Fairy Tales & Fables Program

a children's story about magical and imaginary beings and lands

noun

a short tale to teach a moral lesson, often with animals or inanimate objects as characters

We are pleased to have you here at our Spring Benefit Concert! This year, we are supporting Make-A-Wish® Mid-Atlantic, an organization fulfilling life-changing wishes for children with critical illnesses.

For children diagnosed with critical illnesses, a wish come true can be a crucial turning point in their lives. A wish can be that spark that helps these children believe that anything is possible and gives them the strength to fight harder against their illnesses. Let’s help Make-A-Wish® Mid-Atlantic make every one of these wishes come true!

If this is your first Sopranessence experience, you’re in for a treat! Our performances are made to break the stereotype of classical music being stuffy and distant. One of the fun ways we do this is by unconventionally taking melodies, typically sung by one voice, and trading off musical lines like runners in a relay race. Or maybe we’ll “mash” together a classical art song with a pop tune and see what new story evolves. It’s all in having fun with music and bringing you, our audience, along for the ride!

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Fairy ales & Fables – Act

Into the Woods (Prologue) Into the Woods

Candy Scene Hansel & Gretel

A Whole New World Walt Disney’s Aladdin

Stephen Sondheim

Englebert Humperdinck

Alan Menken & Tim Rice

Tornami a vagghegiar (Italian) Alcina G. F. Händel

Emily Davis

Return to gaze upon me adoringly – this faithful soul wants to love you only, my dear one. I have already given you my heart, my love will be faithful, I will never be cruel to you, my dear betrothed.

Veillons, mes soeurs (French) Zémire et Azor

André Grétry

Sisters, let’s watch again as the night flies before dawn. The prosperous day, when our father returns, is almost here. ‘He promised me the most beautiful lace, the most beautiful ribbons!’ ‘He promised me a rose: the flower that I cherish.’ ‘A rose?! Such an insignificant thing!’ ‘From his hand, it is priceless!’

Shy Once Upon a Mattress

Maggie Ramsey

The Ugly Duckling The Motion Picture

Mary Rodgers & Marshall Barer

Hans Christian Andersen

Tout Repose (French) La belle au bois dormant

Bharati Soman

Frank Loesser

Charles Silver

Everything rests. The night descends, and the stars caress the sleeping earth with light. I, with my sad, frozen heart, in this abandoned garden, have only the night for a friend. Everything speaks to my soul in the evening, when I come here alone to sit under the tall, sleeping trees. The flowers console me, and I listen to them, dreaming. The souls of things awaken their voices to lull my boredom.

Fable Reading: The Goose and the Golden Egg

I Want it Now

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Vilia The Merry Widow

Adrienne Neal

Makayla Freeman

Leslie Bricusse & Anthony Newley

Franz Lehar

Fairy ales & Fables – Act (continued)

Wish Medley Walt Disney’s Pinocchio, Snow White & Cinderella Leigh Harline & Ned (When You Wish Upon a Star • I’m Wishing • Washington; Frank Churchill & Larry Morey; A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes) Mack David, Al Hoffman, and Jerry Livingston

Speaker: Make-A-Wish® Mid-Atlantic Kaylan King

Fairy ales & Fables – Act

Opening Chorus & Ensemble The Rat-Charmer of Hamelin

Adolf Neuendorff featuring Sarina Hemmati, flute; Eliana, Penny, Cora, Timothy & Sterling Davis

Song to the Moon (Czech) Rusalka

Kathleen Allen

Antonín Dvořák

Moon, high and deep in the sky, your light travels far. You travel the world. Moon, stand still and tell me where is my dear. Tell him that I am embracing him. Illuminate him and tell him who is waiting for him. If he is really dreaming of me, may the memory awaken him! Moon, don’t disappear!

Fable Reading: The Ant & the Grasshopper

Carlin Adjula

La cigale et la fourmi (The Ant & the Grasshopper) (French) Jacques Offenbach

When Winter comes, the Grasshopper begs the ant for a loan of grain to last her until Spring. On insect oath, the Grasshopper promises to repay the loan, interest & principal, by the next Fall. The Ant refuses, as she is not a lender. The Ant asks how the Grasshopper spent the summer. ‘Night and day, to every comer, I sang, so please you ma’am.’ ‘You sang? I’m overjoyed. Now off you go and dance!’

Practically Perfect Mary Poppins

Jenna Stein

Who’s Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf? The Three Little Pigs

George Stiles & Anthony Drewe

Frank Churchill & Ann Ronell

Continued

Into the Woods: Cinderella/Jack & the Beanstalk/Little Red Ridinghood/The Baker & the Baker’s Wife – Into the Woods interweaves the storylines of several well-known fairy tales. Each story’s characters make their way into the woods to accomplish a different task: Cinderella - to pay respects to her late mother and make a wish to attend the King’s festival, Jack to sell his beloved cow at market, Little Red Ridinghood to take some sweets to Granny, and the Baker & his Wife to collect items from each of these stories in order to break the witch’s curse and fulfill their wish of having a child.

Hansel & Gretel – When Hansel and Gretel’s family is running out of food to eat, their parents plan to lose them in the woods. The children wander together until they find a cottage made entirely out of gingerbread and candies! But who lives there, a princess, or a witch?

Aladdin – Aladdin is a poor boy who is recruited by a sorcerer to fetch a special lamp from the Cave of Wonders. When he rubs the lamp a Genie appears and offers him three wishes, which he uses to woo and marry the sultan’s daughter.

Alcina (solo) – Alcina is a powerful enchantress who lures men to her island and then turns them to animals or rocks once she is tired of them. But when she brings Ruggerio to her island, his fiancée, Bradamante, hatches a plan to rescue him with the aid of a magic ring that will open his eyes to the reality of the island. In this aria, Alcina’s sister, Morgana, pledges her love to “Ricciardo,” who really turns out to be Bradamante in disguise!

Zémire et Azor – In this version of Beauty & the Beast, little Beauty’s father leaves on a trip and promises gifts to each of his daughters. Her older sisters ask for lace and ribbons, but Beauty simply asks for a rose. However, her father has taken the rose from the garden of an enchanted castle, and Beauty must save him by returning to live in the castle with Azor, the cursed Beast who lives there. She finds many wondrous entertainments in the castle, and grows close with the beast, eventually falling in love just in time to save his life and break his curse.

Once Upon a Mattress (solo) – How do you know that someone is TRULY a princess? In this story, when the princess shows up, she doesn’t look particularly elegant, and in this adaptation of The Princess & the Pea, she doesn’t behave the way you might expect a princess to act either. So the queen tests her by piling up many, many mattresses and secretly placing a single pea under the bottom mattress. If the girl can feel the tiny pea, she will prove that she is a genuine princess.

The Ugly Duckling - When a mother duck finds an extra-large egg in her nest, which hatches into an extra-large brown duckling, the whole farm-yard teases him and chases him away as an “ugly duckling.” He travels far and has many adventures trying to find his place in the world until a year later, when he finds a pond of swans who invite him to join them. He is ashamed to join such lovely birds until he sees his reflection and realizes that he is a very fine swan indeed!

La belle au bois dormant (solo) – In this rendition of Sleeping Beauty, instead of the usual curse of pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, Princess Aurora’s hundred-year sleep is induced by the kiss of an “errant knight.” A good fairy alters the curse so that she and the whole castle will wake once she is kissed by the noble prince who sees her in a dream. This aria takes place just before Aurora’s enchanted sleep occurs.

The Goose & the Golden Egg – This is a cautionary tale about a farmer whose goose laid one gold egg daily. The farmer began selling the eggs at market, but he grew impatient and thought he could gain riches faster by opening the goose and removing all of the eggs at once. Upon killing the goose, he found nothing, and lost everything. “I Want it Now” is sung by the greedy, spoiled and bratty Veruca Salt in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

Vilia (solo) – The story of the Vilia, a wood nymph, and her struggles to find love is presented at a party in Franz Lehar’s operetta, The Merry Widow. In Czech folklore, “víly” are woodland spirits, typically portrayed as beautiful women with long flowing hair, who primarily live in the woods and entrance men who wander into their land, through their looks and beautiful voices.

Continued on p. 10

Fairy ales & Fables – the Short Story (continued)

Wish Medley: Pinocchio/Snow White/Cinderella –

When the wood carver, Geppetto, makes a wish upon a star to have a son, the puppet Pinocchio comes to life and has many adventures as he learns how to be good and become a real boy. Snow White wishes for true love to find her, but before that can happen, she has to flee the machinations of her evil stepmother and get some help from seven dwarves. Cinderella makes a wish in her heart to find love and happiness. With the help of some transformative magic from her fairy god-mother, her wish comes true.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin - The town of Hamelin is overrun with rats and mice! A piper dressed in colorful patchwork (“pied”) clothing appears and claims he can lure the rats away. The burgomaster (mayor) of the town hires the piper, and he succeeds in ridding the town of its infestation!

Rusalka (solo) - In this variation of The Little Mermaid, Rusalka is a water nymph instead of a Mermaid. Her love for a human prince leads her to make an ill-fated deal with the witch Ježibaba, to gain a human soul for the chance to win the love of this prince.

Continued on p. 13

Fairy ales & Fables – Act (continued)

Alice in Wonderland

Nicole Lamm

Jerome Kern & Harry B. Smith

Il sogno di Cenerentola (Cinderella’s Dream) (Italian) Luigi Gordigiani

Always left to stoke the fire…a barbaric life. While my sisters go to parties with their father, I remain to sigh alone. Yet, I had a blissful dream – my fate changed, and maybe I’ll be happy tonight! Every woman will die of envy! No longer can they call me the little ash-girl. I’ll be as beautiful as Venus, have fancy clothes, diamonds and a crowd of suitors falling at my feet! But, I have to stay and stoke the fire. Love tells me not to tremble.

Neverland

Finding Neverland

Into the Woods (Finale) Into the Woods

Eliot Kennedy & Gary Barlow

Stephen Sondheim

THANK-YOU TO OUR DONORS!

Dolce Drive ($5-$49)

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Allison Davis Sarah Morrison Silvia Terlitzsky

Lorraine Fishback Anne Pickett Maria Vilches

Janise Haman Carolyn Ramsey Ella Williams

Ravi & Chanda Athale

Freda & Daniel Bredy

Aria Avenue ($50-$99)

Jane DiSalvo Pamela Nelson

Martrice Green

Susan Kapsis

Cantabile Court ($100-$249)

George Walser & Letha Dreyfus

Solveig Eggerz Carolyn Harris Darlene Robinson

Bel Canto Boulevard ($250-$499)

Diva Circle ($500+)

Susan Longstreet Anonymous (x2)

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Ketan Kane, Stage Manager

Jenna Stein, Props

Fairy ales & Fables – the Short Story (continuedagain)

The Ant & the Grasshopper – This setting is the retelling of Aesop’s classic fable, written by the French fabulist, Jean de la Fontaine. The story describes how a hungry grasshopper begs for food from an ant when winter comes and is refused. The situation sums up moral lessons about the virtues of hard work and planning for the future.

Mary Poppins (solo) - In this more modern fairy tale, when the Banks family find themselves in need of a new nanny yet again, Mary Poppins comes to the rescue, floating down with the aid of her umbrella. She shows the children tenderness, and firmness while leading them into astounding magical encounters, which she treats as everyday phenomena, all while being practically perfect in every way.

The Three Little Pigs - When three piglet brothers head out to make their way in the world, the first two do not put in the work to build themselves sturdy homes – they throw together some hay and sticks and spend the days playing, while their brother puts in hours of work constructing a sturdy brick house. When the wolf comes huffing and puffing, they all learn how important having that nice strong home can be.

Alice in Wonderland (solo) - When Alice follows a white rabbit in a waistcoat down his rabbit hole, she is astounded at the confusing land into which she stumbles. She finds herself changing size and encountering astonishing, funny, intimidating, and eccentric characters while trying to find her way home.

Cinderella - Cinderella is treated as a servant by her step-family, so when they are all invited to the royal ball, she has to stay behind tending the fire and dreaming of how lovely it would be to attend the ball. She does not lose hope despite her sadness, because she has been told not to worry, and that love is in her future. With a little help, she is able to attend the ball where her beauty and kindness win the heart of the prince.

Peter Pan - Peter Pan, an impish young boy who can fly, leads a clan of “lost boys” without families through escapades in a land of eternal childhood. In Neverland, childhood make-believe games are real adventures and you can never ever grow old!

THANK-YOU TO OUR IN-KIND DONORS!

The Fitness Equation

Juvol Imagery

Norasack Design

Signature Theater

MEET THE DIVAS

Nicole Lamm Soprano Co-Artistic Director

Bharati Soman Soprano Co-Artistic Director

Adrienne Neal Soprano Managing Director

Emily Davis Soprano

Ruth Locker Pianist

Unsung Hero

Maggie Ramsey Mezzo-Soprano Outreach Coordinator

Jenna Stein Soprano

Kathleen Allen Soprano