Le Nozze
di Figaro, Arizona Opera
Upcoming: Head of Music Staff, H.M.S. Pinafore,
Der Fliegende Holländer, La Bohème, La Traviata,
Don Pasquale, Arizona Opera; Music Director, Marion
Roose Pullin Resident Artist Program, Arizona Opera
Sponsor: Betty Schiller
Elden Little
Music Coach, Austin, TX
Rehearsal Pianist, Elektra
DMMO History: Rehearsal Pianist
2006-present; Apprentice Artist
Program 2006-present
Recently: Rehearsal Pianist, Lucia di
Lammermoor, I Pagliacci, Le Nozze di
Figaro, Faust, Austin Lyric Opera; Lucia di Lammermoor,
Carmen, Opera Birmingham; Carmen, Kentucky Opera
Upcoming: Rehearsal Pianist, Don Carlo, Tosca, L’elisir
d’amore, Austin Lyric Opera; Pagliacci/Suor Angelica,
Opera Birmingham
Sponsor: Melanie Porter
Robin McGee
Costume Designer, Highland, IL
Peter Grimes; Costume Coordinator,
Elektra, Romeo and Juliet DMMO History: Costume Designer,
La Rondine 2012, Susannah 2010;
Coordinator 2010-present
Recently: Costume Designer, A Servant
of Two Masters, University of Florida, O
Wondrous Night, Sea World Orlando
Upcoming: Costume Designer, Dial M for Murder,
Jupiter Theater
Sponsors: Pat Brown in memory of Doug Brown
Brian Robertson
Stage Combat Instructor, Stage
Director, Cincinnati, OH
DMMO History: Stage Combat Director,
Don Giovanni 2012, Macbeth 2010,
Otello, Carmen 2008, The Tales of
Hoffmann, Gloriana 2005; Apprentice
Artist Program 2008, 2010, 2012-present
Recently: Stage Director, Camelot, Carnegie
Performing Arts Center; Cock, Know Theatre; Tongue
of a Bird, Northern Kentucky University; A Flowering
Tree, The Magic Flute Redux, Cincinnati Opera; Lucia di
Lammermoor, Sarasota Opera
Upcoming: Stage Director, Sound of Music, Kentucky
Symphony Orchestra, Arabian Nights, Northern
Kentucky University
Sponsor: Winifred Kelley
Stage Director, Lincoln, NE
DMMO History: Assistant Stage Director, Tales
of Hoffmann 2005, La Cenerentola 2004, Faust
2003; Apprentice Artist Program 2003-2005,
2011-present; Stage Director, OPERA Iowa
2009, 2006; Apprentice Artist 1988
Recently: Stage Director, O Pioneers!, The
Coronation of Poppea, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Upcoming: Assistant Director, Tannhäuser, Tirana, Albania;
Stage Director, Season Preview, Opera Omaha; Albert Herring,
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Sponsors: Carlton T. and Susan King and Tom and Marsha Mann
Wilson Southerland
Conductor/Coach/Pianist, New York, NY
Associate Conductor, Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: Principal Conductor/Associate
Music Director, Les Enfants Terribles, North
Carolina Opera; Associate Conductor, The
Rape of Lucretia, Opera Memphis; The Turn
of the Screw, The New Israeli Opera; Assistant Conductor/
Pianist, La Bohème, Royal Opera House (Muscat, Oman);
Ziyankomo, Opera Africa; Coach/Pianist, The Chautauqua
Institution, The Eastman School of Music, The Juilliard School
Upcoming: Head Coach, Don Pasquale, The New Israeli
Opera; Recital, Master Class, Vanderbilt University; Coach/Pianist
Sponsor: Jo Ghrist
Barry Steele
Resident Lighting and Video Designer,
Brooklyn, NY
Romeo and Juliet, Peter Grimes, Elektra
DMMO History: Lighting Designer,
2004-present
Recently: Production Designer,
Mobile Opera, Syracuse Opera; Lighting
and Video Designer, El Paso Opera,
Nashville Opera, several NYC and SF dance companies
Upcoming: Production Designer, The Man Who Mistook
His Wife for a Hat, Nashville Opera; La Fanciulla del West,
Indianapolis Opera; Lighting and Video Designer, Maria de
Buenos Aires, Syracuse Opera; La Bohème, El Paso Opera
Sponsor: Patrick Kelly
Eve Summer Stage Director/Choreographer, Boston, MA
Choreographer/Assistant Director, Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Young Artist Coach, Roméo et
Juliette, La Rondine, Don Giovanni, Cyrano,
Florida Grand Opera; Coaching Fellow, Les
Contes d’Hoffmann, Wolf Trap Opera Company;
Vocal Coach, Cendrillon, Florida International University
Upcoming: Freelance Vocal Coach, New York City
Sponsor: Paul J. Meginnis, II
59
60
41st Season Festival Staff
Artistic
Production
Conductors
David Neely
Kostis Protopapas
Lisa Kelly
Stage Directors
Linda Ade Brand
Dugg McDonough
Kristine McIntyre
Associate Conductors
Aaron Breid
Wilson Southerland
Assistant Stage Directors
Octavio Cardenas
Christine Seitz
Eve Summer
Scenic Designer
R. Keith Brumley
Romeo and Juliet Stage Manager
Brian August
Assistant Stage Managers
Sadie DeSantis
Caroline Walker
Ann Louise Wolf
Technical Director
Jarrod Bodensteiner
Assistant Technical Director
Chris Largent
Master Carpenter
Ashley Fant
Barry Steele
Stage Carpenters
Ian Looten
Britta McCaffrey
Dan Petersen
Costume Designer
Robin McGee
Stage Supervisor
Jessica Rechin
Wig and Makeup Designer
Sarah Hatten
Assistant Stage Supervisor
Derek Jay
Chorus Master
Lisa Hasson
Assistant to the Stage Supervisor
Robert Klein
Choreographers
John De Los Santos
Eve Summer
Paint Charge
Lauren Duffy
Brian Robertson
Apprentice Artist Program
Director
Lisa Hasson
Stage Directors
Linda Ade Brand
Octavio Cardenas
Brenda Harris
Dugg McDonough
Brian Robertson
Christine Seitz
William Shomos
Eve Summer
Music Coaches
Aaron Breid
Richard Cordova
Elden Little
Sheldon Miller
Yasuko Oura
Allen Perriello
Wilson Southerland
Assistant Paint Charge
Holly Sverdrup
Properties Master
Adam Crinson
Assistant Properties Master
Kristin Campbell
Properties Stage Supervisor
Sam Sayers
Properties Artisan
Lisa Berg
Assistant Lighting Designer
Nate Wheatley
Master Electrician
Ben Golden
Electricians
Mary Hosford
Brian Shaw
Costume Shop Supervisor
Tracy Floyd
Assistant Costume Shop Supervisor
Emily Ganfield
Costume Crew
Allison White
Assistant Wig and Makeup Designer
Brittney Crinson
Assistant Production Manager
Katherine Clanton
WEDDINGS MEETINGS ANNIVERSARIES
BOXED LUNCHES HOLIDAY PARTIES
Office and Theater
Assistant to the General Director
Michael Patterson
GRADUATIONS AWARD BANQUETS
Company Coordinator
Sam Carroll
Mainstage Orchestra Librarian
Sara Baguyos
W E C AT E R TO
Auxiliary Chorus
Daryl Becicka
Ben Blystone
Ruth Brail-Freeman
Jessica Dick
Arthur Hill
Dan Jacobsen
Madeline Judge
Christine Louderman
Shawn McAnich
Sarah Monnier
Gabrielle Sarcone
Alicia Suschena
Deaven Swainey
Jake Thede
Nella Thomas
Chris Wilde
Visit the boutique counter in
the theater lobby for all your
DMMO souvenirs!
WE CATER TO ANY
EVENT OR OCCASION
Supernumeraries
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Douggie Royer
Christine Seitz
Mary Beth Shomos
William Shomos
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Matthew Winjum
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and
more!
2002 Woodland Ave, DSM
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62
Violin
Bassoon
Concertmaster
Hiromi Ito Fort Wayne, IN
Principal Rudi Heinrich Milwaukee, WI
MattHew Lano Chicago, IL
Matthew Ransom Iowa City, IA
Assistant Concertmaster
Debra Akerlund Aberdeen, WA
Principal Second
Dawn Posey Pittsburgh, PA
Ellen Chamberlain Tucson, AZ
Susan French Long Island City, NY
John Helmich Urbandale, IA
Juan C. Jaramillo Pittsburgh, PA *
Nonoko Okada Greensboro, NC
Edward Pulgar Knoxville, TN
Mary Pulgar Knoxville, TN
Genevieve Salamone Montreal, PQ, Canada
Jung-Min Shin Homewood, AL
Caroline Slack Kansas City, MO
Shawna Trost Sarasota, FL
Michelle Vallier Muskegon, MI
Pei-Ju Wu Houston, TX
Viola
Principal Wanda B. Lydon San Antonio, TX
Linda H. Benoit Indianola, IA
Simon Ertz Greensboro, NC
Patrick Horn Thunder Bay, ON, Canada
Charles Miranda Des Moines, IA
Christine Prince Victoria, BC, Canada
Festival Orchestra
Members of the
orchestra during
the 2012 Stars of
Tomorrow concert.
Photo by Jen Golay
Des Moines Metro Opera’s Festival Orchestra
boasts talented musicians from all over North
America, all of whom, in addition to performing
for Des Moines Metro Opera, perform for quality
symphonies and opera orchestras elsewhere.
Highly talented musicians are essential because
they all come together for the first time in early
June and have only a few weeks to be ready
for audiences—and with this year’s incredible
repertory, they’ll have to be better than ever.
David Neely, Des Moines Metro Opera’s Principal
Conductor who will be on the podium for both
Elektra and Peter Grimes, understands that this is
a big year for his orchestra and he’s put together
players suited to the task. “A good opera orchestra
is more than just a good symphonic orchestra,”
Neely says. “You need a heightened awareness
to listen and respond to the singers on stage, a
good feel of tempo, and then you have to have
a sense for drama.”
“When you are a symphony orchestra, you are
the main event; you’re on a stage and everyone
can see you; it’s very public,” says Ralph Skiano
(pictured above, second row center), the
principal clarinetist from Richmond, Virginia. “In
an opera orchestra you are in a pit and there’s
little glory attached to it, but in a lot of ways it
can be more fun because there’s less pressure.
You can play with a certain anonymity.
“I always think of my playing in terms of storytelling,”
Skiano says. “A lot of symphonies are an hour
long, where operas can be six hours. In opera,
the big picture is so much bigger.”
Elektra, which presents the most challenges
and requires ten or so more players than Des
Moines Metro Opera’s Festival Orchestra usually
contracts, isn’t six hours long. It isn’t even two
hours long. “In Elektra, the orchestra is playing
very difficult passages nonstop for an hour and
forty minutes,” Neely says. “Playing Elektra is like
running a marathon, but in the time it takes to
run a half-marathon.”
“I come because I think the Des Moines Metro
Opera is in an upward trajectory where many
places in America are not. It’s an inspiring place
to be around,” Skiano says. “To a certain extent,
everyone leaves their lives behind to make music
for six weeks. They don’t get that opportunity
back home where there are kids to raise and lawns
to mow. In a way, it’s a little escape from reality.” n
Cello
Principal Andrew Dunn Birmingham, AL
Kevin Bate Homewood, AL
Mary Del Gobbo Birmingham, AL
Shawna Hamilton Denton, TX
ContraBassoon
Matthew Ransom Iowa City, IA
Horn
Principal Johanna Lundy Tucson, AZ
Michael Daly Savannah, GA
Thomas Hundemer Shreveport, LA
Joshua Johnson Windsor Heights, IA
Michael Wilson Ottumwa, IA
Piccolo Trumpet
Mary Bowden Naples, FL
Trumpet
Principal David Hunsicker Park City, KS
Mary Bowden Naples, FL
Derek Stratton Pella, IA
Trombone
Principal Timothy Howe Columbia, MO
David Stuart Ames, IA
J. Mark Thompson Natchitoches, LA
Bass trombone
J. Mark Thompson Natchitoches, LA
Tuba
Principal Michael Short Des Moines, IA ^
Timpani
Principal Andrew P. Simco Joliet, IL
Percussion
Principal Jeremy C. Baguyos Omaha, NE *
John W. Tuck Evanston, IL
Principal Mark Dorr West Des Moines, IA * ^
Victoria Daniel Appleton, WI
Joel Feldman Adel, IA
Benjamin Shellhaas Kansas City, MO
Flute/Piccolo
Harp
Principal Bruce Bodden Spokane, WA
Alyssa Griggs Titusville, FL
Kimberly Helton Des Moines, IA
Principal Nuiko Wadden Brooklyn, NY
Bass
Oboe
Principal Lise Glaser Tulsa, OK
Kevin Schilling Ames, IA
Leonid Sirotkin Indianapolis, IN
Celesta
Allen Periello Cincinnati, OH
Organ
Yasuko Oura Chicago, IL
Allen Periello Cincinnati, OH ^
English Horn
Leonid Sirotkin Indianapolis, IN
Orchestra Personnel Manager
E-Flat Clarinet
Mark Dorr
E-Chen Hsu Thunder Bay, ON, Canada
Clarinet
Principal Ralph Skiano Richmond, VA *
Randall Cunningham Liberty, MO
E-Chen Hsu Thunder Bay, ON, Canada *
Bass Clarinet
Thomas Aber Kansas City, MO
* Member of Peter Grimes banda.
^ Peter Grimes off-stage effects.
63
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DOWNING
CONSTRUCTION INC.
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Over
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Telephone (515)961-0551
Out of town reservations (800)961-0551
w w w. d o w n i n g c o n s t r u c t . c o m
Together with the Des Moines
Metro Opera, we provide a home
away from home for opera lovers.
I n d i a n o l a W e lc o m e s Y o u M I n d i a n o l a W e lc o m e s Y o u M I n d i a n o l a W e lc o m e s Y o u M I n d i a n o l a W e lc o m e s Y o u
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70
or international institutions including Rice
University, Cincinnati College Conservatory
of Music, Julliard, Manhattan School of
Music, Louisiana State University, University of
Wisconsin-Madison, New England Conservatory,
Indiana University, Florida State University and
the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The
average age is 26. There are 11 sopranos, eight
mezzo-sopranos, nine tenors, seven baritones
and four basses. Within each voice type is a
variety of size, color and weight of voice and
varying levels of previous professional experience.
Artists in
Progress
Each summer, central Iowa becomes
the home of one of our nation’s major
centers for the training of emerging
opera singers.
The company’s Apprentice Artist Program is
highly regarded in the industry and its reach,
quality and caliber are well known. Dozens
of industry professionals, including agents
and opera companies visit central Iowa each
summer in many cases because of the high
caliber of these young artists. From its inception,
Des Moines Metro Opera’s goal for this program
was to create a new facet for the company that
would be an investment in a critical resource
for the future of the operatic art form—the
next generation of singers—that would also
reap tangible benefits in the present season by
featuring young singers in comprimario roles
and as choristers. By assembling a chorus of
aspiring young singers, Des Moines Metro Opera
has created one of the finest opera choruses in
the United States.
The program and its participants are essential
to the company’s summer festival model and
to the season’s success. During their time
in Iowa, they participate in a seven-week
training regiment designed to provide the skills
necessary to bridge the gap between academic
study and a professional career. The schedule
is intense—filled with rehearsals, specialized
training and coaching sessions, concerts and
scenes presentations. Class topics include
acting for singers, audition techniques, diction,
languages, stage combat and vocal wellness.
From the beginning of the festival until the end,
their days are filled with rehearsals and classes.
Presenting Sponsor
Frank R. Brownell III
additional Program
support from
Anonymous
Morgan Stanley Foundation
The Paul’s Foundation
The Weathertop Foundation
Program director
and chorus master
Lisa Hasson shares a
moment of fun with
apprentice artists
Marcus Simmons and
Stefan Barner during a
coaching session.
Photos by Jen Golay
Every May the first notes of the summer festival
season are sung by members of Des Moines
Metro Opera’s Apprentice Artist Program. As a
performing arts organization with a missionbased focus on education, this place of honor is
appropriately given to aspiring singers.
into the Apprentice Artist Program. From
that number, over 800 singers were heard in
auditions in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati,
Baton Rouge, Des Moines and other cities
around the United States, and despite a delay
in the process this year by Hurricane Sandy,
40 exceptional artists were chosen.
This year when General and Artistic Director
Michael Egel welcomed patrons to their first
performance, he offered an astonishing figure.
For the 2013 season, Des Moines Metro Opera
received over 1,220 applications for admittance
This year’s apprentices represent 22 states and
Mexico, ranging from Oregon to Florida and
Wisconsin to Louisiana. Most have completed
graduate studies at prestigious national and/
Why do they do it? These are 40 of the most
promising voices in America who have already
achieved success both academically and
professionally, in many cases. This is the 39th
year that Des Moines Metro Opera has been
stealing the summers of America’s next top
opera singers so why are more performers than
ever trying to be a part of it?
“In addition to the constant exposure to the
art form, for me, it’s the hours and hours of
singing we get to do in a single day,” said
Ian Richardson, a member of the 2012 and
2013 Apprentice Artist Programs. The bassbaritone from Coon Rapids, Iowa, is the cover
71
72
for Hobson in Peter Grimes and has sung
for Knoxville Opera and at the University of
Tennessee. Richardson said that beyond being
with world-classes coaches and directors it’s
the 24-hour immersion in the world of opera
that makes the Apprentice Artist Program an
educational gem. “Living in close proximity with
other opera singers was refreshing,” he says
of his experience in 2012. “On top of all that, I
heard young singers and seasoned singers every
day from every direction.”
Tenor Marco Cammarota of Schenectady,
New York, also returns for a second season
and to cover the title role in Romeo and Juliet.
“Not only was I fully coached for my scene
assignments, but I also received valuable oneon-one time with principal artists, sang for many
prominent people in the opera business and had
the opportunity to learn a role in its entirety.”
Cammarota praised the working environment
at the company. “Beyond all this, Des Moines
Metro Opera is a safe and wonderful place
to develop as a young singer; the schedule is
rigorous but never with insurmountable stress.
Every time you walk into Blank Performing Arts
Center you feel like you’re part of something
bigger than yourself, and that is irreplaceable.”
The woman overseeing those 12-hour days
is Lisa Hasson of Covington, Kentucky, who
started with Des Moines Metro Opera in 2004
on the music staff. In 2007 she was named
chorus master, and in 2010 she became the
Co-Director of the Apprentice Artist Program.
This season is her first year as the sole director
of the program. The program’s success is
directly tied to the experience and dedication of
Hasson and her teaching team. She leads a staff
of twelve professional coaches, conductors and
stage directors—each distinguished in their roles
at other opera companies and universities. (See
the staff profiles on pages 58-59.)
“I’m involved in the day-to-day overseeing of
the schedule and in communicating with the
other staff members, getting them prepped
for the day,” Hasson says. “I construct the
experience for the apprentice and then I
manage that day.” Hasson says that “apprentice”
is the right word. “It’s all practical information;
they aren’t sitting in a classroom,” she says. “The
amount of information they have access to in a
short amount of time is incredible. There aren’t
two days alike.”
This strategy is working. In its 39-year history,
the program has had more than 1,200 graduates—
many of whom have gone on to successful
careers in major opera houses around the world.
Alumni also return to star on our mainstage;
this season’s principal artists who are graduates
of the program include Sara Gartland, Jason
Slayden, Heath Huberg and Corey Bix.
In the business of stage performance,
confidence is key, and Hasson is proud of her
role in providing young singers with that. “I
love working with singers at this level,” she
says. “They are still malleable but they are very
smart; they are very interesting. You don’t have
to connect the dots for them and yet there’s
still plenty to learn. It’s a challenging stage and
programs like ours help them bridge that gap to
become artists.”
Funding the Apprentice Artist Program is a
priority for Des Moines Metro Opera. The
company is very grateful for the support of
Frank Brownell, whose generous sponsorship of
the Apprentice Artist Program ensures the longterm vitality and success of the program and
thus, of the company. n
Stage director Christine Seitz coaches apprentices David
Margulis and Abby Rethwisch during a scene rehearsal.
Apprentice Artists
Lindsey Anderson
Marco Cammarota
Mezzo-Soprano, Traverse City, MI
Trainbearer, Elektra; Mrs. Sedley (cover),
Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: The Ballad of Baby Doe,
Winter Opera St. Louis; The Magic
Flute, Seattle Opera; Madama Butterfly,
Central City Opera
Tenor, Schenectady, NY
Romeo (cover), Romeo and Juliet
Recently: Street Scene, The Turn of
the Screw, Cincinnati Conservatory of
Music; Carmen, Crested Butte Music
Festival; Metropolitan Opera National
Council Encouragement Award
Stefan Barner
Claudia Chapa
Tenor, Oskaloosa, IA
Benvolio, Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: The Music Man, Glimmerglass
Opera; The Most Happy Fella, Tulsa
Opera; La Fanciulla del West, Knoxville
Opera; Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions Regional Finalist 2010
Brad Baron
Mezzo-Soprano, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
Gertrude (cover), Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: The Magic Flute, Portland
Opera; Falstaff, Opera in the Heights;
Faust, Indianapolis Opera
Megan Cullen
Bass-Baritone, Glen Rock, NJ
Swallow (cover), Peter Grimes
Old Servant, Elektra
DMMO History: OPERA Iowa 2012
Recently: Utopia LTD, Ohio Light
Opera; Le Nozze di Figaro, Princeton
Opera Theatre; Pirates of Penzance,
College Light Opera
Soprano, Las Cruces, NM
Elektra (cover), Overseer, Elektra
Recently: Turandot, West Bay
Opera; Suor Angelica, San Francisco
Conservatory; Sarasota Opera
Apprentice Artist
Eliza Bonet
Ashley Dixon
Mezzo-Soprano, Atlanta, GA
DMMO Debut
Recently: Rigoletto, Shreveport Opera;
Alice in Wonderland, Opera Theatre of
St. Louis; Cendrillon, Kentucky Opera;
Metropolitan Opera National Council
Audition Encouragement Award
Mezzo-Soprano, Peachtree City, GA
DMMO Debut
Recently: La Cenerentola, Le
Nozze di Figaro, Louisiana State
University Opera; The Barber of
Seville, La Musica Lirica
Jeff Byrnes
Cassie Glaeser
Baritone, Arlington, TX
Captain Balstrode (cover), Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: The Magic Flute, Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music; Don Giovanni,
Natchez Opera Festival; La Cenerentola,
Louisiana State University Opera
Soprano, Manitowoc, WI
4th Maid, Chrysothemis (cover), Elektra
Recently: Don Giovanni, University
of Wisconsin-Madison; The Tales of
Hoffmann, Seagle Music Colony; The
Bartered Bride, Lawrence University
Brendan Callahan-Fitzgerald
Bethany Hickman
Tenor, Atlanta, GA
DMMO Debut
Recently: Rigoletto, Gianni Schicchi,
Capitol City Opera; Madama Butterfly¸
Georgia State University; Metropolitan
Opera National Council Auditions
Regional Finalist 2013
Mezzo-Soprano, Clarinda, IA
Stephano (cover), Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: L’Amico Fritz, University
of Wisconsin-Madison; The Medium,
Central City Opera; Albert Herring,
Simpson College
73
74
Apprentice Artists
Emily Holsclaw
Soprano, Dublin, OH
Confidante, Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Don Giovanni, Albert Herring,
Indiana University Opera Theatre; Alice
in Wonderland, Opera Theatre of Saint
Louis; Metropolitan Opera National Council
Auditions Encouragement Award 2013
David Margulis
Abigail Rethwisch
George Ross Somerville
Tenor, Plantation, FL
DMMO Debut
Recently: Tosca, Arizona Opera;
Maometto II¸ Santa Fe Opera; The
Death of Klinghoffer, Opera Theatre
of Saint Louis; Metropolitan Opera
National Council Auditions Regional
Finalist 2011
Soprano, Iowa City, IA
DMMO History: Apprentice
Artist 2012
Recently: Orphée aux enfers,
Florida State University; Metropolitan
2013 Maria Di Palma Artist
Tenor, Point Pleasant, NJ
Rev. Adams, Peter Grimes (cover),
Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: Don Giovanni, Opera
Theatre of Saint Louis, CoOPERATive
Opera; A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Westminster Opera Theater
Sara Ann Mitchell
Ian Richardson
Kenneth Stavert
Soprano, Tulsa, OK
1st Niece, Peter Grimes
2012, 2011; OPERA Iowa 2012
Recently: Le Nozze di Figaro,
Austin Lyric Opera; The Impresario,
PORTopera; HMS Pinafore, Ohio
Light Opera
Bass-Baritone, Coon Rapids, IA
Hobson (cover), Peter Grimes
DMMO History: Apprentice
Artist 2012
Recently: The Rape of Lucretia,
University of Tennessee-Knoxville;
La Fanciulla del West, Knoxville Opera
Baritone, Fullerton, CA
Gregorio, Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: Lucia di Lammermoor,
Madama Butterfly, Palm Beach Opera;
La Bohème, Opera North; Metropolitan
Amedee Moore
Katherine Sanford
Christopher Trapani
Mezzo-Soprano, Tulsa, OK
Auntie (cover), Peter Grimes
DMMO Debut
Recently: Gianni Schicchi, Land of
Enchantment Opera; The Mother of
Us All, Oklahoma City University;
Sarasota Opera Apprentice Artist 2013
2013 Anne Larson Artist
Soprano, Dayton, OH
DMMO History: OPERA Iowa 2013,
Apprentice Artist 2012
Maryland Concert Opera; The Rake’s
Progress, Peabody Opera Theater;
La Cenerentola, Opera North
Mezzo-Soprano, Annapolis, MD
DMMO Debut
Recently: Don Giovanni, University
of Michigan; L’Incoronazione di
Poppea, University of Michigan;
Hansel and Gretel, Bel Cantanti Opera
Tenor, Houston, TX
Aegisth (cover), Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Rigoletto, Salsipeudes,
University of Houston; The Tales of
Hoffmann, Seagle Music Colony
Mitchell Hutchings
Rachel Horton
Abigail Paschke
Christopher Scott
Ariana Wehr
Baritone, Waxhaw, NC
DMMO Debut
Recently: L’Incoronazione di
Poppea, Pensacola Opera; Gianni
Schicchi, Ash Lawn Opera; Die
Fledermaus, Opera Saratoga
Soprano, Westchester County, NY
Niece (cover), Peter Grimes; Juliet
(cover), Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: The Merry Widow, Kentucky
Opera; Sweeney Todd, Opera Theatre of
Saint Louis; Metropolitan Opera National
Council Auditions Encouragement Award
Baritone, Milan, IL
Paris, Romeo and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: La Traviata, Cincinnati
Opera; Lucrezia, Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music; La Bohème,
Bay View Music Festival
Soprano, Batesville, IN
DMMO Debut
Recently: Hansel and Gretel, Opera
Louisiane; The New Moon, Louisiana
State University Opera; Don
Giovanni, Natchez Opera Festival
Gregory Jebaily
Jill Phillips
Marcus Simmons
Nataly Wickham
Baritone, Florence, SC
Mercutio (cover), Romeo and Juliet
Recently: Le nozze di Figaro,
Kentucky Opera; Faust, Dayton
Opera; The Rape of Lucretia,
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
Mezzo-Soprano, Pocahontas, IA
2nd Maid, Elektra
Recently: Les contes d’Hoffmann,
Wolf Trap Opera Studio; The Rake’s
Progress, Dialogues of the Carmelites,
Cincinnati Conservatory of Music
Baritone, Philadelphia, PA
DMMO Debut
Recently: The Elixir of Love, The
University of Maryland Vocal Arts
Ensemble; The Face on The Barroom
Floor, Pirates of Penzance, Miami
University Opera
Soprano, Graham, WA
DMMO Debut
Austin Lyric Opera; New York Stories,
University of Texas; Hansel and
Gretel, University of Washington;
Metropolitan Opera National Council
Auditions Regional Finalist 2013
Rebecca Krynski
Dana Pundt
Brendan Sliger
Pedro Willis-Barbosa
Soprano, Charlotte, NC
5th Maid, Elektra; Ellen Orford (cover),
Peter Grimes
DMMO History: Singer, La Rondine;
Recently: Così fan tutte, Falstaff,
Manhattan School of Music; Così fan
tutte, Seagle Music Colony
Soprano, Longview, TX
2nd Niece, Peter Grimes
2011; Apprentice Artist 2012, 2011
Recently: La Cenerentola, Seattle
Opera; Un Giorno di Regno, Seattle
Opera Young Artist Program
Tenor, Westernport, MD
DMMO Debut
Recently: The Elixir of Love,
Bethesda Summer Music; Werther,
University of Maryland Opera Studio;
Sarasota Opera Apprentice Artists
Program 2013
Tenor, Baton Rouge, LA
DMMO Debut
Recently: The New Moon, Louisiana
State University Opera; The Pirates of
Penzance, Opera for the Young; Little
Women, Northern Illinois University
Robert Lilly
Colin Ramsey
Alex Soare
Kasey Yeargain
Tenor, Houston, TX
Tybalt (cover), Romeo and Juliet
DMMO History: OPERA Iowa 2013
Recently: Don Pasquale, International
Vocal Arts Institute; L’Incoronazione
di Poppea, Rice Shepherd School
of Opera
Bass, Greenwich, CT
Friar Laurent (cover), Romeo
and Juliet
DMMO Debut
Recently: Un Giorno di Regno, Seattle
Opera Young Artist Program; The Tales
of Hoffmann, Wolf Trap Opera; Nina,
Manhattan School of Music
Bass-Baritone, Chicago, IL
Capulet (cover), Romeo and Juliet;
Orest (cover), Elektra
DMMO Debut
Recently: Gianni Schicchi, Opera
on the Avalon; Albert Herring,
Northwestern University
Baritone, Oklahoma City, OK
DMMO Debut
Lawrence Opera Works; Sweeney
Todd, Little Women, Seagle Music
Colony
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Design & Production
Internship Program
A great place to start a career, Des Moines Metro Opera
offers summer internships in technical theatre
In 2010 Des Moines Metro Opera launched a
pilot internship program in technical theatre
by restructuring six existing positions on the
staff in an effort to expand its educational
programming, to mitigate rising costs to
produce opera and to increase sustainability in
the production department. Now, three years
old and growing, the Design & Production
Internship Program at DMMO is comprised of
eighteen positions in every field of Theatrical
Production from Stage Management to Wigs
and Makeup Design. Interns experience a
unique combination of practical, work and
educational programs, each designed to further
their professional growth.
Participants work directly with noted professionals
under the guidance of supervisors and staff
drawn from many of the best theatres, opera
companies and schools in the nation. Together
with the production staff, both in Blank
Performing Arts Center and the newly renovated
scene shop, their individual efforts are an
essential component to produce three new
operas in just under five and a half weeks and in
approximately 22,000 hours!
An artisan carves into
a block of styrofoam
which will become
the set of Elektra.
The interns for the 2013 season were selected
from over 300 applicants representing all 50
states and even some from overseas. These
interns come to DMMO with a variety of
backgrounds and experience levels, but they
share the common goal of gaining professional
experience in opera repertory. This year’s
class contains eighteen people pursuing a B.A.
or B.F.A in some aspect of theater design or
technology at universities and colleges from
thirteen states including Alabama, Pennsylvania,
New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Missouri,
Indiana, Texas, Florida, Iowa, Michigan,
Tennessee, and Illinois. While generally younger
in their careers than those in the Apprentice
Artist Program for singers, it is the same
dedication to the craft of producing opera that
leads these aspiring artists and technicians to
our summer stock intensive internship program.
At Des Moines Metro Opera the Design &
Production Internship is a concentrated nineweek training and work program. It is aimed at
helping students expand their academic studies
in a professional learning environment. Over the
nine weeks interns participate in eight talkbacks
with directors, designers, and production staff;
attend several classroom workshops covering
refining a resume and portfolio, networking,
websites, freelancing, and production contracts;
and receive hands-on instruction in skill-based
workshops which include: rigging for the stage,
welding, and stage painting. Interns also receive
instruction in how to work safely in a theatrical
environment—taking workshops on stage safety,
personal protection equipment, respirators, and
basic first aid. Working alongside 32 staff and
design members from professional theater and
production companies around the United States,
interns expand their professional network of
contacts. It is the dedication of the production
staff that allows the interns to experience the
level of commitment and precision it takes to
execute the plans and ideas of designers and
directors in such a short time. “My internship
last season was one of the most beneficial
opportunities I have had to kick-start my
career,” says Lisa Berg from Canton, Michigan.
“I was able to work alongside extraordinary
professionals on three amazing operas. We
received hands-on experience about the
workings of a professional opera shop. I worked
harder than I ever have before.” Berg returns this
season as a Properties Artisan.
Since 2010 the internship program has helped
shaped the mechanics of DMMO’s production
department, led to the creation of a schedule
more responsive to the new technical difficulties
of producing opera, and increased the quality
of work DMMO can provided to its directors,
designers, and audiences. “Des Moines Metro
Opera always has been an intensive summer
training ground for the young,” says R. Keith
Brumley of Kansas City, Missouri, the company’s
resident Scenic Designer. Brumley speaks from
his twenty years of experience with the company
when he says, “The addition of this remarkable
program has been a key ingredient to the company’s
recent success in building quality productions at
the actual festival site. Programs such as this are
one of the nation’s most important sources for
the next generation of designers, craftspeople
and technicians.” In its part the Design and
Production Internship Program will help the Des
Moines Metro Opera Production Department’s
ability to continue the high standard that
audiences have come to enjoy, whether they
are creating the beautiful settings for Romeo
and Juliet, the decaying world of Elektra or any
number of magical places in between! n
Production
Stage Management Interns
Alex Connor
Mike Waldrup
Stage Crew Interns
Austin Abernathy
Allyson Beheler
Dahlia Bigelow
Alex Dearmin
Abigail Gandy
Mike Leitschuh
Painting Intern
Danielle Ferguson
Properties Crew Interns
Helena Mestenhause
Hank Bullington
Electric Crew Interns
Michael Cahill
Zach Titterington
Costume Crew Interns
Amber Chandler
Garcia Emmanuel
Wig and Makeup Interns
Sara Brzozowski
Bridget Rzymski
Office and Theatre
Artistic and Administrative Intern
Ben Schaefer
Box Office Interns
Rebecca Claborn
Meghan Kasanders
Emma LaValley
House Staff Interns
Zack Brown
Jaecob Lynn
Dylan Struck
77
78
Greg Jebaily
during a
workshop in
Corning, Iowa.
Making a
Difference
OPERA Iowa
inspires
creativity
and builds
community
through
educational
programming
Presenting Sponsor
The Bright Foundation
additional Program support from
Anderson Erickson Dairy Co.
CenturyLink
The Coons Foundation
Iowa Arts Council, a division of the
Iowa Department of Cultural affairs
Meredith Corporation Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
In keeping with OPERA Iowa’s mission to educate
and entertain, singers lead classroom workshops
that detail musical and non-musical aspects of
opera such as backstage workshops, careers
in music and opera, and vocal styles that relate
ways in which the pillars of character excellence
are played out in familiar and unfamiliar stories.
These workshops are developed to meet
National Standards of Music Education and are
led by the singers with the idea that an educated
audience will have a more meaningful viewing
experience and will be more likely to attend
opera performances in later life.
In further keeping with the company’s mission to
provide performance opportunities to Americantrained artists, OPERA Iowa serves as a significant
performance venue for young American-trained
singers who perform for large and appreciative
audiences. The program also helps young singers
to hone their craft through the development of a
role or character in multiple performances over
the ten-week tour. This is a unique opportunity
for the development of a young artist. It is also a
strenuous one!
Our mission at Des Moines Metro Opera includes
providing vital arts education programs and
cultivating the next generation of opera lovers.
The company fulfills that mission with the OPERA
Iowa Educational Touring Troupe, which annually
brings together a resident ensemble of fine young
singers, a musical director, a stage director and a
technical director in order to present operas for
children and adults in schools and communities
throughout the region. The Troupe brings live
opera and other critical resources in music
education to more than 24,000 school children,
teenagers and adults annually. In its 27-year
history, OPERA Iowa has served as a primary
vehicle for music education by introducing
opera to over 750,000 children and adults
throughout Iowa, ten surrounding states and
even China and Japan!
For example, one Thursday in April, baritone Greg
Jebaily was at North Liberty High School in Liberty,
Missouri, preparing to sing the role of Belcore
in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love. This particular
show would be his third performance of the
day and eleventh since Monday on a ten-week
tour in which he and his colleagues performed
an average of 2.75 shows a day in four different
cities. This performance was during the ninth
full week of similar performance schedules.
Jebaily was understandably tired at that point in
the tour! Writing for Sports Illustrated magazine
in 1979, Sean Kellogg drew conclusions about
athletics and opera saying “…the fact is, opera
is extremely demanding physically, and a good
opera singer must possess many of the same
qualities as other good athletes: strength,
coordination, stamina. His playing field may
be a stage, his uniform a fancy costume and
his warmup suit a five-foot scarf, but a singer
is, in his way, as much an athlete as Terry
Bradshaw or Reggie Jackson.” Kellogg might
agree that the ten-week OPERA Iowa tour is
better than a gym membership. “Due to the
rigorous schedule,” says Jebaily, “we all have to
learn how to handle our voices and take care
of ourselves so that we can be very consistent
in our performances. This is a vital skill in opera
and a performing career.”
As music education programs in public schools
are being continually challenged by budget cuts,
the benefits of OPERA Iowa become increasingly
essential. In many cases, an OPERA Iowa residency
occurs in a school or community with limited, if
any, exposure to live performance.
The same type of high-level energy, which OPERA
Iowa is able to bring to performance number
78 as it did for performance number one, is a
compelling component with which to engage
the children who, in many cases, are experiencing
the art form for the first time. “Opera is not
available to the typical Iowa student,” says Lori
Lourens, a music teacher at Pella Community
Schools, which hosted OPERA Iowa in February.
“This is an inexpensive lesson in opera. They find
that it is interesting, enjoyable, and not what
they had envisioned. They also understand that
opera singers are highly trained and can sing many
different styles of music. They learn that opera
singers are real people with families, hobbies and
interests similar to their own. They have an age
appropriate taste of opera.”
“Introducing children to different and new
experiences is vitally important at the elementary
school age in particular,” Jebaily says. “The goal
of the OPERA Iowa residency isn’t only to build a
fan base for opera, but also to expand the horizons
of young children and to offer them opportunities
that they would otherwise not have had.”
Jebaily was one of seven singers, musicians and
technicians that made up the 2013 OPERA Iowa
troupe which from January 28 to April 15 held
88 school performances and 12 community
concerts from Clear Lake to Kansas City, from
Sioux City to Davenport and many towns and
cites in between. This year’s repertory included
The Elixir of Love for community performances
and The Three Little Pigs, an opera arranged
by John Davies from the music of Mozart in
elementary schools. The school performances
were complete with workshops in which the
troupe members entered the classroom to teach
the students about opera as a musical art form.
“When the tour is over and you can look back on
all of the places you have traveled and to know
how many children you have reached, that’s when
you realize you have made an incredible impact
on a large amount of people,” Jebaily says, talking
about the more than 24,000 people that OPERA
Iowa performs for over the length of a tour.
“That was the most satisfying part for me.” n
The 2013 OPERA Iowa troupe performs The Three
Little Pigs for children from Holy Family School.
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Des Moines Chapter
Co-Presidents Sarah Speaks
Leo Skeffington
Treasurer
Michael Russell
Secretary Membership
Judi Russell Melinda and Dennis
Hendrickson
The Des Moines Chapter got their year started
with a kickoff event at the West End Architectural
Salvage building in Des Moines. Other events
included the ever popular “Singing on Tap” series
at the Blue Moon Piano Bar, a well attended
holiday party hosted by Joan Burke and Roseanne
O’Harra, a recital by Sarah Jane McMahon which
was recorded by IPR, and is hosting a “Get your
Greek On” party before an Elektra performance.
For more information please contact Dennis
Hendrickson at [email protected].
Guilded
Glory
Des Moines Metro
Opera’s Guilds spin
a love of opera into
golden opportunities
Guild members get
a chance to see and
hear opera up close
during the Threads
and Trills Fashion
Show and Luncheon.
Photo by Jen Golay
Des Moines Metro Opera Guild Council
Indianola Chapter
President Treasurer
Julia HagenArlen Schrum
Vice-presidentSecretary Annette Kerr
Nancy Lickiss Membership
Chari Kruse
Co-Presidents
Linda and Bernard White
Ames Chapter
President William Marion Treasurer
Sue Ravenscroft
Volunteer of the Year
Pat Brown
Secretary Barbara Brown
Membership
Jane Farrell-Beck
Des Moines Metro Opera is unique in many ways
amongst local arts entities and regional opera
companies. The company is particularly proud
of our guild chapters whose membership
encompasses a nearly 150-mile radius from
our home offices. DMMO would not be able to
generate the reach and scope of its activities
without the tireless work from its four guild
chapters in Ames, Des Moines, Indianola and
Newton-Pella. Together, they make up a corps
of volunteers that assist DMMO in many ways.
This year the chapters joined together to host
the preview of Peter Grimes and the Threads
and Trills Fashion Show and Luncheon at the
Embassy Club West. Separately, each chapter
organizes at least one event every month, with
activities such as meetings, previews, tours, and
even full-scale concerts.
The Ames Chapter of the Guild involves just
over 50 members who enjoy the monthly, 2nd
Tuesday programs on various operatic topics.
Each year begins with a delicious and musical
“Opera Overture Potluck” in September and
ends with previews of the forthcoming operas
presented by the Guild. Fundraisers are planned
for the fall and spring. Members and friends
look forward to the annual spring event, “Arias
in Ames,” by Opera Iowa, where the amazing
vocal presentation of arias and show tunes is
followed by a buffet of savories, sweets and
delightful interactions between performers and
attendees. This past year the Ames Chapter
coordinated the sponsorship of Opera Iowa
and the performance of The Elixir of Love for the
community. For more information, contact Bill
Marion, President, [email protected].
As has often been typical of previous years, the
Indianola Chapter’s kickoff was a “Meet and
Greet” in September at the home of Artistic
Director Emeritus Dr. Robert L. Larsen. Following
that, in October the group toured the DMMO
Warehouse and enjoyed learning about set
design. In November the group organized
and hosted a Champagne Brunch and Bingo
Guild Chapter Presidents Virginia Bennett, Bernie White
and Julia Hagen listen to Joan Burke during the Guild
Council Appreciation Luncheon.
Benefit at the Indianola Country Club which,
along with the ever popular Peanut Butter
and Puccini Family Adventure in June, proved
to be a successful fundraiser for the group.
Programs that rounded out the year included
chapter previews of the season’s operas as well
as the joint preview of Peter Grimes at the Des
Moines Art Center. In addition to raising funds
to support DMMO and learning more about the
world of opera, Indianola guild members once
again provided hospitality, e.g. welcome bags,
housing, and dinners, to DMMO artists and
staff as well as office support for DMMO. For
more information please contact Julia Hagen at
[email protected]
Newton-Pella Chapter
President Treasurer
Virgina Bennett Carol Soderblom
Secretary
Joan Tyler
The newest chapter in Des Moines Metro Opera’s
family of guilds marks its third season with
another productive and interesting year. Highlights,
as always, were the wonderful previews of the
coming operas. The interesting stories and
stimulating discussions only make the wait for
the season ahead even longer. Special thanks to
all who took part, particularly Michael Egel and
Bernard McDonald, Simpson College Director of
Opera. The Newton-Pella Chapter can’t wait to
see you at the opera! n
Guild members mingle during the reception for the joint
Chapter preview of Peter Grimes at the Des Moines Art Center.
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82
Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation
By informing us of your planned gift, you will be
included as a member of this remarkable group
of friends. If you have already made a planned
gift, but have not shared this information with
DMMO, please let us know so that we can
celebrate your legacy and include you as a
member within the Encore Society.
Here are the stories of two friends of Des Moines
Metro Opera and how their generosity will help
to enrich future generations of opera lovers.
In 1993 a number of forward-thinking opera lovers
began to see the value of an endowment that
would secure the future of Des Moines Metro Opera.
That was the year that visionaries Doris and
John Salsbury issued a $1 million “one-to-three”
challenge gift and campaign co-chairs Dan
Krumm and Cherie Shreck led the charge to
meet the challenge. Their goal: Establish the Des
Moines Metro Opera Foundation and persuade
the area’s most philanthropic and arts-loving
individuals and corporations to rise to the
occasion and add their support.
Twenty years later, Des Moines Metro Opera is
without peer in the area of fiscal sustainability.
Its “annual operating budget-to-endowment”
ratio is the highest in the opera field in the
United States, which positions the company to
be a pioneer in sustainable funding and makes
an investment in Des Moines Metro Opera a
fiscally sound choice. This year the Foundation
will provide nearly $475,000 in support critical
to the company’s fiscal and artistic stability.
There are many ways to support the Foundation
and meet your own personal philanthropic
goals. We hope you might consider supporting
any one of the current funds within the
Foundation to perpetuate your artistic legacy
into the future for generations to come.
Additionally, the Des Moines Metro Opera Endow
Iowa Fund at the Greater Des Moines Community
Foundation gives donors the opportunity to
receive many special tax advantages.
Robert L. Larsen Fund for Artistic
Excellence, funded by the Salsbury Challenge II,
creates an endowment that will nurture and
sustain the roots of the company while providing
future artistic growth and financial stability.
21st CENTURY FUND supports unrestricted gifts
resulting from Salsbury Challenge I that support
artistic initiatives and special projects of Des
Moines Metro Opera.
DOUGLAS DUNCAN MEMORIAL FUND supports
contemporary and American opera productions.
WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST FUND FOR
EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH supports the education
and community outreach efforts of the company.
MICHAEL HERZFELD FUND supports underserved
audiences to attend festival productions.
DOUG BROWN FUND supports the public
broadcast of festival productions.
APPRENTICE ARTIST ENDOWMENT FUND
provides tuition, housing, meals and stipends for
40 artists annually.
ROBERT L. LARSEN Legacy Endowment
honors the co-founder of Des Moines Metro
Opera by supporting the continued quality of
our scenic productions.
To learn how you can give a gift, contact Des
Moines Metro Opera at 515-961-6221 or visit
desmoinesmetroopera.org/giftplanning.htm. n
83
The Encore Society - Planned Giving
Members of the Encore Society at Des Moines
Metro Opera help to perpetuate the company’s
commitment to artistic excellence and fiscal
stability by making provisions for DMMO in their
estate plans, by naming the company as a beneficiary
in a life insurance policy, or by establishing a
charitable gift IRA. Because of their philanthropic
spirit, the artistic experience you enjoy today will
be available for future generations of opera lovers.
Doris Salsbury
(left) celebrates the
conclusion of the
first endowment
campaign with cochairs Dan Krumm
and Cherie Shreck
(right) during the
1993 festival season.
Jody and Stanley
Reynolds of Des
Moines, Iowa
We’ve been coming to
DMMO for many years
after we were invited
by friends. I remember
the days with Douglas
Duncan who was quite
a personality!
Fine arts were always an important part of my life. My father
was a painter with oils and pencils. But it was my grandfather
who really introduced me to opera. He had records that he
would play and when he passed away, they came home to my
husband, Stanley and me. Stanley has always enjoyed theatre
and he was a theatre major in college.
We attended an insurance meeting in Savannah, Georgia,
where we were entertained by a business associate. We chatted
one afternoon and opera came up—and shared how unique
Des Moines Metro Opera really is. Both he and his wife then
joined us this past year for Don Giovanni and they loved it!
So much so, that they plan to come back again this year.
We decided to make a legacy gift because it was the right
time. We were making our estate plans and we decided
that we wanted to provide support to several organizations that
we have enjoyed over the years. Des Moines Metro Opera is
one of the “jewels in the crown” of Des Moines and provides
an important piece toward providing a diversified and multidimensional experience for our citizens. We wanted to leave a
legacy gift that would help perpetuate a well-rounded quality
of life for our community. We feel lucky that we can do that.
Randall Daut
and Patricia
Ryan of
Wauwatosa,
Wisconsin
The first time
we attended
a DMMO
production
together was in 1979—we saw Rigoletto. Since
then, we have attended each summer for the
whole weekend of operas—except for one. I wish
we had a perfect attendance record from the start,
but life does interfere sometimes! We come back
every year because of the quality and because of
the new things that DMMO is doing to keep things
fresh. The company has handled change well.
We support the company because we felt that
we could make a difference—that our gift would
be more than a “drop in the bucket” than it might
be to larger opera companies. And because it has
brought us so much pleasure for more than thirty
years. We were just in the process of updating our
estate plans and we called the DMMO office which
gave us the information we needed to do this. It
was very easy.
In 1992, we brought our niece Megan to Lucia di
Lammermoor. The soprano who played the principal
role, Evelyn de la Rosa, seemed as though she was
still suffering during the curtain call. Our niece
thought that the singer was “so spiritually connected
to her character” that she couldn’t leave the role that
quickly—that she was reacting to the sentiment of
the story itself. After the performance we met with
the artist in the lobby, and she confirmed it was
the story itself, and that she was reacting to the
power of the role. We were impressed with that
observation from a youngster. That was her first
opera and Evelyn de la Rosa signed her program.
When we took her home, the autographed program
was the first thing she showed everyone.
To learn more about estate planning
opportunities or to make arrangements,
please contact Director of Development
Leslie L. Garman, CFRE at (515) 961-6221.
All inquiries are strictly confidential.
“It is through art, and art only,
that we can realize our perfection.”
Donors
~ Oscar Wilde
Frank R. Brownell III
Lauridsen Family Endowment
Dunn’s Chapel
(pictured)
2121 Grand Ave.
(515) 244-2121
Daniel J. and Ann L. Krumm Charitable Trust
Fred Maytag Family Foundation
Westover Chapel
6337 Hickman Rd.
(515) 276-4567
Grandview Park
Iles Funeral Homes
We are committed to supporting the Arts in central Iowa.
www.IlesCares.com
2013 Mercedes-Benz C300 4MATIC
3211 Hubbell Ave.
(515) 265-1652
West Des Moines
Arrangement Center
Anderson Erickson Dairy Co.
CenturyLink
Community Bank
Faegre Baker Daniels LLP
Meredith Corporation
Foundation
Des Moines Metro Opera is deeply grateful to the following long-time friends and first time donors to
the 2013 annual campaign who have made gifts for this season. Gifts to the campaign supplement
the budget each year and provide the critical funds that are not generated from ticket sales or income
from the endowment. We could not do what we do without you! THANK YOU!
6800 Lake Dr., Ste 200
Founder’s Circle
$25,000 and above
BRAVO Greater Des Moines
The H. Dale and Lois Bright Foundation
Frank R. Brownell, III
Virginia Croskery and Nixon E. Lauridsen/
Lauridsen Family Endowment
Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation
DuPont Pioneer
William Randolph Hearst Endowment
for Educational Outreach
Daniel J. and Ann L. Krumm
Charitable Trust
The Fred Maytag Family Foundation
Doris Salisbury Endowment Fund
Simpson College
2013 BMW 328i Sedan
TOP TWO LUXURY BRANDS, UNDER ONE ROOF.
Director’s Circle
$10,000 - $24,999
Aviva Charitable Foundation
James and Lois Berens
Jim and Patty Cownie/Cownie
Charitable Fund
Des Moines Metro Opera Guild
Chapters: Ames, Des Moines,
Indianola, and Newton
Barbara and Michael Gartner in
Memory of Christopher Gartner
Fred and Charlotte Hubbell
Iowa Arts Council, a Division of the
Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs
Mary and Daniel Kelly
Tom and Linda Koehn
Benefactor
$2500 - $4999
Pamela Bass-Bookey and Harry Bookey
The Bennett Family in memory of E.
James Bennett (Dr. Virginia Bennett
and Leland Cook; Dr. Edward Bennett,
Margot Wickman-Bennett, Morgan
and Erin Bennett; Susan Bennett,
Shane Swanson, Nathan and Meredith;
Guarantors
Carroll and Mary Jo Bennett)
$5000 - $9999
J.C. and Sue Brenton
CenturyLink, Inc.
Pat Brown in memory of Doug Brown
Community Bank
Joan Burke
Steven P. and Stephanie DeVolder
Des Moines Metro Opera Guild
Marian and Don Easter Fund
Easter Family Fund
James and Catherine Erickson/
Anderson-Erickson Dairy Company
Charles and Marilyn Farr
Faegre Baker Daniel, LLP
Marshall and Judy Flapan
John and Louise Grzybowski
Jo Ghrist
Dr. Bruce L. Hughes and
Barbara Graham
Dr. Randall Hamilton
Bryan Hall and Pat Barry
Dr. Bernard and Dana Leman
Helen H. and James W. Hubbell, Jr.
Holly and Neal Logan
Foundation
Paul J. Meginnis, II
ING
Meredith Corporation Foundation
John Deere
Melanie Porter
LeRoy and Carol Johnson
Janis and John Ruan III/ The John Ruan Winifred Kelley
Foundation
Patrick Kelly
Stanley and Mary Seidler/The Seidler
Joshua and Susie Kimelman
Foundation
Carlton T. and Susan King
Richard and Joan Schultz
Marylee Lankamer
Craig and Kimberly Shadur
Tom and Marsha Mann
Cherie and Bob Shreck
Diane Morain
Judy and Phil Watson
Joan Kuyper Farver Foundation/
Robert L. Larsen
Nancy and Bill Main
National Endowment of the Arts
Principal Financial Group Foundation, Inc.
85
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Carole Villeneuve
Connie Wimer and
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Dorothy Ely
Michael Egel
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Markham and Tana Anderson
Essex Meadows, Inc.
Achilles Avraamides and
Thomas G. and Rita Fisher
Dilys Morris
Iles Funeral Home
Barbara and Steven Cappaert
Charles Gabus Ford
Frederick and Anne Crane
Andrew Gangle and
R. Keith Cranston
Katrina Guest
Roswell and Elizabeth Garst Bryce A. Cunningham
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Randall Daut and Patricia Ryan
Howard F. and Ann Garton
Sheila Tipton and
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Michael and Ann Gersie
Don A. and Connie Decker
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Sara Hill
Sara and Steve Marquardt
A. John Holstad
Adrienne McFarland
Loren Horton
and Joe Clamon
Annette Isaacson
Sheila Meginnis
Prairie Meadows Racetrack
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John D. and Mary M.
Ramsey Fund
Sunnie Richer and
Roger Brooks
Betty Schiller
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Paul Woodard
David Yepsen and
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Daniel J. Knepper in honor
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Allan Kniep
Karen and Phil Langstraat
Fred and Mickey Lorber
John and Jean Matovina
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Rich and LaDonna Matthes
Louise McKlveen
John A. McTaggart
Lynsey Oster
J.T. and Suzanne Pundt
Elaine Raleigh
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Jennifer Ringo and James
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Lee and Judy Schuster
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Harry J. and Pat Sink
Hope C. Solomons
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Diedrichs
Dr. James and Elfrieda Waltz
Carol and Eric Weber
87
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Pamela Bass-Bookey and
Harry Bookey
Galligan & Reed, P.C.
Tom and Linda Koehn
Fred and Charlotte Hubbell
Automobile Sponsor
Ramsey Subaru
VIP Table Sponsors
Merrill Lynch Wealth
Management
Mark D. Ravreby M.D.
Other Sponsors
Belin McCormick,
Attorneys at Law
Bryan and Betsy Boesen
William and Beverly Marion
Patrick Kelly
Patron Party Sponsors
Anonymous
Mark and Marilee Davis
Cass Franklin
Aaron Hamrock
Bruce Hughes, M.D
Craig and Kimberly Shadur
John Taylor
Additional Thanks
The Honorable Leonard
Boswell
Des Moines Fencing Club
Khanh Hamilton
Johnson Brothers of Iowa
Erin Kiernan, Anchor,
WHO TV 13
Ed Wilson, Chief
Meteorologist, WHO TV 13
Auction Donors
Artisan’s
Virginia Croskery and
Nixon Lauridsen
Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse
and Wine Bar
Leticia Gordon and David
Gordon, M.D. Les and Eileen Meltzer
Midwest Clothiers
Michael Patterson
Dr. Jackson and
Charlene VerSteeg
OPERA Iowa Educational
Touring Troupe
Performance Sponsors
Andrew and Julie Hall
Holly and Neal Logan
Nancy and Bill Main
MidAmerican Energy
James and Jeanne O’Halloran
Iowa State Savings Bank
Dan and Mary Kelly
Memorial Gifts
In memory of Bud Beh
Michael Patterson
In memory of Viola Bennett
Bob and Cherie Shreck
In memory of Doug Brown
Earl and Judy Check
91
Donors
In memory of Joan Bunke
Rebecca A. Cox
M. Burton Drexler
Michael Egel
Dorothy Ely
Robert S Giombetti
Robert L. Larsen
Michael Patterson
In memory of Patricia A.
Faulkner
Patrice Sayre
THE 2014 FESTIVAL SEASON
MAY 24 – JUNE 29, 2014
THE MAGIC FLUTE
“ONE OF THE UNITED
STATES’ MOST IDYLLIC
OPERATIC EXPERIENCES”
Ashely Emerson in the American
premiere of Alice in Wonderland, 2012.
Photo: Ken Howard
THE ELIXIR
OF LOVE
TWENTY-SEVEN
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart (1791)
Gaetano Donizetti (1832)
CONDUCTOR
Rickey Ian Gordon
& Royce Vavrek (2014)
Francis Poulenc (1956)
CONDUCTOR
Jane Glover
Stephen Lord
CONDUCTOR
Ward Stare
DIRECTOR & DESIGNER
DIRECTOR
Michael Christie
DIRECTOR
Isaac Mizrahi
Jose Maria Condemi
DIRECTOR
Robin Guarino
FEATURING
FEATURING
James Robinson
FEATURING
Sean Panikkar
& Elizabeth Zharoff
Susannah Biller
& René Barbara
FEATURING
Christine Brewer
& Kelly Kaduce
WORLD PREMIERE
Stephanie Blythe
SUBSCRIPTIONS NOW ON SALE!
CALL TODAY (314) 961-0644 OR VISIT EXPERIENCEOPERA.ORG
DIALOGUES OF
THE CARMELITES
CONDUCTOR
Opera Theatre gratefully
acknowledges season
presenting sponsor
www.maytagblue.com
Retail Shop & Tours t641.792.1133
2282 E. 8th St. N. tNewton, Iowa
Dennis and Betty Keeney
Mattie Kurilla
Ted and Carolyn Neely
Gary and Carolyn Lindstam
Robert and Debra Plagemann Derrill M. Pankow
Natalie Tomaras
Gifts received
Fred and Emily Weitz
after 6/9/13 will be
acknowledged in the
Supporters
42nd Season Program
$250-$499
Margaret and Kenneth Doyle
Additional Robert L.
Dr. John Hagge
Larsen Legacy
Endowment
Charles Mohns
contributors
Dana Quick-Naig
Artistic Leader ($4,000)
In memory of Honorah Noonan Melva Bucksbaum and Ray
Learsy
Nancy C. Noonan
James and Catherine Erickson
In memory of Audrey Gray
Paul Meginnis II
Constance Cramblit Comfort
Ensemble ($1,400)
In memory of Jack and Geri Hill
Joshua and Susie Kimelman
Nancy and Geoffrey Kolb
Connie Wimer and
Frank Fogerty
In memory of Luther Hill
Michael Patterson
Friend ($400)
Bobbie and Tristin Adelman
In honor of Rosanne O’Harra Terri Combs and Thomas
Swartwood
Daniel M. and Mary Kelly
Charles L. Garmen
In memory of LuVern Shiffler Ann Montgomery
Margot Burnham
Additonal Gifts
Jim and Jeanne O’Halloran
Matthew Lau
Beverly Robinson
Nancy and Steve St. Claire
Bernard and Linda White
In memory of Sister Ruby
Doyle L. and Cloreta Woods
Woodgard
Laura Plambeck
Gifts for the 2012
In memory of Mitchell Healy Season received after
06/12/12
Burnham
Margot Burnham
Impresarios
In Memory of Mitchell Healy $5,000-$9,999
Getty Foundation, Ann and
Burnham and Claire Healy
Gordon
Burnham
Marian Easter
Scott Burnham
In honor of Dr. David Gordon
Guarantors
Marshall and Judy Flapan
$2,500-$4,999
In honor of Dr. Mark Ravredy Dr. Cecilia Vessel
Jo Ghrist
Patrons
$1,000-$2,499
In honor of Cherie Shreck
Stan and Jody Reynolds
James and Allison Fleming
Dr. Heidi Shreck and
Richard and Paula Harris
Dr. Brian Shellenberger
David and Gail Stubbs
Krenio Wright
In memory of Wendy
Waugaman
Sponsors
Marla Lacey and Steve Znerold $500-$999
Catherine M. Bell
Sara Hill
Frederic and Karen Jackson
Sustainers
$150-$249
Patrick and Mardi Deluhery
Jane Farrell-Beck
Lee Nickelson
Gregory S. Palermo and
Olivia Madison
Joan Tyler
Ekhard and Wendy Ziegler
Friends
$50-$149
Robert J. Aubrey
Sally Baker
Edward Bruggemann
Ralph DiNinno
David and Hanna Gradwohl
Ronald and Kay Grooters
Esley Hamilton
Rae Anne Havig
Dr. Bente Hoegsberg
Mark T. Ketterson
Larry Kirsner
James and Ann L. Lano
Faith Lovejoy
Sheryll Luxton
Susan B. Moore
Kathryn and Leroy Moore
Candy Morgan
Christine Riccelli
Charity Rowley
Linda Simonton
David L. Williams
Beverley Wilson
Jim Wistrom
Richard and Patricia Wood
C. Ben and Donna J. Wright
acknowledges with
appreciation the following
individuals and businesses
who provided in-kind
donations or assisted in
meaningful ways during the
2013 season:
Ana de Archuleta
Andrew Wyeth Foundation,
Karen Baumgarten
Barber’s Piano, Lorlin Barber
Arlys Breuklander
Joan Burke and Rosanna Burke
Circle B
The Community Foundation of
Greater Des Moines
Kristin Cowdin
Des Moines Business
Record/Business Publications
Corporation
Des Moines Botanical
Center/Elvin McDonald
Des Moines Symphony
Academy
Ruth Dorr
Kenneth Dusheck
EMC Insurance Companies
Robert Gilder
James Gilliam
Rick Goetz
Allison Fleming
Julie and Dale Hagen
Heartland Scenic
Bruce Hughes, M.D. and
Randall Hamilton, M.D.
Hy-Vee of Indianola
Indianola Corner Sundry
Infomax Office Systems
Iowa ENT Center, Joy Hesse
Iowa Public Radio,
Jacqueline Halbloom
The Lyric Opera of Chicago,
Roger Pines
The Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Jerilee M. Mace
Cathy Mansfield
The Metropolitan Opera,
Gayletha Nichols
The Minnesota Opera, Floyd
Anderson, Dale Johnson
Nicholas Netos
Opera America, Marc Scorca
Optometric Associates
S & P Pianos, Shon Clausen
Mary and Stanley Seidler
Simpson College Music
Department
Skeffington’s
The Towner Museum, UK,
Nathaniel Hepburn
Valley High School Bands,
Tony Garmoe
West Music, Gary Payne
Whole Foods 93
94
Production History
1973
Giacomo Puccini La Rondine
Gian Carlo Menotti The Medium
Arthur Benjamin Prima Donna
Benjamin Britten Albert Herring
1974
Giacomo Puccini Madama Butterfly
Robert Ward The Crucible
Giuseppe Verdi Falstaff
1975
Giacomo Puccini Il Trittico
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The Magic Flute
Igor Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress
1976
Gioacchino Rossini The Barber of Seville
Jules Massenet Manon
Carlisle Floyd Susannah
1977
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Così fan tutte
Giuseppe Verdi La Traviata
Jacques Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann
1978
Georges Bizet Carmen
Giacomo Puccini La Bohème
Gian Carlo Menotti The Consul
1979
Johann Strauss Die Fledermaus
Giuseppe Verdi Rigoletto
Benjamin Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream
1980
Giuseppe Verdi Il Trovatore
Gaetano Donizetti Don Pasquale
Richard Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos
1981
Giacomo Puccini Tosca
Douglas Moore The Ballad of Baby Doe
Gaetano Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor
1982
Giuseppe Verdi Otello
Gaetano Donizetti The Elixir of Love
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Don Giovanni
1983
Pietro Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana
Ruggiero Leoncavallo I Pagliacci
Franz Lehár The Merry Widow
Gaetano Donizetti The Daughter of
the Regiment
1984
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The Marriage of Figaro
Francis Poulenc Dialogues of the Carmelites
Giuseppe Verdi Aïda
1985
Charles Gounod Faust
Gioacchino Rossini La Cenerentola
Carlisle Floyd Of Mice and Men
1986
Lee Hoiby The Tempest (World Premiere)
Charles Gounod Romeo and Juliet
1987
Richard Wagner The Flying Dutchman
Benjamin Britten The Turn of the Screw
1988
Giacomo Puccini Turandot
1989
Johann Strauss Die Fledermaus
1990
Modest Mussorgsky Boris Godunov
Friedrich von Flotow Martha
1991
Benjamin Britten Peter Grimes
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart The Abduction
from the Seraglio
1992
Richard Strauss Der Rosenkavalier
Giacomo Puccini The Girl of the Golden West
Engelbert Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel
1993
Giuseppe Verdi A Masked Ball
Gian Carlo Menotti The Saint of Bleecker Street
2004
Gioacchino Rossini La Cenerentola
Richard Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos
1994
Marc Blitzstein Regina
2005
Benjamin Britten Gloriana
Gian Carlo Menotti Amahl and the Night Visitors
1995
Stephen Sondheim Sweeney Todd
Douglas Moore The Ballad of Baby Doe
1996
Giuseppe Verdi Macbeth
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Così fan tutte
1997
Benjamin Britten Albert Herring
2006
Igor Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress
2007
Benjamin Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Giuseppe Verdi Otello
2008
Giuseppe Verdi A Masked Ball
Marc Blitzstein Regina
Gaetano Donizetti The Elixir of Love
1998
Franz Lehár The Merry Widow
Ludwig von Beethoven Fidelio
Lee Hoiby Summer and Smoke
2009
Carl Maria von Weber Der Freischütz
1999
Giuseppe Verdi Il Trovatore
Kurt Weill Street Scene
2010
Giuseppe Verdi Macbeth
Carlisle Floyd Susannah
2000
Vincenzo Bellini Norma
Gian Carlo Menotti The Consul
Jacques Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld
2011
Francis Poulenc Dialogues of the Carmelites
2001
Giacomo Puccini Il Trittico
Samuel Barber Vanessa
2012
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin
2002
Giacomo Puccini Turandot
Richard Strauss Salome
Leonard Bernstein Candide
2003
Charles Gounod Faust
Gian Carlo Menotti Amahl and the Night Visitors
2013
Charles Gounod Romeo and Juliet
Benjamin Britten Peter Grimes
Richard Strauss Elektra
95
96
Jules Massenet’s Cinderella, Spring 2013
Simpson College produces two fully staged operas
each year with principal, supporting and chorus
rolls performed exclusively by undergraduates.
Advertisers Index
Des Moines Metro Opera thanks our advertisers, whose support helps us provide this
complimentary program for our 41st Festival Season. For advertising information,
call our office at 515-961-6221.
Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College Inside Front
Simpson College Inside Back
DuPont Pioneer Back cover
Apple Tree Inn 68
Barber’s Pianos 90
Baymont Inn and Suites 86
Civic Center of Greater Des Moines 64
Community Bank 14
Des Moines Symphony 65
Des Moines University 90
Downing Construction Inc. 69
ENT Clinic of Iowa 88
European Motorcars 84
Friends of Drake University Fine Arts 65
Gateway Market Catering 31
Gib’s A & W 69
Gong Fu Tea 88
Greater Des Moines Convention
and Visitors Bureau 67
HyVee 68
Iles Funeral Homes 84
The Iowa Clinic, P.C. 86
Iowa ENT Center 88
Iowa Public Radio 61
Jones Image Design 90
Kayser Hearing Aid & Audiology Center 22
Maytag Dairy Farms 92
Metro Arts Expo 66
Max Wellman 67
106 West Boston Avenue
Indianola, IA 50125-1836
Phone: (515) 961-6221
Fax: (515) 961-8175
Noble Ford 24
Olson-Larsen Galleries 13
Opera Omaha 25
Opera Theater of Saint Louis 92
Optometric Associates of Warren County 68
Peoples Bank 69
The Principal Financial Group 16
Ramsey Mazda/Subaru 22
Rosalie Gallagher 67
S & P Piano Services 23
Sara Opie, Public Relations 88
Shull & Co. P.C. 69
Silver Fox 86
Skeffington’s Formal Wear 92
Stephens Auditorium 65
Strategic America 12
Strayer-Wood Theatre 92
Suites of 800 Locust 17
Tassel Ridge Winery 15
Wesley The Village 68
West Music 19
Willis Auto Campus 16
Celebrat
ing
SUCCESS
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: desmoinesmetroopera.org
Facebook: facebook.com/DesMoinesMetroOpera
Twitter: twitter.com/dmopera
A member of
W W W. S I M P S O N . E D U
DuPont Pioneer
wants you to have
a better life
a long, safe, healthy, better life
DuPont Pioneer is proud to support the arts in our community.
The DuPont Oval Logo is a registered trademark of DuPont.
, TM, SM Trademarks and service marks of Pioneer. © 2013 PHII 13-1577
®

2013 Summer Festival Program

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