Becoming Santa Claus Digital Program

BECOMING SANTA CLAUS Music & Libretto by

Mark Adamo

SEASON SPONSORS Julie and Roger Baskes Nancy Dehmlow

PRODUCTION SPONSORS COT President’s Council

The Morse & Genius Operating Reserve Fund provided partial support for this project.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

BECOMING SANTA CLAUS

Music & Libretto by Mark Adamo

CAST Martin Bakariˆ Nina Yoshida Nelsenˆ Leah Dexter Amy Owensˆ Justin Berkowitz Matt Boehlerˆ David Salsbery Fry

Prince Claus Queen Sophine Ib Yan Yab Ob Donkey/Messenger

Blake Freidman Pauline Tan* Veena Akama-Makia* Corinne Costell* Marcus Lee Keanon Kyles* Alex Soare

Cover Prince Claus Cover Queen Sophine Cover Ib Cover Yan Cover Yab Cover Ob Cover Donkey/Messenger

ARTISTIC TEAM Lidiya Yankovskaya Kyle Langˆ

Conductor Director/Choreographer

MUSIC TEAM Eli Chen Yasuko Oura Jennifer Allor* Michael Pecak Ross Beacraft

Asst. Conductor Rehearsal Pianist Second Rehearsal Pianist/ Supertitles Operator Youth Bell Choir Director Orchestra contractor * Denotes current COT Young Artist ˆ Denotes COT Debut

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Becoming Santa Claus

PRODUCTION TEAM

Steven Kemp Driscoll Otto Brenda Winstead

Scenic Designer Lighting & Projection Designer Costume Designer/Wardrobe Supervisor

Rebecca A. Scott Jimmy Lawlor David Bradke Mitchell Ransdell Cassandra Schillor Gregory Boyle Kristen Barrett Adrienne Bader Alycia Martin

Wig & Makeup Designer Associate Lighting & Projection Designer Lighting Director Properties Supervisor Properties Supervisor Asst. Director Production Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager Assistant Stage Manager

COT ADMINISTRATION Ashley Magnus Lidiya Yankovskaya Brittany Nelson Deborah Vandergrift Joseph Staffa Megan Monahan Angela Yu Gwen Kelly Veronica Chamberlain Kelley Dorhauer Adam Lord Kourtney Howard Emmelly Villagran Stacy Coyne Wright

Edlis Neeson General Director Music Director Associate Director of Artistic Operations Director of Production Technical Director Director of Development Development Manager Community Engagement Director Associate Director of Community Programming Managing Director Box Office Manager, Graphic Designer Administrative Assistant Marketing Manager Marketing Consultant

COT BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Susan J. Irion Immediate Past President Henry Fogel Secretary Allen Heinemann

Honorary Trustees Joan W. Harris Gael Neeson Gregory O’Leary

Directors Peter M. Ascoli Roger Baskes Ron Bauer Merrill Blau Nancy Dehmlow Paul E. Freehling Michael G. Hansen Mary Lunz Houston Maria Lagios

James G. McCormick David McNeel Susan Noel Dorothy Osborn Robert E. Shapiro Dan Tarlock Virginia Tobiason

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ORCHESTRA Violin I Isabella Lippi Paul Zafer John Xia Azusa Tashiro Heather Boehm Sally Stephenson Wendy Evans Emelinda Escobar Violin II Elizabeth Huffman Eric Pidluski Carol Yampolsky Caroline Slack Christine Chon Sylvia de la Cerna Henry Zheng Viola Karl Davies Vannia Phillips Ai Melby Mark Djordjevic Oana Tatu Lorreta Gillespie

Cello Jake Hanegan Wei Liu Denton Larry Glazier Emily Mantell Margaret Daly

Trombone Adam Moen Darren Castellanos

Bass Timothy Shaffer Christian Dillingham Tracy Dullea

Piano I, Celeste and Glockenspiel Yasuko Oura

Flute Jennie Oh Brown Clarinet Gene Collerd Daniel Won French Horn Steven Replogle

Harp Lillian Lau

Piano 2, Harpsichord and Vibraphone Robert Bosworth Timpani Michael Folker Percussion George Blanchet Richard Janicki

Trumpet Ross Beacraft

BELL CHOIR Izabella Amy Andrade Fátima Farro Ava Lara Cora Magnus

Linnea McBride Annabel Ryan Calvin Thomas Owen Thomas

SEASON SPONSORS Julie and Roger Baskes Nancy Dehmlow

Bell Choir Staff Assistants Veronica Chamberlain Weston Williams

PRODUCTION SPONSORS COT President’s Council

The Morse & Genius Operating Reserve Fund provided partial support for this project.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

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Lidiya Yankovskaya Music Director

During these challenging times, it has been a great privilege to be a part of Chicago Opera Theater—an organization that has not only continued to flourish during the pandemic, but has also leapt into the 2021-2022 season with innovative programming that connects to our audiences even more viscerally than before. The fall’s groundbreaking Carmen negated artistic pigeon-holing, while featuring two of the greatest singers alive today. Becoming Santa Claus is a work by one of the most important opera creators of our time. Mark Adamo’s opera brings to life the communal holiday spirit (so needed during this moment), while allowing us to connect directly to audiences of all backgrounds and ages.

This spring, we will continue to present work that is relevant to our world today—two brand new pieces, featuring fresh faces on the American operatic scene: Belizian-British composer Errollyn Wallen and Chinese-American composer Wang Lu, together with established American librettists Deborah Brevoort and Kelley Rourke. Quamino’s Map by Wallen and Brevoort will dive into an essential but neglected piece of Revolutionary history, giving us a glimpse into upper-class Black society in London and the formerly enslaved Americans who made their home in England after the war. The Beekeeper—an imaginative journey of remembrance and self actualization—continues to feature COT’s industry-leading Vanguard Initiative, a training program for the next generation of American opera composers.

We at Chicago Opera Theater cannot be more thrilled to welcome back the most essential part of any live performance—our audiences. Thank you for joining us as we once again laugh, cry, feel, and share the joy of musical storytelling together in the theater.

Ashley Magnus

Edlis Neeson General Director Welcome back to Chicago Opera Theater at the Studebaker Theater - we have missed being here with you since we last performed the world premiere of Dan Shore’s powerful Freedom Ride in February of 2020. What a triumph to return this December with Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus in a whimsical new production of this fantastic work.

We are so grateful for all of our generous friends, advocates, artists, and supporters for joining us on this journey of expanding the impact of opera as a living art form in our community. Every contribution makes a difference. As we look to the future, coming up on COT’s 50th Anniversary, we are truly proud of all we’ve accomplished together, and inspired by the possibilities to come!

The next time we are together in this theater is for another thrilling commission and world-premiere; Errollyn Wallen and Deborah Brevoort’s Quamino’s Map—and we know that will be an incredible night in the theater, not to be missed. We can’t wait to see you again this spring.

From all of us at COT, wishing you a joyous holiday season and Happy New Year in 2022!

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Mark Adamo

Composer and Librettist Christmas is coming! Heard as a teen, the phrase filled me with dread. Joy, too: still, dread. ‘Tis the season of love! the culture shouted. So: buy things! I loved—still love—the glittering windows, the rushing, crushing crowds— and those generosities, personal and social, that the holiday both fêtes and fosters. But do those beribboned boxes express love? Or merely mime it?

My model is the oyster; out of what itches, make art. But art needs characters, process. I had only idea. Well, an idea and a sound: I’d long wanted to score characters in florid, neo-Baroque vocal lines, but I’d found few opportunities in my first three scores. Into the “Christmas Opera?” notebook I scrawled one line: “Elf coloratura?”

Then, another line: “tween Santa Claus—Elf-Prince—as the original what-did-you-get-me brat?” I liked both thoughts. They led nowhere. Later, this: “first instance of Christmas gift-giving: Magi, Matthew 2?” That I really liked. Could I make up a world in which both Santa Claus and the Three Kings held passports? Could I invent a secular Nativity scene—the birth of a persona, rather than a person— and bounce it off the sacred one?

I dug in. The Elf-Prince trusts things, not people; if he had a good reason, what would it be?

Who are the Magi to him, or he to them? History doesn’t help. Santa Claus’s mythic models are either ancient and sinister (Odin winging ‘round the globe on eight-legged Sleipnir, leaving kids only lumps of coal;) dignified but non sequitur, as in the case of the traditional Turkish bishop (in a secular fable? Why?), or the plump Victorian angel of generosity into whom my prince has to grow. I’ll have to dream it up. What if the Prince’s father used to send his child gifts instead of showing up—but for good reason? What if his mother responded by exiling the King—for what she hopes is good reason? What if the Magi are actually Elves, and the Prince’s uncles break their promise to attend his 13th birthday—for what they believe is good reason? And what if the Prince, stung, decides to make his own, splashier gifts and follow the Kings to wherever their star leads? I began to see it: a drama of people who ache to have, or be, perfect parents, and can’t; who use objects both to show love when they feel it and to feign it when they don’t. But I wanted to give those objects their due; just because they’re not everything doesn’t make them nothing. What’s a good reason to love a thing?

The second scene of the piece answers that question more completely than I can here, but I’ll hint only that there’s a reason art is the first syllable of both artisan and artifice. None of this would matter if I couldn’t hear it sing. Now I could. Both Queen and Prince, brittle and aristocratic, thrived in those rococo vocal filigrees I’d longed to write. Four worker Elves sing syllabically through most of the score, but in two key Toy Quartets (a nod to the central dances in The Nutcracker) they sing on the edge— high, low, precisely pitched or smearily in-between, steady and rich or at maniacal speed. (They were delicious to compose.) I always write my libretti in song form; I love the terseness, tension, symmetry, and surprise of verse, and I find it can release melody within a score as prose rarely can. Apart from melodic logic, the music needed a high sheen, a glitter verging on the uncanny. I chose two pianos, tuned a quarter-tone apart, to give me an eerie but controlled path in and out of exact pitch.

I have had, largely, a brilliant time in opera, but already—as I write this, we begin tech rehearsals in two weeks—working with this company has been, in a word, heaven. I hope you like the show; I love it here. But—while a list of people to thank for this production could span the city—I must single out Lidiya Yankovskaya, whom I first encountered conducting a nonpareil Little Women in Boston and whose advocacy of my work has been stalwart since.

Opera, Chicago, and opera in Chicago are lucky to have her.

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BIOGRAPHIES Mark Adamo: Known for his “poetic elegance,” composer/librettist Mark Adamo is a recognized contributor “to the canon of new operas” (Musical America), weaving a multi-dimensional feminine characterization through works ranging from Little Women to Lysistrata. Santa Fe Opera returned to live opera in July 2021 with the celebrated world premiere of The Lord of Cries, for which Adamo wrote the libretto to a score composed by his husband, John Corigliano. Last Year, Concerto for Solo Cello and String Orchestra received a world premiere by the New Century Chamber Orchestra in November 2021 in San Francisco. Lidiya Yankovskaya, music director of Chicago Opera Theater, conducts the regional premiere of Adamo’s fourth opera, Becoming Santa Claus, in December, in a new production directed by Kyle Lang; this precedes the U. K. premiere of Opera Holland Park’s production of Little Women in July of 2022. Adamo began his education in the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, where he received the Paulette Goddard Remarque Scholarship for outstanding undergraduate achievement in playwriting. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music Degree in composition in 1990 from the Catholic University of America.

Lidiya Yankovskaya: Russian-American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fiercely committed advocate for Russian masterpieces, operatic rarities, and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. As Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, Ms. Yankovskaya has led the Chicago premieres of Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, Rachmaninov’s Aleko, Joby Talbot’s Everest, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and the world premiere of Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride. Her daring performances before and amid the pandemic earned recognition from the Chicago Tribune, which praised her as “the very model of how to survive adversity, and also how to thrive in it,” while naming her 2020 Chicagoan of the Year. She has recently conducted Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera, Pia de’ Tolomei at Spoleto Festival USA, Il barbiere di Siviglia at Wolf Trap Opera, Ellen West at New York’s Prototype Festival, and the world premiere of Taking Up Serpents at Washington National Opera. An alumna of the Dallas Opera’s Hart Institute for Women Conductors and the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, Ms. Yankovskaya received Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards in 2018 and 2021. Debuts this season include Chicago Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Dallas Opera, Fort Worth Symphony, Minnesota Opera, and Houston Grand Opera.

Kyle Lang is an opera director and choreographer based in Washington, DC. His critically acclaimed work “keeps the action spinning, giving nods to classic bits, without slighting the opera’s disarming heart, its genuine sentiment” – Opera News. His recent directing credits Page 7

include Die Zauberflöte with Dallas Opera, Carmen, The Pirates of Penzance (Associate), and As One with San Diego Opera, Die Fledermaus with Utah Opera, The Turn of the Screw with Carnegie Mellon University, La Cenerentola, L’elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, and La bohème with Virginia Opera, The Bear with Wexford Festival Opera, Don Quixote and the Duchess with Central City Opera, as well as full productions and scenes with young artists at the Santa Fe Opera and the Seagle Festival. Recent choreographic credits include My Fair Lady with Teatro San Carlo di Napoli and the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Ariadne auf Naxos with The Santa Fe Opera, Vanessa with Wexford Festival Opera, Turandot with Virginia Opera, The Last Savage with Indiana University, and The Merry Widow with Boston Lyric Opera and Utah Opera. Upcoming projects include Le nozze di Figaro with Virginia Opera and The Pirates of Penzance with Utah Opera and Virginia Opera.

Martin Bakari: Praised by Opera News as a “vocally charismatic” performer with a “golden tenor,” Martin Bakari has recently joined Pittsburgh Opera, Atlanta Opera, and Arizona Opera for the title role in Charlie Parker’s Yardbird, Seattle Opera for Eugene Onegin and Porgy & Bess, Cincinnati Opera for La traviata and Le nozze di Figaro, Syracuse Opera for Così fan tutte, Portland Opera for Philip Glass’ In the Penal Colony and a solo recital, Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for Abyssinian Mass, Fort Worth Opera for Porgy & Bess, Raylynmor Opera for Pagliacci, and On Site Opera for Morning Star and Murasaki’s Moon. Internationally, he has appeared at major venues in Dresden, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne, Tel Aviv, and Bari. Mr. Bakari’s 2021-22 season includes the tenor soloist in Carmina Burana at Carnegie Hall with the Cecilia Chorus of New York, Prince Claus in Becoming Santa Claus at Chicago Opera Theater, Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville at Intermountain Opera Bozeman, Goro in Madama Butterfly at Dallas Opera, The Cartography Project with Washington National Opera and the Kennedy Center, and Don Basilio in Le nozze di Figaro at Seattle Opera. A 2018 George London Competition award winner, Mr. Bakari’s recording of Grigory Smirnov’s Dowson Songs (Naxos) was featured by Opera News as a “Critic’s Choice” album. Mr. Bakari is an alumnus of the Juilliard School, Boston University, and the Tanglewood Music Center. www.martinbakari.com Justin Berkowitz: Known for his “exacting and animating performances”, Justin is thrilled to join Chicago Opera Theater this season! During 2021, he appeared in Chicago Opera Theater’s virtual production of Taking up Serpents and premiered the role of Gil in Matthew Recio’s The Puppy Episode. The 2019-2020 season brought debut performances of Carmina Burana with the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Brazos Valley Symphony in Texas, and return to the Chicago Opera Theater stage. The 2018-19 season featured his Page 8

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international debut at the Tyroll Hall in Innsbruck, where he performed his noteworthy interpretation of Orff’s Tenor Soloist in Carmina Burana, which were followed by performances of the same piece with the Mobile Symphony Orchestra and Chippewa Valley Symphony Orchestra. In 2018, Justin made his debut with the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra as the tenor soloist for their performances of The Messiah, and sang the role of Nantucket Sailor in Chicago Opera Theater’s performances of Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick. In recent seasons Justin’s operatic performances have included productions with Central City Opera, Haymarket Opera, Opera Naples, Opera on the James, DuPage Opera Theater and St. Petersburg Opera, among others.

Justin has appeared onstage with the Chicago Philharmonic, Apollo Chorus of Chicago, Annapolis Symphony Orchestra, Detroit Medical Symphony, Northwestern Indiana Symphony, Osh Kosh Symphony, and more. A native of Minneapolis, Justin earned his Bachelor’s degree from Lawrence University and Conservatory and received a Masters degree from The University of Michigan.

Matt Boehler: Bass Matt Boehler has received critical acclaim for both his dramatic skill and his vocal prowess. Boehler’s calendar over the past several years has included engagements at some of classical music’s most prestigious venues. He has sung at The Metropolitan Opera in both Iolanta and The Nose, Théâtre Royal de La Monnaie in Daphne, and Canadian Opera Company in The Magic Flute. During the 2021-2022 season, Mr. Boehler makes his Florida Grand Opera debut in Rigoletto and returns to Des Moines Metro Opera in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A widely recognized collaborator in contemporary opera, this season Mr. Boehler also makes his Santa Fe Opera debut in the world premiere of The Lord of Cries (Corigliano/Adamo) and returns to Chicago Opera Theater for Becoming Santa Claus (Adamo). Elsewhere, he has premiered the roles of Director in Aquanetta (Gordon/Artman) with Prototype Festival, Uncle in Elizabeth Cree (Puts/Campbell) with Opera Philadelphia, and has appeared as Mr. Mister in The Cradle Will Rock with Opera Saratoga. Equally at home on the concert stage, he has been heard as soloist with the New York Philharmonic in Elektra, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and The Ravinia Festival in Bernstein’s Mass, the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. in Mozart’s Requiem, and with the Spoleto Festival in Philip Glass’ Kepler. Additionally, Mr. Boehler is an accomplished composer; his chamber opera Fat Pig, commissioned and presented by Victory Hall Opera with libretto by Miriam Gordon-Stewart, will premiere in 2022. He has been recently commissioned by Washington National Opera, tenors David Portillo and Daniel Shirley, and mezzo Sasha Cooke, who has recorded his recent collaboration with poet Todd Boss for the upcoming release of her album How Do I Find You on the Pentatone label.

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Leah Dexter: American mezzo-soprano, Leah Dexter, is pleased to be back with Chicago Opera Theater for the 2021-22 season. In addition to covering Carmen and performing Mercedes this fall, and performing in Becoming Santa Claus, she will also be seen as Mistress Paddington in the world premiere of Quamino’s Map this coming spring. Leah will also be reprising her roles of Dimas’ Mother and Lupe Marin in Michigan Opera Theatre’s critically acclaimed production of Frida this winter. Recent engagements have included her debut with Chicago Sinfonietta as the alto soloist in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Gloria in Chicago Opera Theater’s premiere production of Freedom Ride, T-Rex/Cavewoman with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Rhoda and the Fossil Hunt, the role of Auntie (cover) in Scarlet Ibis with Chicago Opera Theater, soloist for the Hearing in Color concert series, alto soloist in Tippett’s A Child of Our Time, with the University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and South Shore Opera of Chicago’s 10th Anniversary Gala concert.For the 2020-21 season, Ms. Dexter joined the LYNX Project as a recital soloist and for an anthology recording project released in fall of 2021, and returned to Chicago Opera Theater for two, critically-acclaimed premiere productions: The Transformation of Jane Doe as the Night Maid and Taking Up Serpents as Nelda, for which her performance was lauded as “... fluid, nat- ural, bright, and her acting flawless” (Hyde Park Herald).

David Salsbery Fry: Praised for his “extremely sensual and almost impossibly deep tones” by concerti, bass David Salsbery Fry is the grand prize winner of the Bidu Sayão International Vocal Competition. A tireless advocate for new music and composer-performer collaboration, Mr. Fry has premiered works

by Robert Aldridge, Shawn Brogan Allison, Lembit Beecher, Frank Corcoran, Chaya Czernowin, John David Earnest, Ruby Fulton, Juliana Hall, Jenny Olivia Johnson, Louis Karchin, Lowell Liebermann, Adam Maor, Eric Nathan, Osnat Netzer, Steve Potter, Arnold Rosner, Joseph Summer, Kristian Twombly, Nicholas Vines and Scott Wheeler. He has also collaborated with Justine F. Chen, James Granville Eakin III, Oliver Knussen, Ari Benjamin Meyers, Nico Muhly, John Musto, Judith Shatin, and Charles Wuorinen. Other notable engagements include Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail for St. Petersburg Opera, Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia for Vero Beach Opera, Truffaldin in Ariadne auf Naxos at Tanglewood, Arkel in Pelléas et Mélisande and Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte in Tel Aviv, his Mostly Mozart debut in Stravinsky’s Renard, and Olin Blitch in Susannah with Opera at Rutgers. Mr. Fry studied at Juilliard, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins and apprenticed with The Santa Fe Opera. His recordings are available from Albany, BMOP/sound, Navona, Naxos, New World Records and Odyssey Opera. More on Mr. Fry’s life and career can be found at davidsalsberyfry.com and in the October 2015 issue of Classical Singer Magazine.

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Nina Nelson: Hailed as a “powerhouse”, “achingly poignant” and “heartfelt and gripping”, in the 2021-2022 season Nina Yoshida Nelsen makes her Boston Lyric Opera debut as Mama Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana.

She also makes her Bard Opera debut singing Mother Chen in Huang Ruo’s An American Soldier, with performances at Jazz at Lincoln Center. She then returns to Opera Santa Barbara for a double bill of El Amor Brujo and Frugola in Il Tabarro. Nina makes her Chicago Opera Theater debut singing Queen Sophine in Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus. In the spring, she sings Mama in Jack Perla’s An American Dream at Kentucky Opera and the Alto Solo in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Rhode Island Philharmonic. In the 20192020 season, Nina made her Portland Opera debut as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly. She also performed the world premiere of Blood Moon at Prototype Festival in New York City. Nina returned to Lyric Opera of Chicago to cover Suzuki in Madama Butterfly and was scheduled to return to the Santa Barbara Symphony to perform Beethoven’s Mass in C and reprise the role of Khanh in Huang Ruo’s opera Bound at The Juilliard School. Nina made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in 2019 as Mama in Jack Perla’s An American Dream. In previous seasons, Nina has sung over 150 performances of Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with companies such as Portland, New York City, Chicago, Manitoba, Utah, Atlanta, Sarasota, and Santa Barbara Opera companies.

Amy Owens kicked off the 2019-2020 season with her Kennedy Center Debut in Carmina Burana with the National Symphony Orchestra, where she was praised for “a perfect combination of purring, sensuous phrasing and pure-toned innocence” (Washington Classical Review). She then created the title role in Sweet Potato Kicks The Sun for Santa Fe Opera’s new initiative “Opera For All Voices” alongside legendary beat-boxer Nicole Paris, and made her house debut at Michigan Opera Theater as Johanna in Sweeney Todd. In 2020, she co-founded an immersive online education organization called The Collective Conservatory, served as production development manager for Access Opera, and created Vocal Revolution, an online program focused on developing cross-genre skills for singers at all levels. Her performing career has also taken her to Carnegie Hall, Houston Grand Opera, Utah Symphony, Utah Opera, Omaha Symphony, Wolf Trap Opera, Dallas Opera, On Site Opera, Library of Congress, Lincoln Center, the Blues Tent at the 50th annual New Orleans Jazz Festival, and more. She released two collaborative albums in 2019: a debut album of original music, HAETHOR, which received acclaim in the electronica world, and “Songs of Leonard Bernstein,” including previously unrecorded vocal music. As a budding conductor, she was selected to participate in the Hart Institute for Women Conductors at Dallas Opera and the International Conducting Workshop Festival in Bulgaria. She has received awards from the Sullivan Foundation, the George London Foundation, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council.

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THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS Opera is a collaborative effort—from the singers and the orchestra, to the conductors, directors, designers, and crews, to the administrators and volunteers. Never has that been more true than in the past year and a half. Chicago Opera Theater’s resilience would not be possible without the support of our donor family. Thank you for being an essential member of our creative community.

LEADERSHIP SUPPORT Special thanks to our Leadership Circle, comprised of passionate philanthropists who want to ensure the future of opera is here in Chicago. $100,000+ The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Anonymous Lucy & Peter* Ascoli Nancy Dehmlow* The Elizabeth Morse Charitable Trust Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust US Small Business Administration

$50,000 - $99,999 Julie & Roger* Baskes John R. Halligan Charitable Fund Julius N. Frankel Foundation Patricia A. Kenney & Gregory J. O'Leary Elizabeth Amy Liebman Paul M. Angell Family Foundation Stefan T. Edlis & H. Gael Neeson Foundation Virginia Tobiason*

$25,000 - $49,999 Queta & Ron* Bauer Elizabeth F. Cheney Foundation Lloyd A. Fry Foundation Polk Bros. Foundation Robert and Isabelle Bass Foundation, Inc. Sage Foundation Barre Seid & Barbara Landis‡ The Siragusa Family Foundation Orli & Bill Staley

PRODUCERS CIRCLE Members of our Producers Circle are crucial to the growth and vitality of COT. Producer's Circle members can direct their support to sponsor a specific production, underwrite exciting special projects, or support our comprehensive education programming in CPS schools. $10,000 - $24,999 Shaun & Andy Block Sue & Paul* Freehling Vivien Gross & Dan Tarlock* Allen Heinemann* & William Borden Mary Lunz* & James Houston Illinois Arts Council Agency Masahiro Kasai & Bill Myers Laura G. & James* G. McCormick National Endowment for the Arts Dorothy F. Osborn* & Bud Dobbins Virginia Townsend†

$5,000 - $9,999 Barack Ferrazzano Kirschbaum & Nagelberg LLP‡ Judith & Merrill* Blau Howard Conant Frances & Henry* Fogel Gerald & Colette Gordon Martha Hesse Lemont Fund Patricia McMillen David E. McNeel* OPERA America Dawn Palmer Jean Perkins & Leland Hutchinson Susan & Robert* Shapiro Penelope Steiner

Support the future of opera as a living art form!

Go online at cot.org/give or contact Director of Development Megan Monahan at mm@ cot.org or 312-874-7454.

For a complete list of donors and giving societies, please scan this QR code with your camera for our full digital program.

*Board Member ‡In-kind †Deceased List reflects gifts received between 9/1/2020 and 11/30/2021

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OPERA BENEFACTORS Opera Benefactors are comprised of generous opera enthusiasts, and donors of at least $1,000 enjoy VIP benefits such as intermission receptions, dress rehearsal access, and invitations to exclusive events throughout the season. $1,000 - $4,999 Sheila Amend Anonymous (4) Kathleen Arthur & Stephen Wood Carlos Bekerman Suzanne & William E. Bible John Bierbusse Mrs. Arthur A. Billings Richard Boyum & Louie Chua Capt. Bernardo Iorgulescu, USMC Memorial Fund of DuPage Foundation Joyce Chelberg Robert & Isabel Curley Marijane Deters Ingrid & Rich Dubberke Kent Dymak & Theodore Foss Anne Egger Erika Erich Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP‡ Megan Fellman & Anthony Rosso Firestone Family Foundation

Geoffrey Flick Timothy & Janet Fox Priscilla & Henry Frisch Stephen & Elizabeth Geer James K. Genden & Alma Koppedraijer Gaylord & William Gieseke Ethel & Bill Gofen Donald L. Hoffman Susan Irion* & Rob DeLand The Jana Foundation, Inc. William Jentes Mrs. Lori Julian Diana & Neil King A. Jeanne LaDuke Maria* & Peter Lagios Moses Lee Edward Mack Ashley & Brandon Magnus Marilyn McCoy & Charles Thomas Patrice Michaels & Jim Ginsburg Joanne Michalski & Mike Weeda Lynne & Frank Modruson Charles H. Mottier

Catherine Mouly & Ted Carlson John H. Nelson Ed & Gayla Nieminen Susan Noel* Irmgard & Keith Olson Marsha & Robert Rosner Sahara Enterprises, Inc. Fund at The Chicago Community Foundation SBC Waste Solutions, Inc.‡ Edward Schiele Susan H. Schwartz Joan and James Shapiro Foundation, Inc. Louise K. Smith Laraine & David Spector Marjorie Stinespring David J. Varnerin Laura Vesecky Todd & Cari Vieregg Albert Walavich Anne & Dennis Wentz Elizabeth Yntema Linda & Owen Youngman

FRIENDS OF COT Friends of COT receive invitations to donor events, all dress rehearsals, and an invitation to the donor room for one production each season. $500 - $999 Sharon & Charles T. Angell Anonymous Brenda Ashley & Gary Johnson John & Sharon Baldwin Sandra Bass Mrs. Albert Bloom John Blosser Joan & Jeffrey Blumenthal Sheila Barton Bosron Ralph & Rona Brown Christiane Carlsson Walter Cibulskis Margery C. Coen Lisa DeAngelis Janet Eyler & Edwin Walker Lance Fortnow

Eloise Foster Patricia & Thomas L. Gahlon Mr. & Mrs. Martin A. Halacy Ruth Hansen & Lawrence Plotkin Barbara & William Herzog Gary Huff Gilbert Johns Mary Klyasheff Catherine & Douglas Knuth Paul Kobasa Axel Kunzmann & Bruce J. Nelson Robert Marks† Carole McMahon David Miller Robert & Lois Moeller

Joan & Frank R. Safford David Saunders Elizabeth Shepherd Marcey & Ken Siegel Joanne Silver Grace K. Stanek Myron & Karen Tiersky Peter Wender Jennifer Woodard

*Board Member ‡In-kind †Deceased List reflects gifts received between 9/1/2020 and 11/30/2021

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ENCORE SOCIETY Chicago Opera Theater’s Encore Society is an inspiring group of forward thinking opera lovers who want to support the future of bold opera in Chicago. These commitments are integral to COT, helping us continue to present exciting premieres and unique productions to the community for years to come.

Patrons who have made a designation of any size through bequests, insurance policies, IRAs, or any other legacy-giving asset provision are eligible to become members of COT’s Encore Society. Members enjoy VIP Donor Room Access and special invitations to donor events.

If you have made such arrangements, please let us know by contacting Director of Development Megan Monahan at mm@cot.org or 312-874-7454.

Encore Society Members Anonymous (3) Lucy & Peter* Ascoli Julie & Roger* Baskes Charlotte & Alan Bath Joan & Jeffrey Blumenthal David Boyce Janet Eyler & Edwin Walker Megan Fellman & Anthony Rosso Frances & Henry* Fogel James K. Genden & Alma Koppedraijer Karen & Martin A. Halacy Allen Heinemann* & William Borden Susan Irion* & Rob DeLand Ruth Kane

Patricia A. Kenney & Gregory J. O'Leary Maria* & Peter Lagios Elizabeth Amy Liebman Mary Lunz* & James Houston Kevin McGirr Joanne Michalski & Mike Weeda John H. Nelson Gayla & Edward Nieminen Dorothy F. Osborn* & Bud Dobbins Katharine Roller Louise K. Smith Virginia Tobiason* Suzanne L. Wagner Albert Walavich Claude Weil *Denotes member, Board of Directors

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PRESIDENT’S COUNCIL The Chicago Opera Theater President’s Council was founded by former Board President Gregory J. O’Leary. President’s Council members play an integral role in the future of the company as advocates and supporters. Membership is open to donors contributing at least $1,500 annually, and members enjoy special behind the scenes access on a sponsored production, as well as exclusive events and optional board committee service. In the 21/22 season, the President’s Council is sponsoring Mark Adamo’s Becoming Santa Claus.

Interested in joining President's Council? From behind-the-scenes information on our productions, to access to the artists behind the work, members are invited to experience opera from an exclusive and up-close vantage. Contact Director of Development Megan Monahan at mm@cot.org or 312-874-7454.

President’s Council Members Anonymous (3) Kathleen Arthur & Stephen Wood John Bierbusse Shaun & Andy Block Richard Boyum & Louie Chua Joyce Chelberg Howard Conant Marijane Deters Bud Dobbins Kent Dymak & Theodore Foss Anne Egger Megan Fellman & Anthony Rosso Geoffrey Flick Stephen & Elizabeth Geer James K. Genden & Alma Koppedraijer Ethel & Bill Gofen Colette & Gerald Gordon Martha Hesse Donald L. Hoffman

Masahiro Kasai & Bill Myers Patricia A. Kenney & Gregory J. O'Leary Moses Lee Mary Lunz* & James Houston Ashley & Brandon Magnus Patricia McMillen Joanne Michalski & Mike Weeda Lynne & Frank Modruson Charles H. Mottier Catherine Mouly & LeRoy Carlson, Jr. John H. Nelson Gayla & Edward Nieminen Dawn Palmer Erika Erich Marsha & Robert Rosner Susan H. Schwartz Louise K. Smith David J. Varnerin Albert Walavich Linda & Owen Youngman *Denotes member, Board of Directors

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Emerging Opera Composer Residency Chicago Opera Theater’s Vanguard Emerging Opera Composer residency is a two-year development program that places an emphasis on building skills and connections for emerging opera composers in Chicago and the Midwest.

The program aims to bridge the gap between general compositional skills taught in university music programs and the real-world observation and experience that help inform an operatic composer’s work. Launched in 2018, the program identifies skilled composers who have not yet had sufficient opportunities for writing opera and provides them with a two-year comprehensive course of study

HOW IT WORKS Each year, COT welcomes one Vanguard Composer, who joins the company for a two-year residency coinciding with two COT production seasons. At any given time, there will be a total of two composers in residence—one in their first year and one in their second. All events, performances, rehearsals, and conferences attended will be followed by feedback sessions with the composers and COT leadership. Composers’ activities during their twoyear participation in the program will be tailored to a given composer’s needs and re-evaluated regularly.

In our 20/21 season, our Vanguard Composer alumna Stacy Garrop premiered The Transformation of Jane Doe, written with librettist Jerry Dye, on our digital mainstage. Stacy was joined by fellow alumnus Matthew Recio and current Vanguard Composers Wang Lu and Shawn Okpebholo for a series of Vanguard Micro-Jams commissioned for our Young Artists.

In the spring, Matthew premiered his opera, The Puppy Episode, written with librettist Royce Vavrek, on our digital mainstage. In the spring of 2022 Wang Lu will be premiering The Beekeeper with librettist Kelley Rourke.

Vanguard Composers

Stacy Garrop Page 16

Matthew Recio

Wang Lu

Shawn Okpebholo Becoming Santa Claus

OPERA FOR ALL Opera for All engages students through music and storytelling to enrich the lives of youth and foster a lifelong appreciation for the arts. In our half-year and full-year OFA programs, students learn about the art form of opera by creating their own unique work. COT's teaching artists work with each classroom to create the script, music, lyrics, costumes, and set design for the opera. At the end of the program, students in OFA perform their opera for their community.

Participating Schools Kilmer Elementary, Disney II Magnet Elementary School, Disney II Magnet High School, Pickard Elementary, Kershaw Elementary In these pictures from Pickard Elementary, students are working with Guest Artist Lauren Flaaen to create their backdrops for their opera.

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COT YOUNG ARTIST & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

in conjunction with Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts

The COT/CCPA Young Artist Program is a specialized opportunity for developing pianists and singers. It allows artists with exceptional career promise and mastery of basic skills to focus on all areas of their artistic growth. The program affords them professional experience, particularly in the development and performance of innovative new work, while also supporting them with voice lessons, vocal coaching, and dramatic training from the illustrious music and performance faculty at CCPA.

Corinne Costell

Veena Akama-Makia

Jennifer Allor

Keanon Kyles

Participants receive a full-tuition scholarship, as well as a monthly stipend during the performance season, which runs September through April.

At COT, Young Artists engage in the artistic process of the company for the duration of the two-year program.

• Regular performance opportunities at Chicago Opera Theater, including covering roles, chorus participation, and consideration for principal roles • At least one individual coaching with Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya per year • At least one masterclass with artists from each mainstage production • Targeted coaching and networking with nationally respected Pauline Tan composers, librettists, conductors, and directors • Regular mentorship from COT leadership in artistic and professional development opportunities • Involvement in the Living Opera Series, which focuses on the development of new works – participation may include direct involvement in workshops and engagement with the Emerging Opera Composers in residence through COT’s Vanguard Initiative • Supplemental sessions relating to theatrical skills classes (e.g., movement, puppetry, languages) or business/life topics (e.g., taxes, websites, personal marketing) • Occasional participation at donor-focused events and COT Education programs in Chicago Public Schools.

• Attendance at COT and Lyric Opera dress rehearsals, as well as select operatic events throughout the city

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Becoming Santa Claus

COMING SOON...

THE BEEKEEPER Friday, March 4, 2022 @ 7:30pm Music by Wang Lu Libretto by Kelley Rourke Vanguard Opera Concert Premiere

QUAMINO’S MAP Saturday, April 23, 2022 @ 7:30pm Friday, April 29, 2022 @ 7:30pm Sunday, May 1, 2022 @ 3pm Music by Errollyn Wallen Libretto by Deborah Brevoort World Premiere

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To purchase tickets, call the box office at

312-704-8414 or visit

WWW.COT.ORG

Becoming Santa Claus