The Power of Two Program

carthage music department presents

The Power of Two:

Unbreakable Bonds of Love & Friendship Featuring “Women and Children: A Story of Titanic Survivors.”

Gregory Berg, director

Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021 | 3 p.m.

Sunday, Nov. 21, 2021 | 6 p.m.

Recital Hall

program part one: the power of two – a presentation of opera duets “Pur ti miro” Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) from The Coronation of Poppea Poppea: Angelina Palladini Nero: Elise Brevik “O Mimi, tu piu non torni” from La Boheme

Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924)

Rodolfo: Nathan Myers Marcello: Ben Young “Su, e con me vieni, cara” Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787) from Orfeo ed Euridice Orfeo: Faith Albright Euridice: Isabella Esquivel “La la la la la” Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1856) from The Elixir of Love Nemorino: Christopher Glade Adina: Katrina Seabright “Il se fait tard …. O nuit d’amour” Charles Gounod (1818-1893) from Faust Marguerite: London Roysden Faust: Bryan Tamayo

program part two: women and children: a story of titanic survivors score and libretto by gregory berg Horace John Dean, First Mate of the RMS Carpathia.................. Nathan Myers Eric Rees, Third Officer...........................................................Christopher Glade Joseph Maddocks, Able Seaman....................................................Bryan Tamayo John Reilly, Able Seaman.................................................................... Ben Young John Ryseron.................................................................... Faith Danielle Albright Emily Ryerson.............................................................................Isabelle Esquivel Emily Ryserson (their mother)........................................................... Elise Brevik Edwina Troutt..........................................................................Angelina Palladini Florence Ware............................................................................Katrina Seabright Juliette LaRoche..........................................................................London Roysden Joseph LaRoche.............................................................................Mitch Dziewior Rehearsal Pianists......................................................... Jiayi Geng, Fangting Liu

director’s note I wanted to call this program THE POWER OF TWO because it nicely reflects the respective themes of the two halves of the program. We begin with five distinctive and widely varied operatic duets that collectively underscore the special impact that can be achieved when two singers – two characters – interact on the opera stage. Four of these duets are love duets, but each in its own distinct way.

The earliest of these duets comes from The Coronation of Poppea, the masterpiece of CLAUDIO MONTERVERDI, widely regarded as history’s first great opera composer. The two characters, Emperor Nero and his beloved Poppea, have engaged in all kinds of intrigues in order to be rid of their respective spouses – but all of that is left behind in this sublime love duet with which the opera ends.

We often find in musical theater a kind of love duet in which at least one of the characters at hand has not yet fully succumbed to love’s call. In the duet from the last act of Donizetti’s comedy The Elixir of Love, the humble villager Nemorino has taken a love potion that he believes will cause the wealthy landowner Adina to fall in love with him. (He doesn’t realize that the potion was a fake and that the “doctor” who sold it to him is a fraud.) Adina is fascinated but also rather irritated by Nemorino’s sudden burst of confidence, fueled by the girls of the village who learned that he is about to inherit a great deal of money from his recently deceased uncle. Nemorino, having not yet heard that news, mistakenly believes it is the effect of the love potion. Such misunderstandings can often be the ideal starting point for such not-quite-inlove-with-each-other duets like this one.

A very different kind of misunderstanding is at the heart of the dramatic scene that opens act three of Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice. Orfeo has traveled into the dark depths of the underworld to rescue his beloved wife Euridice – but he is only granted admittance into hell if he agrees not to look at his wife during the course of their journey back to the real world. She misunderstands this as indifference and is heartbroken.

In Gounod’s setting of the legend of Faust, we see Faust, fueled by the assistance of Mephistopheles, into pursuing the young, innocent and naïve Marguerite – and arousing in her passions and feelings that she has never experienced before …. Feelings that leave her genuinely frightened and cause her to waffle between resisting and succumbing to Faust’s advances.

This is a love duet built upon wildly contrasting characters and dramatically contrasting emotions.

director’s note Finally, we have a duet sung by two close friends – each of whom finds himself estranged from his lover, albeit for very different reasons. The friends spend some time poking fun at each other, but by the end they are pouring out sincere feelings of regret and sadness. Puccini’s La Boheme is most famously a deeply moving love story, but the story is just as much a story of devoted friendship in the face of various struggles.

My newest one-act opera, Women and Children: a Story of Titanic Survivors, springs from a moment in a fine documentary titled Titanic- Death of a Dream which featured numerous recollections from a number of survivors of the disaster, recalling that awful night of 75 years earlier as if it had just happened the previous week. One recollection that moved me most profoundly was by an elderly woman named Ruth Becker, who was a teenage girl at the time of the disaster. For her, one of the most unforgettable moments in the entire ordeal occurred on the deck of the Carpathia, the ship that picked up more than 700 survivors. Once it was clear to the captain that no other lifeboats were coming, he ordered them to head to New York City – which meant, in effect, that there were no other survivors. For many of the women aboard the Carpathia, this was the moment they knew without a doubt that their husbands had gone down with the ship. And as Ruth Becker remembered that moment from so many years before, she was overcome with emotion – as was I. Twenty years after first seeing that documentary and learning of this largely overlooked moment in the Titanic saga, I have set it as a one-act opera. I dedicated this work to the memory of Ruth Becker Blanchard (1899-1990).

Special Thanks to Doug Instenes from the Racine Theater Guild.

biographies FAITH DANIELLE ALBRIGHT (Sandwich, IL) is a Music major who hopes to earn her music therapy license someday. This is her fifth semester of opera workshop. Her past appearances include a role in Professor Berg’s Birds of a Feather: a Magic Flute Sequel. Her stage appearances prior to Carthage include HMS Pinafore, The Drowsy Chaperone, and The Boy Friend.

ELISE BREVIK (Marengo, IL) is a Psychology major (Pre-Occupational Therapy) with a minor in Spanish. Before coming to Carthage, she sang major roles in The Music Man (as Marian), Seussical the Musical, Pippin, and Singing in the Rain, as well as roles in Twelfth Night and Our Town. This is Elise’s second semester in Opera Workshop.

MITCHELL DZIEWIOR (Crystal Lake, IL) is a Music Education major (choral), and this is his second time singing in Opera Workshop. He has sung a number of roles onstage, including Paul (Kiss me Kate) and Flotsam (The Little Mermaid). His primary onstage work, however, is comedy improv.

Mitchell is in his third year as president of Carthage’s Merely Players Improv Group.

ISABELLE ESQUIVEL (Wauconda, IL) is a Music Education Major. This is her fourth and final semester in Opera Workshop. Her previous appearances include a role in Professor Berg’s The New Impresario. She has also performed in Carthage’s Music Theater Workshop in Sister Act (Sister Mary Detroit) and Fun Home and was just crowned Homecoming Queen earlier this fall.

CHRISTOPHER GLADE (Carol Stream, IL) is a Music Education/Vocal Performance major. This is his third semester of Opera Workshop. His first appearance in OW included a role in Professor Berg’s Balcony Scene titled “Grays.” Before coming to Carthage, he performed in the musicals Mary Poppins and Legally Blonde and was Dr. Chumley in the play Harvey.

NATHAN MYERS (Crystal Lake, IL) is a Music Theater/Composition double major who is making his first opera workshop appearance this semester. At Carthage, he has had roles in mainstage productions of Patience and Fortitude, Puffs, and Eurydice. In the studio theater, he has appeared in Smokefall and Body Awareness.

ANEGLINA PALLADINI (Pittsburgh, PA) is a Music Education major who is making her opera workshop debut with this production. During high school, Angelina portrayed the Dragon in the musical Shrek and was nominated as best actress for the Pittsburgh Gene Kelly Awards for her performance.

biographies LONDON ROYSDEN (Kenosha, WI) is a Music Education/Vocal Performance major. She has sung in Opera Workshop every semester and did the Kenosha Opera Festival this past summer. She sang in the May Term outreach program called “Emoji Goes to the Opera.” She placed 2nd for junior women in the 2020 Wisconsin NATS competition, and has sung in two Honors Recitals.

KATRINA SEABRIGHT (Antioch, IL) is a Music-Vocal Performance major whose participation in opera workshops included Birds of a Feather: a Magic Flute Sequel. She sang in the Belle Ensemble’s production of Amahl. She won third place in the 2020 Illinois NATS competition and first in the 2018 Chicagoland Vocal Showcase. She sang on last year’s Carthage Honors Recital.

BRYAN TAMAYO (Yorkville, IL) is a Music Education major who is active in both choral and instrumental ensembles at Carthage. This is Bryan’s very first experience performing opera aside from performing some short opera scenes during his freshman year at the Chicago College of Performing Arts.

During high school, he was in the ensemble for Little Mermaid.

BEN YOUNG (Kenosha, WI) is a Vocal Performance and Music Composition major. This is his first semester of opera workshop and first time performing in an opera. His resume of performances onstage during high school include You have the Right to Remain Dead, The Mousetrap, and Cinderella and the Candy Kingdom.

upcoming events Carthage Christmas Festival - SOLD OUT Dec. 3-4 • 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 5 • 4 p.m.

Join us from home: carthage.edu/multimedia Percussion Studio Concert Wednesday, Dec. 8 • 7:30 p.m.

A. F. Siebert Chapel • Tickets required Music Theatre Bootcamp Showcase Thursday, Dec. 9 • 7:30 p.m.

Recital Hall • Tickets required Nothing TOO small Dec. 10-11 • 7:30 p.m.

Dec. 12 • 3 p.m.

Wartburg Theatre • Tickets required Student Recital: James Chaudoin Friday, Dec. 10 • 7:30 p.m.

Recital Hall • Tickets required Student Recital: Gabby Garnowski Saturday, Dec. 11 • 7:30 p.m.

Recital Hall • Tickets required

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