Des Moines Metro Opera 52nd Summer Festival Program 2024
ON VIEW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 8:
INGRID LILLIGREN: TACTILE MEDITATIONS AND TALKING TO MOTHER CLAY: PUEBLO POTTERY FROM THE COLLECTION
Left: Ingrid Lilligren, Blue Dream, 2020. Ceramic, wood, ice, unfired clay, sheet metal, 64 x 45 x 30 in. Courtesy of the artist. Right top: Unknown artist Acoma/Haa’ku, Water Jar, ca. 1970–1979. Ceramic, 6 1/2 x 8 in. Gift of Ann Reddan Rustebakke ’49 (2002.60.032). Right bottom: Unknown artist Zuni/Halona:wa, Jar, ca. 1970 – 1979. Ceramic, 5 x 6 in. Gift of Ann Reddan Rustebakke ’49 (2002.60.022).
FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
TUESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY 11 A.M.– 6 P.M.
THURSDAY OPEN UNTIL 8 P.M.
SATURDAY AND SUNDAY 1–5 P.M.
CLOSED MONDAYS AND MAJOR HOLIDAYS
GRINNELL.EDU/MUSEUM
BUCKSBAUM CENTER FOR THE ARTS 1108 PARK
THE LAURIDSEN FAMILY FOUNDATION IS THE PRESENTING SPONSOR OF THE 2024 SEASON
Create distinctive theatrical experiences and inspirational learning opportunities for artists and audiences of the 21st
INSPIRE diverse audiences through statewide educational programs and unique community collaborations.
ENCOURAGE established and emerging artists and administrators to produce their best work through a creative, inclusive environment.
CURATE innovative repertory from four centuries of composition presented at the highest levels of artistic and vocal achievement.
IMPACT the economic vitality of the Greater Des Moines region through programming that generates national and international tourism.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Des Moines Metro Opera’s Summer Festival performances take place on and our offices occupy the traditional, ancestral and unceded lands of the Ioway, Sauk and Meskwaki, and Sioux. We recognize that our presence here is the result of ongoing Colonialism and the forced removal of Indigenous peoples. We honor the people of these tribes and other Indigenous caretakers of these lands, the elders who lived here before, the Indigenous people today and the generations to come. Through this acknowledgement, Des Moines Metro Opera seeks to affirm the ties and rights these Nations continue to have and will forever have to this land. You can learn more about Native lands and find links to information about the Ioway, Sauk and Meskwaki, and Sioux at native-land.ca.
2024 SUMMER FESTIVAL CALENDAR
JUNE 1, SATURDAY
2:00PM, The Barber of Seville and Salome Sneak Peeks | Franklin Avenue Library, Free 6:30PM, Apprentice Spotlight | BPAC
JUNE 7, FRIDAY
10:00AM, Picnic & Puccini Family Opera Adventure | BPAC
JUNE 8, SATURDAY
10:00AM, Picnic & Puccini Family Opera Adventure | BPAC
5:30PM, Opera Gala | Ruan Center
JUNE 15, SATURDAY
11:30AM, Threads & Trills | Des Moines Embassy Club West
2:00PM, Pelléas & Mélisande and American Apollo Sneak Peeks | Franklin Avenue Library, Free
JUNE 28, FRIDAY
7:30PM, The Barber of Seville | BPAC
JUNE 29, SATURDAY
2:00PM, Apprentice Scenes Program | ARMC, Free
7:30PM, Salome | BPAC
JUNE 30, SUNDAY
2:00PM, The Barber of Seville | BPAC
JULY 5, FRIDAY
2:00PM, Apprentice Scenes Program | ARMC, Free
7:30PM, The Barber of Seville | BPAC
JULY 6, SATURDAY
7:30PM, Pelléas & Mélisande | BPAC
JULY 7, SUNDAY
2:00PM, Salome | BPAC
JULY 12, FRIDAY
7:30PM, Pelléas & Mélisande | BPAC
JULY 13, SATURDAY
1:00PM, Salome | BPAC
3:30PM, A Mysterious Apollo: John Singer Sargent and His Muse
Thomas McKeller Lecture | Kent Campus Center, Free
7:00PM, American Apollo Creators in Conversation | Kent Campus Center, Free 8:00PM, American Apollo | BPAC
JULY 14, SUNDAY
2:00PM, The Barber of Seville | BPAC
JULY 16, TUESDAY
2:00PM, Apprentice Scenes Program | ARMC, Free
7:30PM, The Barber of Seville | BPAC
JULY 17, WEDNESDAY
7:30PM, Pelléas & Mélisande | BPAC
JULY 18, THURSDAY
7:30PM, American Apollo | BPAC
JULY 19, FRIDAY
1:00PM, American Apollo | BPAC
8:00PM, Salome | BPAC
JULY 20, SATURDAY
2:00PM, Stars of Tomorrow | Sheslow Auditorium, Drake University
7:30PM, The Barber of Seville | BPAC
JULY 21, SUNDAY
2:00PM, Pelléas & Mélisande | BPAC
TIMES SUBJECT TO CHANGE | ALL TIMES ARE CDT
ARMC Amy Robertson Music Center, 519 North Buxton St
BPAC Blank Performing Arts Center, 513 North D St
Helping secure brighter financial futures
The Principal® Foundation imagines a future where more people, especially youth, have the opportunity to learn, earn, and save more for lifelong financial security. We work on a global scale to empower people financially through research and innovation, grantmaking, volunteerism, and match giving programs. Each year, Principal Foundation contributes more than $17 million to charitable organizations across the United States and in five countries. The goal is to benefit communities by improving individuals’ lives and creating opportunities for people to build a brighter future for themselves and their family.
Welcome to the 2024 Festival Season—our 52nd. It’s a year of growth and new heights as Des Moines Metro Opera continues to take its place among the world’s leading opera festivals. Demand for your time, resources and attention is more competitive than ever. As a non-profit organization that depends on the generosity of friends who believe in the value of the arts in our community, we are grateful that you have chosen to be with us today.
This season we move from three operas on the mainstage to four. We open with Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, appearing for only the fifth time in 52 seasons in a witty and vibrant production from Opera Queensland. I can’t resist the programming temptation to juxtapose major works in intriguing pairings (Wozzeck and Candide; Platée and The Queen of Spades; Bluebeard’s Castle and The Love for Three Oranges). This season we do that with two pivotal but very different works created only a few years apart that firmly concluded the 19th century and kicked open the door to the 20th. Strauss’s Salome and Debussy’s Pelléas & Mélisande are towering masterpieces that are fascinating to examine back-to-back in our unique theatre. And finally, the long-awaited premiere of American Apollo by Damien Geter and Lila Palmer will have its world premiere on July 13. Both creators are among the top in their fields today. Their work, this subject matter, the questions posed and the beautiful story have coalesced into one of the opera world’s most highly anticipated new works. I can’t wait to share this remarkable story with you.
I also can hardly wait to share the unique combination of operas selected for our 2025 Festival Season. We open with the long-awaited return of composer Richard Wagner. Last seen in 1987, The Flying Dutchman docks on our stage in a production headlined by international bass-baritone Ryan McKinny and led by Maestro David Neely and director Joshua Borths. Next, the company premiere of Janáček’s imaginative and dazzling opera The Cunning Little Vixen brings the natural world to our stage in a new production that reunites director Kristine McIntyre, visual image composer Oyoram and Maestro Neely after the triumph of last season’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Soprano Hera Hyesang Park and mezzo-soprano Sun-Ly Pierce headline this not-to-be-missed opera. Finally, a personal favorite for me, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress returns in a new production led by Chas Rader-Shieber with Jacob A. Climer starring soprano Joélle Harvey, bass-baritone Sam Carl and tenor Jonas Hacker, who won hearts as the nebbish Mercury in Platée in 2021. Securing our artistic future is of critical importance and so the company has entered into multi-year, multi-production agreements with three principal artistic partners—Music Director and Principal Conductor David Neely and directors Chas Rader-Shieber and Kristine McIntyre—that will build on the quality of artistic achievement that has become our hallmark.
Thirty years ago, as a 20-year-old student at Simpson College, I was asked to stay for the summer to work as an intern at DMMO. I had no idea what that would mean. My daily tasks included working behind the concession stand, shuttling people to the airport, hanging posters around Des Moines, cleaning bathrooms after intermission and keeping rain water out of our beloved dining tent. I was also asked to be an extra in Carmen, where I got to witness up close the extraordinary performance of Gwen Jones in the title role (I’m honored she has returned to us this season as Herodias in Salome). Over the years, I’ve added many different experiences on all sides of the curtain to my job description. I was asked to join the year-round staff in 1999 and have had the great joy to be at the helm of the company for almost 15 years. My mother once told me that my job would fill a large part of my life, and the best way to be truly satisfied is to spend my days doing what I believe is great work. Thank you to those who have made it possible for me to be deeply immersed in joy and deep personal fulfillment these past 30 summers.
Michael Egel
The Linda Koehn General and Artistic Director
From the PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD
Welcome to Des Moines Metro Opera! On behalf of the Board of Directors, it is my privilege to welcome you to our 52nd season. Whether you traveled across town or across an ocean, we are thrilled you have decided to join us.
Throughout the country so many non-profit performing arts organizations are faced with the twin challenges of rising costs and falling attendance. We are not exempt from the increased costs of doing business—more on that in a moment—but DMMO is one of the rare examples of an opera company increasing the number of season subscribers and regularly selling out performances. To what do we credit this success? Is it our collection of brilliant and strategic professionals working year-round at the Lauridsen Opera Center? Is it the world-class musicians and festival staff who consider Des Moines Metro Opera their artistic home? The enthusiastic support of a devoted board? The strong financial backing from loyal donors and the DMMO Foundation? The answer is yes to all. Every carefully considered detail of each performance is the synergy of all these things and so much more.
As mentioned above, the cost of staging the festival season has increased dramatically, and the company has responded to inflation’s dare with advanced planning instead of retrenchment. General and Artistic Director Michael Egel is planning seasons that include collaborations (and cost-sharing) with other companies, re-use of scenic elements, purchasing instead of renting when it results in savings over time and multi-year agreements with creative talent. His efforts to maintain and grow DMMO’s reputation for innovation and artistic excellence are an admirable and ambitious strategic investment for the future. With careful planning and your continuing support, DMMO will maintain its momentum and continue to be a destination for the industry’s best talent.
Speaking of destinations, please look around for a moment at our unique and intimate performance space, a key component of our success. Des Moines Metro Opera has been a summer resident of Simpson College since the very beginning, and our relationship is still strong. We are partnering with Simpson to engage a cross-disciplinary group of theatre professionals to perform a thorough assessment of the Blank Performing Arts Center and determine the scope and cost of improvements to meet the needs of current and future performers and audiences. Many of you have already participated by providing your opinions and insights for this project, and the next phase will begin very soon.
Of course, none of this is possible without your presence and your financial support. In my 10 years on the board, I have learned that ticket sales cover only a small portion of DMMO’s budget. The lion’s share is from individuals like you who choose to prioritize arts and culture by giving to the opera. Your dedication to this art form and this company is deeply appreciated and never taken for granted. Thank you.
Before the lights dim and the overture begins, I want to recognize Michael Egel. Thirty years ago, Michael began his career as an intern with Des Moines Metro Opera. The rest is history—as well as our bright future. His determination and passion on behalf of this company have no end, and he has moved us forward with bold vision and ambition. Bravo!
Sincerely,
Emily Pontius President of the Board
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Des Moines Metro Opera LEADERSHIP
BOARD of DIRECTORS
OFFICERS
President EMILY PONTIUS
President-elect DARREN R. JIRSA
Vice President CARRIE CLOGG
Treasurer JOHN WILD
DIRECTORS
MOLLIE BAKER
TONY BRAIDA
ELIZABETH CARTER
ELIZABETH FREESE
BRYAN HALL
HARRIETT “RUSTY” HUBBELL
BRUCE HUGHES
JOSHUA KIMELMAN
MARLA LACEY
PROCTOR LUREMAN
FOUNDATION BOARD of TRUSTEES
OFFICERS
President VIRGINIA CROSKERY LAURIDSEN *
President-elect EMILY PONTIUS
Treasurer DENISE WIELAND
Secretary BARBARA CAPPAERT
HONORARY DIRECTORS
PAMELA BASS-BOOKEY
MARY BEH
SUE RUTLEDGE BRENTON
PAT BROWN
FRANK R. BROWNELL III
KATE CAREY
PATTY COWNIE *
ARDENE DOWNING
SIMON ESTES
MARSHALL FLAPAN
BARBARA GARTNER *
BRYAN HALL
CHARLOTTE HUBBELL *
* PAST PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD
Secretary ANN J. MICHELSON
At-large TIMOTHY J. KRUMM, PAXTON WILLIAMS
Immediate Past President VIRGINIA CROSKERY LAURIDSEN *
Counsel to the Board ELIZABETH COONAN
NANCY MAIN
ADRIENNE MCFARLAND *
ERIC NEMMERS
CRAIG PORTER
NICK RENKOSKI
MARINA SANDQUIST
KAREN SHINN
JACQUELINE THOMPSON
SHEILA TIPTON *
SUSAN E. VOSS *
JULIA HAGEN (EX-OFFICIO)
TRUSTEES
HARRY BOOKEY
AUSTIN FISHER
DARREN R. JIRSA
NANCY MAIN
ADRIENNE MCFARLAND
DIANE MORAIN
COLIN PENNYCOOKE
JOHN SCHMIDT
SUSAN E. VOSS *
MARY KELLY *
LINDA KOEHN *
JERILEE MACE
NANCY MAIN *
ELVIN MCDONALD
JAMES O’HALLORAN *
SUNNIE RICHER
KAY RILEY
JANIS RUAN
MARY SEIDLER *
CRAIG SHADUR*
CHÉRIE SHRECK *
JUDY WATSON
Administrative STAFF
MICHAEL EGEL
The Linda Koehn General and Artistic Director
DAVID NEELY
The Marshall and Judy Flapan Music Director and Principal Conductor
BRIDGET ANDERSON
Associate Director of Production
SCOTT ARENS
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
JOSHUA BORTHS
Company Dramaturg and Head of Directing Staff
MARK DORR
Orchestra Personnel and Operations Manager
KIM DRAGELEVICH
Creative Director
LISA HASSON
The Irene Graether Chorus Director and Director of the Apprentice Artist Program
SUE HOSS
Office and Company Manager
SOPHIA LEE
Orchestra Librarian
JIM LILE
Production Advisor
TIM MCMILLIN Director of Advancement
ELYSE MORRIS
Guest Experience Manager
MICHAEL PATTERSON
Assistant to the General Director
ALLEN PERRIELLO
Director of Artistic Administration
ELAINE RALEIGH
Director of Business and Finance
NATALIE RUMER
Development Coordinator
JORDAN THOMAS
Festival Company Coordinator
OPER
Season IN REVIEW
Overture Preview
November 17, Moberg Gallery
The Festival Season kicked off in November with the return of the Overture event—a season preview and friendraising event for invited guests featuring performances by mainstage artists along with sneak peeks into the designs for each of DMMO’s 2024 productions.
Soprano Sara Gartland, baritone John Moore and pianist Allen Perriello gave memorable performances within the beautiful gallery space at Moberg Gallery in Des Moines.
Wine, Food and Beer Showcase
March 8, Downtown Des Moines Marriott
SAVE THE DATE: March 7, 2025
The opera’s popular tasting event broke fundraising records and drew robust attendance as guests enjoyed samples from 42 Iowa restaurants, caterers, wineries, breweries and distilleries.
Attendees were also treated to popup aria performances by soprano Sarah Rosales, mezzo-soprano Sarah Kathryn Curtis, tenor Hayden Smith, baritone Milutin Jocic and pianist Connor Buckley.
Artist in Recital: Justin Austin
April 13, Plymouth Church
Following recitals at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center after being selected as the winner of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award, baritone Justin Austin returned to Des Moines to present his acclaimed recital in an afternoon concert with pianist Allen Perriello.
The program featured selections by Kurt Weill, Olaf Bienert, Hanns Eisler, Maurice Ravel, Shawn Okpebholo, Ricky Ian Gordon and Robert Owens and was held in the beautiful sanctuary at Plymouth Church in Des Moines.
American Apollo Orchestra Workshop
April 27-29, Amy Robertson Music Center
The creative team, cast and orchestra of American Apollo braved rain, hail and tornado warnings to spend three days in Indianola for the final workshop of this bold new American opera by composer Damien Geter and librettist Lila Palmer.
American Apollo, which tells the untold story of Thomas Eugene McKeller, Black model and muse of American portraitist John Singer Sargent, will make its full-length world premiere on July 13, 2024.
Opera Gala
June 8, Ruan Center
One of downtown Des Moines’ iconic buildings—the Ruan Center—provided an elegant and grand setting as Des Moines Metro Opera celebrated the opening of the 2024 Festival Season at the annual Opera Gala.
The glamorous evening featured a cocktail hour, plated dinner, stunning performances by mainstage artists, a special performance of Verdi’s “Libiamo” chorus featuring the apprentice artists and an unforgettable afterparty.
OPERA IOWA
PRESENTED BY THE COONS FOUNDATION
9 weeks
5,104 miles traveled
70+ performances
50+ classroom workshops
10 masterclasses
More than 25,000 students and families reached!
The reach of Des Moines Metro Opera’s flagship music education initiative—the OPERA Iowa educational touring troupe—is staggering. For the past 38 years, DMMO has cultivated the next generation of musicians and opera lovers through the OPERA Iowa program, offering professional opera performances, workshops and access to world-class cultural experiences for over 1,000,000 children and families in urban and rural schools across the state.
The OPERA Iowa troupe is comprised of young artists from every corner of the country, selected through a rigorous national audition process. These artists (5 singers, 1 pianist and 2 technicians) arrived in Indianola in early February to begin the rehearsal process. Under the guidance of stage director Joshua
Borths, the troupe spent three weeks rehearsing for the tour, learning two fully staged operas— the beloved children’s opera Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing and a full-length opera, Beauty and the Beast, created by Joshua Borths with music by André Grétry—as well as an evening concert program, two engaging classroom workshops and training for high school and collegiate masterclasses.
The members of the 2024 troupe include music director Connor Buckley, mezzo-soprano Sarah Kathryn Curtis, baritone Milutin Jocic, technician Hannah Neumann, soprano Sarah Rosales, soprano Emily Secor, tenor Hayden Smith and technician Gwen Van Denburg.
The tour began on February 26 with a three-day residency at Des Moines Public Schools’ Central Campus in downtown Des Moines, where the troupe performed for every third grader in the DMPS system. From there, the tour continued through April 28 as the troupe crisscrossed the state, reaching students and families in rural districts like BCLUW
Community Schools in Conrad, with a PK-12 total enrollment of 550 students, and urban districts throughout the Des Moines metro. With elaborate sets complete with costumes and lighting, the troupe can turn virtually any school gym or cafeteria into a viable and exciting performance venue. OPERA Iowa educational activities begin with training materials that support teachers as they prepare for the troupe’s time at the school, continue with curriculum-based classroom workshops conducted by the troupe and culminate with a live performance of the year’s opera. After their performance, teachers receive follow-up activities to enhance student learning and solidify concepts introduced during the troupe’s workshops. It’s a unique format that sets OPERA Iowa apart from any other arts education program in the area.
Des Moines Metro Opera understands the widening gap in experience, opportunity and worldview in a state marked by densely populated urban areas and extensive rural regions with limited access to professional arts opportunities. These performances can serve as crucial connectors in a world that is becoming increasingly divided. We believe that music and live performance foster a common language that unites people from varied backgrounds and perspectives. This is the essence of OPERA Iowa: by utilizing a tour format, children in schools across the state—no matter the size or location of their hometown—can engage with a live professional arts organization. Most attendees
have little to no access to other professional live performances. Thanks to a generous contribution from the Principal Foundation®, which enhances accessibility in DMMO’s programs, we are expanding OPERA Iowa to more schools by reducing or eliminating residency fees for districts where the cost is a significant barrier.
Next year’s troupe will continue the proud tradition of OPERA Iowa with performances of The Billy Goats Gruff and Cinderella. As Iowa’s largest and most expansive program in arts education, OPERA Iowa has introduced live operatic performance to more than one million people, creating a whole new generation of music-lovers—one student at a time!
2024 OPERA Iowa troupe members (l to r): Connor Buckley, Gwen Van Denburg, Hayden Smith, Emily Secor, Milutin Jocic, Sarah Rosales, Sarah Kathryn Curtis and Hannah Neumann
TOP: The troupe takes a bow after a performance of Beauty and the Beast at Wallace Elementary in Johnston.
BOTTOM: The troupe received a warm welcome at the East Union Community School District in Afton, posing in front of a hand-written sign.
Des Moines Metro Opera GUILD
Comprised of over 325 dedicated opera enthusiasts, the Des Moines Metro Opera Guild provides critical volunteer, educational and financial support to the company both during and in the months preceding the summer festival season. With chapters in Ames, Des Moines, Indianola and Newton, DMMO enjoys an active base of volunteers that spans over 80 miles from its administrative headquarters.
The volunteer efforts of the Guild are vital to the company’s success. Chapter members frequently act as greeters during events, offer informative adult learning events, sponsor OPERA Iowa performances, assemble welcome baskets for festival artists, prepare bulk mailings in the office and more. This year the chapters hosted many popular fundraising events, such as the Champagne Brunch & Bingo Benefit in Indianola, the In-Home Concert Series in Des Moines, the Arias in Ames concert and the Christmas Carol party in Newton, while adding innovative new events like the Opera Murder Mystery Party in Indianola. The Newton Chapter introduced opera to new audiences by organizing a shuttle from the local retirement community to the “Notes in Newton” concert.
The Guild concluded and celebrated its fundraising efforts at the Threads & Trills Costume Show and Luncheon on June 15. At the event the Guild presented General and Artistic Director Michael Egel with a $45,000 donation in honor of the 2024 Season.
At the event, the Guild Chapters also recognized the recipient of its Volunteer of the Year award: Indianola Chapter member and longtime DMMO festival staff member, Dr. Michael Patterson, who is celebrating his 50th season with the company this summer.
To learn more about the Des Moines Metro Opera Guild and how to become a member, visit dmmo.org/guild or call the DMMO office at (515) 961-6221.
VOLUNTEER OF THE YEAR
DR. MICHAEL PATTERSON
Ames Chapter
Next season kick-off: September 15, 5:30pm at the City Church of Ames/Des Moines
The Ames Chapter enjoyed nine program meetings this season. In addition to promoting the opera, the chapter tapped into resources from university music departments to round out the schedule, with performances by ISU faculty Chad Sonka and Jodie Goble and Drake University’s Isaiah Feken. DMMO staff and chapter members presented previews of the upcoming festival season. OPERA Iowa presented their popular Arias in Ames concert, which was well attended and raised more than $7,000. The chapter also received a grant to sponsor Beauty and the Beast in March, which was held at the Ames Public Library for a robust standing-room-only crowd. The chapter secured a grant from the City of Ames Commission on the Arts to provide bus transportation to opera performances in Indianola and continued its yearly tradition of providing a scholarship of $1,200 to a university voice student.
Des Moines Chapter
Next season kick-off: September 10, 6:30pm at Noce Jazz & Cabaret
The Des Moines Chapter’s season Kickoff Event was greeted with featured performances from Drake and ISU vocal students at Noce and saw many new members engage with the chapter. In October the chapter returned to Noce for the annual Trivia Night with Nick Renkoski. December brought the chapter together for the annual Holiday Party where everyone enjoyed treats along with guest soloists. This spring the Guild brought back the everpopular In-Home Concert Series with six intimate salon-style concerts featuring local opera singers and DMMO pianists. New to this year’s series were special Kick-Off and Season-Ending In-Home Concerts that featured voice professors from Simpson College, Drake University and Iowa State University. In April the Spotlight Concert featuring the OPERA Iowa troupe wowed chapter members. The Guild also organized inhome fundraising dinners as another facet of their support to DMMO.
Indianola Chapter
Next season kick-off: September 22, 4:00pm at the home of Robert L. Larsen
The Indianola Chapter kicked off the season at the historic home of Robert L. Larsen. Members enjoyed food, wine and entertainment by Thaddeus Ennen. In October members attended a preview of The Barber of Seville November featured the annual Champagne Brunch and Bingo Benefit at the Indianola Country Club, resulting in over $13,000 raised. Members gathered for the holidays at the Larsen home again to enjoy a sing-along. In January the chapter hosted a preview of American Apollo, which was followed by an OPERA Iowa welcome potluck in February and a preview of Salome at Savor the Rise. In March members enjoyed the OPERA Iowa Spotlight Concert. A new fundraising event was held in April: the Opera Murder Mystery Party, complete with puzzles, original music compositions by Dr. Michael Patterson, heavy hors d’oeuvres and drinks. Later that month, a preview of Pelléas & Mélisande gave members a glimpse into this beautiful opera. In May the chapter celebrated with a party at the home of Julia Hagen. In
June members organized the annual Apprentice Artist Welcome Dinner at the Annett Nature Center and then ended the season with Picnic & Puccini.
Newton Chapter
The Newton Chapter organized several informative and engaging events to supplement the 2024 season. Festivities kicked off in December with the popular Christmas party complete with a carol sing-along. The spring months saw the return of an OPERA Iowa Spotlight Concert— a program that featured many firsttime opera goers in attendance— and a 2024 season preview presented by DMMO director of marketing Scott Arens.
For more information on guild events or joining a chapter, contact the DMMO office at 515-961-6221 or visit dmmo.org.
Des Moines Metro Opera GUILD MEMBERS
GUILD COUNCIL
President
Julia Hagen
Treasurer
Chris Urwin
Council Members
Becky Hastie
Matt Huth
Berne and Kathy Ketchum
Joan Tyler
AMES CHAPTER
Co-Presidents
Berne and Kathy Ketchum
Programs
Carol Weber, Jaime Reyes
Secretary
Marcia Imsande
Treasurer
Sue Ravenscroft
Publicity
Connie Ringlee
Membership
Jane Farrell-Beck
Refreshments
Marge Gowdy
Members
Roberta Abraham
Janet Anderson-Hsieh
Achilles Avraamides and Dilys Morris
Tom and Betty Barton
Kay and Roger Berger
Deanne Brill
Barbara Brown
Pat Brown
James Cornette
Peggy Faden
Jane Farrell-Beck and Marvin Beck
Douglas Finnemore
Kitty Fisher
Jodi Goble
Marge Gowdy
Hanna Gradwohl
Barbara Gurganus
John C. and Fay G. Hill
Janet Hurlbert
Marcia Imsande
Margaret (Marg) Junkhan
Patrick Kavanaugh
Berne and Kathy Ketchum
Jane W. Lohnes
Jean E. Lory
David and Jean Meek
John B. and Kathryn Miller
Shellie Orngard
Marlys Potter
V.V. and Marilu Raman
Alvin and Sue Ravenscroft
Jaime and Daphne Reyes
Shirley M. Riney
Steve and Connie Ringlee
Anita Roti
Joseph Rude
Margie Schaefer Moore
Liz Seiser
Shirley Shaw
Chad Sonka
David Stuart
Marcia Thompson
Jan Tibbetts
Paula Toms
Clyde Walter Jr.
Carol and Eric Weber
Marlene Weisshaar
Bernie and Linda White
Maureen Wilt
Mary Jo Winder
Anna Wolc
LoAnne Worth
DES MOINES CHAPTER
President
Matt Huth
Treasurer
Wendy Samuelson
Membership
Dennis P. and Melinda Hendrickson
At-Large
Marcia and Robert Auerbach
Ellen Diehl
Emma Krull
Nancy Main
Meredith McLean
Sara Speaks
Terry Taylor
Chris Urwin
Members
Bob and Jill Anderson
Joyce Andrews and Frank Hoffmeister
Marcia I. and Robert Auerbach
Catherine and Gary Broadston
Margot Burnham
Connie Carroll
Emily Chafa
Thomas and Sharon Clarke
R. Keith Cranston
Ellen and Jim Diehl
Karmen Dillon
John Domini and Lettie Prell
Michael Egel
Beverly Ellis
Michael Esser
James Ferguson
James C. and Martha Fifield
Julie Ghrist
Kay E. Grother
Bryan Hall and Pat Barry
Barbi and Briggs Hamor
Dennis P. and Melinda Hendrickson
Trudy Holman Hurd
Marianne Howard
Rusty Hubbell
Bruce Hughes and Randall Hamilton
Wes Hunsberger and Mark Holub
Mark and Patricia Imerman
Darren R. Jirsa
Jennifer and Blaire Johnston
Jacquelyn Kaufman
Mary Kelly
Joshua and Susie Kimelman
Kim Sether Koehn
Thomas K. and Linda Koehn
Emma LeValley Krull
Juanita Lovejoy
Jerilee Mace and T. J. Johnsrud
Nancy and Bill Main
Adrienne McFarland and Joe Clamon
Michelle McGovern
Meredith McLean and Todd Carroll
Paul J. Meginnis II and Jo Sloan
Ann and Brent Michelson
Joan Middleton
Diane Morain
Devon Murphy
Rachel and Jack Mithelman
Arthur Neis
Bill and Pauline Niebur
Janelle Nielsen
Nancy Ann O’Connell
Jim and Jeanne O’Halloran
Muriel A. Pemble
Colin Pennycooke
Emily Pontius
Melanie Porter
Nick Renkoski and Liz Lidgett
Seth Robb and Tim McMillin
DelRae Roth
Janis Ruan
Wendy Samuelson
Lorenzo Sandoval and Robin Heinemann
Michael and Karen Schoville
Kellen Schrimper
Ken and Leslie Schrimper
Craig and Kimberly Shadur
Kay Shapiro
Chérie and Bob Shreck
Elizabeth Shonts
Sarah Speaks
Michael and Elizabeth Stamper
Stephen and Martha Stephenson
Kayla Stratton
Terri Taylor
Jacqueline Thompson
Dr. Beth Triebel
Chris Urwin and Matt Huth
Linda Vanderpool
Susan Voss
John and Peggy Wild
Deb Wiley and John Schmidt
Dolores “Dee” Willemsen
Renee Winegardner
Eleanor Zeff
INDIANOLA CHAPTER
President
Becky Hastie
Vice President/Program Chair
Chari Kruse
Secretary
Christine Neumeier
Treasurer
F. Michael Miller
Membership
Chari Kruse
Picnic & Puccini Coordinators
Katherine Bendon and Chari Kruse
Members
Kim C. and Patti Abild
Betty Augspurger
Nancy and Mike Baethke
Katherine and Joe Bendon
Karey and Todd Bishop
Gordon and Martha Bivens
Daniel Burden and Beth Mack
Richard and Katheen Clarke
Christine Clogg
Melody and Jeffrey Clutter
Ann Comeaux
Alan and Denise Core
LouAnn Corrigan
Mary Lou Davenport
Bob and Ardene Downing
Amy Duncan and Mark Davitt
Michael Egel
Jessica and David Faith
Kathie and Al Farris
Caroline Freese
Robert and Elizabeth Freese
Joyce Godwin
Marylin Gorham
Brad and Jaci Green
Julia Hagen
Becky Hastie
Dr. Gary and Kamie Haynes
Jan Hereid
Nick and Kiersten Johnson
Richard and Annette Kerr
Dr. James and Mary Ellen Kimball
Matt and Chari Kruse
Karen Langstraat
Bill Larson
Nancy and Hugh Lickiss
Teresa McDonough
Dru McLuen
Peg and Jim Mikulanec
Mary Jane and F. Michael Miller
David and Rita Moeller
Hannah and Carsten Moeller
Mary Morgan
Christine Neumeier
Jean Newman
Lisa Parker and Rod Hanze
Dr. Michael R. Patterson
Marcia and Ron Peeler
Jenn Pfeifer-Malaney and Shawn Malaney
Debra Rodgers
Jill Rossiter and Dennis Lamport
Mark F. and Leila Schlenker
Gwen and Jeff Schroder
Arlen and Jean Schrum
Paula Schultz
Catherine Simon
Mike and Rene Staudacher
Larry Sweeney
Vickie and Darrell Till
Bill Tomlinson
Phil and Judy Watson
Gaye Wiekierak
Tim Wilson and Heidi Levine
Elizabeth and Craig Winjum
Jon and Margaret Vernon
NEWTON CHAPTER
President
Joan Tyler
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Virginia Bennett
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Jane Ann Cotton
Members
Scott Arens
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Mary Jo Bennett
Virginia Bennett
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Jane Ann Cotton
Warren and Linda Erickson
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Judy Manusos
Robert and Joan Matheson
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Noreen Otto
Nancy Shields
Shane Swanson
Joan Tyler
Camilla Wisgerhof
Carleton and Barbara Zacheis
Stars of Yesterday and Tomorrow:
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF THE APPRENTICE ARTIST PROGRAM
BY JOSHUA BORTHS
“It’s my favorite day of the festival,” proclaims Michael Egel, DMMO’s General and Artistic Director, as he welcomes the assembled crowd to the Apprentice Artist Spotlight Concert on June 1, “and it’s fitting that the first sounds of the season are the voices of next generation singers. This is at the heart of what we do.”
This year DMMO’s Apprentice Artist Program celebrates its 50th anniversary, making it one of the oldest young artist programs in the country and shaping the lives and careers of over 2,000 artists. For half a century DMMO has fostered young talent, often giving singers their first opportunity to sing professionally before going on successful careers around the world onstage, offstage and in the classroom.
This year former apprentice artists are performing on many of the world’s greatest stages, and the 2024 festival features illustrious alumni including The Barber of Seville’s Alexander Birch Elliott and Duke Kim; Pelléas & Mélisande’s Matt Boehler; and Salome’s Sara Gartland. Other notable alumni who are performing on stages around the world include Kyle Ketelsen, Daniela Mack, Brian Jagde, Chauncey Packer, Megan Marino, Vanessa Becerra, Ian Koziara and Richard Smagur, as well as alumni who transitioned into administration such as Christopher McBeth, Larry Edelson, Afton Battle, Annie Burridge, Nate Wentworth and Miguel Rodriguez.
Unlike many young artist programs in the United States, the idea of training young singers was a part of the company from DMMO’s inception. “I was there at the beginning,” explains Gayletha Nichols (pictured below with Robert L. Larsen), who was a part of the first six seasons at DMMO in the 1970s and is the current Apprentice Artist Program Director at the Santa Fe Opera. “There was a passion, commitment and intention to what was happening. At DMMO I watched people work around the clock, and you did not leave a project until it was finished.” While thinking about DMMO’s historic milestone, Nichols recalls, “It was amazing to see opera seemingly grow out of the ground just like crops, and the fact that it was so well fertilized by Robert Larsen and his whole crew is still apparent today. I find DMMO and the Apprentice Artist Program to be first class.”
Robert L. Larsen was DMMO’s co-founder and the driving vision of the Apprentice Artist Program. However, he wasn’t just a brilliant musician, producer or director—he was an inspired educator, serving as a professor at Simpson College for decades. “Everything goes back to Robert Larsen’s dream to develop talent. Robert was always teaching,” explains Dugg McDonough (pictured below with Paula Homer), who served as Co-Director for the Apprentice Artist Program for almost 20 years from 1993-2011. “While the program changes as opera has evolved, the strong foundation has stayed the same, and interestingly because of that, the program grew in prestige and diversity.”
Since its founding, the Apprentice Artist Program has not only been about performing on the mainstage in opera choruses or smaller comprimario roles. The program is also a fertile training ground, allowing young artists to cover major roles; learn from worldclass singers; explore operatic repertoire through ambitious, substantial opera scenes programs; receive coachings, voice lessons, and masterclasses from renowned faculty; and sing with a full orchestra in a concert tailored to individual voices, before singing for industry professionals who attend each summer.
“My first season was in 2008, so DMMO was really my first young artist program,” remembers soprano Sara Gartland. “The leveling up that occurred because of my participation as a young artist was huge.” She praises the faculty and leadership of the program and says, “They knew exactly who I was, and they helped me catapult into really exciting opportunities. Not all programs take care of their singers like that. Of course, it is still highly competitive, but there are opportunities for everyone. The program makes you feel like you belong, you matter and you have something to say every single day, and it fosters the kind of excitement that we go to the theatre to experience…It has my whole heart.”
Over the course of its 50 years, many leaders passed the baton to one another, shaping the program and its trajectory, including its first director Stewart Robertson, Paula Homer (both of whom recently passed) and DMMO’s Music Director, David Neely. The program is currently run by Lisa Hasson (pictured above at piano), who celebrated her 20th anniversary this year with the company. “Since I started at DMMO,” Lisa says, “the whole company has opened up. We have worked together and raised the level of the singers and their training. We are giving singer the skills they need to succeed.”
At this year’s Spotlight Concert—like every year—after Michael Egel finishes his pre-show announcement, the first apprentice artist takes the stage. Following enthusiastic applause, a hush falls over the audience, and a kind of magic takes hold as each apprentice takes center stage to demonstrate what makes them special, while officially “singing in” another new season of artistry, growth and discovery… This is indeed the heart of what we do.
Coaching and directing staff with Stewart Robertson (center) and DMMO co-founder Douglas Duncan (back right).
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Announcing the 2025 Season
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
BY RICHARD WAGNER
From its stormy overture to climactic finale, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman lures you into its mysterious depths. The Dutchman, a ghostly sailor, is condemned to wander the waves for eternity. But every seventh year he disembarks to find a bride who can break his curse. In a small Norwegian fishing village, he fatefully encounters Senta, a young woman who is obsessed with the Dutchman’s legend. Can the power of love break the curse? How much must we sacrifice to bring about salvation? Maestro David Neely leads this sweeping, evocative score which features epic choruses, thrilling orchestrations and a superstar cast headlined by bass-baritone Ryan McKinny. Company favorite Joshua Borths makes his mainstage directing debut, charting the course of Richard Wagner’s return to the DMMO stage for the first time in nearly 40 years.
THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN BY
LEOŠ JANÁČEK
The tale of a quick-witted fox and her escape from confinement for a life in the forest is by turns joyful, witty, romantic and tragic. The Cunning Little Vixen follows the cycle of death and rebirth through the instinctive and immediate world of nature—animal and human, which Janáček loved so dearly. In this celebrated score, singers and orchestra embody the sounds of the forest, the feel of sunshine on your face and the thrill of a starlit sky. Bursting with boundless invention, imaginative colors and a memorable cast of creatures, director Kristine McIntyre, visual image composer Oyoram and maestro David Neely reunite after their triumphant production of Bluebeard’s Castle to bring the vixen’s natural world to life. Soprano Hera Hyesang Park debuts as the Vixen and Sun-Ly Pierce makes a role debut as the Fox.
THE RAKE’S PROGRESS
BY IGOR STRAVINSKY
Inspired by William Hogarth’s famous series of paintings, Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress charts one man’s path from pleasure to ruin. When the mysterious Nick Shadow appears, Tom Rakewell abandons his sweetheart, Anne Trulove, and leaves behind his country life for the temptations of the city. But London’s glittering promise soon dissolves as love, money and sanity slip farther and farther from his grasp. Can true love save him, or will the devil get the last laugh? The Rake’s Progress is surely one of the 20th century’s most dazzling and original works—as if a Mozart opera wandered into a hall of mirrors. Comedy and tragedy are never far apart in this light-hearted work that can break your heart with the broadest of smiles. Jonas Hacker (pictured right), Joélle Harvey and Sam Carl lead the cast in a new production by Chas Rader-Shieber, designed by Jacob A. Climer.
Soaring Sopranos Dramatic Duets
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STRAVINSKY’S
“Our only hope is, ultimately, our relationships with each other.”
Omer Ben Seadia, director
HIGHLIGHTS: • GRAMMY® winning soprano Julia Bullock in recital with Bretton Brown on AUGUST 9 • Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress • Exclusive backstage/onstage tour & opening reception • Luncheon with members of The Rake’s Progress creative team • Lodging at Ruttger’s Bay Lake Resort . . . and more!
Christian Reif, Conductor • Omer Ben Seadia, Director
Kearstin Piper Brown, Anne Truelove Sara Couden, Baba the Turk • Miles Mykkanen, Tom Rakewell
John Taylor Ward, Nick Shadow
THE BARBER OF SEVILLE
LEADERSHIP PRODUCTION SUPPORT generously provided by Linda and Tom Koehn
ADDITIONAL ARTISTIC SUPPORT:
The performances of Alexander Birch Elliott are supported by Charlotte and Fred Hubbell
The performances of Duke Kim are supported by Barbara and Michael Gartner in memory of Christopher Gartner
First performance: Teatro Argentina, Rome; February 20, 1816
Previous performances at Des Moines Metro Opera: 1976, 1988, 1999, 2009
Performed in Italian with English supertitles
Estimated run time: 3 hours with one 20-minute intermission
A co-production of Opera Queensland, New Zealand Opera and Seattle Opera
Music by GIOACHINO ROSSINI / Libretto by CESARE STERBINI
STORY Seville, Spain
ACT I
Accompanied by Fiorello and a group of musicians, Count Almaviva serenades his beloved Rosina from beneath her window. He encounters his former employee Figaro—now the barber, matchmaker and self-styled “factotum” to all of Seville—who informs the Count that Rosina is the ward of Dr. Bartolo. Almaviva wants to be loved for himself, and not his riches, so Figaro encourages him to try a second serenade, this time as a poor student named Lindoro. On hearing Bartolo make plans to marry Rosina himself, the Count and Figaro plot to foil those plans and rescue Rosina. To get him into Bartolo’s house, Figaro suggests a disguise and a distraction: the Count will pretend to be a drunk soldier seeking a billet.
Inside the house, Rosina longs for freedom and secretly writes “Lindoro” a note on stolen paper. Don Basilio, Rosina’s singing teacher, warns Bartolo that Count Almaviva has designs on Rosina and suggests that slander would be the best way to get rid of him. Bartolo enlists Basilio to draw up his marriage contract to Rosina immediately. Figaro overhears their plot. He warns Rosina and promises to deliver her note to “Lindoro.” Bartolo deduces that Rosina has written someone a letter and chastises her. As per his plan with Figaro, the Count, dressed as a drunken soldier, bursts into the house insisting on lodging there, and manages to get a note to Rosina despite Bartolo’s strenuous objections. Their quarrel becomes a public disturbance involving Figaro, Bartolo’s crusty household, the local police and all the neighbors. The day ends in chaos.
INTERMISSION
ACT II
The next morning, still confused as to the identity of the drunken soldier, Bartolo opens his doors to a stranger— the Count, disguised this time as “Don Alonso,” Don Basilio’s substitute music teacher. “Alonso” allays Bartolo’s suspicions by showing Bartolo Rosina’s letter to “Lindoro,” outlining his plan to slander Lindoro, who is clearly pursuing women on the Count’s behalf. With Bartolo’s full support, “Alonso” accompanies Rosina’s singing lesson, giving the lovers a ruse to get to know each other better in plain sight of their nemesis. Figaro arrives to give Bartolo his weekly shave and manages to steal a key to the house. Don Basilio enters unexpectedly, rousing Bartolo’s suspicions about Alonso and throwing the young trio’s rescue plans into doubt. “Alonso” bribes Basilio to keep quiet and leave.
Bartolo catches the lovers plotting and kicks “Alonso” and Figaro out of his house. Berta, the housemaid, complains that love makes everyone crazy. Basilio tells Bartolo that the Count Almaviva is behind the plot. Seeking to expedite his wedding plans, Bartolo tells Rosina that her “Lindoro” is really acting on behalf of Count Almaviva. With her own letter as proof, Rosina’s faith in Lindoro is shattered. During a storm, chaos upends the house as Figaro and the Count use the stolen key to rescue Rosina. Furious at his deception, she refuses. After “Lindoro” reveals his true identity, the lovers blissfully reconcile and Figaro tries to hurry things along. When the escape ladder goes missing, disaster is averted by bribing Basilio to witness the marriage of Almaviva and Rosina. Bartolo concedes defeat and blesses the lovers. Everyone throws inhibitions to the wind and celebrates with a fandango!
THIS PRODUCTION WILL BE RECORDED BY IOWA PUBLIC RADIO FOR LATER BROADCAST.
CONDUCTOR’S NOTES
by Gary Thor Wedow, Conductor
Approaching a composition, I look for what makes it tick. For Rossini, what makes it tick is literally what makes it tick: the rhythm, the incessant, repetitive heartbeatbeat-beat. His biographer Stendhal noted that “Rossini’s compositional style tended to repetition with purposeful intent: incarnate idleness in all its glories!”
Today we are beginning to understand scientifically the powerful effects that music has on our brain. Unlike a painting, music unfolds in time; and repetition can help us savor it and put our whole body in sync with it. As our heart and pulse relax, the mind is stimulated; but too much sameness leads to boredom and Rossini, knowing this, will smack you in the face with a whiplash change of tempo, instrumentation, key or rhythm all coordinated with the drama unfolding on stage sending our expectations and emotions topsy-turvy.
He is also the master of the long arc as we see in the brilliant Act I Finale: the relentless, deliciously delayed climax, which comes seductively first in waves but only finally arrives at the ultimate moment of complete exhaustion. A review of an 1820 revival in Milan of La gazza ladra compared the enthusiasm for Rossini to a dangerous contagion that, no matter how we resist it or recognize the weakness of those infected with it, we inevitably become helplessly likewise inflamed.
Unite that with Rossini’s talent for the most beautiful and memorable virtuosic Italianate melodies imaginable, all of them ready for repetition making them ripe for dazzling variation, we have patterns within patterns within patterns making our brains and our hearts fire on every cylinder. Rossini! You rock! You’ve got the beat! You’re the master of repeat! But watch out…he’ll surprise you every time.
DUKE KIM
SUN-LY PIERCE
ELLIOTT
The Irresistible Music of Youth
BY JONATHAN DEAN
WHAT IS THE BARBER OF SEVILLE REALLY ABOUT?
For many of us, this opera means one thing: “Figaro! Figaro! Figaro!” The baritone’s entrance aria, one of the most popular and instantly recognizable numbers in all opera, stands head and shoulders above pretty much everything else Rossini ever wrote (with the possible exception of the William Tell overture). It’s been a fixture of pop culture since Looney Tunes.
But when you look closely at the opera, Figaro’s beloved “Largo” doesn’t propel the plot. Okay, he’s a barber and outrageously fond of himself; but what does that have to do with anything? It’s not even clear that Figaro is the opera’s central character. He wasn’t the title character when the work premiered in 1816. Originally, Rossini called his opera Almaviva, or The Useless Precaution, implying that the tenor is the main character. (The subtitle becomes a ridiculous in-joke and running gag throughout the show.) In 1816 the opera concluded with an extraordinary tour de force aria for Almaviva, in which this character, who has played at so many identities over the course of the show—an impoverished student, a drunken soldier, a scandal-mongering substitute music teacher— finally asserts his own genuine aristocratic identity.
But today, Almaviva’s big aria is usually omitted. Modern audiences aren’t disposed to sit patiently through a serious eight-minute aria that comes AFTER the resolution of a comic plot. (Plus, its music found another suitable home a year later as the conclusion of Rossini’s La Cenerentola.) It’s not necessary for Almaviva to sing that aria because, despite the original title, he isn’t the main character either. The reason Rossini called the opera Almaviva instead of The Barber of Seville was to show
respect for (and avoid obvious competition with) Paisiello, an older composer whose 1782 The Barber of Seville opera still held the stage. Alas, this new name was itself a useless precaution: Paisiello’s supporters, infuriated that some young upstart had dared remake their idol’s masterpiece, disrupted the premiere, which went down in history as one of opera’s most unmitigatedly disastrous opening nights.
If Rossini’s opera isn’t really about Almaviva, and it’s not really about Figaro, is Rosina the central character? For director Lindy Hume, the heart of the opera is Rosina’s need to escape Dr. Bartolo. “Rosina is in prison, trapped by this patriarchal
society, aching to grow up and be in love. The cruelty and unfairness of trapping this beautiful bird is the basis of all the tension. It’s domestic abuse. Even if the show is crazy and colorful, we have to play the reality of Rosina’s nightmare.”
How is it that a nightmare can also be so funny?
The trick to comedy is, and always has been, the characters don’t know they’re in a comedy. “Just as the music only works if it’s absolutely accurate and disciplined, the comedy is only funny if it’s physically and emotionally tight and accurate—if it’s real,” says Hume. “Sloppy buffo acting makes me want to kill someone. The singers have to play the real situation, not play at being a funny character.” Almaviva and Figaro, whose hare-brained schemes to free Rosina from Bartolo keep blowing up in their faces, are certainly funny characters. But the reality of their uneasy alliance—which will make them enemies by the time we get to Barber’s sequel, The Marriage of Figaro—is grounded in the tension between rich and poor—noble and commoner, in the pre-revolutionary France of Beaumarchais, who invented these characters for his 1775 play. Almaviva is an aristocrat, a grandee of old Spain; Figaro, like Beaumarchais himself, is a self-made (and relentlessly self-promoting) modern man. Hume thinks of Figaro as “the guy who breaks all the rules of the aristocracy and gets away with it; he’s this charming, enterprising celebrity whose motto is ‘Fake it till you make it.’”
self-made. The key to her jail was within reach all the time. Wherever this production has played— all over Australia and New Zealand, and now twice in Seattle—audiences have responded strongly to this element of the show, which you don’t see in every Barber of Seville. Hume and Lord’s version doesn’t contradict anything about the original. They just give us a little more information about the journeys of characters who are often relegated to the background.
Created in Brisbane, Australia, in 2016 to honor The Barber of Seville’s 200th anniversary, Hume and Lord’s colorful production actually spans two centuries of costume reference. “The oldest character in the piece is Ambrogio, who’s actually 200 years old,” Hume explains, “whereas with the young people there are flavors of the Spain of Almodóvar and the world of youth fashion.”
Love, identity, tyranny vs. freedom, the generation gap, the relationship between ancien régime and democracy—it turns out The Barber of Seville is about a lot of things.
Maybe Figaro will make it some day. Certainly he will claim to have done so. In this he’s almost the opposite of Berta the maid, who is forever bemoaning her sorry fate. And yet—at least as Lindy Hume and her designer, Tracy Grant Lord, tell her story—Berta also escapes the prison where she’s trapped before the opera’s end. Unlike Rosina’s prison, Berta’s was
Rossini battled Paisiello in 1816 for the right to compose his own Barber of Seville. Youth triumphed over age, and its weapon was Rossini’s irresistible music. “It just poured out of him,” says Hume. “He wrote this opera in, what, two and a half weeks? His music is unmediated, like a sketch, and there’s this fantastic energy and elegance and decoration about it. He sees the world through a particularly colorful prism, one that reaches out across the ages.”
This article was originally printed, in a slightly different form, in Seattle Opera’s program for The Barber of Seville in 2017. Jonathan Dean, who hosts Seattle Opera Podcast, has been translating operas for supertitles since 1997.
Costume sketches for Figaro, Rosina, Count Almaviva, Berta and Ambrogio by Tracy Grant Lord.
NOTES FROM THE DESIGNER
BY TRACY GRANT LORD
The design inspiration for this production of the brilliant opera buffa The Barber of Seville came from a photo of a wall of doors Lindy Hume had taken on a recent visit to a renovation yard. She described her vision for the show as employing the style of the classic physical comedy of the great sitcom comedians like Michael Richards as “Kramer” from Seinfeld, and their ability to extract immortal theatrical moments simply from an entrance or an exit. Therefore, we needed doors and windows too, and thus combined with the vibrancy and life of Spanish domestic architecture and interiors it wasn’t hard to create this wacky world.
In turn, enabled by the genius of Rossini’s score, comedic timing and exquisitely constructed characters at the heart of the production, the design pays homage to the iconoclastic spirit, which is instilled in every beat of The Barber of Seville. We built flexibility into the set design in order to tour to many different venues, from small local theatres to an outdoor amphitheatre to a 3,000-strong
concert hall. We created something that can open up or close down, depending on the size of the theatre. It’s a static set, but complex with lots of moving parts.
The imagery on all the surfaces—wallpapers, doors and windows—are all printed directly on to timber, and this has allowed for both ease of construction and durable touring. The images are all high-resolution and are composed in a collage to describe the scenic world of the opera beginning in the outdoor square behind Dr. Bartolo’s house in Seville and then transforming, almost effortlessly, into the interior of Dr. Bartolo’s house where he lives with Rosina and his two servants. The palettes of the scenic walls describe the different natures of the spaces from Rosina’s vibrant reds and blues on stage left through the checkerboard of the utility rooms to Bartolo’s grungy greens and golds on stage right. The graphics transfer very readily to stage with a little “scenic tweak” to give them a painterly style. The result is a very crisp and vibrant scenic world that is both visually full and dramatically versatile.
In Spanish style the costuming is flamboyant, lush and seductive with swish suits and sweeping capes for the men and florals and frills aplenty for the women. Ideas from far and wide have been collated—from the fearless expressiveness of British designer John Galliano, to the eccentricity and downright strangeness of The Addams Family. This Barber of Seville exists in a zany world, where chaos and craziness run amok.
While the set and costumes are a sight to behold, the real beauty of The Barber of Seville is that it has touched so many different people. It was brilliant fun dreaming it all up and seeing it come to life, and the audience has just as good a time watching it play out.
LEFT: Graphics transfer detail from the inside of Berta’s cupboard.
SALOME
LEADERSHIP PRODUCTION SUPPORT generously provided by the Lauridsen Family Foundation
ADDITIONAL ARTISTIC SUPPORT:
Leticia Gordon in memory of David Gordon
Scenic design and construction made possible by the Robert L. Larsen Scenic Fund
Costume design and construction supported by Jim and Ellen Hubbell
Based on: Salomé by Oscar Wilde
First performance: Semperoper Dresden; December 9, 1905
Previous performances at Des Moines Metro Opera: 2002
Performed in German with English supertitles
Estimated run time: 100 minutes with no intermission
This production contains mature content including nudity and scenes of a violent nature.
Music by RICHARD STRAUSS / Libretto by HEDWIG LACHMANN after Oscar Wilde
STORY The palace of Herod
Herod, a ruling Tetrarch of the Roman province of Judaea, has married his brother’s wife, Herodias, but the marriage was consummated before Herod had his brother killed. News of these events has brought Jochanaan, an ascetic visionary who combines revelations about the arrival of the Messiah with invectives against Herodias and prophecies of her new husband’s death, into the city. Imprisoned by Herod within a palace cistern, Jochanaan is guarded by soldiers and observed by a group of wandering Nazarenes, followers of the new Messiah.
The opera begins as Herod grows increasingly obsessed with his stepdaughter, Salome.
During a feast, Narraboth, the young Captain of his Guard, stares longingly at the princess Salome and tells a nearby page of his obsession with her. From the cistern where he is being held prisoner, Jochanaan can be heard proclaiming the coming of his Messiah.
Salome appears, seeking refuge from Herod’s lustful stares, and hears the voice of Jochanaan. She knows of his accusations against her mother and that Herod fears him. Intrigued, she demands to see him. After the soldiers refuse, Salome manipulates Narraboth into bringing the prophet to her.
His presence further enflames Salome’s desire. Undeterred by Jochanaan’s loud indifference, she praises his body, his hair and asks him for a kiss—which drives Narraboth to kill himself in despair. After rejecting Salome, Jochanaan returns to his prison and prophecies.
Herod enters, looking for Salome, followed by Herodias, who is disturbed by her husband’s interest in her daughter. The discovery of Narraboth’s body briefly unsettles Herod, and his advances on Salome are interrupted by Jochanaan condemning his marriage. Herodias insists the prophet be surrendered to the Jews who are demanding he be delivered into their jurisdiction. As Jochanaan’s attacks increase and Herodias becomes more agitated, Herod, frightened by his own sense of foreboding, seeks refuge in Salome. His requests for her to dine and dance for him are refused until he promises to grant the princess her heart’s desire.
After she dances, Salome demands the head of Jochanaan on a silver platter as her reward. Fearful of the consequences of harming a holy man, Herod tries to dissuade Salome with sumptuous gifts, but she remains firm. Finally, Herod relents and summons the executioner.
Salome declares her love to the head of Jochanaan, caressing and kissing it—to the shock and disgust of all assembled. Horrified, Herod commands his soldiers to kill Salome, and she is crushed to death under their shields.
PRODUCTION
Conductor
DAVID NEELY
Stage Director
ALISON POGORELC *
Scenic Designer
STEVEN C. KEMP
Costume Designer
JACOB A. CLIMER
Lighting Designer
CONNIE YUN
Wig and Makeup Designer
BRITTANY V.A. RAPPISE
Choreographer
JESSICA LANG *
Combat Director
BRIAN ROBERTSON
Intimacy Coordinator
STEPHANIE SCHNEIDER *
Associate Conductor
DONALD LEE III
Musical Preparation
ELDEN LITTLE
Stage Manager
ANNIE WHEELER
Costume Makers
COLIN DAVIS JONES STUDIOS
ELIZABETH FLAUTO
NEW YORK THEATRE WORKSHOP
* DMMO mainstage debut
† Former DMMO Apprentice Artist
‡ Current DMMO Apprentice Artist
CAST in order of vocal appearance
Narraboth
ALEX MCKISSICK †
Page of Herodias
AUDREY WELSH *‡
Soldiers
ALAN WILLIAMS ‡
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ *‡
Jochanaan
NORMAN GARRETT
A Cappadocian
ROBERT FRAZIER *‡
Salome
SARA GARTLAND †
A Slave
GABRIELLE TURGEON *‡
Herod Antipas
CHAD SHELTON *
Herodias
GWENDOLYN JONES
Jews
WILL UPHAM *‡
MICHAEL DESHIELD *‡
SHAWN ROTH *‡
SAM KRAUSZ *‡
MATTHEW SOIBELMAN *‡
Nazarenes
DANIEL RICH *‡
ZACHARY TAYLOR ‡
Herod Servants
MILUTIN JOCIC *‡
PHILLIP LOPEZ *‡
COLE STEPHENSON ‡
Herod’s Guests
MADALLYN GUNZENHAUSER
MELISSA KRUMM
NICHOLAS MAYHUGH
MEREDITH MCLEAN
MAXIMILIAN MEYERS
MAXWELL WEARMOUTHGWEAH
Supernumerary Soldiers
ELDRED BORIA
CHRISTOPHER MARTINEZ
Executioner
MICHAEL MADEIRA
THIS PRODUCTION WILL BE RECORDED BY IOWA PUBLIC RADIO FOR LATER BROADCAST.
CONDUCTOR’S NOTES by David Neely, Conductor
Groundbreaking in its day, Salome remains one of the densest and most musically challenging works for orchestra and singers in the repertoire. This is symphonic opera in the Wagnerian tradition, but on steroids. Daring in plot and music, Salome pushes the limits of what can be considered music in the Romantic tradition, teasing and testing our ears in a manner akin to Salome’s dance of the veils.
Strauss uses an enormous orchestra to create virtually limitless possibilities to underscore the text and create a sonic spectrum from the most intimate to the most overwhelming in power. Strauss’s reduced orchestration heard at DMMO is still very large, with 60 extremely capable musicians required in our pit. The demands— technical, artistic and physical—that this opera places on singers and orchestra musicians are formidable, requiring the highest virtuosity and mental poise from everyone involved for the duration of its 100 minutes. Barely a measure goes by that does not have multiple thematic layers in the orchestra.
Rhythmic patterns for the singers are complex to reflect the pacing of the conversation. The opera contains only one ensemble—at the midpoint—and only occasionally do we have monologues. The one true aria is reserved for the title figure in the final scene, the climax of the opera. Pitches often do not match their underlying harmonies, and even harmonies themselves are clouded or ambiguous, sometimes clashing almost to the point of atonality. Strauss was a master of word painting, and the libretto of Salome gave Strauss a trove of possibilities for displaying his talents.
The music opens with a clarinet scale like a wisp of perfume in the warm evening air. It unfolds with desire, but also decay. And anxiety. Something is indeed in the air. Herod hears “a rustling of giant wings.” Is this a meta moment— a portent of the final dissolution of traditional harmonic principals that was to happen only a few years later in the works of Schönberg, Bartók and Berg? In any case, this is masterful storytelling in word and sound that fascinates, thrills, amuses, shocks, disgusts and ravishes, and 118 years later, it remains one of music’s greatest operatic masterpieces and a tour de force for a soprano and her fellow performers.
Wilde Woman
An
air of scandal has clung to Salome from the beginning.
BY FRED COHN
“SALOME DISGUSTS ITS HEARERS” ran the headline for the January 23, 1907, New-York Tribune review. The previous evening, Richard Strauss’s opera had had its American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera, and it set off a deluge of puritanical outrage. “The effect of horror was pronounced,” wrote Henry Krehbiel, the Tribune’s eminent reviewer. “As the crowd passed into the night, many faces were white almost as those at the rail of a ship, many women were silent, and men spoke as if a bad dream were upon them.”
It would be easy to dismiss the audience’s “horror” as the prudery of another era. But even now, Salome retains its ability to shock. The title heroine’s obsession with Jochanaan (John the Baptist) is unambiguously carnal. In a series of increasingly heated addresses, the Judean princess extols his flesh, his hair and his mouth. Witnessing this lurid display, the soldier Narraboth, tragically smitten with Salome, stabs himself; soon afterward, King Herod, Salome’s stepfather, complains of slipping in the dead man’s blood. The lecherous king begs his his stepdaughter to dance for him, promising to give her whatever gift she chooses in recompense; she accommodates him by performing the most famous striptease of all time: the Dance of the Seven Veils. Having gratified Herod’s lust, Salome then names her price: Jochanaan’s head, resting on a silver platter.
For all the depravities that Salome delivers in its first 80 minutes, it surpasses them in its finishing stretch: a 20minute soliloquy for its heroine, delivered to Jochanaan’s severed head. At its climax she plants a kiss on the prophet’s lifeless lips––a deed which sends her into a paroxysm of erotic ecstasy. One musicologist, invoking the close of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, has referred to Salome’s closing passage as “a perverted Liebestod.”
That final scene, more than any other, was responsible for the Met scandal. “In the galleries men and women left their seats to stand so that they might look down upon the prima donna as she kissed the dead lips of the head of John the Baptist,” reported the New York Times. “Then they sank back in their chairs and shuddered.” Salome provoked crushing outrage among the Met’s monied box holders, most notably Louisa Pierpont Morgan, whose banker father, J.P. Morgan, was a supremely powerful member of the company’s board. Under pressure from the company’s directors, the Met’s general director Heinrich Conried withdrew the opera from further performances, handing a decisive victory to the moralists. The Reverend William C. Stinson proclaimed “All praise should be given to the Directors of the Metropolitan Opera House for the instantaneous and complete suppression of the prurient, lascivious… Salome.” The January 22 performance ended up being a one-off: the work did not reappear at the Met until 1934.
Still, the brouhaha could hardly have been a surprise to Conried and his company: disrepute clung to Salome even before it was an opera. Oscar Wilde’s 1893 play was banned in England, due to a law that prohibited the depiction of biblical characters on British stages. By the time of its first production in Paris in 1896, Wilde was behind bars in England, serving a jail sentence for “gross indecency”; his homosexuality adding to Salome’s louche status. Wilde died in 1900 without ever seeing a staging of his play, but its notoriety lasted well beyond his death. In anticipation of a planned 1906 New York production, an outraged reader wrote the Times: “[It is] anything but instructive. Biblical facts have been distorted, historical facts have been ignored, and there is nothing of a religious nature about the performance.”
“The Climax, illustration from ‘Salome’ by Oscar Wilde” 1893, by Aubrey Beardsley (English, 1872-1898), Line block print.
Wilde wrote the play in French, but Strauss first encountered it in Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation. When he first read it, some time around 1901, he was intrigued. But it was his encounter with director Max Reinhardt’s 1903 smash-hit Berlin production that made him decide to adapt Salome as an opera. He enlisted no librettist; instead, he set the Lachmann text directly, cutting about half its dialogue, but keeping its overheated lubricity intact. Strauss was nothing if not a canny showman, and he no doubt realized that the frisson of infamy would help his opera cause a sensation.
Salome was enveloped in controversy even at rehearsals for the 1905 Dresden premiere when Marie Wittich, taking the title role, threatened to drop out. “[She] went on strike with the indignant protest to be expected from the wife of a Saxon Burgomaster: ‘I won’t do it, I’m a decent woman,’” Strauss wrote in his Recollections and Reflections. The composer mused that Wittich’s qualms may have been partly due to the role’s near-superhuman vocal demands, requiring the soprano to prevail over a 104-piece orchestra. But Wittich was also objecting to the “perversity and outrage” of the movements the director Wilhelm Wirk had demanded of her; eventually it was agreed that a ballet dancer would replace her in the Dance of the Seven Veils. Strauss wrote, somewhat ungallantly, that Wittich’s generous
proportions made her “unsuitable for the part,” but that her physical restraint proved a welcome contrast to “later performances by exotic variety stars indulging in snakelike movements and waving Jochanaan’s head about in the air, [going] beyond all bounds of decency and good taste.” Despite the prima donna’s misgivings, the premiere proved to be a triumph, earning 38 curtain calls, and establishing Strauss— previously known chiefly for his symphonic tone poems––as an important composer of opera.
But as might be expected, Salome still earned its share of opprobrium. Witness the review in the Rheinische Kurier:
If sadists, masochists, lesbians and homosexuals come and presume to tell us that their crazy world of spirit and feeling is to be interpreted as manifestations of art, then steps must be taken in the interests of health. Art has no interest in sanctifying bestialities that arise from sexual perversity. Only this cry matters: out with them!
Even some of the composer’s most ardent supporters registered uneasiness. The writer Romain Rolland helped translate Salome’s text back into French for its 1907 Paris premiere, but he still had his cavils. “Oscar Wilde’s Salome is not worthy of you,” he wrote Strauss. “There is an undeniable dramatic power in Wilde’s poem, but it has a nauseous and sickly atmosphere about it: it exudes vice and literature.”
Strauss’s friend (and rival) Gustav Mahler also had his doubts about the subject matter. But when Strauss played him the score at the piano, Mahler was immediately entranced. He was at the time the director of the Vienna Hofoper––the precursor to the current Vienna State Opera—and he decided to present his colleague’s opera there, conducting it himself.
The production never happened, though: the theater’s Censorship Board, citing “religious and moral reasons,” ultimately rejected the work. “The representation of events which belong to the realm of sexual pathology is not suitable for our Court stage,” the censor wrote.
The interdict on Biblical themes initially kept the work from England’s stages; moreover, even though just over a decade earlier London had been the scene of Wilde’s greatest theatrical successes, now his work was distinctly unwelcome there. But Salome eventually came to London in 1910, with Thomas Beecham conducting––and some bowlderizations of the text, mandated by the Lord Chamberlain, England’s chief censor.
“HARPER’S WEEKLY: ‘Discharged Without Honor’” 1907, illustration by W. A. Rogers.
Kaiser Wilhelm II agreed to allow the work’s 1907 Berlin premiere at the Royal Opera. But he demanded a risible bit of stage business at its close: the morning star rose, heralding the advent of the Magi. The emperor nonetheless registered his disapproval of the finished project. “I am sorry that Strauss composed this Salome,” he said. “I really like the fellow, but this will do him a lot of damage.” Mused Strauss, who funneled his royalties toward a splendid country house in the Bavarian Alps: “The damage enabled me to build the villa in Garmisch.”
Two years after the 1907 Met debacle, Salome returned to New York, this time in its French translation, via the rival Manhattan Opera Company. The production caused a sensation, due not only to the work’s notoriety, but also to the presence of Mary Garden in the title role. From a vocal standpoint, the Scottish soprano was an odd choice. She had made her mark in lyricsoprano roles like Gounod’s Juliet, Massenet’s Manon and especially Debussy’s Mélisande, which she sang in the work’s 1902 Paris world premiere. Strauss’s heroine makes significantly more strenuous vocal demands on the heroine; in fact, even though Garden effected a dramatic triumph in the Manhattan Opera production, one critic described her assumption as a “dance with commentary, for…Miss Garden cannot sing a phrase of Strauss’s music.” The Times, in its largely laudatory review of Garden’s performance, noted “There were places…where it was evident how greatly a big and noble dramatic voice would have enhanced the musical effect.”
But Garden’s glamour was unquestionable. Advance newspaper stories contained breathless reports of her preparations for the role. Her made-in-Paris costume, patterned on the Salome paintings of Gustave Moreau, was designed to dazzle. “The jeweler will have more to do with the costume than the dressmaker,” she told the Times. “The jewels on the body will all be rubies.”
No ballerina deputized for Garden in the Dance of the Seven Veils; in fact, the diva’s execution of the number, stripping down to a patch of fleshcolored silk, was a huge factor in the sensation she provoked. The Tribune’s Krehbiel reported: “The utmost limit of disrobing ever reached by an… actress…within a long memory was attained.” The august W.J. Henderson, of The New York Sun, found the whole spectacle repulsive; Strauss, he said, had “perpetrated an indecency.”
In recent decades some prominent Salomes have trumped Garden’s display by ending the Dance entirely naked. The effect tends not to be exactly prurient: Karita Mattila’s brief moment of nudity, at the Met in 2004 and 2008, seemed like an act not of sexual provocation, but of audacious bravery: a prima donna putting it all on the line to bring the character to full fruition. This time around, no preachers railed against the production from the pulpit: in the era of internet porn, a naked soprano seemed like a matter of small import. Still, the Met’s 2008 high-definition broadcast of the production cut away from Mattila at the crucial moment: transmitted to movie theaters throughout the world, the company’s HD series had to avoid R-rated content. That episode of self-censorship proved that old Salome, as she had so often before, could still raise a rumpus.
Fred Cohn has written about opera and the performing arts for Musical America, Opera News, Opera America and Chamber Music, among other publications.
“L’Apparition” 1876/1877, by Gustave Moreau (French, 1826-1898), Oil on canvas.
Pelléas & Mélisande
Music and Libretto by CLAUDE DEBUSSY adapted from the play by Maurice Maeterlinck
LEADERSHIP PRODUCTION SUPPORT generously provided by Nancy Main
ADDITIONAL ARTISTIC SUPPORT: Frank R. Brownell III
Costume design and construction supported by the Des Moines Metro Opera Guild
The performances of Derrick Inouye are supported by Sunnie Richer and Roger Brooks
Based on: Pelléas and Mélisande, a play by Maurice Maeterlinck
First performance: Opéra-Comique, Paris; April 30, 1902
Company premiere
Performed in French with English supertitles
Estimated run time: 3 hours, 10 minutes with one 20-minute intermission
PROLOGUE - In the forest
Prince Golaud of Allemonde has been out hunting but is now lost. He notices a young girl by a pool. Golaud gradually learns that she too is lost, having fled an unknown place, and that her name is Mélisande. Golaud persuades her to leave the forest with him.
ACT I, Scene 1 - In the castle
Geneviève, mother to both Golaud and his half-brother Pelléas, reads a letter to Arkel, King of Allemonde. It has been written by Golaud to Pelléas and relates how Golaud has married Mélisande but knows as little about her now as when they met in the forest. Pelléas enters. He wants to visit a dying friend, Marcellus, but Arkel reminds him that his own father is very ill too and that he must stay at home. Geneviève tells Pelléas he must light the lamp in the tower for Golaud.
ACT I, Scene 2 - In the castle
Geneviève and Mélisande encounter Pelléas. They watch a ship put out to sea. Mélisande recognizes it as the one that brought her. After Geneviève has left to look after Yniold, Golaud’s son from his first marriage, Pelléas offers Mélisande his hand to guide her. He says that he may have to go away the next morning.
ACT II, Scene 1 - Near the water Pelléas brings Mélisande to a shaded well. She plays with the ring Golaud gave her, and it falls into the well.
ACT II, Scene 2 - In the castle Mélisande sits beside Golaud, who is injured. He was thrown from his horse as the clock chimed noon, the same time Mélisande lost the ring in the well. Mélisande says she is unhappy in the castle and wants to leave. As Golaud seeks to comfort her, he notices her wedding ring is missing. Mélisande says she must have lost it in a cave by the sea. Golaud demands that she find the ring, and that she take Pelléas to help her.
ACT II, Scene 3 - A grotto At night, Pelléas accompanies Mélisande to the cave. The moon casts light inside, revealing three beggars.
ACT III, Scene 1 - Near a tower Mélisande combs her long hair at a high window. Pelléas appears. He intends to leave the following day and would like to kiss her hand. As Mélisande leans out, her hair falls, and he kisses that instead. Golaud suddenly arrives. He angrily tells the pair to stop behaving like children and leads Pelléas away.
ACT III, Scene 2 - The castle vaults Golaud forces a fearful Pelléas to look into a stagnant well.
ACT III, Scene 3 - Outside the castle vaults Golaud warns Pelléas not to continue his childish games with Mélisande. She may be pregnant and must not have any unexpected shocks.
ACT III, Scene 4 - Near a tower Golaud questions Yniold as to what he knows about Pelléas and Mélisande. Golaud lifts him up, so that he can see into Mélisande’s room. She is there with Pelléas. Yniold reports that they are looking at the light.
INTERMISSION
ACT IV, Scene 1 - In the castle Pelléas tells Mélisande that his father has urged him to leave on his travels. Pelléas and Mélisande arrange to meet for a final time.
ACT IV, Scene 2 - In the castle Arkel tells Mélisande that he felt deeply sorry for her when she first arrived with Golaud. Golaud storms in, bleeding. Mocking her innocent demeanor, he grabs his wife by her hair and drags her across the floor. With her husband out of the room, Mélisande tells Arkel that Golaud doesn’t love her anymore.
ACT IV, Scene 3 - Near the water Pelléas is joined by Mélisande. They finally declare their love for each other. They hear the castle doors being locked and are resigned to their fate. As they kiss, Golaud emerges from the shadows. He kills Pelléas. Mélisande flees, pursued by Golaud.
ACT V - In the castle
Mélisande has given birth to a baby girl. A doctor is bewildered as to why she is fading away. Golaud asks for Mélisande’s forgiveness. Mélisande maintains her innocence, though Golaud continues to press her for the truth. Mélisande dies.
PRODUCTION
Conductor
DERRICK INOUYE *
Stage Director
CHAS RADER-SHIEBER
Scenic Designer
ANDREW BOYCE
Costume Designer
JACOB A. CLIMER
Lighting Designer
CONNIE YUN
Make-Up/Hair Designer
BRITTANY V.A. RAPPISE
Combat Director
BRIAN ROBERTSON
Chorus Director
LISA HASSON
Associate Conductor
TEDDY POLL *
Assistant Stage Director
MATTHEW J. SCHULZ *
Musical Preparation and French Diction Coach
MARIE-FRANCE LEFEBVRE
Musical Preparation
KYLE NAIG
Chorus Rehearsal Pianist
TESSA HARTLE
Stage Manager
BRIAN AUGUST
Costume Makers
COLIN DAVIS JONES STUDIOS
SARAH DORNINK
ERIN BROOKE ROTH
* DMMO mainstage debut
† Former DMMO Apprentice Artist
‡ Current DMMO Apprentice Artist
CAST in
order of vocal appearance
Golaud
BRANDON CEDEL *
Mélisande
SYDNEY MANCASOLA
Geneviève
CATHERINE MARTIN
Arkel
MATT BOEHLER †
Pelléas
EDWARD NELSON *
Yniold
BENJAMIN BJORKLUND
Physician
ALAN WILLIAMS ‡
Maids
KJERSTIN ANDERSON *
BRI CUELLAR *
MARIA NICOLE DE CONZO *‡
ABBY GRISSOM *
CHRISTINA HAZEN *‡
LÉA NAYAK *‡
GABRIELLE TURGEON *‡
AUDREY WELSH *‡
THIS PRODUCTION WILL BE RECORDED BY IOWA PUBLIC RADIO FOR LATER BROADCAST.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
by Chas Rader-Shieber, Stage Director
The poetic nature of the music and text of Pelléas & Mélisande begs an understanding of, a contemplation of, and an intimate relationship with the characters and events of the story. It exists in a non-literal and non-representational world. Things and ideas are hidden from view, hidden from our understanding, and yet they have great weight and power. What we see and hear isn’t always what it appears to be. This disconnect is a source of excitement, terror, wonder, emotional turmoil and great beauty.
In the telling of the story of Pelléas & Mélisande, the characters search for an understanding of the world in which they live (and die). Meaning is often elusive, making the search that much more difficult—and yet they strive to explain the events of their lives and find meaning and fulfillment in them.
All things come to an end, and in confronting this dilemma, there are choices to be made. In this opera we are met with many endings— death looms large over the proceedings. But buried in a sea of heartbreaking sadness is the desire for life, for forward motion and for meaning. Regardless of the final outcome of any story, the fight to love is eternal.
Sadness moves us like nothing else. When we allow ourselves to experience sadness and to live inside it, we find that it has great value. To give over to this sensibility is to let oneself be transported, changed and made aware of the awesome beauty around us, even as it seems to fade from view. All life is temporary, though we struggle for permanence and immortality—an irresistible and noble effort.
SYDNEY MANCASOLA
BRANDON CEDEL
EDWARD NELSON
CATHERINE MARTIN
MATT BOEHLER
BENJAMIN BJORKLUND
MUSIC BEYOND WORDS
BY GENEVIEVE LANG
Earlier this year, science offered us opera goers “permission” to feel sad. A study from the Empirical Musicology Laboratory of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, demonstrated that removing sadness from music reduced the enjoyment of music. “Sadness felt, when listening to music, might actually be liked and can enhance the pleasure of listening to it,” says Professor Emery Schubert, who ran the study. One explanation for this somewhat counterintuitive finding relates to the notion of “play:” just like children in a playground or siblings in the back seat of a car, “experiencing a wide range of emotions in a more or less safe environment could help us learn how to deal with what we encounter in the world.”
On sharing this nugget of information with director Chas Rader-Shieber, a visible weight lifts from his shoulders. The question of “What is entertainment?” is clearly one that plays on his mind, especially when considering Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. “It was something our grad school professor would drill into us: entertainment doesn’t mean everyone has to laugh and feel better,” he says. “It means everyone needs to feel engaged and feel like there is value in going through the experience. But laughter is not a requirement.”
Indeed, in choosing Pelléas et Mélisande for its 2024 season, DMMO is not inviting LOLs or ROFLs (you can catch plenty of both in the excellent production of The Barber of Seville from Australian director Lindy Hume elsewhere in the season). Humor in Pelléas would be anathema to both the libretto and the composer’s intentions.
In the closing decade of the 1800s, Debussy was refining his ideas around the aesthetic principles of opera in a post-Wagner age: rather than imitating that which he admired in Wagner’s music (and there was plenty of that), he sought to develop a music which began at the point where language reached its limits of expression. “I want music that is supple enough, jerky enough to fit the lyrical impulses of the soul, the caprices of reverie,” Debussy wrote. “Music for the inexpressible. It must emerge from the shadows. Must be discreet.”
Finding a libretto which would bring such shading of color and act so ephemerally was not straightforward. “I had long sought to write music for the theatre, but the form in which I wanted to compose it was so unusual that after a number of attempts I had almost given up the idea,” he wrote. Then in May 1893 Debussy attended the only Paris performance of Pelléas et Mélisande by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. Its text, heavy with a nightmarish atmosphere and full of questions asked but never answered, opened an avenue for Debussy to explore a work in which the drama of action was deliberately—confoundingly—absent, leaving room for a new operatic style to emerge.
It’s a simple story: Prince Golaud happens upon a waif-princess Mélisande, marries her and brings her home to the gloomy castle of his grandfather King Arkel. There she meets and eventually falls in love with Golaud’s half-brother Pelléas. The drama is driven by Golaud’s suspicion and mounting jealousy. Ultimately Golaud murders Pelléas, and Mélisande dies a slow death soon after giving birth to Golaud’s daughter.
The culmination of the drama comes in Act IV, Scene 4, with the love scene between Pelléas and Mélisande. This was where Debussy first started work on the whole opera; it was a conscious decision, and no doubt one made to exercise his new ideas about the role of the music in relation to the text.
Dispensing with grand operatic pathos, the natural lyricism evoked by the two young lovers finally confessing their feelings in hushed tones perfectly served the aesthetic sought by Debussy.
Initial excitement at this scene faded after just a few days of composing. Debussy wrote to fellow composer Ernest Chausson: “I was too quick to cry victory over Pelléas et Mélisande because, after a sleepless night, of the kind that permits reflection, I had to admit to myself that it wasn’t right at all! It sounded like a duet by Mr So-and-So, or whoever, and above all, the ghost of old … Wagner, appeared in a bar here and there. So I tore it all up, and set off again in search of a little chemistry, of more personal phrases, and endeavoured to be as much Pelléas as Mélisande.”
Interestingly,
Maeterlinck’s play largely disappeared from view: Debussy, in crafting its precise musical equivalent, made the original redundant.
Along with the new kind of sprechgesang (“speaksinging”) that Maeterlinck’s ambiguous texts evoked, another key musical innovation followed, as Debussy explained to Chausson: “I went to look for the music behind all the veils it accumulates, even for its most ardent devotees! I’ve brought something back from there which may perhaps please you? … I have made use, and moreover quite spontaneously, of a device which seems to me to be quite rare, that is to say Silence (don’t laugh!) as an agent of expression!” This newly won freedom of composed “musique de silence” served to extract Debussy from Wagner’s influence: “Perhaps it is the only way of bringing out the emotion of a phrase, because if Wagner [even] used it, it seems to me that it was only in a very dramatic fashion…”
All told, very little needed to be reworked in Maeterlinck’s original text: a nip here, a tuck there—several of these suggested by the playwright himself and enthusiastically adopted by the composer to further accentuate the “unknowableness” of the work as a whole. Debussy’s “literary opera” established the true spirit of theatre of the opera stage. Interestingly, Maeterlinck’s play largely disappeared from view: Debussy, in crafting its precise musical equivalent, made the original redundant.
Claude Debussy on the beach at Houlgate with sun shade, 1911.
Composed completely out of order, Pelléas again gave its composer trouble when he eventually arrived at the first act. Writing to Chausson again: “Now it’s Arkel who torments me. That fellow is from beyond the grave, and he has that disinterested and prophetic tenderness of people who are soon to die, and one has to say all that with C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C!!! What a profession!” [One is tempted to point out at this juncture the irony nestled in Debussy’s complaint, given his intention to develop a language for music at the point where words, effectively, failed… Ed.]
And then, of the woman at the heart of this tortured tale: “I spent days in pursuit of that ‘nothing’ of which she is made (Mélisande) … I don’t know if you are in bed like me, with a vague desire to cry, rather as if you have been unable to see someone you love very much during the day.” It seems this waif-princess Mélisande, who turns up in Act I lost in the woods and in considerable distress, even proved elusive for her composer at times.
The premiere of Pelléas et Mélisande took place in 1902. Unsurprisingly, it was met with mixed reviews: Richard Strauss could find no music in it; SaintSaëns and Rimsky-Korsakov deplored its lack of thematic interest; a critic wrote that Debussy had been “far too subservient to the text of the play—to the point of reproducing through the notes… the accentuation of the spoken word alone.” Debussy would likely have seen this as “mission accomplished” in his quest for a music beyond words.
Elsewhere, Ravel attended every performance; Satie abandoned his own plans for an opera, finding that Debussy had said it all; and Dukas, in his review praised it for the “emotion and humanity each bar affirms” and “the sentiments it can convey, from the most tender, the most passionate, to the most terrible and the most mysterious.” Subsequent performances across the globe—from Frankfurt to New York, Berlin to London—and constant revivals in Paris following the premiere season, consolidated Pelléas et Mélisande as a landmark masterpiece in operatic traditions.
Writer, broadcaster and harpist Genevieve Lang is based in Sydney, Australia. She presents weekly on ABC Classic, Australia’s national classical music station, has appeared on ABC TV and regularly contributes to concert programs and presentations for all of the country’s major performing companies.
MÉLISANDE AT HEART
BY GENEVIEVE LANG
DMMO favorite, soprano Sydney Mancasola, prefers to keep her interpretation of Mélisande’s backstory vague. “It allows for the most imagination going forward,” says Sydney. “She’s not even totally clear on where she’s from, but I think she’s been somewhere where she’s not been treated very well.”
Mélisande is a woman of uncommon grit in the eyes of director Chas Rader-Shieber. “Her character is tragic, but she has an unnameable need to keep going until she cannot, an almost naïve approach to this idea that you can push past admitting to your fate. It’s a remarkable thing: she experiences no laughter, no smiles, no joy. But she keeps going. I think we all know those people, those who just suffer bad luck.”
“She’s very much a wild thing,” says Sydney. “People around her are trying to put her into a mold that doesn’t fit, and it leads her to not thrive—exactly like any wild thing taken out of its environment.”
“There’s a point in the opera where Mélisande comes to understand her situation but she decides she’s not going to leave it,” adds Chas. “She’s going to live within it. I give her great respect for trying to do that, when the whole audience knows that’s not going to be possible.”
It feels like something of a confession when Sydney admits that singing Mélisande is neither vocally challenging, nor particularly taxing. “That’s something I love about this role. She doesn’t have big bravura arias. Her music is much easier than what’s given to the male characters.” This allows Sydney two glorious (and rare!) freedoms—“I can focus more on my acting and performance as a character. And it means all my work in preparing the music goes into choosing the right colors.”
Having sung the role several times, Sydney offers this approach for the audience. “Don’t expect fireworks—you’re there to take in the relationships. It can feel like the action is ‘missing,’ but if we do our jobs right and people lean into the whole atmosphere of the piece, it can be a thrilling night at the theatre.”
AMERICAN APOLLO
COMMISSIONING, CREATION AND PRODUCTION SUPPORT for this world premiere provided by a major gift from the Pamela Bass-Bookey and Harry Bookey Charitable Foundation
ADDITIONAL ARTISTIC SUPPORT:
This production of American Apollo received funding from OPERA America’s Opera Fund
Funded in part by The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.
First performance: Blank Performing Arts Center, Indianola; July 13, 2024
World Premiere
Expanded version commissioned by Des Moines Metro Opera
Original version commissioned by Washington National Opera
Performed in English with English supertitles
Estimated run time: 2 hours, 30 minutes with one 20-minute intermission
Music by DAMIEN GETER / Libretto by LILA PALMER
“Study of a Seated Male Nude for the Rotunda or Grand Staircase of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston” 1916-1921, by John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925), Charcoal on paper.
STORY Boston, early 20th century
ACT I
At the Hotel Vendome, a celebrity artist, John Singer Sargent, is stopped in his tracks by the arrestingly athletic hotel bellhop—Thomas Eugene McKeller, one of many Black men who have fled the South to work in Northern cities—and offers McKeller a position as his new artist’s model. McKeller and Sargent begin a nuanced and complex collaboration, in which McKeller’s evolution as a model and a collaborator tracks alongside a deepening intimacy with the artist, watched over by the eagle eyes of Sargent’s friend and benefactor, Isabella Stewart Gardner. McKeller becomes the model for all of Sargent’s MFA murals, his work at Harvard, but his racial identity is erased in every finished work, an erasure that creates a growing disquiet in McKeller. McKeller’s increasing ease with Sargent and his world is ruptured by a crisis of trust in McKeller and Sargent’s personal relationship, precipitated by the personal attack of Sargent’s former employee, lover and model, the Italian boxer Nicola d’Inverno. Unable to face the depth of his feelings for his model or his shame at the confrontation, Sargent flees Boston without explanation and McKeller is abandoned, causing disaster for McKeller’s family back home, who are reliant on the extra money Sargent provides.
INTERMISSION
ACT II
Reunited by the interventions of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Sargent and McKeller rekindle both their nascent romance and their artistic collaboration. Finally understanding McKeller’s need to be fully “seen” and captured by Sargent, Sargent starts McKeller’s portrait. Their new harmony is immediately derailed by the shocking death of Sargent’s niece in Europe. Promising to return immediately, Sargent once more leaves McKeller alone in Boston. Drawn into the war effort, Sargent writes to McKeller explaining his feelings and the reason for his enlistment as a war artist, but his letter goes astray. Left without word once more, McKeller enlists and departs for basic training. Returning from his tour, Sargent finds McKeller gone. In his absence, Sargent begins to work on the portrait in earnest. McKeller is discharged and returns to angrily confront Sargent for abandoning him a second time. Contrite, Sargent pleads his case, but McKeller is unable to believe in a future together. Attempting to make amends, Sargent plans a romantic trip to Europe with McKeller after the armistice, but McKeller cannot be swayed. He must set his own course without the vagaries of Sargent’s influence on his life. McKeller’s obstinacy in the face of his authentic intentions silences Sargent. Several years later Sargent dies in London, and McKeller returns to the studio to pay his respects. There he discovers the act of seeing that he so desperately craved had been present all along, proof of Sargent’s love and devotion in the overwhelming tenderness of his own finished portrait.
PRODUCTION
Conductor
DAVID NEELY
Stage Director
SHAUN PATRICK TUBBS *
Scenic Designer
STEVEN C. KEMP
Costume Designer
JACOB A. CLIMER
Lighting Designer
BRIDGET S. WILLIAMS
Projection Designer
DAVID MURAKAMI
Wig & Makeup Designer
BRITTANY V.A. RAPPISE
Movement Director
LEAH TUBBS *
Intimacy Coordinator
STEPHANIE SCHNEIDER *
Associate Conductor
DONALD LEE III
Assistant Stage Director
JOSHUA BORTHS
Musical Preparation
TESSA HARTLE
Dramaturg
KATE PITT *
Stage Manager
NIKKI HYDE
Costume Makers
COLIN DAVIS JONES STUDIOS
DAWSON TAILORS
SARAH DORNINK
ELIZABETH FLAUTO
* DMMO mainstage debut
† Former DMMO Apprentice Artist
‡ Current DMMO Apprentice Artist
CAST
in order of vocal appearance
Thomas Eugene McKeller
JUSTIN AUSTIN
Walter
ANTONIO DOMINO *‡
George
ISAIAH TRAYLOR *‡
Clarence/Master of Ceremonies
SHYHEIM SELVAN HINNANT *‡
John Singer Sargent
WILLIAM BURDEN *
Ida Mae McDonald
TESIA KWARTENG *
Willie McDonald
DANIEL RICH *‡
Florence McKeller/Mrs. Smithson
KENDRA FAITH BEASLEY *‡
Isabella Stewart Gardner
MARY DUNLEAVY
Jimmy O’Donnelly/Mr. Carhart
ROBERT FRAZIER *‡
Nicola d’Inverno
ALEX MCKISSICK †
Mr. Sparhawk
HAYDEN SMITH *‡
Mrs. Sparhawk
SARAH ROSALES *‡
Supernumeraries
TERRON LEWIS
EMMETT PHILLIPS
TYLER ROBINSON
KORIN THOMAS-SMITH ‡
MAXWELL WEARMOUTHGWEAH
THIS PRODUCTION WILL BE RECORDED BY IOWA PBS AND IOWA PUBLIC RADIO FOR LATER BROADCAST.
COMPOSER’S NOTES
by Damien Geter, Composer
Much of my music is centered around the lives of Black people, since it has long been a goal of mine to dramatize stories often ignored by the traditional canon. So, when Lila Palmer brought the idea of American Apollo to me, I knew we had the makings of a story for the operatic stage.
Thomas McKeller was a Black man at the turn of the last century who was the primary model for the highly revered American portraitist, John Singer Sargent. As we dove into the lives of these two men, I quickly saw how—beyond the brushstrokes—their relationship created a complex intersection of race, class, sexuality and societal structures, while asking complicated questions about erasure, art and love.
As I began to put these ideas into music, I kept thinking about how Sargent painted McKeller in different poses, so the score became quite motific, developing into a kind of theme and variation. Additionally, I was interested in using a musical palette rooted in the impressionist era, painting vivid pictures of our characters and the times in which they lived. This diverse musical palette creates a wide range of colors—sometimes vivid and sometimes muted—as sweeping, swirling lines contrast moments of quiet tenderness.
But most importantly, I’m simply excited for people to learn about Thomas McKeller as we focus our attention on the Black man whose contributions to the world were largely covered up, lost or forgotten. It is my hope that the music serves this story, and helps us root for Thomas in his quest to be seen.
WILLIAM BURDEN
MARY DUNLEAVY
JUSTIN AUSTIN
TESIA KWARTENG
ALEX MCKISSICK
BRINGING ART TO LIFE
Librettist Lila Palmer shares the inspiration behind the creation of American Apollo.
LEFT: “Study for Eros and Psyche for the Rotunda of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston” 1916-21, by John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925), Charcoal on paper.
In early February 2020 Robert Ainsley suggested I partner with composer Damien Geter for the upcoming American Opera Initiative cohort. Damien and I talked on the phone: about our creative goals, theatre and films we loved, artists we respected and our lives. We discussed our experiences of interracial dating and its complexity and shared our thoughts on Jeremy O. Harris’s wildly successful Slave Play It was a lively conversation between two curious creatives, exploring where our lives and artistry intersected. We had a match.
No matter the collaborators, stage or length of the evening, a librettist’s job is always the same: tell a story that sings, and, crucially, find words that draw music from the composer. I began the hunt for an idea that would resonate with us both, but as Covid took hold, the world shrank to a pinpoint. We all remember the sense of calamity and disaster; but also in that extremity, clarity of purpose. Amid loss and fear, I felt called to write about beauty, tenderness and hope. Meanwhile, as the global death toll mounted, the Black Lives Matter protests amplified the horrors so many had been subjected to for so long. The opera industry, unmoored without live performance and desperate to find connection, threw itself into busy pandemic work.
We demurred; too many big, painful things were happening to do anything but be still and present. In the suffering of that year, as I had new conversations with Black friends, the full weight of what separates us—and the effort and struggle to reach across the chasms that experience and race and class and gender create—felt like the only struggle worth having: a struggle to love.
That fall, my friend Mark, who knew what I was hunting for, emailed in his customarily breezy fashion: Darling, this popped into my inbox. Thought perhaps for you and DG? He’d included an art magazine review of “Boston’s Apollo,” a new exhibit at the Gardner Museum centering Thomas McKeller, the last and most significant model of the painter John Singer Sargent. There was only one problem: the pandemic had closed the museum for much of the exhibition’s run, and the exhibit would close that weekend. I was intrigued, but Boston might as well have been the moon. Mark, in a characteristic act of generosity, simply said, “I’ll drive you.” On the final day of the exhibit I walked into the Gardner Museum and met Thomas McKeller; and I fell in love with the face of an angel, as Sargent intended me to.
I carried away the exhibition catalogue and the tenderness with which Sargent had rendered
his portrait of McKeller. It was the artist’s only uncommissioned, monumental male nude, a singular testament weighed against his use of McKeller’s body as a model for hundreds of sketches and finished works which would ultimately erase McKeller’s face and race. The tenderness undid me; and I knew in my bones this was it.
Things flowed, as they do when you are meant to make something. In the Gardner I asked an attendant if I might be able to speak to the curator of the exhibit. I ask his forgiveness, since he told me he couldn’t give out contact information and simultaneously slid me the curator’s email address. Nathaniel Silver’s rediscovery of the Sargent sketches ultimately informed our story of McKeller and Sargent. Through his good graces, I was introduced to other Sargent experts and their collections in Boston, curators from the Fogg, MFA and further afield. The more I looked through standing collections, the more of Thomas, unidentified but unmistakable, I found.
During my second research trip to Boston two years later, I was restless. Awake and listening for the sound of my infant son stirring in his travel crib, I idly scrolled the internet for Sargent-related reading. To my shock, I saw a new biography slated for release. Against all likelihood, the biographer was on faculty at Wellesley, just 14 miles away. I sent a 2AM email asking him to coffee the next day; and he agreed, turning up with two copies of the manuscript proof for Damien and me, and a fascinating new account of
“Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller” 1917–20, Oil on canvas.
IMPORTANT DATES FROM AMERICAN APOLLO
1840 Isabella Stewart Gardner is born.
1856 John Singer Sargent is born.
1865 Reconstruction following the American Civil War begins. Isabella Stewart Gardner’s only son dies of pneumonia.
1884 Sargent’s Madame X scandalizes the public in Paris Salon. Isabella Stewart Gardner and her husband Jack visit Venice and begin to host American artists and writers. The trip eventually inspires her to open her private home (now the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, MA).
1886 John Singer Sargent and Isabella Stewart Gardner meet for the first time in London at the behest of novelist Henry James.
1887 John Singer Sargent travels to Boston for the first time and receives a number of important commissions.
1888 John Singer Sargent paints a portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner so provocative it is not allowed to be publicly displayed until after her husband’s death.
1890 John Singer Sargent is commissioned to create public murals in the Boston Public Library. The commission takes 29 years to complete. Thomas McKeller is born.
1913 Thomas McKeller settles in Boston, MA.
1914 “The Great War,” which eventually becomes known as World War I, breaks out in Europe.
1916 John Singer Sargent is commissioned to create public murals at the new Boston Museum of Fine Art building. Thomas McKeller and John Singer Sargent meet in an elevator at the Hotel Vendome. McKeller soon begins modeling for Sargent.
1917 John Singer Sargent travels to Florida, opening up new possibilities for his painting.
1918 John Singer Sargent’s beloved niece Rose-Marie is killed in a German bombing in Paris. Sargent would memorialize the horror of WWI in artworks such as Gassed Thomas McKeller enlists to fight for the Black army brigade, 811 Pioneer Infantry.
1924 Isabella Stewart Gardner dies. Thomas McKeller accepts a position with the United States Post Office.
1925 John Singer Sargent dies.
1962 Thomas McKeller dies.
2024 John Singer Sargent’s Nude Study of Thomas E. McKeller is currently on display at the Boston Museum of Art.
Sargent, McKeller and the different Bostons they each inhabited. This meeting was followed by the release of two revisionist biographies of Isabella Stewart Gardner, revealing the fierce intellect and strength of character that transformed personal tragedy into the gift of beauty.
Back in the spring of 2020 we recorded our chamber version of Apollo in a vast, darkened Kennedy Center. Justin Austin, a jump-in for Thomas, sang “This is my body.” This aria echoes the words McKeller wrote to Sargent’s first biographer, proudly naming his importance in Sargent’s late oeuvre, claiming his place and his image in the history of American art. Watching that rare alchemy when a great artist meets a character and becomes, the hairs on the back of my neck went up. Conductor David Neely continued this series of fateful alignments. His belief in Damien’s beguiling and psychologically acute vocal writing carried American Apollo to the desk of Michael Egel, who commissioned the full-length work for Des Moines and generously allowed us the time we needed to write a piece with evolving scholarship. Our finished portrait, American Apollo, is like the painting that inspired it, the fruit of a transformative partnership supported by many others.
Just before the final orchestra workshop of the full length work, Justin sent me a video from the MFA in Boston. It showed him walking into a gallery full of 19th century portraits—endless depictions of white dignitaries. The film pans around the room to one staid face after another. Suddenly, around a corner, an explosion of color and dynamism fills the screen. A Kehinde Wiley portrait exuberantly bursts into its own song. The camera shifts to Justin’s face, overcome, and slowly pans up. There is Thomas, surrounded by his winged roundel, with that aching, luminous melancholy expression: a saint, a god of art and music, and indisputably, himself.
SARGENT’S SEXUALITY
BY PAUL FISHER
Many Sargent scholars now acknowledge that Sargent was “queer”—a figure engaging in unconventional modes of gender and sexuality. However, several different theories about Sargent’s sexuality have been proposed and debated over the decades.
Trevor Fairbrother was the primary scholar to “out” Sargent between 1981, with the publication of an essay on Sargent’s male nudes, and 2000, when a landmark exhibition extensively explored Sargent’s complex homoerotic “sensuality.” In a career of meticulous archival scholarship and careful art-historical analysis, Fairbrother made an increasingly compelling case for Sargent, presenting a complex “repressed sexuality” and “conflicted socio-sexual identity” while interpreting much of Sargent’s work through dynamics of homoeroticism, disguise, and impersonation. This work was further explored by Albert Boime and Dorothy Moss, among others.
In several new studies, a focus has been placed on Sargent’s many sketches of male nudes, which, as Donna Esten argues, were “more than just an academic pursuit” and “created for [Sargent’s] own personal study and enjoyment.” She copiously documented Sargent’s “strong preference for portraying the masculine form throughout his career.”
A new generation of biographical and historical scholars have found resonance in Sargent’s complex erotic life and have rightly understood him as belonging to queer social contexts
related to the Paris arts world of the 1880s, Isabella Stewart Gardner’s circle in Boston, or the Palazzo Barbaro group in Venice.
Recent art historians have found what Sarah Burns has described as a welcome and revealing antidote to an older view of Sargent as a “slick, superficial antimodernist society painter” by revisiting his homoerotic and queer associations. This work helps create a “more complex and challenging image of the artist.”
Sargent’s sexual complexities—as manifested in his life and work—have often been marginalized, dismissed or ignored. Though it’s important to address this neglect, it can also be problematic to claim that Sargent was “gay” in the present understanding of the word. As historian of sexuality Jonathan Ned Katz has argued, “We may refer to . . . 19th century men’s acts or desires as gay or straight, homosexual, heterosexual or bisexual, but that places their behaviors and lusts within our system, not the system of their time.”
Historical context is crucial; it is important to locate figures like Sargent within what Katz calls the “erotic and emotional institutions of their own time.” For this and other reasons, it is important to understand that Sargent need not be classified according to rigid late-19th century pathological categories (“invert,” “homosexual”) or late 20th century political ones (“gay”). At the same time, without presuming on an “identity,” it is important to note that Sargent had a range of affective or erotic experiences with men (and complex relations with women) that link to important aspects of his work.
Adapted from Paul Fisher, The Grand Affair: John Singer Sargent in His World (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2022), pp. 386-88n.
“Study of a Seated Male Nude for a Cartouche for the Rotunda of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston” 1916-1921, by John Singer Sargent (1856 - 1925), Charcoal on paper.
Costume designs for Isabella Stewart Gardner and John Singer Sargent by Jacob A. Climer.
The CREATORS OF AMERICAN APOLLO
DAMIEN GETER (Composer, American Apollo) is an acclaimed composer who infuses classical music with various styles from the Black diaspora to create music that furthers the cause for social justice, as well as a celebrated bassbaritone—“amazing to listen to. Possessed of a rolling, resonant voice even at the lowest register” (Northwest Reverb)—whose varied credits include performances from the operatic stage to the television screen. He is Composer-in-Residence at the Richmond Symphony through the 202425 season, and serves as Interim Music Director and Artistic Advisor at Portland Opera, as well as the Artistic Advisor for Resonance Ensemble.
Geter’s rapidly growing body of work includes chamber, vocal, orchestral, and full operatic works, with his compositions being praised for their “skillful vocal writing” (Wall Street Journal). In the 2023-2024 season, Des Moines Metro Opera presents the full-length world premiere of his opera, American Apollo, while Virginia Opera holds a workshop of Loving v. Virginia, a new major work co-commissioned by Virginia Opera and the Richmond Symphony which will premiere as part of Virginia Opera’s 50th Anniversary Season in May 2025. Geter’s Annunciation is featured on Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s concert Montgomery and the Blacknificent 7, and Richmond Symphony will premiere a brand new work to be conducted by Music Director Valentina Peleggi. His song cycle COTTON, commissioned by Lyric Fest, will see its New York premiere at the 92nd Street Y, starring Denyce Graves and Justin Austin. Additionally, The Recording Inclusivity Initiative records String Quartet No. 1 “Neo-Soul”.
LILA PALMER (Librettist, American Apollo) is a British and American librettist whose warmth, clarity, and stylistic flexibility have made her a favored partner of established and emerging composers alike. An advanced vocal performer herself, Lila’s skill in advocating for and writing to the classically trained voice has enabled her to bridge the gap between the world of interpreter and creative. She is proud to be the only dual graduate of both the Royal Opera House London-Guildhall Opera Makers MA program and American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program.
Recent and upcoming works include her children’s opera with Clarice Assad, The Selfish Giant (Opera Saratoga); Shell Shaker with Chickasaw composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate and Splintered with Jorge Sosa and Justine Chen. Lila serves as ALT’s Associate Director for Partnerships & Promotions following a year as Interim Managing Director. In addition to supporting Artist Development at ALT, she has served as Artist Leader/Dramaturgy Mentor in new works development for Boston Opera Collaborative and Loose Tea Music Theater, Canada.
The ARTISTS
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN
Conductor, New York, NY
Conductor, The Stars of Tomorrow
DMMO DEBUT
The Magic Flute, 2022
RECENT
The Barber of Seville, Cincinnati Opera
Romeo and Juliet, Lyric Opera of Kansas City
The Magic Flute, Opéra de Montréal
UPCOMING
Mozart Requiem, Utah Symphony
Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade National Orchestra Madrid
Handel Messiah, Tucson Symphony
MATT BOEHLER
Bass, Minneapolis, MN
Arkel, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
Orpheus in the Underworld, 2000
RECENT
Les Noces, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal
Romeo and Juliet, Toledo Opera
The Road to Wellville (composer); San Francisco Conservatory of Music, West Edge Opera
UPCOMING
The Marriage of Figaro, Lyric Opera of Chicago Acis and Galatea, Florentine Opera
Mozart Requiem, Madison Symphony Orchestra
CONNOR BUCKLEY
Pianist and Coach, Hagerstown, MD
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
The Falling and the Rising, 2023
RECENT
Sid the Serpent Who Wanted to Sing, OPERA Iowa Beauty and the Beast, OPERA Iowa
JUSTIN AUSTIN
Baritone, Stuttgart, Germany
Thomas Eugene McKeller, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
American Apollo, 2022
RECENT
Champion, Lyric Opera of Chicago
Romeo and Juliet, Washington National Opera
Dead Man Walking, The Metropolitan Opera
UPCOMING
Romeo and Juliet, Los Angeles Opera
Justin Austin in Concert, Stuttgarter Philharmoniker
Così fan tutte, Los Angeles Opera
JOSHUA BORTHS
Director, Richmond, VA
Assistant Director, American Apollo
Company Dramaturg, Head of Directing Staff
DMMO DEBUT
A Little Night Music, 2017
RECENT
The Barber of Seville, Arizona Opera Beauty and the Beast, OPERA Iowa
The Falling and the Rising, Des Moines Metro Opera
UPCOMING
The Little Prince, James Madison University
Hansel and Gretel, Opera Montana
The Flying Dutchman, Des Moines Metro Opera
WILLIAM BURDEN
Tenor, Miami, FL
John Singer Sargent, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Hours, The Metropolitan Opera
Iphigénie en Tauride, Boston Baroque
Hamlet, The Metropolitan Opera
UPCOMING
Moby-Dick, The Metropolitan Opera
BENJAMIN BJORKLUND
Boy Soprano, Ankeny, IA
Yniold, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
Wozzeck, 2019
RECENT
Carmen, Des Moines Metro Opera
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Des Moines Metro Opera Wozzeck, Des Moines Metro Opera
ANDREW BOYCE
Designer, Chicago IL Scenic Designer, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
Don Giovanni, 2012
RECENT
The Barber of Seville, Opera Theatre of St. Louis
An American Dream, Lyric Opera of Chicago
The Queen of Spades, Des Moines Metro Opera
UPCOMING
The Light In The Piazza, Huntington Theater
Don Giovanni, Merola Opera Program
Leroy and Lucy, Steppenwolf Theater
BRANDON CEDEL
Bass-Baritone, Hershey, PA Golaud, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Hercules, Komische Oper Berlin
Rodelinda, The English Concert International Tour
The Hours, The Metropolitan Opera
UPCOMING
The Elixir of Love, English National Opera
Ariodante, Boston Baroque
Rodelinda, Garsington Opera
The ARTISTS
JACOB A. CLIMER
Designer, New York, NY
Costume Designer, Salome, Pelléas & Mélisande, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
The Abduction from the Seraglio, 2015
RECENT
Unknown Soldier, Arena Stage
The Little Prince, Utah Opera Texas Rose Festival; Tyler, Texas
UPCOMING
The Rake’s Progress, Des Moines Metro Opera
The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Washington National Opera Texas Rose Festival; Tyler, Texas
VARTAN GABRIELIAN
Bass-Baritone, Toronto, Canada
Basilio, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Florencia en el Amazonas, Opera San Jose
Das Rheingold, Edmonton Opera
La Traviata, Opéra national de Paris
UPCOMING
The Rake’s Progress, Opéra national de Paris
I Puritani, Opéra national de Paris
Gianni Schicchi, Opéra national de Paris
TRACY GRANT LORD
Designer, Auckland, New Zealand
Production Designer, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Le Comte Ory, New Zealand Opera
The Barber of Seville, Seattle Opera
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Queensland Ballet
MARY DUNLEAVY
Soprano, West Orange, NJ
Isabella Stewart Gardner, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
American Apollo, 2022
RECENT
Don Giovanni, North Carolina Opera
The Exterminating Angel, The Metropolitan Opera Falstaff, Opera Omaha
UPCOMING
The Manchurian Candidate, Austin Opera
NORMAN GARRETT
Baritone, Philadelphia, PA
Jochanaan, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
Flight, 2018
RECENT
Don Giovanni, Houston Grand Opera
Carmina Burana, Orchestra of St. Luke’s Highway 1, USA, Los Angeles Opera
UPCOMING
Blue, Lyric Opera of Chicago
Sibelius a Duruflé, Dallas Symphony Orchestra
Porgy and Bess, Washington National Opera
TESSA HARTLE
Pianist and Coach, Pittsburgh, PA
Musical Preparation, The Barber of Seville, Pelléas & Mélisande, American Apollo
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
La Rondine, 2012
RECENT
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, Austin Opera Hansel and Gretel, Opera San Antonio
Before Night Falls, Opera Southwest
ALEXANDER BIRCH ELLIOTT
Baritone, Florence, SC
Figaro, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
Apprentice Artist, 2011
RECENT
The Sound of Music, Houston Grand Opera
The Magic Flute, The Metropolitan Opera
The Barber of Seville, Arizona Opera
UPCOMING
Brahms Ein deutches Requiem, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra
Carmen, Florida Grand Opera
The Magic Flute, Grand Teton Music Festival
SARA GARTLAND
Soprano, Santa Fe, NM
Salome, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
Regina, 2008
RECENT
Die tote Stadt, Semperoper Dresden Rusalka, Pittsburgh Opera
Don Giovanni, Minnesota Opera
UPCOMING
La Traviata, Dallas Opera
Macbeth, The Atlanta Opera Gianni Schicchi, Bluebeard’s Castle, Calgary Opera
LISA HASSON
Chorus Director, Pianist, Coach, Fort Thomas, KY
Irene Graether Chorus Director and Director of the Apprentice Artist Program
DMMO DEBUT
La Cenerentola, Ariadne auf Naxos, 2004
RECENT
Chorus and Sandford Studio Director, Kentucky Opera Opera Faculty, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
Opera Fusion: New Works, Cincinnati Opera
PAIGE HEIDRICH
Director, Geneva, OH
Assistant Director, The Barber of Seville
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
La Finta Giardiniera, Michigan State University
Opera Theater
The Cunning Little Vixen, Detroit Opera
A Little Night Music, Michigan State University
UPCOMING
The Ghosts of Gatsby, Michigan State University
GWENDOLYN JONES
Mezzo-Soprano, Baton Rouge, LA
Herodias, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
The Tales of Hoffmann, 1989
RECENT
Der Rosenkavalier, New York City Opera
Salome, New Orleans Opera
The Barber of Seville, The Metropolitan Opera
DUKE KIM
Tenor, Los Angeles, CA
Count Almaviva, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
Apprentice Artist, 2016
RECENT
The Barber of Seville, Seattle Opera
Romeo and Juliet, Washington National Opera
La Traviata, Pittsburgh Opera
UPCOMING
Faust, Berkshire Opera Festival
Romeo and Juliet, Los Angeles Opera
The Magic Flute, The Metropolitan Opera
LINDY HUME
Director, New South Wales, Australia
Original Production Director, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Idomeneo, Opera Australia, Victorian Opera
Così fan tutte, New Zealand Opera
Artistic Director, Ten Days on the Island, Tasmania
UPCOMING
Suor Angelica, Queensland Conservatorium
Gianni Schicchi, Queensland Conservatorium
Idomeneo, San Francisco Opera
STEVEN C. KEMP
Designer, Houston, TX
Scenic Designer, Salome, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
Candide, 2019
RECENT
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Atlanta Opera
Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci, Lyric Opera of Kansas City
Sesame Street Live, International Tour
UPCOMING
Macbeth, The Atlanta Opera
Stiffelio, Sarasota Opera
The Elixir of Love, New Orleans Opera
TESIA KWARTENG
Mezzo-Soprano, New York, NY
Ida Mae McDonald, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Sanctuary Road, Virginia Opera
The Marriage of Figaro, Portland Opera
Carmen, Opera Columbus
UPCOMING
Loving v. Virginia, Virginia Opera
The Threepenny Opera, Opera Columbus
The Cartography Project, Kennedy Center
DERRICK INOUYE
Conductor, New York, NY
Conductor, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Madama Butterfly, The Metropolitan Opera
Poulenc Gloria, Osaka Symphony
Beethoven 7th Symphony, Sapporo Symphony
UPCOMING
Salome, The Metropolitan Opera
The Marriage of Figaro, Sakai City Opera (Osaka)
Rigoletto, Greek National Opera
MARC KENISON
Actor, Columbia, SC
Ambrogio, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Barber of Seville, Seattle Opera
SHe Said, Broadway Performance Hall, Seattle
The War On Christmas, Theatre Off Jackson, Seattle
JESSICA LANG
Choreographer, New York, NY
Choreographer, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Turandot, Washington National Opera
Aïda, Chicago Lyric Opera
Twinkle, The Royal Ballet
UPCOMING
New Commission as Resident Choreographer, Pacific Northwest Ballet
New Commission as Artist in Residence, Sarasota Ballet
ZigZag, Ballet Austin
The ARTISTS
DONALD LEE III
Conductor, Hampton, VA
Associate Conductor, Salome, American Apollo
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
Porgy and Bess, American Apollo, 2022
RECENT
The Highlands, Opera Fusion: New Works Gateways Music Festival
Jessie Montgomery and the Blacknificent 7, Chicago Symphony Orchestra MusicNow
SYDNEY MANCASOLA
Soprano, Redding, CA
Mélisande, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
Le Comte Ory, 2014
RECENT
Carmen, The Metropolitan Opera Eurydice, Boston Lyric Opera
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Fondazione Teatro Carlo Felice (Genoa), Royal Opera House Muscat
UPCOMING
Die Fledermaus, Dutch National Opera
The Magic Flute, Opéra de Nice
Don Pasquale, Staatsoper Hamburg
ALEX MCKISSICK
Tenor, Madison, CT
Narraboth, Salome
Nicola d’Inverno, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
Candide, 2019
RECENT
Salome, Irish National Opera
Don Giovanni, San Diego Opera
La Fanciulla del West, Cleveland Orchestra
UPCOMING
Die Fledermaus, Irish National Opera
Alcina, Berkshire Opera Festival
The Queen of Spades, The Metropolitan Opera
MARIE-FRANCE LEFEBVRE
Pianist and Coach, Cincinnati, OH
Musical Preparation and French Diction Coach, Pelléas & Mélisande
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
Platée, 2021
RECENT
Romeo and Juliet, The Metropolitan Opera Nabucco, The Metropolitan Opera
The Cunning Little Vixen, Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music
MATTHEW MARSHALL
Designer, Perth, Western Australia
Lighting Designer, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Ring Cycle, Opera Australia
Così fan tutte, New Zealand Opera
The Barber of Seville, Seattle Opera
UPCOMING
Le Comte Ory, New Zealand Opera
DAVID MURAKAMI
Designer, Los Angeles, CA
Projection Designer, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
American Apollo, 2022
RECENT
Das Rheingold, Seattle Opera
Ainadamar, Opéra de Montréal
5-Skies, Princess Cruises
UPCOMING
Aïda, Arizona Opera
ELDEN LITTLE
Pianist and Coach, East Lansing, MI
Musical Preparation, Salome, Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
The Rake’s Progress, Rigoletto, 2006
RECENT
Don Giovanni, Michigan State University
Opera Gala, Michigan State University
Faculty Recital Series, Michigan State University
UPCOMING
Faculty Recital, Michigan State University
La Cenerentola, Michigan State University
CATHERINE MARTIN
Mezzo-Soprano, San Antonio, TX
Geneviève, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
The Love for Three Oranges, 2023
RECENT
Die Walküre, The Atlanta Opera
La forza del destino, The Metropolitan Opera
Dead Man Walking, The Metropolitan Opera
UPCOMING
The Tales of Hoffmann, The Metropolitan Opera Cavalleria Rusticana, Sacramento Philharmonic
The Central Park Five, Detroit Opera
KYLE NAIG
Conductor, Des Moines, IA
Associate Conductor, The Barber of Seville
Musical Preparation, Pelléas & Mélisande
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
Amahl and the Night Visitors, 2013
RECENT
Into the Woods, Simpson College Productions
The Barber of Seville, Penn Square Opera
The Barber of Seville, Pacific Opera Project
UPCOMING
Don Bucefalo, Pacific Opera Project
Four Lost Santas/Amahl and the Night Visitors, Opera Orlando
La scuola de’ gelosi, Pacific Opera Project
DAVID NEELY
Conductor, Hyattsville, MD
Conductor, Salome, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
Macbeth, The Marriage of Figaro, 2010
RECENT
Florencia en el Amazonas, University of Maryland
The Apollo Orchestra
Eugene Onegin, Indiana University Jacobs School of Muic
UPCOMING
The Flying Dutchman, Des Moines Metro Opera
The Cunning Little Vixen, Des Moines Metro Opera
University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra
DANIEL PELZIG
Choreographer, New York, NY
Associate Director & Choreographer, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Kiss Me, Kate, Central City Opera
The Band’s Visit, Huntington Theatre
The Barber of Seville, Seattle Opera
UPCOMING
Street Scene, Central City Opera
Leopoldstadt, Huntington Theatre
Midsummer (ballet world premiere), Boston Conservatory at Berklee
ALISON POGORELC
Director, Milwaukee, WI
Stage Director, Salome
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Partenope, Washington National Opera
La Rondine, The Metropolitan Opera Champion, Lyric Opera of Chicago
UPCOMING
Rigoletto, The Metropolitan Opera
Moby-Dick, The Metropolitan Opera
The Marriage of Figaro, The Metropolitan Opera
EDWARD NELSON
Baritone, Los Angeles, CA
Pelléas, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Songbird, Washington National Opera
La Cenerentola, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées
La Cenerentola, Semperoper Dresden
UPCOMING
Iphigénie en Tauride, Teatro de la Maestranza
Carousel, Boston Lyric Opera
Die Fledermaus, Opera Theatre of St. Louis
SUN-LY PIERCE
Mezzo-Soprano, Clinton, NY
Rosina, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
The Magic Flute, 2022
RECENT
La Rondine, The Metropolitan Opera
Madama Butterfly, Houston Grand Opera
The Marriage of Figaro, New Orleans Opera
UPCOMING
The Cunning Little Vixen, Des Moines Metro Opera
L’amant anonyme, Opera Philadelphia
Così fan tutte, Detroit Opera
TEDDY POLL
Conductor, Houston, TX
Associate Conductor, Pelléas & Mélisande
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Madama Butterfly, Houston Grand Opera
Parsifal, Houston Grand Opera
Falstaff, Houston Grand Opera
YASUKO OURA
Pianist and Coach, Chicago, IL
Musical Preparation, The Barber of Seville
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
Der Freischütz, Tosca, 2009
RECENT
The Nose, Chicago Opera Theater
St. John’s Passion, Music of the Baroque Concerts, Chamber Music at Bethany
UPCOMING
Leonora, Chicago Opera Theater
KATE PITT
Dramaturg, New York, NY
Dramaturg, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Beekeeper, Chicago Opera Theater
The Transformation of Jane Doe, Chicago Opera Theater
Hamlet’s Big Adventure (a prequel), Reduced Shakespeare Company
CHAS RADER-SHIEBER
Director, St. Louis, MO
Stage Director, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
The Abduction from the Seraglio, 2015
RECENT
The Marriage of Figaro, New Orleans Opera
Die tote Stadt, Opera Colorado
L’Allegro, il penseroso ed il moderato, Curtis Institute of Music
UPCOMING
Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo, Orpheus PDX
The Rake’s Progress, Des Moines Metro Opera
The Marriage of Figaro, North Carolina Opera
The ARTISTS
BRITTANY V.A. RAPPISE
Designer, Pensacola, FL
Season Wig and Makeup Designer
DMMO DEBUT
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2022
RECENT
Turandot, Opera Delaware
Die Fledermaus, Pensacola Opera
Cendrillon, Knoxville Opera
UPCOMING
Cats, Flat Rock Playhouse
The Marriage of Figaro, Pensacola Opera
The Comet/Poppea, Curtis Institute of Music
BRIAN ROBERTSON
Director, Cincinnati, OH
Combat Director, Salome, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
Gloriana, 2006
RECENT
The Cunning Little Vixen, Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music
What the Constitution Means to Me, Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati
Carmen, Des Moines Metro Opera
UPCOMING
La Finta Giardiniera, Dark Sister, Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music
ASHRAF SEWAILAM
Bass-Baritone, Cairo, Egypt
Bartolo, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Barber of Seville, Seattle Opera
Rigoletto, Opera San José
The Daughter of the Regiment, Lyric Opera of Chicago
UPCOMING
The Barber of Seville, Lyric Opera of Kansas City
The Elixir of Love, New Orleans Opera
ABIGAIL RETHWISCH
Soprano, Iowa City, IA
Berta, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
Apprentice Artist, 2012
RECENT
The Hours, The Metropolitan Opera
Lucia di Lammermoor, Pensacola Opera
The Magic Flute, The Metropolitan Opera
UPCOMING
Romeo and Juliet, Los Angeles Opera
Cendrillon, Cedar Rapids Opera
STEPHANIE SCHNEIDER
Intimacy Coordinator, Des Moines, IA
Intimacy Coordinator, Salome, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Equus, Tallgrass Theatre Company
Wings, Drake University
Good Kids, Simpson College
UPCOMING
The Prom, Des Moines Young Artists Theatre
Melancholy Play, Iowa Stage Theatre Company
CHAD SHELTON
Tenor, Orange, TX
Herod Antipas, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Dead Man Walking, The Metropolitan Opera
The Flying Dutchman, Santa Fe Opera
Salome, Houston Grand Opera
UPCOMING
Salome, The Metropolitan Opera
The Queen of Spades, The Metropolitan Opera
KIMBERLY ROBERTS
Voice Teacher, Knoxville, TN
Resident Voice Teacher
DMMO DEBUT
La Rondine, 1997
RECENT
Assistant Professor of Voice, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
MATTHEW J. SCHULZ
Director, Waverly, IA
Assistant Director, Pelléas & Mélisande
Apprentice Artist Program Staff
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Carmen, Austin Opera Cruzar la Cara de la Luna, Austin Opera Faust, Wolf Trap Opera
HANNAH F. TARR
Designer, Louisville, KY
Assistant Scenic Designer
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Brighter Than The Sun, Greener Pastures
Theatre Collective
Something Rotten!, AfterWork Theatre
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kentucky
Shakespeare Globe
UPCOMING
COMPLICIT: Observations from the 57th Floor, by Evangelia Kingsley
LEAH TUBBS
Director, Harlem, NY
Movement Director, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Ragtime, Union Avenue Opera
SHAUN PATRICK TUBBS
Director, Cleveland, OH
Stage Director, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Ragtime, Union Avenue Opera
Defacing Michael Jackson, Miami New Drama
The Tempest, Powerhouse Theater
COLE WILKOWSKI
Designer, New York, NY
Assistant Costume Designer
DMMO DEBUT
Assistant Costume Designer, 2023
RECENT
Uncle Vanya, Lincoln Center
Texas Rose Festival; Tyler, Texas Cirque Dreams Holidaze, National Tour
BRIDGET S. WILLIAMS
Designer, Chicago, IL
Lighting Designer, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
Lighting Supervisor, 2019
RECENT
Rising Stars in Concert 2024, Lyric Opera of Chicago
The Diary of Anne Frank, Young People’s Theatre of Chicago
The Falling and the Rising, Des Moines Metro Opera
GARY THOR WEDOW
Conductor, Sunnyside Gardens, NY
Conductor, The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
Orphée et Eurydice, 2016
RECENT
Don Pasquale, Opera Omaha
Atalanta, The Juilliard School
L’incoronazione di Poppea, Rice University
UPCOMING
Messiah, Santa Fe Symphony
La Finta Giardiniera, Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music
CONNIE YUN
Designer, Seattle, WA
Lighting Designer, Salome, Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2022
RECENT
L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Curtis Institute of Music
The Marriage of Figaro, Portland Opera
The Marriage of Figaro, New Orleans Opera
UPCOMING
The Barber of Seville, Madison Opera
La Bohème, Opera Colorado Tosca, Seattle Opera
The FESTIVAL STAFF
PRODUCTION
Associate Director of Production
BRIDGET ANDERSON
Production Advisor
JIM LILE
Production Assistant
KATIE ANTHONY
STAGE MANAGEMENT
Production Stage Manager
BRIAN AUGUST
Stage Managers
NIKKI HYDE
ANNIE WHEELER
LAUREN WICKETT
Assistant Stage Managers
OLIVIA DARLING
CHRIS GRISWOLD
MILES MIRANDA
JESS TIBBOLES
STAGE/SHOW OPERATIONS
Technical Director
NATALIE HINING
Assistant Scenic Designer
HANNAH F. TARR
Assistant Technical Director: Show Ops
BRANDON “BRUCE” HEARRELL
Assistant Technical Director: Stage Ops
RACHEL VAN NAMEN
Assistant Show Supervisor
BRIAN ALEXANDER ALCANTARA
Assistant Stage Supervisor
GWEN VAN DENBURG
Fly Chief
CHRIS LUBITZ
Stage Carpenters
ALYSSA EPPLER
ETHAN MENZIES
HANNAH NEUMANN
GENESIS NICOLE TANNER
SCENE SHOP
Assistant Technical Director: Shop
NATE MOHLMAN
Shop Foreman
NICHOLAS MAYHUGH
Head Carpenter
JESSE DYLAN CURVIN
Shop Carpenter
LIZZIE ANDERSON
COSTUMES
Assistant Costume Designer
COLE WILKOWSKI
Costume Director
ASHLEIGH POTEAT
Associate Costume Director
ALEXANDRA HOLZEM
Costume Shop Manager
COLE HUDSON
First Hand
KJERSTIN ANDERSON
Craftsperson/Dresser
ALLIE HILDEBRAN
Stitcher/Dressers
GABBY DEPRIZIO
ALEX LEDBETTER
WIGS AND MAKEUP
Assistant Wig and Makeup Designer
PHOEBE BOCK
Run Crew Lead
JAMES OGLE
Wig and Makeup Artisan
VALENTINE A. BARNEYCASTLE
CARLEE J. WUCHTERL
LIGHTING
Lighting Supervisor
BRIDGET S. WILLIAMS
Head Electrician
SAMMY JELINEK
Assistant Head Electrician
SOPHIE SMYCZEK
Lighting Programmer
TONY STOERI
Electricians
TRACY V. JOE
DARYL NORMAN SOH
PAINT
Charge Artist
NOAH J. FILES
Scenic Artist
BRAE JOHNSON
PROPS
Head of Props
TEILA VOCHATZER
Prop Shop Supervisor
JAMIE AUER
Props Stage Supervisor
GRACE DIMAIO
Props Artisan/Run Crew
ANNA VIDERGAR
SOUND AND VIDEO
Sound and Video Supervisor
NEAL PETZ
Sound and Video Engineer
SJ KNOX
The FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA
VIOLIN
JONATHAN KUO Concertmaster
CAROLINE SLACK Asst. Concertmaster
PEI-JU WU Principal Second
SARAH BIAGINI
REBECCA EDGE
ELLEN ENSEY
LIAM GIBB
ALEXANDER GIGER
JOHN HELMICH
JUAN JARAMILLO
ANNA LUEBKE
BRAM MARGOLES
ALEXANDER NORRIS
HANNAH O’BRIEN
VIOLA
SAMANTHA RODRIGUEZ Principal
KATY BYRD
KATELYN HOAG
PATRICK HORN
CHARLES MIRANDA
RENE REDER
CELLO
HILARY GLEN Principal
ADAM AYERS
JOSHUA DEVRIES
RAFAEL HOEKMAN
HANNA RUMORA
ESTHER SEITZ
BASS
JEREMY BAGUYOS Principal
ERIC TIMPERMAN
JOHN TUCK
PICCOLO
SONJA GILES
SUYEON KO
FLUTE
EMILY BIEKER Principal
SONJA GILES
SUYEON KO
OBOE
BOBBY NUNES Principal
JENNIFER BLOOMBERG
LEONID SIROTKIN
ENGLISH HORN
LEONID SIROTKIN
E-FLAT CLARINET
ROSARIO GALANTE
CLARINET
SERGEY GUTOROV Principal
E-CHEN HSU
BASS CLARINET
JAMES GARCIA
BASSOON
KRISTY TUCKER Principal
MATTHEW LANO
PHILIP MCNAUGHTON
CONTRABASSOON
MATTHEW LANO
PHILIP MCNAUGHTON
HORN
ERIN LANO Principal
JOSH JOHNSON Asst. Principal
EVERETT BURNS
MICHAEL DALY
VALERIE SLY
TRUMPET
ZACK THOMAS Principal
THOMAS HUBEL
BRYANT MILLET
TROMBONE
TIMOTHY HOWE Principal
ERICH CORFMAN
J. MARK THOMPSON
TUBA
JARROD BRILEY Principal
TIMPANI
ANDREW NOWAK Principal
PERCUSSION
MARK DORR Principal
MICHAEL GEARY
ERIC GREEN
ALINA GRIMM
KEITH HAMMER
DANNY KOCHER
RYAN PEARSON
AARON WILLIAMS
HARP
NUIKO WADDEN Principal
TABITHA STEINER
GUITAR
SETH HEDQUIST
CELESTA
ELDEN LITTLE
PIANO
TESSA HARTLE
FORTEPIANO
YASUKO OURA
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL AND OPERATIONS MANAGER
MARK DORR
ORCHESTRA LIBRARIAN
SOPHIA LEE
ORCHESTRA INTERN
DANNY GILFANOV
DAVID NEELY
The Marshall and Judy Flapan Music Director and Principal Conductor
Now in his 12th season as Music Director and Principal Conductor of Des Moines Metro Opera and his 22nd with the company, David Neely has led acclaimed performances of a vast range of repertoire that includes Bluebeard’s Castle, The Love for Three Oranges, The Queen of Spades, Turandot, Jenůfa, Falstaff, Elektra, Peter Grimes, Dead Man Walking, Macbeth, Don Giovanni, The Girl of the Golden West, Rusalka, Flight, the world premiere of A Thousand Acres and Regional Emmy winners Manon and Billy Budd for Iowa PBS. His performances have been praised in publications such as Opera News, Opera Today, The Chicago Tribune and The Wall Street Journal
Neely is equally at home in symphonic, opera, musical theater and ballet settings. He has appeared as conductor with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Apollo Orchestra, Bochumer Symphoniker, Dortmunder Philharmoniker and the Symphonieorchester Vorarlberg, as well as for productions with the Atlanta Opera, Sarasota Opera, Bonn Opera, Halle Opera, Dortmund Opera, Saarland State Opera, St. Gallen Opera and the Eutiner Festspiele. Recent highlights include Florencia en el Amazonas
for the Maryland Opera Studio and Eugene Onegin and Golijov’s Ainadamar at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His 2023 performance of Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3 with the National Orchestra Institute + Festival has been featured on NPR’s Performance Today.
Neely is currently Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the University of Maryland School of Music, having previously served on the faculties of the Jacobs School of Music, the University of Kansas and the University of Texas (Austin). In 2020-21 he worked with Washington National Opera’s American Opera Initiative, conducting the pilot version of Damien Geter and Lila Palmer’s American Apollo at the Kennedy Center, and initiated the conversations that resulted in this season’s world-premiere full-length version. As a pianist, he has appeared with acclaimed mezzo-soprano Joyce Castle, baritone David Adam Moore and many others. Neely serves on the awards committee for the Solti Foundation U.S., and is a guest master teacher for Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artist Program.
The Frank R. Brownell III APPRENTICE ARTISTS
Celebrating its 50th Anniversary during the 2024 season, Des Moines Metro Opera’s Frank R. Brownell III Apprentice Artist Program is a comprehensive career training program for some of the brightest and best talents in America. It is one of the oldest, largest and most respected programs of its kind in the United States.
The program and its participants are essential to DMMO’s summer festival model. During their time in Iowa, apprentice artists participate in a sevenweek training program designed to provide the skills necessary to bridge the gap between academic study and a professional career.
Throughout the summer, members of the Apprentice Artist Program receive performance opportunities and coaching in standard and contemporary operatic scenes; career training seminars in acting, body movement, diction and languages, audition techniques, stage combat, vocal wellness and life in the business; opportunities in mainstage productions including chorus, comprimario roles and covers of leading roles; opportunities to be heard by representatives from companies that include
The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Washington National Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Minnesota Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Arizona Opera, Opera Omaha and several artists representatives; and participation in a special concert with the Festival Orchestra.
DMMO assembles a staff of talented conductors, coaches and directors to help guide each singer’s development. Lisa Hasson, the program’s director, works with Michael Egel and Allen Perriello to craft a variety of assignments for each apprentice’s development over the course of the season.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Apprentice Artist Program, all apprentice events are offered without a fee this season! We invite you to join in supporting the Apprentice Artist Program by making a special gift in honor of its milestone anniversary. We are all looking forward to a meaningful tribute at the Stars of Tomorrow concert on July 20 that will honor the passion, commitment and love for developing musical talent for which the Apprentice Artist Program stands.
Thank you for helping to support the impact of a monumental program in DMMO’s history, supporting the trajectory of so many young singers throughout the past half century. Please scan the QR code, visit bit.ly/AAP50 or send a check to Des Moines Metro Opera at 106 W Boston Ave, Indianola IA 50125.
KENDRA FAITH BEASLEY
Mezzo-Soprano, Madison, GA
Florence McKeller/Mrs. Smithson, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Bulrusher, Opera Fusion: New Works
The Barber of Seville, Cincinnati Opera Blue, New Orleans Opera
MAYA DAVIS
Mezzo-Soprano, South Bend, IN
Ida Mae McDonald, Florence McKeller/Mrs. Smithson (covers), American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Romeo and Juliet, Dido and Aeneas, Ainadamar, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music
KELLAN DUNLAP
Tenor, Grand Rapids, MI
First Jew (cover), Salome
Nicola d’Inverno, Mr. Sparhawk (covers), American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Rape of Lucretia, Rice University
Amahl and the Night Visitors, OPERA San Antonio
Così fan tutte, Oakland University Opera
ANDREW BEARDEN BROWN
Tenor, Washington, DC
John Singer Sargent (cover), American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
La Clemenza di Tito, Alcina, Boston University Opera Institute
Mitridate, Opera Neo
JUSTIN BURGESS
Baritone, South Lyon, MI
Figaro (cover), The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Songbird, Romeo and Juliet, Washington National Opera
La Bohème, The Glimmerglass Festival
MARIA NICOLE DE CONZO
Mezzo-Soprano, Oradell, NJ
Herodias (cover), Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Magic Flute, Nashville Opera
Romeo and Juliet, The Glimmerglass Festival
Sweeney Todd, Opera Saratoga
MICHAEL DESHIELD
Tenor, Abington, PA
Second Jew, Salome
Walter (cover), American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Luisa Miller, Sarasota Opera
ROBERT FRAZIER
Bass-Baritone, Star Lake, NY
A Cappadocian, Salome
Golaud (cover), Pelléas & Mélisande
Jimmy O’Donnelly/Mr. Carhart, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Cunning Little Vixen, Curtis Institute
Così fan tutte, Hofstra University
La Bohème, Music Academy of the West
Mezzo-Soprano, Orange, CA
Page (cover), Salome
Geneviève (cover), Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
OPERA Iowa, 2024
RECENT
Cinderella, Portland Opera To Go
The Turn of the Screw, L’incoronazione di Poppea, University of Kansas
ANTONIO DOMINO
Tenor, New Orleans, LA
Second Jew (cover), Salome
Walter, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Snowy Day, The Marriage of Figaro, Portland Opera L’incoronazione di Poppea, Rice University
CHRISTINA HAZEN
Mezzo-Soprano, Loveland, CO
Rosina (cover), The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Trouble in Tahiti, Rinaldo, Don Giovanni, Minnesota Opera
SHYHEIM SELVAN HINNANT
Bass-Baritone, Woodbridge, VA
First Nazarene (cover), Salome
Clarence/Master of Ceremonies, Willie McDonald (cover), American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
La Bohème, Pacific Symphony
The Marriage of Figaro, Lyric Opera of Orange County
Star Choir, Industry Opera
SARAH KATHRYN CURTIS
The Frank R. Brownell III APPRENTICE ARTISTS
MILUTIN JOCIC
Baritone, Belgrade, Serbia
Fiorello (cover), The Barber of Seville
A Cappadocian (cover), Salome
DMMO DEBUT
OPERA Iowa, 2024
RECENT
Die Fledermaus, Belgrade National Theater Opera Studio
La Bohème, Northern Lights
Music Festival
Cleveland Art Song Festival, Cleveland Institute of Music
PHILLIP LOPEZ
Bass-Baritone, Avon, IL
Basilio (cover), The Barber of Seville
First Soldier, Fifth Jew (covers), Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Barber of Seville, Opéra Louisiane
L’occasione fa il ladro, Opera Southwest Tosca, Florida Grand Opera
MICHAEL PANDOLFO
Baritone, Fort Worth, TX
Fiorello, The Barber of Seville
Pelléas (cover), Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2022
RECENT
The Elixir of Love, Gulfshore Opera
Dracula Bloodlines, Dayton Performing Arts Alliance
Apprentice Artist, Santa Fe Opera
SAM KRAUSZ
Tenor, St Louis, MO
Fourth Jew, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Don Giovanni, Semele, Wolf Trap Opera
The Magic Flute, Northwestern University
SERGIO MARTÍNEZ
Bass, Bogotá, Colombia
Second Soldier, Salome
Physician (cover), Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Romeo and Juliet, Washington
National Opera
Carmen, The Glimmerglass Festival
Grounded, Washington National Opera
DANIEL RICH
Baritone, Baltimore, MD
First Nazarene, Jochanaan (cover), Salome
Willie McDonald, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Fire Shut Up In My Bones, Roméo et Juliette, The Metropolitan Opera
Carmina Burana, Richmond
Symphony & Ballet
ASHLEE LAMAR
Soprano, Charleston, SC
Salome (cover), Salome
DMMO DEBUT
Apprentice Artist, 2023
RECENT
Taking Up Serpents, The Sound of Music, The Glimmerglass Festival
Dolores Claiborne, Boston University Opera Institute
NOAH MOND
Bass, Stony Brook, NY
Notary, The Barber of Seville
Arkel (cover), Pelléas & Mélisande
Jimmy O’Donnelly/Mr. Carhart (cover), American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Girl of the Golden West, Washington Opera Society
Florencia en el Amazonas, Albert Herring, Maryland Opera Studio
SARAH ROSALES
Soprano, Cedar Rapids, IA
Mrs. Sparhawk, Isabella Stewart
Gardner (cover), American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
OPERA Iowa, 2023
RECENT
Beauty and the Beast, OPERA Iowa
Soprano soloist, Hip Hop Orchestra
Experience, Ensemble Mik Nawooj
Gianni Schicchi/American Gothical, Cedar Rapids Opera
JABARI KACIM LEWIS
Tenor, Kissimmee, FL
Third Jew (cover), Salome
George (cover), American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Elizabeth Cree, Beethoven Mass in C, University of Michigan
The Marriage of Figaro, Florida State University
LÉA NAYAK
Soprano, San Francisco, CA
A Slave (cover), Salome Yniold (cover), Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Marriage of Figaro, Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
L’enfant et les sortilèges, Chautauqua Opera Conservatory
Haydn Mass in C Major, Marianna Martines
Dixit Dominus, Musica Sacra Cincinnati
SHAWN ROTH
Tenor, Johnstown, PA
Third Jew, Narraboth (cover), Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Rape of Lucretia, Anna Bolena, Don Giovanni, Academy of Vocal Arts
HAYDEN SMITH
Tenor, Quakerton, PA
Count Almaviva (cover), The Barber of Seville
Second Nazarene (cover), Salome
Mr. Sparhawk, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
OPERA Iowa, 2024
RECENT
Haydn Nelson Mass, New England Symphonic Ensemble
Romeo and Juliet, The Glimmerglass Festival
L’incoronazione di Poppea, Rice University
ZACHARY TAYLOR
Tenor, Medford, NJ
Second Nazarene, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
Apprentice Artist, 2023
RECENT
Turandot, Opera Carolina
Lucia di Lammermoor, Pensacola Opera
The Seven Deadly Sins, Greensboro
Symphony Orchestra
MATTHEW SOIBELMAN
Bass, Canoga Park, CA
Bartolo (cover), The Barber of Seville Fifth Jew, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Don Giovanni, La Sociedad del Artistico Tecnologico
Lohengrin, Utah Festival Opera
The Falling and the Rising, Opera Memphis
KORIN THOMAS-SMITH
Baritone, Toronto, Canada
Officer, The Barber of Seville
Thomas Eugene McKeller (cover),
American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Don Pasquale, The Cunning Little Vixen, Canadian Opera Company
Le Comte Ory, Yale University
WILL UPHAM
Tenor, Bedford, IN
First Jew, Herod Antipas (cover), Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Sweeney Todd, Indiana University
Opera Theater
Romeo and Juliet, The Glimmerglass Festival
The Magic Flute, Indianapolis Opera
AUDREY WELSH
Mezzo-Soprano, Houston, TX
Page, Salome
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Dido and Aeneas, L’incoronazione di Poppea, Rice University
A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Opera Saratoga
COLE STEPHENSON
Bass, West Des Moines, IA
Officer (cover), The Barber of Seville
Second Soldier (cover), Salome
DMMO DEBUT
The Magic Flute, 2022
RECENT
The Cunning Little Vixen, The Rape of Lucretia, Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music
Street Scene, Iowa State University
ISAIAH TRAYLOR
Tenor, Tupelo, MS
Fourth Jew (cover), Salome
George, American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
La Rondine, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Manhattan School of Music
Émigré, New York Philharmonic Chorus
ALAN WILLIAMS
Bass, San Bernardino, CA
First Soldier, Salome
Physician, Pelléas & Mélisande
Clarence/Master of Ceremonies (cover),
American Apollo
DMMO DEBUT
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 2022
RECENT
Turandot; La Traviata; Highway 1, USA; Los Angeles Opera
PAULINA SWIERCZEK
Soprano, Mississauga, ON/Catskill, NY
Berta (cover), The Barber of Seville
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
Don Giovanni, Toronto City Opera
Die Walküre, Pittsburgh Festival Opera
Handel Messiah, Alabama Symphony Orchestra
Soprano,
A Slave, Salome
Mélisande (cover), Pelléas & Mélisande
DMMO DEBUT
RECENT
The Cunning Little Vixen, The Dialogues of the Carmelites, Cincinnati CollegeConservatory of Music
Lincoln in the Bardo, Opera Fusion: New Works
GABRIELLE TURGEON
Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada
The INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS
Though Des Moines Metro Opera’s productions have received national recognition and been viewed by audiences from around the world, the operas seen on stage reveal only a fraction of what goes on throughout the summer season. From the design process, to transforming a blank stage to a set, to the selling of tickets, the company takes pride in the people who work behind the scenes, and the internship programs are an extension of that philosophy.
This season 35 interns selected from over 200 applications are being given valuable career training and professional opportunities.
The design and production department offers internships in stage management, stage operations, painting, properties, electrics, wig and make-up, production management, costumes, sound and video. The curriculum also includes portfolio showcases, talkbacks and sessions with visiting directors and
designers to complement time spent gaining handson experience. Cumulatively, the staff and interns of the design and production department will log over 19,000 hours to bring the 2024 Summer Festival to life.
Des Moines Metro Opera has also expanded its original box office internships as part of the administrative team to make them more tailored for students interested in careers in artistic administration, guest services, marketing and fundraising. Interns are given opportunities to build their resumes, enhance customer service skills, learn professional etiquette, create and edit marketing and public relations materials, assist with company management and an array of other skills.
Whether it’s designing, building, running or marketing a show, Des Moines Metro Opera prides itself on its multiple educational opportunities and professional experiences.
RICHARD LANCASTER (President of Simpson at our Founding)
NANCY MCKLVEEN
FRANK NOWASELL
SUSAN OLSON (Indianola Guild)
STEWART ROBERTSON (Director of the AAP 1980–1988)
WALLACE SANDERS (Ames Guild)
CHRISTINE SCHRUM
RAY SONGAYLLO (Indianola Guild Member)
DEB TERRY
RICHARD WALTERS
Bluebeard’s Castle
The LEGACY CIRCLE
Members of the Legacy Circle help secure Des Moines Metro Opera’s commitment to artistic excellence, innovative programming and fiscal stability by including DMMO in estate plans or by establishing life income arrangements naming the company as a beneficiary. The quality performances and programming we enjoy today are supported for future generations thanks in part to these legacy gifts.
You can become a member of the Legacy Circle by informing DMMO of your bequest, beneficiary designation or other planned gift. Annual support from friends keeps DMMO vital and thriving year after year. This important group of friends who make a gift through wills, living trusts or other planned gifts go an important step further to make an investment in the future of Des Moines Metro Opera by providing the foundation for DMMO’s long-term financial security, ensuring that programming will be enjoyed by generations to come. All planned gifts including bequests, life income arrangement and gifts of retirement plans, unless otherwise assigned by the donor, are added to the corpus of the Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation’s endowment fund.
EXAMPLES OF PLANNED GIFTS INCLUDE:
• Making a bequest to Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation (EIN 42-1376458) in a will or trust
• Naming Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation as the beneficiary of an IRA or other retirement plan
• Naming Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation as the beneficiary of a life insurance policy
• Investing in a Charitable Gift Annuity to benefit Des Moines Metro Opera and generate tax-free income for you during your lifetime
• Naming Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation as the beneficiary of a Charitable Remainder Trust
For more information about becoming a member of the Legacy Circle or to discuss your planned giving intention, please contact Director of Advancement Tim McMillin at tmcmillin@dmmo.org or 515-200-5385.
Des Moines Metro Opera is grateful to members of the Legacy Circle, who have demonstrated legacy commitment to the company.
ACHILLES AVRAAMIDES AND DILYS MORRIS
ANONYMOUS (10)
BARBARA BROWN
FRANK R. BROWNELL III
JIM AND PATTY COWNIE
RANDALL DAUT AND PATRICIA RYAN
ELLEN AND JIM DIEHL
MICHAEL EGEL
JULIA HAGEN
LAWRENCE AND CAROLYN HEJTMANEK
ANNETTE ISAACSON
DARREN R. JIRSA, D.D.S.
MARY KEITHAHN
TOM AND MARSHA MANN
MIDDLETON FAMILY
SUSAN B. MOORE
DIANE MORAIN
MICHAEL PATTERSON
MARGARET R. PENNEY AND TORY J. (TJ) LEA
STANLEY RANSOM
ARNOLD SAMUEL
JOHN SCHMIDT AND DEB WILEY
MARIAN W. SHARP TRUST
DR. CRAIG AND KIMBERLY SHADUR
CHÉRIE AND BOB SHRECK
GLENN SOWDER
CHRIS AND DENISE VERNON
M. EUGENE WILLIAMS
Institutional SUPPORT
Des Moines Metro Opera is fortunate to have corporate, public, foundation and community partners who believe a thriving arts and culture sector is essential for creating a vibrant community where people want to live, work and play. Because of their generous support, DMMO has garnered a reputation for professional opera in the heartland and is one of America’s leading summer festivals.
LAURIDSEN FAMILY FOUNDATION
OPERA A
Daniel J. and Ann L. Krumm
Charitable Trust
FRED MAYTAG
FAMILY FOUNDATION
RUAN FOUNDATION
The Coons Foundation
WINDSOR CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
LAVERTY FOUNDATION
PRINCIPAL FOUNDATION
FREDRIKSON
FAEGRE DRINKER BIDDLE & REATH LLP
HENRY G. AND NORMA A. PETERSON CHARITABLE TRUST
MIDAMERICAN ENERGY FOUNDATION
VOYA
KRAUSE GROUP
HOMESTEADERS LIFE COMPANY
ELDER CORPORATION
MERCHANTS BONDING COMPANY
CITY OF AMES
GABUS AUTOMOTIVE GROUP
DENMAN & CO.
IOWA ENT CENTER
IOWA ONE GIFT PROGRAM
GRATEFUL FUND
DES MOINES METRO OPERA IS GRATEFUL FOR MATCHING SUPPORT PROVIDED BY:
EXPERIAN
H.B. FULLER COMPANY FOUNDATION
JOHN DEERE
MICROSOFT MATCHING GIFTS PROGRAM
PRINCIPAL CHARITY CLASSIC “BIRDIES FOR CHARITY” PROGRAM
RAYTHEON TECHNOLOGIES
RBC WEALTH MANAGEMENT
THRIVENT FINANCIAL
WELLMARK FOUNDATION
WELLS FARGO
Support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Iowa Arts Council, which exists within the Iowa Economic Development Authority
WARREN COUNTY CIRCLE
Des Moines Metro Opera is grateful for the support of our Indianola and Warren County neighbors. With a gift to support the Annual Fund, the following businesses are members of the 2024 Warren County Circle. For information about becoming a member of the 2025 Warren County Circle, contact Development Coordinator Natalie Rumer at nrumer@dmmo.org or 515-961-6221.
BUSSANMAS HEATING & COOLING
CAPITAL CITY FRUIT INC.
CIRCLE B CASHWAY OF INDIANOLA INC.
CORN CRIB BED & BREAKFAST
CROUSE CAFE
DOWNEY TIRE SERVICE
GOODHUE-NOLTE INSURANCE AGENCY
HY-VEE OF INDIANOLA
THE IOWA CLINIC
MILLER ELECTRIC
PAMELA’S PLACE
TRUBANK THE ZOO BAR
dwb (driving while black) 2023
ANNUAL FUND
Des Moines Metro Opera is deeply grateful to the long-time contributors and new donors who have made gifts during the season. Contributions to the company provide the critical support to supplement income generated from ticket sales and program fees. Thank you to all who have helped to make Des Moines Metro Opera the Midwest’s choice destination for exceptional music and professional theatre for over 50 years!
IMPRESARIO
$250,000+
Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey*
BRAVO Greater Des Moines*
Partner Local Governments: Altoona, Ankeny, Bondurant, Carlisle, Clive, Des Moines, Grimes, Indianola, Johnston, Norwalk, Pleasant Hill, Polk County, Polk City, Urbandale, Waukee, West Des Moines, Windsor Heights
Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation
VIRTUOSO
$100,000 - $249,999
Nix and Virginia Lauridsen/ Lauridsen Famiy Foundation
Nancy and Bill Main*
Doris Salsbury Endowment Fund*
FOUNDER’S CIRCLE
$50,000 - $99,999
Frank R. Brownell III
The Coons Foundation
Leticia Gordon*
Thomas K. and Linda Koehn*
Fred Maytag Family Foundation*
Susan F. Morris*
Simpson College
CONDUCTOR’S CIRCLE
$25,000 - $49,999
Kate and Tom Carey*
Des Moines Metro Opera Guild
Charlotte and Fred Hubbell*
Daniel J. and Ann L. Krumm Charitable Trust
OPERA America/The Opera Fund*
Sunnie Richer and Roger Brooks*
Charles L. Thiesenhusen*
DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE
$15,000 - $24,999
Babette C. Brenton*
Corteva Agriscience
Marshall Flapan
Barbara and Michael Gartner
Rusty Hubbell Family Fund*
Ellen and Jim Hubbell*
Iowa Arts Council, within the Iowa Economic Development Authority
Mary K. and Daniel M. Kelly Family Foundation*
National Endowment for the Arts*
Prairie Meadows*
Stan and Mary Seidler/The Seidler Foundation
Dr. Craig and Kimberly Shadur*
Mary Stuart and David Yepsen*
Phil and Judy Watson
Wellabe
LEADER
$10,000 - $14,999
Sue Rutledge Brenton and J.C. (Buz) Brenton*
Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc.
Bob and Ardene Downing*
William Randolph Hearst Endowment for Educational Outreach
Dr. Darren R. Jirsa*
Marla Lacey and Steve Znerold
Laverty Foundation*
Tom and Marsha Mann
Meredith Corporation Foundation*
Polly Moore
Susan B. Moore*
Diane Morain*
Kelly and Joel Otto
Polk County Board of Supervisors
Principal Charity Classic
“Birdies for Charity” Program*
Steve and Marina Sandquist*
Alan and Linda Shapiro*
Alan J. Savada and Will Stevenson
Chérie and Bob Shreck*
Travel Iowa, within the Iowa Economic Development Authority
TruBank*
Susan E. and Carl B. Voss*
Janice Walter*
Windsor Charitable Foundation
GUARANTOR
$5,000 - $9,999
Betty Augspurger* Bankers Trust
Tony Braida and Mark Babcock*
Barbara Brown
C. Dean and Sandra Carlson
Patty and Jim Cownie Charitable Fund
William L. Dawe III and Sheila K. Tipton
Catherine Erickson
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
Fredrikson
Bob and Betsy Freese
Roswell and Elizabeth Garst Foundation*
Roger and Deb Hatteberg
H. D. H.
Dr. Bruce Hughes and Dr. Randall Hamilton*
Wesley Hunsberger and Mark Holub
City of Indianola
Krause Group
Ed and Elizabeth Mansfield
Steve Marquardt*
* Denotes those who have increased their support of DMMO this season.
George and Sandra McJimsey*
Ann and Brent Michelson
MidAmerican Energy Foundation
Craig and Betty Miller
Bruce J. Nelson and Axel Kunzmann*
Henry G. and Norma A. Peterson Charitable Trust*
The Principal Foundation*
Stanley Ransom
Raytheon Technologies
Seth Robb and Tim McMillin*
Ruan Foundation
Christine Lauridsen Sand and Rob Sand
Mike and Traci Schaefer*
Schiller Family Foundation*
Voya
Carol and Eric Weber
Denise and John Wieland*
John and Peggy Wild
Paul Woodard
Carleton and Barbara Zacheis
BENEFACTOR
$2,500 - $4,999
Jane and Steve Bahls
Mollie and Britt Baker
Patricia Barry and Bryan Hall*
Dr. Barbara Beatty*
Steve and Meg Blake*
Daniel Brown*
Pat Brown
Jeff Chelesvig*
D.T. Doan
Jon Duvick and Carol Hendrick
Easter Family Fund
Michael Egel*
Elder Corporation
Austin Fisher
Michael and Ann Gersie
Julie Ghrist*
Julia Hagen*
Andrew V. and Dr. Katherine Hauser, M.D.*
Randy Holt*
Homesteaders Life Company
Barbara Jackman*
Linda Juckette
Dennis and Betty Keeney*
Joshua and Susie Kimelman*
James Luke
Proctor Lureman and Chad Russell*
Jerilee M. Mace and T. J. Johnsrud*
Sarah McDougal*
Adrienne McFarland and Joe Clamon
ANNUAL FUND
Sheila A. Meginnis
Merchants Bonding Company*
Michael Myszewski and Martha James
Eric Nemmers*
Jim and Jeanne O’Halloran*
Dr. Michael R Patterson*
Jason and Emily Pontius*
Melanie Porter and Wayne Halbur*
Ramsey Family Charitable Foundation*
Peter and Rita Reed*
Kay and Bob Riley
Linnea Sodergren*
Dr. Andrew J. Thomas
Chris Urwin and Matt Huth*
Chris and Denise Vernon
Deb Wiley and John Schmidt*
John Robert Wise*
PATRON
$1,500 - $2,499
City of Ames*
Mary Beh*
Debra Benjamin*
Roger and Kay Berger
Joyce Castle
Carrie Clogg and Josh Barlage*
Cheryl Critelli and Rick Ballinger*
Mary Lou Detwiler
Ann Dorr
Gabus Automotive Group
Katrina Guest and Andrew Gangle*
Trudy Holman Hurd
Kathryn Jessup
Dr. James and Mary Ellen Kimball
John M. and Penny Krantz*
Teresa McMahon and Garth Frable
John A. McTaggart*
Microsoft Matching Gifts Program*
William and Pauline Niebur*
Dana Quick-Naig and Scott Naig*
Marilu and V.V. Raman*
Alvin and Sue Ravenscroft*
Dianne S. Riley
Robert and Sandra Tatge
Thomas D. Turnbull and Darrell Smith
Bernie and Linda White
Gaye Wiekierak
Kaylee Williams
PRODUCER
$500 - $1,499
Emily and Cory Abbas
Linda D. Appelgate
Walter Arnheim
Achilles Avraamides and Dilys Morris
Sally and Dennis Bates
Virginia Bennett*
Denise Brown
Gregory Burley Brown
Margot Burnham
Valerie and David Canter*
Barbara and Steven Cappaert
Mary Carlsen and Peter Dahlen*
Elizabeth and Jared Carter
Emily Chafa
Richard and Christine Clogg
Paula and Jeffrey Danoff
Randall Daut and Patricia Ryan*
Denman & Co.
Karmen Dillon
Miranda DiMaria
Douglas B. Dorner and Carole Villeneuve
Steve and Kathryn Duffy
Durbin-Zheng Family*
Jane Farrell-Beck and Marvin Beck*
Cary Feick and Ross Hinton
Rebecca Foerschler
David Friedgood*
Rosalie Gallagher
Chuck Garmen
Dr. Sarah Garst
Steve Gentile and William C. Hendrickson*
Marlys A. Graettinger*
Kay E. Grother
Raymond Hansen
Bob Haug and Anne Kimber*
Richard Healy*
Vicki Hedlin*
Dennis P. and Melinda Hendrickson*
Jodi Heston
Iowa ENT Center, PLLC
Jean M. Isaacson
Todd and Peggy Janus
John Deere
Nick and Kiersten Johnson
Douglas Kaye III and Agnieszka Pieta
Mary Keithahn
Patrick B. Kelly
Richard and Annette Kerr*
Allen Kniep and Margaret Klee
Thomas and Linda Koertge
Dylan Lampe
Phil and Karen Langstraat
William Larson
Janet Leslie*
Eric Lindberg and Steve Farver
Susan Loomis
Carolyn Lynner and Keith Thornton*
Leslie Mamoorian and Richard Johnson
John R. and Cyril A. Mandelbaum
La Donna and Rich Matthes*
Patricia McFarland
Thomas McKlveen
Brian and Julie McLean
Charles and Tracey Mohns
Steve and Erna Morain
Ted and Carolyn Neely
Donald Newsom*
Sarah and Sam O’Brien
Michael and Ginger O’Keefe
Pamela’s Place*
Rosemary and Jonathan Parson
David Paulsrud
Muriel A. Pemble
Gary Peterson*
The Petrie/White Higher Education and Performing Arts Fund
Bradley Pollock
Neva L. Pruess
RBC Wealth Management
Dolph and Rania Robb
The Jack and Marty Rossmann Charitable Fund
Melinda Ruperto
Dr. James Rutherford
Neil and Debra Salowitz
Valerie C. Sandford*
Patrice Sayre*
Monika and Tatjana Sehic
Ralph and Charlotte Schlenker Charitable Trust
Nancy Shafer
Karen and Gordon Shinn
Dr. Heidi Shreck and Dr. Brian Shellenberger
Joe E. Smith and Robert Steinborn
Hope C. Solomons
Sandy and James Spencer
Emily and Tim Stork
Donald Stumbo and Janene Panfil
Mary Susman and Thomas Herm
Diane L. Thiessen
Jacqueline Thompson
Thrivent Financial
Dr. Beth Triebel
Warren County Board of Supervisors
Amy Watkins
Fred Weitz
Candace Welch
Wells Fargo
Marianne Whitman
Trevor and Allison Wild
Dolores Willemsen
Connie Wimer
Gladys and David Winter
Wendy Wintersteen
Tim Wittry
Sumner and Karen Worth*
Dr. Robert H. and Eleanor Zeff
The Zoo Bar*
SUSTAINER
$250 - $499
Kim and Patti Abild
Steven Adelman and Katherine Elsner
Sarah and Daniel Aguirre
John and Jennifer Andres
Bob and Elizabeth Angelici
Scott Arens*
Lawrence E. Bechler
Todd and Karey Bishop
Richard Boyum and Louie Chua*
Martin and Rochelle Brody
Nathan and Katherine Brown
Bussanmas Heating & Cooling*
Eric and Fany Chicas*
Gregory and Sharon Chlebicki*
Dennis Cohen*
Daniel and Rachel Corron
Kevin and Jill Croft
Crouse Cafe
Amber Crow
Don and Pat Dagenais
Chad Dannewitz
Kim and Nicholas Dragelevich
Kenneth East*
Roy and Averyle Ehrle*
Karen Engman
Jessica and David Faith
Kathleen A. Finkenauer
John Fisher and Jann Freed
Fran Fleck and Terry Greenley
Lance and Marcy Fortnow
Joan Gacki*
Patrick H. Goeser
Scott and Kathy Green
Joel and Deb Hade
Stephen Hay*
Larry and Carolyn Hejtmanek*
The Iowa Clinic
James Leymaster Johnson
Mic and Joany Jurgens
Nancy Kane and David Holt*
Ronna Eley Kelso
Kristin and Wayne Knutson
Matt and Chari Kruse
Mr. and Mrs. Gregory H. Largent
Nancy and Hugh Lickiss
Matthew McCoy
Joan Middleton*
Miller Mechanical
Dan and Jana Montgomery
Candy Morgan
Arthur Neis*
Lee E. Nickelson, Jr.
Janelle Nielsen*
Drs. David Niño-Liu and Dennis Willhoit
Barb and Andy Nish
Robert Oberbillig
Martine and Nate Olson-Daniel
Eliza Ovrom and Mark Schuling
Allen Perriello
Rachel R. Reynolds
Sylvia Richards
Timothy B. Robinson
Arnold Samuel
Arlen and Jean Schrum
Stacey Sieloff
Charles and Meg Smith*
Kevin Smith and Jeff Mallory*
Roger and Carolyn Stirler
Kirk and Denise Stuart*
Dawn Taylor
Catherine Vesley*
T. Waldmann-Williams*
Wellmark Foundation*
Annabel Wimer
FRIEND
$50 - $249
Roberta Abraham
deEtt Allen
Sandra and Donald Allgood
Grace Ambrose*
Janet Anderson-Hsieh
Joyce Andrews and Frank Hoffmeister*
Carol Barnett
Judson and Heidi Barr
Jo Bartikoski
Tom and Betty Barton
Linda and Jerry Beatty
Lindsey Beck
Deborah and Michael Becker*
Lawrence Beeson
Lisa Bell
Mary Jo Bennett
Gerald W. and Phyllis Benson
Gordon and Martha Bivens
Roger E. Boro
Donald and Patricia Brandt
Elizabeth and Scott Brennan
Deanne Brill*
Catherine and Gary Broadston
Sandra Bruggemann
Chuck Brun
Sandi and Bill Bruns
Randy Buesing*
Buff Buffkin
Jean Campbell
Capital City Fruit Inc./Joe Comito
John Carl
Donna Carlson
Connie Carroll
Frank and Marilyn Carroll*
Hosung and Won Hi Chung
Circle B Cashway of Indianola Inc.
Karen and William Claypool
Sydney Coder
Harry Hurst Coffman
Rebecca Colton
Ann Comeaux*
Benjamin and Laura Cooper Charitable Fund
Corn Crib Bed and Breakfast
Joseph E. Corrigan
Drs. Robert and Beverly Croskery
Bryan Crowder
Mary Lou Davenport
Ginni DeHaan
Kellie DiMaio
Martha M. Dimes
Bernadine Douglas
Downey Tire Pros
Janet M. Drake
John Dresser
Linda Halquist Drucker
Robert and Barbara Drustrup
Dr. Ronald and Barbara Eckoff
George Ehrenberg*
Adam Fanning
Patricia Farnham
Kathie and Al Farris
Jessica Fearington
Lori Fenton*
James and Allison Fleming
H.B. Fuller Company Foundation
David and Michele Gabel
David and Linda Gardels*
Jane Garras*
Corey Gillespie
Goodhue-Nolte Insurance
Marge Gowdy
Grateful Fund*
Tatyana Gribnikova
Jan Grimes
Germaine Gross
Sandra Guild
Karl Gwiasda
Steve and Lynn Hakeman
Veronica Haluska
Jill Hansen*
Lois Harms
ANNUAL FUND
Suzanne Hartline
Brad and Rae Anne Havig
Diane Hayes and Thomas Creviston
Edward Hegstrom
Beth Henning*
Leonshina Herbst
Warren J. Herbst
Gladys Hertzberg
Sharon and Cliff Hill*
John C. and Fay G. Hill
Karen Hoag
Esther and Dan Hoffa*
Nikolas Huffman*
Rev. Norman F. Hunke
Hy-Vee of Indianola*
Marcia Imsande
Iowa One Gift Program
Louise M. Jirsa
Jeff and Julie Johnson
Kurt Juhl
Dr. Colin and Sandra Kavanagh*
Mary Kaul-Goodman
Patricia Kehoe
William Keller
Ann Cole Kendell
Wyn Kischer
Silvia B. Klein
Daniel J. Knepper
Dorothy Knight*
Geoffrey and Nancy Kolb
Charles and Deb Kucera
Brian Kuehler
Lori Lane*
Alan Lange
James and Ann Lano
Russelle Leggett
Barb and David Lettween
Myrt Levin
Jeanne Levitt
Doug and Theresa Lewis
Fred Lewis
Roger Lopez*
Sharon M. Lundy
Harriet and Herbert Malmon
John and Naomi McCormick*
Dugg McDonough*
Adele McDowell
Ray McHenry*
Murray and Elizabeth McKee
Mary Elizabeth McKinley
Richard and Kristen McKlveen*
Eunice McMillin
Michael McNeil
Yorame Mevorach and Katya Gibel Mevorach*
Paul Mills*
Larry and Donni Mitchell
Revs. Jack L. and Rachel Thorson Mithelman*
David Moeller*
Robert and Wynette Moore*
Gail Naruo
David Pace
Michael Palmer
Lisa Parker
Victoria Payseur*
Rick and Sandra Penning*
Floyd Pentlin
Stephen Perlowski
Michael and Miriam Perriello
Nancy Pinkerton*
Rose Polonsky
Elizabeth and Jerry Powell
Ed and Mary Ann Poynor
Lettie Prell and John Domini
Tamara Jo Prenosil and Frank Potter*
Alta Price
Shelly Priebe
Mark Reisinger
Elisabeth Reynoldson*
Mary Riche*
Judy Robinson
Sherry Robinson
William Robinson
Steve and Lisa Sanders*
Judith Sandstrom and Peter Kohn
Carolyn Schmarzo*
Michael and Karen Schoville*
Sara J. Sersland
Barb and Bruce Sherman
Barbara Van Sickle
Wes and Cheryl Siebrass*
Linda and Bruce Simonton
Katherine Sircy and David Wright
Laurie and Nathan Skjerseth*
Rhonda and Michael Smith*
Neil Solomon*
Paul and Susan Stageberg*
Dr. Stephen and Martha Stephenson
Mary Ann Strasheim
Kayla Stratton
Leroy I. Strohman
Ben and Joyce Swartz
Jean and Paul Swenson
Ken and Cathy Talcott
Gary M. Thelen
Jim Thorpe
Ann Thye and Brian Smith
Olga Tolmatsky*
J. Tuszynski
Marilyn Varley
Bob and Molly Veenstra
Virginia Ver Ploeg
Warren and Connie Verdeck*
Jon and Margaret Vernon
Jana Warren
Liz and Joel Weinstein
David Westerberg*
David Wheeler
Paul and Laura Whipple*
Richard and Gail Wilker*
Susan and Peter Wilson*
Melissa and Michael Wolnerman
Maryann Wycoff
Fred Younger
MEMORIAL GIFTS
In memory of Diane Roberta Babcock
Tony Braida and Mark Babcock
In memory of C. Robert Brenton
Babette C. Brenton
In memory of Anita Calkins
Robert Oberbillig
In memory of James and Valerie Cole
Ann Cole Kendell
In memory of Jim Collier
Michael Patterson
In memory of John Crouch
Michael Patterson
In memory of Thomas Detwiler
Mary Lou Detwiler
In memory of Janie Dudney
Edward Hegstrom
In memory of Doug Duncan
Brad and Rae Anne Havig
In memory of Lee Michael Einck
Jeff and Julie Johnson
In memory of Patricia Scott Faulkner
Patrice Sayre
In memory of Joan Frohock
Richard Frohock
In memory of Joan K. Gooch
Anonymous
In memory of Jan Grissom
Michael Patterson
In memory of Dale Hagen
Mary Lou Davenport
In memory of Lawrence Hedlin
Vicki Hedlin
In memory of Hazel Hereid
Denise Kettelberger and Clarance Smith
In memory of Paula Homer
Michael Patterson
In memory of Kristine Jepson
Kelly Kuo
In memory of Rejman E. Jirsa
Louise M. Jirsa
In memory of Shirlie Katzenberger
Michael Patterson
In memory of Sister Roberta Klesener
Jane and Dick Sanford
In memory of Richard Lancaster
Michael Patterson
In memory of Robert Larsen
Charles Garmen
Kathryn Jessup
In memory of William P. Lowery
Judy Robinson
In memory of Marian Luke
Kurt Juhl
James Luke
In memory of John Manders
Michael Patterson
In memory of Constance Marsh
William Keller
In memory of Nancy McKlveen
John Carl
Thomas McKlveen
In memory of Harold McMillin
Michael Egel
Julia Hagen
Susan B. Moore
Seth Robb and Tim McMillin
In memory of Susan Olson
Michael Patterson
In memory of the Perels
Gerald W. and Phyllis Benson
In memory of Bruce Perry
Michael Patterson
In memory of Richard Richards
Sylvia Richards
In memory of J.R. Rooney
Denise Brown
In memory of Christy Schrum
Michael Patterson
In memory of Adam Skog
Michael Patterson
In memory of Ray Songayllo
Michael Patterson
In memory of Jeff Stratton
Kayla Stratton
In memory of our mother “Diva” Carol Stuart
Kirk and Denise Stuart
In memory of Deb Terry
Seth Robb and Tim McMillin
In memory of Andrew Varley
Marilyn Varley
In memory of Rick Walters
Michael Patterson
In memory of Marilyn Weverstad
Scott Arens
Michael Egel
Julia Hagen
HONOR GIFTS
In honor of Mollie Baker
Linda Juckette
In honor of James Bennett and Family
Mary Jo Bennett
In honor of Eric Bogle
Susan and Peter Wilson
In honor of Barbara Brown
Jane Farrell-Beck and Marvin Beck
In honor of DMMO Company: Both on stage and behind the scenes who make the magic
Robin Kline and William A. Summers
In honor of Seth Shaoyi P. Durbin
Durbin-Zheng Family
In honor of Michael Egel
Neil and Debra Salowitz
In honor of Marshall Flapan
Harriet and Herbert Malmon
In honor of Kay Grother
Amy Watkins
In honor of Bruce Hughes and Randall Hamilton
Steven Adelman and Katherine Elsner
In honor of Susie and Josh Kimelman’s 50th wedding anniversary
Karen Engman
Larry Kirsner
In honor of Linda and Tom Koehn
Rhea Merrill
In honor of Nancy Main
Paul Schlaack and Ana Laborde
Ted and Cindy Ohmart
In honor of Katelyn Hoag and Bram Margoles
Karen Hoag
In honor of Meredith McLean
Anonymous
Brian and Julie McLean
In honor of Diane Moraine
David and Delpha Musgrave
In honor of Mary and Stan Seidler
Rosalie Gallagher
In honor of Kimberly Shadur’s Birthday
Deborah and Michael Becker
In honor of Chérie and Bob Shreck
Sheila A. Meginnis
In honor of John Tuck
Sandra Wittenbrink
Gifts received after 6/10/24 will be acknowledged in next season’s program
ANNUAL FUND & SPONSORS
2023 SEASON GIFTS
RECEIVED AFTER 6/15/23
LEADER
$10,000 - $14,999
Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines
Principal Charity Classic “Birdies for Charity” Program
GUARANTOR
$5,000 - $9,999
Barbara Brown
PATRON
$1,500 - $2,499
Richard Frohock
Dr. Sarah Garst
Teresa McMahon and Garth Frable
Candy Morgan
PRODUCER
$500 - $1,499
Karleen Aghevli
Linda D. Appelgate
Allan Bradley and Derrill Pankow
Jane Farrell-Beck and Marvin Beck
Fran Fleck and Terry Greenley
Mary Gottschalk
Michael Myszewski and Martha James
Mary and Richard Parrish
Colin Pennycooke
Ted and Susan Rights
Linnea Sodergren
Kay Ward
SUSTAINER
$250 - $499
Ruth Brail-Freeman
Denise Brown
Gregory Burley Brown
Gretchen and Jeffrey Brown
Cemen Tech
Jacobi Daley
Paula and Jeffrey Danoff
Kim and Nicholas Dragelevich
Sonia Gaschler
Sharon and Dennis Goldford
Norman Gunder
Carrie and Joe Hall
Jeanette Harrington
Dan Herdeman
Tom Makeig
Diane Morain
William Pollak
Ceil Price
Stanley Ransom
Alvin and Sue Ravenscroft
Dianne S. Riley
Jean M. Rommes
Bobbie Rudnick
Janice Walter
Rebecca and John Woell
Daniel Zinnel
FRIEND
$50 - $249
Donald Adams and Nan Bonfils
John Bierbusse
Todd and Karey Bishop
Donald and Patricia Brandt
Roger Brooks and Sunnie Richer
Sandra Bruggemann
Donna Carlson
Kathleen Cita
Leland Davis
John DeMain
Bob and Ardene Downing
Roy and Averyle Ehrle
Douglas Finnemore
Mark Hartnagel
Murray Heaton
Amy Hutchison
Helene Kaplan
Denise Kettelberger and Clarance Smith
Larry Kirsner
Robin Kline and William A Summers
Karen Kraemer
Caroline Levine
Jean E Lory
Sharon M. Lundy
Marsha Marlow
Stacie Miller
William Murray
Ted and Cindy Ohmart
Maria Oviedo
Elizabeth and Jerry Powell
Timothy and Rosemary Rahm
Mary Richards
Sherry Robinson
Heather Sabin
Valerie C. Sandford
Christine Segreto
Tracy Smalley
Lynn and Robert Swan
Margaret Van Houten
Sharon Walker
Olena Watanabe
Scott Wichael
Anna Wolc
Dr. Robert H. and Eleanor Zeff
EDUCATION DIVISION
OPERA Iowa Presenting Sponsor
The Coons Foundation
OPERA Iowa Premier Sponsors
BRAVO Greater Des Moines
Corteva Agriscience
Iowa Arts Council
Daniel J. and Ann L. Krumm
Charitable Trust
Fred Maytag Family Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Prairie Meadows
Principal Foundation
OPERA Iowa Director Sponsors
Babette C. Brenton in memory of C. Robert Brenton
Merchants Bonding Company
MidAmerican Energy Foundation
Henry G. and Norma A. Peterson
Charitable Trust
The Vredenberg Foundation
OPERA Iowa
Performance Sponsor
Janice Walter
WINE, FOOD & BEER SHOWCASE
Presenting Sponsor
TruBank
Reserve Experience Sponsor
Elder Corporation
Director Sponsors
Homesteaders Life Company
Rusty Hubbell
Iles Funeral Home
Nancy and Bill Main
Piano Sponsor
West Music
Vendor Sponsors
Denman & Company, LLP
Iowa ENT Center
Merchants Bonding Company
Additional Support
Dylan Lampe
In-Kind Donations
30hop
801 Chophouse
Active Endeavors
Adventureland
AllSpice
Americana
Rockford and Megan Anderson
Art of Olesya
Ballet Des Moines
Bike World
Blank Park Zoo
Boone and Scenic Valley Railroad
Elizabeth and Jared Carter
Cedar Rapids Opera
Court Avenue Brewing Company
Des Moines Art Center
Des Moines Marriott
Des Moines Playhouse
Des Moines Performing Arts
Des Moines Symphony
The District Association
Dogpatch Urban Gardens
East Village Spa
Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP
First Fleet Concerts
Forefront Dermatology
Cass Franklin
Full Court Press
Eileen Gannon
Aaron Hamrock
Harbinger
Hilton Des Moines Downtown
Hinterland Music Festival
HoQ
Sue Hoss
Hoyt Sherman Place Theater
Bruce Hughes and Randall Hamilton
Hyperion Field Club
Iowa Cubs
Iowa Culinary Institute
Iowa Events Center
Iowa IV
Iowa Stage Theatre Company
Iowa Wild
Katherine McClure Photography
Dr. James and Mary Ellen Kimball
Kitchen Collage
Krause Group
Lauritzen Gardens
The Lift
Living History Farms
Lyric Opera of Kansas City
SPONSORS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Mary Jane and F. Michael Miller
Sarah McDougal
Mishmash
Mr. B’s Clothing
National Balloon Classic
Noce
Oh Hey, Magpie
Omaha Symphony
Orchestra Iowa
The Photician Portraits and Fine Arts
Craig Porter
Prairie Meadows
Projects Contemporary Furniture
Kelly Reed and Bruce Reese
Reunion Resort and Golf Club
Ricochet
RoCA
Rose Farms
Salisbury House
Salon Spa W
Craig and Kimberly Shadur
John Taylor
Teehee’s Comedy Club
University of Northern Iowa
Varsity Cinema
Vibes Kitchen and Bar
Susan and Carl Voss
John and Peggy Wild
Wildflower
Wine Styles
Yoga + Co.
OPERA GALA
Presenting Sponsor
Bankers Trust
Ruan Foundation
Director Sponsor
Polk County Board of Supervisors
Venue Sponsor
Ruan Family
Table Sponsors
Bankers Trust
Dr. Bruce Hughes and Dr. Randall Hamilton
Eric Nemmers
Polk County Board of Supervisors
Principal Foundation
Patron Sponsors
Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey
Patricia Barry and Bryan Hall
Dennis and Melinda Hendrickson
Rusty Hubbell
Matt Huth and Chris Urwin
Dr. Darren R. Jirsa
Daniel M. and Mary Kelly
Marla Lacey and Steve Znerold
Proctor Lureman and Chad Russell
Nancy and Bill Main
Jason and Emily Pontius
Sunnie Richer and Roger Brooks
Kay and Bob Riley
Seth Robb and Tim McMillin
Dr. Craig and Kimberly Shadur
Additional Support
Emily and Cory Abbas
Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey
Gregory Brown
Adam Fanning
Charlotte and Fred Hubbell
Dr. Darren R. Jirsa
Douglas Kaye III and Agnieszka Pieta
Linda and Tom Koehn
Marla Lacey and Steve Znerold
Nancy and Bill Main
Sarah McDougal
Melanie Porter and Wayne Halbur
Kay and Bob Riley
Dolph and Rania Robb
Seth Robb and Tim McMillin
Melinda Ruperto
Steve and Marina Sandquist
Dr. Craig and Kimberly Shadur
John and Denise Wieland
John and Peggy Wild
THREADS AND TRILLS
In-Kind Donations
Randal and Margaret Caldwell
Melody and Jeffrey Clutter
Jane Ann Cotton
Crouse Cafe
Ruth and Amara Dorr
Becky Hastie
Berne and Kathy Ketchum
Robert and Susan Kling
Matt and Chari Kruse
Eric Lindberg and Steve Farver
McCoy True Value Hardware
The Honorable Judge Terry and Cathy Rickers
Savor the Rise
Vickie and Darrell Till
Joan Tyler
Matt Huth and Chris Urwin
Des Moines Metro Opera acknowledges with appreciation the individuals and businesses who provided in-kind donations or assisted in meaningful ways during the 2024 season:
Stuart Alexander Productions
Bob and Jill Anderson
Mollie and Britt Baker
Joshua Barlage, Des Moines
Symphony Academy
Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey
Elizabeth Carter
Central College
Melody Clutter
The Des Moines Public Library
The Des Moines Wine Group
Sally Dix, Bravo Greater Des Moines
Amy Duncan, Indianola Independent Advocate
Isaiah Feken
Paul Fisher
Audrey Fusco/Studio Fusco
Jodi Goble
Chris Goodson, Plymouth
Congregational Church
Guild In-home Concert Hosts:
Michael Egel
Dr. Bruce Hughes and Dr. Randall Hamilton
Wesley Hunsberger and Mark Holub
Ann and Brent Michelson
Seth Robb and Tim McMillin
Chérie and Bob Shreck
Michael and Elizabeth Stamper
Theresa Taylor
Susan and Carl Voss
Julia Hagen
Dennis and Melinda Hendrickson
Iowa PBS, Judy Blank
Iowa Public Radio, Jacqueline Halbloom
Virginia and Nix Lauridsen
Jacob Lemons, Drake Univesity Fine Arts Center
Light This Productions, LLC
Lolli & Pops, Jordan Creek
Town Centre
Nancy Main
Kristy Maras, The Des Moines Embassy Club
Nick Mayhugh
Kellie Motter
Eric Nemmers, wellabe
Christine Neumeier
Kelly D. Norris, Horticulturist
Emily Pontius, Fredrikson & Byron
Skeffington’s Formalwear
Simpson College
Linda Benoit
Jay Byers
Mike Eckerty
Rick Goetz
Tamme Klutman
Todd Shayler
Brian Shultes
Joshua Anand Slater
Chad Sonka
Transwestern Real Estate
Christina Berlett
Candice Oleson
Jona Schmidt
Vickie Till
Audrey Tucker, Iowa ENT Center
Josh Waymire, Valley High
School Bands
West Music
Des Moines Metro Opera PRODUCTION HISTORY
BARBER
Vanessa 2001
BARTÓK
Bluebeard’s Castle 2023
BEETHOVEN
Fidelio 1998
BELLINI
Norma 2000
BENJAMIN
Prima Donna 1973
BERG
Wozzeck 2019
BERNSTEIN
Candide 2002, 2019
BIZET
Carmen 1978, 1994, 2007, 2023
BIZET/BROOK
The Tragedy of Carmen 2014
BLITZSTEIN
Regina 1994, 2008
BRITTEN
Albert Herring 1973, 1997
Billy Budd 2017
Gloriana 2005
A Midsummer Night’s Dream 1979, 2007, 2022
Peter Grimes 1991, 2013
The Turn of the Screw 1987
CATÁN
Rappaccini’s Daughter 2015
CIPULLO
Glory Denied 2019
COPLAND
The Tender Land 2018
DEBUSSY
Pelléas & Mélisande 2024
DONIZETTI
The Daughter of the Regiment 1983
Don Pasquale 1980, 1993, 2011
The Elixir of Love 1982, 2008
Lucia di Lammermoor 1981, 1992, 2005
DOVE/DE ANGELIS
Flight 2018
DVOŘÁK
Rusalka 2018
FLOTOW
Martha 1990
FLOYD
Of Mice and Men 1985
Susannah 1976, 2010
GERSHWIN
Porgy and Bess 2022
GETER/PALMER
American Apollo 2024, (Chamber version) 2022
GLASS
Galileo Galilei 2016
GLUCK
Orphée et Eurydice 2016
GOUNOD
Faust 1985, 2003
Romeo and Juliet 1986, 2013
HEGGIE/MCNALLY
Dead Man Walking 2014
HEGGIE/SCHEER
Three Decembers 2015
HOIBY
Bon Appétit! 2019
Summer and Smoke 1998
The Tempest (World Premiere) 1986
HUMPERDINCK
Hansel and Gretel 1992
JANÁČEK
Jenůfa 2015
KAMINSKY/CAMPBELL/REED
As One 2018
KANDER/GUMBEL
dwb (driving while black) 2023
KUSTER/CAMPBELL
A Thousand Acres (World Premiere) 2022
LEHÁR
The Merry Widow 1983, 1998
LEONCAVALLO
I Pagliacci 1983
LITTLE
Soldier Songs 2017
MASCAGNI
Cavalleria Rusticana 1983
MASSENET
Manon 1976, 2016
MENOTTI
Amahl and the Night Visitors 2003, 2005, 2013
The Consul 1978, 2000
The Medium 1973
The Saint of Bleecker Street 1993
MOORE
The Ballad of Baby Doe 1981, 1995
MOZART
The Abduction from the Seraglio 1991, 2015
Così fan tutte 1977, 1996
Don Giovanni 1982, 1997, 2012
The Magic Flute 1975, 1988, 2006, 2022
The Marriage of Figaro 1984, 1995, 2010
MUSSORGSKY
Boris Godunov 1990
OFFENBACH
Orpheus in the Underworld 2000
The Tales of Hoffmann 1977, 1989, 2005
PIAZZOLLA
María de Buenos Aires 2017
POULENC
Dialogues of the Carmelites 1984, 2011
The Human Voice 2020
PROKOFIEV
The Love for Three Oranges 2023
PUCCINI
La Bohème 1978, 1987, 1996, 2001, 2011, 2019
The Girl of the Golden West 1992, 2015
Madama Butterfly 1974, 1991, 2004
La Rondine 1973, 1997, 2012
Tosca 1981, 1998, 2009
Il Trittico 1975, 2001
Turandot 1988, 2002, 2017
RAMEAU
Platée 2021
REDLER/DYE
The Falling and the Rising 2023
ROSSINI
The Barber of Seville 1976, 1988, 1999, 2009, 2024
La Cenerentola 1985, 2004
Le Comte Ory 2014
SCHUBERT Winterreise 2016
SONDHEIM
A Little Night Music 2017
Sweeney Todd 1995, 2021
SPEARS/PIERCE
Fellow Travelers 2021
J. STRAUSS
Die Fledermaus 1979, 1989, 2018
R. STRAUSS
Ariadne auf Naxos 1980, 2004
Elektra 2013
Der Rosenkavalier 1992
Salome 2002, 2024
STRAVINSKY
The Rake’s Progress 1975, 2006
TCHAIKOVSKY
Eugene Onegin 2012
The Queen of Spades 2021
VERDI Aida 1984
Falstaff 1974, 1986, 2003, 2016
Macbeth 1996, 2010
A Masked Ball 1993, 2008
Otello 1982, 2007
Il Trovatore 1980, 1999
La Traviata 1977, 1990, 2001, 2014
Rigoletto 1979, 1994, 2006
WAGNER
The Flying Dutchman 1987
WARD
The Crucible 1974, 1989, 2003
WEBER
Der Freischütz 2009
WEILL Street Scene 1999
Program INDEX
Des Moines Metro Opera thanks our advertisers, whose support helps us provide this complimentary program to our Summer Festival audiences. For advertising information, call our office at 515-961-6221 or visit dmmo.org/advertising.
Tassel Ridge Winery BACK COVER
Grinnell College Museum of Art INSIDE FRONT COVER
Willis Cadillac PAGE 1
Josephs Jewelers PAGE 2
Bankers Trust 25
Bravo Greater Des Moines 4
Catch Des Moines 28
Central College 38
Confluence Brewing Company 37
Corteva 8
Country Inn and Suites 41
D.M. Kelly & Company 37
Des Moines Symphony 43
Elder Corporation 35
Faegre, Drinker, Biddle & Reath LLP 39
Foster Group 41
Fredrikson 35
Gib’s A & W 37
Gong Fu Tea 31
Homesteaders Life Company 45
ARTWORK/PHOTOGRAPHY CREDITS
Group and Event Photos Jen Golay, Rebekah Photography
Mainstage Photos Duane Tinkey
Production Publicity Photos Ben Easter/Kim Dragelevich
Honest Mortgage 31
Hotel Pommier 39
Iles Funeral Homes 31
Iowa Public Radio 30
Krause Group 45
Lakes Area Music Festival 43
Merchants Bonding 41
MidAmerican Energy Company 29
Mr. B Clothing 29
Polk County Board of Supervisors 38
Prairie Meadows 24
Principal Foundation 6
Olson-Larsen Galleries 34
Opera Omaha 40
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis 36
S&P Piano Services 44
Scottish Rite Park 27
Simpson College 26
Travel Iowa 42
TruBank 12
Wellabe 10
American Apollo additional painting credits can be found at desmoinesmetroopera.org/productions/americanapollo/
Des Moines Metro Opera Stage Managers and Assistant Stage Managers are represented by The American Guild of Musical Artists, AFL-CIO, the union that represents Artists in the fields of opera, ballet, modern dance and choral presentations.
Tassel Ridge® Iowa Wines…
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Iowa In the Dark is a dry red with light, fresh flavors. First impressions are tangy acid followed by black cherry fading to plum, a dry mid-palate, and a long, pleasing finish. Made from Marquette, St. Croix, Petite Pearl, and Steuben grapes grown in Iowa, it’s a versatile wine that pairs well with grilled meat and spicy foods.
2021 Iowa Petite Pearl—is a dry red with a lightly acidic entry transitioning to dark fruit and a long, drying finish. Made from Petite Pearl grapes grown in our Iowa vineyards, 2021 Iowa Petite Pearl will pair nicely with grilled meat or pasta with a tomato-based sauce.
Iowa Harvest Red is a dry red with plum and black cherry aromas and notes on the palate along with nice acid followed by a long, complex finish. Made from Marquette and Marechal Foch grapes grown in our Iowa vineyards, Iowa Harvest Red will pair nicely with pizza, pasta dishes, and steaks.
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