Des Moines Metro Opera Vivace Spring/Summer 2019

47TH FESTIVAL SEASON LA BOHÈME | CANDIDE | WOZZECK | BON APPÉTIT!

LA BOHÈME

WELCOME

CANDIDE

Season Presenting Sponsor THE LAURIDSEN FAMILY FOUNDATION

Spring has sprung in Iowa and with it comes an invigorating new chapter for us. The Lauridsen Opera Center will have its long awaited Grand Opening Celebration on June 29. Beyond increasing overall efficiency and productivity, the facility provides enhanced space for our education and engagement programs. The year-long construction process has placed the Company squarely in the community spotlight and added extra excitement to our year.

The architecture and art inside honors our rich history but blends the past with a forward-looking aesthetic. This unifying juxtaposition of historic and contemporary echoes our guiding artistic philosophy.

Opportunities to tour the space are on page 13.

The idea of juxtaposing Candide and Wozzeck next to one another in a festival repertory format has always fascinated me and this is the year to do it. Candide has been one of our most oft-requested titles. So in the year following Bernstein’s much-celebrated centennial, his brilliant comedic satire returns to our stage in a colorful and clever new production by debut director Michael Shell and Maestro David Neely. Speaking of, the level of accomplishment that Maestro has achieved with the Festival Orchestra has made it possible for us to program Berg’s monumental Wozzeck. Director Kristine McIntyre, who created tremendously successful productions of Billy Budd, Flight and Jenůfa, returns to lead an all-female creative team headlined by the debut of scenic/costume designer Vita Tzykun.

With baritone Michael Mayes and soprano Sara Gartland both making role debuts, Wozzeck promises to be an event that will be talked about for years to come.

This extraordinary construction effort has been only a portion of a busy year. Our November production of Glory Denied (pictured right) at Camp Dodge continued our work with the Iowa National Guard in singing the stories of those who served our country and disrupting expectations about what opera can be. An exemplary OPERA Iowa ensemble traveled 6,000 miles between February and April, giving 90 performances for over 25,000 children and adults across Iowa. March’s annual Wine, Food and Beer Showcase produced some of the best results ever for this event and was a great time. It has been a big year!

Our final course this season is literally a musical dessert. Could there be a more perfect pairing of performer and role than Joyce Castle as Julia Child?

Hoiby’s Bon Appétit! was inspired by the culinary icon’s 1950 television show and will be part of an evening that includes a Julia Child-inspired dinner menu curated by the Iowa Culinary Institute at DMACC in Ankeny and given in the atrium of their new space. Two of three performances are already sold out, so if you don’t have your tickets, don’t wait!

We’re also busy preparing a new season! The beautiful story of Mimì and Rodolfo inspired what has become one of the most beloved and poignant operas ever written. Puccini’s La Bohème returns to the repertory featuring a remarkable cast of important young singers and led by conductor (and recent Grammy winner) Michael Christie and director Octavio Cardenas.

Single tickets are on sale now and sales are trending well ahead of all previous seasons. Excitement for our sung stories is at an all-time high. Secure your preferred seats and dates soon! To those who have made a gift of support for the season, I thank you! If you have not, I hope you will consider adding your voice to the chorus of support that makes our work possible.

Michael Egel, General and Artistic Director

WOZZECK

BON APPÉTIT!

Vivace is a newsletter published annually by Des Moines Metro Opera, 106 West Boston Avenue, Indianola, Iowa 50125-1836.

Volume 6, Issue 2.

Editor SCOTT ARENS Design KIMBERLY DRAGELEVICH Contributors JOSHUA BORTHS KRISTINE MCINTYRE NICK RENKOSKI MARK TIARKS Photographers BEN EASTER DUANE TINKEY Proofreader JULIA HAGEN

On the cover Scenic inspiration rendering for Candide by designer Steven C. Kemp.

GLORY DENIED 2018

Puccini

LA BOHÈME

The Youth of LA BOHÈME

By Joshua Borths

PUCCINI’S LA BOHÈME IS A CLASSIC. Performed thousands of times each year, La Bohème connects audiences new and old to the tradition, emotion, and grandeur of opera. It is a juggernaut cemented in the operatic canon. Because of this success, it is easy to forget what brought the opera acclaim in the first place and what brings audiences back to the opera again and again.

In the 1890s, Puccini was the hot new composer of Italy. Seen by many as the heir apparent to Verdi, Puccini had won audiences over with his first monster hit, Manon Lescaut. A composer of relative youth, Puccini was vibrant, passionate, and energetic as he helped launch Italian opera into the new century.

With his new-found fame and fortune, Puccini sat down to write La Bohème and committed to living life to the fullest. He bought several houses, traveled the world and even invested in the new fad of the age: the bicycle (he would later go on to be a collector of cars). Like the young men of La Bohème, Puccini lived for the moment and gleefully partook in the pleasures swirling around him.

His life had not always been this charmed, however. Since his father had died while Puccini was young, he had to be scrappy to make ends meet. Puccini wheedled his way into a music conservatory, sneaked into opera houses and constantly bummed cigarettes and meals from friends. Puccini knew what it was like to be a bohemian, a starving artist who lived for art and love, and he expressed these sentiments in La Bohème, one of his greatest operatic achievements.

LA BOHÈME 2011

La Bohème premiered in Turin, Italy, on February 1, 1896. It was not a critical success right away, but audiences were immediately captivated. Based on a collection of inter-connected short stories titled Scènes de la vie de bohème, La Bohème tells the story of a group of young friends living in Paris. While the opera ends in tragedy as the bohemians are confronted with mortality, much of the opera is energetic and brimming with hope.

The cast assembled for you in this fantastic revival features rising opera stars, a chorus of exceptional apprentice artists, and a conductor and director making their Des Moines Metro Opera mainstage debuts.

This production of La Bohème is energetic and youthful, and over 100 years after its original premiere, La Bohème is again filled with new possibilities and wonder just as Puccini intended.

Mimì JULIE ADAMS

MAKING ITS MARK La Bohème premiered on February 1, 1896, at the Teatro Regio in Turin with a young, 28-year-old Arturo Toscanini conducting. While the opera initially received mixed to negative reviews from critics, it found immediate popularity among the general public; the composer took no fewer than 15 curtain calls the night of the premiere! The local press was less convinced. “La Bohème, just as it left no impression on the minds of the listeners, will not leave much of a mark on the history of our lyric theatre...” said a music critic from La gazzetta piemontese, a local newspaper.

In response to the negative reactions from critics, the famed music publisher, Tito Ricordi, remarked, “All this merely confirms me in my belief that La Bohème is a new and daring work of art and therefore much argued about, and even little understood—that is, by the intellectuals, who can never be truly unbiased, while the public is moved and delighted.”

Rodolfo JOSHUA GUERRERO

After 24 sold-out performances in Turin, subsequent productions quickly spread throughout Italy and abroad with mountings in Naples (March 1896), Buenos Aires (June 1896), Bologna and Rome (November 1896), Milan (March 1897), Manchester (April 1897) and Venice (December 1897). Within six months of its debut, it was the iconic composer’s most popular work, a position from which it has never faltered.

Musetta MANÉ GALOYAN

FROM THE STAGE TO THE STAGE TO THE SCREEN Almost one century to the day after the premiere of La Bohème, another new and daring work of art would make its premiere to wide acclaim—Jonathan Larson’s hit Broadway musical Rent. Based loosely on the plot of Puccini’s beloved opera, Rent follows a group of emerging artists struggling to make ends meet, but updates the story from tuberculosis-ridden Paris in the 1830s to New York City in the late 1980s/early 1990s dealing with the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Not only was Larson enamored with the plot of La Bohème, but also with Puccini’s soaring melodies. The famous candle scene in Rent, for example, features melodic material from Rodolfo’s aria “Che gelida manina,” while remnants of “Musetta’s Waltz” can be heard in the duet “Take Me or Leave Me” and in “Your Eyes.”

Broadway isn’t the only place La Bohème’s arias have made an appearance. Audience members may also recognize Mimì’s heartbreaking Act III aria, “Donde lieta,” from the iconic scene in the 1987 classic film, Moonstruck, starring Cher and Nicholas Cage.

Another popular film that drew inspiration from Puccini’s masterpiece is Baz Luhrmann’s 2001 jukebox musical tragedy Moulin Rouge, which features a motley group of struggling artists and a leading lady who succumbs to tuberculosis. Luhrmann’s connection to Bohème actually started in 1990 when he directed a production of the opera at the Sydney Opera House which went on to be remounted in San Francisco in 2001 and on Broadway in 2002!

Marcello THOMAS GLASS

Colline TIMOTHY BRUNO

Production made possible by a leadership gift from Thomas and Linda Koehn

LA BOHÈME

Schaunard BRIAN VU Conductor MICHAEL CHRISTIE

|

Director OCTAVIO CARDENAS

7:30PM June 28*, July 5, 11*, 13 | 2:00PM June 30^, July 21 *Best prices and availability

^Motorcoach service available

Bernstein

CANDIDE

All that Glitters is not Gold (not at first, anyway)

By Mark Tiarks

AMERICA’S MOST PRODIGIOUSLY GIFTED MUSICIAN, Leonard Bernstein, shot to fame at age 25 when he conducted the New York Philharmonic on very short notice and with no rehearsal. The concert, on November 14, 1943, included works by Schumann, Wagner, and Richard Strauss and was nationally broadcast live on CBS Radio.

His compositions over the next few years demonstrated his wide-ranging interests: the Symphony No. 1 and the Broadway musical On the Town both premiered in 1944; the Symphony No. 2 in 1949; Peter Pan, another Broadway show, in 1950; and a one-act opera, Trouble in Tahiti, in 1952. His vocal music included “La Bonne Cuisine: Four Recipes for Voice and Piano” (text from an 1890s French cookbook) and several choruses set to traditional Hebrew texts.

Bernstein’s musical eclecticism and versatility were the perfect match for the kaleidoscopic range of Voltaire’s novel. Candide and his fiancée Cunegonde have been taught by Dr. Pangloss that “All’s for the best in this best of all possible worlds,” but their voyage through life soon flounders on separation, earthquakes, volcanoes, assault, torture, prostitution, poverty, and warfare.

They careen from Westphalia to Lisbon to Paris to Buenos Aires to Surinam to Venice, buoyed by Bernstein’s brilliant interpretations of classic European dances, with waltzes, gavottes, tangos, hornpipes, and barcarolles propelling the action.

On Sunday, February 2, 1957, at the Martin Beck Theatre on West 45th Street, Candide collapsed at around 11pm.

Despite the formidable talents of librettist Lillian Hellman; lyricists Richard Wilbur, John Latouche, and Dorothy Parker; stage director Tyrone Guthrie; and a cast led by Barbara Cook and Robert Rounseville, their “comic operetta” closed after 73 performances. Any resuscitation of such a commercial flop seemed hopeless.

“Presenting ‘Candide: or Optimism’” souvenir program, 1956.

Fueled by memories of Bernstein’s score and the superb cast album released despite the show’s commercial failure, theatre producers became intrigued by the challenge of making the show succeed. A 1966 Los Angeles production featured Carroll O’Connor as Pangloss. Harold Prince’s 1973 staging-in-the-round was a theatrical tour de force and a Broadway success, albeit with significantly reduced musical forces. In 1982 Prince launched Candide’s migration to the opera house with an acclaimed staging for the New York City Opera. The “Scottish Opera version” with a more complete score premiered in 1988 and led to Bernstein’s famous concert performances with the London Symphony Orchestra a year later.

Candide will be helmed by DMMO music director David Neely and the Des Moines debut of stage director Michael Shell. Neely led last summer’s acclaimed productions of Rusalka and Flight; Shell’s recent stagings include The Abduction from the Seraglio for Opera San Jose, The Barber of Seville for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and West Side Story for Indiana University Opera Theater.

We couldn’t be happier with our cast and are certain you’ll be delighted as well. The title role calls for the guileless ardor of Fenton in Falstaff, the comedic skills of Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance, and Lindoro’s vocal panache in The Italian Girl in Algiers—in other words, Jonathan Johnson, whose recent credits include all the above.

Deanna Breiwick charmed us in 2016 as Nannetta in Falstaff. She brings her stratospheric soprano to Cunegonde, who takes a flexible approach when

Candide JONATHAN JOHNSON

confronted by life with a generous but less-than-firstchoice lover. Tossing off high Cs, Ds, and an E-flat in “Glitter and Be Gay,” she sings her survival motto: “If I’m not pure at least my jewels are!”

Johnson and Breiwick are joined by mezzo-soprano Jill Grove (Ježibaba in last summer’s Rusalka), as the easily assimilated Old Lady, and baritone Robert Orth, in his DMMO debut as Dr. Pangloss.

No need to roam the world this summer searching high and low for operatic treasure when Candide as well as Wozzeck and La Bohème await you in Indianola!

A version of this article originally appeared in the Santa Fe Opera’s Crescendo newsletter.

Cunegonde DEANNA BREIWICK

The Old Lady JILL GROVE

Dr. Pangloss ROBERTH ORTH

Sketches by Candide costume designer, Linda Pisano A new production made possible by a leadership gift from Frank R. Brownell III

CANDIDE

Conductor DAVID NEELY

|

Director MICHAEL SHELL

8:00PM June 29* | 7:30PM July 10*^, 12, 20 | 2:00PM July 7 *Best prices and availability

^Motorcoach service available

Berg

WOZZECK

INSIDE

By Kristine McIntyre, Stage Director WOZZECK SCARES ME. I’ve never encountered a score that is so tightly wound or so terrifying. Colleagues who know I’m working on it gently smile with sympathy, nod their heads and wish me luck. It inspires awe but also pity. Nothing has ever excited me so much.

The journey begins with Georg Büchner. A brilliant playwright, medical doctor and political activist, Büchner died at age 23 leaving behind an unpublished manuscript based on a famous true story about a soldier who was brutalized by his superiors, went insane and later murdered his mistress. The manuscript, a loose collection of about 25 scenes in no set order written in Büchner’s illegible handwriting, took decades to decipher and every printed edition since has been different. Not produced until May 1914, the play was a powerful indictment of society and the military and remains one of the most influential in theatre history.

After Alban Berg saw one of those early performances, he knew it had to be an opera and immediately began writing it. However, his work was interrupted when he was pulled into World War I, and it wasn’t until 1917

that Berg returned to Wozzeck. Though he never saw combat, Berg was deeply affected by his service, and he changed several important details in the story to reflect his own experience. It took him five years to compose, and the achievement is nothing short of miraculous: 15 fast-moving and tightly-woven scenes that make for an overwhelming theatrical experience. It is a masterpiece of form and text-setting; it is brutal, deeply human, addictive, and feels entirely new with every listen.

This is not a piece one casts lightly, so we’ve pulled out the big guns: Mike Mayes, Sara Gartland, Zachary James, and Corey Bix, to name a few. Wozzeck is also a piece that needs a vision, and for that I turned to one of the great visual theatrical artists of our time, Vita Tzykun, who is helping me look at our space and this story in a new way and is designing both sets and costumes. The brilliant young lighting designer Kate Ashton will work her magic with shadows and color, and Lisa Thurrell will create a movement language for the singers. Together, we will tell you a story like no other.

So it’s the good kind of scared, and I can’t wait to share it.

and a lot of work. Singers acquire a physician’s worth of university degrees just to perform it, and the expectation is that we in the audience must meet them halfway. This presumption works well for the buoyant melodies of Mozart, Puccini and Verdi; but when it comes to the atonal, modern works of Schoenberg, Bartok or Alban Berg’s Wozzeck— forget it. Only academics, obsessives or sado-masochists need apply.

I didn’t know any of this when I first sat down to see Wozzeck.

In fact, I didn’t know much about opera at all, having only seen a handful at that point. And while I still don’t know anything about atonality or music theory, what I do know is that seeing Wozzeck—uninformed and unprepared—was one of the greatest theater-going experiences of my life and that this show, far from being inaccessible, is as responsible as any other for my lifelong love of opera.

I’ll admit that the music is jarring at first. A lifetime of pop and classical music and catchy advertising jingles did not prepare me for the strangeness of the first ten minutes of Wozzeck.

However, during the next ten minutes that strangeness seemed to matter less, and by the end of the opera it

was completely irrelevant. The haunting, disjointed score perfectly amplifies the disturbing, cracked libretto. The words and music are one, perfectly suited for each other. Berg commands all your attention on the story; there is nowhere to get lost or distracted. Atonality is derided for sounding monolithic, but pay attention to how Berg shades the music sung by different characters—the beastly energy of the Drum Major, the grandiosity of the vainglorious Doctor; Wozzeck’s own barely-controlled madness is pervasive in every line. The irony is that it took modern atonality to come closest to what the originators of opera were trying to achieve in the 16th century: stories told in song.

The first time I saw Wozzeck I didn’t know Benjamin Britten from Benjamin Button, but I knew I had just seen a masterpiece. I felt as though I was witnessing something historic, even if the opera was 80 years old when I discovered it. I imagine it was like being at the premiere of 2001: A Space Odyssey or seeing the debut of Miles Davis in Charlie Parker’s quintet (both musicians were devotees of Berg’s). It was a step through a door into a larger world—there is no lock on that door; no one will bar the way. You simply have to walk through it.

By Nick Renkoski, Opera Fan

OUT Wozzeck MICHAEL MAYES

Drum Major ROBERT WATSON

Captain COREY BIX

Marie SARA GARTLAND

Doctor ZACHARY JAMES

Margret ZOIE REAMS

A new production made possible by Nix and Virginia Lauridsen

WOZZECK

Conductor DAVID NEELY

|

Director KRISTINE MCINTYRE

7:30PM July 6*, 16*, 19 | 2:00PM July 14^ *Best prices and availability

^Motorcoach service available

Spilliaert, Léon. Digue et plage, Chalet Royal et galeries d’Ostende. 1908-9, Watercolor, ink on paper. Private collection.

OPERA HAS A REPUTATION of being difficult, inaccessible

Hoiby

BON APPÉTIT!

A Musical and Culinary Confection

Julia Child JOYCE CASTLE

BON APPÉTIT!

IN THE 1960S, a charismatic woman with a passion for French cuisine introduced Americans to the art of French cooking. Julia Child’s lively and unmistakable presence inspired American composer Lee Hoiby to create a one-act opera, Bon Appétit!. Using Julia’s own words as the libretto, Hoiby created a comic culinary extravaganza that taps the wit and antics of one of America’s best-loved television personalities (and only three short years after the world premiere of his opera The Tempest at Des Moines Metro Opera).

Bon Appétit! premiered in 1989 to wide acclaim at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Through a unique partnership with the Iowa Culinary Institute, Des Moines Metro Opera invites you to enjoy an evening featuring a Julia Child-inspired dinner with a performance of Bon Appétit!.

Celebrated mezzo-soprano Joyce Castle will portray the master chef herself as she prepares Le Gateau au Chocolate l’Eminence Brune and, as the icing on the evening, you’ll be treated to your own slice of this delicious chocolate cake!

Due to overwhelming popularity, DMMO General and Artistic Director Michael Egel recently announced that an additional performance of Bon Appétit! had been added on Friday, July 19 at 6:00pm. “Even though we’re over two months from opening night, the performances on July 18 and 21 have already sold out, making this our most popular 2nd Stages Series production to date and a not-to-be-missed culinary and theatrical event,” said Egel.

Director NATHAN TROUP | Pianist ELDEN LITTLE

6:00pm July 19 | SOLD OUT July 18, 21

[ Sound Clips ] [ Ellen Diehl transitions into new role ] Des Moines Metro Opera is thrilled to announce that Ellen Diehl will transition from her current role with the Company to the newly created position of Anniversary Projects Director. This position will focus on exploratory efforts and special initiatives to be undertaken in celebration of the organization’s upcoming 50th Anniversary. [ Maestro Neely in new Appointment ] DMMO’s Marshall and Judy Flapan Music Director and Principal Conductor, Maestro David Neely, was recently appointed as Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Maryland School of Music.

Neely, who has conducted 21 productions at Des Moines Metro Opera since 2010, will join the School of Music’s faculty this fall, leading the University of Maryland Symphony Orchestra and providing mentorship for the university’s conducting students. [ Welcome to Timothy McMillin ] In June Des Moines Metro Opera welcomes Timothy McMillin as its new Director of Development.

McMillin comes to DMMO following 15 years on the faculty of Simpson College, six of which he served as Chair of the Department of Music.

Additionally, he has been Director of the Des Moines Vocal Arts Ensemble for the last 11 years. Tim has worked in numerous capacities with DMMO and has been an active part of our Guild in Des Moines. [ congratulations all around ] DMMO Board President Susan Voss was honored at the Des Moines Pastoral Counseling Center’s 21st annual Women Helping Women luncheon. Former DMMO apprentice artist, Meghan Kasanders, recently won first prize in both the jury and audience awards at the 31st Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition. Baritone Thomas Glass, who is making his DMMO debut in the role of Marcello in La Bohème, was recently selected as a winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in NYC. [ Opera Iowa ] On April 28 Des Moines Metro Opera’s OPERA Iowa troupe presented the final performance of its 33rd annual tour with an operatic version of the classic fairy tale Little Red’s Most Unusual Day for students at Liberty Oaks Elementary school in Kansas City. Over the course of 9 weeks, the 8-member troupe drove over 6,000 miles across the state doing workshops, master classes, aria programs and performances of Little Red and Mozart’s The Magic Flute for more than 25,000 students and families!

A GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION As a part of the 2019 Summer Festival activities, Des Moines Metro Opera is pleased to unveil its newly renovated and expanded home, the Lauridsen Opera Center. The 1904 Carnegie Library has served as the year-round community engagement and administrative headquarters of the Company and its educational programs since 1985. Following a year-long construction effort, we are set to reveal!

Existing spaces have been enhanced to meet the needs of a growing company. Programs such as OPERA Iowa and the 2nd Stages Series now have functional, dedicated rehearsal areas. Efficiencies to improve work flow, productivity and energy systems will enhance daily staff efforts. Open vistas and access to natural light support employee and artist well-being. Most visible of all improvements is the new Robert L. Larsen Atrium, an 1,800- squarefoot contemporary glass construction that creates an ADA-compliant environment so that persons of all ages and capabilities can easily access the building and participate in opera activities.

The Lauridsen Opera Center project provides forward motion for a mature organization rapidly approaching its 50th Anniversary in 2022. It also honors our rich artistic heritage through architectural preservation and museum-quality gallery space designed to showcase our impressive design history including scenic watercolors, production elements, costume showcases and poster art displays.

RENDERING BY OPN ARCHITECTS

OPPORTUNITIES TO EXPERIENCE THE NEW LAURIDSEN OPERA CENTER GRAND OPENING GALA Saturday, June 29, 5:00pm Be among the first to see the new facility as a part of this annual fundraiser for DMMO’s music education programs.

Following the ribbon cutting and drinks on the lawn, take a tour of the Lauridsen Opera Center and enjoy dinner in a one-night-only return of DMMO’s memorable air-conditioned tent. $150/person, opera tickets sold separately.

COMMUNITY OPEN HOUSE Sunday, June 30 5:00-7:00pm To express our appreciation and to welcome our community, residents of Warren County and Indianola are invited to this free event featuring self-guided tours of the facility. Complimentary dinner and dessert are provided by Hy-Vee and Gib’s A&W.

SATURDAY AFTERNOONS AT THE CARNEGIE July 6, 13 and 20 4:00-6:00pm Prior to each of our Saturday evening performances in July, a series of open houses will allow our out-of-town guests to experience the new Lauridsen Opera Center. Light refreshments will be provided.

Spotlight On

LARRY AND DOROTHY ELY

LIFETIME LEADERS LAUNCHING ANY NEW ARTISTIC ENDEAVOR is risky business. Many moving parts have to be synchronized. The results can be unpredictable and depend on a strong vision with dedicated people willing to rise to the challenge. All of the elements came together beautifully (and quickly) for Des Moines Metro Opera in 1973, in large part because of Dr. Lawrence and Dorothy Ely, our first community leaders. The Elys understood that quality performances didn’t have to be found only in America’s largest cities, but could belong to everyone.

Larry Ely was born in 1919 and raised in Guthrie Center, Iowa. He attended the University of Iowa where he obtained his medical degree while working several jobs to pay for his schooling. There he met his wife Dorothy in a church choir, and they married in 1942. Larry served in World War II, and in 1952 they moved with their growing family to Des Moines to join a medical practice. The Elys had five children: Patricia, Larry Jr., Stephen, Bennett and Carolyn.

It was through Stephen and because of Larry’s love for singing that their lives intersected with the launch of a professional opera company for Iowa 47 years ago.

“Our second call was to the father of former student Stephen Ely,” said Founder Robert L. Larsen. “Larry Ely was a well-known physiciansurgeon in Des Moines—and that evening was really the beginning of the Company.

Larry thought it was a good idea—this forming of an opera festival—and he volunteered to chair a board that

he would create with his friend Don Easter.

The nucleus of that board of very special people stayed with us for a number of seasons.”

“Robert and Doug Duncan asked Larry to form a board and raise $20,000. Larry raised it. I have always been so proud,” said Dorothy recently. In the early years, the Elys would join in painting scenery and routinely assisted their son Stephen, who was the first lighting designer. “In the first years we all just pitched in. We were backstage pounding nails and painting. I don’t know how many times I swept the floor and cleaned up the stage.

We would even pull our own curtains for the performances. That curtain was heavy. One night we needed a flower bed for an opera so someone went to a cemetery after Memorial Day to gather the cast-off artificial flowers.

It was my job to sift through the load to sort roses from daisies and make a garden. I always marveled at how Robert and Doug could get people to contribute and participate.”

Their dedication continued for decades to follow. Though Larry Ely passed away in 2011, Dorothy continues to be involved as a member of the Honorary Board and the Des Moines Guild Chapter. She attends performances each season. Since their initial efforts, the Company has benefitted from a Board of Directors of which any organization would be proud.

Because the Elys led the way with advocacy in the community, generous philanthropy, and good old-fashioned hard work, they set a model for success which continues to guide the Company today.

Larry and Dorothy Ely, 1994

FESTIVAL CALENDAR JULY / JUNE

SUN

MON

TUE

WED

THU

FRI

SAT

28

29

LA BOHÈME CANDIDE WOZZECK

30

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

BON APPÉTIT! STARS OF TOMORROW SHUTTLE DINING TECH TALK

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

FESTIVAL EVENTS JUNE 1 DEATH BY ARIA 6:30PM Blank Performing Arts Center

JUNE 29 GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION 5PM Lauridsen Opera Center

Forty apprentice artists, selected from a national audition process, open the season in the theatre lobby with their signature arias. FREE

Celebrate the grand opening of DMMO’s renovated and expanded headquarters—the Lauridsen Opera Center! Take a self-guided tour of Indianola’s historic 1904 Carnegie Library, then enjoy dinner and drinks in the comfort of our air conditioned tent. $150/person

JUNE 6 MADNESS IN MUSIC 7PM MercyOne Medical Center, 1111 6th Ave, Des Moines Join director Kristine McIntyre as she presents an in-depth look at Alban Berg’s dramatic masterpiece, Wozzeck, in the East Tower auditorium at MercyOne Medical Center. FREE JUNE 14, 22, JULY 3, 6, 13, 20 APPRENTICE SCENES 1:30PM Lekberg Hall The apprentice artists take the spotlight in fully-staged excerpts from across the operatic spectrum. FREE JUNE 15 THREADS & TRILLS COSTUME SHOW 12PM Embassy Club Downtown, 666 Grand Ave, Des Moines Lunch in high style at the Embassy Club Downtown while enjoying a sneak peek at the costumes from DMMO’s 2019 Season. $45/person JUNE 20 & 22 PICNIC & PUCCINI 10AM Blank Performing Arts Center lobby Attend a performance of Little Red’s Most Unusual Day, then enjoy a sack lunch and take a behind-the-scenes tour of the theatre! $10/person

JULY 5 & 12 YOUNG FRIENDS AT THE OPERA 5:45PM Blank Performing Arts Center Gather your friends and head to the opera for a cocktail reception on the stage and a catered picnic dinner, followed by the performances of La Bohème on July 5 and Candide on July 12. $49/person or two for $90 JULY 6 THE CURIOUS CASE OF CANDIDE 11AM Lauridsen Opera Center Opera scholar Mark Tiarks examines the musical and dramatic differences between Bernstein’s famous musicals, Candide and West Side Story, which were composed simultaneously by Bernstein in the mid-1950s. FREE JULY 13 WHO’S AFRAID OF WOZZECK? 11AM Lauridsen Opera Center Join Maestro David Neely as he explores the revolutionary musical language and dramatic intensity of Wozzeck. FREE

ENHANCE YOUR EXPERIENCE SHUTTLE SERVICE

DINING WITH DMMO

TECH TALKS

Book a round-trip shuttle to the theatre from Des Moines or Ames. See website for prices and availability. Opera tickets sold separately.

Go on a pre-show tour of DMMO’s renovated headquarters, the Lauridsen Opera Center.

Tours run from 4-6pm on July 6, 13 and 20.

Enjoy gourmet dining pre-performance in the convenience of the theatre lobby with themed dinners catered by the Des Moines Embassy Club and lunches

by Gateway Market. Dinners are $45 per person and lunches are $25 per person.

Reservations are required. Full menus are available on the DMMO website.

After meeting the artists in the lobby, close out select evenings with a free behind-thescenes look and discussion with our own Director of Production, Danielle Taylor, as the production team “strikes” the set for the next day’s show. Join us after the performances on July 5, 12 and 19 for this unique and informative discussion.

OPERA PREVIEWS

APPRENTICE SCENES PROGRAMS

MEET THE ARTISTS

Warm up for each opera with a free preview presented by audience favorite Joshua Borths 45 minutes before the curtain.

Evening previews begin at 6:45pm. Matinee previews begin at 1:15pm. There will be no previews for Bon Appétit!

Join us as the apprentice artists present an arias program and fully-staged scene programs that span the operatic repertoire.

All programs are free and open to the public. For a complete listing of times and dates, see Festival Events on opposite page.

Continue the celebration after each performance with singers, audience members and production personnel in the theatre lobby. Greet the cast and crew, get autographs, take photos or simply mix and mingle!

LAURIDSEN OPERA CENTER TOURS

DID YOU KNOW? Ticket sales cover less than 20% of DMMO’s annual operating expenses, so we rely on the tremendous generosity of friends like you to support the opera’s record of sound fiscal management, extraordinary productions, providing a stage for rapidly rising professional vocal talent and serving the community with innovative learning programs.

To learn more visit desmoinesmetroopera.org/donate or give us a call at 515-961-6221.

TICKET INFORMATION SINGLE TICKETS starting at $37 SUBSCRIPTIONS starting at $108 Prices are subject to change at any time based upon availability by section and performance dates. Casts and repertory are also subject to change. All ticket sales are final. No refunds or cancellations. Ticket orders paid with credit card will incur a $6 processing fee. Full ticketing and box office information can be found at: www.desmoinesmetroopera.org/boxoffice.

BLANK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 513 N. D St. Indianola, IA

READY TO ORDER?

Visit DESMOINESMETROOPERA.ORG or call our box office at (515) 961-6221.

STARS OF TOMORROW JULY 17, 7:00 PM SHESLOW AUDITORIUM

Experience an evening of

HARMONY

in creative partnership with Des Moines Metro Opera We’ll help make it a night to remember:

• Free Hot Be Our Guest Breakfast • Free High-speed Internet access • Free Weekday Newspaper • Club Carlson Hotel Rewards Program SM

• Pool and Whirlpool © 2017 Country Inns & Suites By Carlson, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

SM

Country Inn & Suites By Carlson® Indianola, IA 501 East Trail Ridge Avenue Indianola, IA 50125 +1 (515) 962-5777 • countryinns.com/indianola

Change Service Requested

106 West Boston Avenue Indianola, IA 50125-1836

Visit: desmoinesmetroopera.org Like: facebook.com/DesMoinesMetroOpera Follow: instagram.com/DesMoinesMetroOpera Follow: twitter.com/DesMoinesOpera Watch: youtube.com/user/DesMoinesMetroOpera

LAURIDSEN OPERA CENTER

GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION A special occasion celebrating a milestone event for Des Moines Metro Opera and benefitting the Company's music education programs 5:OOpm Cocktail Lawn Party 5:2Opm Ribbon Cutting Ceremony 5:3Opm Open House 6:OOpm Dinner in the Tent BLANK PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 8:OOpm Candide PRESENTED BY and The John Ruan Foundation $150 PER PERSON, OPERA TICKETS SOLD SEPARATELY