Soprano embraces new role

By Mark Ambrogi mark@youarecurrent.com

Soprano Anne Fuchs is quite familiar with “The Magic Flute.”

Opera

“I used to sing the role of Papageno in Germany in this opera, so it’s very near to my heart,” Fuchs said. “In the German opera system, you sort of perform a role for a year or two. You’ll just do it again and again and again. So, it’s one of those operas that I know inside and out and deeply, deeply love.”

The Indianapolis resident will play the role of the First Lady in Indianapolis Opera’s production of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” May 5-7 at The Toby Theater at Newfields in Indianapolis.

This is Fuchs’ first performance on the main stage with Indianapolis Opera. She had performed in outreach concerts in the community with the company.

Fuchs, 37, lived in Germany for 2 1/2 years, leaving in 2015.

“This was my first role in Germany, and I had to do all the dialogue within the first two weeks of setting foot there,” she said. “It’s kind of a crazy story. The manager of a theater asked, ‘Do you know the role of Papageno?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ She said, ‘Great, you go on in two days.’ The only problem was I didn’t know the role. I just knew it was my chance. So, I drove myself crazy over the next 48 hours just learning that role, which is kind of a hard thing to do. I don’t know if Anne in her 30s could now pull that off, but in my 20s I could. I got it together and had to also learn the German dialogue and speak it convincingly and with a good German accent.”

The First Lady is one of the three ladies in service of the evil Queen of the Night.

“This opera is just so incredible because it’s basically about this duality of good and evil,” Fuchs said. “The bad guys seem like good guys, and then the good guys seem like bad guys. It’s just confusing knowing which is which.”

Fuchs also played the role of Pamina in a production in the U.S.

“She is a delightful character as well,” Fuchs said. “She’s pure of heart.”

For more, visit indyopera.org.

Farm beefs up operations

Commentary by Mark LaFay

Indiana may be known to be a pork-producing state, but there is quite a bit of great beef to be found in the Crossroads of America. Look no farther than Howell Farms in Middletown in rural Delaware County.

The Howell family has been farming the amber waves of grain for nearly 50 years. Their primary focus is corn, soy, wheat, barley and tomatoes, and now with a touch of beef!

Siblings Adam and Aaron Howell took up the family mantle to become the second generation in the Howell family to farm the Indiana countryside. The brothers are also the driving force behind the farm’s relatively new grass-fed beef program.

“We want to be good stewards of the family business and the land that it is based on,” Adam said. “By combining vegetable and grain production, cover cropping and then rotational livestock grazing, we can improve soil health.”

Ultimately, soil health drives the quality of the products they produce.

At present, the Howell’s have 22 head of cattle that rotate across different pastures each day. The cattle is 100 percent grass-fed and the beef is processed under USDA inspection. Customers can shop their assortment of beef products online at Farmersprovisions.com. The website provides all the current offerings as well as plenty of information about the Howell family, the farm and the beef operation.

Customers are encouraged to shop the beef assortments by the box. Free shipping to 26 states is offered with the purchase of any assortment box. Customers can also shop by the cut and build their own box to have shipped. All current and future shipping destinations can be found on the website.

Customers can expect their product to arrive cold and safe to be put back into the freezer or thawed out to cook immediately. For more, visit farmersprovisions.com.