Ways of Listening
with Nathalie Joachim
Friday, May 1 at 7:00 p.m.
Old Pine Street Church
Join Opera Philadelphia Composer in Residence Nathalie Joachim— with soprano Tiffany Townsend, baritones Johnathan McCullough and Michael Miller, and pianist Michael Lewis—for a concert and talk that explores, challenges, and reclaims the ways we hear, feel, and understand opera.
VIVA VERDI!
Friday, May 15 at 1:00 p.m. The Athenaeum of Philadelphia
A special screening of the Oscarnominated documentary about Casa Verdi, a retirement community in Milan established by composer Giuseppe Verdi. A panel conversation about creative aging will follow.
operaphila.org
World Premiere
April 22, 24, 26, 2026
Academy of Music
An opera by Gregory Spears with a libretto adapted by the composer from the writings of Robert Walser, Arthur Quiller-Couch, and Philipp Nicolai
Thorn Rose Susanne Burgess*
The Stranger Jonghyun Park*
Court Poet Brian Major*
Godmother Sophia Santiago*
Godmother Annalise Dzwonczyk*
Godmother Maren Montalbano
Godmother Robin Bier
Lady-in-Waiting Kaitlyn Tierney
King Brenton Mattox-Scott*
Chamberlain Michael Miller
Cook Allison Deady*
Scullery Maid Jessica Mary Murphy*
Mamselle Veronica Chapman-Smith
Conductor Corrado Rovaris
Director Jenny Koons*
Set Designer Jason Ardizzone West*
Lighting Designer Yuki Link
Costume Designer Maiko Matsushima*
Hair & Make-Up Designer Amari Callaway
Chorus Master Elizabeth Braden
Translations Ron Sadan (Walser), Frances Cox (Nicolai)
Dramaturgy Jenny Koons, Ron Sadan
Stage Manager Jennifer Shaw
*Opera Philadelphia debut
Performed in English with English Supertitles
Sleepers Awake is presented by arrangement with Schott Music, New York, publisher and copyright owner
Brian Major appears courtesy of The Metropolitan Opera Jenny Koons was partially supported by OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Stage Directors and Conductors, generously funded by the Marineau Family Foundation Robert Walser, author of the preexisting works “Dornröschen” and “Mikrogramme,” is represented by the Société Suisse Des Auteurs.
OPERA PHILADELPHIA STAFF
LEADERSHIP
Anthony Roth Costanzo, General Director & President
Corrado Rovaris, Judy and Peter Leone Music Director
David Levy, Executive Vice President
Greg Robertson, Interim Chief Philanthropy Officer
Veronica Chapman-Smith, Vice President of Community Initiatives
Catherine Reay, Vice President of Administration & Human Resources
MUSIC
Michael Eberhard, Director of Casting & Artistic Administration
Elizabeth Braden, Director of Music & Chorus
Grant Loehnig, Head of Music Staff
Nathan Lofton, Orchestra Contractor & Personnel Manager
Timothy M. Ressler, Orchestra Librarian & Personnel Coordinator
J. Robert Loy, Assistant Orchestra Librarian
PRODUCTION
Bridget A. Cook, Director of Production
Drew Billiau, Director of Design & Technology
Stephen Dickerson, Technical Director
Millie Hiibel, Costume Director
Emily Wanamaker, Associate Director of Production
Will Vence Jr., Artistic Operations Coordinator
PHILANTHROPY
Adele Mustardo, Director of Events & Donor Engagement
Veronika Perez, Philanthropy Manager & Board Liaison
Meghan Dunne, Associate Director of Foundation & Government Grants
Sarah Diggins, Philanthrophy Associate
ADMINISTRATION
Brianna Thompson, Office Manager
MARKETING & GUEST SERVICES
Claire Frisbie, Director of Marketing
Michael Knight, Director of Guest Services
Jeffrey Mason, Guest Services Manager
Yvette Bedgood, Guest Services Associate
COMMUNITY INITIATIVES
Kyleigh Archer, Manager of Youth and Community Programs
Kyle Chastulik, Teaching Artist
Dicky Dutton, Teaching Artist
Elizabeth Gautsche, Teaching Artist
Chloe Lucente, Teaching Artist
Maedeh Mehdipour, Teaching Artist
Emilie Kaelani, Community Arts Facilitator
Valentina Sierra, Program Manager, Residency
Chabrelle Williams, Community Arts Facilitator
Dr. Lily Kass, Scholar in Residence & Program Manager, Dress Rehearsal
Karim Boyd, Backstage Pass Consultant
Luke Jones, Intern, Project Career Launch
SCENE
Daniel Jin Applebaum
Courtney Beck
Gwyneth Muller
Aisha Wiley
FINANCE
RADAR Nonprofit Solutions
COUNSEL
Ballard Spahr, LLP, General Counsel
PUBLIC RELATIONS
Luzi Media
GRAPHIC DESIGN
Haeg Design
WELCOME FRIENDS!
Time in opera is a funny thing. Sometimes an hour passes in the blink of an eye, and sometimes you feel a single aria can transport you to eternity. As words are stretched over many pages of music, as dramatic entanglements are compressed from years to mere minutes, opera lends a kind of quantum malleability to the feeling of time, and in doing so, it functions as a waking dream.
Ever since I first encountered the music of composer Gregory Spears over 20 years ago, I was struck by his ability to suspend us in a liminal space that is full of emotion, just like a dream. Here, he plunges us in and out of reverie with master craftsmanship and the collective power of Opera Philadelphia’s blazing chorus, led by Elizabeth Braden.
Corrado Rovaris and his baton may show us that the music is built upon concrete beats, but he can wind the watch backwards and forwards with his imaginative musicality. As their partner in storytelling, director Jenny Koons brings a communal ritual to life as the driving force of this dreamscape which makes us question what reality we live in, and how we should spend our time there.
The theater is a space where, just like the sleepers, we want to lose track of time, and yet we emerge feeling that much more awake.
Anthony Roth Costanzo General Director & President
SYNOPSIS
PART ONE
The opera opens in a palace where courtiers, workers, and townspeople have been asleep for 100 years, surrounding a princess, Thorn Rose. The space feels both like a banquet hall and also like a tomb. A Stranger enters and kisses Thorn Rose. She awakens and complains, along with everyone else, that they have been rudely awakened from their carefree dreaming. They are unimpressed with the nearly silent Stranger, whom they find to be presumptuous. The Stranger begins to explain the story he’s heard about the cursed palace. The Court Poet interrupts him, so that the courtiers, workers, and townspeople might enact how they ended up asleep for a century.
They start by recalling Thorn Rose’s birth and her christening as a baby, during which the Godmothers bestow gifts of beauty and grace upon her. This celebration is interrupted by Carabosse, an outcast who was left off the invitation list, and who, in revenge, foretells that Thorn Rose will prick her finger on a spindle and die on her 16th birthday. Sixteen years later, Thorn Rose hears a whirring from the top of a tower and runs up the stairs to find a spinning wheel and spindle, on which she pricks her finger. All the courtiers run up to the turret to find her in a swoon. The Godmothers intervene and transform the curse. They inform everyone that instead of Thorn Rose dying, all the palace will fall asleep.
This retelling of the past, which began as a play-within-a-play pageant for The Stranger, has become in the reenactment indistinguishable from the actions of the present. Thus, at the end of the tale the whole palace falls asleep, forming the same tableau that began the opera.
One hundred years pass.
PART TWO
As at the beginning, The Stranger enters. He kisses Thorn Rose as if for the first time. She awakens, as do the courtiers, workers, and townspeople. As if meeting him for the first time, she asks him how he found his way to the palace, and why he has interrupted their dreaming. He responds this time with a philosophical aria concerning the mysterious relationship between dreaming and waking (“Isn’t reality itself a kind of dream?”). He then describes his quest for Thorn Rose (“I heard you were sleeping in a tower”), a journey he took up in response to his own aimlessness at his father’s court. He recounts how only he was able to reach the palace and wake everyone, while many other men died trying. Thorn Rose, inspired and disturbed to hear of the many adventurers who risked their lives and perished in search of the palace, responds with her own aria (“Poor souls”).
Thorn Rose remains disappointed that the humble and awkward Stranger is the one who has succeeded, and yet she decides to accept him as he is. The whole community rejoices in preparation for their wedding, a celebration that eventually leads to exhaustion. Everyone around the couple falls asleep, one by one. The Stranger and Thorn Rose struggle to stay awake, traveling along the edge of slumber, drifting between waking and dreaming. Then they fall asleep as well.
COMPOSER’S NOTE
by Gregory Spears
I have always felt opera characters share a quality with sleepwalkers, whose movements and speech are guided through the dreamlike world of the theater by invisible forces (the orchestra, a musical score). About halfway through Robert Walser’s dramolette “Sleeping Beauty”, a prince-like character asks whether the palace inhabitants he has just awakened aren’t in fact “Sleepwalkers, even in broad daylight?” Walser’s characters, even on the page, have a similar, uncanny operatic quality. This doubleness, as if there’s an inner logic to their motions and emotions, remains hidden from both the reader and the characters themselves as they meander through Walser’s enchanted world, half dreaming, half awake. Inspired by this same sensibility, the opera Sleepers Awake retells the familiar fairy tale of “Sleeping Beauty” in a way that further dissolves the border between sleeping and waking.
Sleepers Awake is also an exploration of the repetitive cycles of work and dreaming that structure our world. In the opera, a community awakens to face the drudgery of real life and drifts back asleep, only to awaken again. Are they in the same place or somewhere different? The opera centers this group (the chorus) as the main player in a story that unfolds musically in a series of tableau-like ensemble scenes. I created the libretto by adapting three Robert Walser texts (parts of the unusual 1920 dramolette “Dornröschen,” fragments from an article with the same title from 1919, and a fragment of one of his famous micro scripts from 1927) with Arthur Quiller-Couch’s early 20th-century rendering of the same fairytale. Verses adapted from the traditional 1599 hymn “Sleepers Awake” by Philipp Nicolai (translated by Frances Cox) were adapted and inset along the way. This process was guided by my close collaborator, director Jenny Koons, while Walser specialist Ron Sadan provided new translations and guidance on the selection of the Walser source material.
In Walser’s world, nothing is quite what it seems. Or rather, things often are two things at once: sleep can represent both ignorance and enlightenment; repetition can feel nightmarish or soothing. Our protagonist Thorn Rose — a rendering of Dornröschen, the Brothers Grimm’s name for “Sleeping Beauty” — is named in honor of such opposites existing side-by-side. Is this paradoxical world a puzzle to solve, a trap to escape, or simply a mystery to inhabit? The music — shot through with obsessive repetition, harmonic cycles, rhythmic labyrinths, and recurring motifs — asks similar questions. A counterpoint of musical styles, including evocations of the Medieval, the Baroque, the Classical, the 19th century, and the Minimalist, move forward and backward through time, accompanying the journey of our palace community — who at any moment might fall asleep for a century. These styles often combine
in unusual ways, where disparate musical traditions might synthesize for a moment. Throughout the piece, more literal sounds of time passing are evoked — clocks, watch gears, bells, alarms, and skipping record players. This layer of the music is trying to wake the audience up while another vein — full of yawning motifs and lullaby-esque repetitions — is trying to lull. Meanwhile, the choral part often fractures the text into a web of sound, as if an idea can become a sonic space that we inhabit. All this is done in an attempt to realize Walser’s philosophically layered, unsettling, enchanted, eerie, childlike, and fascinatingly cryptic world onstage and in time.
DIRECTOR'S NOTE
Just Another Kind of Dream by Jenny Koons
Gregory Spears and I were brought together — I like to say we were “matchmade” — because of a common excitement to 1) create something for a large group of people and 2) create something haunted. In a way, perhaps we arrived there in the end, but I suppose tonight you’ll decide.
In our first conversations, it became clear we shared common interests far beyond spooky collectives, and we were offered the opportunity to dream together to make a choral opera, blending Greg’s genius in writing communal sound and my deep obsession with the dynamics and power of a group.
We were both excited by mythical and heightened worlds, worlds where spells could be cast, where humans could fall asleep for 100 years and wake up again whole, and where strangers could walk into a community and change everyone’s trajectory. And we wanted a story that centered a community rather than a single protagonist. This desire led us very quickly to “Sleeping Beauty,” a story where the mistake of one, the King, results in a grave consequence for the entire community. But Walser’s retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” was curiously distinct. Rather than gratitude for The Stranger that breaks the spell, the town is annoyed to be awakened from their rest and inserted back into the drudgery and labor of their daily lives. Walser poked holes at the assumption that being awake is somehow better. Simultaneously,
ROBERT WALSER, 1899. PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL RENFER, BIEL.
he questioned whether our waking lives were perhaps just another form of dreaming, a different kind of sleep.
The language of Walser’s questioning — of being awake, of being asleep, of yearning for something to shake us from our slumber — felt so close to contemporary questions and discourse. The metaphor of being “woke,” the desire to crawl into bed to escape the chaos of the daily news, the yearning for something to “wake us up” from the repetitive, everyday trance we can find ourselves in. And yet, no matter how hard we try to stay awake, sleep is inevitable. Our bodies require it. Our sleep cycles follow the lunar cycles of the world we inhabit. How do we hold all things? A desire to escape the patterns that bind us. A desire to stay awake. And a desire for the comfort and nest of slumber.
In Sleepers Awake, we meet a community caught in a familiar cycle of waking and sleeping. Our hero, Thorn Rose, must decide whether she wants to step out of the cycle, or if it’s even possible. When The Stranger arrives to interrupt this loop, Thorn Rose has an opportunity to take a different path, a chance to discover a new trajectory. But can she stay awake? Can they keep each other awake? Does love offer us an opportunity to step beyond our familiar? Or is reality and the blurred line between waking and sleep just another kind of dream?
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
Let Sleepers Sleep by Ron Sadan
Robert Walser returned to the “Thorn Rose” (Sleeping Beauty) fairy tale three times, in 1916, 1919, and 1920, and each time he told a different story. The first is a rhapsodic prose poem; the second a wry counter reading; the third a dramatic scene that recasts them both. What begins as celebration turns, by degrees, to ambivalence, then irony. Translating all three, I found myself circling a question they raise but won’t settle: is waking worth it?
Sleepers Awake takes up that question. Its libretto draws on Walser’s 1920 text, with elements from his 1919 version, and inherits his habit of leaving the fairy tale unresolved. Five tensions run through the opera, each a different angle on that question.
Liberation vs. Intrusion
The Stranger’s kiss is both the fairy tale’s defining act of rescue and a violation. In 1916, waking is pure liberation: “A world was freed!” The court rises, and with it civilization. By 1919, the same act appears differently. Thorn Rose “was by no means badly off in her sleep. Now some clumsy oaf has to disturb her. How inappropriate! Did he not know that one should let sleepers sleep?” In the
opera, the whole court makes this complaint. Each voice recounts what sleep spared them: labor, obligation, effort. The kiss awakens everyone – and no one asked to be.
Fate vs. Timing
Why does the Stranger succeed where others fail? In the early version, the answer is simple. He is a prince, and the thorns yield to his “kingly will.” By 1919, he is no longer a prince, and his success becomes suspect. Through the narrator, Thorn Rose wonders whether the others came “at the wrong time, and he at the right one.” The difference is no longer merit, but timing. By 1920, the Stranger himself admits he is “almost embarrassed” to have succeeded. What looks like destiny begins to look like accident. He is not better. He is on time.
Dream vs. Reality
The 1916 text treats sleep as a problem and waking as its solution. Later versions dissolve that distinction. “Isn’t reality itself a kind of dream?” the Stranger asks. “Understanding arrives in fragments, never otherwise.” If waking is a dream, then what has changed?
Convention vs. Consent
Who decides that the story ends in marriage? In 1916, Thorn Rose “belonged” to the Stranger “as bride and wife,” and Walser’s narrator pauses only to praise the fairy tale for not making more of it. In 1919, a narrator speaks on her behalf: “how can a pretty young lady give her affection, even her hand, to the first fellow who happens along – without reservation?” By 1920, she speaks for herself. She accepts the Stranger, but without illusion. “I would have wished for the hero to be different… I must now simply take him as he is.” Does Thorn Rose settle or choose? The libretto leaves that open. The music may know.
Heroic Individual vs. Collective
The heroic act, if there is one, stands between two collectives: the fallen knights and the revived court. In 1916, the fallen knights serve as heroic backdrop. Their deaths make the Stranger’s success look earned. Later, they return as a problem. Thorn Rose lingers on them. She has just met this man, never knew the knights, and immediately vows to think of them “like breathing.” Is her elegy sincere? The text won’t say, and either way, the dead stay dead.
Does the second collective fare better? The rescue does not culminate in a hero. It disperses into a chorus – courtiers, townspeople, workers – who don’t simply frame the story but become it. Everyone pledges to “form a thriving company.” But does that hold? One by one, the chorus members drift back to sleep, as if waking were always merely borrowed time. The court goes to sleep, which may be the most natural thing it can do.
ARTISTS
Robin Bier (she/her)
Godmother
Alto | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Simon Boccanegra 2023
Recent: Alto soloist, Beethoven Missa Solemnis, Glacier Symphony and Chorale; Alto soloist, Handel’s Messiah, Choral Arts Philadelphia; Alto soloist, Vivaldi Amor, hai vinto, Valley Vivaldi
Next: Alto soloist, Bach BWV 99 Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan, Philadelphia Bach Collective
Elizabeth Braden (she/her)
Chorus Master
Easton, Pennsylvania
Il viaggio a Reims 2025 The Listeners 2024
Recent: Chorus Master, Il viaggio a Reims, Opera Philadelphia; Chorus Master, Don Giovanni, Opera Philadelphia; Director of Music, Old Pine Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia
Next: Conductor, Long Live the Queen, ArtPhilly’s What NOW: 2026 Festival
Susanne Burgess (she/her)
Thorn Rose
Soprano | Atlanta, Georgia
Opera Philadelphia debut
Recent: Four Heroines, Les contes d'Hoffmann, The Florentine Opera; Frasquita, Carmen, Metropolitan Opera; Norina, Don Pasquale, Opera Theatre of St. Louis
Next: Gilda, Rigoletto, Pittsburgh Opera
Amari Callaway (they/them)
Hair & Make-up Designer
Las Vegas, Nevada
10 Days in a Madhouse 2023
Recent: Wig Designer, Jelly's Last Jam, Bristol Riverside Theatre; Wig Designer, A Delicate Balance and Sherlock Holmes: The Great Detective, Walnut Street Theatre
Next: Wardrobe Supervisor, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Curtis Opera Theatre
Annalise Dzwonczyk (she/her)
Godmother
Mezzo-soprano | Avon Lake, Ohio
Opera Philadelphia debut
Recent: Soloist, Haydn’s Theresienmesse, West Shore Chorale; Cinderella, Cinderella Trilogy, Dayton Opera; Tisbe, La cenerentola, Dayton Opera
Jenny Koons (she/her)
Stage Director
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sleepers Awake
Opera Philadelphia debut
Recent: Director, Amazing Humans Doing Amazing Things with David Byrne, Town Hall; Director/Adaptor, The Importance of Being Earnest, Baltimore Center Stage; Director, Regretfully, So the Birds Are, Playwrights Horizons
Next: Director, Warriors
Yuki Link (she/her)
Lighting Designer
Kyoto, Japan
Complications in Sue 2026
Recent: Lighting Designer, Madame Butterfly, Lyric Opera of Chicago; Lighting Designer, Parsifal, San Francisco Opera; Lighting Designer, Così fan tutte, Detroit Opera
Next: Lighting Designer, Elizabeth Cree, Music Academy of the West
Brian Major (he/him)
Court Poet
Baritone | Neptune, New Jersey
Opera Philadelphia debut
Recent: Nabucco, Nabucco, Theatro Municipal de São Paulo; Captain Gardiner, Moby Dick, Metropolitan Opera; Amonasro, Aida, Boston Lyric Opera
Next: Baron Douphol, La traviata, Metropolitan Opera
Maiko Matsushima (she/her)
Costume Designer
Kobe, Japan
Opera Philadelphia debut
Recent: Costume Designer, Madame Butterfly, Lyric Opera of Chicago; Costume Designer, Caesar, Philadelphia Theater Company; Costume Designer, Franklin's Key, Pig Iron Theater Company
Next: Costume Design, Madame Butterfly, Washington National Opera
Maren Montalbano (she/her)
Godmother
Mezzo-soprano | Willingboro, New Jersey
Sky on Swings 2018
Recent: Chorus, Il viaggio a Reims, Opera Philadelphia; Soloist, Actus Tragicus, Philadelphia Bach Collective; Soloist, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Bucks County Choral Society
Next: Minerva, The Temple of Minerva, Tempesta di Mare
ARTISTS Sleepers Awake
Jonghyun Park (he/him)
The Stranger
Tenor | Seoul, South Korea
Opera Philadelphia debut
Recent: Sergeant, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Metropolitan Opera; Ferrando, Così fan tutte, Opera San José; Sailor’s voice, Tristan und Isolde, Metropolitan Opera
Next: Second Priest and First Armored Man, Die Zauberflöte, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence
Corrado Rovaris (he/him) Conductor
Bergamo, Italy
The Seasons 2025 Il viaggio a Reims 2025
Recent: Conductor, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Teatro de la Maestranza; Conductor, The Seasons, Opera Philadelphia; Conductor, Il barbiere di Siviglia, New National Theatre, Tokyo
Next: Conductor, Enrico di Borgogna, Teatro La Fenice
Sophia Santiago (she/her) Godmother
Soprano | Ellicott City, Maryland
Opera Philadelphia debut
Recent: Dede, A Quiet Place, Manhattan School of Music; Belinda, Dido and Aeneas, Mendelssohn Chorus; Soprano soloist in “To the Hands: Cutting Edge Art” with Vocal Arts Ensemble of Cincinnati
Jason Ardizzone West (he/him) Set Designer
Worcester, Massachusetts
Opera Philadelphia debut
Recent: Production Designer, Lady Gaga’s Mayhem Ball Tour; Set Designer, Redwood, Broadway; Set Designer, Jesus Christ Superstar, Hollywood Bowl
Next: Set Designer, Blood Love, Theater 555, New York City
COMPOSER
Gregory Spears
Praised for “astonishingly beautiful” music (The New York Times) and a “singular compositional voice, unlike any that has been heard in opera before” (The New Yorker), composer Gregory Spears is acclaimed for blending romanticism, minimalism, and early music influences into works celebrated for their melodic richness and emotional clarity.
The 2025-2026 season brings the world premieres of Spears’ newest opera, Sleepers Awake (Opera Philadelphia), as well as Secrets (The Frick Collection) and Bartleby (Tucson Desert Song Festival). His best-known opera, Fellow Travelers (libretto by Greg Pierce), marks its 10th anniversary in 2026 with the launch of a national, multi-year tour.
Spears’ music has been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Seraphic Fire, The Crossing, Bang on a Can, and JACK Quartet, among many others. Spears’ opera The Righteous (libretto by Tracy K. Smith) premiered at Santa Fe Opera in 2024, earning a “Critic’s Pick” in The New York Times. Earlier collaborations with Smith include Castor and Patience (2022, Cincinnati Opera) and Love Story, commissioned and premiered by the New York Philharmonic. His first opera, Paul’s Case (written with librettist Kathryn Walat), was called “a masterpiece” by The New York Observer. Beyond opera, Spears has developed a wide-ranging catalog of orchestral, choral, and chamber works. His Requiem (2010) and Seven Days (2021) showcase his gift for balancing intimacy with dramatic scale.
A graduate of Eastman, Yale, and Princeton, and a former Fulbright Scholar, Spears teaches at New York University, and his music is published by Schott Music and Schott PSNY. Learn more at gregoryspears.com.
PHOTO BY DARIO ACOSTA
ORCHESTRA
VIOLIN I
Max Tan, concertmaster
Natasha Colkett, assistant concertmaster
Donna Grantham
Meichen Liao-Barnes
Elizabeth Kaderabek
Maria Im
Yoori Kim Williams
Emily Barkakati
Gared Crawford
Lisa Vaupel
Mary Loftus
VIOLIN II
Tess Varley, principal
Luigi Mazzocchi
Paul Reiser
Karen Banos
Sarah DuBois
Heather Zimmerman Messé
Natalie DaSilva
Yu-Hui Tamae Lee
Kei Fukuda
VIOLA
Jonathan Kim, principal
Jay Julio, assistant principal
Yoshihiko Nakano
Elizabeth Jaffe
Ellen Trainer
Julia DiGaetani
Steven Heitlinger
CELLO
Branson Yeast, principal
Vivian Barton Dozor, assistant principal
David Moulton
Brooke Beazley
Elizabeth Thompson
Benjamin Hildner
BASS
Anne Peterson, principal
Stephen Groat
Tim Ressler
Elan Simon
BASSOON
Emeline Chong, principal
HORN
John David Smith, principal
Lisa Dunham
THEORBO
Kevin Payne, principal
KEYBOARD
Michael Lewis, principal
HARP
Ruth Bennett, principal
Maryanne Meyer
PERCUSSION
Ralph Sorrentino, principal
Brad Loudis
CHORUS
SOPRANO
Veronica Chapman-Smith
Natalie Esler
Noël Graves-Williams
Julie-Ann Green
Valerie Haber
Jessica Moreno
Jorie Moss
Jessica Mary Murphy
Christine Nass
Megan Nielson
Amanda O’Toole
Aimee Pilgermayer
Sophia Santiago
Evelyn Santiago Schulz
Amy Spencer ALTO
Tanisha L. Anderson
Jennifer Beattie
Robin Bier
Allison Deady
Annalise Dzwonczyk
Joanna Gates
Megan McFadden
Meghan McGinty
Maren Montalbano
Natasha Nelson
Ellen Grace Peters
Sam Rauch
Paula Rivera
Rebecca Roy
Kaitlyn Tierney
TENOR
Matteo Adams
Gabriel Anthony-Muhammad
Nathaniel Bear
Matthew Coules
Stephen Dagrosa
Gabriel Feldt
Steven Humes
Christian Johnson
A. Edward Maddison
Toffer Mihalka
Andrew Skitko
Evan L. Snyder
Daniel Taylor
Cory O’Niell Walker
Steve Williamson
BASS
Kyle Chastulik
Lucas DeJesus
Dicky Dutton
Matthew Fisher
Loren Greer
James Osby Gwathney, Jr.
Matthew Maisano
Brenton Mattox-Scott
John David Miles
Michael Miller
Frank Mitchell
Daniel Neer
Nicholas Provenzale
Josef Samargia
John T. K. Scherch
The Individuals of the Collective
by Elizabeth Braden, Director of Music & Chorus
The chorus has been an important part of opera since its inception hundreds of years ago, and an integral part of storytelling for even longer than that. So many famous opera scenes involve the chorus: the bustling crowd on Christmas Eve at Café Momus in La bohème; the excited spectators at the bullfight in Carmen; the community watching the prince answer the three riddles in Turandot; and of course, the throngs of people singing the “Triumphal March” in Aida. Sometimes, the chorus helps tell the story, sometimes they comment on what’s happening, sometimes they reflect the emotion of the stage. But even when they have a huge part to play, they are always there to support the main characters, the principal singers starring in the show.
Well, almost always. In Gregory Spears’ new opera Sleepers Awake, the script is literally flipped upside down. The chorus is the protagonist of the opera — they lead the narrative, they communicate the emotions of the story, they take center stage. For the choristers, this is an exciting opportunity, especially onstage at the Academy of Music.
The Opera Philadelphia Chorus is made up of a wonderfully eclectic group of singing artists. We have singers who have been part of the chorus for more than 25 years, and singers who will be making their debut with the chorus in this show. Some of the singers live the gig life: they sing in the Opera chorus, in church choir, in other professional choruses, as well as doing some solo singing. Others work in non-singing fields; we have college professors, public school teachers, travel agents, and baristas. But everyone, whether veteran or new, is a member of this chorus because they love to sing, and they love to be on stage sharing music and telling stories to the world.
Being in a chorus is a unique experience. It requires both individual and collective excellence. Each singer needs to focus on their individual vocal contributions while remaining constantly aware of all the other voices in the ensemble. This is especially true in this opera, where Spears has written intricate and beautiful choral music — music that challenges the singers, but creates an exciting new sonic world: a choral opera.
THE OPERA PHILADELPHIA CHORUS PERFORMS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF THE WAKE WORLD, 2017.
ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION STAFF
Assistant Director .......................................................................................... Edward Sturm
Assistant Stage Managers ........................................ Brianna Thompson, Lillian Welsh
Principal Pianist ............................................................................................. Grant Loehnig
Associate Pianist ............................................................................................ Michael Lewis
English Diction Coach ........................................................................................ Lynn Baker
Properties Supervisor ................................. Avista Custom Theatrical Services, LLC
Assistant Lighting Designer ........................................................................... Kaia Merrell*
Supertitle Author & Operator ........................................................................ Tony Solitro
Audio Description ....................................................................................... Nicole Sardella
Head Electrican ....................................................................................... John Allerheiligen
Head Properties ..................................................................................... Samantha Higgins
Head Flyman ................................................................................................. James Murphy
Assistant Electrician .................................................................................... Heather Pynne
Associate Costume Director ........................................................................ Becca Austin
Wardrobe Supervisor ........................................................................................ Elisa Hurley
Draper/Tailors: Althea Unrath, Kara Morasco, Sarah Mitchell, Julie Watson
First Hands/Stitcher: Patrick Mulhall, Joy Rampulla, Morgan Porter, Catherine Blinn
Cover Singers: Olivia Prendergast (Thorn Rose); Fran Daniel Laucerica (The Stranger); Søren Pedersen (The Court Poet); Jessica Moreno, Jorie Moss, Jennifer Beattie, Joanna Gates (Godmothers)
*Opera Philadelphia debut
Opera Philadelphia thanks the following labor organizations whose members, artists, craftsmen, and craftswomen greatly contribute to our performances:
Opera Philadelphia Orchestra Musicians are proud members of the American Federation of Musicians, Local 77.
American Guild of Musical Artists / The American Guild of Musical Artists, the union of professional singers, dancers, and production personnel in opera, ballet, and concert, affiliated with the AFL-CIO, represents the Artists and Staging Staff for all purposes of collective bargaining.
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees / Local 8
Theatrical Wardrobe Union / Local 799, I.A.T.S.E.
United Scenic Artists / Local 829, I.A.T.S.E.
Box Office and Front of House Employees Union / Local B29, I.A.T.S.E.
Highway Truck Drivers and Helpers / Local 107, Teamsters
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
OFFICERS
Charles C. Freyer | Chair
Anthony Roth Costanzo*| President
Barbara Augusta Teichert | Vice Chair
Alexander M. Hankin | Secretary
David Low | Treasurer
Stephen K. Klasko | Immediate Past Chair
MEMBERS
Ira Brind
Lawrence Brownlee
William Dunbar
David Ferguson
Charles C. Freyer
Deena Gu Laties
Alexander M. Hankin
Benjamin Hildner
Peter Leone
Helen Little
David Low
Sarah Marshall
Agnes Mulroney
Katherine L. Niven
Nabila Sajid
Nancy Sanders
Carolyn Horn Seidle
Ellen Steiner
Barbara Augusta Teichert
Lisa Washington
Kathleen Weir
Yueyi (Kelly) Zhou
HONORARY MEMBERS
Dennis Alter
H.F. (Gerry) Lenfest†
Stephen A. Madva, Esq., Chairman Emeritus
Alan B. Miller
Alice W. Strine, Esq.
Charlotte Watts
ADVISORY BOARD
Betsy Z. Cohen
Renée Fleming
John Hunter
Henry Timms
THANK YOU
Opera Philadelphia expresses our deepest gratitude to the individuals and institutions whose support of the Annual Fund allows us to bring you Sleepers
Awake. List current as of March 9, 2026.
LEADERSHIP CIRCLE
Wyncote Foundation at the Recommendation of Frederick R. Haas
Barbara and Amos Hostetter
E.A. Michelson Philanthropy
Carolyn Horn Seidle
Barbara Augusta Teichert
Ira Brind and Stacey Spector
Wyncote Foundation at the Recommendation of David Haas
Judy and Peter Leone
The Estate of Bud and Betty Shapiro
Jean and Gene Stark
Bloomberg Philanthropies
Cohen & Company
Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel, Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation
Sarah and Brad Marshall
CHAIRMAN’S COUNCIL
Anonymous
Ellen Steiner
Lorraine Alexander†
Willo Carey and Peter A. Benoliel†
Ms. Deena Gu Laties, in honor of Willo Carey
Hamilton Family Charitable Trust
Christian Humann Foundation
Independence Foundation
Donald and Gay Kimelman
The Presser Foundation
Dr. Renée Rollin
The Tang Fund
Paul M. Angell Family Foundation
Bells Grocery Store
Katherine and Andrew Christiano
Ms. Lisa D. Kabnick and Mr. John H. McFadden
Mrs. John P. Mulroney
The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage
The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation
The William Penn Foundation
Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation
The Buck Family Foundation
TF Cornerstone
Mr. Jeffrey P. Cunard and Ms. Mariko Ikehara
Judith Durkin Freyer and Charles C. Freyer
Paul L. King
David Low
Nancy and Barry Sanders
Katie Adams Schaeffer and Tony Schaeffer
Edith Carol Stein
Comcast NBC Universal
Cunningham Piano Company
Eugene Garfield Foundation
Four Seasons Hotel Philadelphia
Friends of Education
Linda and David Glickstein
Mark and Helene Hankin Family
Katherine and John Karamatsoukas
Mrs. Sheila Kessler
Joel and Sharon Koppelman
The H.F. Lenfest Fund
Mr. and Mrs. William E. Little Jr.
Andrew J. Martin-Weber
Constance C. Moore†
National Endowment for the Arts
Steven Pesner
Michael L. Spolan
Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Wechsler
Platinum Patron
William A. Barone and Sylvia K. Lanka-Barone
Myron and Sheila S. Bassman
Lawrence Brownlee
Peggy and Mark Curchack
Allen R. and Judy Brick Freedman Venture Fund for New Opera
Hauser & Wirth
Feather O. Houstoun
Jeanette Lerman-Neubauer and Joe Neubauer
PECO
Dr. Joel and Mrs. Roberta Porter
David and Susan Rattner
Ashley and Eli Wald
Lisa Washington
Ms. Leslie Whipkey
Mrs. Kelly Zhou and Dr. Brett Frankel
Diamond Patron
Aaron Copland Fund for Music Anonymous
Chubb Limited
Carol S. Eicher
Dr. Garrett FitzGerald
Bonnie and Lon Greenberg
Alan Levin
Ms. Jacqueline B. Mars
The McLean Contributionship
Tom and Jody O'Rourke
Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
Bill Robling and Deborah R. Kravetz
Drs. Richard and Rhonda Soricelli
Mrs. Keith R. Straw
Alice and Walter Strine, Esqs.
Barbara Tober
Universal Health Services
Kathleen and Nicholas Weir
Ann Ziff
Gold Patron
Mr. James P. Macelderry† and Ms. Marilyn S. Fishman
The Leone Family
William S. Mulherin and Joseph Baker
Silver Patron Anonymous
Truist
Ms. Sarah Billinghurst Solomon
Robert and Julie Jensen Bryan
George S Day, Ph.D. and Alice Donavin Day
Kay Deaux
Dr. Bruce Eisenstein in memory of Dr. Toby Eisenstein
Dorothea Endicott
Deborah Glass, in memory of Leonard Mellman
Joan and William Goldstein
Gray Charitable Trust
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
Mr. and Mrs. Jim Groch
Michelle Harde
Ms. Rhoda K. Herrold
Benjamin Hildner
Howell Lockhart Seiple Trust
Mr. Kenneth Klothen and Ms. Eve Biskind
KPK Development Co.
Anne Silvers Lee and Wynn Lee
So-Chung Shinn and Tony W. Lee
In memory of Joseph G. Leone
Carol and Howard Lidz
Liddy Lindsay
Dr. and Mrs. Michael B. Love
Dwight and Christina McCawley
Susan and Graham McDonald
Mrs. Naomi Montgomery†
Ms. Katherine L. Niven
OPERA America
Colleen and Sean O'Riordan
The Dean and Zoe Pappas Family Foundation
Stuart A. Schwartz and Sheila Jamison-Schwartz
Andrew Gelber and Don Schwarz
Dr. Barry R. Shatzman
Esther Spear
Mr. Jonathan H. Sprogell and Ms. Kathryn Taylor
Mr. Andrew Szabo and Ms. Susan M. Long
Mrs. Monica Taylor Lotty and Mr. Brendan Lotty
The Philadelphia Contributionship
Ms. Marta Barbeosch Varela
Judith W Whellan
Ms. Linda Wingate and Dr. William Liberi
Bronze+ Patron
Thomas S. Heckman and Mary Jo Ashenfelter
Jim & Maddy Carlson
Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation
Mr. and Ms. Robert S. Duplessis
Dr. Frank F. Furstenberg
Barbara Glauber
Mrs. Louise H. Reed
Dr. R.J. Wallner
Bronze Patron
Steven C. Abbott and James Stephens
Lydia Alvarez, in memory of Isabelle Ferguson
Anonymous (3)
Apgar-Black Foundation
Ms. Susan Asplundh
Cynthia and George Balchunas
Eugene and Virginia Beier
Mrs. Joanne Berwind
Carrie and J. Bradley Boericke
Nancy Brodie
Elaine Woo Camarda and A. Morris Williams, Jr.
Georgette Ciukurescu
James Cohen, PE
Mr. Stephen Cohen and Mr. John McNett
Dolfinger-McMahon Foundation
Mr. and Mrs. Carl Flaxman
Eduardo Glandt and George Ritchie
Ms. Juliet J. Goodfriend and Dr. Marc R. Moreau
Drs. Christina L. and Richard J. Herring
Brad M. Hoppenfeld M.D.
Jeffrey R. Jowett
Matthew Ligman
Ninja Transfers LLC
Dr. and Mrs. A. H. Nishikawa
Rush Order Tees
David Craig and Jackie Renner
Joyce Seewald Sando
Mr. and Mrs. Curtis E. Sawyer
Ms. Jan Shaeffer and Mr. Dennis Bianchi
Kobie Smith
Nancy and Joel Streim
The Rev. Richard L. Ullman
Laurie Wagman
Carol Westfall
Dr. Leah Whipple
Janet Yaseen Foundation
Ms. Ana-Maria V. Zaugg and Mr. David W. Anstice
Mr. Robert Zimet
DONOR CIRCLE
Partner
Anonymous (2)
Judy S. Allison
Marcia and Larry Arem
Mr. Fred Allen Barfoot
Karen Bedrosian-Richardson
Drs. Deidre and Michael Blank
Dr. Regina Blaszczyk & Lee O’Neill
Rita B. Bocher Ph.D.
Dr. Harmar Brereton and Mrs. Leslie W. Brereton
Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Foundation
Ms. Julie Cohen and Mr. Nigel Blower
Robert and Florence Dolceamore
Vivian Barton Dozor
Ms. Thérèse M. Esperdy
James R. Fairburn
Evan Fenaroli & Darren White
Lorraine Gallard and Richard H. Levy
Jim and Kay Gately
Jane W. Goldblum
Ms. Sandra E. Goodstein
Mr. George Graham and Mr. Kyle Merker
Thomas and Debra Lew Harder
Ms. Susan Henry
Mr. Daniel Holmes
Elbrun and Peter Kimmelman
Beste Kuru
Laura LaRosa
Mr. and Mrs. David Levy
Fran Levy and Leon L. Levy
Elizabeth Burns Mahoney
Mr. John Mastrobattista and Ms. Madeline Leone
Drs. Joseph and Jane McGowan
Mr. Thomas Miller
Dr. Judy Catherine Miner
Mr. Benjamin F. Minick
Steven Z. Mitchell
Abigail & Mark Nestlehutt
Ms. Jane G. Pepper
Helen E. Pettit
Anne Faulkner Schoemaker
Estate of Robert Schoenberg
Mr. and Mrs. Henry G. Scott
George R. Smith
Janet Wilson Smith
Steven A Gold Charitable Educational Institutions Trust
Mr. Daniel Szyld and Ms.
Kathleen Ross
Ms. Judith Tannenbaum
Jadwiga Villa
Arnold Weiss
Kenneth and Susan Weiss
Reverend Margaret A. Wellert
Peter J. Wender
Barbara Eberlein and Jerry Wind
Sustainer
Anonymous (2)
George Ahern
Jenna and Abraham Axler
Sandra Baldino
Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Broadt
Tim Broadt
Mr. Leo M. Carey and Ms. Sonya D. Mouzon
Dr. and Mrs. Nicholas P. Cernansky
Frank Tobin & Ilene Chester
Jonathan Conant
Paula Cook
Mark Cornish
Judith-Ann Corrente
Ms. Micaela de Lignerolles
Mr. Paul Desanctis
Mr. John Driscoll
Mr. Scott Dyer
Mr. and Mrs. Norman S. Ellman
John H. Erickson and Harry I. Zaleznik
David L. Eskin
Barry Fisch
Ryan Fleur and Laura Banchero
Linda Dubin Garfield
Michael Gealt Ph.D.
Jane Ginsburg and George Spera
Marsha Lynn Gordon and Javier Garcia
Leila Christine Grad, M.D.
F. John Hagele
David and Ann Harrison, Esqs.
Mr. and Mrs. Philip Hauser
Mr. Charles Head, Jr. and Mr. John Faggotti, In Memory of John Ventura
Clark Hooper Baruch
Lee M. Huber
Richard and Judith Hurtig
Mr. Wallace Hussong
Brian Hylton
Judith Insell
Dr. and Mrs. William Jantsch
Richard and Grace Karschner
Ms. Carol Sue Klein
Jo Ann Klein
Amanda Kunze
Charles B. Landreth
Laura A. Lane and David R. DeVoe
William Lake Leonard, Esq.
Drs. Jerry D. and Julie Meranze Levitt
Mr. Jeffrey Lienert
Dr. Thomas S. Lin
Lawrence and Nancy Ludgus
Ms. Maria Maccecchini
Cirel and Howard Magen
Paul J. Martin
John McGinley
Jon McMillan
Mr. George H. McNeely
Mr. Robert J. McShea, Jr. and Mr. Bill Ward
Carol and Tom Miller
Moscow Philanthrpoic Fund
Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Munson
Rochelle L Ostroff-Weinberg
Andrew Paciocco
Mr. Stephen Perry
Cheryl Gunter and Paul Rabe
Paul Reid
Laurie A Rofini
Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Rohde
Dr. Pamela Rootenberg and Dr. David T. Springer
Ms. Elise Michelle Rosen
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel R. Ross
Ms. Lesley Seitchik
Susan Shaman
Barbara and George Smith
Mr. and Mrs. Corey R. Smith
Susan Solomon
Mary M Sproat
Termini Bros. Bakery
Mrs. Sallie Van Merkensteijn
Mrs. Peggy Wachs
Clint Walker
Ms. Geraldine Wang
Dr. Steven and Janet Weinberger
Stephen Zeller
CORPORATE GIVING SOCIETY
The Corporate Giving Society generously supports Opera Philadelphia’s artistic and educational programming through contributions and in-kind donations.
CORPORATE PARTNERS
Ballard Spahr LLP
Termini Brothers Bakery
Steve Voudouris
For more information about sponsorship opportunities and EITC contributions, or to join Opera Philadelphia’s Corporate Giving Society, contact Greg Robertson, Interim Chief Philanthropy Officer, at robertson@operaphila.org.
Help students explore the magic of opera!
Businesses that support Opera Philadelphia may be eligible for Pennsylvania’s Education Improvement Tax Credit Program (EITC). Help students explore the magic of opera AND earn tax credits! Learn more at operaphila.org/eitc
Official Piano Service Provider
Official Piano
LEGATO SOCIETY
If you love the special magic of an Opera Philadelphia experience, consider including the Opera in your estate plans. In doing so, you will join a community of supporters that help to ensure great operatic memories for generations to come. When you bequeath a gift of cash or stock, or make the Opera the beneficiary of your IRA or life insurance policy, you make a truly meaningful gift that costs nothing now, yet benefits the company later.
Making a legacy gift admits you into the Legato Society, which brings you closer to the art you love and connects you to others who share your legacy goals. We are proud to salute our Legato Society members in all Opera Philadelphia performance programs.
To learn more about making a planned gift or about the Legato Society, visit operaphila.org/legato, or contact Greg Robertson, Interim Chief Philanthropy Officer, at robertson@operaphila.org.
Anonymous (12)
Lorraine† and Ben† Alexander
Eleanor M. Allen†
Mary Jo Ashenfelter and Thomas S. Heckman
Eileen Baird†
Drs. Frederic Joshua Barnett† and Heidi Kolberg
Mr. Kenneth H. Barr
Myron and Sheila S. Bassman
Mr.† and Mrs. Robert Bergen
Ms. Jane A. Berryman
Dr. Claire Boasi
Dr. Rita B. Bocher
Mr. Michael Bolton
Mrs. Sheila Buckley
Constance G. Burton†
Ms. Willo Carey
Dr. and Mrs. Peter Cassalia†
Dr. Thomas A. Childers and Dr. John B. Hall
Dr. Maria Elisa Ciavarelli†
Miss Lucy Clemens
Joan and Frederick Cohen
Dianne and Don Cooney
Mr.† and Mrs. Arthur Covello
Ms. Ginny L. Coyle
Mr. W. Kenneth Cressman and Mr. Lloyd Christy†
Ms. Joan DeJean†
Ms. Virginia Del Sordo†
Robert and Monica Driver
Mrs. Antoinette DuBiel†
Dr. Bruce Eisenstein
Eddie and Rachel Eitches
Mr. James Fairburn
Mr. and Mrs.† Joseph P. Fanelli, Jr.
Ms. Joanne D. Fidler†
Susan and Bill Firestone
Aron and Joan Fisher
Ms. Harriet Forman†
Judith Durkin Freyer and Charles C. Freyer
Mr. Timothy V. Gardocki
Linda Dubin Garfield
Sylvia Green†
Dr. Mark H. Haller†
Mrs. Dorrance H. Hamilton†
Gail Hauptfuhrer
Mr. Charles Head, Jr. and Mr. John Faggotti
Stephen T. Janick
Karl Janowitz
Jeffrey R. Jowett
Mrs. Sheila Kessler
Gabrielle & Ernest Kimmel
Mr. Michael Knight
Dr. Beverly Lange
Mr. Tom Laporta
Gabriele Lee†
Anne Silvers Lee and Wynn Lee
John T. Lehman
Marguerite and Gerry† Lenfest
Mrs. Renee T. Levin†
Karen† and Michael Lewis
Carol and Howard Lidz
Mr. William A. Loeb†
Sonja E. Lopatynskyj†
Mr. Larry Thomas Mahoney
Dwight and Christina McCawley
Drs. Joseph and Jane McGowan
Eugene C. Menegon†
Mrs. Lois Meyers
Mrs. Ellen Cole Miller†
Mr. Siddhartha Misra
Mrs. Naomi Montgomery†
Constance C. Moore
Mgsr. Felix M. O'Neill†
Helen E. Pettit
Mr. William Reily†
David Rhody
Dr. Scott F. Richard
Mr. Laurence T. Robbins†
Dr. Renée Rollin
Jeffrey and Kendell Saunders
Robert Schoenberg†
Carolyn Horn Seidle
Mr. Jonathan Sprogell and Ms. Kathryn Taylor
Mr. and Mrs. Morton F. Steelman†
Mrs. Alise (Lee) Steinberg†
Ellen Steiner
Mr. Kenneth R. Swimm
Mr. Andrew J. Szabo
Mr. Victor Tees
Mr. Michael Toklish†
Christina M. Valente, Esq.
Charlotte Watts
Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Wechsler
Esther C. Weil†
George P. White†
Drs. Anne and Jim† Williamson
Richard and Kelley Wolfington
Ms. Karen A. Zurlo Ph. D.
50TH ANNIVERSARY GALA SPONSORS
Thank you to the following generous supporters of Vox Ex Machina, Opera Philadelphia’s 50th Anniversary Gala.
PRESENTING SPONSOR
George Condo and Hauser & Wirth
LEAD SPONSORS
Sarah and Brad Marshall
PLATINUM SPONSORS
Elaine Woo Camarda and A. Morris Williams, Jr.
Betsy and Ed Cohen
Judith Durkin Freyer and Charles C. Freyer
Judy and Peter Leone
GOLD SPONSORS
Mrs. Sandra K. Baldino
Ballard Spahr LLP
Sylvia Lanka-Barone and William Barone
Ira Brind and Stacey Spector
Laura Drake
David Haas and Lisa Clark
Ms. Lisa D. Kabnick and Mr. John H. McFadden
Mr. Brian D. Pedrow
Nancy and Barry Sanders
Katie and Tony Schaeffer
Carolyn Horn Seidle
Mr. and Mrs. William A. Slaughter, Esq.
SILVER SPONSORS
David Low
Mrs. Jacqueline B. Mars
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Lisa Washington
Ms. Leslie Whipkey
BRONZE SPONSORS
Anonymous
Maddy & Jim Carlson
Mr. Jeffrey P. Cunard and Ms. Mariko Ikehara
Barbara Eberlein and Jerry Wind
Ms. Deena Gu Laties
Mrs. Sheila Kessler
Ro and Martin King
Dr. Joel & Mrs. Roberta Porter
Ellen Steiner
Susan M. Long and Andrew J. Szabo
Robert Taglieri and Timothy Moir
Kathy and Nick Weir
BENEFACTORS
Courtney Beck and Jonathan Harris
Frank and Nancy Bissinger
James and Alyse Bodine
Willo Carey
Dr. Thomas A. Childers and Dr. John B. Hall
Tobey and Mark Dichter
Robert B. Driver
Helen Drutt
Ms. Teresa Fink and Mr. Stephen Varenhorst
Amy Finkelstein
Anne Gottleib
Dr. Allan Greenspan
Independence Foundation
Drs. Jason Karlawish and John Bruza
Dr. Alan F. Karr
Jon McMillan
Irene R. Miller
Ms. Katherine L. Niven
Ms. Marta Nottebohm
Helen E. Pettit
Eileen Rosenau
Katherine Sachs
Ronald Schafer
Jessica Stow
Barbara Augusta Teichert
Ms. Kristine Terrado
Barbara A. Walkowski
Dr. R. J. Wallner
Elizabeth B. Warshawer
Mrs. Kelly Zhou and Dr. Brett Frankel
Photo: Sofia Negron
OPERA
PHILADELPHIA'S FIRST MAJOR CAMPAIGN: OPERA, BUT DIFFERENT
WHEN INNOVATION MEETS INTENTION
In celebration of Opera Philadelphia’s 50th Anniversary, the company has embarked on its first-ever major campaign, Opera, but Different, marking a defining moment of visionary transformation. With an initial goal of $33 million, this ambitious, three-year comprehensive effort strengthens our artistic and financial foundation, ensuring continued innovation, responsiveness to audiences, and long-term financial sustainability.
THE CAMPAIGN CENTERS ON FOUR FOUNDATIONAL PILLARS THAT BALANCE AMBITION AND RESILIENCE
Radical creation and artistic excellence – Investing in bold new works and reimagined classics, making opera accessible both inside and beyond the hall
Opera as a civic right – breaking down barriers to participation
Daring leadership – embracing risk to resonate with audiences in today’s cultural landscape
Financial resilience – building meaningful financial reserves to support long-term viability
To date, we have secured $21 million, reflecting extraordinary early momentum toward our goal. These gifts encompass commitments to both the Campaign and the Annual Fund, demonstrating a shared belief that opera can — and must — be a living, evolving art form.
Photo: Steven Pisano
WITH
GRATITUDE TO SUPPORTERS OF OPERA PHILADELPHIA'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY
CAMPAIGN
We are profoundly grateful to the following early Leadership Supporters, whose generosity of $25,000 and above is advancing Opera Philadelphia’s vision for a vibrant, thriving future. Gifts below represent three-year commitments encompassing both Annual and Campaign support.
LUMINARY CIRCLE
$1,000,000+
The Wyncote Foundation at the Recommendation of Frederick R. Haas
Barbara and Amos Hostetter
E. A. Michelson Philanthropy
Carolyn Horn Seidle
Barbara Augusta Teichert
CRESCENDO CIRCLE
$500,000–$999,999
Ira Brind and Stacey Spector
Judy and Peter Leone
The Estate of Bud and Betty Shapiro
VANGUARD CIRCLE
$250,000–$499,999
Cohen & Company
Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel Diamonstein-Spielvogel Foundation
Donald and Gay Kimelman
Mrs. Agnes Mulroney
INNOVATOR CIRCLE
$100,000–$249,999
Katie Adams Schaeffer and Tony Schaeffer
Bloomberg Philanthropies
The Buck Family Foundation
Judith Durkin Freyer and Charles C. Freyer
Mr. Jeffrey P. Cunard and Ms. Mariko Ikehara
Paul L. King
David Low
Sarah and Brad Marshall
Nancy and Barry Sanders
Edith Carol Stein
Ellen Steiner
TF Cornerstone
SUSTAINER CIRCLE
$50,000–$99,999
Ms. Dominique Laffont
Steven Pesner
The Tang Fund
Lisa Washington
COLLABORATOR CIRCLE
$25,000–$49,999
Betsy Cohen
Ms. Deena Gu Laties
Helen Little
Annual support is also recognized separately under Annual Fund recognition.
For more information about the Opera, but Different campaign or to explore ways to make your own impact, please contact Greg Robertson, Interim Chief Philanthropy Officer, at robertson@operaphila.org.
Up Next
The Black Clown
Philadelphia Premiere
May 14–17, 2026
Miller Theater
Creator and opera revolutionary Davóne Tines fuses gospel, opera, jazz, and spirituals to bring a Langston Hughes’ poem to life in a searing night of theatrical brilliance. The Black Clown embodies the evolving, divided soul of Black America and animates a Black man’s resilience against a legacy of oppression.
The Black Clown has been hailed as “pure poetry” by The Boston Globe, and The New York Times lauds “this rich, seamless production” which “melds the past and present of African American history into an electrifying ambivalent whole.”
Tines makes his Opera Philadelphia debut alongside an ensemble of 12 performers in this genre-bending, visually arresting piece, juxtaposing dazzling cathartic performances with Hughes’ enduring work.
All tickets are Pick Your Price, starting at $11 | operaphila.org
