Minnesota Opera's Little Women Program

Mark Adamo

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Contents Board of Directors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Minnesota Opera Volunteers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Notes from the Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Little Women. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Background Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Mark Adamo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Synopsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Louisa May Alcott . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Artists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Coming Up: Don Carlos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Sta∂. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 The Minnesota Opera Orchestra Orchestra.and . . .Chorus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 The Minnesota Opera Fund . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The Minnesota Opera President & CEO Artistic Director Chair, Board of Directors

Kevin Smith Dale Johnson Virginia L. Stringer

The Minnesota Opera, 620 North First Street Minneapolis, MN 55401 (612) 333-2700 www.mnopera.org The Minnesota Opera is a member of OPERA America.

This activity is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature. In addition, this activity is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.

April 2002

The Minnesota Opera Program is published by Skyway Publications, Inc. Chief Executive O∑cer Corporate Administrator/Publisher Assoc. Publisher/Director of Production Senior Account Executives Creative Designer Production Designers

Keith Engen Todd Hyde Marsha Kitchel Liesl Hyde, Yvonne Dilts Michael Gutierres Sue Sentyrz Klapmeier, Jill Adler, Robert Ochsner

SKYWAY PUBLICATIONS, INC. 10001 Wayzata Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55305 Phone (612) 375-9222 FAX (612) 375-9208 MINNESOTA’S INTERNET SOLUTIONS PROVIDER KEEPING YOU CONNECTED.

Large-print and Braille programs are available at the Patron Services O∑ce

the minnesota opera • 6

Board of Directors Welcome. U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray is pleased to help bring you The Minnesota Opera’s production of Little Women.

Sponsoring the opera season is just part of our commitment to the arts and quality of life in our community.

Staging this fine performance takes teamwork. From the conductor to the cast members to the costume designers, many individuals are working together to entertain you. This team includes management and patrons – even the audience – who make a successful production possible.

At U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, we embrace teamwork. We work with clients to understand their needs and accomplish their goals. We work with colleagues throughout U.S. Bancorp to provide a comprehensive range of financial solutions. And we work with The Minnesota Opera and other high-quality organizations to enrich our community.

We’re proud to be part of the team effort you’re about to experience. Enjoy the performance.

Andrew Duff President and CEO U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray

Virginia L. Stringer, Chair Susan S. Boren, Vice Chair Bruce Nelson, Secretary Loren Unterseher, Treasurer Kevin Smith, President & CEO August J. Aquila Martha Goldberg Aronson Karen Bachman Patricia Bauer Susan J. Crockett Ellie Crosby Rolf Engh Thomas J. Foley

John G. Forsythe Steve Fox R. Thomas Greene, Jr. Heinz Hutter Paula R. Johnson Michael F. Kelly, Jr. Edward J. Kerans Sarah B. Kling Lynne E. Looney

Julia W. Dayton, Director Emeritus

Thomas R. McBurney Diana E. Murphy Jose Peris Kimberly S. Puckett Connie Remele Steven M. Rothschild Lucy T. Searls Gregory C. Swinehart Catie Tobin

James A. Rubenstein, legal counsel, Moss & Barnett

Honorary Directors Dominick Argento H. Wesley Balk Philip Brunelle Elizabeth Close

Dolly Fiterman Charles C. Fullner Norton M. Hintz Donald W. Judkins

David P. Keefe Liz Kochiras Jevne Pennock Patricia H. Sheppard

Minnesota Opera Volunteers The following volunteers contribute their time and talent in support of key activities of The Minnesota Opera.

Keri Picket

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Ann Albertson Laurel Anderson Jamie Andrews Gerald Benson Matt Bluem Linda Brandt Jim Brownback Sue Brownback Meredith Cain-Nielsen Kathy Cameron Joann Cierniak* Tricia Clarke* Caroline Coopersmith Lindsay Craig Beverly Dailey Marcia del Castillo Lee Drawert Judith Duncan Sally Economon Mary Sue Fiola Jane Fuller Joan Gacki (Volunteer Chair)

850 Grand Avenue,St Paul 55105 651-224-5687 www.cafelatte.com

Christine A. Garner Heather Gehring Juhi Gupta-Gulati* Mark Gustin

Mary E. Hagen Travis Hanstad John Harris* Kristen Heimerl Anne Hesselroth Alisandra Johnson Nancy Johnson Jeanie Johnston Susan Kalmer Dianne Kelly Remigijus Klyvis Eleanore Kolar Lucinda Lamont Shirley Larson Rita Lavin Lisa Liveringhouse Rochelle Lockwood Rusty Low Jennifer Madvig Joan Masuck Mary McDiarmid Beth McGuire Claire McPherson Verne Melberg Warren Mitlyng Linda Morey

Doug Myhra Dan Panshin Pat Panshin Kaye Peters Sydney Phillips Bill Phillips Julia Porter Jack Richter John Rosse Florence Ruhland John Sauer* Michael Silhavy Wendy Silhavy Wendi Sott Dawn Stafki Harry D. Swepston, III John Thompson Anne Townsley Doris Unger Carolyn Wahtera Barbara Willis* Jeremy Wright Melissa Zschunke *Lead volunteer

Notes from The Leadership Welcome to this performance of American composer Mark Adamo’s Little Women. This work has caught the attention of the opera world in an unprecedented way.

cast it. Shortly after G. Schirmer published the score, Civic Opera Theatre of Kansas City unveiled a new production in February 2000. National Public Radio broadcast the recording of the Houston premiere, PBS aired their 2000 revival on the Great Performances series last August, and eight new productions are scheduled through 2003.

Little Women is Mark Adamo’s first opera, composed to his own libretto after the novel by Louisa May Alcott. It was such a hit in its premiere performances in Houston Grand Opera’s Opera Studio in March 1998 that HGO committed to a mainstage revival two seasons later. It was at that time that it created a buzz in the industry, with North American opera companies clamouring to produce the work and the media anxious to broad-

Few new works have so quickly entered the repertoire. The Minnesota Opera is in the fortunate position to be able to introduce Little Women to the Twin Cities early in its life.

We are pleased that you are joining us for this historic occasion.

Kevin Smith President and CEO

from Dale Johnson Welcome to the Twin Cities premiere of Little Women.

The opera you will experience is based on Louisa May Alcott’s novel and explores the heartache, happiness and wisdom that change brings to the beloved March sisters.

At the time Alcott wrote her novel, this country had been rocked by the Civil War. As our country is recovering from the cataclysmic events of September 11, we too can listen with new ears to the theme Adamo has pulled out of Alcott’s writing. Things change.

Little Women beguiles us as audiences at the turn of the 21st century just as La bohème captured those at the turn of the 20th century. The opera is a lyrical, winsome and emotional piece, and its depth of feeling and sense of lyricism will prove it to be an American masterpiece.

I am delighted you are with us today to enjoy this new classic for the first time.

Dale Johnson Artistic Director

7 • little women

from Kevin Smith

World premiere at Houston Grand Opera March 13, 1998 April 13, 16, 18, 20 and 21, 2002 Ordway Center for the Performing Arts Sung in English with English captions Conductor Stage Director Set and Costume Designer Lighting Designer Wig Master and Makeup Production Stage Manager

Je∂rey Domoto Colin Graham Robert O’Hearn Tom Mays Tom Watson Alexander Farino

The Cast Jo Meg, her sister Beth, their sister Amy, their sister Laurie, friend of the March sisters John Brooke, Meg’s fiancé Friedrich Bhaer, friend of Jo Alma March, mother of the four sisters Gideon March, father of the four sisters Cecilia March, aunt of the four sisters Mr. Dashwood, an editor Setting:

Deanne Meek Adriana Zabala Ana Rodriguez Genevieve Christianson John Tessier Carlos Archuleta Ryan Kinsella Kathleen Humphrey Lawrence Weller Dorothy Byrne Matt Boehler Concord, New York City and London just after the Civil War

Little Women is sponsored by TM

This production is a joint collaboration between Indiana University Opera Theater and The Minnesota Opera. Scenery was constructed at Indiana University and costumes were constructed at The Minnesota Opera Costume Shop.

By arrangement with G. Schirmer, Inc., publisher and copyright owner.

The appearances of Ryan Kinsella and Ana Rodriguez, regional finalists, and Carlos Archuleta and Matt Boehler, district finalists of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, are made possible through a Minnesota Opera Endowment Fund established for Artist Enhancement by Barbara White Bemis.

The Minnesota Opera season is proudly sponsored by U.S. Bancorp Piper Ja∂ray.

OperaInsights is sponsored by SpencerStuart.

The 2001-2002 Camerata Circle Dinners are sponsored by Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel.

Promotional support provided by Minnesota Monthly.

Special thanks to Miller Meester Advertising for making the 2001-2002 season preview recording possible.

Performances of Little Women are being taped for delayed broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio, KSJN 99.5 in the Twin Cities, in June, 2002.

9 • little women

Music and libretto by Mark Adamo after Louisa May Alcott’s novel (1868-9)

t h e m i n n e s o t a o p e r a • 10

Notes by Mark Adamo

M

ore than a century after its publication, Louisa May Alcott’s chronicle of growing up female in Civil-War era New England remains indispensable American popular fic-

tion. Readers have attended the adventures of Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy in more than one hundred languages. In our own land and tongue, Hollywood has filmed the piece four times in 60 years. The applause that hailed Little Women in its own century echoes in its rising prestige at the start of our own; writers from Simone de Beauvoir to Joyce Carol Oates have claimed Alcott as a literary ancestor.

Despite all this, Little Women has materialized on the lyric stage only five times before. Each treatment – Evelyn Everest Freer’s 1920 opera, Scenes from Little Women; Geo∂rey O’Hara’s 1930s-era operetta; Richard Adler’s 1950 televised semi-musical; and two Broadway musicals, both titled Jo and both produced circa 1966 – strove clearly and sincerely to sing the March sisters’ story on stage. Yet none of those incarnations survived its own day.

When I revisited Little Women for the first time since reading it as a child, the novel, with its young, lively characters in their antique locale, reminded me of opera itself, these days – an art buzzing with new writing and thinking while still working with resources (the bel canto trained voice, the acoustic orchestra) that stabilized one hundred years ago.

Still, before beginning my own adaptation, I examined these previous treatments to try to answer a crucial question.

What was the book about – overall, not just in its many episodes – and how could that theme be best expressed in a design of dramatic actions? In other words...

COMMON PROBLEMS: Pilgrims, No Progress … What’s the conflict? None of these previous projects find a conflict, an agon, that both challenges Jo with a worthy

antagonist and engages all the sisters past the midpoint of the story. Meg retorts to Aunt March that she will marry John, so there – and, in a twinkling, vanishes from action, reappearing only to deliver the first dewy-eyed March grandchildren. Alcott lovingly oversees Amy as she sheds her girlhood like a chrysalis, at last clasping Laurie’s hand under the Alpine sun. But other versions abruptly pack Amy o∂ to Europe and abandon her there; she returns merely to model her new Paris threads in Act iii. In all versions, Amy’s artistic ambitions shrink to footnotes. In Alcott, Beth flowers. In a fluent seaside monologue, Beth reveals to Jo the travail it cost her to embrace death at the last with open arms. But note how easily her story detaches from any taut timeline. Onstage, Freer bids Beth farewell in Act i; O’Hara, in Act ii.

Jo, adrift, su∂ers most. The cast’s most vivid character, she loses momentum during the course of the story only because she has no foe strong or real enough to engage her. See her in Act i: scribbling madly in the attic, spatting with Amy, romping with Laurie, repenting to Marmee.

What’s the conflict? Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 film starring Winona Ryder as Jo, spins the story of a thwarted woman artist. Who’s doing the thwarting? Publishers spurn her only at first. Her family thrills to her writing. Prompt and respectful reviews herald her first serious novel.

Nor is this the story of a woman fighting to define herself against oppressive men. Name one in Little Women! Laurie loves her just the way she is. Her father wishes she would quiet down a bit; otherwise he trumpets her achievements, even as her writing eclipses his own. Refusing to wed a usual type, Jo just waits until an unusual type comes along. This little woman meets every man as an equal.

Is this the story of a free spirit struggling against convention? The Marches themselves are free spirits, crypto-

11 • l i t t l e w o m e n

Bohemians. They stand on principle.

Aunt March constantly scolds Mrs. March for being too idealistic, improvident – unconventional! But the joyful March laughter drowns out Auntie’s querulous caw. Jo takes a husband, and empowered by a convenient inheritance, opens a multi-racial Plumfield Boys Town. Maybe society sni∂ed: but Jo’s family smiled. What’s the conflict?

A Dramatic Solution To find an answer, we turn to an unlikely duo: Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Richard Strauss’s longtime librettist, and St. Paul the Apostle. (...between you and me it flows in silence, trickling, like sand in an hour glass.

Oh, Mignon!

But sometimes I hear it flowing— Ceaselessly.

Sometimes I arise in the middle of the night and take the clocks and stop them every one...)

— Act I, Der Rosenkavalier "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

— I Corinthians 13:11

The conflict of Little Women is Jo versus the passage of time.

Realize this about Jo: almost alone among adolescent protagonists in classic American fiction (Tom Sawyer, Holden Caulfield, Roth’s Portnoy), she’s happy where she is. Adored by her family, she adores them in turn. Not so poor as to starve, Jo is just poor enough to see in each small windfall gold to delight a Midas.

Jo knows adulthood will only graduate her from her perfect home. She fights her own and her sisters’ growth because she knows deep down that growing up means growing apart.

So, Jo spends half the book screaming No! Don’t change! “I’d marry Meg myself if it could keep her in the family,” she grouses. Jo resents not men but women, women who grow up and abandon their sisters, just cast-o∂ bridesmaids in a deserted aisle. How could she resent men? Laurie adores her; they are best of pals for years and years. But then Laurie’s feelings alter, deepen; he wants her as a man wants a woman. No! “Why can’t we go on just as we are?” Jo implores. Don’t change! On stage and

screen, happy train music and trailing ribbons herald Jo’s abrupt flight to New York. Yet in Alcott, Jo herself confesses to Marmee another reason why she must leave: “… Laurie is getting too fond of me” (Chapter 32 – “Tender Troubles”). Her logic is quintessentially childlike: All right, Laurie’s changed; she’ll leave for a while, and he’ll change back!

In this light, scrutinize the events of the latter part of Part One; see how strongly they shape a plot from what was merely chronicle. Meg’s changed, and Jo’s failed to stop it; she’s had to dance at her wedding. Laurie’s changed, but Jo’s got plans; stay in New York long enough, and Laurie will soon change back. All will be as it was. Alas, Jo doesn’t count on Professor Bhaer.

Exotic, older, intellectual, he introduces her to Schiller, contemporary German philosophy, mature male company. She begins to look forward to his visits.

Who’s changing now? Then, comes the dire telegram – Beth’s taken a turn for the worse. What a pivotal point this is: Cinderella hearing the first of the twelve fatal chimes. Now Jo’s Don’t Change! is directed to the mirror. How could she have even for a moment dreamed of a life outside home? Homeward she dashes. “Beth, don’t die; I won’t let you.”

What is death but the most radical of transformations? But Beth is already gone. Even before she dies, she has become another creature.

Dark days. With Beth’s death, Jo’s failed. She’s come home, the home she left to preserve. The house stands. But the home is changed beyond recall. Distant Meg is nursing two children,

building a nest of her own. Sweet Beth is a memory, a piano kept dusted, a stack of music yellowing on the windowsill. Soon word comes from Italy that Amy and Laurie have “reached an understanding.” A weary Jo accepts the news. She gave up her new life (and love) to save the old. Now she has nothing.

Now Laurie returns home, a glamorous newlywed, Amy in tow. Bounding upstairs to the attic, he finds Jo, inert on the sofa. She wakes, and exults – how good to see him! An awkward moment. They’ve spoken but little of their great parting of years ago. She will always live in his heart, Laurie begins, but … Jo forgives her friend before he can utter the words. Relieved, delighted, he proposes that they go back exactly to the way it was – to do, in a twinkling, the very thing she’s spent the last bitter years striving for – and failing to achieve. What will Jo say?

I knew what Jo would say; and, now, how she would sing it. Didn’t Jo’s journey call to mind the Buddhist suggestion that a lesson unlearned will reappear over and over again, in di∂erent guise, until at last the pilgrim makes progress and grasps the point? Might that not suggest a score in which, amid a riot of inflection and color, one could clearly hear Jo’s music of stubbornness and resistance tangling with and at last yielding to an ardent but unstoppable music of change? In fact, I wanted two scores: a character music, which made the emotional journeys of the characters everywhere clear and traceable, in bold relief against a narrative music that is as continues on page 12

t h e m i n n e s o t a o p e r a • 12

continued from page 11 distinct as I could make it from the thematic foreground.

So, Jo’s resistance theme and Meg’s and Laurie’s change theme, among others, are written in a free lyric language of triad and key. But those moments driven by language and story, rather than music and psychology, take a kind of dodecaphonic recitativo secco – crisp and terse, made from the twelve tones of the horn melody in the Prologue. That melody also gave Jo the makings of her exuberant scherzando sections in her Act i scena, “Perfect As We Are.” This long

solo, which portrays Jo’s divided feelings by disrupting her long-lined fmajor cantilena with careening dodecaphonic comedy, best exemplifies what I dreamed for this piece: a music in which even the most unlike materials could fuse into a single music if the ear is sensitive and the design is sound.

Here, then, is one composer’s aural vision of Little Women, meant to illuminate its buried Straussian – Christian? – theme. Who among us, at the pinnacle of a perfect moment, has not prayed for the clock to stop? Who

among us has not feared, fought, and at last forgiven the passage of time?

Alcott herself might be skeptical of all this attention paid to her little book. (She also, in Little Women, wrote the paralyzing sentence, “Jo wouldn’t be put into the Opera by any means” – a sentence I did not exactly pin over my desk.) Still, as Rilke once wrote, “An artist selects his subjects; that is his way of praising.” Alcott’s praise of her characters has enriched generations of readers. The opera you hear tonight is but one attempt to return the favor.

Mark Adamo b Philadelphia, August 1, 1962

M

ark Adamo’s recent premieres include Little Women, his first opera, which he composed to his own libretto after the novel by Louisa May Alcott.

Upon its premiere in March 1998 by the Opera Studio of Houston Grand Opera, General Director David Gockley pronounced it “destined to be an American classic,” and scheduled Little Women for a mainstage revival of eight performances in March 2000 – making it the first of hgo’s twenty-some commissions to be so revived. G. Schirmer published the opera in May 1998; National Public Radio broadcast the recording of the premiere the following September; Civic Opera Theatre of Kansas City unveiled a new production in February 2000; pbs taped three performances of the March 2000 Houston Grand Opera revival for broadcast on the series Great Performances on August 29, 2001; and eight new domestic productions are scheduled through 2003, including the East Coast debut of Little Women in a new co-production by Glimmerglass Opera and New York City Opera, which latter company named Adamo its composer-in-residence as of July 2001. At Mr. Gockley’s request, Adamo is currently developing two new operas for hgo over the next six seasons: excerpts from the first of which,

Lysistrata, after the Aristophanes comedy, were performed by New York City Opera as part of their “Showcasing American Composers” series in May 2001. He also contributed the scenario to David Parson’s new ballet for American Ballet Theatre, on the Pied Piper Fantasy

by John Corigliano, which opened at the Metropolitan Opera in May 2001.

Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra plans to introduce Adamo’s first piece for large orchestra, Angelus: Concerto for Harp and Orchestra in the 2003 – 2004 season. Eclipse, the chamber orchestra a∑liated with the National Symphony Orchestra, of which he has been composer-in-residence since 1996, commissioned and introduced Alcott Portraits, an orchestral revisitation of Little Women, in March 1999. Led by Sylvia Alimena, Eclipse commissioned and premiered in March 1995 Adamo’s first extended orchestral work: the 40-minute Late Victorians, for singer, speaker, soloists and orchestra, which interweaves a memoir by essayist Richard Rodriguez with the poetry of Emily Dickinson to create an aids memorial. Jonathan She∂er and Eos Ensemble introduced two movements of Late Victorians to New York in May 1996 in a benefit concert at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Mr. She∂er also commissioned and introduced to New York Avow, a miniature (10-minute) chamber opera, on a concert of six such works with Eos Orchestra in April 1999.

Adamo’s most recent choral premiere is Cantate Domino, for soprano, double choir and percussion ensemble, a millen-

nium commission for the Choral Arts Society of Washington that was introduced at the Kennedy Center in the 1999 – 2000 season. Other recent work includes The Poet Speaks of Praising, for men’s chorus and piano, commissioned by the gala v Festival; Pied Beauty for unaccompanied satb chorus, commissioned by the Washington Singers; Three Appalachian Folk Tunes for soprano and unaccompanied satb chorus, commissioned by the Congressional Chorus of the United States and recently broadcast by the bbc singers.

Mr. Adamo began his education at New York University, where he received the Paulette Goddard Remarque Scholarship for outstanding undergraduate achievement in playwriting. He went on to earn a Bachelor of Music Degree cum laude in composition in 1990 from the Catholic University of America in Washington, d.c., where he was awarded the Theodore Presser prize for outstanding undergraduate achievement in composition. He has annotated programs for Stagebill, the Freer Gallery of Art, and most recently for bmg Classics; and his criticism, scholarship and interviews have been published by Andante.com, The Washington Post, Stagebill, Opera News, the Star-Ledger, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and ARC Publications. In his spare time, he also wrote the lyrics to John Corigliano’s two cabaret songs: Dodecaphonia (or, They Call Her Twelve-Tone Rose) and Marvelous Invention, both of which were introduced to New York by the New York Festival of Song.

Synopsis husband, one without a penny to his name and who knows there’s money in the March family. She threatens to disinherit Meg, who, to her own surprise, boldly decides to marry for love. Jo is horrified and grumbles that the family bond is now broken – she’d marry her sister herself if she could, just to keep them all together.

Meg sagely advises Jo how life is full of change.

shares some of her opinions and experiences, including her reasons for being in New York. In London, Amy sketches Laurie in a park – they have caught up with one another and appear to be enamored. At simultaneous moments the two sisters expound their opposing views on the subject of marriage. Jo delights in the success Scene three It is summer of her racy stories, but Laurie of the following year, Bhaer believes her and the family has writing could serve a higher puract i gathered for Meg pose. He sings her an enlightJo and Brooke’s wedding. ened song with romantic overScene one It is two years earlier. In Brooke announces to the tures, but their idyll is interthe attic Jo pledges sorority with sisfamily that they would like rupted by a telegram from ters Amy, Beth and Meg, and invites to speak the same marriage home – Beth is not expected to Laurie to join as an honorary member vows as Gideon and Alma had used Amy live. of their exclusive group, the Barrisfor their wedding. As they rehearse ters Club. They play a game of them aloud, Laurie is moved by the Scene three At Beth’s deathbed Jo “truth or fabrication” designed to words and makes a profession of love shares a final moment with her sismake laundry folding a bit more to Jo. Jo is furious – their relationship ter. She promises to do everything fun. Alma March calls them is, of course, perfect as it is. If marshe can to ensure Beth’s recovery, down to dinner, but Jo and ried, with their headstrong ways, but her sister only wishes for peace Laurie linger behind. Laurie they would certainly destroy one and reconciliation for the entire knows the whereabouts of another. Amy has overheard the family. Both close their eyes to rest Meg’s missing glove – his conversation and admonishes her for a few moments. When Jo opens tutor, John Brooke, has kept sister’s cruelty. Beth, who has never hers she realizes her sister has just it.

This blossoming been strong, collapses in a faint. died. romance causes Jo some concern, for she dreads the — intermission — Scene four The following spring, Jo day when her sisters will visits with Aunt Cecilia and learns leave the nest – to her act ii of Amy and Laurie’s marriage. they’re “perfect as they Cecilia praises her niece’s growing are.”

Scene one A year later, Jo has left Constrength and wisdom and announces Beth cord for New York City to pursue her she will leave her home, Plumfield, Scene two Weeks later Meg and dream of becoming a writer. She also to Jo in her will. Jo is grateful, but Brooke linger in front of the house as hopes the separation will be good for quickly understands all the great Jo and Laurie spy from within. both her and Laurie. She confers with stone mansion represents – isolaBrooke, who is courting Meg, relays a Mr. Dashwood, the editor of The tion, order, life without change, chivalrous story about a knight and a Weekly Volcano, a sensational rag, essentially death. She realizes maid as part of a game of about a story that bears curious that it is no world for her.

“Rigmarole.” The song has resemblance to her recent expesome bearing on their curriences. He agrees to buy the Scene five and postlude As in the rent situation, and Meg story, and Jo shares the happy Prologue, Jo is alone writing. returns his a∂ection, news and an accounting of her Laurie enters and asks her though with some trepilife in New York in a letter to forgiveness, hoping they can dation. Brooke asks if he the family. In turn, she be friends as before. Jo counmay speak to her father receives news from home – ters that nothing is the that evening, and later Meg has given birth to twins, same as before – things have in the presence of and Beth is still ailing. Amy changed, and they must Gideon and Alma is studying art in Europe and writes Cecilia embrace their new relationship March, he asks perto Laurie, who is at Oxford. as man and woman and as brothmission for her hand. er and sister. As Laurie leaves, Jo As Meg hesitates, Scene two Jo has been spending time comes to terms with her own reality. wealthy Aunt Cecilia with a German professor, Friedrich She and her siblings would never Meg blusters in and is shocked Bhaer, and late one evening, they again be as they were in the summer Meg is considering such a have returned from the opera. Jo of their youth – four sisters, one soul.

13 • l i t t l e w o m e n

Prologue Twenty-one-year-old Jo March is found writing in the attic of her family home. Her childhood friend, Laurie, who has recently married Jo’s youngest sister, Amy, drops by. They discuss their earlier relationship, and with some irony, Jo compares their situation to Mozart, who couldn’t have one sister so he married the other. The encounter causes Jo to lapse into an examination of her life, and the opera unfolds in a series of flashbacks.

b Germantown, November 29, 1832; d Boston, March 6, 1888

A

uthor of over 50 published writings, Louisa May Alcott is best remembered for her American literary classic, Little Women. Prompted by her publisher to write a “girls book” and her father’s tacit desire for his daughter to create a story with a strong moral message, Louisa drew from her own childhood experiences to produce a novel in two parts during the years 1868 – 1869.

The trials and tribulations of the March family are portrayed a bit rosier than they really must have been. Before settling into Orchard House, the Alcotts’ final destination point, the family was constantly on the move.

Louisa’s father, Amos Bronson Alcott, was a self-educated, freethinking transcendentalist with a modest background. His lifelong ambition sought to establish a school where he could apply his own novel methodology – that children are born morally perfect and the teacher was responsible for ac-

Orchard House

courtesy of The Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association

t h e m i n n e s o t a o p e r a • 14

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott, c. 1858

tivating this consciousness. His teaching curricula included Pilgrim’s Progress, a novel he would pass down to

his daughters as an exposition of the benefits of virtue, and he regarded his children as “living manifestations of my intellect.” His various attempts to set up schools in Pennsylvania and throughout New England always seem to land him into trouble when his teaching methods and ideology pushed the envelope just a bit too far.

Consequently, his schools rarely remained open for long, and the Alcotts were chronically short of cash. Inspired by British transcendentalists, Bronson attempted to create a commune, a new Eden known as Fruitlands, but it failed to survive the harsh reality of winter and its intellectual members’ lack of appetite for physical labor. Bronson found solace and refuge in Concord where he fell into sympathy with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, both of whom became close family friends. continues on page 20

courtesy of The Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association

For more biographical information about these artists, visit our website at www.mnopera.org

John Brooke Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Recently La bohème; La clemenza di Tito; Lucia di Lammermoor, The Minnesota Opera La bohème; La traviata, Natchez Music Festival Madame Butterfly, Opera Southwest (Albuquerque) The Barber of Seville, Opera Aperta (Boston) Amahl and the Night Visitors, Granite State Opera Le nozze di Figaro, Longwood Opera Company (Boston) Upcoming Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist

Dorothy Byrne Cecilia March Minnesota Opera Debut Recently La fille du régiment, Boston Lyric Opera Les contes d’Ho∂mann, Hawaii Opera Theatre Jenufa; Street Scene; others, Lyric Opera of Chicago Upcoming Le nozze di Figaro, Kentucky Opera Hamlet, Opera Theatre of St. Louis S (Perera), Boston Lyric Opera Eugene Onegin, Hawaii Opera Theatre Susannah, Lyric Opera of Chicago

Kathleen Humphrey Alma March Minnesota Opera Debut My Fair Lady, 1990 Recently A Christmas Carol, Guthrie Theater Mahler Symphony No. 2, Twin Cities Elegy Concert Carmen, Fargo-Moorhead Symphony Street Scene; Le nozze di Figaro; Faust; Madame Butterfly; Cinderella; Carmen; The Magic Flute; La traviata; The Tales of Ho∂mann, The Minnesota Opera The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, The Children’s Theatre Company/Tokyo, Japan Tour

Deanne Meek Jo Minnesota Opera Debut Recently Così fan tutte, Portland Opera Dido and Aeneas, Spoleto Festival U.S.A. Der Rosenkavalier, Opera Pacific Idomeneo; Madame Butterfly, Metropolitan Opera Radamisto, Opera Theatre of St. Louis Upcoming Le nozze di Figaro, Kentucky Opera Flavio, New York City Opera Der Rosenkavalier, Opera North (Leeds)

John Tessier Laurie Minnesota Opera Debut Recently The Magic Flute, Opera Atelier; Edmonton Opera; Opera Company of Philadelphia Acis and Galatea, New York City Opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Aldeburgh Festival Upcoming Don Giovanni, New York City Opera Orlando Paladino, Glimmerglass Opera The Barber of Seville; La fille du régiment, Vancouver Opera Così fan tutte, Manitoba Opera

Adriana Zabala Meg Minnesota Opera Debut Der Rosenkavalier, 2000 Recently La Cenerentola; Madame Butterfly, Seattle Opera Le nozze di Figaro; A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Wolf Trap Opera The Barber of Seville; Street Scene; Le nozze di Figaro; Turandot; educational tours, The Minnesota Opera Schumann’s Mignon Requiem, Minnesota Orchestra Upcoming Xerxes; Street Scene, Wolf Trap Opera Carmen; Bach Easter Oratorio, Jacksonville Symphony

Matt Boehler Mr. Dashwood Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Recently La bohème; others, The Minnesota Opera La bohème, Fargo-Moorhead Civic Opera Orpheus in the Underworld; Christopher Sly; The Consul; others, Des Moines Metro Opera Amahl and the Night Visitors; The Magic Flute; Le nozze di Figaro; The Threepenny Opera, Viterbo College Upcoming Don Carlos, The Minnesota Opera A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Central City Opera

Genevieve Christianson Amy Minnesota Opera Debut Street Scene, 2001 Recently Broadway Music Spectacular, Ashland Productions Wonderful Town; The Merry Widow, North Star Opera Shawshank Redemption, RPN Productions Orpheus in the Underworld, Gilbert and Sullivan Opera La bohème; La clemenza di Tito; Lucia di Lammermoor; Turandot; others (ensemble), The Minnesota Opera Upcoming Candide (ensemble; Cunegonde cover), Minnesota Orchestra

Ryan Kinsella Friedrich Bhaer Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Recently La bohème; La clemenza di Tito; Lucia di Lammermoor, The Minnesota Opera Miss Havisham’s Fire, Opera Theatre of St. Louis The Tales of Ho∂mann, Sarasota Opera La traviata; The Face on the Barroom Floor; Candide; Dialogues des Carmélites, Central City Opera Postcard from Morocco; Antigone; others, Boston University Upcoming Dvorak Te Deum, Minnesota Orchestra

Ana Rodriguez Beth Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Recently La bohème; La clemenza di Tito; Lucia di Lammermoor, The Minnesota Opera Gianni Schicchi; Carmen; Le nozze di Figaro; L’enfant et les sortilèges, Orlando Opera Company La bohème, Opera North (New Hampshire) Cinderella; Toy Shop, Cincinnati Opera E & O Cherubin, IVAI (Tel Aviv) Upcoming Don Carlos, The Minnesota Opera

Lawrence Weller Gideon March Minnesota Opera Debut Recently Falsta∂; L'incoronazione di Poppea, U of M Opera Theater The Most Happy Fella; L’italiana in Algeri; The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein, North Star Opera St. Matthew Passion; St. John Passion, University of Minnesota; Bach Society of Minnesota Carmina burana; Elijah, St. Cloud Symphony Upcoming Winterreise, University of Minnesota Italienisches Liederbuch, James Madison University (VA)

Jeffrey Domoto Conductor Minnesota Opera Resident Artist Recently Lucia di Lammermoor; Pagliacci/Carmina burana; The Barber of Seville; others, The Minnesota Opera Nutcracker Fantasy, Minnesota Dance Theatre Cover Conductor – Minnesota Orchestra Assistant Conductor – Central City Opera (1999); Yale Opera; Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale Upcoming Don Carlos, The Minnesota Opera

15 • l i t t l e w o m e n

Carlos Archuleta

The Artists

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t h e m i n n e s o t a o p e r a • 18

The Artists Colin Graham

Tom Mays

Stage Director Minnesota Opera Debut The Mikado, 1989 Recently Eugene Onegin; Macbeth, Opera Pacific Otello, Opera Omaha Hippolytus and Aricia; The Tale of Genji; Othello; others, Opera Theatre of St. Louis The Ballad of Baby Doe, NY City Opera; San Francisco Opera A Streetcar Named Desire, San Diego Opera; San Francisco Opera Upcoming Hamlet, Opera Theatre of St. Louis

Lighting Designer Minnesota Opera Debut Street Scene, 2001 Recently La bohème, The Minnesota Opera A Pueblo Christmas; La Posada; others, Teatro del Pueblo Ni boca ni sangre, Teatro Latino All in the Timing; Four Dogs and a Bone, New Classic Theatre Biloxi Blues; Dancing at Lughnasa; others, Theatre in the Round Upcoming La traviata, The Minnesota Opera Street Scene, Wolf Trap Opera Company

Robert O’Hearn

Tom Watson

Set and Costume Designer Minnesota Opera Debut Career Highlights Lucia di Lammermoor; L’italiana in Algeri; Porgy and Bess; Aida; Die Frau ohne Schatten; others, Metropolitan Opera West Side Story; My Fair Lady, Michigan Opera Theatre Manon Lescaut; Samson et Dalila; others, Opera Colorado La traviata; Die Fledermaus; Tosca; others, Miami Opera Pique Dame, San Francisco Opera Andrea Chénier; The Pearl Fishers; others, New York City Opera Le nozze di Figaro; L’elisir d’amore; Vanessa, Arabella; Idomeneo; Ariadne auf Naxos; others, University of Indiana

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Wig Master and Makeup Minnesota Opera Debut The Pearl Fishers, 1986 Recently Opera Theatre of St. Louis (season) Santa Fe Opera (season) The Minnesota Opera (1986-2002 seasons) Metropolitan Opera (season) Jane Eyre; Dirty Blonde, (Broadway) Upcoming Don Carlos, The Minnesota Opera

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Coming Up: 19 • l i t t l e w o m e n

Under the shadow of the Spanish Inquisition, Don Carlos loses his beloved to his father’s crown. Verdi masterfully weaves an epic tale of love, duty and valor.

“It has been a dream of mine to stage this work,” said Artistic Director Johnson. “It is Verdi’s most heartfelt, subtle and melancholic score. There’s an emotional complexity to it, an anger turning inward. There is no clear-cut villain; everyone makes the wrong choice and is unable to change the course of destiny.”

The Minnesota Opera will present the revised 1884 version in French with an exquisitely conceived production from England’s Opera North directed by Tim Albery. As Johnson states, “The line of the music is best suited to the original French language it is more lyric and intimate.”

Paul Charles Clarke (Faust) and Julian Gavin alternate in the title role. Jason Howard (Macbeth) and Carlos Marín (Lucia) sing Rodrigue, and Indra Thomas and Geraldine McMillian (Tosca, Aida) sing Élisabeth.

Don Carlos by Giuseppe Verdi May 11, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 19, 2002 English translations projected above the stage.

Don Carlos is sponsored by West Group.

To learn more about Don Carlos Please visit our website at www.mnopera.org or consider the opportunities listed below. On the website you will find casting updates, artist biographies, synopses, background notes, suggestions for further reading and listening, ticket services and other company information.

Adult Education Class

Opera Insights

A class devoted to Don Carlos will be held on Monday, April 22, 2002, from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. at The Minnesota Opera Center, 620 North First Street in the Minneapolis Warehouse District. Learn more about Schiller’s vaguely historical account of Philip ii and his family’s personal conflicts su∂ered under the menacing shadow of the Spanish Inquisition, a drama that inspired what many musicologists describe as the perfect opera for those who love Verdi. Call 612-342-9575 for registration information.

Join Artistic Director Dale Johnson or the Opera’s artistic sta∂ one hour before showtime for a 30-minute introduction to the work. Opera Insights are free and held in Ordway Center’s mezzanine lobby.

t h e m i n n e s o t a o p e r a • 20

Louisa May Alcott continued from page 14 Louisa’s mother, Abigail May (Abba) was descended from two prestigious New England families, the Quincys and the Sewalls, the former associated by marriage to John Hancock. Her father, Colonel Joseph May, earned his rank while serving in the American Revolution. Abba fell in love with Bronson’s ideals more than with the man himself, much to her strict father’s discontent. Those ideals became her only source of comfort as Bronson’s improvidence became her burden. Abba was forced to find support for the family by working and by borrowing from her richer relatives.

Her tireless generosity became a source of great inspiration to Louisa – Abba’s e∂orts in helping the poor, in supporting abolitionism and in promoting woman’s su∂rage elevated her to an almost god-like status in her daughter’s eyes. “Mrs. March,” the author once stated, “is all true, only not half good enough.”

Like Jo in Little Women, Louisa was

second born, at times a tempestuous child, a tomboy in her own eyes and the polar opposite of her passive older sister Anna (Meg). Anna was, in her father’s eyes, the exact example of what his educational theories proscribed, while Louisa quite obviously fell short of his expectations.

Two other sisters followed, Beth, who appears to be an exact replica of her counterpart in the novel, and May (Amy). Beth (also called Lizzie) contracted scarlet fever through her mother’s charity work with an infected family (in the novel, it is Beth’s own generous act that lands her into trouble), and although she recovered, she remained weak until her death two years later in 1858. May was somewhat talented as an artist, and her illustrations decorated the first edition of Little Women. Louisa’s success yielded a trip to Europe for her and her sister. On subsequent journeys, May became a skilled imitator of Joseph Turner, and one of her land-

scapes was accepted into the Paris Salon. She married while traveling abroad and later died of complications from the birth of her only child.

Writing became a compulsion for Louisa both in her journals and in creating scenarios for her and her sisters to perform. She soon looked to it as a viable source of income for her struggling family. Early works, such as “Pauline’s Passion,” “The Skeleton in the Closet” and “A Whisper in the Dark” were faintly lurid melodramas published under an assumed name and had great appeal to repressed Victorian sensibility. Other works, such as Moods, Work and Hospital Sketches, have autobiographical traces, either dreamt or realized. Hospital Sketches in particular is drawn from Louisa’s experiences, albeit brief, as a Civil War army nurse.

Posted in Washington d.c. she was confronted with the most horrific casualties from the front line. She fell ill herself and was treated with calomel, a mercury-based cure-all that frequently

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posed of nine scenes. Act i ends as Part One of the novel, with the wedding of Meg and John Brooke. The sharing of Gideon and Alma’s vows (likely derived by the fact Anna Alcott and her husband John Pratt chose for their wedding day the thirtieth anniversary of Bronson and Abba), are counterpoised by the turbulence of Laurie’s frank admission of his feelings for Jo and her rejection (an event occurring later in the novel). Like Jo’s confrontation with Laurie, Louisa regarded her sister Anna’s wedding with equal disdain, “I mourn the loss of my Nan and am not comforted … I moaned in private over my great loss and said I’d never forgive J. for taking Anna from me … I’d rather be a free spinster.”

Another variant is Adamo’s especially poignant scene where Aunt Cecilia bequeaths Plumfield to Jo, emphasizing the themes of family, transition and fear of isolation that permeate the opera. (In Alcott’s Little Women, Jo learns of the surprise inheritance at the very end, only after Cecilia March has passed away.) The prologue and postlude are drawn from Chapter 43, in which Jo examines her life to date and the eventuality of becoming a “literary spinster” while reencountering a freshly wed Laurie. Unlike the conclusion of Part Two, where everyone lives happily ever after (with the exception of Beth), Adamo’s Act ii ends with a question mark, leaving us to ponder what the future holds for Jo and Bhaer, perhaps more in line with Louisa’s original intent to leave her heroine unwed and independent.

Visually speaking, Robert O’Hearn’s design for this production is inspired by Orchard House, the most permanent of the Alcotts’ many residences. Although the autobiographical events of Louisa’s novel probably took place at Hillside, an earlier family dwelling next door (later the residence of another famous writer who settled in Concord, Nathaniel Hawthorne), the author probably had in mind the happier times spent in Orchard House as she put to paper the various childhood adventures of her and her three sisters. Orchard House is now home to The Louisa May Alcott Memorial Association.

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21 • l i t t l e w o m e n

left the patient in a worse condition.

Louisa was haunted by the e∂ects of mercury poisoning, with persistent ill health and premature death. She never married, and her writings often feature a spirited heroine in control of her destiny, again shaking the very foundat i o n s o f Vi c t o r i a n t h o u g h t a n d precedence.

Alcott began Little Women at the age of 35, carefully extracting or otherwise recreating the happier moments of a childhood oppressed by desperate poverty, a depressed and exhausted mother and a reclusive father. Louisa marks him as curiously absent, either fighting the Civil War, injured in Washington, or in the retreat of his study, reading and philosophizing.

Marmee is depicted as saintly, a woman of infinite wisdom with a solution to every problem. Louisa is careful to illuminate Bronson’s moral teachings as Abba’s counterpart teaches her daughters the lessons of life.

Part One initiates the friendly relationship between the Marches and their rich neighbors, the Lawrences, an older gentleman who was friendly with Alma’s father and his young grandson Theodore, who goes by Laurie (to avoid being mocked as “Dora”).

At various points each March girl has her eye on him, yet his real life inspiration remains elusive. Various theories draw attention to a young man Alcott befriended in Europe (known as “Laddie”), others point to unsent letters to Emerson and Thoreau written full of passion and girlish adulation.

She was also the confidante of young Alfred Whitman, a somber schoolboy whose company she enjoyed. Louisa would not divulge any hints – she preferred that Jo stay single and only succumbed to pressure to have her paired with an older intellectual, Friedrich Bhaer, at Little Women’s conclusion.

Jo’s inheritance of Plumfield and its subsequent conversion into a home for wayward boys led to two sequels, Little Men and Jo’s Boys, both successful in their day.

Little Women is constructed in a series of 47 short, often disconnected episodes, yet Adamo skillfully adapts most of the major events into a more sustained narrative in an opera com-

t h e m i n n e s o t a o p e r a • 22

Staff President & CEO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Kevin Smith Artistic Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Dale Johnson General Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . John Humleker

Dyer/Painter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Marliss Jenson Stitchers . . . . . .Jennifer Dawson, Jeanne Finch, Stephanie Vogel

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Scenic and Lighting Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tom Mays Technical Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stuart Schatz Scenic Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Holly Carpenter Assistant Lighting Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Nicole Simoneau Properties Master . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Stanley Dean Hawthorne Properties Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mike Long Charge Painter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Michael Bolin Scenic Artist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Debra Jensen Production Carpenter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . J.C. Amel Scene Shop Foreman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rod Aird Carpenters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Patrick Dzieweczynski, Mike McQuiston, Steve Rovie

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Artistic Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Roxanne Stou∂er Cruz Artistic Associate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Floyd Anderson Education Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Holly Carpenter Dramaturg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . David Sander Production Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Alexander Farino Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Yasmine Kiss Assistant Stage Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Lee Henderson OPERA America Stage Management Fellow . . . . . .Trevore Ross Resident Artist Music Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Bruce Stasyna Chorusmaster/Head Coach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Lawson Resident Artist Instructors . . .Carlotta Dradi-Bauer, Miriam Scholz-Carlson, Doug Scholz-Carlson, Stuart Pimsler, Nancy Tibbetts Resident Artists . . Carlos Archuleta, Matthew Boehler, Je∂rey Domoto, Ryan Kinsella, Laura Loewen, Ana Rodriguez, James Valenti Education Personnel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Raymond Berg, Peggy Endres, Kenny Kiser, David Moore, Jonathan Niel, Janet Paone, Joseph Schlefke, Elise Skophammer, Roger Skophammer, Casey Stangl, Ed Williams, Joan Womeldorf Mentor Connection participant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Megan Furman

Administration Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Je∂ Couture Operations/Systems Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . Steve Mittelholtz Accounting Associate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Thill Events/Volunteer Coordinator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Sarah Curtis Executive Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Theresa Murray

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Development Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Bill Venne Institutional Gifts Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jaime Meyer Development Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Vicky Emerson

Costume Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gail Bakkom Assistant Costume Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Beth Sanders Drapers . . . . . . . . . . . . Chris Bur, Angela Patten, Yancey Thrift First Hands . . . . . . Helen Ammann, Mark Heiden, Valerie Hill Wig/Makeup Assistants . . . . . . . Jodi Heath, Emily Rosenmeier

Communications Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lani Willis Ticket O∑ce Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jason Young Receptionist/Information Specialist . . . . . . . . . . . . . Malia Long

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songs from the heartland Spring Concert With Special Guest Composer Libby Larsen S AT U R D AY, A P R I L 2 7 , 2 0 0 2 / 7 : 3 0 P. M .

COLONIAL CHURCH OF EDINA E D I N A , M I N N E S O TA

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SPRING 2002 SEASON

JAMES SEWELL BALLET

Co-presented by The O’Shaughnessy at the College of St. Catherine 2004 Randolph Avenue in St. Paul April 19, 20, 26, 27 (8 pm) April 28 (2 pm) Call for Tickets: TicketMaster 612.673.0404 or O’Shaughnessy 651.690.6700

The Minnesota Opera Orchestra Violin I Kristen Christensen, concertmaster Julia Persitz David Mickens Sheila Hanford Violin II Laurie Petruconis Elizabeth Decker Stephan Orsak Viola Annette Caruthers Vivi Erickson Cello James Jacobson Adriana la Rosa Ransom Bass John Michael Smith

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Flute/Piccolo/Alto Flute Michele Frisch Oboe/English Horn Marilyn Ford Clarinet/Bass Clarinet Sandra Powers Bassoon/Contrabassoon Coreen Nordling Horn Charles Hodgson Piano/Celesta/Synthesizer Bruce Stasyna Percussion Matthew Barber Harp Andrea Stern Offstage Chorus Madeline Cieslak April Hanson Karen Weaver Karin Wolverton

t h e m i n n e s o t a o p e r a • 26

The Minnesota Opera Fund Individual Donors: The Camerata Circle The Camerata Circle is The Minnesota Opera’s highest category of personal support. With this designation, we recognize these very special friends for their commitment to the tradition of opera in our community.

Platinum Mrs. Judson Bemis Mary and Gus Blanchard Judy and Kenneth Dayton Dolly J. Fiterman John and Ruth Huss Heinz and Sisi Hutter The Art and Martha Kaemmer Fund of HRK Foundation Peter J. King Constance and Daniel Kunin Patricia Lund Mr. and Mrs. Walter S. Meyers Mrs. George T. Pennock Mary W. Vaughan

Diana and Joe Murphy Mrs. John M. Musser† Bruce and Sandy Nelson Timothy and Gayle Ober Jose Peris and Diana Gulden Rebecca Rand and E. Thomas Binger Connie and Lew Remele Mr. and Mrs. Steven Rothschild Fred and Gloria Sewell Virginia L. and Edward C. Stringer Gregory C. Swinehart Tanrydoon Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation C. Angus and Margaret Wurtele

Gold

Silver

Anonymous Mary A. Andres August J. Aquila and Emily Haliziw Karen Bachman David Hanson and William Biermaier Mr. and Mrs. James Binger Rod and Susan Boren Darlene J. and Richard P. Carroll Sally J. Economon Rolf and Nancy Engh N. Bud and Beverly Grossman Foundation Alfred and Ingrid Lenz Harrison Bryce and Paula Johnson Lucy Rosenberry Jones Michael F. and Gretchen S. Kelly Warren and Patricia Kelly Ed and Pat Kerans Thomas and Barbara McBurney

Anonymous John Andrus, III Martha and Bruce Atwater Patricia and Mark Bauer Joseph and Judy Carlson William Voedisch and Laurie Carlson Rachelle Dockman Chase Burt and Rusty Cohen Dr. James E. and Gisela Corbett Ellie and Tom Crosby, Jr. Rondi Erickson and Sandy Lewis Mr. and Mrs. John Forsythe Connie Fladeland and Steve Fox Leslie and Alain Frécon R. Thomas Greene, Jr. Stephen and Patricia Haynes Jay and Cynthia Ihlenfeld Gerald Johnson Stan and Jeanne Kagin Lyndel and Blaine King

Benefactors

The Denny Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Thomas and Mary Lou Detwiler Mr. and Mrs. Carl B. Drake, Jr. Joyce and Hugh Edmondson Ester and John Fesler Henry and Anice Flesh Patricia R. Freeburg Lois and Larry Gibson Mr. and Mrs. John F. Grundhofer Don and Arlene Helgeson Charlotte Karlen Mr. and Mrs. Erwin Kelen Mary L. Kenzie Family Foundation E. Robert and Margaret V. Kinney Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Lisa C. Kochiras

Anonymous Kim A. Anderson Paula A. Anderson An Anonymous Gift from a Donor Advised Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation Dr. Thomas and Ann Bagnoli Amy and Ford Watson Bell in honor of Elinor W. Bell Thomas L. and Joyce E. Bruckner Dr. and Mrs. Jim Burdine Joann M. D. Cierniak Susan Cogger and Terry Williams Je∂ and Barb Couture John G. and Ida J. Davies

Patrons Anonymous Fred Amram and Sandra Brick Quentin and Mary Anderson Woodbury H. and Cynthia Andrews James and Gail Bakkom The Reverend Richard S. Bauder Grace Beek Judith and Arnold Brier Conley Brooks Family John and Anne Caruso Judith and Roger Colton Sage and John Cowles, Jr. Bill and Kate Cullen Sia Dimitriou Salvatore S. Franco David K. Gardner Howard and Heidi Gilbert Robert and Ellen Green Jerold and Kathleen Hahn Dr. Walter A. Hall, M.D. Mr. and Mrs. Jack Helms Frederick J. Hey, Jr. Helen and James Hubbell Foundation

Ekdahl Hutchinson Family Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Paul and Diane Jacobson James L. Jelinek Dr. Robert and Susan Josselson Nancy and Donald Kapps Mr. and Mrs. Thomas A. Keller, III Robert L. Kriel and Linda E. Krach Joan and Joe Lapensky Robert L. Lee and Mary E. Scha∂ner Roy and Mary Letourneau Sidney and Diane Levin Michael and Diane Levy Sy and Ginny Levy Family Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Eileen and Henry Lexau Mrs. Malcolm S. Mackay Hella Mears L. David Mech Sheila and Paul Meginnis Dr. Joseph Meland and Dr. Mary Hobbs Meland Mr. and Mrs. Gale Mellum Ms. Marianne Merriman

Robert Messner Steve Moore Sandy and Bob Morris Mr. and Mrs. Richard Nicholson Constance S. Otis James A. Payne Mr. Daniel Pennie Elizabeth and Andrew Redleaf Lawrence M. Redmond Christine Roberts and Ric Larson Thomas D. and Nancy J. Rohde James and Andrea Rubenstein Ms. Karen Schnatterly William K. She∑eld The Harriet and Edson Spencer Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Drew Stewart Dana and Stephen Strand Henry and Virginia Sweatt Dan and Trudy Thompson Loren and Angi Unterseher Will Volk Associates Anonymous

Mrs. James S. Kochiras Mr. and Mrs. Ted Kolderie Lynne Looney Leland T. Lynch and Terry Saario Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Roy and Dorothy Ann Mayeske Harvey T. McLain Mary Bigelow McMillan Robb and Lynne Morin Nelson Family Foundation William and Barbara Pearce Marge and Dwight Peterson Lila and Bruce Priebe Lois and John Rogers E. Elaine and Roger Sampson Kay Savik and Joe Tashjian Frank and Lynda Sharbrough Renate M. Sharp Kevin and Lynn Smith Mrs. Irene G. Steiner Charles Allen Ward Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation

Bronze Anonymous (2) Eric and Donna Aanenson Chloe D. Ackman Cordelia Anderson and John Humleker Mr. and Mrs. Edmund P. Babcock Alexandra O. Bjorklund Mr. and Mrs. Paul G. Boening Ralph and Kathleen Cadmus Elwood F. and Florence A. Caldwell David and Jane Cooper Dr. Susan and Richard Crockett Mrs. Thomas M. Crosby, Sr. Mary Lee and Wallace Dayton Maria Kochiras Helen L. Kuehn Clinton and Judith Lee Ilo and Margaret Leppik Bill Long Thornton Lyford Dan and Sue Malina Margery Martin Samuel D. and Patricia McCullough Mary McDiarmid James P. McFarland Mrs. John H. Myers Albin and Susan Nelson Allegra Parker Karen B. Paul Jodi and Todd Peterson

Anonymous Atheist Carla Olivia Alcorn Sandra A. Antonelli Kay C. Bach Kay and Tom Barrett Family Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation Dan Berg and Welcome Jerde Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation The Coleman Bloomfield Fund of The Saint Paul Foundation Kenneth Britton Mr. and Mrs. R. James Brownback Lela Brownlee Rich Wescott and Judith Brown-Wescott Robert and Gerry Bullard Jennifer Case Phelps Dr. and Mrs. David W. Cline Roxanne and Joseph Cruz Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Czeswik Mr. and Mrs. Bruce B. Dayton Mr. and Mrs. John Donaldson Ruth D. Drake Mr. and Mrs. John A. Eagon

Cy and Paula Decosse Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Lori and Tom Foley Bradley A. Fuller and Elizabeth Lincoln Christine and W. Michael Garner Mr. and Mrs. R. James Gesell Ieva Grundmanis Rosalie He∂elfinger Hall Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Cli∂ton K. Hill and Jody Rockwell Dorothy J. Horns, M.D. and James P. Richardson Elizabeth A. Huey Jacqueline Nolte Jones Mr. and Mrs. William Kling Jerry and Joyce Lillquist Benjamin Y. H. and Helen C. Liu David MacMillan and Judy Krow James and Judith Mellinger Tom Murtha and Stephanie Lenway Susan Okie Mr. and Mrs. William Phillips Kim and John Puckett Norm Rickeman and Kathy Murphy Burton G. Ross and Cynthia Rosenblatt Ross Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation John Rosse Mr. and Mrs. John C. Rowland Lucy and Mark Searls Stanislaw and Krystyna Skrowaczewski James V. and Susan W. Sullivan Michael Symeonides Mr. and Mrs. George H. Tesar Catie Tobin and Brian Naas † deceased

Frances and George Reid Ken and Nina Rothchild Je∂rey Scherer and Lea Babcock Dr. and Mrs. Richard J. Schindler Mahlon and Karen Schneider Ralph S. Schneider and Margaret McNeil Stephanie Simon Helene and Je∂ Slocum Julie Jackley Steiner Don and Leslie Stiles Lois and Lance Thorkelson Bill Venne and Douglas Kline Ellen and Fred Wells Nancy and Ted Weyerhaeuser

Dr. Isabel Feinstein Mr. Charles Fitch Carolyn D. Fiterman Iris C. Freeman and Warren Woessner Terence Fruth and Mary McEvoy Family Fund of The Minneapolis Foundaton Linda and Bret Gapp Carol and Mike Garbisch Katherine and Robert Goodale, Jr. Ruth E. Hanold Douglas and Doris Happe Margaret Helgeson Gareth D. Hiebert J. Andrew Holey and Gary S. Whitford Jean McGough Holten Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Humsey Todd and Liesl Hyde Ruth E. Jones Jane and Jim Kaufman Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation Charles C. Kerl and Marcia McCarty Carole and Joseph Killpatrick

Laura and Joseph Kiser Arthur C. and Milly D. Klassen Kyle Kossol Mrs. Walter Kunz Jill M. Kunze Ms. Anne Labovitz Mark and Elaine Landergan Mrs. Doris S. Larson Leo and Carole Leomporra Ms. Kathleen Lindblad Joan E. Madden Thomas Kleinschmit and Liana Magee Maren and Mark Mahowald Mr. and Mrs. Robert Manders Cathy Manlove George Martin Sheila McNally Kristine Merta Thomas and Jane Miller Steven J. Mittelholtz Jon and Lynne Montague-Clouse Shirley Moore in memory of Dave Theresa and Jim Murray Mr. and Mrs. Edward Neira

The Minnesota Opera Fund Ms. Marjorie Newton Dr. and Mrs. Franklin Norman Glyn R. Northington Derrill M. Pankow Kathy and Don Park Mary Helen Pennington, M.D. Kern and Kathryn Peterson Mr. and Mrs. John S. Pillsbury, Jr. Nicole and Charles Prescott Ms. Karen Raway Dr. Ann Rock Rockler Companies, Inc. Robert E. Rocknem Dr. Hanan J. Rosenstein Warren Sampson John H. Sargent, M.D. and Janice J. Sargent Karen A. Scha∂er Bill and Althea Sell John Setterholm Cherie L. Shreck Philip Sie∂ George Smalley Elizabeth Snelson and Brett Gemlo Warren Stortroen Mr. and Mrs. Rolf Svendsen Craig and Janet Swan Vilis Vikmanis Emily Wadsworth Mr. and Mrs. Charles Webster Sandy Weisenburger David and Karin Wendt Helen and J. Kimball Whitney David and Rachelle Willey Fred and Eleanor Winston Dr. James A. Zeese Friend Anonymous (4) Paul and Val Ackerman Carolyn M. Adams Barbara and Joseph Aiken-Ali Larry and Kathy Allen Arlene Goodman Alm Roland C. Amundson Ms. Melissa Anderson Jane S. Angrist Dr. Howard J. Ansel, M.D.

Genevive Antonello Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Armitage Dr. and Mrs. Orn Arnar Phillip Asgian Fran Babbitt Kay C. Bach Ms. Ruth Bachman Robert F. Ball, III Beverly Balos and Mary Louise Fellows Thomas and Ann Barland Andrew Baron and Shelley Dowhanik-Baron Charles L. Bathke Ms. Lynn Bauer Ron and Gay Baukol Ms. Jeanne Beatty Dr. Gardner Bemis Barbara and Paul Benn Gerald and Phyllis Benson Kenneth J. Berglund Anna and Rollin Bergquist Inez and John Bergquist Robert F. Bishaw Diane and David Blake Jorge Blanco Mr. and Mrs. James Blilie Mr. and Mrs. Robert Bodsgard Ms. Doris Bogardus Fred and Carolyn Bogott Herman Boman, Jr., and Joyce Marie Boman Todd Boster Rose Boughton James and Lynn Bowe Penny J. Boyle Ms. Margaret A. Bracken Mr. Raymond Bradley Joan Broughton Barb Brown Philip L. and Ellen C. Bruner Emilie and Henry Buchwald Mr. Charles Buehler William Busch, Jr. Ruth H. Busta Dawn Carlson and Gary Gustafson Jerome and Linda Carlson Nancy S. and Robert H. Carlson Dr. Alan E. and Ruth Carp

Proceeds help support Courage Programs and you can receive a tax deduction based on fair market value.

763-520-0540 www.courage.org

Ben and Joanie Case Beverly Christenson Mark G. Christenson Mr. and Mrs. James F. Clark Ms. Mary Ann Clark Ms. Pamela Clarke Mr. Thomas B. Cleveland Elizabeth S. Close Sandy and Doug Coleman Mr. Steve Coleman Syd and Kay Constantine Burt and Jeanne Corwin Mr. and Mrs. Robert Cottrell Dr. and Mrs. Jim Craig Timothy C. and Nancy K. Cronin Mr. and Mrs. John Crosby Ms. Joan Curtis Robert and Marilyn Davidson Mr. and Mrs. John de Rosier Dr. Amos S. and Sue Deinard Keith and Linda Donaldson Mary Doyle Mr. and Mrs. Peter A. Doyon Dorothy R. Drummond Carol Du∂ JoAnn D. Dunkel Nancy and Pierre Dussol Mr. and Mrs. Welles Eastman Mark and Carol Engebretson Jean Evans and Ron Melander Steve and Janet Everly Friends of Bart Koeppen Tom R. Farm Mr. David E. Feinberg Barbara J. Felt Ms. Elizabeth Fennelly Joyce and Harold Field, Jr. Andrea Fike Catherine C. Finch Mr. John J. Flynn Rick Fossey, Stacey Michels and Nancy McNamara Charlotte Frampton Don and Betty Friborg Jane Fuller Ms. Joan Gacki Phillip and Bonnie Gainsley Greta and Paul Garmers

Frank and Shirley Garner Heather Kirby Gehring Ms. Nancy Glad Mrs. Norma Gobran Kathryn Goehl J. Diann Goetten John D. and Mary R. Gould Richard and Marsha Gould Mary Ann Grage Lee Gremillion Mary and Bayliss Griggs Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Grussing Mrs. Dorothy Guilford Margaret Gulbrandson Alpha M. Gustafson Elizabeth Gutmann Mr. Frederick Haas Mr. and Mrs. Jerold Hahn Julie and Jim Hall David Hamerla John L. Hannaford Phillip Hansen Diane Hanson Ms. Kathryn C. Harper Mr. and Mrs. Wilbert Harri Virginia R. Harris Patricia S. Hart and A. S. Lang Alfred E. Hauwiller Ms. Phyllis Perrizo Heath Dean K. Hedstrom Eileen Heinzeller Mr. and Mrs. Mel R. Hendrix Gregor Henrikson Ms. Anne E. Hesselroth Barbara Hill Jacqueline J. Hill and Donald J. Christensen Ruth Hinker Julie Hoff Virginia Hofmann Mr. Stuart Holland Charles and Kathi Holmes The Reverend and Mrs. Henry H. Hoover John Hovanec Burton and Sandra Hoverson Mr. Je∂ Hudson Worth L. Hudspeth John O. Irvine

Mr. Guglielmo Izzi Owen and Barbara Jenkins Mr. and Mrs. Tom Jensen Dale A. Johnson Douglas and Catherine Johnson Ms. Georgette M. Johnson James D. and Kathleen M. Johnson Margaret and Allan Johnson Steven and Jeraldin Johnson Suzanne Johnson Mr. Greg Johnston Herbert F. Kahler Dr. Morton and Merle Kane Judith and Cli∂ord Kashtan Kate Kavanaugh and Jon Bjorlie Mrs. Stephen F. Keating Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Kenney Beverly Kespohl Janet Keyes and Mark Hatherly John C. Kim Janice L. Kimes Betty V. and James F. Koerner Ms. Janis I. Konke Mr. and Mrs. Paul M. Krause Mr. James Kromhout Mr. and Mrs. David Kruidenier Steven and Marie Kuker Dean Lambert Land for Sale, Inc. Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Larson Mr. and Mrs. Clayton K. Larson William and Gladys Laughlin David J. Lauth and Lindsey C. Thomas Ms. Tisa Lawless Marcene M. Lawson Mrs. Bela S. Lazar Mr. and Mrs. Jim Leatherman Donald and Joann Leavenworth Mr. and Mrs. Thomas J. Lee Lucinda Legel Helen Leslie Dennis and Marcia Letourneau Mr. and Mrs. Morris G. Levy, Jr. Mrs. Vera Likins Mr. and Mrs. Keith N. Lindquist Ms. Marjorie A. Loe∑er Ann Longfellow

Mr. and Mrs. Walter H. Lorshbough Dr. and Mrs. S. A. Lovestedt Dr. and Mrs. Kristofer Lund Judy and Neilan Lund Carole M. Lundgren Eudene Lupino Dr. and Mrs. Fred A. Lyon Dr. and Mrs. James D. MacGibbon Mr. and Mrs. Cargill MacMillan, Jr. Frank and Regina Maguire Donald and Rhoda Mains Thomas G. Mairs Kristine and Peter Maritz Mary and Phil Matteson Ms. Patricia A. Maynard Arthur McFarland Donald and Alice McIlrath Ms. Kathleen M. McLaughlin Roberta and Robert Megard Curtis and Verne Melberg Joan Mellen Douglas and Cindy Merrigan Joseph Micallef David and LaVonne Middleton Robert and Sue Helen Midness Mary E. Miller Virginia Miller Mr. and Mrs. Edward L. Mills Milica Mitterhauser Susan Molder Polly and Dick Moore William and Imelda Muggli Judith and Aaron Nathenson Mr. Ronald Nauman Gregory Neeser John Neess and Mark Thomas Mr. Fritz A. Nelson Peter and Carol Nelson Raymond and Jane Nelson Ms. Barbara Nemer Joseph and Judith Neumeier Lucia Newell Dr. and Mrs. William L. Nichols Nancy E. Nolan Charles Novak Dorothy Novak Mr. and Mrs. Stan Nyquist

27 • l i t t l e w o m e n

Individual Donors

t h e m i n n e s o t a o p e r a • 28

The Minnesota Opera Fund Individual Donors Mr. Cole Oehler Diane and Je∂rey Oertel Rabbi Stacy K. O∂ner Patricia A. O’Gorman Dennis Olson Thomas Olson and Elizabeth Lewis Linda Olup The Reverend and Mrs. Robert A. Onkka Ruth and Ahmad Orandi Dolores Orey Kay Smith and Arnold Ostebee Frederick M. Owens, Jr. Mr. Brian J. Pactol Mr. and Mrs. G. Richard Palen Ms. Heather Palmer Dan and Pat Panshin Donald Pastor and David Goldstein Ms. Lois R Patten Donna L. Pauley Jerry Peck Joanne L. Pehler

Deane G. Peters Sharon and Gregory Peterson Aimee K. Petra Nancy Petulla Patricia Peyla Sandra Resnick and Walter Pickhardt J. Michael Pickle Ms. Joanna Pierce John and Norma Pierson Sally and George Pillsbury Mr. and Mrs. Michael Porcaro Barbara Poulter Joan M. Prairie Mr. Troy Priem James and Constance Pries Robert and Jean Ra∂erty Lee D. Randall Ms. Eleanor A. Randels Dan and Kari Rasmus Olivia S. Ray Conrad and Teresa Razidlo Ed S. Reay

Katharine S. Reynolds Mr. and Mrs. A. X. Robbins Robert Rose Steve and Trish Rowley Ann Sagnes Thomas and Sheva Sanders Mary Savina Aly and Rob Sayre James A. Scarpetta Kathleen and Eugene Sche∑er Ms. Sue Schiess Mr. Ross Schmidt Lee Schneider Ms. Marcia Schultz Lawrence and Mary Schwanke Summer Seidenkranz Mr. Johann Sfaellos Richard and Kay Shager Janet and Irving Shapiro Robert and Anne Shea∂ George and Janet Sheets Department of Classical Studies at UNCG

Lester Shen Mrs. Judith Sherman James and Carol Simonson Ella and Richard Slade Phyllis Snow Don Sommers and Brad Shark Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Spencer Jon Y. Spoerri J. Jerome Stanley Ms. Eleanor S. Steen Dr. Susan Storti Joseph Strauss Curtis L. Swenson Donald and Eileen Sytsma Charles O. and Marlys R. Taflin Kathy Tezla Joyce Thielen Irma Thies Dr. and Mrs. Andrew J. Thomas Mr. and Mrs. David Thomas Mrs. Phyllis M. Thompson Ms. Sara Jean Thoms

Mr. Curtis Thorpe Dr. and Mrs. F. B. Ti∂any Robert and Eleanor Trnka Mr. and Mrs. Ron Trok Ralph and Hollida Underwager Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Urion Stephanie C. Van D’Elden Ron Wahlberg The Wallin Foundation Lana K. Wareham Dorothy B. Webber Mr. and Mrs. James Weinel Reverend Robert B. Wellisch Evelyn and Robert Welsh Jane and LeRoy Wesley Patricia Whitacre John and Sandra White G. Marc and Tracy Whitehead Jean and Gil Whitson Dexter D. and Paulette N. Whittemore Sandra and Dale Wick

Carolynn C. and Paul D. Wiggin Barb Wildes Ms. Wendy J. Wildung John M. Williams Mr. Robert Williams Mr. and Mrs. James J. Willis Lani Willis Kristopher K. Wilson, Sr. Mr. and Mrs. John W. Windhorst, Jr. Anthony Winer Martina and Douglas Winn Barbara and Sherman Winthrop Jean C. Wirsig Suzanne Witterholt and Jonathan Uecker Margaret and Fancher Wolfe Mr. and Mrs. Charles E. Woodward Jane U. Young Kathy and Howard Zack Richard A. Zgodava Chester and Judy Zinn

Corporations and Foundations Platinum 3M Aid Association for Lutherans/ Lutheran Brotherhood American Express Minnesota Philanthropic Program on behalf of American Express Financial Advisors and American Express Travel Related Services Co. Andersen Foundation Blandin Foundation The Bush Foundation The Cargill Foundation Deloitte & Touche Deluxe Corporation Foundation Ecolab Foundation General Mills Foundation

Ann and Gordon Getty Foundation Anna M. Heilmaier Charitable Foundation Honeywell Foundation The MAHADH Fund of HRK Foundation The McKnight Foundation Marshall Field’s Project Imagine The Medtronic Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Minnesota Monthly Minnesota State Arts Board Northwest Airlines, Inc. Foundation ReliaStar Financial Corporation Skyway Publications, Inc. The St. Paul Companies Target Stores, Marshall Field’s and Mervyn’s with support from the Target Foundation

Transtop Twin Cities Opera Guild U.S. Bancorp Piper Ja∂ray Foundation on behalf of U.S. Bancorp Piper Ja∂ray U.S. Bank Wells Fargo Foundation on behalf of: Wells Fargo Bank Minnesota Wells Fargo Brokerage Services Wells Fargo Institutional Investments Lowry Hill Wells Fargo Private Client Services West Group

Gold Accenture ADC Telecommunications, Inc.

Food engineered by Mother Nature.

The seven member-owned Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops are proud to bring you a beautiful array of fresh, natural and organic foods every day.

Twin Cities Natural Food Co-ops Lakewinds Natural Foods 17523 Minnetonka Blvd., Minnetonka (952) 473-0292 Linden Hills Co-op 2813 West 43rd St. Minneapolis (612) 922-1159

Mississippi Market 1810 Randolph Ave. Saint Paul (651) 690-0507 —and— 622 Selby Ave. Saint Paul (651) 310-9499

River Market Community Co-op 221 N. Main St. Stillwater (651) 439-0366 St. Peter Food Co-op 119 W. Broadway St. Peter 507-934-4880

Seward Co-op Grocery & Deli 2111 East Franklin Ave. Minneapolis (612) 338-2465

Valley Natural Foods 13750 County Road 11, Burnsville 952-891-1212 Wedge Co-op 2105 Lyndale Ave. So. Minneapolis (612) 871-3993

Bemis Company Foundation Dorsey & Whitney Foundation Ernst & Young R. C. Lilly Foundation McGladrey & Pullen, LLP Moss & Barnett National City Bank Alice M. O’Brien Foundation PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Rahr Foundation Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi SpencerStuart Star Tribune Foundation Valspar Foundation Xcel Energy Foundation

Talk with someone who can help.

Growth, Healing and Psychotherapy For All Ages 651•646•8985 2265 Como Ave. St. Paul

The Minnesota Opera Fund Silver

Bronze

The Bayport Foundation Best Buy Children’s Foundation Boss Foundation Chadwick Foundation Dellwood Foundation Digital Excellence Inc. Leonard, Street & Deinard Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation McNeely Foundation The Nash Foundation The Casey Albert T. O’Neil Foundation RBC Dain Rauscher Foundation Margaret Rivers Fund Schwegman, Lundberg, Woessner & Kluth, PA Sit Investment Associates Tennant Foundation School Arts Fund of United Arts/COMPAS U.S. Trust Company Wenger Foundation

Faegre & Benson Hogan & Hartson Hutter Family Foundation Mayo Foundation McVay Foundation Minnesota Mutual Foundation Lawrence M. and Elizabeth Ann O’Shaughnessy Charitable Income Trust in honor of Lawrence M. O’Shaughnessy The Jay and Rose Phillips Family Foundation The Elizabeth C. Quinlan Foundation St. Croix Foundation Charles B. Sweatt Foundation Tilka Design Tozer Foundation Walcro Inc.

Benefactors Alliance Capital Management Elmer L. and Eleanor J. Andersen Foundation

Padilla Speer Beardsley Inc. W.A. Lang/Acordia Irene Hixon Whitney Family Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation

Athwin Foundation Aveda Brock-White Co., LLC Horton, Inc. The Hubbard Foundation KPMG LLP Marsh USA, Inc. Miller Meester Advertising Musicland Group, Inc. The Ritz Foundation The Southways Foundation

Associates Anonymous

Friends

Patrons Bachman’s Bailey Nurseries, Inc. The Burdick Family Charitable Foundation C.S. McCrossan, Inc. H.B. Fuller Company Foundation The Hubbard Foundation Larson, Allen, Weishair & Co., LLP Le Jeune Investment, Inc.

Paper Packaging Group, Bemis Company, Inc. Do The Good George H. and Marjorie F. Dixon Charitable Foundation Hammel, Green and Abrahamson, Inc. MacKay, Inc (Florence, Kentucky) McGough Construction Saint Paul College Club St. Paul Linoleum and Carpet

Minnesota Opera Sponsors Season Sponsor

U.S. Bancorp Piper Ja∂ray

Gala Dinner Sponsor Ecolab

Production Sponsors

Lucia di Lammermoor, U.S. Bancorp Piper Ja∂ray La clemenza di Tito, American Express Minnesota Philanthropic Program La bohème, Marshall Field’s Project Imagine Little Women, RBC Dain Rauchser

Camerata Dinners Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel

Opera Insight Lectures SpencerStuart

These lists are current as of February 28, 2002, and include donors who gave gifts of $100 or more to the Minnesota Opera Fund since January 1, 2001.

If your name is not listed appropriately, please accept our apologies, and call Bill Venne, Development Director of The Minnesota Opera, at 612-342-9565.

North Star Opera Where Opera is Always Fun Everything Sung in English

Good listening

{TAKES PRACTICE.}

Opera Demystified May 5, 2002 Landmark Center for admission: 651-224-1640

Amy Sperling 651.282-9615

Countess Maritza Starring Norah Long June 14 – 23, 2002 for tickets: 651-343-3390

Crocus Hill Office

Nancy Meeden 651.282-9650

29 • l i t t l e w o m e n

Corporations and Foundations

2002-2003 International Artist Series 109th Season

Denyce Graves MEZZO-SOPRANO Thursday, April 24, 2003 8pm

he Schubert Club Gil Shaham, VIOLIN • Yefim Bronfman, PIANO Truls Mørk, CELLO Tuesday, October 22, 2002 • 8pm

Ivan Moravec PIANO Friday, March 21, 2003 8pm

SEASON TICKETS: $145, $125, $105, $85 • Call 651.292.3268

Garrick Ohlsson, PIANO ´ CONTRALTO Ewa Podles, Friday, November 22, 2002 • 8pm

Mitsuko Uchida PIANO Thursday, February 6, 2003 8pm

Ordway Center for the Performing Arts