Des Moines Metro Opera Summer Festival Program 2017

45TH SEASON

SHINY, STICKY, SMOOTH: POP ART AND THE SENSES J U LY 1 – S E P T E M B E R 3, 2 0 1 7

Free and open daily to the public, 11 am-5 pm.

For a full listing of events and programs, visit grinnell.edu/faulconergallery Support for the exhibition and related educational and outreach programs has been made possible by a grant from the Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation.

Image: Roy Lichtenstein, Explosion, from the portfolio Portfolio 9, 1967. Lithograph, edition 85/100, Š Estate of Roy Lichtenstein. Collection of Jordan D. Schnitzer.

Graduating incisively prepared, critically thinking, socially conscious humans: Grinnellians.

General and Artistic Director MICHAEL EGEL Music Director and Principal Conductor DAVID NEELY

THE LAURIDSEN FAMILY FOUNDATION IS THE PRESENTING SPONSOR OF DES MOINES METRO OPERA’S 45TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON

45TH SEASON

THE CONTENTS 4

FROM THE GENERAL DIRECTOR

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APPRENTICE ARTIST PROGRAM

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FROM THE PRESIDENT

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OPERA IOWA

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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DESIGN, PRODUCTION AND ADMINISTRATIVE

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ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

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WORDS AND MUSIC AT THE CARNEGIE

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OPERA GUILD

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45TH ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE

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PRODUCTION HISTORY

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TURANDOT

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DES MOINES METRO OPERA FOUNDATION

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A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

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PASSIONATE ADVOCATES

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BILLY BUDD

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IN MEMORIAM

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MARÍA DE BUENOS AIRES

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AN UPLIFTING GIFT

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CAST PROFILES

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INSTITUTIONAL GIVING

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CREATIVE PROFILES

92

DONORS

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SUMMER FESTIVAL STAFF

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SUMMER FESTIVAL EVENTS

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FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

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ADVERTISERS INDEX

INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS

OUR MISSION Des Moines Metro Opera is a nationally recognized progressive opera company that has taken its place among America’s leading opera festivals. The Company is committed to opera as a living art form, and to that end,

PRODUCES PROVIDES DEVELOPS SERVES

a Summer Opera Festival that offers diverse operatic works at the highest artistic standards;

quality opportunities for American-trained talent in all facets of opera performance, production and administration; audiences of all ages through year-round educational programs; and

Des Moines and the region as a cultural leader through unique community programming and collaborations.

FROM THE GENERAL DIRECTOR "This is our moment, the moment we've been waiting for!" So exclaims the entire cast of Billy Budd near the beginning of Act II, and it's a refrain that has played often in my mind as we've prepared this season. On behalf of the board of directors, artists and staff of the Company, it is my pleasure to welcome you to Des Moines Metro Opera's 45th Anniversary Season! From sold out performances of Soldier Songs last January at Camp Dodge to a successful Words & Music at the Carnegie Capital Campaign (see page 12 for more information) and now to an ambitious Summer Festival Season—we have great cause for celebration!

For the occasion we've assembled one of the most astonishing collection of works we've ever programmed. Any production of Puccini's final masterpiece Turandot is a cause for celebration, and the opera's return to our stage in a new production is a very fitting way to open an anniversary year. Next we expanded our repertory this season to include a Tony Award-winning American musical. Stephen Sondheim's A Little Night Music premieres at the Company in a beautiful production designed

by American fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi and led by a vibrant and energetic cast and creative team. Our new production of Britten's Billy Budd has been several years in the making.

Steuart Bedford, one of Britten's closest associates during his lifetime, has created a revised performing edition that allows us to take an intimate look at this 20th century masterpiece.

We are pleased to present the edition's world premiere this season. María de Buenos Aires, an Argentinian tango opera, has been a part of our planning for the 2nd Stages Series for a while now, and I'm thrilled to finally present it this July at the Temple Theater in downtown Des Moines.

The central building block in the success of any season is quality singing. Honestly, it is one of the favorite parts of my job. High quality vocalism and thoughtful casting have become our hallmarks. This season's roster features 28 principal artists, seven in their DMMO debuts including Vanessa Vasquez, Federico De Michelis, Timothy Bruno, Lauren Snouffer, Zachary James, Emmett O'Hanlon and esteemed artist Thomas Hammons as well as directors Stephanie Sundine, Matthew Ozawa and conductor Eric Melear. They join an impressive roster of returning artists and creative teams.

Curating a season of productions that excite and surprise audiences is another favorite part of my job. With that in mind, I'm excited to announce our 46th Season for 2018.

First, Strauss' effervescent and intoxicating Viennese operetta Die Fledermaus makes its sparkling return after a near 30year absence! Composer Antonín Dvořák was deeply moved by the Iowa landscape during his time spent in Spillville, Iowa, 125 years ago so there is a special connection as we offer our first production of his operatic masterpiece Rusalka, starring Sara Gartland. Telling the stories of our own time is central to our mission, and with that in mind our third offering of the season will be Jonathan Dove's charming and instantly beguiling opera from 1998, Flight. Inspired by the true story of a man who lived at Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years, the opera has both laugh-out-loud and touching moments as an ensemble cast of characters find themselves delayed overnight in an airport terminal.

In our 2nd Stages Series, we will present what is perhaps the most produced new opera in America right now. As One, by Laura Kaminsky, Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed uses humor and empathy to tell the story of a transgender protagonist as she endeavors to resolve the discord between herself and the outside world. I'm pleased that this production will be presented in partnership with One Iowa and will feature two performers very close to the hearts of our audiences: mezzo-soprano Elise Quagliata and the longawaited return of Iowa baritone John Moore. Next summer, as a part of our 2nd Stages Series, DMMO will present Aaron Copland's Iowa-based story The Tender Land during our 46th Summer Festival. And I'm practically bursting at the seams to tell you what we have planned for the 2019 season, but for now let’s enjoy one season at a time!

DMMO believes that a great city is defined by the vibrancy, health and diversity of its arts organizations. In a world that seems to be increasingly prone to turbulence and division, gathering together in a dark theatre to hear our stories sung back to us seems increasingly important. Our hope is that this collective experience allows all of us to experience more deeply what it means to be human. Thank you again for spending time with Des Moines Metro Opera and for your support of our work. After the performance I hope you will linger in the lobby to meet our artists and staff!

Michael Egel General and Artistic Director

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46th Summer Festival

22 - 15

J. Strauss Dvořák

June July

Dove

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Kaminsky/ Campbell/Reed

nd

Stages Series

die fledermaus rusalka flight as one the tender land November 17, 18, 19, 2017

Copland

July 2018

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FROM THE PRESIDENT Welcome to Des Moines Metro Opera’s 45th Summer Festival!

We are delighted you are here to experience one of our nation’s top opera companies. Under General and Artistic Director Michael Egel’s leadership, DMMO has again assembled a thoughtfully chosen and varied repertoire brought alive by extraordinarily talented artists, musicians and technical professionals.

The Company’s passionate dedication to opera as a living art form is on full display this season with bold and innovative programming. Giacomo Puccini’s Turandot, last seen during our 30th Anniversary Season, returns to our stage for our 45th Anniversary. Our production of Billy Budd was especially created for us through the cooperation of Boosey & Hawkes and the Britten/Pears Foundation in England. Our season is then rounded out by Stephen Sondheim’s charming A Little Night Music designed by Isaac Mizrahi.

The 2nd Stages Series returns for its fourth year, bringing opera to alternative venues in Des Moines and in partnership with other local organizations. In January we presented David T. Little’s powerful modern opera Soldier Songs in conjunction with Camp Dodge, and on July 6 and 13 we will be presenting Astor Piazzolla’s María de Buenos Aires at the Temple Theatre.

DMMO’s core educational and community engagement initiatives remain a defining feature of the Company.

Once again our summer season will be brought to a larger audience through broadcasts of Billy Budd on Iowa Public Television and our entire season on Iowa Public Radio.

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Throughout the year we have hosted film screenings and lectures through our Staging Connections events to bring various disciplines into conversation with our opera programming. The Apprentice Artist Program, OPERA Iowa Educational Touring Troupe, the Design and Production Internship Program, Raising Voices/Rising Stars and OPERAtion Opera all nurture promising artistic talent as well as engaging our next generation of audiences.

We would like to thank the dedicated Board of Directors for their leadership and support as well as the DMMO Foundation Board of Trustees. Last spring we embarked on a capital campaign to renovate and restore our administrative headquarters, which have been housed in the 1904 Carnegie Library in Indianola, and create a new Opera Center. With leadership from the Indianola community, our board and supporters we are in the final phase of raising the funds to make the Opera Center a reality. Of course, we would be lost without our wonderful staff, Guild volunteers and Honorary Board, each of whom deserves a standing ovation. BRAVO! Under Michael’s extraordinary leadership, the Company has been the subject of significant external recognition. Opera News wrote, “Des Moines Metro Opera’s quality continues to ratchet up with each successive season.” It is thrilling to see such success and humbling to know that the lasting support of you, our patrons and donors, makes it all possible. Thank you for being part of our 45th anniversary celebration.

Craig A. Shadur, MD Board President

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

MEMBERS

President CRAIG SHADUR

MOLLIE BAKER PATRICIA BARBALATO PAT BROWN KATE CAREY ELIZABETH CARTER BRYAN HALL KATHERINE RILEY HARRINGTON BRUCE HUGHES * PATRICK KELLY JOSHUA KIMELMAN MARLA LACEY LIZ LIDGETT NANCY MAIN * ELIZABETH MANSFIELD ELVIN MCDONALD ADRIENNE MCFARLAND * ANN J. MICHELSON DIANE MORAIN STEPHEN ORR CAROLYN PEASE RACHEL T. ROWLEY CHERIE SHRECK * STEPHEN STEPHENSON JUDY WATSON

President-elect SUSAN VOSS Vice-president of Development KEVIN CROFT Treasurer KAREN SHINN Secretary EMILY PONTIUS At-large VIRGINIA CROSKERY LAURIDSEN MICHAEL PATRICK Counsel to the Board JAMES H. GILLIAM Guild Council President (Ex-officio) JULIA HAGEN

FOUNDATION BOARD

TRUSTEES

President ADRIENNE MCFARLAND * President-elect CRAIG SHADUR Treasurer DENISE WIELAND Secretary ELAINE RALEIGH

JAMES BERENS HARRY BOOKEY BARBARA CAPPAERT BRUCE HUGHES * WILLIAM LOZIER NANCY MAIN * TOM MCKLVEEN * JOHN SCHMIDT SUSAN VOSS

HONORARY DIRECTORS MARY BEH FRANK R. BROWNELL III JAMES M. COLLIER PATTY COWNIE * DOROTHY ELY JAMES ERICKSON * CHUCK FARR * BARBARA GARTNER * JO GHRIST SARA HILL *

CHARLOTTE HUBBELL * SHIRLIE KATZENBERGER MARY KELLY * LINDA KOEHN * NANCY MAIN * JIM O’HALLORAN * JANIS RUAN MARY SEIDLER * CHERIE SHRECK * MARILYN VERNON *

* PAST PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD KELLY KADUCE AS DESIREE ARMFELDT IN A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC

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ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF General and Artistic Director MICHAEL EGEL

Director of Production JIM D. LILE

Music Director and Principal Conductor DAVID NEELY

Orchestra Personnel and Operations Manager MARK DORR

Director of Advancement and Operations ELLEN DIEHL

Director of the Apprentice Artist Program LISA HASSON

Director of Business and Finance ELAINE RALEIGH

Artistic Director Emeritus and Founder ROBERT L. LARSEN

Development Officer ADAM BOGH Artistic and Education Coordinator SAMUEL CARROLL Marketing and Campaign Coordinator SCOTT ARENS Art Director KIMBERLY UDROVICH Patron Services Manager DENNIS HENDRICKSON Administrative Assistant CHARI KRUSE

Des Moines Metro Opera 106 West Boston Avenue Indianola, IA 50125-1836 P: (515) 961-6221 E: dmmo@dmmo.org W: desmoinesmetroopera.org

facebook.com/DesMoinesMetroOpera instagram.com/DesMoinesMetroOpera twitter.com/DesMoinesOpera youtube.com/user/DesMoinesMetroOpera

A MEMBER OF

WITH PUBLIC FUNDING FROM

CRAIG VERM AS BILLY BUDD IN BILLY BUDD

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Words & Music at the Carnegie FROM HISTORIC LIBRARY TO OPERA CENTER 12

For the past 30 years, the Carnegie Library in Indianola has served as the administrative home to Des Moines Metro Opera.

The time has come, however, to address pressing and significant building needs and to transform the library into a functional, accessible opera center to support the program, education and community engagement efforts of the Company. To achieve this vision for the future, DMMO has embarked on a $3.5 million capital campaign which will modernize and improve efficiency while preserving the historical stature of the 113-year-old building within the community. In under a year, over $3.3 million in leadership gifts from across Iowa have been given in support of the project. Des Moines Metro Opera is deeply grateful to the Lauridsen Family Foundation for their gift of $1 million which successfully launched the campaign.

LIBRARY RENOVATION The renovation of the Carnegie Library will reconfigure the main interior space to enhance the work environment. It also expands the ground level rehearsal space from 850 square feet to 1,200 square feet. Necessary building improvements including foundation stabilization, roof replacement, HVAC and electrical system updates, energy efficiency upgrades and the addition of ADA-compliant restrooms will insure infrastructure responsibility and safety for future generations.

ATRIUM EXPANSION The atrium addition (pictured above) will add 1,800 square feet of new space on two levels, including an elevator to improve accessibility for all visitors. The unique all-glass construction allows the original north facade of the library to be seen in its entirety, which will preserve the authenticity of the building’s historic design. The addition will also create a dynamic space for Company and community events—including meetings, presentations, receptions and recitals.

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MAIN LEVEL

LOWER LEVEL

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP HONORARY CHAIRS SARA HILL CHARLOTTE AND FRED HUBBELL

CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRS ARDENE DOWNING NANCY MAIN CHERIE SHRECK

CABINET MEMBERS KATE CAREY CARRIE CLOGG AMY DUNCAN JULIA HAGEN KATHERINE RILEY HARRINGTON KAREN LANGSTRAAT VIRGINIA CROSKERY LAURIDSEN ADRIENNE MCFARLAND CRAIG SHADUR RYAN WALLER JUDY WATSON JOE WEINMAN

By making a gift to the Words & Music at the Carnegie Capital Campaign, you can help Des Moines Metro Opera celebrate its 45th anniversary and continue its service to the community while improving its capacity to produce performances of the highest quality. For more information on how you can help, please contact Ellen Diehl, Director of Advancement and Operations, 515-961-6221 or ediehl@dmmo.org.

ARCHITECTURAL RENDERINGS BY OPN ARCHITECTS

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Des Moines Metro Opera is deeply grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to the Words & Music at the Carnegie Capital Campaign (gifts received as of 6/9/17).

$1,000,000 and above Nix and Virginia Lauridsen

$500,000 - $999,999 Charlotte and Fred Hubbell

$250,000 - $499,999 Nancy Main Kathleen Picken

$100,000 - $249,999 Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey BRAVO Greater Des Moines Bob and Ardene Downing Laverty Foundation Prairie Meadows Bob and Cherie Shreck

$50,000 - $99,999 Easter Family Fund Craig and Kimberly Shadur Carl and Susan Voss

$25,000 - $49,999 Mollie and Britt Baker Kate and Tom Carey Jim and Catherine Erickson Barbara H. Graham Julia Hagen Drs. Bruce Hughes and Randall Hamilton John Ruan Foundation Trust Josh and Susie Kimelman Robert L. Larsen Paul J. Meginnis, II and Jo Sloan Frank Nowasell and Erica Anita

Riley Family Foundation TruBank Phil and Judy Watson Jim and Sandra Windsor Carleton and Barbara Zacheis

Robert and Elizabeth Freese Denis Frischmeyer Kim Guildford/Edward Jones Joel and Debra Hade Steve and Lynn Hakeman Katherine and Scott Harrington $10,000 - $24,999 Connie Isaacson Barbara and Fred Brown John S. Ramsey Trust City of Indianola Lori and Sam Kalainov Marilyn Gorham Orrie J. Koehlmoos Bryan Hall and Patricia Barry Marla Lacey and Steve Znerold Sara Hill William L. Larson Martha James and Michael Myszewski Larry McConnell Patrick Kelly Adrienne McFarland and Karen and Phil Langstraat Joseph Clamon William H. and Kristi Lozier Mikulanec Family Elizabeth and Edward Mansfield Donald W. Moorman, M.D. Ann and Brent Michelson Donald E. Newsom Diane H. Morain James and Jeanne O'Halloran Sarah and Sam O'Brien Susan Olson Michael and Christine Patrick Michael Patterson Thomas and Mary Urban Jason and Emily Pontius Alvin and Sue Ravenscroft $1,000 - $9,999 Daphne and Jamie Reyes Anonymous Paula Schultz Betty Augspurger Karen A. and Gordon Shinn Sue Rutledge Brenton and Stephen and Martha Stephenson J.C. (Buz) Brenton Elizabeth and Ryan Waller Carrie Clogg and Joshua Barlage Joe Weinman Kevin and Jill Croft Maxine S. Weinman Jim and Ellen Diehl John K. and Denise A. Wieland Amy Duncan and Mark Davitt John and Peggy Wild Michael Egel J. Richard and Janet Wood Hon. Richard and Christine Clogg Marilyn and Chuck Farr $500 - $999 Gannett Foundation Patricia Barbalato and Clay Hulsey

Jane Farrell-Beck and Marvin Beck Fred and Anne Crane Dorothy J. Ely Michael and Ann Gersie Sharlene and Oliver Hagen Indianola Federated Music Club Jane Lohnes Joan E. Mannheimer Murray and Elizabeth McKee Peter and Rita Reed Travis P. Risvold J. Robert Wise

ADDITIONAL GIFTS Nathan and Katherine Brown Pat Brown Elizabeth J. and Jared Carter Earl and Judy Check Shirley and Duane Clark Jim and Martha Fifield William and JoAnn Friedman Susan A. Glick Indianola Breakfast Lions Dave and Kim Keller Liz Lidgett and Nick Renkoski Dudley Luckett Elvin McDonald and John Zickefoose Tom and Mimi Nancarrow Martin and Carolyn Pease Tim and Rosemary Rahm Dianne S. Riley Rachel Rowley and Matthew Morgan Carl and Phyllis Staplin Diane Thiessen Sigrid Thill Beverley Wilson

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45TH ANNIVERSARY RETROSPECTIVE Des Moines Metro Opera was founded in 1973 by Maestro Robert L. Larsen and Douglas Duncan (pictured above).

Their vision was to bring professional opera to the newly constructed Blank Performing Arts Center at Simpson College in Indianola. After an initial gift of $5,000 from John and Doris Salsbury, the founders and the board of directors quickly raised $22,000—enough to bring the first season of the Des Moines Metro Summer Festival of Opera to the stage on June 22, 1973.

In the Company's early years, the staff primarily consisted of volunteers. The singers were friends or friends-offriends, the orchestra was made up of musicians from Des Moines, Simpson College students doubled as chorus and stagehands, and a great soprano

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from Iowa, Carol Stuart, dominated the stage that first season. Benjamin Britten's Albert Herring, a double bill of Arthur Benjamin's Prima Donna with Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium, and Puccini's La Rondine garnered enthusiastic reviews in Opera News, Opera Canada and many newspapers.

The first several decades would bring enormous change and growth to the fledgling company. The Des Moines Metro Opera Guild was established in the early years of the Company.

The Apprentice Artist Program had its official beginning in 1975 during the third festival season. In 1985 after a decade of movement between several makeshift offices on and around the Simpson campus, DMMO purchased the former Indianola Public Library, a

Carnegie Library building, to serve as the permanent offices for the company.

In 1987 the OPERA Iowa Educational Touring Troupe took to the road for its first tour. In 1988, following Duncan's unexpected passing, Jerilee Mace was named Executive Director—a position she would hold until her retirement in 2005. During the 20th anniversary, led

by Doris and John Salsbury, Cherie Shreck and the late Daniel J. Krumm, the Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation was established to maintain and invest endowment funds separate from the annual operating revenues of the Company.

During a three-year artistic leadership transition begun in 2010, Robert L. Larsen was named Artistic Director Emeritus, Michael Egel was named to the position General and Artistic Director and David

Neely was selected as the Company's first Music Director and Principal Conductor.

In addition to the standard repertory, the Company has a commitment to presenting exceptional works by American composers.

Memorable productions of Dead Man Walking, Regina, Street Scene, Vanessa, Candide, The Crucible and The Ballad of Baby Doe have received enthusiastic support. The commissioning of a new work for the mainstage had long been a dream for the company, and in June of 1986 that dream became a reality with the world premiere of Lee Hoiby’s The Tempest. In 1987 the theatre’s orchestra pit was expanded to pave the way for additions to the company’s repertory such as Turandot, Der Rosenkavalier, Salome, Boris Godunov, The Flying Dutchman and Fidelio. A recent

commitment to works new to the Company has paved the way for works such as Eugene Onegin, Elektra, Jenůfa, Orphée et Eurydice and this season’s Billy Budd.

The Blank Performing Arts Center has been DMMO's theatre home since its inception, but the Company also performs in the Des Moines area. Several productions have been staged at the Civic Center and Hoyt Sherman Place Theatre. As part of the newly launched 2nd Stages Series, the Company has partnered with several organizations to present chamber-sized works in unique performing venues including the Des Moines Social Club, the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden, the Des Moines Art Center, the Science Center of Iowa, and most recently Camp Dodge for Soldier Songs in January 2017.

Though the productions and staff have changed over the years, the Company has remained unwavering in its dedication to providing opportunities for American-trained talent, an environment where professionals can interact with talented and aspiring students in the field of opera, providing music education opportunities for all ages, and offering a festival that creates productions that are musically exceptional and dramatically compelling. From its modest beginnings—when a soprano or violist might also double as a scenic painter —to the present day, which features a summer staff of over 200 professional craftspeople, artists and administrators, Des Moines Metro Opera continues to grow, evolve and innovate. The Company enjoys a solid financial footing, an impeccable artistic reputation and is poised for even greater accomplishments in the years to come.

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turandot GIACOMO PUCCINI

7:30 PM June 23 | June 30 | July 8 2:00 PM June 25 | July 13 | July 16

Music by Giacomo Puccini Composed 1920-24; completed by Franco Alfano 1925-26 Text by Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni First performance: Milan; Teatro alla Scala, April 25, 1926 Previously performed at Des Moines Metro Opera: 1988 & 2002 Performed in Italian with English supertitles A new production made possible by a leadership gift from Frank R. Brownell III, with additional support from the Robert L. Larsen Scenic Endowment

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THE STORY ANCIENT PEKING OF LEGEND ACT I

ACT III

The Princess Turandot has announced that she will marry whoever can answer her three riddles. Failure will be punished by death. In a Peking square the crowd is awaiting the execution of yet another suitor. Among them is Timur, the deposed king of Tatary, who sees his long-lost son Calaf in the crowd. Timur’s servant girl Liù loves Calaf but he has fallen for Turandot. Despite the protestations of his father and Liù, Calaf resolves to solve the riddles.

Turandot has threatened to put the people of the city to death if they do not reveal the stranger’s name. The crowd then turns on Calaf and his father. Turandot arrives to question Timur but Liù comes forward, confessing that she alone knows his name. Fortified by her love for Calaf she refuses to betray him and, before she can be executed, she takes her own life, telling Turandot that through her death Turandot will learn the nature of love. The sun has still not risen but Calaf confronts Turandot and passionately kisses her. She begs him to leave but he refuses and, as the trumpets announce the coming of dawn, Calaf reveals his name. His life is in her hands and, overwhelmed by his sincerity, Turandot tells her father that the stranger’s name is Love.

INTERMISSION ACT II The emperor Altoum also tries to convince Calaf of the folly of his quest, but Calaf is adamant. Turandot is similarly sure that no one will ever succeed, but when Calaf answers her riddles correctly she begs Altoum to release her from her oath. Calaf turns the tables on Turandot by agreeing to go to his execution if she can guess his name before sunrise the following day.

INTERMISSION

DIRECTOR'S NOTES BY STEPHANIE SUNDINE, STAGE DIRECTOR

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When Giacomo Puccini died in November of 1924, he left behind 36 pages of sketches for the remainder of the opera, from which fellow composer Franco Alfano composed the duet between Turandot and Calaf and the finale of the opera.

score, that Timur is not blind as he is often portrayed. In fact, nowhere in the text of the opera nor in Puccini’s libretto, is there any mention of Timur being blind.

Puccini also left behind a wealth of information that makes it possible to understand how he wanted the opera to be performed. Puccini completed a version of the libretto more than a year before he died and provided vivid and detailed descriptions of every character and each set, along with lighting notes and references to costumes and props. For example, in Act I Timur, the deposed king and Calaf’s father, comes to after being knocked to the ground. The libretto stage direction says Timur opens his eyes and looks at his son, almost not believing the truth, and cries to him, “Oh, my son!

You! Alive?” This is proof, along with similar directions in the

Another great source is the disposizione scenica—loosely translated as the production book—a step-by-step description of performances prepared by composers with their librettists or publishers. While Puccini was not there to do the production book for Turandot, there is one compiled by the stage director of the premiere at La Scala, with possible input by the librettists and Arturo Toscanini. I have studied this and the libretto carefully and enjoy exploring all this information. Wherever possible, I have applied it in my work with the designers as well as all the singers in a way that helps illuminate what Puccini wanted from his last opera.

PRODUCTION

CAST

Conductor DAVID NEELY

Princess Turandot ALEXANDRA LOBIANCO

Stage Director STEPHANIE SUNDINE

Emperor Altoum RYAN C. CONNELLY †

Scenic Design R. KEITH BRUMLEY

Timur FEDERICO DE MICHELIS *

Lighting Design BARRY STEELE

Calaf JONATHAN BURTON

Make-Up/Hair Design BRITTANY CRINSON for ELSEN ASSOCIATES

Liù VANESSA VASQUEZ *

ALEXANDRA LOBIANCO

JONATHAN BURTON

Ping MICHAEL ADAMS

Chorus Master LISA HASSON

Pang BRIAN FRUTIGER

Musical Preparation ELDEN LITTLE

Pong CHRIS CARR †

Fight Choreographer BRIAN ROBERTSON

VANESSA VASQUEZ

A Mandarin TIMOTHY BRUNO *

Associate Conductor STEFANO SARZANI

The Prince of Persia NATE CARTER *

Assistant Stage Director REBECCA HERMAN

Executioner PAUL SCHMIDT *

Children's Chorus Master BARBARA SLETTO Children's Chorus Pianist RUTH DORR

Executioner's Assistants R.J. BROWN * JEFF HOLMES *

Costume Design MARY TRAYLOR for LYRIC OPERA OF KANSAS CITY

Mandarins DAVID CHEUNG * LARRY HEJTMANEK *

Stage Manager HESTER WARREN-STEIJN

Ladies-in-Waiting GABRIELLE CLUTTER * ELIZABETH FISHER * DANIELLE KROPVELD * SARAH PARKER * Standard Bearer JIM MCLALLEN * WILL THOMPSON *

FEDERICO DE MICHELIS

MICHAEL ADAMS

BRIAN FRUTIGER

Popolo Children JULIAN BURTON * CORA SHIRLEY-BROWN * REYNA SHIRLEY-BROWN * Children's Chorus GABE BEEDON * MERIDAN BOYD ANNIE DAWSON * AMARA G. DORR * ALYSSA DOUGHERTY * KAYLEN DOUGHERTY * PRESILA EDWARD * NOAH GILBERT * CAMPBELL HELTON * SAM NIGG * ELIJAH PICK * ANNA ROODNITSKY * MAYA SHIRLEY-BROWN * MARGI SKINNER * EMMA WAGNER *

* Des Moines Metro Opera debut †

CHRIS CARR

RYAN C. CONNELLY

TIMOTHY BRUNO

Former Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist 37

A TASTE FOR THE EXOTIC:

PUCCINI AND TURANDOT The quest to bring Turandot to life was almost a dilemma of fairy tale proportions BY ROGER PINES

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When Turandot premiered at Milan’s La Scala on April 25, 1926, there occurred an event unique in the history of opera: following the death of Liù, Arturo Toscanini stopped the orchestra and, turning to the audience, announced, “Here the opera ends, because at this point the maestro died.” The performance concluded there, with the opera’s ending unheard by the first-night audience.

also dealing with drama on a more massive scale, supporting it with an expanded orchestra. Turandot relies above all on a large percussion section (think of the xylophone, so crucial from the very beginning of the opera), which helps immeasurably in communicating a convincingly Chinese atmosphere.

In Turandot Puccini also used Chinese folk songs in telling ways; the gentle children’s chorus in Act One is just one of the many examples.

Nothing could have demonstrated more powerfully that Turandot had brought down the curtain on Italian opera’s greatest era. Puccini’s “swan song” halted the amazing flow of inspiration that had begun with Rossini and continued with Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi. Worthy Italian stage works have been written since Turandot, but it remains the last opera in Italian to enter the standard repertoire.

Just as it was a Max Reinhardt production of Wilde’s Salome that inspired Strauss to pen his opera, it was Reinhardt’s 1911 production of another version of Turandot— Ferruccio Busoni’s that planted a seed in Puccini’s mind. Il trittico and La rondine, however, reached completion first; it was not until 1921 that Puccini began intensive work on Turandot— and not before considering a variety of other possibilities for libretti, none of which came to fruition. He was searching for something different, something adventurous. Certainly this work filled the bill.

As was his wont, Puccini debated endlessly with his librettists, Giuseppe Adami and Renato Simoni; they frustrated him greatly, due to their inability to resolve the drama effectively in the third act.

Puccini felt Liù’s death “could have a powerful influence on the thawing of the princess,” but it is Calaf’s kiss, not the slave’s self-sacrifice, that warms Turandot’s heart. The abrupt transference of audience sympathy from Liù to Turandot never quite comes off.

Puccini had previously immersed himself in Asian music during the composition of Madama Butterfly.

For Turandot, however, the setting was ancient China rather than comparatively modern Japan; he was

fantasy (In addition to Turandot, his works also included L’amore delle tre melarance, from which Prokofiev created his sparkling Love for Three Oranges). Adami and Simoni produced a libretto in three acts rather than Gozzi’s five, while also deleting or combining several characters. Puccini scholars William Ashbrook and Harold Powers, in their 1991 book on the opera, explain that “Gozzi conceals a ferocious war of the sexes behind a charming fairy tale...naïveté borders on childlike innocence,” while in Puccini’s work, “an atmosphere of somber grandeur and barbaric cruelty prevails from the beginning.”

A lifelong smoker, Puccini composed Turandot while battling throat cancer.

He died at 65 on November 29, 1924, leaving Turandot unfinished. In all performances after the premiere, theaters used a duet and final scene by Puccini’s friend and fellow composer, Franco Alfano. A musician of no small reputation, Alfano produced several stage works that succeeded in their time. Still, Risurrezione (1904), based on Tolstoy, is the only Alfano opera to have maintained even moderate name recognition today.

GIACOMO PUCCINI

The composer’s dramatic source took a rather roundabout route before reaching him. It began in 1762 in Carlo Gozzi’s play, which he termed a “tragicomic Chinese theatrical fable.” Translated into German prose in 1779, it was later versified by none other than Friedrich von Schiller. The Italian translator Andrea Maffei brought Schiller’s version back into Italian, and it was this version that Puccini and his collaborators used.

Twelve composers had previously created operas from the story of the ice princess and her unknown prince, including six 19th century Germans.

Carlo Gozzi (1720-1806) originally wrote Turandot in response to his rivalry with Carlo Goldoni, who favored comedies of manners in a more realistic milieu. Gozzi remained committed to traditional commedia dell’arte, but was determined to expand it into the realm of exotic

Alfano worked from 36 pages of Puccini sketches, struggling with the highly individual handwriting and the fragmentary nature of the material itself. According to the distinguished Puccini scholar Jürgen Maehder, a full two-thirds of the duet and finale are pure Alfano. From the time of the second performance of Turandot, cuts have been made in Alfano’s original ending. For the rest of his life, Alfano remained bitter regarding his shabby treatment at the hands of Toscanini and others who insisted on cuts in his complete ending. Even in the Ricordi piano-vocal score in print today, the “standard” cuts appear. It seems that certain German performances used the complete ending until 1930, but it has been rarely heard since, due to the increased demands made on both tenor and soprano. (The pervasive lack of total satisfaction with the Alfano ending led the late Italian composer Luciano Berio to create a new ending, approved by the Puccini estate and premiered in a Canary Islands performance in 2002.)

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For the first Turandot audiences, surprises came not only in the sheer magnificence of the score—by far Puccini’s greatest achievement as an orchestrator—but also in the title role. For a change, Puccini had it in for his leading soprano; he created an atypically unsympathetic heroine, while hammering away mercilessly at the singer’s upper register. Like the Götterdämmerung Brünnhilde, Turandot requires a vast sound with tremendous thrust, but the resemblances end there; the Valkyrie can exhaust a soprano with its sheer length, whereas Turandot, although consistently higher, has only about 20 minutes of music. The role is manageable, provided the singer possesses the requisite size of voice and all-important security at the top.

If fully in command on the vocal side, the soprano can be free to embody the character, and here extraordinary interpretive skill is essential. As in Salome, it is all too common in this opera to encounter a monster, with both heart and voice as hard-edged as her long fingernails. To make Turandot reasonably credible, the soprano must endow her with a soul from the beginning.

The late Dame Eva Turner, one of the most renowned of all Turandots, waxed eloquent in this regard: “Her overriding emotion is fear, a fear from which all other qualities stem. ‘Non guardarmi così!’ [‘Don’t look at me that way!’] is not a cry of anger but of fear. She knows instinctively that she has met her match, a man for whom she has a real affinity—and he for her— pre-ordained and inescapable.”

If portraying Turandot has taxed many sopranos, one cannot invariably blame the singers themselves; when the Alfano ending is severely cut, the character is not allowed to develop properly. Many Turandots

welcome the chance to melt the ice in the aria “Del primo pianto,” which occurs within the final duet. Here the princess, weeping her first tears, reveals that she had been in anguish since she first caught sight of Calaf.

Twelve composers had previously created operas from the story of the ice princess and her unknown prince The obvious dramatic contrast is, of course, the slave Liù—who is the last of the typical “Puccini girls”: sweetly tender-hearted like Mimì, selfless like Minnie, self-sacrificing like Butterfly.

(There is no Liù in Gozzi, but there are two sweet handmaidens, as well as a Tartar princess who attempts suicide out of unrequited love for Calaf.) As with Turandot, the role is not long, but the phrases are exquisitely shaped, requiring not simply technical knowhow, but also the passionate sincerity that is the hallmark of any good Puccini singer. Liù also cannot be played with such fragility as to render her subsequent fortitude and suicide inconceivable.

The male contingent includes one of Puccini’s few prominent bass roles, that of Timur, exiled King of Tartary.

His function is chiefly to attempt to warn his son Calaf against becoming

obsessed with Turandot. In Act Three, Timur does lash out at the forces that have caused Liù’s death. In all Timur’s utterances, one should hear a rolling basso cantante that can also hold its own in the Act One ensembles.

Ping, Pang, and Pong grew out of Gozzi’s four “masks”—originally Venetian commedia figures (Truffaldino, Brighella, Pantalone, and Tartaglia) who find themselves in China and become officials in the emperor’s court. Puccini’s trio have the titles of Chancellor, Grand Purveyor, and Chief Cook. Like Gozzi’s commedia quartet, they serve to some degree as commentators. Their movement is invariably detailed and precise, likewise their scenes, which requires superbly polished musicianship.

There remains the leading man, Prince Calaf, in vocal weight probably the heaviest of all the Puccini heroes. In addition to those challenging riddles, Calaf has his own purely vocal trials to endure, chiefly the large-scale finale of Act One; the triumphant high Cs of the Riddle Scene—one required, the other optional; the universally beloved “Nessun dorma,” in which that final “vincerò” represents the audience’s single greatest moment of anticipation; and, at the end of an already strenuous evening, Alfano’s thankless but taxing love duet.

Turandot covered the major opera houses before the end of the 1920s, and has been played regularly ever since, particularly during the heyday of Dame Eva Turner and Gina Cigna in the 1930s and 1940s. In America, however, Turandot did not take off in popularity until Birgit Nilsson’s princess introduced a generation of American operagoers to this work.

Turandot may not have earned the universal love accorded Puccini’s “big three” (Bohème, Tosca, Butterfly), but it offers an audience something quite different: blessed and welcome escapism, a journey into a fairy-tale world. Its appeal will never die, not as long as we have dramatic sopranos with gleaming high Cs and heroic tenors who can send us out into the night with “Nessun dorma” ringing in our ears.

Roger Pines, dramaturg of Lyric Opera of Chicago, writes regularly for major music publications and recording companies internationally.

DMMO'S 2002 TURANDOT

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This article in its original form was first printed in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s magazine and is reprinted here by permission.

to "t" or not to "t" Music scholars have been fiercely divided over the pronunciation of Turandot’s name for decades, with renowned historians and linguists lining up on both sides of the debate. At question is whether the final ‘t’ of Turandot should or should not be pronounced. Despite years of research, there is still, surprisingly, no scholarly consensus on this controversial topic.

The original Turandot tale has its roots in the 13th century Mongol fable of Khutulun, a 19-year-old warrior-princess who insisted that any man seeking her hand in marriage must first defeat her in wrestling. In 1710 French author François Pétis de la Croix published a collection of Arabic myths and legends entitled The Book of One Thousand and One Days (not to be confused with One Thousand and One Nights) which included a modified Khutulun. In this tale, she was a Persian princess that de la Croix called Turan-dokht, translated literally as “the daughter of Turan.” In "dokht," both the ‘kh’ and the ‘t’ are pronounced.

After being adapted yet again by Carlo Gozzi—this time in Italian—the name was simplified to Turandot. As is custom in the Italian language, words are often adapted into the diminutive as a form of endearment. Therefore, Turandot becomes Turandotte ("little Turandot").

In the Italian language, the final ‘t’ would be pronounced in the diminutive version of the name. In fact, Puccini himself wrote a poem addressed to Renato Simoni (one of the librettists) in which he uses the diminutive version of the name:

‘Bevi una tazza di caffè di notte; / Vedrai, non dormi e pensi a Turandotte’ (Drink a cup of coffee at night; / You’ll see, you won’t sleep, you’ll think of little Turandot instead).

However, there are several scholars and singers who argue that Puccini specifically requested the final ‘t’ to be silent in the final months before his death. The original Turandot, soprano Rosa Raisa, claims that the conductor Arturo Toscanini was told

by Puccini that the final ‘t’ was never to be pronounced.

Yet another famous early Turandot, Eva Turner, never pronounced the final ‘t’ in her performances. After being asked this question in one of her interviews with Robert Lloyd, she responded, “I was at the first performance that Toscanini conducted, and it was ‘Turando[t].’ And whenever I sang it for the first time, or whenever I sang it, I say ‘Turando[t].’ And, I think I have to confess, I like it. More especially when it involves a musical line, to keep the continuity going. It isn’t quite so chopped.”

Another layer of confusion comes from the composer’s granddaughter, Simonetta Puccini, the keeper of the Villa Puccini and Mausoleum, who has rebuffed the sopranos, stating that the final ‘t’ must be pronounced.

So, where does this leave us? Nearly 100 years later, the debate still continues and there seems to be no definitive answer—fitting for an unfinished opera that revolves around riddles!

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A Little night Music STEPHEN SONDHEIM

8:00 PM June 24 7:30 PM July 5 | July 7 | July 15 2:00 PM July 2

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim Book by Hugh Wheeler Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick Suggested by a Film by Ingmar Bergman Originally Produced and Directed on Broadway by Harold Prince First Performance: New York; Shubert Theatre, February 25, 1973 Company Premiere Performed in English with English supertitles A Little Night Music is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. This Houston Grand Opera production of A Little Night Music is an original production of Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.

Isaac Mizrahi’s designs are made possible by leadership gifts from Bankers Trust and James and Ellen Hubbell

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THE STORY SWEDEN AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY ACT I Madame Armfeldt, a grand dame who was once a fabulous courtesan, instructs her granddaughter Fredrika on life and solitaire—and about how the summer night smiles three times.

Having re-established their connection, Desiree hopes to revive Fredrik’s love permanently and invites the Egerman family for a weekend at the Armfeldt chateau in the country to meet her mother and her daughter Fredrika. Could Fredrika be Desiree and Fredrik’s love child?

A lawyer, Fredrik Egerman, has married Anne, a much younger woman who is terribly high-strung and still a virgin after almost a year of marriage. His son Henrik, a seminary student still living at home, is in love with Anne without really knowing it, though he lusts after the maid Petra as well.

INTERMISSION

The actress Desiree Armfeldt comes to town in a play. She and Fredrik had been lovers years ago, and Fredrik takes Anne to see Desiree in the show. Anne is suspicious of Fredrik’s lingering affections for Desiree and they walk out of the show abruptly. Fredrik finds himself in Desiree’s company later that night.

When he hears of the happy “Weekend in the Country,” the jealous Carl-Magnus decides to show up with this wife Charlotte and impose themselves as guests. The second act takes place entirely in the country as the three couples, Fredrik and Desiree, Carl-Magnus and Charlotte, Henrik and Anne, untangle the lovers’ knots of confused emotion, latent desires and a few heated words thrown in for good measure.

ACT II

Desiree is involved with Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, a sexy young dragoon who is very possessive of Desiree yet very married to Charlotte, a friend of Anne’s. Carl-Magnus shows up unexpectedly at Desiree’s place just after her reunion with Fredrik. They make up a half-witted story to explain what Fredrik is doing there at that time of night.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES BY MATTHEW OZAWA, STAGE DIRECTOR The summer night smiles three times: the first for the young, who know nothing; the second, at the fools who know too little; and the third, for the old, who know too much.

Sondheim’s A Little Night Music boldly whips together lovers, sexual desires and foolishness in this witty and sophisticated romantic musical comedy. Inspired by Ingmar Bergman’s film Smiles of a Summer Night, Sondheim’s music and Hugh Wheeler’s book take a bubbly but biting look at tangled liaisons and romantic intrigues where hopelessly mismatched couples yearn for their proper partner.

In parallel with the character’s interrelationships (all based on the number three drawn to the stable two), Sondheim’s score is primarily in triple time, inspired by the Viennese waltz

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operettas of J. Strauss, Lehár and Kálmán. Various permutations of triple time dance forms of the 18th and 19th century including the Waltz, Mazurka, Sarabande, Polonaise, Etude and Gigue create the foundation for this mischievous tale.

Isaac Mizrahi’s production elegantly places our story in an enchanting Shakespearean forest where farce and love abound. Set in the turn-of-the-century Sweden, the sumptuous period costumes are intricately woven with vintage fabrics of gold and cream, while the vibrant flora of the forest fill the space with rich color.

In a land where the sun never sets, I hope you let this magical story transport you to memories of your own love and folly.

PRODUCTION

CAST

Conductor ERIC MELEAR

Mr. Lindquist CHARLES H. EATON

Stage Director MATTHEW OZAWA

Mrs. Nordstrom CHELSEA MILLER *

Scenic and Costume Design ISAAC MIZRAHI

Mrs. Anderssen GRACE KAHL *

Lighting Design NATE WHEATLEY

Mr. Erlanson CHRISTIAN SANDERS

Make-Up/Hair Design BRITTANY CRINSON for Elsen and Associates

Mrs. Segstrom STEPHANIE SCHOENHOFER

KELLY KADUCE

TROY COOK

Fredrika Armfeldt AVIANA GEDLER

Musical Preparation YASUKO OURA

Madame Armfeldt JOYCE CASTLE

Choreographer TODD RHOADES

Frid, her butler, JOHN GRAHAM *

Associate Conductor CODY MARTIN

JOYCE CASTLE

Henrik Egerman QUINN BERNEGGER *

Assistant Stage Director JOSHUA BORTHS

Anne Egerman LAUREN SNOUFFER *

Stage Manager ADAM FULMER

Fredrik Egerman TROY COOK

LAUREN SNOUFFER

Petra MELANIE LONG † Desiree Armfeldt KELLY KADUCE Malla, her maid EMILY TRIEBOLD *

QUINN BERNEGGER

Bertrand, a page ZACH ROHLWING * Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm LEE GREGORY Countess Charlotte Malcolm ELISE QUAGLIATA †

ELISE QUAGLIATA

Osa MARY BRICKER * Young Prince AKUL GONCHIGAR *

* Des Moines Metro Opera debut †

LEE GREGORY

Former Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist

MELANIE LONG

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SETTING THE STANDARDS

Though known for his musicals, Stephen Sondheim's works were often at the edge between Broadway and opera BY PATRICK SUMMERS

Accepting the 1998 William Inge Distinguished Achievement in American Theatre Award in Independence, Kansas, composer Stephen Sondheim concluded his brief remarks with a poem by Christopher Logue: Come to the edge.

We might fall.

Come to the edge.

It’s too high!

COME TO THE EDGE! And they came, And he pushed, And they flew.

Stephen Sondheim (b. 1930) is one of the most honored, documented, and revered men in theatrical history.

His musicals have consistently gone to the edge, altering the landscape of American theater, and he has influenced several generations of younger composers. Indeed, nearly every musical and opera written in the past 40 years betrays a strong influence of Sondheim’s unique artistic qualities: a complex integration of words and music and a lean and literate lyricism.

The first major retrospective came early, when much of his most important work still lay ahead, Side

by Side by Sondheim, in 1976. His colleagues knew even then that something very special was afoot.

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Recent years have brought attempts to examine every detail of Sondheim’s creations. His major birthday celebration concerts, when he turned 75, 80, and 85, have been major theatrical events approaching monarchical commemorations. He is the only living composer with a periodical devoted solely to him, The Sondheim Review, to which he sometimes contributes in order to clarify details. In addition to eight Tony Awards, an Academy Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Sondheim has received the theater community’s highest honor, having a Broadway theater named for him—a gesture that moved the normally cool Sondheim to tears. Most poignantly, he is the last direct link to our country’s storied theatrical past.

After the divorce of his parents in the 1940s, Sondheim moved with his mother from his native New York City to Doylestown, Pennsylvania. He befriended a boy at his new school who happened to be James (Jimmy) Hammerstein, the son of Oscar Hammerstein II. Sondheim was 10 years old when he met the 45-yearold Oscar, who at that time was shortly to embark on his partnership with Richard Rodgers: Sondheim would not only witness the innovations of the famous duo’s Oklahoma! and Carousel, but he would also work as a go-fer on their third collaboration, the experimental

Allegro, which would have considerable influence on Sondheim’s work.

Coming from a painfully broken home, Sondheim cherished the attention of the elder Hammerstein, who became his mentor and surrogate father.

According to an anecdote Sondheim has told thousands of times, as a teenager he brought an original musical to Hammerstein for an honest evaluation. “In that case, it’s the worst thing I’ve ever read,” Hammerstein said. “But if you want to know why it’s terrible, I’ll tell you.” Sondheim claims to have learned in the ensuing few hours much of what he needed to learn for a theatrical career.

Sondheim would go on to reshape the musical in even more radical ways than his mentor. His earliest major work was as a lyricist for two iconic shows, Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story and Jule Styne’s Gypsy. Asked in 1982 what had given him the most satisfaction in his life, Sondheim replied, “It was when I picked up the New York Times one day….and the first sentence in the lead editorial said, 'Everything is not coming up roses in South Vietnam.’

And I thought, ‘I’ve passed a phrase into the English language.'” “Everything’s Coming up Roses” is, of course, the Act I finale of Gypsy, originally sung by the stentorian Ethel Merman.

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Among Sondheim’s collaborators, all of whom he has consistently and generously acknowledged, it would be impossible to overstate the importance of his relationship with producer/ director Harold Prince (pictured below with Sondheim), the 21-time Tony Award winner who originally directed A Little Night Music. Their story is right out of theatrical lore: they met at the 1949 opening night of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, after which they formed a friendship and fantasized about their futures over regular meals at a Midtown drugstore.

Prince was initially a producer, including for Bernstein and Sondheim’s West Side Story, but it was not until 1970, on Company, that they realized their dream of working together.

Prince went on to direct the next five Sondheim musicals in the ensuing decade, while still finding time to direct Cabaret, On the Twentieth Century, The Phantom of the Opera, The Kiss of the Spider Woman, Evita, and several operas, including the premiere of Carlisle Floyd’s Willie Stark at Houston Grand Opera in 1983. Prince described his aesthetic goal for A Little Night Music as something akin to “whipped cream with knives.”

Hungry to compose both music and texts, Sondheim embarked on a series of innovative musicals with an incredibly diverse set of themes: freedom (A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum), political corruption (Anyone Can Whistle), the isolation of a crowded city (Evening Primrose), modern relationships (Company), regret of an idealized past (Follies), the opening of Japan to the West (Pacific Overtures), vengeance (Sweeney Todd), corrupted ideals (Merrily We Roll Along), the artist’s conflict between creative fulfillment and having a “normal” life (Sunday in the Park with George), the dark side of fairy tales (Into the Woods), and, in his lilting and sophisticated A Little Night Music, he delved into the labyrinths of romance in this homage to the European operettas of Hammerstein’s youth.

A Little Night Music is composed in various mathematical combinations of three-quarter time. This is no theoretical exercise: the intricate plot involves a series of interweaving and mismatched love triangles all trying to form themselves into pairs—a form that fully dictated the musical content, perfectly illustrating one of

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Sondheim’s fundamental principles: “Content dictates form.”

Unusual for commercial theater, A Little Night Music takes musical inspiration from an array of sources beginning with its title, borrowed from the beloved 1787 string serenade by Mozart, Eine kleine Nachtmusik. The Liebeslieders—the quintet of singers who frame and comment on the action—are linked to two works that evoke romantic escapades swathed in moonlight: the Liebeslieder waltzes of Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms.

“In Praise of Women,” the blustering song sung by Carl-Magnus, is based on a Chopin polonaise. Ravel’s sensuous Valses nobles et sentimentales exerted considerable influence over A Little Night Music, particularly in “Liaisons” and in the enchanting “Night Waltz,” which is threaded throughout. The misty “Perpetual Anticipation” has the feeling of Béla Bartók’s Mikrokosmos, while “You Must Meet My Wife” is pure Johann Strauss. And the score’s most famous song, “Send in the Clowns,” took subconscious inspiration, according to Sondheim, from the 18th variation of Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini.

Another of Sondheim’s most important colleagues has been orchestrator Jonathan Tunick. In the commercial theater as opposed to opera, composers are not expected to orchestrate, because the demands of a Broadway rehearsal period make it virtually impossible to deliver this most time-consuming task.

Tunick was the orchestrator of nearly all of Sondheim’s works, and most brilliantly so in A Little Night Music, which is lush with strings and woodwinds and has no “rhythm” section so common to Broadway scores. As a surprise to Sondheim, Tunick even added a quote of the opening theme of another famous love-triangle story, Richard Strauss’s opera Der Rosenkavalier, at the climax of “A Weekend in the Country.”

“A Little Night Music was our least poorly received show of the period,” Sondheim once dryly noted, acknowledging the criticisms he faced throughout the 1970s, when many critics waxed romantic about an earlier era of carefree and optimistic shows. The shows changed, of course, because America changed, not vice versa; the kind of homespun optimism that infused pop culture throughout the 1950s was simply no longer credible after the social upheavals of the 1960s and Watergate-era 1970s.

Sondheim does not set words to music in the traditional sense; he inseparably melds music and words, as did the greatest opera composers.

The earliest and most common criticism of Sondheim was that he didn’t write memorable tunes. Speaking broadly, Sondheim writes short and dramatic musical motifs more often than he writes melodies. The same could be said of much of Bach, Handel, and Mozart, who were generally motivic composers, contrasted with Verdi, Puccini, and Rachmaninoff, not to mention nearly every composer of popular songs who wrote long and romantic melodies. Sondheim does not set words to music in the traditional sense; he inseparably melds music and words, as did the greatest opera composers.

But when Sondheim does write melodies, they are incomparable and refreshingly free of cliches.

Listen to Company’s "Being Alive" or Merrily We Roll Along’s "Not a Day Goes By" or the soaring song that propels Sweeney Todd into another sphere, one of Sondheim’s greatest—"Not While I’m Around." From Follies, "In Buddy’s Eyes" and "Too Many Mornings" are among the most inspired melodies ever written for a Broadway show. And who could hear the sublime "Sunday," which closes each act of Sunday in the Park with George, and not think Sondheim one of the great tunesmiths of the age? A Little Night Music waltzes quite easily into the repertoire of an opera company, filled with lyricism, intelligence, a wicked wit, and indelible roles, precisely what opera audiences have come to expect from Mozart, Donizetti, Verdi, Wagner, and Britten. Sondheim unquestionably belongs in their company.

Patrick Summers is the Artistic and Music Director of Houston Grand Opera. This article first appeared in the program of Houston Grand Opera and is reprinted by permission.

Send in the Clowns It has always somewhat puzzled Sondheim that of all his work, “Send in the Clowns” has achieved the popularity it has, with 700 different recordings by incredibly diverse artists.

The song’s vocabulary is that of a veteran actress—“entrances,” “exits,” “sure of my lines,” “flair”—which is obvious within a performance of A Little Night Music but difficult to understand out of context. With brittle regret, the actress chides herself for bad choices. The clowns of the song are not circus clowns but theatrical farceurs, the funny folk a director sends in to save a show or scene that isn’t working, or the comic characters meant to temper the tone of a serious play, like the two gravediggers in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

“Send in the Clowns” was a last-minute addition to the show’s second act. The original Desiree, Glynis Johns, recalled in an interview celebrating the show’s 25th anniversary that the confrontation scene between Fredrik and Desiree was not working, and Hal Prince was stymied. He had Johns and Len Cariou, the original Fredrik, improvise what they were feeling, and later that day, they performed the improvisation for Sondheim. She said, “Steve arrived around 4 p.m. and watched it. Then he went off, came back at 10 the next morning, sat down and played ‘Send in the Clowns.’ Len and I were standing by the piano, and he played the first half a dozen notes, if that, and I had tears in my eyes…I looked at Len and his eyes were full, too.”

Listening to a playback of the 1973 Original Broadway Cast Recording—Glynis Johns, Columbia Records President Goddard Lieberson, Len Cariou and Stephen Sondheim

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Billy Bu" BENJAMIN BRITTEN

7:30 PM July 1 | July 11 | July 14 2:00 PM July 9

Music by Benjamin Britten Libretto by E. M. Forster and Eric Crozier First Performance: London; Covent Garden, December 1, 1951 Company Premiere Performed in English with English supertitles By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., publisher and copyright owner. Revised orchestration by Steuart Bedford.

A new production premiering a revised orchestration, made possible by a leadership gift from the Lauridsen Family Foundation This production of Billy Budd will be broadcast on Iowa Public Television in the Fall of 2017

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THE STORY THE LATE 18TH CENTURY; ON BOARD THE BATTLESHIP H.M.S. INDOMITABLE PROLOGUE

Captain Vere, as an old man, is haunted by memories of a disturbing incident in “the summer of 1797.”

ACT I

The H.M.S. Indomitable receives newly press-ganged recruits taken from merchant ship The Rights o’Man. One of them, the stammering Billy Budd, is sent to the crow’s nest; Billy sings of his happiness, “Farewell, old Rights o’Man,” which alarms the officers, who think he is referring to political rights. Claggart, the master-at-arms, instructs his corporal Squeak to make Billy’s life difficult, and Billy is warned to stay out of Claggart’s way.

In Vere’s cabin a week later, two officers tell him about Billy’s song but he advises them not to worry. Below deck the men are singing when Billy leaves to fetch some tobacco from his kitbag.

He finds Squeak going through his things; Squeak pulls a knife but Billy knocks him down. Claggart is forced to put his spy in chains. Left alone, Claggart sings of his hatred for Billy.

INTERMISSION ACT II

Claggart asks to register a complaint with the captain—who is irritated by his sycophancy. They are interrupted by the call to engage. The French have been spotted but escape into the mist.

Claggart returns to making his complaint and Vere agrees to talk to Billy. Back in Vere’s cabin, Claggart formally accuses Billy of attempted mutiny. Billy is incensed and, unable to get any words out, strikes Claggart dead. Vere orders a court martial and Billy is condemned. The following day, Dansker tells Billy that the ship is on the edge of mutiny, but Billy urges him to keep the peace— otherwise more will hang. Just before he is hanged Billy calls out his blessings on the captain (“Starry Vere, God bless you”).

EPILOGUE

Vere, now an old man, mourns his actions. He knows that he could have saved Billy, but takes some comfort from his final words.

DIRECTOR'S NOTES BY KRISTINE MCINTYRE, STAGE DIRECTOR Why does evil exist? Are we really powerless to stop it? And why does Billy have to die?

These are the central questions of Britten's Billy Budd, and I'm not sure the opera provides many answers. E.M. Forster wanted to craft a story about Goodness and about the redeeming power of love. He wanted to "tidy-up Vere"— which is British intellectual speak for making Vere less obnoxiously indifferent and more human than Melville's version. Forster wanted certainty and he wanted redemption.

In the hands of Benjamin Britten, the opera becomes a masterpiece of moral crisis, an exploration of regret and loss, what is just and what is right. It was Britten who added the Prologue and Epilogue, turning the opera into a memory play with Vere

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as its tortured and perhaps unreliable narrator. For Britten's Vere, forgiveness is elusive and the opera ends just with Vere's voice, a man alone in a universe where God may not exist.

Redemption may have been out of reach for Herman Melville, too. He began Billy Budd right after the death of his youngest son Stanwix and was still haunted by the suicide of his older son Malcolm, who shot himself to death in his bedroom at age 18. His boys became Billy and the novel an elegy from a regretful father to his two dead sons. Forster said the novel "reaches straight back into the universal, to a blackness and sadness so transcending our own that they are indistinguishable from glory." Britten has given us an opera that is just as glorious, even if it leaves us to answer these questions for ourselves.

PRODUCTION

CAST

Conductor DAVID NEELY

Billy Budd CRAIG VERM

Stage Director KRISTINE MCINTYRE

Edward Fairfax Vere ROGER HONEYWELL

Scenic Design R. KEITH BRUMLEY

John Claggart ZACHARY JAMES *

Costume Design JONATHAN KNIPSCHER

Mr. Redburn DENNIS JESSE

Lighting & Projection Design BARRY STEELE

Mr. Flint FEDERICO DE MICHELIS *

Make-Up/Hair Design BRITTANY CRINSON for ELSEN ASSOCIATES

Lieutenant Ratcliffe KRISTOPHER IRMITER

CRAIG VERM

ROGER HONEYWELL

Red Whiskers STEVEN SANDERS †

Chorus Master LISA HASSON

Donald MICHAEL ADAMS

Musical Preparation GEOFFREY LOFF

ZACHARY JAMES

Dansker THOMAS HAMMONS *

Fight Choreographer BRIAN ROBERTSON

Novice CHRISTIAN SANDERS

Associate Conductor JOHN SPENCER IV

Novice’s Friend EMMETT O'HANLON *

Assistant Stage Director OCTAVIO CARDENAS

THOMAS HAMMONS

Squeak RYAN C. CONNELLY †

Children's Chorus Master BARBARA SLETTO

The Bosun TIMOTHY BRUNO *

Children's Chorus Pianist RUTH DORR

Maintop CHRIS CARR †

Stage Manager BRIAN AUGUST

MICHAEL ADAMS

Arthur Jones TED PICKELL * 1st Mate BRANDON HENDRICKSON † 2nd Mate JESSE STOCK † Cabin Boy BENJAMIN SARVIS * Midshipmen ADAM KOCH * GABRIEL MCKEE * KYLE MERFELD * ISAAC NOBLE * Powder Monkeys NATHAN BROXSON * JOSEPH CRABB * MICHAEL CRABB * HENRY GOLAY * JACOB GRAUERHOLZ * AMOS HANSER * LUKE KUMMET * AARON WETZLER *

DENNIS JESSE

FEDERICO DE MICHELIS

KRISTOPHER IRMITER

* Des Moines Metro Opera debut †

Former Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist

53

You Must Choose a Mighty Theme The complex relationship between good and evil is the central theme in Billy Budd BY MARK TIARKS

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If you asked a well-read American citizen of the mid-19th century about Herman Melville he or she might have responded enthusiastically about his novels of the sea. But this did not mean Billy Budd, which was not published until 1924, more than three decades after his death, or Moby Dick, which was widely considered an artistic as well as commercial failure. Melville’s popularity was based instead on tales of nautical adventure set amid exotic South Sea locales, such as Typee (1846) and Oomo (1847).

Born in 1819, Melville spent four years of his early life as a sailor, serving first on a merchant ship, then whaling boats and finally aboard the frigate United States.

Ships were, as he put it, “my Yale College and my Harvard.” He also participated in a mutiny from one of the whalers, for which he was briefly jailed in Tahiti.

His celebrity peaked in 1850, with WhiteJacket, or The World in a Man-of-War, due not to its artistic merits, which were slight, but because it prompted a national uproar about flogging in the American navy, with Congress banning the practice later in the same year.

In 1851 Moby Dick was published, to dismissive reviews and dismal sales.

From then on, his literary reputation declined and he spent the rest of his life in near obscurity, eventually becoming a customs inspector in New York and focusing his literary activities on poetry.

Melville worked on Billy Budd over the course of several years, starting with it in 1885 as a brief poem, and then expanding it to a short novel. Two incidents in American naval history prompted its writing. In 1842 aboard the USS Somers, three sailors were convicted of attempted mutiny and hanged; one of Melville’s cousins was an officer in the court-martial. Four years later, a sailor serving on the USS St. Mary’s struck an officer and was hanged.

The captain asked the sailor to forgive him for imposing the death sentence, to which the sailor replied, “Yes, sir, and I honor you for it. God bless that flag!”

In Billy Budd Melville drew substantially on themes and events portrayed in White-Jacket, especially the metaphor of a sailing ship as the entire world in miniature. He based the title character on Jack Chase, a fellow sailor on the USS United States, who was handsome,

popular, captain of the maintop, and had a singular physical defect, in this case a hand with four fingers, rather than the stammer he gave Budd.

Melville finished the draft in April 1891, but his death five months later meant he was never able to put the work into its final form. The manuscript was discovered in his papers after his death and was first published in 1924. Billy Budd played a key role in the “Melville revival,” fueled by a 20th-century appreciation for its ambiguity and its concern with moral and ethical issues. Its central theme— the perplexing relationship between good and evil—stands as an example of his search for universal truths, which he stated when referring to Moby Dick: “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme.”

Like Peter Grimes, it is a tale of the sea, having at its center a visionary character transposed against an intense, claustrophobic society The writer E. M. Forster was one of Melville’s early British admirers, having discussed Billy Budd in lectures at Cambridge University in 1927. The composition of Peter Grimes was inspired by an article Forster wrote on the poet George Crabbe; Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears read it in 1941 during their self-imposed exile to the United States as pacifists at the beginning of World War II. Britten and Forster had been introduced before the war by W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood; in 1948 Britten dedicated Albert Herring to Forster and the two men began considering the possibility of collaborating.

Forster was a very successful novelist and literary critic, but had no theatrical experience, so he was partnered with Eric Crozier, a stage director and the Albert Herring librettist, in crafting the text for Billy Budd. Like Peter Grimes, it is a tale of the sea, having at its center a visionary character transposed against an intense, claustrophobic society.

Billy Budd features the largest opera orchestra the composer ever utilized, giving the score a richly symphonic quality beyond even that of Grimes.

In keeping with a work on a military theme, percussion instruments are in the forefront (six players are called for), and trumpets and flutes are also prominently featured, in part no doubt to provide the high musical tones that would otherwise have been supplied by sopranos and mezzo-sopranos.

The story takes place late in 1797, during the long-running naval warfare between England and France that ended with Lord Nelson’s victory at Trafalgar in 1805. During the latter 1700s, fear and paranoia in Great Britain about individual liberties and rebellion reached great heights, fueled by the American and French revolutions. More specifically, the Royal Navy had been shaken early in 1797 by two mutinies, which threatened the success of their naval campaign against the French, causing great public and political concern.

The opera focuses on the triangular relationship between Billy Budd (the innocent and charismatic young sailor), Edward Fairfax Vere (the admired but aloof captain of the H.M.S. Indomitable), and John Claggart (the ship’s Mephistophelean masterat-arms). As the action begins, Billy has just been “pressed” from a merchant ship called The Rights o’ Man and is forced to join the Indomitable’s crew.

Most of them take an immediate liking to Billy, except for Claggart. When he accuses Billy of attempted mutiny, the tongue-tied young sailor lashes out, killing him with one blow. Vere immediately convenes a court-martial, which finds Billy guilty and condemns him to death. The next morning, just before he is hanged, Billy cries out his forgiveness, “Starry Vere, God bless you!”

In a masterful stroke, Crozier and Forster expanded Vere’s prominence, framing

55

the action proper with a prologue and epilogue featuring his recollection of the events. They also transformed Vere from Melville’s one-dimensional disciplinarian to a much more complex character, trapped between his obligation to duty in finding Budd guilty of mutiny and his inner conviction that Billy was essentially innocent: I have seen the divine judgment of Heaven. I’ve seen iniquity overthrown. Cooped in this narrow cabin I have beheld the mystery of goodness. And I am afraid. Before what tribunal do I stand if I destroy goodness? The angel of God has struck and the angel must hang through me.

Beauty, handsomeness, goodness, it is for me to destroy you.

In this solo, Vere echoes Claggart’s words in the latter’s Iago-like soliloquy, during which the master-at-arms speaks of his determination to destroy Billy, the so-called “Handsome Sailor,” whose arrival has threatened his authority on board the ship: Oh Beauty, oh handsomeness, goodness! Would that I’d never seen you! Having seen you, what choice remains to me?

None, none! I am doomed to annihilate you, I am vowed to your destruction…With hate and envy I am stronger than love…If love still lives and grows strong where I cannot enter, what hope is there in my own dark world for me?

The image of a ship as metaphor for the world and its voyage our passage through life returns as the opera’s final moment The three central characters are clearly based on Biblical models.

Billy is described in various Christand Adam-like terms, the natural man of goodness before his fall, an orphan who can’t read but can sing, as he proudly announces when first taken on board. Claggart is portrayed throughout using snake-like and satanic imagery. Vere is Pontius Pilate, ruler of his “fragment of earth” who consigns Christ/Billy to death. The character names are symbolic: The Celtic equivalent of Apollo was called “Beli” and “Budd,” Vere stands for “vir” (man), and “claggart” means to cling to something in a harmful way.

Melville’s treatment of what seems as if it should be one of the most dramatic moments—Vere conveying the death sentence to Billy, along with the latter’s reaction—was unusual and continues

to be controversial. For the reader, it happens “out of sight.” As Melville put it, “Beyond the communication of the sentence, what took place at this interview was never known.”

Britten’s musical match to Melville’s silence is a sequence of 34 seemingly straightforward chords, played slowly during the off-stage meeting, which when well conducted and played create a devastating emotional response in listeners.

Britten used an extensive system of musical key symbolism in Billy Budd; the relationships between the keys and their associated themes was consistent throughout much of his work. The opera’s “home key” is B-flat major, which represents salvation and reconciliation. It is immediately contrasted in the Prologue with B minor, the key of unrest and mutiny.

Nautical Terms

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BEAT TO QUARTERS

CUTLASS

Summon the crew for action against the enemy

used by sailors

BREECHINGS

Large ropes used to secure guns to the deck

A hastily convened court martial during a time of war

GUINNEA A gold coin worth about 20 shillings

COXWAIN A petty officer in charge of the captain’s boat

FORETOP

HALYARD A rope used to lower or raise a sail, a yard or a flag

A short sword

DRUM-HEAD COURT

The look-out platform near the top of the forward-most mast

FRIGATE A small, 3-masted warship carrying between 20-48 guns, usually used as scouts

Homosexuality is a subject clearly present in the novel and the opera, but its significance is ambiguous.

Some commentators see it as the central theme, with both Vere and Claggart physically attracted to Billy, but unable or unwilling to act on their desires. Others see it as less important or even non-existent. Although both Britten and Forster were gay, they were reticent to focus public attention on this aspect of Billy Budd, for “the love that dares not speak its name” was a criminal offense in England until 1967.

This conflict of major and minor keys a semi-tone apart embodies Vere’s inner conflict and it is not resolved dramatically or musically until the Epilogue, with the final movement to B-flat major. The key for Billy is A major, standing for youthful beauty and innocence; Claggart’s music is dominated by F minor, embodying his innate depravity and perhaps, as has often been suggested, a self-loathing born of repressed sexual desire for Billy.

HOLYSTONES Large blocks of stone used to scrub the ship’s deck

IMPRESSMENT & PRESSING The legal conscription of sailors by force to serve in the British navy

JEMMY LEGS Slang term for master-at-arms; still used in US Navy KING’S BARGAIN

An investment with a low price and a high rate of return

Whatever the case, there are other, ultimately more important themes, especially that of beauty’s power to destroy as well as to enoble, and the need in turn for beauty to be destroyed.

Britten returned to this theme in Gloriana and The Turn of the Screw, written two and three years, respectively, after Billy Budd. His most complex exploration of the theme followed two decades later, with Death in Venice (1973).

Billy Budd was first performed by the Royal Opera in 1951, to a decidedly mixed response. The opera was given in four acts, with three intermissions, making for a long evening. Tenor Peter Pears excelled in Vere’s intimate scenes but lacked the vocal thrust to dominate the large-scale action sequences, especially in his first appearance, during which he gave an intended-to-be-rousing speech to his crew that had an unintended comical quality.

MAN O’ WAR

A naval warship usually carrying between 20-120 guns

MASTER-AT-ARMS The ship’s officer in charge of discipline on board MIZZEN MAST On a 3-masted ship, the rear-most mast, closest to the quarter deck.

Stung by the tepid response and by the lack of productions after the premiere, Britten set out to revise the opera in 1960. Vere’s first scene was eliminated entirely, others were tightened, and the four acts of the original were transformed into two, with a corresponding gain in dramatic intensity. The revised version was first performed on BBC Radio in December 1960, with the stage premiere taking place at the Royal Opera House in 1964. Billy Budd has since risen in acclaim to become recognized as one of the 20th century’s most dramatic and compelling of operas, on the same plane as Elektra, Wozzeck, and Kátya Kabanová.

The image of a ship as metaphor for the world and its voyage our passage through life returns as the opera’s final moment.

In music recalling the unseen interview and Billy’s soliloquy in chains the night before his execution, Vere finally achieves a sense of concord: But he has saved me, and blessed me, and the love that passes understanding has come to me. I was lost on the infinite sea, but I’ve sighted a sail in the storm, the far-shining sail, and I’m content. I’ve seen where she’s bound for. There’s a land where she’ll anchor forever.

This article was written by Mark Tiarks, whose first professional job in opera was with the Des Moines Metro Opera in the summer of 1978, and first appeared in the Santa Fe Opera’s 2008 season program book.

QUARTER DECK The rear-most part of the deck, usually raised, and reserved for commanding officers YARD AND YARD-ARM Yards were horizontal cross-pieces on a mast used to support sails. The yard-arm refers to either end of the yard, from which men were traditionally hanged.

MUSTER BOOK The complete list of a ship's company

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María de Buenos Aires ASTOR PIAZZOLLA/HORACIO FERRER 8:00 PM July 6 | July 13

Music by Astor Piazzolla Libretto by Horacio Ferrer First Performance: Buenos Aires, May 8, 1968 Company Premiere Performed in Spanish with English supertitles

PRESENTING SPONSOR

SUPPORTING SPONSORS

MARLA LACEY AND D.T. DOAN

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PRODUCTION

CAST

Conductor STEFANO SARZANI

María ELISE QUAGLIATA †

Stage Director OCTAVIO CARDENAS

El Duende RODOLFO NIETO *

Scenic Design ADAM CRINSON

El Payador RICARDO RIVERA *

Lighting Design NATE WHEATLEY

Young María LAUREN VERM

Make-Up/Hair Design BRITTANY CRINSON for Elsen and Associates

Dancers JAIRELBHI FURLONG * GUILLERMO MERLO *

Musical Preparation JOHN COCKERILL

Bandoneon Artist DANIEL BINELLI *

Stage Manager HESTER WARREN-STEIJN

Piano POLLY FERMAN *

Costumes HEATHER LESIEUR THE ATLANTA OPERA

Guitar SCOTT MATEO DAVIES * Ensemble ANTONIA BOTTI-LODOVICO ANDREW EATON * NADIA FAYAD * WILL HUGHES * TALIN NALBANDIAN * DAVID M. SANCHEZ *

Supertitles TOMER ZVULUN

* Des Moines Metro Opera debut †

ELISE QUAGLIATA

RODOLFO NIETO

RICARDO RIVERA

JAIRELBHI FURLONG

GUILLERMO MERLO

Former Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist

DIRECTOR'S NOTES

BY OCTAVIO CARDENAS, STAGE DIRECTOR

DANIEL BINELLI

The story of María presents tango as an entity: a style of music, dancing, and singing that portrays and presents the unsung story of the Argentinian underworld and romanticizes it as a sympathetic character.

Piazzolla and Ferrer present the story in abstract language to tell the tale of a small town girl who dreams of success in the big city of Buenos Aires. As the poetry reveals, though, destiny hands her the wrong cards, "María was created a day in which God was drunk." Abuse and neglect force her to become a character we learn to hate and love.

Piazzolla and Ferrer never intended this piece for the larger operatic stage; they even gave it the term “Operita” (little opera).

What better and more suitable place to present this intimate story than the stage at the Temple Theater. Through the abstract musical and poetic language, we hope to make you feel part of the mysterious, sensual, and exotic world of María de Buenos Aires.

POLLY FERMAN

SCOTT DAVIES

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THE CASTS

MICHAEL ADAMS

QUINN BERNEGGER

DANIEL BINELLI

Baritone, Fort Worth, TX Ping, Turandot Donald, Billy Budd

Tenor, Cooperstown, NY Henrik, A Little Night Music

Bandoneonist, Buenos Aires, Argentina Bandoneon Artist, María de Buenos Aires

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT Manon, 2016

RECENT The Mikado, Chautauqua Opera Sweeney Todd, Tri-Cities Opera The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Boston Conservatory

RECENT María de Buenos Aires, The Atlanta Opera Orquesta del 46, Auditorio Kirchner Tango Credo, David Geffen Hall

RECENT La Bohème, Grand Théâtre de Genève Don Giovanni, Washington National Opera Madama Butterfly, Washington National Opera UPCOMING La Bohème, Utah Opera Così fan tutte, Seattle Opera Don Giovanni, Grand Théâtre de Genève

SPONSORS Dr. Craig and Kimberly Shadur

UPCOMING María de Buenos Aires, New Orleans Opera SPONSORS Sara and Steve Marquardt

SPONSORS Janis and John Ruan III John Ruan Foundation

60

TIMOTHY J. BRUNO

JONATHAN BURTON

CHRIS CARR

Bass, Toledo, OH The Mandarin, Turandot Bosun, John Claggart (cover), Billy Budd

Tenor, Portsmouth, OH Calaf, Turandot

Tenor, Quasqueton, IA Pong, Turandot Maintop, Billy Budd

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT The Girl of the Golden West, 2015

RECENT Madama Butterfly,Washington National Opera Don Giovanni, Washington National Opera Dead Man Walking, Washington National Opera

RECENT A Masked Ball, Florida Grand Opera Madama Butterfly, Welsh National Opera The Girl of the Golden West, Opera Colorado

UPCOMING The Little Prince, Washington National Opera Proving Up, Washington National Opera The Barber of Seville, Washington National Opera

UPCOMING Tosca, Boston Lyric Opera Ariadne auf Naxos, Austin Opera Turandot, Tulsa Opera

SPONSORS Judy and Phil Watson

SPONSORS Jim and Patty Cownie Cownie Charitable Foundation

DMMO DEBUT Apprentice Artist, 2010 RECENT Romeo and Juliet, Madison Opera Messiah, Jacksonville Symphony I Pagliacci, Cedar Rapids Opera Theater UPCOMING Ariadne auf Naxos, Berkshire Opera Festival The Girl of the Golden West, Virginia Opera SPONSOR Patrick Kelly

NATE CARTER

JOYCE CASTLE

RYAN C. CONNELLY

Actor, Sioux City, IA Prince of Persia, Turandot

Mezzo-Soprano, Beaumont, TX Madame Armfeldt, A Little Night Music

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT Elektra, 2013

Tenor, New Freedom, PA Emperor, Turandot Squeak, Billy Budd

RECENT Model, dsm Master of Business Administration, University of Northern Iowa SPONSORS Ed and Elizabeth Mansfield

RECENT A Little Night Music, Houston Grand Opera Dialogues of the Carmelites, Northwestern University Statuesque, University of Kansas SPONSORS Dan and Mary Kelly

DMMO DEBUT Apprentice Artist, 2015 RECENT Madama Butterfly, Kentucky Opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, Kentucky Opera La Traviata, Shippensburg Orchestral Festival UPCOMING Ariadne auf Naxos, Kentucky Opera SPONSOR Diane Morain

TROY COOK

FEDERICO DE MICHELIS

BRIAN FRUTIGER

Baritone, Eminence, KY Fredrik Egerman, A Little Night Music

Bass-Baritone, Buenos Aires, Argentina Timur, Turandot Mr. Flint, Billy Budd

Tenor, Wichita, KS Pang, Turandot

DMMO DEBUT Manon, Galileo Galilei, 2016 RECENT Madama Butterfly, Washington National Opera Falstaff, San Diego Opera Silent Night, Atlanta Opera UPCOMING Lucia di Lammermoor, Florida Grand Opera Elizabeth Cree, Opera Philadelphia Don Carlo, Washington National Opera

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT Manon, 2016

RECENT The Elixir of Love, Houston Grand Opera Houston Grand Opera Studio Recital Tour

RECENT Der Rosenkavalier, The Metropolitan Opera Dead Man Walking, Lyric Opera of Kansas City

UPCOMING The Damnation of Faust, Aspen Music Festival Giulio Cesare, Houston Grand Opera

UPCOMING The Magic Flute, The Metropolitan Opera Parsifal, The Metropolitan Opera

SPONSORS Kate and Tom Carey

SPONSOR Schiller Family Foundation

SPONSORS Barbara and Michael Gartner in memory of Christopher Gartner

61

JAIRELBHI FURLONG

AVIANA GEDLER

JOHN GRAHAM

Dancer, Caracas, Venezuela Dancer, María de Buenos Aires

Mezzo-Soprano, West Des Moines, IA Fredrika Armfeldt, A Little Night Music

Actor, Cupertino, CA Frid, A Little Night Music

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT La Bohème, 2011

DMMO DEBUT

RECENT Evolutiontango This is Tango Now Tour Hugo Patyn Dance Company Tour Tango Buenos Tour SPONSORS Pat Brown Karen Shinn

RECENT West Side Story, Stilwell Junior High The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Des Moines Playhouse Little Women, Des Moines Onstage UPCOMING All State Jazz Choir SPONSORS Charles and Marilyn Farr

RECENT West Side Story, Des Moines Community Playhouse Every Five Minutes, StageWest The Merchant of Venice, Repertory Theatre of Iowa UPCOMING Runaways, Drake University Voice and Dialect presentation, Singapore Voice and Dialect Coach, Des Moines SPONSORS Paul J. Meginnis, II and Jo Sloan

LEE GREGORY

THOMAS HAMMONS

BRANDON HENDRICKSON

Baritone, Houston, TX Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm, A Little Night Music

Bass-Baritone, Loveland, OH Dansker, Billy Budd

Baritone, Baton Rouge, LA First Mate, Billy Budd

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT OPERA Iowa, 1997

RECENT Tosca, Intermountain Opera Bozeman The Pirates of Penzance, Opera Memphis La Bohème, Opera Omaha

DMMO DEBUT Amahl and the Night Visitors, 2004

RECENT The Seven Deadly Sins/Pagliacci, Virginia Opera The Invention of Morel, Chicago Opera Theater As One, Long Beach Opera UPCOMING The Invention of Morel, Long Beach Opera SPONSORS Stan and Mary Seidler Seidler Family Foundation

62

UPCOMING The Consul, Dayton Opera The Barber of Seville, Dayton Opera Tosca, Palm Beach Opera SPONSORS Roger and Kay Berger

RECENT La Bohème, Helena Symphony Orchestra Falstaff, Opera MODO Don Giovanni, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra UPCOMING Così fan tutte, Mobile Opera Turandot, Knoxville Opera SPONSOR Sunnie Richer and Roger Brooks

ROGER HONEYWELL

KRISTOPHER IRMITER

ZACHARY JAMES

Tenor, Ontario, Canada Edward Fairfax Vere, Billy Budd

Bass-Baritone, Clemson, SC Lieutenant Ratcliffe, Billy Budd

Bass, Spring Hill, FL John Claggart, Billy Budd

DMMO DEBUT Peter Grimes, 2012

DMMO DEBUT The Girl of the Golden West, 2015

DMMO DEBUT

RECENT Exterminating Angel, Royal Opera House Die Fledermaus, Calgary Opera Carmen, Boston Lyric Opera

RECENT Riders of the Purple Sage, Arizona Opera Silent Night, Michigan Opera Theatre Don Pasquale, Florida Grand Opera

UPCOMING Cold Mountain, North Carolina Opera The Girl of the Golden West, Virginia Opera Moby Dick, Pittsburgh Opera, Utah Opera

UPCOMING Lucia di Lammermoor, Florida Grand Opera

SPONSORS Nancy and Bill Main

SPONSORS Jane and Steve Bahls Easter Family Foundation

RECENT Susannah, Opera Roanoke Akhnaten, Los Angeles Opera Breaking the Waves, Opera Philadelphia UPCOMING Don Pasquale, Anchorage Opera Das Rheingold, Arizona Opera, Fort Worth Opera SPONSORS Drs. Bruce Hughes and Randall Hamilton

DENNIS JESSE

KELLY KADUCE

ALEXANDRA LOBIANCO

Baritone, Baton Rouge, LA Mr. Redburn, Billy Budd

Soprano, Winnebago, MN Desiree Armfeldt, A Little Night Music

Soprano, St. Petersburg, FL Turandot, Turandot

DMMO DEBUT La Traviata, 2001

DMMO DEBUT Falstaff, 2016

DMMO DEBUT The Girl of the Golden West, 2015

RECENT Don Pasquale, Opera Orlando, Vero Beach Opera Dead Man Walking, New Orleans Opera Rigoletto, Jefferson Performing Arts Society

RECENT I Pagliacci, Virginia Opera Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder, St. Olaf College Orchestra Turandot, Atlanta Opera

RECENT A Masked Ball, Florida Grand Opera The Turn of the Screw, Dallas Opera Die Walküre, Fidelio, Vienna State Opera

UPCOMING Messiah, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra The Pearl Fishers, Opéra Louisane

UPCOMING Three Penny Opera, Boston Lyric Opera Thaïs, Minnesota Opera Madama Butterfly, Santa Fe Opera

SPONSORS John and Louise Grzybowski

SPONSORS Fred and Charlotte Hubbell

UPCOMING Die Walküre, Lyric Opera Chicago Ariadne auf Naxos, Austin Lyric Opera Aïda, Seattle Opera SPONSOR Frank R. Brownell III

63

MELANIE LONG

GUILLERMO MERLO

RODOLFO NIETO

Mezzo-Soprano, Urbandale, IA Petra, A Little Night Music

Dancer, Caracas, Venezuela Dancer, María de Buenos Aires

Bass-Baritone, Hickory Hills, IL El Duende, María de Buenos Aires

DMMO DEBUT The Magic Flute, 2006

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT

RECENT Artango Dance Company This is Tango Now Tour Hugo Patyn Dance Company Tour

RECENT Tosca, Minnesota Opera 110 in the Shade, Theatre in the Round A Midsummer Night's Dream, Lakes Area Music Festival

RECENT La Campana Somersa, New York City Opera Hopper’s Wife, New York City Opera Hansel and Gretel, Oslo Opera House UPCOMING Rev23, Beth Morrison Projects

SPONSORS Josh and Susie Kimelman

SPONSORS Patricia Barbalato and Clay Hulsey

UPCOMING The Man of La Mancha, Theatre Latté Da All Is Calm, Theatre Latté Da Assassins, Theatre Latté Da SPONSOR Sheila Meginnis

EMMETT O’HANLON

ELISE QUAGLIATA

RICARDO RIVERA

Baritone, Manhasset, NY Novice's Friend, Billy Budd

Mezzo-Soprano, Jersey City, NJ Charlotte Malcolm, A Little Night Music María, María de Buenos Aires

Baritone, Ronkonkoma, NY El Payador, María de Buenos Aires

DMMO DEBUT The Tales of Hoffmann, 2006

RECENT Hérodiade, Washington Concert Opera Carmen, Musica Viva Hong Kong Silent Night, Opera San José

DMMO DEBUT RECENT Carmen, Lyric Opera of Chicago The Magic Flute, Lyric Opera of Chicago Don Quichotte, Lyric Opera of Chicago UPCOMING Faust, Lyric Opera of Chicago The Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, Lyric Opera of Chicago SPONSORS Mollie and Britt Baker

64

RECENT Dead Man Walking, Pensacola Opera Carmen, Utah Opera Hopper’s Wife, New York City Opera UPCOMING As One, Des Moines Metro Opera SPONSORS Marla Lacey and D.T. Doan

DMMO DEBUT

UPCOMING La Traviata, Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra Carmen, Heartbeat Opera NYC La Bohème, Musica Viva Hong Kong SPONSORS Dr. Carolyn and Martin Pease

LAUREN SNOUFFER

CHRISTIAN SANDERS

STEVEN SANDERS

Tenor, Westcliffe, CO Novice, Billy Budd Mr. Erlanson, A Little Night Music

Tenor, Ninnekah, OK Red Whiskers, Billy Budd

Soprano, Austin, TX Anne Egerman, A Little Night Music

DMMO DEBUT La Traviata, 2001

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT Apprentice Artist, 2016 RECENT Carmen, Utah Opera Lucia di Lammermoor, Utah Opera The Man of La Mancha, Utah Opera SPONSORS Michael and Christine Patrick

RECENT Susannah, Baltimore Concert Opera Of Mice and Men, Tulsa Opera Mozart's Coronation Mass, Carnegie Hall SPONSORS James and Lois Berens

RECENT The Magic Flute, Seattle Opera Arminio, Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe Béatrice et Bénédict, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse UPCOMING Orphée et Eurydice, Lyric Opera of Chicago The House Without A Christmas Tree, Houston Grand Opera Written on Skin, Opera Philadelphia SPONSORS Thomas K. and Linda Koehn

JESSE STOCK

VANESSA VASQUEZ

CRAIG VERM

Baritone, Bennett, IA Second Mate, Billy Budd

Soprano, Scottsdale, AZ Liù, Turandot

Baritone, Pittsburgh, PA Billy Budd, Billy Budd

DMMO DEBUT Apprentice Artist, 2009

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT Peter Grimes, Romeo and Juliet, 2013

RECENT Hansel and Gretel, Simpson College La Bohème, St. Petersburg Opera Turandot, St. Petersburg Opera SPONSOR Doris Salsbury Endowment Fund

RECENT 2017 National Winner of Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions 2017 Sara Tucker Study Grant recipient of the Richard Tucker Music Foundation Rigoletto, Academy of Vocal Arts UPCOMING Resident Artist, Academy of Vocal Arts SPONSOR Daniel J. and Ann L. Krumm Charitable Foundation

RECENT The Magic Flute, Seattle Opera Turandot, Pittsburgh Opera La Bohème, Knoxville Opera UPCOMING War Stories, Opera Philadelphia Everest, Lyric Opera of Kansas City Così fan tutte, Béatrice et Bénédict, Seattle Opera SPONSORS Pamela Bass-Bookey and Harry Bookey

65

THE CREATIVE

R. KEITH BRUMLEY

OCTAVIO CARDENAS

Designer, Kansas City, MO Scenic Designer, Turandot, Billy Budd

Stage Director, Guadalajara, Mexico Stage Director, María de Buenos Aires

DMMO DEBUT Die Fledermaus, 1989

DMMO DEBUT Apprentice Artist Program, Don Pasquale, 2011

DMMO DEBUT The Tragedy of Carmen, 2014

RECENT Dead Man Walking, Lyric Opera of Kansas City Manon, Des Moines Metro Opera

RECENT Carmen, Opera Santa Barbara La Bohème, Minnesota Opera

RECENT The Marriage of Figaro, Louisiana State University Soldier Songs, Des Moines Metro Opera

UPCOMING Bless me Ultima, Opera Southwest

UPCOMING Falstaff, Louisiana State University The Merry Widow, New Rochelle Opera Life Could Be A Dream, Cortland Repertory Theatre

UPCOMING Champion, New Orleans Opera Association SPONSORS David Yepsen and Dr. Mary Stuart

SPONSORS Sam and Sarah O’Brien The O’Brien Family Foundation

ADAM CRINSON Designer, New York, NY Scenic Designer, María de Buenos Aires

SPONSORS Robert and Elizabeth Freese

BRITTANY CRINSON

LISA HASSON

Stage Director, Houston, TX Stage Director in Residence Pre-Show Lecturer

DMMO DEBUT The Tragedy of Carmen, 2014

DMMO DEBUT Stage Director in Residence, 2016

RECENT Wig and Makeup Assistant, Honolulu Opera Theatre Wig and Makeup Associate, Lyric Opera of Chicago

RECENT Fidelio, Houston Symphony Orchestra La Rondine, Opera Santa Barbara Carmen, Utah Opera

RECENT Madama Butterfly, The Abduction from the Seraglio, The Mikado, Kentucky Opera Turandot, The Atlanta Opera A Little Night Music, Miami University

UPCOMING Tosca, Arizona Opera Loving Clara, Mercury, the Orchestra I Pagliacci/Gianni Schicchi, Utah Opera

UPCOMING Ariadne auf Naxos, Kentucky Opera Dead Man Walking, Kentucky Opera The Barber of Seville, Kentucky Opera

SPONSORS Bryan Hall and Pat Barry

SPONSORS Melanie Porter and Wayne Halbur

SPONSOR Joan O'Harra Burke

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TARA FAIRCLOTH

Designer, Chicago, IL Wig and Makeup Designer, Turandot, A Little Night Music, Billy Budd, María de Buenos Aires

Chorus Master, Fort Thomas, KY Director, Apprentice Artist Program DMMO DEBUT Rehearsal Pianist, 2004

JONATHAN KNIPSCHER

KRISTINE MCINTYRE

ERIC MELEAR

Costume Designer, New York City, NY Costume Designer, Billy Budd

Stage Director, Portland, OR Stage Director, Billy Budd

Conductor, Moline, IL Conductor, A Little Night Music

DMMO DEBUT Dead Man Walking, Tragedy of Carmen, 2014

DMMO DEBUT La Bohème, 2011

DMMO DEBUT

RECENT In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, Southwestern University The Greatest Showman, 20th Century Fox Transformers, The Last Knight, Paramount Pictures

RECENT Dead Man Walking, Lyric Opera of Kansas City Don Giovanni, Utah Opera Jane Eyre (World Premiere), Center for Contemporary Opera

SPONSOR Cora Hayes in memory of Edward R. Hayes

UPCOMING Manon, Opera Santa Barbara Moby Dick, Utah Opera, Pittsburgh Opera Flight, Des Moines Metro Opera

RECENT Vienna State Opera Staff L'enfant et les sortilèges, Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival, Japan L'Opera Seria, Wolf Trap Opera UPCOMING Vienna State Opera Staff SPONSORS Joan Kuyper Farver Foundation Kuyper Foundation

SPONSORS Adrienne McFarland and Joe Clamon Cherie and Bob Shreck

ISAAC MIZRAHI

MATTHEW OZAWA

TODD RHOADES

Designer, New York City, NY Scenic and Costume Designer, A Little Night Music

Stage Director, Chicago, IL Stage Director, A Little Night Music

Choreographer, Akron, OH Choreographer, A Little Night Music

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT

DMMO DEBUT

RECENT Don Quichotte, Lyric Opera of Chicago Sweeney Todd, Skylight Music Theatre Romeo and Juliet, Minnesota Opera

RECENT Northanger Abbey, Lifeline Theatre Cousin From Nowhere, Chicago Folks Operetta Die Fledermaus, New Orleans Opera Association

RECENT Project Runway All Stars The Magic Flute, Opera Theatre of St. Louis Does This Song Make Me Look Fat? Café Carlyle UPCOMING Project Runway All Stars

UPCOMING Frankenstein, West Edge Opera La Bohème, Opera Colorado The Barber of Seville, Kentucky Opera

SPONSORS James and Ellen Hubbell

SPONSORS Susan and Carl Voss

SPONSORS Ann and Brent Michelson

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STEFANO SARZANI

BARBARA SLETTO

BARRY STEELE

Conductor, Bloomington, IN Conductor, María de Buenos Aires Associate Conductor, Turandot

Founder and Artistic Director, Heartland Youth Choir, Des Moines, IA Children's Chorus Master, Turandot, Billy Budd

Designer, Brooklyn, NY Lighting Designer, Turandot Lighting and Video Designer, Billy Budd

DMMO DEBUT Associate Conductor, Falstaff, 2016

DMMO DEBUT Street Scene, 1999

DMMO DEBUT Lighting Designer, 2004

RECENT La Cenerentola, Den Jyske Opera Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, University of Memphis Symphony Concert, Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana, Italy

RECENT Artistic Director, Heartland Youth Choir Guest Conductor, All-State Choir Director, Drake University Chorale

RECENT Don Giovanni, Florentine Opera Carmen, Nashville Opera Turandot, Edmonton Opera

UPCOMING Artistic Director, Heartland Youth Choir

UPCOMING Così fan tutte, University of Memphis

SPONSORS Tom and Mary Urban

UPCOMING Three Way, Brooklyn Academy of Music Tosca, Nashville Opera Don Giovanni, Edmonton Opera

SPONSOR Jo Ghrist

SPONSORS Tom and Marsha Mann

STEPHANIE SUNDINE

NATHAN TROUP

NATE WHEATLEY

Stage Director, Sarasota, FL Stage Director, Turandot

Stage Director, Boston, MA Stage Director in Residence

DMMO DEBUT Ariadne auf Naxos, 1980

DMMO DEBUT Assistant Director, Le Comte Ory, La Traviata, 2014

Designer, Kansas City, MO Lighting Designer, A Little Night Music, María de Buenos Aires

RECENT L’amore dei tre re, Sarasota Opera Don Pasquale, Sarasota Opera Aïda, Sarasota Opera UPCOMING La Traviata, Sarasota Opera Manon Lescaut, Sarasota Opera SPONSOR H. Dale and Lois Bright Foundation

RECENT Werther, Boston University Alcina, Boston Conservatory Boston Lyric Opera 2016-17 Emerging Artist UPCOMING La Scala di Seta, Wexford Festival Opera Stabat Mater, Jessica Lang Dance/Lincoln Center White Light Festival Eugene Onegin, Boston Conservatory SPONSOR Martha James and Michael Myszewski

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DMMO DEBUT The Tragedy of Carmen, 2014 RECENT Florencia en el Amazonas, Emerald City Opera The Juliet Letters, Lyric Opera of Kansas City The African Company presents Richard III, Black Rep Theatre of Kansas City UPCOMING The Enchanted Pig, Opera Steamboat Alcina, Opera Steamboat A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, Florida State University SPONSORS Dennis and Betty Keeney

THE FESTIVAL STAFF ARTISTIC Conductors ERIC MELEAR DAVID NEELY STEFANO SARZANI Stage Directors OCTAVIO CARDENAS KRISTINE MCINTYRE MATTHEW OZAWA STEPHANIE SUNDINE Scenic Designers R. KEITH BRUMLEY ADAM CRINSON ISAAC MIZRAHI Costume Designers JONATHAN KNIPSCHER ISAAC MIZRAHI MARY TRAYLOR Lighting and Video Designers BARRY STEELE NATE WHEATLEY Wig and Makeup Designer BRITTANY CRINSON Chorus Master LISA HASSON Musical Preparation JOHN COCKERILL ELDEN LITTLE GEOFFREY LOFF YASUKO OURA Choreographers TODD RHOADES BRIAN ROBERTSON Associate Conductors CODY MARTIN STEFANO SARZANI JOHN SPENCER IV Assistant Stage Directors JOSHUA BORTHS OCTAVIO CARDENAS REBECCA HERMAN Children's Chorus Master BARBARA SLETTO Artistic Consultant/Master Teacher WILLIAM FARLOW OFFICE AND THEATRE Assistant to the General Director MICHAEL PATTERSON Supertitles Preparation LINDSEY VON HOLTEN Travel and Logistics Coordinator WADE ADAMS APPRENTICE ARTIST PROGRAM Director LISA HASSON

Stage Directors JOSHUA BORTHS OCTAVIO CARDENAS TARA FAIRCLOTH REBECCA HERMAN NATHAN TROUP Music Coaches JOHN COCKERILL ELDEN LITTLE GEOFFREY LOFF CODY MARTIN YASUKO OURA STEFANO SARZANI JOHN SPENCER IV

Properties Stage Supervisor RACHEL WEIR Properties Artisan ALEESHA TAPP Master Electrician LAUREN GALLUP Electricians JACOB HUGHES KEVIN PROEMSEY Associate Costume Designer LAUREN GASTON Costume Shop Supervisor HEATHER LESIEUR

PRODUCTION

Assistant Costume Shop Supervisor MICHELE DORMAIER

Assistant Production Manager DANIELLE TAYLOR

Assistant Wardrobe Supervisor JACOURTNEY WILLIAMS

Production Stage Manager BRIAN AUGUST

Stitcher/Dresser KENDALL DAYTON VEE DELGADO

Stage Managers ADAM FULMER HESTER WARREN-STEIJN

Assistant Wig and Makeup Designer BRIDGET RZYMSKI

Assistant Stage Managers KARL ANDERSON NATHAN BRAUNER MARISA BRINK

2nd Assistant Wig and Makeup Designer LELA ROSENBERG

Technical Director CHRIS LARGENT

AUXILIARY CHORUS

Associate Technical Director NATALIE HINING Master Carpenter JEFFREY CLARK Stage Carpenters BRAEDEN INGERSOLL NICK MAYHEW GREG RISHOI PETER SOMMERS CALVIN STARA BRIAN STROHM Stage Supervisor ALIX STRASNICK Assistant Stage Supervisor JESSICA BERTKE Lighting Supervisor SARAH RIFFLE Head of Fly KODY CAVA Show Carpenter NATE DEMARE Paint Charge JACEE ROHLCK Assistant Paint Charge DELIA REVARD Properties Master LOGAN REAGAN Assistant Properties Master BAILEY SHEEHAN

Billy Budd CHARLES ANDERSON DARYL BECICKA NOLAN BROWN SCOTT DENHART WILL DONAGHY DAVID BOWLES EDWARDS PAXTON GILLESPIE SETH HAMMOND ARTHUR HILL BRAEDEN IRVINE SAMUEL NOLTE SETH TACK ALEX TILLINGHAST GREGORY WARREN Turandot CHARLES ANDERSON DARYL BECICKA NOLAN BROWN CRYSTAL BURNS DAVID EDWARDS LORI FENTON KRISTA GUILLAUME BRAEDEN IRVINE MELANIE KEIPER COURTNEY LANGE SARAH MCDOUGAL JONATHON MOLDOVAN SARAH MONNIER MARK PARKS KELLIE PATTERSON PAUL STAGEBERG SUSIE STAGEBERG SETH TACK ALEX TILLINGHAST GREGORY WARREN 69

FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA VIOLIN Concertmaster HIROMI ITO Fort Wayne, IN

CLARINET Principal SERGEY GUTOROV Chicago, IL

PERCUSSION Principal MARK DORR West Des Moines, IA

Assistant Concertmaster DEBRA AKERLUND Aberdeen, WA

RANDALL CUNNINGHAM Liberty, MO E-CHEN HSU Thunder Bay, ON, CAN

Principal Second KE MAI Dallas, TX

BASS CLARINET

ELLEN CHAMBERLAIN Tucson, AZ JOHN HELMICH Urbandale, IA CHIA-LI HO Boise, ID JUAN C. JARAMILLO Pittsburgh, PA KAH YEE LEE Homewood, AL DAWN POSEY Pittsburgh, PA EDWARD J. PULGAR Knoxville, TN MARY TISDALE PULGAR Knoxville, TN CAROLINE SLACK Chicago, IL AZUSA TASHIRO Chicago, IL KOKO WATANABE Shaker Heights, OH PEI-JU WU Hoover, AL

RANDALL CUNNINGHAM Liberty, MO E-CHEN HSU Thunder Bay, ON, CAN

CHAD CRUMMEL Pittsburgh, PA MATTHEW ERNSTER Wichita, KS ANDREW FOERSCHLER Kansas City, MO ALINA GRIMM Des Moines, IA STEVE MCCOMBS Pella, IA STACEY RAMIREZ West Des Moines, IA BLAISE ROTHWELL Kansas City, MO

ALTO SAXOPHONE Principal JAMES ROMAIN Des Moines, IA

HARP Principal NUIKO WADDEN Pittsburgh, PA

BASSOON Principal EVAN EPIFANIO St. Petersburg, FL

KEYBOARDS

VIOLA Principal ELIZABETH OKA Miami Beach, FL

CONTRABASSOON

LINDA BENOIT Indianola, IA CHARLES MIRANDA Des Moines, IA CHRISTINE PRINCE Victoria, BC, CA CELLO Principal KEVIN KUNKEL Portland, OR JACOB HANEGAN Miami Beach, FL SCHUYLER SLACK Richmond, VA CLAYTON VAUGHN Homewood, AL BASS Principal JEREMY C. BAGUYOS Omaha, NE JOHN W. TUCK Evanston, IL FLUTE/PICCOLO Principal LUKE FITZPATRICK Fort Wayne, IN ALYSSA GRIGGS Omaha, NE KIMBERLY HELTON Des Moines, IA ALTO FLUTE LUKE FITZPATRICK Fort Wayne, IN OBOE Principal CHRISTINE SOOJIN KIM Sarasota, FL KEVIN SCHILLING Ames, IA LEONID SIROTKIN Indianapolis, IN ENGLISH HORN CHRISTINE SOOJIN KIM Sarasota, FL LEONID SIROTKIN Indianapolis, IN

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MATT LANO Richmond, VA

KEVIN JUDGE Ankeny, IA MATTHEW RANSOM Iowa City, IA HORN Principal ERIN LANO Richmond, VA MICHAEL DALY Savannah, GA AMY KRUEGER New Orleans, LA MICHAEL WILSON Ottumwa, IA TRUMPET Principal KATIE MILLER Tucson, AZ MARY E. BOWDEN Naples, FL PATRICK M. CORVINGTON Rochester, NY TROMBONE Principal TIMOTHY HOWE Columbia, MO DAVID ROODE Ludlow, KY MICHAEL SHORT Des Moines, IA J. MARK THOMPSON Natchitoches, LA

POLLY FERMAN New York, NY ELDEN LITTLE East Lansing, MI YASUKO OURA Chicago, IL

TURANDOT BANDA Trumpet JAMES BOVINETTE Ames, IA ANDREW CLASSEN Des Moines, IA AREN VAN HOUZEN Iowa City, IA Trombone CASEY MADAY Des Moines, IA Bass Trombone BARD MACKEY Waverly, IA

BILLY BUDD STAGE DRUMMERS CHAD CRUMMEL Pittsburgh, PA MARK DORR West Des Moines, IA MATTHEW ERNSTER Wichita, KS ANDREW FOERSCHLER Kansas City, MO

ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL AND OPERATIONS MANAGER MARK DORR

BASS TROMBONE/CIMBASSO J. MARK THOMPSON Natchitoches, LA

MUSIC LIBRARIANS

TUBA Principal MICHAEL SHORT Des Moines, IA

SARA BAGUYOS MARK DORR MARY JOHNSON LISA LOPEZ DANIELLE MEIER

TIMPANI Principal JIM BENOIT Pittsburgh, PA STACEY RAMIREZ West Des Moines, IA BLAISE ROTHWELL Kansas City, MO

VIOLIN SEATING IS BASED UPON A ROTATION CYCLE FOR MAINSTAGE SHOWS.

THE MARSHALL AND JUDY FLAPAN MUSIC DIRECTOR AND PRINCIPAL CONDUCTOR DAVID NEELY maintains an active professional performing and teaching schedule in operatic and symphonic settings and receives consistent critical praise for his expressive, polished performances in a wide range of musical styles.

His opera repertoire encompasses over 70 productions conducted in the United States. American highlights include over 15 productions with Des Moines Metro Opera (most recently David T. Little's Soldier Songs, Verdi's Falstaff, and Massenet's Manon), numerous returns to Sarasota Opera (recently Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites), and returns to Indiana University Opera Theatre (Dead Man Walking, Florencia en el Amazonas). Internationally, he has appeared with the opera houses of Bonn, Halle, Dortmund, St. Gallen, Saarbrücken, Coburg, Kaiserslautern, Bielefeld, and the Eutin Festival. Symphonic appearances include concerts with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, Eutin Festival Orchestra, Bochum Symphony, Dortmund Philharmonic, Vorarlberg Symphony, Kansas Sinfonietta, as well as the orchestras of the University of Kansas, the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Roosevelt University, and the University of Texas at Austin. He also has led festival concerts for the International Double Reed Society and the International Clarinet Association.

Notable projects include world premieres of Arthur Gottshalk’s Four New Brothers, Mark-Anthony Turnage’s The Silver Tassie, and North American premieres of the Debussy/Orledge’s The Fall of the House of Usher and H.M. Morales’ La tentacion de San Antonio. Noted instrumental soloists with whom he has collaborated include Joshua Roman, Bella Hristova, Benjamin Beilman, Rainer Honeck, Nicholas Daniels, Ricardo Morales, Ben Lulich, Phillippe Cuper, Rocco Parisi, Richard Nunemaker, and Delfeayo Marsalis.

Starting this fall, Neely will join the faculty of the renowned Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as Visiting Associate Professor of Music in Orchestral Conducting.

Previous academic appointments include ten years as Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Kansas and six years as Music Director of the University of Texas’ Butler Opera Center.

Neely is a respected vocal coach and collaborative pianist, and in 2015 accompanied baritone David Adam Moore in a multi-media performance of Winterreise for DMMO’s 2nd Stages Series. Upcoming conducting engagements include Jake Heggie’s It’s a Wonderful Life and Bernstein's West Side Story at the Jacobs School, d’Albert’s rarely performed Tiefland with Sarasota Opera, and Verdi's Falstaff with Intermountain Opera in Bozeman, Montana.

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APPRENTICE ARTIST PROGRAM From over 1,000 applicants, 44 were chosen. Years of hard work and dedication to the craft distinguished each from a grueling and competitive audition process. Never has the number of young people who want to express themselves through singing been more robust, nor the competition more fierce, than it is now.

combat. They may assume supporting roles in mainstage operas or they may serve as understudies or chorus members. They also participate in six programs of apprentice scenes, language coachings, a gala concert with the festival orchestra and in-house auditions for opera companies and artist managers.

The Apprentice Artist Program roster for the 2017 Summer Festival represents singers from 21 states and two foreign countries. The program is nationally recognized as one of the finest programs of its type in the country. It is also one of the oldest, marking 43 years this season.

The Company assembles a staff of talented conductors, coaches and directors to help guide each singer’s development. Lisa Hasson, the program’s director, works tirelessly with General and Artistic Director Michael Egel to craft a summer’s worth of assignments for each apprentice’s development over the course of the season.

The program and its participants are essential to the Company’s summer festival model. During their time in Iowa, apprentice artists participate in a seven-week training program designed to provide the skills necessary to bridge the gap between academic study and a professional career. And their schedule is intense—filled with rehearsals, specialized training and coaching sessions, concerts and scenes presentations.

Class topics include acting for singers, vocal wellness, audition techniques, financial wellness for artists, diction and stage

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There are few professions more difficult to break into nor more tenuous to maintain than the business of being an aspiring singer. The rewards for years of training can be utterly unpredictable. Des Moines Metro Opera takes seriously our responsibility for the development of the next generation of singers, and the Company is proud of the achievements of its Apprentice Program. These young artists are, after all, the future of our art form.

DIRECTOR OF THE APPRENTICE ARTIST PROGRAM LISA PRESENTING SPONSOR FRANK R. BROWNELL III HASSON ANDREA BAKER Soprano, Olean, NY Liù (study cover), Turandot RECENT Galileo Galilei, Des Moines Metro Opera Fidelio, Sarasota Opera Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Regional Finalist SPONSORS Terri Combs and Thomas Swartwood

JOSHUA A. BAUM Tenor, Kansas City, MO Calaf (cover), Turandot DMMO DEBUT RECENT The Grapes of Wrath, Michigan State University Man with Old Luggage, Merola Opera Program Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Regional Finalist SPONSORS Denise and John Wieland

ANTONIA BOTTI-LODOVICO Mezzo-Soprano, Pittsburgh, PA Petra (cover), A Little Night Music RECENT Manon, Des Moines Metro Opera Così fan tutte, Tuscia Opera Festival Suor Angelica, Tuscia Opera Festival SPONSOR Dr. Beth Triebel

REBECCA CLABORN Maria DiPalma Artist Soprano, Springfield, MO Mrs. Anderssen (cover), A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT The Ghosts of Versailles, Wolf Trap Opera The Cunning Little Vixen, University of Cincinnati-CCM Don Giovanni, Arkansas and Ozark Arts Councils SPONSOR Bill Marion in honor of Bev Marion BENJAMIN DACOSTA-KAUFMAN Tenor, Richmond, VA Red Whiskers (cover), Billy Budd Emperor (cover), Turandot DMMO DEBUT RECENT South Pacific, Ash Lawn Opera Albert Herring, Shenandoah Conservatory Shenandoah Conservatory Student Soloist Competition Winner SPONSORS Thomas G. and Rita Fisher

DUSTIN DAMONTE Tenor, San Jose, CA Novice (cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT Roscoe, Seagle Music Colony The Barber of Seville, OPERA Iowa The Magic Flute, New England Conservatory SPONSORS Charles and Mary Anderson

SUSANNE BURGESS Soprano, Manchester, England UK DMMO DEBUT RECENT La Traviata, MidAtlantic Opera Carmen, New York Opera Collaborative I Pagliacci, Opera in the Ozarks SPONSORS Darren and Elaine Raleigh

T.J. CAPOBIANCO Tenor. Scranton, PA Pang & Emperor (covers), Turandot Captain Vere (cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT Il Matrimonio Segreto, Cincinnati Chamber Opera Transformations, University of Cincinnati-CCM Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Encouragement Award SPONSOR Susan Olson

DARREN DRONE Baritone, Sherwood, AR Ping (cover), Turandot DMMO DEBUT RECENT Tosca, Tulsa Opera The Pearl Fishers, Tulsa Opera Aladdin, Broadway Final Callback/Genie Workshop SPONSORS James and Jeanne O'Halloran

ANDREW EATON Bass-Baritone, Flower Mound, TX El Payador (cover), María de Buenos Aires DMMO DEBUT RECENT Agrippina, Opera NEO The Elixir of Love, Baylor Opera Theatre The Tales of Hoffmann, Opera in the Ozarks SPONSORS Robert and Babette Brenton

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CHARLES H. EATON Baritone, Storrs, CT Mr. Lindquist, Carl Magnus (cover), A Little Night Music Billy Budd (study cover), Billy Budd RECENT Lucia di Lammermoor, Opera Colorado The Girl of the Golden West, Opera Colorado Metropolitan National Council Auditions Regional Finalist SPONSORS Connie Wimer and Frank Fogerty

NADIA FAYAD Nicole Trout Artist Mezzo-Soprano, Duluth, MN Charlotte (cover), A Little Night Music María (cover), María de Buenos Aires DMMO DEBUT RECENT Das Rheingold, Minnesota Opera Roméo et Juliette, Santa Fe Opera The Ghosts of Versailles, Wolf Trap Opera SPONSORS Fred and Barbara Brown

BRIAN HUPP Baritone, Pataskala, OH Fredrik Egerman (cover), A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT Carmen, Opera Columbus The Fantasticks, Short North Stage Sweeney Todd, Ohio State University SPONSOR Marylee Lankamer

ALICIA JAYOURBA Soprano, Pittsburgh, PA Turandot (cover), Turandot DMMO DEBUT RECENT The Consul, Harrower Summer Opera The Turn of The Screw, Miami Music Festival Cold Sassy Tree, Florida State University SPONSOR Anastasia Polydoran

CADIE JORDAN ISAAC FRISHMAN Tenor, Omaha, NE Pong (cover), Turandot Henrik (cover), A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT La Cenerentola, Winter Opera St. Louis Transformations, Merola Opera Program The Elixir of Love, Michigan State University SPONSOR Paul Woodard

SEAN GALLIGAN Baritone, West Des Moines, IA Mr. Redburn (cover), Billy Budd RECENT The Marriage of Figaro, Drake University Così fan tutte, International Lyric Academy The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Boston Conservatory at Berklee SPONSORS Emily and Jason Pontius

JOCELYN HANSEN Soprano, Fort Dodge, IA Mrs. Nordstrom (cover), A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT The Magic Flute, Michigan State University L’incoronazione di Poppea, University of North Texas The Dialogues of the Carmelites, University of North Texas SPONSORS Carlton and Barbara Zacheis

ALEXANDER HENDERSON Baritone, Evansville, IN DMMO DEBUT RECENT Hansel and Gretel, Opéra Louisiane The Marriage of Figaro, Louisiana State University La Bohème, University of Evansville SPONSOR Dr. Darren Jirsa

BRYN HOLDSWORTH Soprano, Stewartsville, NJ DMMO DEBUT RECENT Don Pasquale, The Atlanta Opera Persée et Andromède, Manhattan School of Music The Tragedy of Carmen, International Vocal Arts Institute SPONSORS John and Peggy Wild

WILL HUGHES Baritone, Dallas, TX Billy Budd (study cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT Madama Butterfly, The Dallas Opera The Pearl Fishers, Florida Grand Opera La Bohème, CoOPERAtive SPONSOR Margot Burnham

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Soprano, Baton Rouge, LA Anne Egerman (cover), A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT Così fan tutte, Indiana University The Music Man, Indiana University Don Giovanni, Louisiana State University SPONSORS Andrew V. and Dr. Katherine Hauser

GRACE KAHL Anne Larson Artist Soprano, Queens, NY Mrs. Anderssen, A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT Idomeneo, University of Cincinnati-CCM Così fan tutte, University of Cincinnati-CCM Il Signor Bruschino, University of Cincinnati-CCM SPONSOR Henry G. and Norma A. Peterson Charitable Trust REBECCA KIDNIE Soprano, St. Paul, MN RECENT Aïda, Sarasota Opera Così fan tutte, Eklund Opera Denver Lyric Opera Guild First Place Award SPONSOR Barbara Beatty

ERIK EARL LARSON Baritone, Evansville, WI Novice's Friend (Cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT Emmeline, Boston University Opera Institute The Marriage of Figaro, Boston University Opera Institute The Giulio Gari Foundation IVC Encouragement Award SPONSORS Stephen L. and Linda Jones

LEIA LENSING Mollie Shapiro Artist Contralto, Solon, IA Madame Armfeldt (cover), A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT Suor Angelica, University of Northern Iowa L’enfant et les sortilèges, University of Northern Iowa Dido and Aeneas, University of Northern Iowa SPONSORS Chuck and Sue Green NATE MATTINGLY Bass-Baritone, Fort Worth, TX Timur (cover), Turandot RECENT Voir Dire, Fort Worth Opera Little Women, Opera in the Heights La Bohème, Opera on the James SPONSORS Kevin and Jill Croft

JENNIFER MCKAY Soprano, Salt Lake City, UT DMMO DEBUT RECENT Gianni Schicchi, Rice University La Bohème, Aspen Music Festival Falstaff, Utah Vocal Arts Academy/Utah Lyric Opera SPONSOR Phyllis Price

WILLIAM MEINERT Bass-Baritone, Herndon, VA Mandarin (cover), Timur (study cover), Turandot Bosun (cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT Tosca, Opera North Boris Godunov, Commonwealth Lyric Theater The Barber of Seville, Loudoun Lyric Opera SPONSOR Andrew Thomas

JÓHANN SCHRAM REED Bass-Baritone, Reykjavík, Iceland Lt. Ratcliffe (Cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT Falstaff, Opera San José The Barber of Seville, OPERA Iowa Così fan tutte, Indiana University Opera Theatre SPONSORS John and Irene Graether

KYLE ROEDER Baritone, Jefferson, IA Mr. Lindquist (cover), A Little Night Music Arthur Jones & Donald (covers), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT The Old Maid and the Thief, Drake University Cavalleria Rusticana, Des Moines Opera Project National Association of Teachers of Singing National Semi-Finalist SPONSORS Ann and Michael Gersie

CHELSEA MILLER Soprano, Memphis, TN Mrs. Nordstrom, A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT The Mikado, Chautauqua Opera The Pirates of Penzance, Opera Memphis The Magic Flute, Opera Memphis SPONSORS Dr. James and Mary Ellen Kimball

DAVID M. SANCHEZ Tenor, Kansas City, MO Mr. Erlanson (cover), A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT Tosca, Lyric Opera of Kansas City The Magic Flute, Jewell Opera Gianni Schicchi, University of Missouri Kansas City SPONSORS Carol and Eric Weber

CODY MÜLLER Bass, Philadelphia, PA Dansker (cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT La Cenerentola, Opera in the Ozarks Later the Same Evening, Central City Opera The Tales of Hoffmann, Bel Cantanti Opera SPONSOR Dorothy Ely

STEPHANIE SCHOENHOFER Mezzo-Soprano, Lima, OH Mrs. Segstrom, Desiree Armfeldt (cover), A Little Night Music RECENT Tobias and the Angel, NANOWorks Dead Man Walking, Des Moines Metro Opera The Rake's Progress, The University of Michigan SPONSOR Stanley Ransom

TALIN NALBANDIAN Mezzo-Soprano, Los Angeles, CA DMMO DEBUT RECENT L’Opera Seria, Wolf Trap Opera The Marriage of Figaro, Oberlin in Italy Così fan tutte, Pepperdine University SPONSOR Cleon Rutherford Memorial Trust

CHRISTINA PEZZAROSSI Mezzo-Soprano, Miles City, MT Mrs. Segstrom (cover), A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT Agrippina, Opera NEO The Barber of Seville, Boulder Opera Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Encouragement Award SPONSOR Dr. James Rutherford

TED PICKELL Bass-Baritone, San Diego, CA Arthur Jones, Claggart (study cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT Susannah, Northwestern University The Marriage of Figaro, Northwestern University/Opera Academy of California Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Regional Finalist SPONSORS Alvin and Sue Ravenscroft

GABRIELLE REED Soprano, Los Angeles, CA Liù (cover), Turandot DMMO DEBUT RECENT Tosca, Tulsa Opera Don Giovanni, Opera in the Ozarks La Clemenza di Tito, New York Lyric Opera Theatre SPONSORS Bobbie and Tristan Adelman

RYAN STOLL Bass-Baritone, Nixa, MO Mr. Flint (Cover), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT Roscoe, Albany Symphony Orchestra The Demon, Commonwealth Lyric Theater The Merry Wives of Windsor, The Boston Conservatory SPONSORS Rachel T. Rowley

MARK THOMAS Tenor, Houston, TX Squeak and Maintop (covers), Billy Budd DMMO DEBUT RECENT After the Storm, HGOco Roméo et Juliette, Moores School of Music Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Regional Finalist SPONSORS Don and Janet Metcalf

OLIVIA THOMPSON Contralto, Southfield, MI DMMO DEBUT RECENT The Magic Flute, Indiana University Opera Theater The Last Savage, Indiana University Opera Theater The Daughter of the Regiment, Indiana University Opera Theater SPONSORS Dr. Stephen and Martha Stephenson

EMILY TRIEBOLD Mezzo-Soprano, Madison, WI Malla, A Little Night Music DMMO DEBUT RECENT Little Women, University of Nebraska The Barber of Seville, La Musica Lirica National Association of Teachers of Singing National Semi-Finalist SPONSORS Bill and Pauline Niebur

QUINN BERNEGGER page 60 CHRISTIAN SANDERS page 65 75

OPERA Iowa “I promise to always treat others as others would do, if the others and I were in each other’s shoes. It’s the Great Golden Rule!” And with that proud proclamation on April 28 at Karen Acres Elementary in Urbandale, the Giant at long last resolved to behave and treat others with kindness and respect, bringing the 31st annual OPERA Iowa tour to a successful conclusion.

The troupe’s operatic version of John Davies’ Jack and the Beanstalk adapted music by the famous operetta duo, Gilbert and Sullivan, to a tale with a strong anti-bullying message.

Coupled with classroom workshops led by the singers before the performance, elementary students learned about music and experienced valuable life lessons through live performance during a half-day residency.

Gioachino Rossini’s famous comedy The Barber of Seville was offered for evening community performances in cities across the state including Manchester, Eldora, Des Moines, Centerville, Sioux Center, Algona, Osceola, Murray, Washington, Carroll,

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Grinnell and Keokuk. The colorful production and familiar tunes inspired hundreds of families to come dressed to the nines, ready for their first opera performance!

In 2017 OPERA Iowa appeared in 47 communities across Iowa, Missouri and Wisconsin for a total of 93 residencies.

In many instances the troupe members found themselves in both urban and rural schools in which the students have limited, if any, access to music and arts education. Often their residency represented the only arts education experience for those students during the entire academic year, making the responsibility of their work more keenly realized and increasingly essential. Serving over 25,000 students statewide, it is the state’s largest and most expansive engagement program in music education. Through 31 years of residencies that both educate and entertain, the OPERA Iowa Education Touring Troupe has worked to shift paradigms for over 850,000 students—one student at a time!

PRESENTING SPONSOR

The Gardner and Florence Call Cowles Foundation

2017 OPERA Iowa Troupe: (standing, left to right) Meghan Kasanders, Jรณhann Schram Reed, John Cockerill, Anthony Egendorfer; (seated) Thaddeus Ennen, Dustin Damonte, Christina Pezzarossi, Ted Pickell

2017 OPERA IOWA TROUPE: (standing, left to right) Jenna Smith, Conor McDonald, Emily Tweedy, Aidan Smerud, Joshua Conyers, Courtney Elvira; (seated) Nate DeMare, Scott Arens, Isaac Frishman

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DESIGN, PRODUCTION AND ADMINISTRATIVE An opera company is only as good as those who work behind the scenes. At Des Moines Metro Opera the production and design staff takes immense ownership in the quality of work delivered to audiences from the first details of the design process to the raising of the curtain on opening night. These people are the backbone of Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Company takes pride in their exceptional work.

Begun in 2011, the internship program delivers valuable career training and professional opportunities to the next generation of those who work behind the scenes.

A curriculum including portfolio showcases, talkbacks and sessions with visiting directors and designers complements time spent gaining hands-on experience. Des Moines Metro Opera offers internships in stage management, stage operations, scenic painting, properties, electrics, wig and make-up, costume and artistic administration departments.

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Participants work directly with design professionals drawn from many of the best theatres, opera companies and schools in the nation. For the 45th Anniversary Season, 27 interns were selected from over 400 applicants. Cumulatively, the designers, staff and interns of the production department will log over 30,000 hours to bring the 45th Summer Festival to life. Without their hard work and dedication the creation of these new productions tailored specifically to our unique theatre would not be possible.

The beginnings of this program coincided with an expansion of Des Moines Metro Opera’s scenic shop in 2011, which has enabled the Company to produce new productions entirely on site. This not only allows the Company to cost-effectively maintain its hallmark of new scenery built to fit our unique stage, but also to fulfill the important educational component of the Company’s mission.

INTERNSHIP PROGRAMS DESIGN AND PRODUCTION Production Intern KATIE MCLEAN Stage Management Interns EMMA COONEY ELIZABETH GOODILL Stage Operations Interns SARAH BENNETT MITCH FINGER MICHAEL GRAY AVERY HUNT DANIELLE KROPVELD WALTER TUCKER Scenic Painting Intern LIBBY RYAN-SMALL

ADMINISTRATIVE Properties Crew Interns SARAH PARKER WILLIAM THOMPSON Electric Crew Interns JACK BEBINGER FAITH CRAIG MATTHEW ROBSON Costume Crew Interns MADISON PRENTICE AOLANI SANTIAGO KALLI SMITH Wig and Makeup Interns MOLLIE LAWLER AMBER MOLDREM

Artistic and Administrative Intern LINDSEY VON HOLTEN Marketing Intern ELIZABETH FISHER Box Office Interns SARAH CURTIS HANNAH FRIESEN KAYLAH HICOK Front of House Interns GRAHAM BROOKS HANKEL HALDIN SHEA LUENINGHOENER

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OPERA GUILD Comprised of over 275 passionate opera enthusiasts, the Des Moines Metro Opera Guild provides the Opera with invaluable volunteer and financial support both during and in preparation for the festival season. With Guild Chapters in Ames, Des Moines, Indianola and Newton, Des Moines Metro Opera enjoys a volunteer reach that spans over an 80-mile radius from its home office.

Together, these four chapters make up a corps of volunteers that work tirelessly all year to assist the Opera in many ways— from acting as official greeters during events to preparing envelopes for mailings to acting like a group of 3rd graders during an OPERA Iowa classroom workshop rehearsal! This year the chapters also joined together to host the lecture “The Infinite Sea: Nelson’s Navy, Melville and the Making of Billy Budd” and the Threads and Trills Costume Show and Luncheon at Embassy Club West.

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Separately, each chapter organizes at least one event every month, with activities such as meetings, previews, tours and even full-scale concerts. Highlights include a program featuring members of Drake University Opera Theatre for the Ames Chapter, a recital with soprano Alexandra LoBianco for the Des Moines Chapter, the Indianola Chapter's Champagne Brunch and Bingo Benefit, and the Newton Chapter's popular Christmas Singalong event.

Fundraising events by the Guild Council and chapters support costuming for Des Moines Metro Opera’s mainstage productions. In 2017 the guilds’ efforts raised $31,500 for the 45th Anniversary Season. To find out more about the DMMO Guilds or to learn how you can become a member, contact the Des Moines Metro Opera office at (515) 961-6221.

AMES • DES MOINES INDIANOLA • NEWTON DES MOINES METRO OPERA GUILD COUNCIL President JULIA HAGEN Treasurer CHRIS URWIN Volunteer of the Year VICKIE TILL INDIANOLA CHAPTER

AMES CHAPTER President DILYS MORRIS Vice-president MARILU RAMAN Secretary BARBARA BROWN Treasurer SUE RAVENSCROFT

President BETSY FREESE Vice-president KAREN LANGSTRAAT Secretary NANCY LICKISS Treasurer ARLEN SCHRUM

DES MOINES CHAPTER

NEWTON CHAPTER

Presidents DARYL BECICKA President-elect MATT HUTH Secretary KELLY SCHALL Treasurer CRYSTAL BURNS

President JOAN TYLER Vice-president VIRGINIA BENNETT Secretary JANE ANN COTTON Treasurer KAY FISHER

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PRODUCTION HISTORY 1973 Puccini La Rondine Menotti The Medium Benjamin Prima Donna Britten Albert Herring 1974 Puccini Madama Butterfly Ward The Crucible Verdi Falstaff 1975 Puccini Il Trittico Mozart The Magic Flute Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress 1976 Rossini The Barber of Seville Massenet Manon Floyd Susannah 1977 Mozart Così fan tutte Verdi La Traviata Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann 1978 Bizet Carmen Puccini La Bohème Menotti The Consul 1979 J. Strauss Die Fledermaus Verdi Rigoletto Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream

1997 Mozart Don Giovanni Puccini La Rondine Britten Albert Herring

1986 Verdi Falstaff Hoiby The Tempest (World Premiere) Gounod Romeo and Juliet

1998 Puccini Tosca Lehár The Merry Widow Beethoven Fidelio Hoiby Summer and Smoke

1987 Puccini La Bohème Wagner The Flying Dutchman Britten The Turn of the Screw 1988 Rossini The Barber of Seville Puccini Turandot Mozart The Magic Flute 1989 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Strauss Die Fledermaus Ward The Crucible 1990 Mussorgsky Boris Godunov Flotow Martha Verdi La Traviata 1991 Puccini Madama Butterfly Britten Peter Grimes Mozart The Abduction from the Seraglio

1980 Verdi Il Trovatore Donizetti Don Pasquale R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos

1992 Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor Strauss Der Rosenkavalier Puccini The Girl of the Golden West Humperdinck Hansel and Gretel

1981 Puccini Tosca Moore The Ballad of Baby Doe Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor

1993 Donizetti Don Pasquale Verdi A Masked Ball Menotti The Saint of Bleecker Street

1982 Verdi Otello Donizetti The Elixir of Love Mozart Don Giovanni

1994 Bizet Carmen Verdi Rigoletto Blitzstein Regina

1983 Mascagni Cavalleria Rusticana Leoncavallo I Pagliacci Lehár The Merry Widow Donizetti The Daughter of the Regiment

1995 Sondheim Sweeney Todd Moore The Ballad of Baby Doe Mozart The Marriage of Figaro

1984 Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Poulenc Dialogues of the Carmelites Verdi Aïda

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1985 Gounod Faust Rossini La Cenerentola Floyd Of Mice and Men

1996 Puccini La Bohème Verdi Macbeth Mozart Così fan tutte

1999 Rossini The Barber of Seville Verdi Il Trovatore Weill Street Scene 2000 Bellini Norma Menotti The Consul Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld 2001 Puccini La Bohème Verdi La Traviata Puccini Il Trittico Barber Vanessa 2002 Puccini Turandot Strauss Salome Bernstein Candide 2003 Verdi Falstaff Gounod Faust Ward The Crucible Menotti Amahl and the Night Visitors 2004 Puccini Madama Butterfly Rossini La Cenerentola R. Strauss Ariadne auf Naxos 2005 Offenbach The Tales of Hoffmann Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor Britten Gloriana Menotti Amahl and the Night Visitors 2006 Mozart The Magic Flute Stravinsky The Rake’s Progress Verdi Rigoletto 2007 Bizet Carmen Britten A Midsummer Night’s Dream Verdi Otello 2008 Verdi A Masked Ball Blitzstein Regina Donizetti The Elixir of Love

2009 Puccini Tosca Weber Der Freischütz Rossini The Barber of Seville 2010 Mozart The Marriage of Figaro Verdi Macbeth Floyd Susannah 2011 Puccini La Bohème Donizetti Don Pasquale Poulenc Dialogues of the Carmelites 2012 Mozart Don Giovanni Puccini La Rondine Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin 2013 Gounod Romeo and Juliet Britten Peter Grimes Strauss Elektra 2014 Verdi La Traviata Heggie Dead Man Walking Rossini Le Comte Ory Menotti Amahl and the Night Visitors Bizet/Brook The Tragedy of Carmen 2015 Mozart The Abduction from the Seraglio Puccini The Girl of the Golden West Janáček Jenůfa Heggie Three Decembers Catán Rappaccini’s Daughter 2016 Verdi Falstaff Massenet Manon Gluck Orphée et Eurydice Schubert Winterreise Glass Galileo Galilei 2017 Puccini Turandot Sondheim A Little Night Music Britten Billy Budd Little Soldier Songs Piazzolla/Ferrer María de Buenos Aires

Soldier Songs 2017 83

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DES MOINES METRO OPERA FOUNDATION Des Moines Metro Opera’s endowment was established through a major campaign during the 20th anniversary in 1992 to "give permanency to the dream." Doris and John Salsbury of Charles City, Iowa, made the initial gift to the endowment and today, thanks to the generosity of so many, the endowment and long-term reserves total over $11 million.

There are a number of funds within the endowment that enable donors to perpetuate their artistic legacy into the future. Planned gifts benefit the endowment unless otherwise donor designated. Permanent endowment funds can be created with a gift of $250,000 or more. For more information, please contact Ellen Diehl at 515-961-6221.

ROBERT L. LARSEN FUND FOR ARTISTIC EXCELLENCE, funded by the Salsbury Challenge II, creates an endowment that will nurture and sustain the roots of the company while providing future artistic growth and financial stability.

21ST CENTURY FUND supports unrestricted gifts resulting from the Salsbury Challenge I that create artistic initiatives and special projects of Des Moines Metro Opera.

DOUGLAS DUNCAN MEMORIAL FUND supports the Company's contemporary and American opera productions.

WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST FUND FOR EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH supports the education and community outreach efforts of the Company.

MICHAEL HERZFELD FUND supports underserved audiences to attend festival productions.

DOUG BROWN FUND supports the public broadcast of festival productions.

APPRENTICE ARTIST ENDOWMENT FUND provides tuition, housing, meals and stipends for 40 artists annually.

ROBERT L. LARSEN LEGACY ENDOWMENT honors the co-founder of Des Moines Metro Opera by supporting the continued quality of the Company's scenic productions.

Falstaff 2016 85

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PASSIONATE ADVOCATES

For some of our patrons, opera has become an integral part of their family’s legacy. Such is the case for Bob Riley.

His first experience with opera was through his parents, Robert and Mary Ann, who were season ticket holders and supporters of Des Moines Metro Opera for many decades.

When Bob and his wife Kay lived in Boonville, Missouri, they attended operas at the Thespian Hall, the oldest opera house west of the Mississippi. After returning to Des Moines from Missouri in 1987, the Rileys joined Bob’s parents as annual patrons of DMMO’s Summer Festival. Kay Riley enjoys the visual elements of the opera, especially the creative and diverse sets found on stage, while Bob finds the intimacy of the theatre enhances his opera experiences. Soon their daughter Katherine Riley Harrington, who now serves on the Board of Directors, and their son also began to attend.

To highlight their support for Des Moines Metro Opera, Bob and Kay Riley, as well as Katherine and her husband Scott, have made generous contributions to the Words & Music at the Carnegie Capital Campaign. In addition, Bob and Kay are also encouraging others to give by providing a $10,000 matching challenge gift to new donors from Indianola.

The Rileys' love for opera has passed through three generations and continues to be valued by the entire family. They have chosen to invest their time, talents and treasures in Des Moines Metro Opera so that future generations everywhere can share that legacy with their families as well.

Members of the Encore Society at Des Moines Metro Opera help to perpetuate the Company’s commitment to artistic excellence and fiscal stability by making provisions for Des Moines Metro Opera in their estate plans. Because of this philanthropic spirit, the artistic experience will be available for future generations of opera lovers.

Manon 2016

Your gift can provide potential exemptions from estate, capital gains and/or income taxes while enabling the future of opera in Iowa. To learn more, contact Ellen Diehl, Director of Advancement and Operations, at 515-961-6221 or at ediehl@dmmo.org.

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IN MEMORIAM Doris Covault

INDIANOLA MUSIC TEACHER AND FRIEND

Phyllis Crouch

INDIANOLA GUILD MEMBER

Marcia Ely FRIEND

Joan Kuyper Farver DONOR AND FRIEND

Gene Gabus

DONOR AND FRIEND

Sam Kalainov

DONOR AND FRIEND

Winifred Kelley DONOR AND FRIEND

David T. Noble

DONOR AND FRIEND

Richard L. Richards

PERFORMER EXTRAORDINAIRE

Ilse Ryan

DONOR AND FRIEND

T. Nicholas Tormey

GUILD MEMBER, DONOR AND FRIEND

“Vanish, o night!

Fade, you stars!

Fade, you stars!

At dawn, I will win!“ —Calaf's "Nessun Dorma" aria from Turandot

Orphée et Eurydice 2016 89

AN UPLIFTING GIFT The audience at a theatrical performance probably isn't thinking about the mechanical devices necessary to make the performance come alive. However, to the directors and designers the “behind the scenes” equipment is as important to the show as the performers themselves. That is why the newly upgraded stage elevator lift in the Blank Performing Arts Center, made possible by a generous contribution from long-time Des Moines Metro Opera friends Nix and Virginia Lauridsen (pictured left), will transform this season's productions like never before. Located in front of the orchestra pit, the lift occupies the “playing circle,” the semi-circular area closest to the front row of the audience. It allows scenery, props and sometimes even characters—like in last season's Orphée et Eurydice (pictured above)—to be delivered quickly and discretely to the stage, often without the audience noticing. The new lift also has upgraded safety features and more user-friendly and efficient controls and will be seen in this season's productions of Turandot and Billy Budd.

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INSTITUTIONAL GIVING Des Moines Metro Opera is deeply grateful to create art in a vibrant city among corporations, foundations and institutions that support our work and appreciate the regional impact of the Company. Without their generosity we would be unable to fulfill our mission.

FRED MAYTAG FAMILY FOUNDATION

GABUS FAMILY FOUNDATION DANIEL J. AND ANN L. KRUMM CHARITABLE TRUST

American Equity Investment Life Insurance Co.

OPERA America

Anderson-Erickson Dairy Co.

Prairie Meadows

Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation

Ramsey Subaru

CenturyLink, Inc.

The Ruan Foundation

Faegre Baker Daniels LLP

Simonson & Associates Architects LLC

Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.

TruBank

Kemin Industries

Voya

Meredith Corporation Foundation

Vredenburg Foundation

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DONORS Des Moines Metro Opera is deeply grateful to the long-time friends and new individual donors who have made gifts to the 2017 annual campaign and to mark the 45th Anniversary Season. Without their generosity, we would be unable to fulfill our mission.

Contributions to the campaign provide the critical funds 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 stunning vocalism and professional theatre for 45 years!

IMPRESARIO $100,000 and above BRAVO Greater Des Moines Frank R. Brownell III Des Moines Metro Opera Foundation Doris Salsbury Endowment Fund The Fred Maytag Family Foundation The H. Dale and Lois Bright Foundation Nix and Virginia Lauridsen

Janis and John Ruan III/The Ruan Foundation Stan and Mary Seidler/The Seidler Foundation UnityPoint Health* Susan E. and Carl B. Voss Wells Fargo

GUARANTOR $5,000 - $9,999

American Equity Investment Life Insurance Co.* Roger and Kay Berger FOUNDER’S CIRCLE Sunnie Richer and Roger Brooks $25,000 - $99,000 Kate and Tom Carey Des Moines Metro Opera Guilds CenturyLink, Inc. DuPont Pioneer* James and Catherine Erickson/ Gabus Family Foundation Anderson-Erickson Dairy Co. Iowa Arts Council, a Division of the Iowa Faegre Baker Daniels LLP Department of Cultural Affairs Daniel J. and Ann L. Krumm Charitable Trust Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation John and Louise Grzybowski Nancy and Bill Main Drs. Bruce Hughes and Randall Hamilton The Principal Financial Group* Kemin Industries* Sammons Financial Group* Marylee Lankamer Simpson College Sara and Steve Marquardt William Randolf Hearst Endowment for Educational Outreach Paul J. Meginnis, II and Jo Sloan Meredith Corporation Foundation LEADERS Susan Olson $15,000 - $24,999 OPERA America* James and Lois Berens Michael and Christine Patrick Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey Dr. Carolyn and Martin Pease Jim and Patty Cownie/ Prairie Meadows Cownie Charitable Fund Ramsey Subaru Marshall and Judy Flapan Bob and Cherie Shreck Michael and Barbara Gartner Simonson & Associates Architects LLC* Daniel M. and Mary Kelly TruBank Thomas K. and Linda Koehn* Voya Robert L. Larsen Vredenburg Foundation National Endowment for the Arts Phil and Judy Watson Craig and Kimberly Shadur*

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE $10,000 - $14,999 American Enterprise Group Bankers Trust Estate of Phyllis A. Wroth Fred and Charlotte Hubbell Jim and Ellen Hubbell Marla Lacey and Steve Znerold* Principal Charity Classic "Birdies for Charity" Program

BENEFACTOR $2,500 - $4,999 Jane and Steve Bahls Mollie and Britt Baker Patricia Barbarlato and Clay Hulsey Sue Rutledge Brenton and J.C. "Buz" Brenton Pat Brown Fred and Barbara Brown Joan O'Harra Burke

Margot Burnham D.T. Doan* Selma Duvick Easter Family Foundation Dorothy Ely EMC Insurance Enterprise Holdings Foundation Charles and Marilyn Farr Fredrikson & Byron, P.A.* Robert and Elizabeth Freese Jo Ghrist John and Irene Graether Greater Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau Bryan Hall and Pat Barry Cora Hayes Homesteaders Life Company Dr. Darren Jirsa John Deere Dennis and Betty Keeney Patrick Kelly Joshua and Susie Kimelman Tom and Marsha Mann Ed and Elizabeth Mansfield Adrienne McFarland and Joe Clamon Ann and Brent Michelson Diane Morain Anastasia Polydoran Melanie Porter and Wayne Halbur Rachel Rowley and Matthew Morgan Schiller Family Foundation U.S. Bank Foundation Tom and Mary Urban Denise and John Wieland John and Peggy Wild Paul Woodard Workiva Mr. David Yepsen and Dr. Mary Stuart Carleton and Barbara Zacheis

PATRON $1,451 - $2,499 Bobbie and Tristan Adelman Athene Barbara Beatty C. Robert and Babette Brenton Barbara and Steven Cappaert

* 2nd Stages Sponsor

I am always amazed at the talented young people DMMO brings each summer. Seeing their hard work and dedication is one of the highlights of the year.

—DOROTHY ELY, DES MOINES, IA 92

We have been fans of DMMO for several decades. In addition to our own personal enjoyment, we also wish to support a performing arts venue that enriches our community. A thriving arts program is important in attracting new businesses, recruiting employees and growing our economy. —SUNNIE RICHER AND ROGER BROOKS, DES MOINES, IA

Larry and Patricia Goetz Chuck and Sue Green John Greer GuideOne Insurance Julia Hagen Charles C. Hample Andrew V. and Dr. Katherine Hauser Lawrence and Vicki Hedlin Jon Duvick and Carol Hendrick IBM Todd and Peggy Janus Robert E. and Kathryn Jessup Sam and Lori Kalainov Mary Keithahn Chuck and Roberta Kerr Dr. James and Mary Ellen Kimball Allan Kniep Karen and Phil Langstraat Richard and Joan Leffler LWBJ William Marion PRODUCER $500 - $1,450 Deb Martin Charles and Mary Anderson Andy and David McBeth Anonymous Sarah McDougal Betty Augspurger Thomas and Nancy McKlveen Achilles Avraamides and Dilys Morris John A. McTaggart Jane Farrell-Beck and Marvin Beck Don and Janet Metcalf In memory of E. James Bennett John B. and Kathryn Miller from his family Minnesota Cabinets Allan Bradley and Derrill Pankow Charles and Tracey Mohns Nathan and Katherine Brown Susan B. Moore BrownWinick Law Firm Martha James and Michael Myszewski Richard and Anita Calkins Stephen Orr Elizabeth and Jared Carter Lynsey Oster Casey's General Store Dr. Luis Pagan-Carlo Tony Colby Michael Patterson Leland Cook Peoples Bank R. Keith Cranston Henry G. and Norma A. Peterson Peter Dahlen and Mary S. Carlsen Charitable Trust Randall Daut and Patricia Ryan Neva L. Pruess Denman & Co. Dana Quick-Naig and Scott Naig Mary and Thomas Detwiler Alvin and Sue Ravenscroft Douglas B. Dorner and Carole Villeneuve Peter and Rita Reed Bob and Ardene Downing/ Sylvia Richards Downing Construction Dianne S. Riley Nicholas Dragelevich and Kimberly Udrovich Scott and Katherine Riley Harrington Dr. Ronald and Barbara Eckoff Dr. James Rutherford Michael Egel* Wallace W. Sanders Thomas G. and Rita Fisher John Schmidt and Deb Wiley Liz Garst Paul W. and V. Scott Roswell and Elizabeth Garst Foundation Dr. Heidi Shreck and Dr. Brian Shellenberger Howard F. and Ann Garton Karen and Gordon Shinn Ann and Michael Gersie Jeanie and Bill Smith Terri Combs and Thomas Swartwood Coons Foundation Kevin and Jill Croft Stephan and Linda Jones Evelyn Kuhns Sheila A. Meginnis Merchants Bonding Company MidAmerican Energy Foundation Steve and Erna Morain Bill and Pauline Niebur Jim and Jeanne O'Halloran Jason and Emily Pontius Phyllis Price Darren and Elaine Raleigh Ramsey Family Charitable Foundation Stanley Ransom Andrew Thomas Fred and Emily Weitz/Essex Meadows, Inc. Willis Auto Campus

Howard and Margaret Soroos Glenn Sowder Dr. Stephen and Martha Stephenson Robert and Sandra Tatge Bill Dawe and Sheila Tipton Dr. Beth Triebel Janice Walters Warren County Economic Development Corporation Carol and Eric Weber Fred and Emily Weitz Wellmark Foundation West Bancorporation Foundation, Inc. Dolores Ann Willemsen Connie Wimer and Frank Fogarty Gladys and David Winter John Robert Wise Janet Wood Krenio Wright Dr. Robert H. and Eleanor Zeff Larry and Kathi Zimpleman

SUSTAINER $250 - $499 Robert and Elizabeth Angelici Linda D. Appelgate Yvonne Aversa Sally and Dennis Bates James and Patricia Beatty Carroll and Mary Jo Bennett George and Kathleen Bigelow Charles and Lisa Bogh Margaret Borgen Richard Boyum and Louie Chua Margaret Bradford Jude Braune Arlys and Paul Breuklander Robert and Crystal Burns Bob and Judy Camblin Carol and James Christensen Thomas and Sharon Clarke Barbara and John Cortesio Don F. and Patricia Dagenais Bennett and Leisa Ely James C. and Martha Fifield Veryl and June Fritz Wm. and Barbara Gaeddert Charles L. Garmen Patrick H. Goeser Marge Gowdy Scott and Kathy Green Klaus and Claudia Grunewald Pam Guthrie * 2nd Stages Sponsor

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DONORS Joel and Debra Hade Roger L. Hatteberg Mary Jack Alex Jenson Carlton and Susan King Matt and Chari Kruse Gerald and Dorothea Lalonde Bill Larson Lori Lee Larson and Mark Belz Nancy Lickiss J. Lock and Harriet S. Macomber Leslie Mamoorian and Richard Johnson Joan Mannheimer Craig and Betty Miller Donald Newsom Lee E. Nickelson, Jr. Andy and Barb Nish Michael and Ginger O'Keefe Gregory Palermo and Olivia Madison Muriel A. Pemble Allen Perriello Valorie and Michael Prahl Marilu and V.V. Raman Lois Roets Jack and Marty Rossmann Christine Sand Mike and Traci Schaefer Ralph and Charlotte Schlenker Albert Sellen Wendy Shaler Hope Solomons Mary Susman and Thomas Herm Andrew and Marilyn Varley Catherine Vesley James and Elfrieda Waltz Bernard and Linda White Peter and Susan Wilson Sumner and Karen Worth

FRIEND $45 - $249 Roberta and William Abraham Suzi Alexander deEtt Allen Sandra and Donald Allgood Amazon Smile Anonymous Robert and Marilyn Arensman Jerry Artz Mary Lou Aspengren Tom and Betty Barton Toni Bast Tamara and Timothy Baumann

Wayne and Anita Beal William Becker Carol Bensman Jeff Bertelsen Catherine and Gary Broadston Shelley and Martin Brody Gregory Burley Brown Sandra Bruggemann Arthur and Miriam Canter DNE Caplan Family Foundation Donna Carlson Earl and Judy Check Barry Chester Hosung and Won Hi Chung Charles and Shirley Clark Sandra and Walter Clark Janine Clark Karen and William Claypool Carrie Clogg and Josh Barlage Jeremy Cook Phyllis Core John and Jeanne Cound Gerald Crawford Mark Cunningham Patrick and Mardi Deluhery Ralph DiNinno Judith Doorenbos John Dresser Courtney Drey Linda H. Drucker Steve and Kathryn Duffy Dorothy Egel George Ehrenberg Cary Feick Jim and Jill Ferguson Kathleen A. Finkenauer Richard and Joan Frohock T. and Roy Fuller Evelyn and Wayne Fuller Ed Funston Joan Gacki Cynthia and Don Glover Dr. Kimberly Gooch Marlys A. Graettinger Jan Grimes Norman Gunder Karl E. and Barbara Gwiasda Wael Haidar and Sarah McAvoy Esley Hamilton Lowell Hanson Lois and Wendell Harms Robert Haug Homer Hauke

Brad and Rae Anne Havig Larry and Carolyn Hejtmanek Stacey Henderson Gladys Hertzberg Gunda and Dave Hiebert Gertrude Vanginkel Higgs John C. and Fay G. Hill Barbara Jackman Severin and Linda Johnson Dr. Colin and Sandra Kavanagh Ann Cole Kendell Richard and Annette Kerr Margaret F. Keshen Sue and Dan King Bob Klassy Daniel J. Knepper Mary M. Knosby John M. Kohlmeier Geoff and Nancy Kolb Joanne Kolenda James and Ann Lano David R. Leaming Judy Lefferdink Barb Lettween Tracy Levine Caroline Levine Susan Loomis Dudley Luckett Barbara Lueder Sharon M. Lundy Carol Lytle Vern Maetzold Linda Mahloch John R. and Cyril A. Mandelbaum Matthew Manning Ann Martin Michael and Eileen May Harry and Marilyn McIntyre Murray and Elizabeth McKee Richard and Kristen McKlveen Brian and Julie McLean Dru McLuen Teresa McMahon Michael McNeil Polly Moore Diane Moore Robert and Wynette Moore Candy Morgan Roscoe and Cheryl Morton David and Delpha Musgrave Robert D. Nelson Gerald and Carol Nordquist Frank Nowasell

In our travels we have enjoyed opera performances at many different venues, but our favorite is always DMMO. The quality and visual intimacy is second-to-none. —TOM AND MARSHA MANN, NEW BRIGHTON, MN 94

In 1973 we ushered at DMMO for our first date a year after Jane's parents, Marian and Don Easter, helped found the opera. We still love to attend these magnificent productions in the DMMO's intimate theatre and to lend our support to help ensure the future of this great company. —JANE AND STEVE BAHLS, ROCK ISLAND, IL

Robert and Patricia Oberbillig Ted and Cindy Ohmart Charlene Opdahl Jean Boyer O'Shea Sandra and John Owens Elizabeth M. Parker David and Joan Paulsrud Floyd Pentlin Stephen Perlowski Shirley Peterson Warren and Jill Peterson William Phillips Nancy Pinkerton James and Rita Pray Lettie Prell and John Domini Don Priest Ruthe Pudgil Colleen Putnam Gerald and Kay Randleman Shirley M. Riney William Robinson Deanna and Matt Sargent Gretchen and James Sauer Patrice Sayre Linda Schakel Charlotte Shivvers and Robert Baker Mark F. and Leila Schlenker Karen Schoville Margaret Schultz Jack and Pamela Schwandt A. Truman Schwartz Alan E. Shapiro Gordon and Ruth Shaw Timothy Schurman Marvin and Barbara Van Sickle Wesley and Cheryl Siebrass Linda and Bruce Simonton Charles and Meg Smith Carol Sovern Sandy and James Spencer Paul and Susan Stageberg Phyllis Staplin Carolyn and Roger Stirler Dusan Stojanovic Martha Jo Strickler Dr. LeRoy I. Strohman Susan Stroope Donald Stumbo and Janene Panfil Ben and Joyce Swartz Paul and Jean Swenson J. Patrick Tatum Darrell Taylor Gary M. Thelen

Dr. Charles L. Thiesenhusen Diane L. Thiessen Sigrid Thill Dr. Jacqueline Thompson Cecilia Tomlonovic Joan Tyler Greg Van Den Berghe Thomas J. Vanhon Bob and Molly Veenstra Liz and Joel Weinstein Wells Fargo Community Support Campaign Gaye Wiekierak M. Eugene and Janet L. Williams Stephen and Lee Willson Marvin and Robbie Winick Richard L. Wood Thomas F. and Amy N. Worthen David Yurdin and Elaine Lundstrom Elliott Zucker

2017 CORPORATE MATCHING GIFTS Athene HB Fuller IBM Meredith Corporation Foundation Microsoft Corporation Voya Wellmark Foundation Wells Fargo Community Support Campaign

OPERA IOWA EDUCATIONAL TOURING TROUPE PERFORMANCE SPONSORS Kate Carey Centerville Concert Association Clarke County Area Arts Council Clarke County Organization of Philanthropic Services Liz Garst Sarah Garst Haggard Twogood Trust Hanson Foundation Hardin County Performance Series Hawarden Arts Council Keokuk Community Fine Arts Kum & Go Timothy O. Lee Okoboji Foundation Carolyn Pease Underwood Schools Music Boosters Susan Voss Washington Area Performing Arts West Delaware Friends of Music

WINE & FOOD SHOWCASE Supporter Sponsors Patricia Barbalato and Clay Hulsey Jim and Lois Berens CenturyLink, Inc. Homesteaders Life Company Tom and Linda Koehn Workiva Partner Sponsors BrownWinick Law Firm Dr. Beth Triebel/Vision Park Family Eye Care Vendor Sponsors Denman & Company LWBJ Minnesota Cabinets Automobile Sponsor Ramsey Subaru VIP Lounge Vendors Table 128 Bistro & Bar Marriott of Des Moines Des Moines Wine Club: Aaron Hamrock, Bruce Hughes, Eric LaMasters, Craig Porter, Craig Shadur, Don Young Grand Tasting Vendors 515 Brewing Company Berkwood Farms Bronco Wine Company Chocolaterie Stam Confluence Brewing Cyd's Catering Des Moines Embassy Club/Embassy Club West Dimitri Wine & Spirits Exile Brewing Company Firetrucker Brewery Gateway Market Catering Glazer's Distributors of Iowa HOQ J.A. White Riverboat & Riverwalk HUB Jasper Winery Johnny's Italian Steakhouse Johnson Brothers of Iowa LaVida Loca Winery Louie's Wine Dive Madhouse Brewery Maytag Cheese Palmer's Deli & Market Tassel Ridge Winery The River Center & Kitchen Underground The Tangerine Food Company Trellis Cafe & Catering at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Center Vivian's Diner

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DONORS Auction Donors Bean and the Sprout Blind Photography Blondies by T. Harris Salon BRAVO Cucina Italiana Chicago Lyric Opera Package Des Moines Art Center Des Moines Community Playhouse Des Moines Performing Arts Des Moines Symphony Eden Elements Ltd. Elvin McDonald and John Zickefoose French Way Cleaners Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau Hoyt Sherman Place I-Cubs Box via Faegre Iowa City Jazz Fest Iowa Culinary Institute Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs John Deere Classic Golf Josephs Jewelers Kitchen Collage Living History Farms Lucca Mary Ellen Kimball Mike and Cheryl Giudicessi Minnesota Opera Mollie Baker Nix and Virginia Lauridsen Orchestra Iowa Power Life Yoga Principal Golf Classic Ramsey Subaru Science Center of Iowa Shane Hefty Skeffington's SkyZone Sweets w/TLC The Cheese Shop The Olive Tap Ankeny Tom Kaldenberg & Associates Velorosa Cycling Winefest Wines and Canvas

A LITTLE NIGHT GALA Sponsors Bankers Trust ITA Group

Opening Weekend Automobile Sponsor Ramsey Subaru Auction Donors DuPont Pioneer Kathleen Stahl Travel Les and Eileen Meltzer Simonson & Associates Architects LLC

WARREN COUNTY DAY SPONSORS Gib's A&W Hy-Vee Peoples Bank Simpson College

HONORARY GIFTS In honor of the Bennett Family Carroll and Mary Jo Bennett In honor of Linda Campbell Carleton and Barbara Zacheis In honor of Marshall Flapan Daniel M. and Mary Kelly In honor of Marshall Flapan's Birthday given to the Words & Music at the Carnegie Capital Campaign Milton and Joanne Brown Shari and Stanley Engman Louis and Lois Fingerman Harland and Dorothy Hockenberg Levitt Foundation Kay Myers Glenn and Florence Purnell Stanley and Gail Richards Harlan and Audrey Rosenberg Mary Seidler John and Patricia Shors Alan Zuckert In honor of Fred and Charlotte Hubbell Daniel M. and Mary Kelly Joshua and Susie Kimelman In honor of Marla Lacey Larry and Kathi Zimpleman In honor of Nix and Virginia Lauridsen Severin and Linda Johnson In honor of Diane Morain David and Delpha Musgrave In honor of Steve Stephenson UnityPoint Health

MEMORIAL GIFTS In memory of Richard Bowman Marshall and Judy Flapan In memory of Doug Brown Pat Brown In memory of Russell Clark William Phillips In memory of Phyllis Crouch Julia Hagen In memory of Charlotte Elmets Bob and Cherie Shreck In memory of Dr. Lawrence O. Ely Bennett and Leisa Ely In memory of Winifred Kelley Bob and Cherie Shreck In memory of Linda Kniep Linda Schakel In memory of Merle G. Mielke David R. Leaming In memory of Ronald A. Nelson Paul and Susan Stageberg In memory of Valerie Percy Anonymous In memory of Bill Peverill Tracy Levine In memory of Ronald Price Carol Bensman Phyllis Price In memory of Richard Richards Sylvia Richards In memory of Charlotte J. Schlenker Ralph and Charlotte Schlenker Charitable Trust Mark F. and Leila Schlenker In memory of Jane Sellen Albert Sellen In memory of Nicholas Tormey Suzi Alexander Tamara and Timothy Baumann Courtney Drey

Gifts received after 6/12/17 will be acknowledged in the 46th Summer Festival Program

Various sized groups of us have made annual pilgrimages from Chicago to attend weekend performances at DMMO. We love coming and all give DMMO the best word of mouth we can. We can honestly say the Summer Festival is its own kind of paradise! —WILLIAM PHILLIPS, CHICAGO, IL 96

I so look forward to my annual weekend of opera at DMMO each summer. DMMO serves up an exciting mix of familiar and less performed operas in an intimate setting which affords the audience one of the most exciting, creative and beautifully sung operatic experiences to be had. —ANDREW THOMAS, ST. PAUL, MN

GIFTS FOR THE 2016 SEASON RECEIVED AFTER 6/13/16 BENEFACTOR $2,500 - $4,999 Weathertop Foundation

PATRON $1,000 - $2,499 Joyce Castle Coons Foundation Dr. Sarah Garst

PRODUCER $500 - $999 Steven Adelman and Katherine Elsner Richard and Joan Leffler

SUSTAINER $250 - $499 Dr. Carlos Bekerman Lori Lee Larson and Mark Belz Ray and Sandra Crabtree Cary Feick Karl and Jan Knock Gerald and Dorothea Lalonde Michael and Kristine Bartik Niedert Mary Parrish David and Joan Paulsrud Elizabeth Rattican John and Carolyn Schmidt George Steinsberger Lynn and Robert Swan

FRIEND $50 - $249 Allan Bradley and Derrill Pankow Mary and Bruce Bruene John and Ellen Burnquist Jan Campbell Earl and Judy Check Terri Combs and Thomas Swartwood Stanley and Marilyn Davis Thomas Dillingham James and Janet Hanks Wayne Hansen Denis Hildreth Karl and Jan Knock Barbara Koch Joanne Kolenda Judy Lefferdink Caroline Levine Stuart and Susan Levine John R. and Cyril A Mandelbaum Dr. Timothy McMillin

David Meconi Brandon T. Mennenoh Diane Moore Dr. Marilyn Mueller Sarah Nagle Michael and Kristine Bartik Niedert OperaDelaware Sandra and John Owens William Pollak Tamara Jo Prenosil and Frank Potter Jane and Dick Sanford Don A. Smith Sandy and James Spencer Dawn Taylor Bill Dawe and Sheila Tipton Nancy Wallace Anne Weaver Gary Wedow Connie Wimer and Frank Fogarty

Des Moines Metro Opera acknowledges with appreciation the following individuals and businesses who provided in-kind donations or assisted in meaningful ways during the 2017 season: American Equity Investment Karen Armstrong, Decorated Occasions Marcia and Bob Auerbach Bailey Nurseries Mollie and Britt Baker Patricia Barbalato, Strategic America Ken Benson Harry Bookey and Pamela Bass-Bookey Frank R. Brownell III Business Publications Corporation Camp Dodge Cathedral Church of St. Paul, Des Moines Central Presbyterian Church, Des Moines Dr. Dawn Coleman The Community Foundation of Greater Des Moines Kendra Daly Des Moines Symphony Academy Ruth Dorr Amy Duncan, Indianola Record-Herald Kenneth Dusheck Embassy Club First Unitarian Church, Des Moines Fleur Cinema and CafĂŠ James H. Gilliam Rick Goetz Julia Hagen

Charlotte Hubbell Roger and Shela Hudson Drs. Bruce Hughes and Randall Hamilton Hy-Vee Indianola Corner Sundry Infomax Office Systems Iowa ENT Center, Joy Hesse Iowa Public Television, Judy Blank Connie Isaacson Dale Jansen Marilyn Johnson Daniel M. and Mary Kelly Joe Kemple, Piano Tuner Ketra Lighting Susie and Josh Kimelman Teresa Koch Matt and Chari Kruse Nix and Virginia Lauridsen The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Roger Pines Lyric Opera of Kansas City Nancy and Bill Main Elvin McDonald Dr. Timothy McMillin, Des Moines Vocal Arts Ensemble The Metropolitan Opera, Gayletha Nichols and Jonathan Friend Nikki Nigg Nite Owl Printing Opera America, Marc Scorca OPN Architects, Scott Allen Optometric Associates Danielle Orlando The Principal Financial Group Mark Putney, Putney Auctioneers Raji Ramachandran Nick Renkoski S & P Pianos, Shon Clausen Wallace Sanders Brian and Angela Sarvis Tom Sawyer Dr. Craig Shadur Dani Shirley Bob and Cherie Shreck Simpson College Music Department Trinity United Presbyterian Church, Indianola Chris Urwin and Matt Huth Valley High School Bands, Greg Simmons and Josh Waymire Greg Van Den Berghe Connie Wimer and Frank Fogerty Winn's Pizza and Steak House Jonathan Yentis Pragnya Yogesh and Yogeshwara Gonchigar

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ARCHITECTS Des Moines | Iowa City RealizeYourVision.net 515.279.8818

CITY/STATE/NATIONWIDE MOVING INSURED OVER 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE Des Moines, IA 515-208-6453 cell shonclausen@yahoo.com

CHAUTAUQUA

General and Artistic Director, Steven Osgood

COMPANY

89th Season, June 26–August 5

2017

OPERA

L’ORFEO

Claudio Monteverdi, Arr. Ottorino Respighi

July 8 • Amphitheater • U.S. Stage Premiere Directed by Keturah Stickann Featuring Daniel Belcher and Heather Johnson

DON PASQUALE Gaetano Donizetti

July 28 & 31 • Norton Hall Directed by David Schweizer Featuring Stefano de Peppo and Kyle Pfortmiller

HYDROGEN JUKEBOX Philip Glass & Allen Ginsberg

July 27 & Aug. 1 • Norton Hall Directed by Cara Consilvio

YOUNG ARTIST WEEK July 31–Aug. 5

Composer-in-Residence: Gity Razaz CHAUTAUQUA INSTITUTION • CIWEB.ORG/OPERA

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Experience an evening of

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When staying in one of our spacious all-suite rooms, start your day with complimentary hot breakfast and end it at our social reception offered Mon-Wed. Enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi and guest laundry. Exercise in our fitness center and relax in our indoor pool and whirlpool. Book a suite today!

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Weddings •Anniversaries Showers • Corporate Events

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FROM THE OPENING NOTES OF WEBER’S INVITATION TO THE DANCE TO THE CLOSING STRAINS OF RAVEL’S LA VALSE, THE MUSIC OF OUR 80TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON WHIRLS AND WALTZES LIKE A BALLETIC TOUR DE FORCE. SUBSCRIBE NOW AND JOIN US FOR MUSIC IN MOTION.

MUSIC IN MOTION 2017–2018 80TH SEASON

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SUMMER FESTIVAL EVENTS JUNE 28 APPRENTICE SCENES PROGRAM Amy Robertson Music Center, 519 N. Buxton St., 1:30pm Free Join us for these free public performances featuring members of the acclaimed Apprentice Artist Program: Béatrice et Bénédict, Carmen, The Dialogues of the Carmelites, Pelléas et Mélisande, Suor Angelica.

JULY 1 APPRENTICE SCENES PROGRAM Amy Robertson Music Center, 519 N. Buxton St., 1:30pm Free Join us for these free public performances featuring members of the acclaimed Apprentice Artist Program: La Cenerentola, The Consul, Dark Sisters, Iphigénie en Tauride, Pagliacci, The Rape of Lucretia.

JULY 7 "YOUNG FRIENDS PICNIC AT THE OPERA" - A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC Blank Performing Arts Center, 6pm $49/person or $90/couple Join us for a picnic on the grounds with Bohemian box-dinners catered by Trellis Cafe (and complimentary wine and beer!) followed by a performance of Stephen Sondheim's Tony Award-winning musical A Little Night Music. Stay after the performance to socialize with the artists and then treat yourself with an ice cream cone from the Outside Scoop!

JULY 8 "THE RIDDLE OF TURANDOT" DISCUSSION Salisbury House & Gardens Common Room, 11am Free Maestro David Neely and members of DMMO's Apprentice Artist Program explore more of the story behind Puccini’s epic opera.

APPRENTICE SCENES PROGRAM Amy Robertson Music Center, 519 N. Buxton St., 1:30pm Free Join us for these free public performances featuring members of the acclaimed Apprentice Artist Program: Don Pasquale, Die Fledermaus, Flight, The Rake's Progress, Rusalka.

JULY 9 CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT Amy Robertson Music Center, 519 N. Buxton St., 7:30pm Free Join us for a free public performance featuring members of the festival orchestra in solos, duets and ensembles.

JULY 12 STARS OF TOMORROW Sheslow Auditorium, Drake University, 7:00pm $25/adults, Free/students Catch the Apprentice Artists and the Festival Orchestra as they present some of the most famous arias, duets and ensembles from the world of opera. Dessert reception with the artists following the concert.

JULY 13 WARREN COUNTY DAY - TURANDOT Blank Performing Arts Center, 2:00pm All friends of DMMO who reside in Warren County are invited to attend a special matinee performance of Puccini’s Turandot followed by a complimentary BBQ sponsored by HyVee, Gib’s A&W, Peoples Bank and Simpson College.

To order tickets, please call our box office at (515) 961-6221 to reserve your seats!

JULY 15 APPRENTICE SCENES PROGRAM Amy Robertson Music Center, 519 N. Buxton St., 1:30pm Free Join us for these free public performances featuring members of the acclaimed Apprentice Artist Program: Ariadne auf Naxos, Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sweeney Todd, Vanessa.

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ADVERTISERS INDEX Des Moines Metro Opera thanks our advertisers, whose support helps us provide this complimentary program for our Summer Festival. For advertising information, call our office at 515-961-6221.

Faulconer Gallery, Grinnell College INSIDE FRONT

Josephs Jewelers 103

Bravo Greater Des Moines INSIDE BACK

Kemin 99

Tassel Ridge Winery BACK COVER

Mercy 101 Metro Arts Alliance 32

Allspice 104

Olson-Larsen Galleries 31

American Enterprise 27

Opera Omaha 102

Apple Tree Inn 107

Opera Theatre of Saint Louis 28

Ballet Des Moines 102

Prairie Meadows 19

Bankers Trust 24

The Principal Financial Group 21

Chautauqua Opera 102

Ramsey Subaru 100

Confluence Brewing 100

S & P Piano Services 101

Country Inn and Suites 107

Salisbury House & Gardens 29

Decorated Occasions 108

Sammons Financial Group 23

Des Moines Symphony 109

Scottish Rite Park 26

DuPont Pioneer 18

Shull & Co. P.C. 107

Elements LTD. 109

Simpson College 106

Gib’s A & W 106

Skeffington’s Formal Wear 33

Gong Fu Tea 103

Staybridge Suites 108

Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau 25

TruBank 20

Happy Medium 105

UnityPoint Health 22

Iles Funeral Homes 98

Valley View Village 104

Indianola Chamber of Commerce 106

Walker Coen Lorentzen Architects 100

The Iowa Clinic, P.C. 103

Wells Fargo 99

Iowa ENT Center 98

Wolfe Eye Clinic 104

Iowa Public Radio 105 Iowa Public Television 30

ARTWORK CREDITS Season Illustration Kimberly Udrovich Season Images Ben Easter/Ben Easter Photography Page 34-35 A classical statue at Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate. Photo credit: Diane Cook, Len Jenshel/National Geographic Creative Page 40 28th August 1962: American songwriter Stephen Sondheim, whose works include the musicals 'A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,' 'Into the Woods' and 'Passion.' Photo credit: Michael Hardy Page 42 Stephen Sondheim the American composer and lyricist, stands beside an advertisement for one of his shows. Photo credit: Hulton Deutsch Page 42 Hal Prince in 1981 with Stephen Sondheim, right, at a rehearsal for “Merrily We Roll Along.” Photo credit: United Press International Page 43 Listening to a playback, Glynis Johns, Goddard Lieberson, Len Cariou and Stephen Sondheim. Photo credit: Don Hunstein, Sony Music Archives.

Page 48-49 Hurricane at Sea, 1850, Ivan Constantinovich Aivazovsky, National Gallery of Armenia.

Page 50-51 The Convict Ship T.K. Hervey, 1864, James Hamilton, Private Collection.

PHOTOGRAPHERS Scott Arens, Ben Easter, Jose Iregui, Devita Paschell, Mike Rolands, Tom Sawyer, Duane Tinkey, Kimberly Udrovich

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