Soldier Songs

Thursday, October 5, 2023 @ 7PM Epiphany Center for the Arts

Lawrence Edelson Edlis Neeson General Director

Lidiya Yankovskaya

Elizabeth Morse & Genius Music Director

Music & Libretto by David T. Little By arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company, publisher and copyright owner.

CAST

The Soldier: David Adam Moore

COVERS The Soldier: Hadleigh Adams Study Cover: Louise Floyd*

PRODUCTION

Conductor: Lidiya Yankovskaya Orchestra Contractor: Ross Beacraft Rehearsal Pianist: Jonathan Gmeinder Second Rehearsal Pianist: Paula Gelpi* Sound Designer: Garth MacAleavey Production Stage Manager: Sandra Moore

ADMINISTRATION Edlis Neeson General Director: Lawrence Edelson Elizabeth Morse & Genius Music Director: Lidiya Yankovskaya Director of Artistic Operations: Brittany Nelson Artistic Operations Assistant: Andrew Wolffking Director of Production: Deborah Vandergrift Director of Development: Meaghan Stainback Smallwood Development Manager: Korey Pimental Director of Operations & Audience Services: Scott Gryder Director of Community Programming: Veronica Chamberlain Finance Manager: Jenny Rudnick Marketing Manager: Emmelly Villagran

*Indicates COT Young Artists

ORCHESTRA Violin /Concertmaster Jeff Yang Cello Matthew Agnew

Percussion Andrew Cierny, Sarah Christianson Flute/Piccolo/Alto Flute/ Percussion Jennie Oh Brown

Clarinet/Bass Clarinet/Percussion Gene Collerd

Piano/Toy Piano/Synth Jonathan Gmeinder

BOARD OF DIRECTORS President: Susan J. Irion Secretary: Allen Heinemann Immediate Past President: Henry Fogel Directors Alissa Andraski Paul E. Freehling Maria Lagios Dorothy Osborn Peter Ascoli Michael G. Hanson James G. McCormick Pavitra Ramachandran Ron Bauer Stephanie Hart David McNeel Robert E. Shapiro Merrill Blau Mary Lunz Houston Susan Noel Virgina Tobiason Honorary Trustees Roger Baskes, Nancy Dehmlow, Joan W. Harris Gael Neeson, Gregory O'Leary

FROM OUR GENERAL DIRECTOR It is my great pleasure to welcome you to The Epiphany Center - and to the first event of Chicago Opera Theater’s 50th Anniversary Season!

Every opera company has a mission statement, but I have rarely encountered any company that so genuinely lives its mission as COT. One of the things that most excited me about joining the COT family is the company’s commitment to expand the tradition of opera as a living art form. Anyone who thinks of opera as old-fashioned or elitist clearly has not been to a COT performance! Since its founding in 1973, in a city where storefront theaters and global icons thrive side by side, COT has grown from a grassroots, community-based company to a national leader in an increasingly vibrant, diverse, and forward-looking art form. I could not resist being part of that – and I’m glad you cannot resist it either.

Tonight, we are thrilled to share David T. Little’s theatrical cantata, Soldier Songs, with you. I have known David for over 15 years, and I have previously had the honor to work with him on two of his operas, Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera, and JFK. While this season was planned before I joined the company this summer, I was absolutely thrilled to hear that we’d be launching our season with David’s first theatrical work, and introducing his remarkable voice to Chicago.

In an unexpected turn of events, Nathan Gunn had to withdraw from this evening’s performance due to a family emergency. Our thoughts are with Nathan and his family at this difficult time. While it is always disappointing when a beloved artist has to withdraw from a performance, we are incredibly fortunate that baritone David Adam Moore was able to join us this evening – with the gracious permission of the Metropolitan Opera, where he is currently in the midst of working on the Met’s premiere production of Dead Man Walking.

David has sung the role of The Soldier more than anyone else in the world – so you are in for a real treat!

Soldier Songs is a perfect example of how we live our mission at COT. Opera and rock music collide in this remarkable exploration of the life of The Soldier. Based on interviews with veterans of five wars, the piece boldly examines the impact of trauma, the exploitation of innocence, and the difficulty of expressing war's painful truths.

Thank you for joining us, and for your support of Chicago Opera Theater. What we do at COT is only possible because of your passion and commitment. You are in for a thrilling and moving performance this evening, with even more excitement as part of our 50th Anniversary Celebrations in the weeks and months to come!

With all best wishes,

Lawrence Edelson Edlis Neeson General Director

THE GENESIS OF SOLDIER SONGS In 2004 I was invited to a career day at my former high school to speak with students about being a composer. I shared the stage with an old friend, Justen Bennett, who had just returned from Iraq where he had been a field medic, and had been among those who stormed Saddam Hussein’s palace. The contrast between Justen’s job and mine was striking.

Exiting the auditorium I saw a display case, which I remembered the school using to celebrate student achievements: a victory for the football team or marching band, or photos from the musical that had happened the previous week. Now it showed photos of soldiers: alumni currently serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, driving tanks and carrying machine guns. Here, in the same case where their prom photos might have been only years prior.

I remembered our days together in class, debating the ethics of Vietnam or the Gulf War. I reflected upon my attitude at the time: the simplistic view of an adolescent, that war was always wrong. I just didn’t understand why someone would enlist. But here, a decade later, my friends were defusing land mines in Iraq.

I considered my own family. My generation was the first in nearly a century not to serve in the military. My uncles were in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. My grandfathers were both in World War II, and my great-grandfather was in WWI. My third great-grandfather was killed in Tennessee fighting for the Union. In a way, I had descended from this thing I had previously dismissed. Cracks began to form in my absolutist position, and questions began to arise.

To find my own answers, I called family and friends who I knew had served—and who were not on active duty at the time—and asked

them to speak with me about their experience. It was from their stories that Soldier Songs began to emerge. Our recorded conversations feature prominently both as the basis for the libretto, and in the electronic component of the score.

What struck me most was that, in nearly every conversation, it was the first time the veterans had shared their experience, even though some had left active duty decades ago. “I’ve never talked about this with anybody” became a common refrain. This became central to the piece—what, for me, this piece is about: the difficulty or impossibility of the telling.

I am often asked if Soldier Songs is an anti-war piece, but it’s not that simple. I never intended for it to prove a point, or even to deliver a specific message. I selected and edited these conversations more as a way of sharing than as a way of convincing. I hope that Soldier Songs conveys what I gained by writing it: recognition of the soldier’s plight and a due measure of compassion.

-David T. Little

David Adam Moore | The Soldier David Adam Moore performs as a leading baritone with major opera houses and orchestras worldwide, including the Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Salzburg Festival, Carnegie Hall, Teatro Colón Buenos Aires, Théâtre du Châtelet, Bunkamura (Tokyo), Grand Radio Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Lukes, American Symphony Orchestra, and many others. His performances have been broadcast on BBC, Arte television, NPR, Radio France, RAI, ORF, and Radio Netherlands, and recorded by Erato, BMG, GPR, and Innova records.

With a repertoire of over 60 principal roles, he is best known for his portrayals of Billy Budd, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, Rossini’s Barbiere, Joseph DeRocher in Dead Man Walking, Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, Prior Walter in Angels in America, Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles, Schubert’s Winterreise, Carmina Burana, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro and the Soldier in David T. Little’s Soldier Songs, which Moore premiered and recorded.

A celebrated interpreter of contemporary music, he has created roles and premiered works for some of today’s most important living composers, including Thomas Adès, Peter Eötvös, David T. Little, Holly Herndon, John Eaton, Ricky Ian Gordon, Conrad Cummings, Martin Hennessey, and Tom Cipullo, while simultaneously garnering critical acclaim for his interpretations of opera, art song, and concert works from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and Modern eras.

Moore’s Metropolitan Opera debut performance as Colonel Gomez in Thomas Adès’ The Exterminating Angel was broadcast in theaters worldwide and is available on DVD.

Hadleigh Adams | Cover The Soldier Hailed by The New York Times, Opera News, and the San Francisco Chronicle following the world premiere performances of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra with the San Francisco Opera, Hadleigh Adams is a baritone with a very strong lower extension enabling him to forge a career in both baritone and bass-baritone repertoire. With a repertoire spanning from Rameau and Vivaldi all the way to Ades and Adams, he is an artist equally at home on the opera stage as he is in concert.

This season’s highlights include the role of Agrippa in world premiere of John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra at the San Francisco Opera, Marcutio in Gouod’s Romeo et Juliette with San Diego Opera, and his fourth production of Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers in the lead role of Hawkins Fuller with Florida Grand Opera. On the concert platform he performs Handel’s Messiah with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Houston Symphony, Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony at Carnegie Hall, Beethoven 9 with the Seattle Symphony, Carmina Burana with the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Britten’s War Requiem with the Brisbane Philharmonia Orchestra, and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erder with Wellington Orchestra.

Next Season, Mr Adams marks Mr Adams’ 20th production with the San Francisco Opera In Handel's Partenope (Ormonte). In recent seasons, Stanley Kowalski in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire at Florida Grand Opera, Gregory Spears’ Fellow Travelers (Hawkins Fuller) at Minnesota Opera, Philip Glass’ la Belle et la Bete with Opera Parallele, Bernstein’s Mass (baritone soloist/Celebrant cover) with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, again with the Chicago Symphony, and a further production at Lincoln Center, Joby Talbot’s Everest with Opera Parallele, and Tosca (Angelotti) with the San Francisco Opera.

Louise Floyd | Study Cover The Soldier Louise Floyd is sponsored by Jeanne LaDuke Louise Floyd is excited to present her debut as a young artist with Chicago Opera Theater. Hailing from Los Angeles, California, she has been praised by bachtrack.com as a “resonant baritone” and a “particular standout.”

Louise has worked extensively in Utah as an emerging baritone. In 2017, she made her operatic debut in The Merry Widow, with Utah Vocal Arts Academy’s Opera Festival. In 2019, she debuted her first leading role, Falke in Die Fledermaus. Louise also earned opportunities to perform Germont in La Traviata and Escamillo in Carmen with Utah Vocal Arts Academy, and Utah Valley University.

In 2021 she sang Sharpless in Lyrical Opera Theater’s production of Madama Butterfly.

Louise recently completed her Master’s degree from UCLA’s competitive Vocal Performance program. She performed il Comte in Nozze di Figaro, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore, and Mother Goose in The Rake’s Progress, with their opera department, under the direction of Peter Kazaras.

Louise’s professional debut came in 2022, singing the role of Olga (in baritone key) with Opera Queen’s retelling of Eugene Onegin titled Tatiana’s Secret in Toronto, ON. Also in 2022, she sang the role of Tarbotto in Rossini’s L’inganno felice. In July of 2023, she made her New York City debut as “un altro cristiano” in Teatro Nuovo’s production of Poliuto by Donizetti.

In her free time, Louise enjoys exploring her new home in Chicago, working on and riding motorcycles, and going on long drives with her partner.

Louise is a former student of Vladimir Chernov. She currently studies with Allan Glassman, and Lucy T. Yates.

David T. Little | Composer & Librettist A natural musical storyteller with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times), composer David T. Little is known for stage, concert, and screen works permeated with the power of the unexpected. Little probes the deep corners of human psychology, invoking political, historical, spiritual, and social themes as pathways for exploring the human condition. His broad catalog speaks to the mix of light and dark that we experience in life, unafraid to invoke the mythical, bewitching, disturbing, surreal, or comedic. He has drawn acclaim for operas including Dog Days, JFK, and the comedy Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera (all with libretto by Royce Vavrek), as well as his opera Soldier Songs. Little’s latest work is Black Lodge, a metal-infused opera with a libretto by poet Anne Waldman, premiered by Beth Morrison Projects at Opera Philadelphia, with a soundtrack released by Cantaloupe Music.

Upcoming projects include the world premiere of a theatrical choral work, SIN-EATER, based on the ancient practice of paying the poor to ritualistically “eat” the sins of the rich, co-commissioned by The Crossing and Penn Live Arts. In 2024, Little will unveil his monodrama What Belongs to You, developed for tenor Karim Sulayman and Alarm Will Sound. He is currently composing music for a new production of Agamemnon and developing several new operas with frequent collaborator Royce Vavrek including a project commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater New Works Program. Learn more at davidtlittle.com.

Lidiya Yankovskaya | Conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya is a fiercely committed advocate for Slavic masterpieces, operatic rarities, and contemporary works on the leading edge of classical music. She has conducted more than 40 world premieres, including 17 operas, and her strength as a visionary collaborator has guided new perspectives on staged and symphonic repertoire from Carmen and Queen of Spades to Price and Prokofiev. As Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater, 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 Chicagoan of the Year.

Following her debut at Santa Fe Opera in a new production of Dvořák’s Rusalka in summer 2023, Yankovskaya will conduct orchestras across the United States. She debuts at Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Utah Symphony, North Carolina Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Charlotte Symphony, and Symphony San Jose.

Yankovskaya deepens her ongoing relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, leading MusicNOW world premieres by Jessie Montgomery and Curtis Stewart, and designing a series of educational concerts. Yankovskaya has recently conducted Eugene Onegin at Staatsoper Hamburg, Symphony of Sorrowful Songs at English National Opera, Carmen at Houston Grand Opera, and Don Giovanni at Seattle Opera. Elsewhere she has led Der Freischütz at Wolf Trap Opera, Edward Tulane at Minnesota Opera, and Taking Up Serpents at Washington National Opera and the Glimmerglass Festival.

More information at lidiyayankovskaya.com.

Thank You Soldier Songs is sponsored in part by The Amphion Foundation

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Young Artists

Karlos Piñero-Mercado

Louise Floyd

Hayley Fox

Paula Gelpi

Michelle Mariposa

The COT/CCPA Young Artist Program is a specialized opportunity for developing pianists and singers. It allows developing 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 Roosevelt University's Chicago College of Performing Arts. Participants receive a full-tuition scholarship, as well as a monthly stipend during the performance season, which runs September – April.

Vanguard Initiative

Gillian Rae Perry 2022-2024

Carlos R. Carrillo 2023-2025

The Vanguard Initiative is COT's fully-comprehensive program for composers ready to delve into the world of opera. This immersive two year residency includes participation in all COT productions, sessions with top industry leaders, extensive study of repertoire and vocal writing, direct insight into administrative and other behind-thescenes processes, and culminates with the development of a fulllength opera commissioned by COT. The program is guided and overseen by COT Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya, with Composer Advisors Jake Heggie, Kamala Sankaram, and Gene Scheer.

The Vanguard Emerging Opera Composer Residency is supported by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation.

Opera For All!

Opera for All is a no-cost full year program in Chicago Public Schools where students learn more about opera by creating their own original works. Students have weekly class sessions with teaching artists where they learn about the art form, gain performance skills, and work together to create something new. They get to work with composers, artists, and other guests who help bring their productions to life.

If you'd like to learn more about Opera for All or make a donation to help us bring this program to even more schools, please contact Veronica Chamberlain at vc@cot.org.

COMING SOON

TICKETS AT COT.ORG