When the news came last fall that we had earned a nomination from the International Opera Awards for Festival of the Year, I did a double take. Was this real or was it spam? It was indeed real, and we were the only American festival in the group of six nominees. At the October ceremony in Munich it was an honor to represent the entire DMMO community of artists, staff and production personnel, donors, board and guild members, and patrons who have nurtured and sustained the elevation of our international profile over these years. Even though Finland took the prize, this honor has definitely put momentum into every aspect of our company as we approach this summer.
Maestro David Neely has been waiting to bring back to the festival one of opera’s most iconic (and often requested) composers, Richard Wagner. The Flying Dutchman, last seen in 1987, is about a mysterious, sea-faring wanderer condemned to move between life and death, reality and myth in search of the woman who would redeem him. Making his DMMO debut in the title role is international superstar Ryan McKinny, who was most recently at the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera and Houston Grand Opera. Julie Adams, our Mimì in 2019’s La Bohéme, returns to us as Senta, the Dutchman’s prospective bride, and tenor Joseph Dennis, last seen as Des Grieux in 2016’s Manon, will be Erik, a would-be suitor. Director Joshua Borths makes his mainstage debut leading the creative team in this visually spectacular production.
In 2023 we caught a glimpse of the future with our acclaimed production of Bluebeard’s Castle. The same creative team reunites for The Cunning Little Vixen by Leoš Janačék, this time joined by Ukrainian costume designer Vita Tzykun who last wowed us with sets and costumes in 2019’s Wozzeck. This glorious opera celebrates the composer’s love of the natural world while carefully balancing the experiences of humans and animal characters—who are often more human than their counterparts! Soprano Hera Hyesang Park debuts in the title role after international successes at the Glyndebourne Festival, English National Opera and the Metropolitan Opera. Growing audience favorite Sun-Ly Pierce sings the role of the Fox after nearly stealing the show as Rosina in last season’s The Barber of Seville. I’ve wanted to have British baritone Roland Wood sing with us for some time, and the Forester, a signature role of his, was the ideal opportunity.
Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, a personal favorite of mine, is based on a series of paintings by William Hogarth about the fortune and folly of a young man, Tom Rakewell. I’ve known tenor Jonas Hacker would be perfect for that role since his debut as Mercury in 2021’s Platée, and we’ve waited until his schedule allowed him to return for this special role. Soprano Joélle Harvey, known all over the world for her performances in works by Handel, Mozart and others makes her debut as Anne Trulove. Bass-baritone Sam Carl debuts as the devilish Nick Shadow after I was wowed by his performance of the same role at the Glyndebourne Festival. International baroque opera superstar Vivica Genaux enters new territory with her first Baba the Turk. Chas Rader-Shieber brings his unique vision to this new production, and conductor Christopher Allen makes his festival debut after leading our March 2022 production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute at the Civic Center.
Opera tickets are the hottest items in town. Sales are at all-time highs, and several performances are sold out. First-time attendees, cultural tourists and industry leaders already have their tickets—do you? I hope so. If not, visit our website or call our box office soon!
Michael Egel, The Linda Koehn General and Artistic Director
THE
2025 FESTIVAL
SEASON
| JUNE 27– JULY 20
THE FLYING DUTCHMAN / THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN / THE RAKE’S PROGRESS / GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS
The Lauridsen Family Foundation is DMMO’s 2025 Season Presenting Sponsor
ABOVE A spectacular sunset lights the plaza and gardens at the Blank Performing Art Center.
ON THE COVER Bass-baritone
Ryan McKinny helms The Flying Dutchman this summer in Wagner’s ghostly tale.
Vivace is a newsletter published annually by Des Moines Metro Opera, 106 West Boston Avenue, Indianola, Iowa 50125-1836. Volume 12, Issue 1.
double curse
BY JOSHUA BORTHS, DIRECTOR
For being a story ubiquitously known,
The Flying Dutchman is a shockingly modern myth. While many ghost stories are ancient, this one came of age in the 18th century at the beginning of our globalized world and at the start of the Industrial Revolution. Like all great myths and fairytales, the legend of The Flying Dutchman is ultimately a distillation of the anxieties and fears of the communities that first imagined it.
However, the opera The Flying Dutchman is not just about an immortal, cursed captain. During the second act, our heroine Senta sings the ballad of “The Flying Dutchman.” The legend itself is quite simple: an arrogant captain is cursed by Satan while rounding the Cape of Good Hope. Doomed to restlessly roam the seas, he is only allowed to step on shore once every seven years to find the woman who will redeem him. However, Senta doesn’t just sing a folksong; she casts a spell. As if using the Dutchman’s musical theme as an incantation, she invokes the Dutchman from the mists. Filled with high drama and thrilling music, Senta creates and reframes the legend, recasting herself—an ordinary girl from a small fishing village—as an epic hero of old who will redeem the wanderer. She puts herself into the narrative. If the Dutchman is cursed with immortality, Senta is cursed with mortality. If the Dutchman is cursed to roam endlessly, Senta is cursed to remain in one place.
Richard Wagner was also a wanderer, and clearly saw himself in this opera, empathizing with its two protagonists. Like the Dutchman, Wagner yearned for his homeland while simultaneously being forced further into exile. Like Senta, Wagner consoled himself by evoking mythical worlds while finding himself in frustratingly more provincial areas. Ultimately, the Dutchman and Senta are two sides of the same coin, two sides of Wagner’s artistry. The Flying Dutchman isn’t about one cursed individual; it’s about two.
In the 21st century we seem to be caught in these twin curses. We wander restlessly--”doom scrolling” on our phones--like the Dutchman; many people still live in narrow-minded communities like Senta. The Flying Dutchman is a modern myth that speaks to the melancholy, isolation, and alienation of contemporary life, and the Dutchman and Senta represent the twin modern curses of both too much and too little choice.
But, if The Flying Dutchman depicts the symptoms of modernity’s restless soul, it also gives us the cure. If the Dutchman and Senta represent both sides of Wagner’s artistry, then by creating art and telling stories we lift the curse of our collective isolation and apathy. Through art, we connect. Through empathy, we root ourselves, seeing one another and redeeming those around us. After all, the Dutchman and Senta’s curses are not lifted by simply planting feet on dry land or burying heads in the sand. The curses are lifted by each looking up and realizing they are not alone.
WAGNER, THE OPERA INFLUENCER
The musical world can be pretty much divided into two camps: those who think Richard Wagner’s works represent the highest achievement in opera and those who can’t understand what all the fuss is about. He was a one-man artistic movement, a figure so massive that his influence was felt by all his contemporaries and nearly all his major successors. Some imitated what became known as “Wagnerism” and others rejected it. Probably no other composer has provoked such extreme adulation or apathy.
Wagner is the composer of The Ring of the Nibelungen, a four-opera multi-evening event that is the most sprawling accomplishment in western music. The Ring Cycle also generated opera’s most famous pop culture cliches of horns, helmets and breastplated Norse figures. Most of us first encountered Wagner as children through Looney Toons with Elmer Fudd singing “Kill the wabbit!” at full, wobbly voice in the episode “What’s Opera, Doc?” Like the composer himself, the term “Wagnerism” or “Wagnerian” has become an archetype as well, referring to everything from types of singers with the stamina and power to sing over his massive orchestras, to a genre of storytelling, to modern cinema’s epic movies and soundtracks. It has become a synonym for grandiose, bombastic, overbearing, or simply—very long.
But all of this came after Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. There are no horns, no spears, no helmets here…and best of all, it’s one his shortest, most impactful and tuneful works! We’re thrilled to, once again, dip our toes into the pool of Wagnerism this summer with this compelling and remarkable masterpiece!
design
Steven C. Kemp
The Dutchman / RYAN MCKINNY
Senta / JULIE ADAMS
Erik / JOSEPH DENNIS
Daland / KRISTOPHER IRMITER
Set
by
Conductor / DAVID NEELY
FolkTails
BY KRISTINE MCINTYRE, DIRECTOR
A cricket, a mosquito and a dragonfly walk into a bar...
Well, that’s not exactly how The Cunning Little Vixen starts (although the mosquito is drunk) but certainly this opera is replete with fun and unusual insect, bird and animal characters who fill the forest with life and beauty. And after coming to terms with the story and creating a scenic world in which it could all unfold, my next question was, but what are they wearing?
I was thrilled when Vita Tzykun agreed to design costumes for this new production. Vita is wildly
creative and wickedly smart and I had such a great time working with her on Wozzeck. She loves this opera and said yes immediately and so last April we began a design process that has been an absolute joy.
We both knew that we didn’t want to create Disneyparade style animal costumes...we weren’t trying to hide the singers and always wanted them to be visible underneath. We knew that the singers needed to be able to move, dance and sing while standing mostly upright. Vita loves folk wear and really wanted to bring some Czech details into the costumes and explore the relationship between decorative motifs in clothing and the animal patterns and textures from which they come. Using the animal life of the Czech forest as our inspiration, we began to investigate how to populate our forest onstage.
If you’ve never really looked at insects, I highly recommend it. When you’re not trying to squish them, they’re actually quite beautiful—colorful, reflective, sometimes iridescent. We picked favorites in each category and then tried to get to their essence. What makes a dragonfly special? What one thing says rooster, or hen, or mosquito or badger? And then what can I do with that on stage?
And of course Janáček’s animals are not just animals, they are characters—quirky, endearing, annoying, brave and romantic. In so many ways, they demonstrate more humanity than their human counterparts onstage, which is of course the point, and which somehow needs to come through in the costumes. And this is where I think Vita really excelled. All of her animals have personality. You can tell who they are just by looking at them—see those hens or that rooster? Or the Vixen herself—could you doubt that she is our heroine?
This was the great challenge: to make costumes that captured the best features of the insects, birds and animals that inspired them, and then to go further and make something as unique and inspired as the musical and visual worlds they will inhabit. And by “worlds” I mean the incredibly fanciful and colorful array of Oyoram’s visual compositions and also the lovely iridescent forest created by Luke Canterella, both designed to reflect and amplify the animated backgrounds and the amazing creatures that will inhabit it. It is forest-as-playground and it is unlike anything we’ve ever done in the theatre. We hope you too will come and play.
OPPOSITE Set rendering by Oyoram and Scenic Designer Luke Cantarella. ABOVE Costume sketches by Vita Tzykun.
Costume Designer / VITA TZYKUN
Conductor / DAVID NEELY
The Fox / SUN-LY PIERCE
Forester / ROLAND WOOD
The Vixen / HERA HYESANG PARK
Visual Composer / OYORAM
The Rake’s “ rocess”
AN INTERVIEW WITH THE LEAD CAST MEMBERS FROM THE RAKE’S PROGRESS BY
The Rake’s Progress is based on a cycle of paintings by the 18th century artist William Hogarth. Centuries later, the poet W.H. Auden and composer Igor Stravinsky dramatized the series into a neoclassical stage masterpiece. In the opera, Tom Rakewell is lured by the devilish Nick Shadow to abandon his love, Anne Trulove, as he progresses towards his tragic fate.
Before arriving in Indianola to start rehearsals, the three stars of DMMO’s new production of The Rake’s Progress met across three different time zones to discuss their roles and what they hope audiences experience.
Can you tell us about each of your characters?
“In the original Hogarth artwork, Tom is just a cad and that’s it,” begins tenor Jonas Hacker, who is returning to DMMO to take on the role of Tom Rakewell. “But in the opera, Tom loves Anne, and deep down, he has a great capacity for goodness. This is the most important point for me. He has flaws, but things could always turn out differently if he made different choices. This makes things more interesting for both me and Nick Shadow. If you’re the devil, who do you want to corrupt? Someone who’s already evil or someone who could be good? Tom is more complex than he first appears.”
“Anne and Nick are like Tom’s shoulder angels. There’s a tension there,” says soprano Joélle Harvey, making her long-awaited DMMO debut as Anne Trulove. “I last performed this role a decade ago, and coming back to it, I have such a different view of her. This time, I think my Anne is more centered. She’s true to herself. She knows what is right, and she goes after it. She operates in black and white while Tom exists in gray.”
Acclaimed bass-baritone Sam Carl, who will be playing Nick Shadow, chimes in. “I have also sung this role before—three times in two different productions. What I love about playing Nick is that the audience has some sense that he’s a devil from the beginning, but the other characters onstage haven’t figured it out. There is a kinship and knowing between me and the audience that’s really fun.”
JOSHUA BORTHS
Nick Shadow / SAM CARL
Anne Trulove / JOÉLLE HARVEY
Tom Rakewell / JONAS HACKER
These roles are coveted by singers. Why do you think that is? Carl answers immediately. “It’s a great libretto. The words are so much fun,” Hacker agrees. “Yes, to interpret these words and make them work with the music is so rewarding.”
“Absolutely,” says Harvey. “I love singing Mozart and Handel, so when we put Stravinsky’s neoclassical score to this funky text, it’s just so fun to sing.”
Hacker continues, “Additionally, these roles are huge. It’s so gratifying to be onstage that long and go through this entire journey. I think the scope and depth of the work makes it an almost unique experience in opera.”
“There’s something about Stravinsky’s music throughout this opera that goes beyond what many other composers write,” says Carl. “It’s so clear, and not a note is wasted. It’s as if Stravinsky had these clear images in his mind, and he is painting them in music through sharp lines and colors.”
While The Rake’s Progress is a masterpiece, it isn’t frequently performed. What should audiences expect who are hearing it for the first time?
Harvey begins, “I think audiences should walk in open to the ‘sound world’ of the opera. It’s not what you expect. It’s familiar, and yet very different. It’s ultimately accessible, but you must be curious in order for it to be accessible. However, once you settle it, it’s unbelievable, and the last 15 minutes are some of the best moments
in opera. Even though Tom has lost his mind, there is a clarity to his thoughts and a new focus to his life. The irony is heartbreaking.”
“Audiences can expect amazing singing,” Hacker says. “I’m most looking forward to Anne’s big aria, ‘No Word from Tom.’ It’s one of the best arias ever. Oh, and expect great things from the graveyard scene.”
“Yes, the graveyard scene is a favorite as well,” says Carl. “The tension is high, ratcheted up by the skeletal harpsichord. The ridiculously cool cello ensemble that starts the scene is super dark and atmospheric.”
“Finally, I also think audiences should expect to be emotionally moved. I’m going to be a blubbering mess. It’s timeless,” Harvey concludes. “The themes are so relatable. In life, the easy thing is not always the best thing; don’t be greedy, and don’t be selfish. Finally, DMMO audiences are known in the industry for being curious. I think we are going to go on a special journey together.”
Conversation edited for clarity and brevity.
Set and costume designs by Robert Perdziola
Conductor / CHRISTOPHER ALLEN
Director / CHAS RADER-SHIEBER
Everything Old is New Again IN
GORDON GETTY’S GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS
A state-of-the-art film of Gordon Getty’s opera Goodbye, Mr. Chips, first premiered on November 14, 2021, by Festival Napa Valley and the Mill Valley Film Festival, ingeniously embodies how the age-old conflict between old and new can inspire profound works of art.
For the opera, Getty drew from James Hilton’s classic 1934 novella Goodbye, Mr. Chips, which was adapted into a highly regarded film in 1939 starring Robert Donat and Greer Garson. Hilton’s novella tells the story of beloved English schoolmaster Mr. Chipping, known to students and colleagues as Mr. Chips. Set at a respectable British boarding school, the story follows Chips from his arrival at the institution, through his brief, transformational marriage, and the headlong social changes that stirred Britain between the turn of the century and the outbreak of the Great War in 1914
Chips inspires generations of boys and maintains his status as a rigorous but sympathetic mentor, even as a progressive headmaster casts him as an outdated figure from a bygone age. First exposed to the story via the film, Getty fell in love with the popular novella and Hilton’s elegant prose when he first read the work several years ago.
BY MONA BAROUDI
“It’s a deeply moving story about a deeply good man,” Getty said in an interview via Zoom. In recalling his own formative years, he noted, “I can’t remember any teachers like Chips at St. Ignatius,” referring to the San Francisco high school he attended. “But at the University of San Francisco we had several teachers with wisdom and judgment and full-sized hearts.”
Brimming emotion is one thread that runs through Getty’s oeuvre, which encompasses cantatas, orchestral and chamber pieces, piano works, song cycles and operas. His music has been performed and recorded by numerous ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, and Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and interpreted by singers such as Lester Lynch, Melody Moore, Kevin Short and Lisa Delan, among many others. The film production of Goodbye, Mr. Chips takes Getty’s music into a hybrid realm it’s never before occupied.
Key members of the project’s creative team have worked with Getty before, including the film’s stage director and designer Brian Staufenbiel, who staged “Scare Pair,” the double bill of Getty’s one-act operas Usher House and The Canterville Ghost, for LA Opera and the Center for Contemporary Opera in New York. The creative director and stage director for San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle, Staufenbiel specializes in multimedia and interdisciplinary productions, an ideal skillset when it became necessary to transport Chips from stage to screen.
Initially scheduled to premiere at Festival Napa Valley in July 2020, the opera was put on hold due to the pandemic. Rather than waiting until opera returned to live stages or trying to film a production, Getty and his creative team decided to innovate. They recorded
Gordon Getty
the opera first and then filmed the cast of vocalists performing to the soundtrack, all with strict observance of health and safety protocols. It’s a rarely explored hybrid that allows the singers to deliver exacting performances in the studio and then focus on acting for the camera.
The film gives the singers “the freedom to do a different style of acting,” Staufenbiel said. “When you film an opera production it can feel exaggerated, as they’re singing to the back of the hall. We allow the actors to create intensity, but with more focus, without the sense of projecting. The soundtrack is the guide, and the performances blend together using film techniques and effects to support the music.”
The story unfolds as a series of flashbacks. The giant set was constructed inside of a warehouse with rooms that frame and contain the action, while also showing how each scene flows from Chips’ experience. The effect is almost stream-of-consciousness intimacy. “We’re seeing the set as it rotates: the classroom, a living room, a drawing room,” Staufenbiel said. “At any given point as the characters walk from room to room you can look beyond the scene and the other parts of memory are present.”
The way that key emotional events can fix us to a particular moment is one of the powerful subtexts running through Goodbye, Mr. Chips. It’s no coincidence that Hilton’s other beloved work, the 1933 novel Lost Horizon, paints an unforgettable picture of a land where time seems to pause. Chips has no Shangri-La as a refuge, and Getty’s music evokes the way relationships with loved ones anchor us, even when pressures mount to move on with the times.
When a new headmaster wants Chips to step down and make way for a younger teacher, “the character has a haunting and ominous motif,” said baritone Lester Lynch, part of an illustrious cast that includes soprano Marnie Breckenridge (Kathie), tenor Nathan Granner (Mr. Chips) and bass/baritone Kevin Short (Ralston/Rivers). “The headmaster is not nasty, but he puts a lot of pressure on Chips, telling him ‘Your ways are outdated. We want you to retire’—and when he enters the story, Mr. Getty uses these really low sounds that perfectly depict the conflict.” At other moments, Getty’s music soars as Chips finds love, fleeting but everlasting, with his wife Kathie, or captures the thrumming affection that flows between the teacher and his boys.
Like Chips, Getty has long refused to yield to pressures to modernize or conform to prevailing styles. Of his compositions he has said, “My style is undoubtedly tonal, though with hints of atonality, such as any composer would likely use to suggest a degree of disorientation. But I’m strictly tonal in my approach. I represent a viewpoint that stands somewhat apart from the 20th century, which was in large measure a repudiation of the 19th and a sock in the nose to sentimentality. Whatever it was the great Victorian composers and poets were trying to achieve, that’s what I’m trying to achieve.”
In Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Getty has turned Hilton’s brilliant portrayal of a quiet life of incalculable service into a vehicle for the larger-than-life drama of opera, a potent act of creative alchemy that will never go out of style.
This article first appeared in Crescendo Magazine for Festival Napa Valley. Reprinted with permission.
See Goodbye, Mr. Chips this summer at the Varsity Cinema in Des Moines for two special screenings on Saturday, July 12, and Friday, July 18.
Sue Rutledge Brenton
CULTIVATING NOTEWORTHY CONNECTIONS
BY BRIANNE SANCHEZ
July 1974. Opening night of the Des Moines Metro Opera’s second season. The summer air is thick with humidity and excitement. Oriental rugs pulled from some of Des Moines’ grandest homes blanket the lush lawn surrounding Blank Performing Arts Center. Patrons arrive in long evening gowns and tuxedos, lured to Indianola by the promise of elegance and drama. The scene is beautifully set, but something is missing.
“We expected our guests to sit...ON THE GROUND!” recalls Sue Rutledge Brenton, who 51 years later, remains an honorary member of the DMMO Board of Directors. Instead of becoming a faux pas, the al fresco elegance of that evening foreshadowed decades of magical moments that built the company’s reputation for innovation. This picnic-style soirée became a treasured memory for DMMO’s early supporters and staff. Dr. Michael Patterson, DMMO’s longest-serving staff member, helped set up parties on the lawn and at nearby Buxton Park in those fledgling seasons.
“When there was not a great budget in any way, Sue [along with women like Sara Hill, Jo Ghrist, Marilyn Vernon and Mary Beh] made it appear like there was,” Patterson said, describing the labor-intensive process of elegantly preparing each boxed meal. He praised Sue’s dedication to the opera alongside her many volunteer commitments, family responsibilities, and professional career. “She has been a long-time supporter of the company and the people running it. She’s just been a very positive force.”
Many others, including Jeri M. Mace, former executive director at DMMO, credit Sue’s creativity and benevolence as a hostess and philanthropist with helping to shape the opera company’s growth, from the ground up.
“There was a desire to bring people in the Des Moines area down to the opera and have it be an interesting and special occasion,” said Jeri. “One of the things the company is known for is doing things that nobody else has done. It was the philosophy to try to pique people’s curiosity with new venues, new ideas, new opportunities. I think that’s still very much a part of the culture.”
Board parties and other opera events at Windover, Sue and J.C. (Buz) Brenton’s English-style estate in Des Moines (pictured below), introduced influential Iowans to the art form. A longtime Des Moines Founders Garden Club member, Sue cultivates relationships as beautifully as her boxwoods and flowers. (Windover Gardens is part of the Smithsonian Institution Archives of American Gardens.)
“Our most rewarding guest was Dan Krumm, the chairman of the board of the Maytag Company in Newton,” Sue said, reminiscing about one standout night when she and Sara Hill collaborated to welcome new audiences to her table. “Not only had Dan and his wife Ann never been to a performance of Des Moines Metro Opera’s—they had never attended
an opera in their lives! After being charmed by [the late DMMO Founder and Artistic Director] Dr. Larsen and [General Director] Doug [Duncan], fast forward to their attending performances of DMMO and becoming absolutely enchanted. They started traveling to experience opera elsewhere in the world. Ann joined the board of DMMO in 1982, and they began contributing most generously.”
For Sue, support was always about staying behind the scenes and filling seats, despite Doug Duncan’s persistent encouragement for her to appear as a supernumerary at one of the opera performances. “Sue is one of the most graceful human beings you’ll ever meet, as evidenced by her hospitality,” said Mertze Anderson, daughter of Ann Green Anderson. “She’s always worked quietly, whether it was for the Des Moines Metro Opera, symphony or any of the other projects that she had her fingerprints on. What a role model, showing that you don’t have to come with a sledgehammer to get things done.”
Mertze accompanied Sue to a recent DMMO Guild gathering at the home of Chérie and Bob Shreck, where she witnessed how the moving music and tearful speeches impacted her longtime family friend. “I happened to look at Sue and she was crying quietly as well, because of the power of the art and the power of the work and the experience.”
Photo by Deb Wiley
SUN-LY PIERCE MEZZO-SOPRANO
BY KIM DRAGELEVICH
If last summer’s Rosina in The Barber of Seville was an opportunity for Sun-Ly Pierce to expand her vocal technique, this summer’s Fox in The Cunning Little Vixen is about a goal. “The Fox is a huge bucket list item for me,” she says. “I’ve loved the music for as long as I can remember and have always been fascinated by the story.”
A native of Clinton, NY, Sun-Ly originally enrolled at the Eastman School of Music to be an educator, but pivoted to performance when she fell in love with opera and powerhouse mezzos such as Frederica von Stade, Cecilia Bartoli and Anne Sophie von Otter. After graduating from Eastman and later the Bard College Conservatory of Music, Sun-Ly won prizes in esteemed competitions such as the Eleanor McCollum Competition, Dallas Opera National Vocal Competition—and most recently as the Third Prize Winner of the 2024 Operalia World Opera Competition.
Rosina in The Barber of Seville
APPRENTICE EVENTS
“I’m drawn to any role or project that intimidates me! Whether it’s the vocalism required for it, the character, the language, the drama— I want a challenge and something that pushes me outside of my comfort zone,” Sun-Ly says, which is one of the reasons she loves performing in the Blank Performing Arts Center. “It’s incredibly intimidating to be so close to your audience, but that also allows for so much precision and detail in the storytelling of these operas.”
Performing with a digital set this summer will add another challenge—though Sun-Ly is no stranger to projections, having performed as the Second Lady for DMMO’s 2021 production of The Magic Flute at the Civic Center. “It requires so much imagination and focus because you simply can’t see as much action as the audience can when you’re that close to the projections; and while you may know what’s happening, you really have to use your own dramatic resources to help tell the story.”
But despite all these challenges—or better yet, because of them—Sun-Ly looks forward to bringing Vixen’s Fox to life for audiences this summer.
“There are many facets of this character that will push me dramatically in new ways—but I know I’m in the best hands to make that happen.”
Des Moines Metro Opera’s Frank R. Brownell III Apprentice Artist Program is a comprehensive career training program for some of the best and brightest rising vocal talents in America. All apprentice artist concerts presented during the 2025 Festival are free and open to the public.
APPRENTICE SPOTLIGHT
Saturday, May 31 | 6:30PM
Meet the members of the 2025 Apprentice Artist Program for the first time as they kick off the summer festival, singing their signature arias in the lobby of the Blank Performing Arts Center.
APPRENTICE SCENE PROGRAMS
Saturday, June 28 | 2PM
Saturday, July 5 | 2PM
Thursday, July 10 | 2PM
Thursday, July 17 | 2PM
The Apprentice Artists take the spotlight for four scene programs of fully staged excerpts from across the operatic spectrum! All scene programs are free and open to the public and held in Lekberg Hall in the Amy Robertson Music Center on the campus of Simpson College.
STARS OF TOMORROW
Saturday, July 19 | 2PM
Join us for an unforgettable afternoon as opera’s rising stars take center stage at Drake University’s Sheslow Auditorium, performing the hits of opera alongside DMMO’s acclaimed Festival Orchestra.
Des Moines Metro Opera is proud to present Stars of Tomorrow as a free concert for the community, sharing the beauty of opera and transformative power of the arts with audiences of all ages.
To secure your free tickets, reserve online at dmmo.org/stars or call the Box Office at 515-209-3257
Photo by Dario Acosta
Sméraldine in The Love for Three Oranges
Second Lady in The Magic Flute
SOuNDCLiPS
OPERA IOWA CONCLUDES TOUR
On April 25 Des Moines Metro Opera’s OPERA Iowa troupe presented the final performance of its 39th annual statewide music education tour. Over the course of nine weeks, the seven-member troupe drove over 5,358 miles across Iowa to present over 50 classroom workshops, eight aria concerts, 10 masterclasses and 55 performances of two operas: John Davies’ The Billy Goats Gruff and Joshua Borths’ adaptation of Cinderella. Over 25,000 students were impacted by the 2025 tour. Bravi to the troupe members!
INTERNATIONAL OPERA AWARD
Des Moines Metro Opera recently stepped onto the international stage with a nomination for 2024 Festival of the Year. Considered “the Oscars of the opera world,” the International Opera Awards celebrates excellence in opera and raises funds and awareness for the Opera Awards Foundation. At the ceremony held at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Germany, on October 2, DMMO was the only American festival nominated and honored to join a list of
finalists that included some of the most prestigious international opera festivals such as Buxton International Festival (England), Garsington Opera (England), Savonlinna Opera Festival (Finland), Smetana Opera Cycle Ostrava (Czech Republic) and Tiroler Festspiele Erl (Austria).
KUDOS TO
In addition to the opera “Oscars,” DMMO has had several other accolades this season. Michael Egel, the Linda Koehn General and Artistic Director, was named one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year.
For his work on the Blank Performing Arts Center’s wildflower gardens, horticulturist Kelly D. Norris was awarded the 2024 Award of Excellence at the Perennial Plant Association (PPA) awards. Finally, Scott Arens, DMMO’s Director of Marketing and Public Relations since 2017, was named the new Director of Advancement in March.
WELCOME TO NEW STAFF
DMMO is thrilled to welcome not one, not two, but three new full-time staff members to the team! In August of 2024 Kristin
Rasmussen joined as Guest Experience Manager and comes to DMMO with multiple years of Box Office and general admission experience. In November Clayton Rodney joined as the Director of Production, bringing nearly two decades of opera experience as the Production and Technical Director at Edmonton Opera and most recently Director of Production at Arizona Opera. Noah Lucy joined DMMO in April as the Communications Manager with experience in creative storytelling ranging from short films to wildlife documentary. Welcome to DMMO, Kristin, Clayton and Noah!
The 2025 Opera Iowa troupe L-R: Keith Dittmer, Adam Partridge, Sabrina Langlois, Alissa Cox, Christine Boddicker, Ethan Burck and Dylan Sepulveda.
WAREHOUSE UPDATE
While DMMO audiences are familiar with the Blank Performing Arts Center, few may realize that the company also owns and maintains warehouses to store sets, costumes, props and equipment, in addition to being the site where the production team constructs and modifies opera sets every summer. In April a $250,000 renovation of our primary warehouse added insulation and additional HVAC systems for more comfortable occupancy during the peak working period for the summer festival staff. This project was made possible thanks to the support of Nancy Main, the Laverty Foundation, Bravo Greater Des Moines and the Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation.
PATRON TRIP
Between March 23 and April 6, a group of intrepid opera fans traveled to Europe as a part of our patron travel program for a tour of Cote d’Azur and northern Italy over 12 days. The trip began with a special performance by Hera Hyesang Park who will sing the title role in The Cunning Little Vixen this season. Three opera performances were part of the experience starting with a Ravel double bill of L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo (pictured below), followed by Tosca at La Scala Milan and concluding with Anna Bolena at La Fenice in Venice. In between were stops in Piedmont for a stay at the Ralais San Maurizo, a converted 17th century monastery, as well as two days at the Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como. Plans are already underway for an August 2026 Summer Opera Festivals of Europe tour!
DINING AT THE OPERA
CAFÉ LOBBY DINING
Enhance your Des Moines Metro Opera experience by enjoying our own gourmet restaurant located in the secluded air-conditioned comfort of the lobby of the Blank Performing Arts Center. Each dinner is themed for the opera performance you’ll see that evening! Menus and table reservations are available at our website.
Please note: Cafe Lobby Dining is not available before Sunday matinees.
À LA CARTE DINING
Create your own delicious meal from an assortment of sandwiches, salads and other goodies from local vendors and dine at any of our outdoor seating areas under the shade sails in the theatre plaza. We have curated a wide variety of options that include vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free items.
À La Carte Dining items will be available at the outdoor concessions beginning two hours before every performance. No pre-order or reservation is required.
Visit dmmo.org/dining or call (515) 209-3257 to make reservations.
2O25 FESTIVAL CALENDAR
* Limited availability
UPCOMING EVENTS
MAY 31 OPERA PREVIEWS
Dates and times subject to change | All times are CT
2:00PM | Franklin Ave Library, Des Moines
Get a sneak-peek of The Flying Dutchman from DMMO’s Dramaturg Joshua Borths, presented at and in partnership with Franklin Avenue Library. FREE
MAY 31 APPRENTICE SPOTLIGHT CONCERT
6:30PM | Blank Performing Arts Center, Indianola
DMMO’s Apprentice Artists, selected from a national audition process, open the season singing their signature arias. FREE
JUNE 6 & 7 PICNIC & PUCCINI FAMILY ADVENTURE
10:00AM | Blank Performing Arts Center, Indianola
Join us for this family opera adventure that includes a tour of the theatre, a special performance of The Billy Goats Gruff and lunch. $12 (cash/check) or $15 (online), dmmo.org/picnic
JUNE 7 OPERA GALA
5:30PM | Krause Gateway Center, Des Moines
Celebrate the festival season at the 2025 Opera Gala! Enjoy an elegant evening at the Krause Gateway Center in downtown Des Moines, complete with a gourmet plated dinner and a stunning musical program featuring performances by mainstage artists. dmmo.org/gala
JUNE 14 THREADS AND TRILLS
11:30AM | Wakonda Club, Des Moines
Join the DMMO Guild for a delicious lunch and captivating arias from mainstage artists as special guests model some of DMMO’s most extravagant costumes. $55/person, dmmo.org/threads
JUNE 14 OPERA PREVIEWS
2:00PM | Franklin Ave Library, Des Moines
Get a sneak-peek of The Cunning Little Vixen and The Rake’s Progress from DMMO’s Dramaturg Joshua Borths, presented at and in partnership with Franklin Avenue Library. FREE
JUNE 28, JULY 5, 10, 17 APPRENTICE SCENE PROGRAMS
2:00PM | Lekberg Recital Hall, Amy Robertson Music Center
The 2025 Apprentice Artists take the spotlight in fully staged excerpts from across the operatic spectrum. All scene programs will be held in Lekberg Recital Hall in the Amy Robertson Music Center on the campus of Simpson College. FREE
JULY 19 STARS OF TOMORROW
2:00PM | Sheslow Auditorium, Drake University, Des Moines
The rising stars of the Apprentice Artist Program perform duets, trios and ensembles alongside DMMO’s acclaimed Festival Orchestra at this special concert in Des Moines. FREE, tickets required. dmmo.org/stars
SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGES
See all three subscription series operas—The Flying Dutchman, The Cunning Little Vixen and The Rake’s Progress—to take advantage of savings off individual ticket prices. Plus, earn benefits like free date exchanges and more! Prices vary depending on popularity of the performance and range between the prices displayed below.
INDIVIDUAL TICKETS
Select-your-own tickets are now available for The Flying Dutchman, The Cunning Little Vixen and The Rake’s Progress Prices vary depending on popularity of performance and range between the prices displayed below.
TICKET EXCHANGES must occur at least 24 hours in advance of the affected performance. Seating is subject to availability. Subscribers may exchange tickets at no additional cost. Single ticket buyers incur a $10 exchange fee. A price increase may be incurred based upon performance date (no refunds for lower priced dates).
ACCESSIBILITY The Blank Performing Arts Center is ADA accessible. Please let the Box Office know your needs in advance. Call the DMMO office at 515-961-6221 for more information.
ADD-ON TICKETS
SHUTTLE SERVICE from Ames & Des Moines $15/person
June 27, 28, 29 July 5, 6, 13
GOODBYE, MR. CHIPS $20 July 12 & 18 at 1pm STARS OF TOMORROW
PREFERRED HOTEL PARTNERS
HOTEL POMMIER
1215 N Jefferson Way, Indianola (515) 961-0551 | hotelpommier.com
FEES & REFUNDS No refunds or cancellations. Casts, repertory, seat map and ticket prices are subject to change. The credit card processing fee is $5 per order for single tickets and $10 per order for subscriptions. Full ticketing and box office information can be found at: dmmo.org/boxoffice.
READY TO ORDER?
BY PHONE: 515-209-3257
(MON - FRI: 10AM-4:30PM, SAT: 10AM-2PM CT)
ONLINE: DMMO.ORG/TICKETS
You deserve local hospitality. At Hotel Pommier our guests enjoy friendly service, generous amenities and a break from cookie cutter hotel chains. We are local ambassadors who go the extra mile to ensure our guests enjoy everything Indianola has to offer. Get 10% off your booking by using the code DMMO25 when ordering online or over the phone.
SURETY HOTEL
206 6th Ave, Des Moines (515) 985-2066 | suretyhotel.com
Guests (and their dogs!) can enjoy modern elegance in downtown Des Moines. We offer a range of conveniences such as studios, suites, a private dining lounge and the Mulberry Street Tavern restaurant, with many other destinations within walking distance. Access the link for a special DMMO rate at dmmo.org/hotel
