PROGRAM: Ainadamar Fountain of Tears April 2023

FOUNTAIN OF TEARS

SAT / APR 8, 2023 / 7:30PM

FRI / APR 14, 2023 / 7:30PM

SUN / APR 16, 2023 / 2:30PM

Story telling…

Opera has been described as an art form that tells a story through music and singing. Detroit Opera is innovating new and exciting ways to tell those stories.

At �e Whitney we see architecture as another art form that tells a story, in our case through our 125-year-old Romanesque-style mansion, one of the last remaining mansions that once lined Woodward Avenue. It is a true re�lection of Old Detroit.

Before your next opera, or whenever the urge hits you, come visit our mansion. We promise that the welcoming reception you’ll receive, the food and drink you’ll enjoy, and the ambiance you’ll experience, will make you think you’ve gone back in time.

It’s a story you won’t forget.

21 “Ballad of the Small Plaza” by Federica García

Lorca, English translation by A.S. Kline

22 “Poeme of the Solea: Ay!” by Federico García

Lorca, English translation by Ralph Angel

24 Artist Profiles

44 Board of Directors

45 Board of Trustees

49 Thank You to Our Donors

60 Administration & Staff

62 General Information

The Community Foundation is dedicated to supporting and enhancing the arts in southeast Michigan.

For decades, we have partnered and collaborated with organizations like the Detroit Opera along with other hyperlocal projects to enrich our region through the arts.

We have helped hundreds of donors who want to support local arts and culture find the best way to make a lasting impact.

MAKE AN IMPACT

When you are ready to make a lasting impact on arts and culture, the Community Foundation is here to help. Visit: cfsem.org/arts-culture or call 313.961.6675

A message from Wayne Brown

Welcome to the Detroit Opera House for this season’s closing opera production, Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar), composed by Osvaldo Golijov with a libretto by David Henry Hwang. These performances are a Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures co-production with Detroit Opera, Welsh National Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera. For Detroiters, Fountain of Tears marks the first opera to be performed completely in Spanish on the Detroit Opera stage.

I am pleased to acknowledge our generous sponsors: Cadillac, our 2022–23 Spring Opera Sponsor, and the William Davidson Family Foundation, our 2022–23 Season Sponsor; with support from the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, DTE Energy Foundation, the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Flagstar Bank, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Burton A. and Sandra D. Zipser Foundation

Detroit Opera is appreciative of the audiences and supporters who have joined us for the current season. Your support has enabled our organization to offer a vibrant season of opera productions and dance presentations led by our remarkable artistic team here at Detroit Opera: Yuval Sharon, Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director; Christine Goerke, Associate Artistic Director; Roberto Kalb, Music Director; and Jon Teeuwissen, Artistic Advisor for Dance.

We invite you to join us on April 29 and 30 for our final 2022–23 dance presentation: the State Ballet of Georgia, featuring dance works by George Balanchine, accompanied by the Detroit Opera Orchestra. The performances promise to be a fitting finish to what has been an exceptional season for artists and audiences alike.

Recently, Detroit Opera announced its 2023–24 season—one filled with an extraordinary range of opera, dance, and site-specific works. We invite you to join us for the full season; details can be found on our website: detroitopera.org.

As we approach the close of the current season and fiscal year, we hope that you will consider making a gift in support of upcoming summer programming in area parks, as well as our summer education workshops, details of which can be found on page 47.

Finally, we hope you enjoy this performance, and will return soon and often!

Wayne S. Brown President & CEO, Detroit Opera

A Message from Yuval Sharon

The key to understanding the heart-pounding thrill of a bullfight or a flamenco performance is the concept of duende. As a powerful and almost inexplicable force that possesses the matador, the dancer, or the singer, duende is a demonic energy that casts an inexorable spell over anyone in its presence. Federico García Lorca was a high priest of duende, and one of his most important essays—entitled “Play and Theory of the Duende ”—beautifully elucidates how this Spanish source of inspiration differs from the more benign creative forces of the muse or the angel:

“Just as Germany has, with few exceptions, the muse, and Italy shall always have the angel, so in all ages Spain is moved by the duende, for it is a country of ancient music and dance where the duende squeezes the lemons of death— a country of death, open to death. Everywhere else, death is an end. Death comes, and they draw the curtains. Not in Spain. In Spain they open them.”

Right from the explosive first moments of Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar, duende could be considered the opera’s primary character: the sounds Golijov pulled from Lorca’s writing initiates a sonic exorcism that never fails to grip me. Like the bullfighter—elegant and graceful in the face of death—this opera dances feverishly and with abandon on the edge of the grave. It seems almost appropriate, with his obsession with duende, that Lorca faced an untimely and brutal assassination at the hands of Spain’s fascist government in 1936. We view Lorca in mythic terms, as a martyr for artistic and personal freedom—and this is how the great actress Margarita Xirgu tells his story in the opera, as a stream of images and memories she relates to her young student Nuria. Lorca may have died tragically before his time, but the opera portrays his resurrection as each generation embodies his characters and his words.

Golijov wrote, “Ainadamar is about how a myth is actually being born, how Lorca that was a breathing, living, laughing, loving person became a symbol, a myth—and how we can bring him back to be that man.” Director Deborah Colker has taken this idea and infused it with her energetic and choreographic imagination, hand in hand with conductor Paolo Bortolameolli’s innate understanding of Golijov’s broad musical influences.

I hope the duende moves you as you witness this sensational opera!

Yuval Sharon

The Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director

FOUNTAIN OF TEARS AINADAMAR

is generously presented by

2022–23 SEASON SPONSOR

WITH SUPPORT FROM

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

DTE Energy Foundation

Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

Flagstar Bank

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

The Mellon Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Burton A. and Sandra D. Zipser Foundation

FOUNTAIN OF TEARS AINADAMAR

Detroit Opera premiere

Performed in Spanish with English supertitles

Performance runs 1 hour and 20 minutes with no intermission

Music Osvaldo Golijov

Libretto

David Henry Hwang, translated into Spanish by Osvaldo Golijov

World Premiere

Tanglewood Music Festival, Massachusetts, on August 10, 2003

Premiere of revised version—Santa Fe Opera, New Mexico, on July 30, 2005

Stage Director Deborah Colker*

Flamenco Choreographer Antonio Najarro*

Set & Costume Designer Jon Bausor*

Lighting Designer Paul Keogan*

Projection Designer Tal Rosner*

Sound Designer Mark Grey

Wig & Makeup Designer Joanne Middleton Weaver

Associate Director Roxana Haines*

Stage Manager Peter Nictakis*

* Detroit Opera debut

Cast

Conductor Paolo Bortolameolli*

Margarita Xirgu Gabriella Reyes*

Nuria Vanessa Vasquez*

Federico García Lorca Daniela Mack

Ruiz Alonso Alfredo Tejada*

Voices of the Fountain Soprano Lucia Flowers

Voices of the Fountain Mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Barkidjija*+

Maestro Ben Reisinger+

Torero Leo Williams+

José Tripaldi Kevin Starnes

* Detroit Opera debut + Detroit Opera Resident Artist

Niñas—Detroit Opera Chorus

Suzanne Mallare Acton, chorus master

On Stage Chorus

Lily Belle Czartorski

Tori Darnell

Anna Dreslinski

Rebecca Eaddy

Kristy Glass

Aubrey Meade

Dancers

Leslie Ann Naeve

Pelagia Pamel

Katya Powder

Kristina Riegle

Maitri White

Julia Ruiz Fernandez* Dance Captain

Off Stage Chorus

Brandy Adams

Alaina Brown

Ann Marie Calvaneso

Adellyn Geenen

Anna Hart

Aurora Haziri

Olivia Brookes*, Áine Dorman, Jonathan Pacheco*,

Elisabet Torras Aguilera*, Isaac Tovar *

On Stage Musicians

Adam del Monte*, guitar

Gonzalo Grau*, cájon

FOUNTAIN OF TEARS AINADAMAR

PRODUCTION CREDITS

A Co-Production between Detroit Opera, Opera Ventures, Scottish Opera, Welsh National Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera.

Répétiteur Michael Karloff

Assistant Director Anne C. Demelo*

Assistant Stage Managers Nan Luchini, Hailli Ridsdale

Assistant Lighting Designer Heather DeFauw

Sound Engineer Dan Solan

Lighting Programmer Harrison Hoffert*

Video Engineer/Programmer/Operator John Costa

Supertitle Operator Dee Dorsey

Language Coach Ricardo Herrera

* Detroit Opera debut

Poems by Federico Garcia Lorca © The Estate of Federico García Lorca. Ainadamar by Osvaldo Golijov, is produced by special arrangement with Casanovas & Lynch Literary Agency on behalf of the Estate of Federico García Lorca.

By arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company, publisher and copyright owner

Special thanks to Flamenco Vivo Carlota Santana

Detroit Opera choristers are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists

DETROIT OPERA ORCHESTRA

Detroit Federation of Musicians, Local #5, of the American Federation of Musicians

Violin

Eliot Heaton*

CONCERTMASTER

Henrik Karapetyan*

ACTING ASSISTANT CONCERTMASTER

Daniel Stachyra*

ACTING PRINCIPAL SECOND

Anna Bittar-Weller*

Molly Hughes*

Bryan Johnston*

Velda Kelly*

Yuri Popowycz*

Mallory Tabb

Jenny Wan*

Andrew Wu*

Viola

John Madison*

PRINCIPAL

Joseph Deller*

Jacqueline Hanson*

Scott Stefanko

Catherine Franklin

Alycia Wilder

Cello

Andrea Yun*

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Benjamin Maxwell*

Ivana Biliskov

Sabrina Lackey

Lauren Mathews

Allison Rich

Bass

Derek Weller*

PRINCIPAL

Clark Suttle*

Jean Posekany

Robert Stiles

Flute

Seo Hee Choi*

PRINCIPAL

Laura Larson*

Dennis Carter II

Oboe

Yuki Harding

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Clarinet

Brian Bowman*

PRINCIPAL

J. William King*

Bassoon

Gregory Quick*

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Horn

Kristi Crago

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Carrie BanfieldTaplin*

Trumpet

David Ammer*

PRINCIPAL

Gordon Simmons*

Trombone

Christopher

Houlihan

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Percussion

John Dorsey*

PRINCIPAL

Keith Claeys

Flamenco

Percussion

Gonzalo Grau

Flamenco Guitar

Adam del Monte

Kyle Canjar

Harp

Maurice Draughn

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Piano/Synthesizer

Michael Karloff

Celeste

John Etsell

*Detroit Opera Core Orchestra

Members of the violin sections occasionally rotate

What a sad day it was in Granada; the stones began to cry...

Ainadamar is an Arabic word meaning “fountain of tears.” It is one of the names of a natural spring located in the hills above the Spanish city of Granada. This is the site where the poet and playwright Federico García Lorca was executed in 1936.

Margarita Xirgu, a veteran Spanish actress and Lorca’s muse, spent her career portraying Mariana Pineda in Lorca’s play of the same name. Pineda was a 19th-century political martyr executed for sewing a revolutionary flag against the absolutist Spanish regime with the embroidered slogan “Equality, Freedom, and Law.” Mariana Pineda was Lorca’s first theatrical success and a love letter to a woman who pursued her convictions to their ultimate consequences, evoking the color and poetry of Andalusia and especially of Lorca’s own Granada.

Lorca asked Xirgu to play the title role at the premiere in June 1927, at the Teatre Goya in Barcelona with scenic design and costumes by Salvador Dalí.

Xirgu fled Spain at the beginning of the Civil War but Lorca refused to leave. His liberal beliefs and open homosexuality subsequently led to his death at the hands of the Falange, the fascist party founded by the son of former Spanish dictator General Primo de Rivera. Xirgu then gave her life to playing Mariana Pineda and to keeping Lorca’s words alive.

INTRODUCTION

The opera is told through Xirgu’s memories in a series of flashbacks as the past invades the present.

FIRST IMAGE MARIANA

As the opera begins, Margarita Xirgu prepares once again to go on stage as Mariana Pineda as a group of young actresses sing the opening ballad. She remembers the brilliance of Lorca to her young student Nuria, recalling her meeting with Lorca in a bar in Madrid where he describes his play to her for the first time. Lorca idolized Pineda, whose statue could be seen from his window at the Lorca family home in Granada. The flashback is interrupted by the Falangist Ramon Ruiz Alonso, broadcasting over the state radio that his party will stamp out the beginnings of the revolution.

SECOND IMAGE FEDERICO

The Spanish Civil War has begun. Xirgu pleads with Lorca to join her and her theater company in Cuba, but he refuses and stays in Granada. Xirgu blames herself for Lorca’s fate, since she could not convince the idealistic young man to abandon Spain. In Xirgu’s memories, she sings of her dream of finding freedom in Cuba, but Lorca insists that he must witness and write about his country’s suffering on the barricades.

THIRD IMAGE MARGARITA

Xirgu is dying. In the present, she insists on performing Pineda’s story one more time—she tells Nuria that an actor lives only for a moment, but the idea of freedom will never die. A vision of Lorca interrupts her. He thanks her for immortalizing his spirit on stage, in the hearts of her students, and for the world.

SYNOPSIS

PROGRAM NOTE

About Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar)

BY DIANA BURGWYN

Osvaldo Golijov’s remarkable sound world in the opera Ainadamar is an amalgamation of his own Argentinian/Jewish heritage and numerous other cultures, including Muslim, Jewish, and Christian musical traditions. Above all, the score is suffused with the music of Lorca’s Spain: lush, seductive, and with a strong undercurrent of sadness.

This dizzying array of folk music, meshed with western classical influences and jazz, has been transformed by the composer into a sophisticated musical language of his own. Even his orchestration is unusual, with guitars, marimbas, and various kinds of Spanish percussion instruments added to the symphonic ensemble. Despite this unlikely combination of musical materials, the opera evolves organically, with one mode of musical expression seamlessly flowing into another and the present morphing into the past through flashbacks.

The short prelude is a vivid example of another Golijov characteristic: the use of non-musical sounds. It opens with pre-recorded drops of water falling into Ainadamar, the Moorish word for “fountain of tears,” while distant trumpets express what the composer calls “wounded freedom”— freedom desperately sought and denied. This is followed by the hoofbeats of galloping horses, which morph into a flamenco heel dance.

The first music we hear is a ballad sung by a group of young girls who function rather like a Greek chorus, commenting on events and predicting the future. Recalling the death of the 19th-century political martyr Mariana Pineda, they tell of sadness so great that “the stones began to cry.” That ballad acts as a frame to the opera, recurring over and over until the very end.

The leading character in Ainadamar is the renowned actress Margarita Xirgu, whose grief at Lorca’s death and guilt over not having been able to save him has taken over her life. Golijov has captured these emotions brilliantly in his searing vocal lines. Margarita’s outpourings, often in a high soprano register, are full of tears—tears wept openly and those lodged in her heart. Only at the end of the opera, as she dies, does she move from bitterness to grace and acceptance.

The role of the charismatic poet/playwright Lorca was not in the original score of the opera; Golijov added it during a revision. It was written for a mezzo-soprano rather than a male singer, reflecting Lorca’s androgynous voice and feminine sensibilities. (In real life, both Lorca and Xirgu were

gay.) This role contains some of the composer’s most beautiful music, notably the dark and wistful “Aria of the Statue,” in which he reflects on his childhood love of the statue depicting the martyred Mariana Pineda—a statue that for him was not cold and grey but warm and loving.

One more key character (a fictional one) for soprano appears in Ainadamar ; that is Nuria, Margarita’s gifted student who, over the course of the opera, grows both musically and dramatically, recognizing that it is she who must carry on Lorca’s and Margarita’s message to the world.

The three roles for female voice achieve their greatest beauty late in the opera when the dying Margarita, Lorca (who has died), and Nuria intertwine their voices in a sensuous trio that is often compared with the trio in Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.

One of Golijov’s most effective theatrical touches is the insertion of chilling, even ugly sounds. The role of the man who arrested and murdered Lorca, Ramon Ruiz Alonso, a fascist functionary in Francesco Franco’s authoritarian regime, is cast for a male flamenco singer, whose wailing cries condemn Lorca and his fight for freedom. Similarly, warlike messages broadcast by Radio Falange (the Spanish fascist party) vow to “exterminate the seeds of the Revolution.”

On the night before Lorca is murdered, hypnotic voices of the dead and soon-to-be dead surround him, praying to the Virgin of Guadalupe. The bullet that kills him becomes a rhythmic fugue of gunshots, with one becoming thousands, reflecting the huge number of killings that took place during the Spanish Civil War. Over those staccato volleys is heard a heartbreaking lament.

There is no comic relief in this tragic opera, but there are lighter scenes, one a raucous conversation between Margarita and Lorca that takes place in a bar, another when Margarita and Lorca sing a duet in the form of a Cuban rumba as they dream of taking refuge in Havana.

Osvaldo Golijov knows how to fill our hearts with beauty, pain, and terror, and even occasionally to make us smile. He is a musical magician. From the first bars of Ainadamar to the last, he puts us under his spell and does not let go.

Diana Burgwyn is a Philadelphia-based writer and music critic. This article from the 2014 Opera Philadelphia program book is reprinted with permission.

What to Listen For in Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar)

by Yayoi Uno Everett

A scene from Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar)

Photo: James Glossop / Scottish Opera

Ainadamar, literally meaning “Fountain of Tears” in Arabic, is the name of an ancient well near Granada, Spain where the poet Federico García Lorca is believed to have been killed by fascist Falangist forces in 1936. By integrating flamenco with classical, mythical, and religious culture, Osvaldo Golijov’s opera Ainadamar explores Lorca’s quest for a utopian, mythic universality. Music and sound serve as an important marker of Andalusian history and culture. Electronic sounds of gunshots and trickling water signify Lorca’s execution at Ainadamar, where thousands of liberals were executed during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). Golijov’s music is replete with references to cante jondo (deep song) and duende—the existential anguish that lies at the essence of Andalusian flamenco music.

The story of Ainadamar is told through Margarita Xirgu’s remembrance of Lorca. To this end, the temporal setting of the tripartite structure of this opera shifts back and forth between the diegetic present (April 1969) in Uruguay and the past (1936) in Spain at the time of Lorca’s death. In the First Image, called “Mariana,” Xirgu performs her role as Mariana Pineda and recalls the time when she first meets Lorca as a young man in Madrid. The entire Second Image, called “Federico,” is situated in the summer of 1936 during the beginnings of the Spanish War. The Third and final Image, called “Margarita,” takes us back to April 1969, where Lorca’s spirit emerges from the Fountain of Tears and

appoints Nuria, Xirgu’s protégé, to be her successor. The final scene depicts the interior world of Xirgu as she prepares to die; in this moment, she is reunited with the ghost of Lorca and, along with Nuria, partakes in a quasi-Eucharistic ritual of consecration.

WHAT TO LISTEN FOR

The plaintive ballad: The haunting quality of the ballad centers on the anthropomorphic image of stones “crying” for Mariana’s death against the tolling bells. It is sung by the female chorus at the beginning of each Image in varied form and expression. In the First Image, the chorus sings the main melody of the ballad (“What a sad day it was in

Granada; the stones began to cry...”) as Xirgu interacts with the chorus and the cantaor (solo singer) hovers high in register over the chorus; the tempo is fast, the mood, somewhat urgent. When the ballad returns at the start of the Second Image, it turns into a crazed reprise as Xirgu loses her mind; a distorted recording of a Falangist political speech interrupts the flow to a frenzied, faster tempo. Lastly, at the beginning of the final Image, the ballad transforms itself into a dirge: as Xirgu collapses and gasps for air, Nuria sings with the chorus in call and response. The changing mood of the ballad brilliantly captures the progression of the story from Xirgu’s recollection to her death and reunion with Lorca.

Flamenco music and the anti-hero: The cantaor, the singer of flamenco cante jondo (deep song), is historically the conveyor of suffering for the marginalized race of Romani Gypsies. In the Andalusian flamenco tradition, duende refers not to an institutionalized deity but rather the

spirit guide, which they believe possess the cantaor with a performance that resonates with the depth of feeling and emotion. Golijov assigns the role of the flamenco cantaor to both Lorca and the Falangist executioner, Ruiz Alonso— the existential anguish that lies at the heart of duende binds them together in spite of their conflicting political ideologies. Listen in particular for Alonso’s flamenco-style vocal improvisation; for example, the “Interludio de Balazos y Lamento por la Muerte de Federico” (Gunshot Interlude and Lament for the Death of Federico) that concludes the Second Image is especially powerful as Alonso sings his improvised lament over sampled gunshot sounds that are looped and turned into a flamenco ostinato pattern.

Rumba and other popular song forms: Golijov masterfully incorporates lighter song forms to offset the sombre characteristics of the framing ballad and flamenco music. A rumba—a light-hearted

Cuban dance form—accompanies

Xirgu’s nightly performance of Mariana Pineda. Lorca later sings a melancholy waltz entitled “Desde mi ventana” (From my window), which conveys his yearning and love for the revolutionary heroine, Mariana Pineda, whose statue he looked out onto as a child.

Prayer to the Virgin Mary and Gunshot Interlude: In addition to the electronic soundscape that conjures Spain at the time of the Civil War, Golijov intersperses a recording of the actual sounds of Mexican children praying to the Virgin Mary of Guadalupe in Chiapas at the moment when Lorca’s body is taken away following his execution (Second Image). Immediately following this is the Gunshot Interlude, in which Golijov took from a library of gunshot sounds from the 1930s to generate a tape loop as a symbolic homage to the death of thousands of individuals who were killed during the Franco regime.

Music of Ritual Consecration: Golijov’s musical setting of “Doy mi sangre” (Here is my blood) is rapturous. This music explicitly references the biblical Eucharistic rite in the consecratory text sung by Xirgu, Nuria, and Lorca. Here is my blood, shed for thee, drink it and tell my story. This is how I am going to die, submerged in the voices of those who have loved me and those not yet born.

Ainadamar begins and ends with the ballad as a reminder that history repeats itself—that there will be another retelling of the story of Mariana Pineda. The opera comes to a halt with the female chorus singing the refrain from the ballad over an electronic drone and trumpet motif. The music segues to the distanced sounds of water, which slowly fade out.

This article has been edited for length. For the full text, scan the QR code or visit detroitopera.org

Yayoi Uno Everett is a professor of music at the City University of New York. She is the author of Reconfiguring Myth and Narrative in Contemporary Opera: Osvaldo Golijov, Kaija Saariaho, John Adams, and Tan Dun (Indiana University Press, 2015).

A scene from Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar) Photo: James Glossop / Scottish Opera

Ballad of the Small Plaza (Balada de la placeta)

THE CHILDREN

Drink the still water of the song of the ages. Light of the stream, and calm of the fountain!

Why do you roam far from the small plaza?

by A.S.

by Federico García Lorca English translation

Kline

MYSELF

Singing of children in the night silence: Light of the stream, and calm of the fountain!

THE CHILDREN

What does your heart hold, divine in its gladness?

MYSELF

A peal from the belltower, lost in the dimness.

THE CHILDREN

You leave us singing in the small plaza. Light of the stream, and calm of the fountain!

What do you hold in your hands of springtime?

MYSELF

A rose of blood, and a lily of whiteness.

THE CHILDREN

Dip them in water of the song of the ages. Light of the stream, and calm of the fountain!

What does your tongue feel, scarlet and thirsting?

MYSELF

A taste of the bones of my giant forehead.

I go to find Mages and find princesses.

THE CHILDREN

Who showed you the road there, the road of the poets?

MYSELF

The fount and the stream of the song of the ages.

THE CHILDREN

Do you go far from the earth and the ocean?

MYSELF

It’s filled with light, is my heart of silk, and with bells that are lost, with bees and with lilies, and I will go far off, behind those hills there, close to the starlight, to ask of the Christ there Lord, to return me my child’s soul, ancient, ripened with legends, with a cap of feathers, and a sword of wood.

THE CHILDREN

You leave us singing in the small plaza. Light of the stream, and calm of the fountain!

Enormous pupils of the parched palm fronds hurt by the wind, they weep their dead leaves.

Poeme of the Solea: Ay!

by Federico García Lorca

English translation by Ralph Angel

The whole world's broken. Only silence remains.

(Leave me here, in this field, weeping.)

The darkened horizon's bitten by bonfires.

(I've told you already to leave me here, in this field, weeping.)

Poems by Federico García Lorca © The Estate of Federico García Lorca

A scene from Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar)

Photo: James Glossop / Scottish Opera

Osvaldo Golijov COMPOSER

Osvaldo Golijov grew up in an Eastern European Jewish household in La Plata, Argentina. Born to a piano teacher mother and physician father, Golijov was raised surrounded by classical chamber music, Jewish liturgical, and klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. His blending of genres and seamless integration of voices speak volumes about his approach and style, a musical language that can only be termed “Golijovian.”

Since the early 1990s, Golijov has enjoyed collaborations with some of the world’s leading chamber music ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet and the St. Lawrence String Quartet, in addition to relationships with artists such as Yo-Yo Ma, Dawn Upshaw, and Robert Spano. Golijov has also received acclaim for ground-breaking works such as La Pasión según San Marcos (St. Mark Passion), his opera Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar), the clarinet quintet The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind, as well as music he has written for the films of Francis Ford Coppola.

The 2022–23 season sees a brand-new opera production of Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar) by Olivier Award-winning choreographer and director Deborah Colker, co-produced by Detroit Opera, Scottish Opera and Opera Ventures, Welsh National Opera, and The Metropolitan Opera. The touring production debuted at Scottish Opera in October—marking the work’s Scottish premiere—and makes its Detroit Opera premiere in April. He has also composed a new work for violin and orchestra that will be premiered this season by Johnny Gandelsman and The Knights.

Golijov is Composer-in-Residence at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he has taught since 1991. He also has been teaching for decades at Tanglewood, has led workshops at Carnegie Hall with Dawn Upshaw, and is a frequent advisor at the Sundance Composers Labs.

Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes

Artist Profiles

David Henry Hwang’s work includes the plays M. Butterfly, Chinglish, Yellow Face, Golden Child, The Dance and the Railroad, and FOB, as well as the Broadway musicals Aida (revival upcoming, 2023), Flower Drum Song, and Disney’s Tarzan M. Butterfly was revived on Broadway in 2017, directed by Julie Taymor. His newest musical, Soft Power, written with composer Jeanine Tesori, opened in 2019 at New York’s Public Theatre. It received four Outer Critics Honors and a 2021 GRAMMY nomination, and was a Finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize in Drama.

Called America’s most-produced living opera librettist by Opera News, he has written 13 libretti, including five works with composer Philip Glass, most recently Circus Days and Nights for Malmö Opera. He is a 2007 GRAMMY Award winner for Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar), with music by Osvaldo Golijov. He has written three works with Huang Ruo and two with Bright Sheng, as well as operas with Unsuk Chin and Howard Shore.

Hwang’s screenplays include M. Butterfly. He is currently penning the live-action feature musical remake of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame as well as an Anna May Wong biopic to star Gemma Chan. In television, he was a Writer/Consulting Producer for the Golden Globe–winning television series The Affair from 2015 to 2019 and is now creating the TV series adaptation of the bestseller Billion Dollar Whale, slated to begin production in 2023. He also co-wrote the Gold Record “Solo” with the late pop music icon Prince.

Hwang is a Tony Award winner and three-time nominee, a GRAMMY Award winner and two-time nominee, a three-time OBIE Award winner, and a three-time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Drama. He is also a professor of theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts. Hwang was inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2018 and his star was unveiled in 2022 on the Lucille Lortel Playwrights Sidewalk in New York City.

David Henry Hwang LIBRETTIST

Paolo Bortolameolli CONDUCTOR

Paolo Bortolameolli is Music Director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Esperanza Azteca (México) and Principal Guest Conductor of Filarmónica de Santiago (Chile). Having conducted every significant orchestra in his Chilean homeland, Paolo has regular conducting relationships across Latin and North America, Europe, and Asia. His recent activity has included return engagements in Poland with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, in Italy with Orchestra Haydn, in Venezuela with Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolivar, and in the United States with the San Francisco Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Paolo brings his insatiable artistic curiosity to his varied operatic work. Upcoming projects include appearances at the Opera de Paris for performances of Tosca, at the Gran Teatre del Liceu for Die Zauberflöte, as well as in Chile for concerts with the Filarmónica de Santiago of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2. He makes his debut with Detroit Opera in these performances of Golijov’s Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar).

Paolo is passionately committed to new music and audiences. He is currently Artistic Director of the Esperanza Azteca National Symphony Orchestra as part of an educational residency run by the Fundación Azteca de Grupo Salinas in Mexico. In 2018, he was a guest lecturer for a TED Talk in New York and in 2020, he released his first book: RUBATO Procesos musicales y una playlist personal.

Paolo holds a Master of Music degree (Yale School of Music, 2013), a Graduate Performance Diploma (Peabody Institute, 2015), a Piano Performance Diploma (Universidad Católica de Chile, 2006), and a Conducting Diploma (Universidad de Chile, 2011).

Artist Profiles

Deborah Colker DIRECTOR

Deborah Colker studied classical piano and played volleyball before beginning dance in 1979, when she was a dancer in the Coringa group (of Uruguayan Graciela Figueroa, one of the precursors of contemporary dance in Brazil) for eight years. From 1984 to 1994, she was Movement Director of dozens of theatrical shows, working with the main directors in the country, in addition to working in cinema and advertising.

In 1994 she founded her company, which in its almost 30 years of existence has travelled to more than 50 countries in all corners of the world. The Companhia de Dança Deborah Colker has gathered public and critical acclaim, as well as several awards, along the way.

In 2001, Deborah won the Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance. Besides the work with her company, Deborah was the first woman to create and direct a show for Cirque du Soleil entitled Ovo. She was, additionally, the Director of Movement for the opening of the Rio 2016 Olympics and has created performances for theaters in Europe. In 2018, she won the Prix Benois de la Danse for the show Cão Sem Plumas

After so many challenges, Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar) presents itself as something unusual. It is her first adventure into the world of opera.

Gabriella Reyes MARGARITA XIRGU

With a voice described as “lusciously-colored” by Opera News and chosen as one of WQXR’s “20 for 20” Artists to Watch, soprano Gabriella Reyes is a rising star on the operatic stage. A former member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera, Gabriella returns to the Met in the 2023–24 season to perform as Rosalba in Florencia en los Amazonas. In the 2022–23 season, she appears with the San Francisco Symphony for a series of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 concerts before making debuts with the Detroit Opera as Margarita Xirgu in Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar), Dresden Semperoper as Musetta in La bohème, and Washington National Opera as Mimì in La bohème.

During the 2021–22 season, Gabriella was both Liu in Turandot and Musetta in La bohème at the Met. She also made her Paris Opera debut, appearing as Cio-Cio San in Seven Deaths of Maria Callas, before debuting with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Rosalba in Florencia en los Amazonas, and with Glyndebourne in the summer for her role debut as Mimì in La bohème. In concert, she appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Marzelline in Fidelio and Musetta with the Jacksonville Symphony.

A 2019 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist (Metropolitan Opera), she was a recipient of a Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation in 2018 and was also a grand finalist in the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is a graduate of the Boston Conservatory.

Artist Profiles

Vanessa Vasquez NURIA

Colombian-American soprano Vanessa Vasquez, winner of the 2017 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, recently completed a four-year residency at the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. She made her professional opera debut in summer 2017 as Liù in Turandot with Des Moines Metro Opera and continues to sing leading soprano roles such as Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro (Santa Fe Opera, Oberlin in Italy), Micaëla in Carmen (Washington National Opera, Arizona Opera), Liù (Canadian Opera Company), Donna Anna in Don Giovanni (Washington National Opera), Violetta in La traviata (Arizona Opera), Gilda in Rigoletto (Academy of Vocal Arts), and Mimi in La bohème (Santa Fe Opera, Opera Philadelphia).

On the concert stage, Vanessa has performed as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, New York Choral Society, and Voices of Ascension. She was a featured soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin for the Academy of Music’s 160th Anniversary Concert and Ball.

Vanessa is the recipient of numerous awards including a 2017 Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Music Foundation, and First Prizes in the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition, Licia Albanese Competition, Giulio Gari Competition, Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition, and First Prize and Audience Award in the Phoenix Opera Southwest Vocal Competition, among others.

A native of Scottsdale, Arizona, Vanessa graduated from Catholic University of America with a Bachelor of Music degree, and went on to complete a Master of Music degree at UCLA.

Daniela Mack FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA

Mezzo-soprano Daniela Mack leads the vanguard of a new generation of opera singers, infusing her artistry with a mix of intensity, adventurousness, and effortless charisma. In the 2022–23 season, she returns to Opera

Philadelphia as Desdemona in Rossini’s Otello, San Francisco Opera as Frida Kahlo in El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego, Detroit Opera in Osvaldo Golijov’s Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar), and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in performances of John Adams’s Girls of the Golden West.

In recent seasons, Daniela has made several important debuts including at the Metropolitan Opera as the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka, Royal Opera House-Covent Garden as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Teatro Real as Rosmira in Partenope, Teatro de la Maestranza in her role debut as Romeo in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and with the BBC Philharmonic as Béatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict. She also made her Carnegie Hall debut in a performance of Serse with The English Concert.

An alumna of the Adler Fellowship Program at San Francisco Opera, Daniela has appeared as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Idamante in Idomeneo, Siebel in Faust, and Lucienne in Die tote Stadt for her house debut. She also performed the title role of La Cenerentola as a member of the company’s Merola Opera Program. Among her many recent engagements in North America and Europe, she created the roles in the world premieres of Kevin Puts and Mark Campbell’s Elizabeth Cree (title role) at Opera Philadelphia, and in David T. Little and Royce Vavrek’s JFK (Jacqueline Kennedy) at Fort Worth Opera with subsequent performances at Opéra de Montréal.

Born in Buenos Aires, Daniela studied at Louisiana State University and was a finalist in the 2013 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

Artist Profiles

Alfredo Tejada RUIZ ALONSO

Flamenco singer Alfredo Tejada was born in Malaga, Spain and raised in Granada. In demand as an accompanist for dancers, Alfredo appears regularly at peñas, festivals, theaters, flamenco tablaos, and since 2007 has sung as part of the Antonio Gades Foundation in the shows Carmen, Fuenteovejuna, Suite Flamenca, and Bodas de Sangre touring the world’s major theaters. He has released several critically acclaimed flamenco albums including En Directo and Sentidos del Alma

Alfredo has collaborated extensively with contemporary composer Osvaldo Golijov, touring the world with performances of Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar). He is the 2020 winner of the Festival de Jerez award for Best Accompaniment Singer and the 2017 winner of the Lámpara Minera award at the Cante de las Minas for Best International Flamenco Singer.

Lucia Flowers is a current Michigan local and recent graduate of the University of Michigan where she received her Master’s in Vocal Performance under Dr. Louise Toppin. She is also a proud graduate of SUNY Fredonia, where she studied under Julie Newell. Flowers has been seen on the Detroit Opera stage in their recent productions of Aida starring Angel Blue and Christine Goerke, Lileana Blain-Cruz’s Faust, and Ragnar Kjartansson’s creation, BLISS, re-staged by artistic director Yuval Sharon.

Additional recent credits include the Soprano Soloist in Messiah with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Cunegonde in Syracuse Opera’s production of Candide, Musetta in University of Michigan’s La bohème, Frasquita in Carmen with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Morgana in University of Michigan’s Alcina, Cunegonde in University of Michigan’s Candide, Amy in Mark Adamo’s Little Women with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra, Patience in Patience with the College Light Opera Company, Lady Larken in Once Upon a Mattress with the College Light Opera Company, and Marian Paroo in The Music Man with the Western New York Chamber Orchestra. During her time with the Brevard Janiec Opera Company, she sang the role of Clorinda in La Cenerentola, the Baroness in Candide, and was one of the soloists in the musical review Sondheim on Sondheim. She is currently performing the title role in Detroit Opera’s touring production of Little Red Riding Hood. Upcoming, she will be singing with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra as the Queen of the Night in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.

Lucia Flowers

VOICES OF THE FOUNTAIN SOPRANO

Artist Profiles

The Boston Musical Intelligencer recently wrote that mezzo-soprano Gabrielle Barkidjija was “riveting on stage and sang with damnable commitment and satisfying vocal chops.” She is an avid performer of new music and rarely performed works, and has sung many world and regional premieres.

Gabrielle is currently a Resident Artist with Detroit Opera. This season, she covered the roles of Siebel (Faust), Arsamene (Xerxes), and Federico García Lorca (Ainadamar), and will perform as a Voice of the Fountain (Ainadamar). Previous notable roles performed include Zosia (Two Remain), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), Brittomara (If I were You), Ada Lovelace (The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace), Fanny Price (Mansfield Park), Captain (Dog Days), Beatrice (Béatrice et Bénédict), and Zerlina (Don Giovanni). She has been a young artist with the Merola Opera Program, Aspen Opera Theater, and Central City Opera, and will be a Tanglewood Music Center Vocal Arts Fellow this coming summer.

Gabrielle has earned awards from the Metropolitan Opera National Competition—Boston and Illinois Districts, the Premiere Opera Foundation, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Young Patronesses of the Opera Competition, and the Orpheus Vocal Competition. She received both her Bachelor of Music and her Master of Music from Northwestern University, and was a young artist with the Boston University Opera Institute. She was awarded a full merit scholarship from Northwestern University for the duration of her master’s degree, and was the recipient of the Phyllis Curtin Award upon completion of her two years at Boston University.

Gabrielle Barkidjija

VOICES OF THE FOUNTAIN MEZZO-SOPRANO

Ben Reisinger MAESTRO

Ben Reisinger is a baritone from Rochester, New York, living in Lansing, Michigan. A first-year member of the Detroit Opera Resident Artist Program, Reisinger attended Michigan State University, studying with Professor Mark Rucker. He also works with Laurie Feldman, stage director, teacher, and coach. He made his Detroit Opera debut earlier this season as Wagner in Faust.

Ben Reisinger is a two-time District of Michigan winner in the Metropolitan National Council Auditions and a two-time Encouragement Award winner and recipient of the Dr. David DiChiera Award both in 2020 and 2021 in the Eastern Regional event. In 2017 he was the American Prize Award winner in Vocal Performance in the Collegiate Opera/Operetta division. He has performed many roles while studying at Michigan State University, notably, Ricky Ian Gordon’s Grapes of Wrath , coached by Ricky Ian Gordon. He was part of the Martina Arroyo Foundation’s “Prelude to Performance Program” in 2017. He has been a frequent performer in masterclasses with many great artists, including Renee Fleming, Jan Opalach, and Julia Bullock. Along with being passionate about opera, Ben was one of the Northeast Vocal Finalists for Michael Feinstein’s Great American Songbook Vocal Competition in New York City.

Artist Profiles

Leo Williams is a proud alumnus of Indiana University and recipient of the Georgina Joshi International Grant, the Jacobs Premier, and the Schmidt Foundation Scholarships. Stage credits at Indiana University include Don Giovanni, La fille du régiment, Peter Grimes, The Crucible, The Consul, Rigoletto, Les pêcheurs de perles, Samson et Dalila, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Lucia di Lammermoor He has also had an active performing career overseas spanning five continents appearing in La bohème, L’elisir d’amore, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Don Giovanni. Leo was a 2020 Opera Maya Studio artist, Berlin Opera Academy Principal Artist, and an Opernfest Prague Fellow. Recent debuts include Cavaradossi in Tosca for the Sitzprobe with The Naples Philharmonic, Spoletta in Tosca for Gulfshore Opera (Naples, Florida), Macduff and Malcom in Verdi’s Macbeth (Australia), Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte (Germany). He is a past participant in the UNISA International Voice Competition (South Africa), and a recent soloist with the Key Chorale and Sarasota Ballet singing works of Margaret Bonds. After winning a coveted spot in the Nationwide Detroit Opera Resident Artist Program final auditions, he joined the program for the 2022–23 season, where he has been the official cover for Faust in Gounod’s Faust, made his Detroit Opera debut singing the role of Messenger in Aida, and sings the role of Torero in these performances of Golijov’s Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar).

An avid lover of world travel and speaker of five languages with years of classical dance training, Leo is well recognized in South Florida’s Dance and Theatrical Arts community. He served as Assistant Professor of the IU Soul Revue, acting as vocal coach, teacher, and choreographer. Currently teaching as a private voice instructor, he is also a freelance soloist at the First Church of Christian Science in Fort Lauderdale and Church by the Sea in Bal Harbor.

Leo Williams TORERO

Kevin Starnes JOSÉ TRIPALDI

Recognized for his rich tone and commanding voice, Kevin Starnes has performed a variety of styles in a career spanning over 20 years. Opera credits include the role of the Duke in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette, Theseus in Britten’s A Midsummer Nights Dream , Max Kane in William Bolcom’s Dinner at Eight, and Bartolo in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro.

Kevin graduated from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance with a Master of Music in voice performance in 2018, and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Music at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan in 2002.

He currently resides in Warren, Michigan, with his lovely wife, Jennifer, and three amazing sons.

Artist Profiles

Born in Madrid, Antonio Najarro is a prominent ambassador of Spanish dance. An accomplished dancer and choreographer, he studied under many prestigious Spanish dance masters in various styles of dance. He graduated with honors from the Royal Conservatory of Professional Dance in Madrid and performed leading roles under the direction of Rafael Aguilar, Antonio Gades, Alberto Lorca, Mariemma, José Antonio Ruiz, and José Granero, among others.

Antonio began his career at the age of 15. He was accepted into the Ballet Nacional de España (BNE) in 1997, and three years later, he ascended to the rank of Principal Dancer and choreographer. His exceptional artistic talent led him to choreography as a young dancer.

In 2002 Antonio formed his own company, Compañía Antonio Najarro, where he created, choreographed, and starred in six productions: Tango Flamenco (2002), Flamencoriental (2006), Jazzing Flamenco (2008), Suite Sevilla (2011), Alento (2020), and Querencia (2022). From 2011 to 2019, he was Director of the Ballet Nacional de España.

Antonio's choreographic talents have also grabbed the attention of the figure skating world as well as artistic swimming teams, winning gold medals at World and Olympic Ice Skating competitions. He has been awarded many prestigious national and international dance awards.

Antonio Najarro FLAMENCO CHOREOGRAPHER

Jon Bausor

SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER

Originally trained in music at Oxford University and the Royal Academy of Music, Jon retrained on the Motley Theatre Design Course graduating as a Linbury Prize finalist in 2000. Since then, he has designed extensively in dance, opera, and theater for companies worldwide. He designed the 2012 Paralympic Games opening ceremony and was recently nominated for an Emmy for production design for the Redbull parkour film Human Pinball.

Theater includes: Into the Woods (Theatre Royal, Bath); Bat Out of Hell (London / Germany / Toronto / New York / Las Vegas); WICKED (Stage Entertainment, Hamburg); True West (West End); Spirited Away (Toho, Japan); Oedipus (Tokyo); Tree (Young Vic / Manchester International Festival); The Take That Musical (West End / UK Tour); The Grinning Man (Bristol Old Vic / West End—Best Design UK Theatre awards); Force Majeur (Donmar); The James Plays (National Theatre / National Theatre Scotland / World tour) and James IV (Scottish tour); Ghost Stories (West End / Toronto / Moscow / Melbourne); Lord of the Flies (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre); MAMETZ (National Theatre of Wales—winner best design UK Theatre awards and Wales Theatre awards); You For Me For You (Royal Court—Best Design, Evening Standard Awards). As an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company, he has designed numerous productions including Hamlet, King Lear, The Winter’s Tale, and the entire 2012 Shipwrecked season.

Dance includes: The Nutcracker (Norwegian National Ballet), several designs for Ballet Rambert, the Royal Opera House, and Netherlands Dans Theater, and works by Liam Scarlett for the Royal Ballet, Norwegian National Ballet, and English National Ballet.

Opera includes: Golden Dragon , Rigoletto, Viktoria & Her Husar (Halles Opera); Cendrillon (Glyndebourne); A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Rigoletto (Oper Halle); Die Walküre (Bordeaux National Opera); The Knot Garden (Theatre an der Wien); The Lighthouse (Montepulciano), and Agrippina (Grange Park Opera).

Artist Profiles

Paul Keogan LIGHTING DESIGNER

Recent lighting designs include: The Steward of Christendom , Constellations, The Visiting Hour, Hamlet, The Snappers, The Red Shoes (Gate Theatre, Dublin); Translations (Abbey Threatre, Dublin & Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Tales from the Holywell, Portia Coughlan , Walls and Windows, Citysong, Las Orders At The Dockside, Katie Roche (Abbey Theatre, Dublin); Elektra (also set design), Fidelio, 20 Shots of Opera, Aida, The Marriage of Figaro (Irish National Opera); The Gondoliers/Utopia Ltd, Ainadamar (Scottish Opera); Scandaltown. Love Love Love, The Plough and the Stars (Lyric Hammersmith); Doubt (Chichester Festival Theatre); The Naked Hand, Shirley Valentine, Double Cross, Here Comes the Night (Lyric Theatre, Belfast); Happy Days, Blood in the Dirt, Postcards from the Ledge (Landmark Productions, Ireland); I Think We Are Alone (Frantic Assembly, UK Tour); Cyprus Avenue (Abbey Theatre, MAC Belfast, Public Theatre NY, Royal Court); The Caretaker (Bristol Old Vic); The Gaul, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian (Hull Truck, UK); Guests of the Nation, Far Away (Corcadorca Theatre Company, Cork); The Treaty, Duck Duck Goose (also set design for Fishamble, Dublin); Semele, The Return of Ulysses (also set design for Opera Collective, Ireland); Dyad (Justine Doswell Dance, Dublin); Sama, Flight (Rambert, UK); Lost, Giselle (Ballet Ireland); Hansel and Gretel, Cassandra (Royal Ballet, UK); No Man’s Land (English National Ballet, Queensland Ballet, Australia).

Tal Rosner

PROJECTION DESIGNER

Artist and creative director Tal Rosner works closely with musicians, theater makers, and fashion brands—combining multiple layers of sound and visuals to create video installations and live performances. The scope of his output covers a uniquely wide spectrum: from world leading orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, via rock and pop legends Rolling Stones and the Commonwealth Games, to leading fashion houses Louis Vuitton and Marni. His musical eye has earned him a spotlight on the international stage for video design, as well as critical acclaim for his distinctive approach to rhythm and colour.

Most recently, Rosner designed the video for both Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the XXII Commonwealth Games in Birmingham (2022), and for Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar) (dir. Deborah Colker) for Scottish Opera, a new co-production with Opera Ventures, Detroit Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, and Welsh National Opera. He is currently working on the video element for Winterreise (dir. Barbara Lluch) for Barcelona‘s Liceu (2023).

Additional theatre and dance credits include: Everyman (dir. Rufus Norris) and Husbands and Sons (dir. Marianne Elliott) at the National Theatre; You For Me For You (dir. Richard Twyman) and X, The Glow (dir. Vicky Featherstone) at the Royal Court; The Most Incredible Thing (Pet Shop Boys, dir. Javier de Frutos) for Charlotte Ballet, North Carolina; and Les Enfants terribles (Philip Glass, dir. Javier de Frutos) at the Royal Ballet.

Rosner was born in Jerusalem and now lives and works in London.

Artist Profiles

Mark Grey SOUND DESIGNER

Mark Grey is an Emmy Award-winning sound designer and composer who made history as the first sound designer for the New York Philharmonic (On the Transmigration of Souls, 2002, which also won the Pulitzer Prize in Music) and the Metropolitan Opera (Doctor Atomic, 2008; Nixon in China, 2011; The Death of Klinghoffer, 2014; The Merry Widow, 2015; Bluebeard’s Castle/ Iolanta, 2015; L’Amour de Loin , 2016). He also did the sound design for Blue at The Aretha Franklin Amphitheatre for Detroit Opera in September 2021.

The grand opera he composed, Frankenstein, premiered at La Monnaie in Brussels in 2019 as well as his mobile chamber opera, Birds in the Moon , with the New York Philharmonic in 2021. He also has had several commissions from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has collaborated with composer John Adams and several others for nearly three decades. His sound designs have been heard throughout most major concert halls, HD simulcast theaters, and opera houses worldwide.

Joanne Middleton Weaver

WIG & MAKEUP DESIGNER

Born in England, Joanne Middleton Weaver came to the United States in the late 1980s. She began apprenticing with Elsen Associates at what was then Washington Opera, now Washington National Opera. Joanne has since designed at many opera companies throughout the US during her 30-year career: Glimmerglass Opera, Sarasota Opera, Palm Beach Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera, to name a few. She has designed for Detroit Opera (previously Michigan Opera Theatre) since 1995. Her credits there include La bohème, The Passenger, Frida, Margaret Garner, Cyrano, Faust, Xerxes, and make-up design for X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.

Julia Ruiz Fernandez DANCE CAPTAIN

Julia Ruiz Fernandez is a versatile professional dancer. She has been working worldwide as a dancer for the last eight years, performing at the Royal Opera House in London for seven years, and touring across the country with Strictly Come Dancing UK tours. Recently she was an ensemble member of the West End Gloria Estefan musical On Your Feet. She also toured as the main solo dancer in productions of the opera Carmen throughout the UK, Spain, and France. Furthermore, she was a dancer in the original cast of Fountain of Tears (Ainadamar) with Scottish Opera in 2022.

Julia’s passion for dance made her train in every dance style—ballet, contemporary, flamenco, ballroom and latin, jazz, commercial and musical theater. She garnered the title of European Champion in Latin Dance at the age of 16, and since then she has been following her dreams and pursuing her artistic career.

Olivia Brookes DANCER

Olivia Brookes is a dancer, choreographer, and teacher born and raised in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Olivia began her training at Sugarloaf Ballet in Suwanee, Georgia. She went on to deepen her training at Point Park University and graduated summa cum laude in 2022 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a minor in Psychology. Olivia has performed works by various renowned choreographers, including Paul Taylor, Justin Peck, Jessica Lang, Martha Nichols, and Stephanie Pizzo. She also performed in Pittsburgh Musical Theater’s 2022 production of Jesus Christ Superstar. She is currently an apprentice with Eisenhower Dance Detroit under the direction of Stephanie Pizzo. Olivia looks forward to taking the stage with Detroit Opera for her first opera and is honored to be performing with this talented cast.

Áine Dorman DANCER

Áine Dorman was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she began her professional dance training at the San Francisco Ballet School. She graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in both dance and public health sciences, and completed postgraduate studies at Hubbard Street Dance Chicago’s Professional Program under the direction of Alexandra Wells. Upon graduation, she joined Eisenhower Dance Detroit as an apprentice, where she is in her second season. She has performed works by Lar Lubovitch, Peter Chu, and Rena Butler, to name a few. Áine is a fashion/costume designer and the owner of her design brand Undercurve where she explores design as a means to connect movement back to the community. She has launched two successful clothing collections, and designed/crafted costumes for Eisenhower Dance Detroit and Post:ballet’s Spring 22 and upcoming Spring 23 season. She made her debut with the Detroit Opera in February 2022 as a dance soloist in Frida and is honored to return to the stage this year!

Artist Profiles

Jonathan Pacheco DANCER

Jonathan Pacheco began his Spanish dance studies in 2013 while attending Northeastern Illinois University. Currently, he is a Company Dancer with the Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater.

Jonathan’s dance training has included working with Irma Suárez Ruiz, Wendy Clinard, Jose Barrios, Raquel Gomez, Angel Rojas, Carlos Rodriguez, Lola Greco, and founding members of the National Ballet of Spain Juan Mata and Ana Gonzalez. He has trained in ballet with Anna Czajun, Laura Wade, and Patti Eylar. In 2017, he was awarded a scholarship to continue his training at the Lou Conte Dance Studio of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago under the leadership of studio director Claire Bataille. Jonathan performs nationally and internationally with the Ensemble Español, including the company’s 2016 tour to Spain. He graduated summa cum laude from Northeastern Illinois University in 2017.

Elisabet Torras Aguilera DANCER

Born and raised in Barcelona, Elisabet Torras Aguilera earned a BA in Spanish Dance / Flamenco at the Conservatory of Dance & Theater. She has performed internationally with Manolo Carrasco, Javier Latorre’s Somorrostro Dansa Flamenca, Rojas&Rodriguez and has appeared throughout the U.S. as a solo artist and with companies such as Noche Flamenca, Flamenco Vivo, Omayra Amaya, A Palo Seco Flamenco Company, and as a guest artist/choreographer with Dance Heginbotham Contemporary Dance Company and Ensemble Español Spanish Dance Theater. She appeared in the lead role of an award-winning short film by Sophia Conger and is the featured dancer at the Annual Gala of Zarzuelas at Carnegie Hall. Elisabet received the Award for Outstanding Artistic Career in 2019. She has presented her choreography in New York and at the American Spanish Dance & Music Festival 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. Elisabet resides in New York City where she performs, teaches, and lectures on Flamenco & Spanish Dance.

Isaac Tovar DANCER

Isaac Tovar is an accomplished flamenco dancer and choreographer from Seville, Spain. He was a longtime soloist of the Ballet Nacional de España, Ballet Flamenco de Andalucia, Compañia Andaluza de Danza, Compañia Antonio “El Pipa”, and Compañia Aida Gómez, among many other premier Spanish and international companies.

Isaac recently choreographed and performed in a production of Bizet’s Carmen at Lincoln Center in New York City. He was then featured alongside Esperanza Fernandez and conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto in performances of Manuel de Falla’s stage works at the New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami. Isaac headlined Festival Flamenco at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto in 2022. His first solo production, Añejo, debuted in Seville in 2018, and his second production, Generaciónes, premiered at the prestigious Royal Theater in Madrid in 2019. Tovar is the recipient of numerous important first prizes in dance, and has worked alongside flamenco legends in iconic theaters around the world.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

JULY 1, 2022 – JUNE 30, 2023

Chair

Ethan D. Davidson

Vice Chair

Mary Kramer

Vice Chair

Peter Oleksiak

Vice Chair

Don Manvel Secretary

Gene P. Bowen

Treasurer

Enrico Digirolamo

Immediate Past Chair

R. Jamison Williams

President/CEO

Wayne S. Brown

Naomi André

Richard A. Brodie

James Ciroli

Kevin Dennis

Lisa M. DiChiera

Shauna Ryder Diggs

Michael Einheuser

Marianne Endicott

Fern R. Espino

Paul E. Ewing

Bharat Gandhi

John P. Hale

Devon Hoover

John W. Ingle III

Danialle Karmanos

Barbara Kratchman

Thomas M. Krikorian

Denise Lewis

Franck Louis-Victor

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Dexter Mason

Ali Moiin

Donald Morelock

Sara Pozzi

Paul Ragheb

Ruth Rattner

Irvin D. Reid

Pamela E. Rodgers

Evan Ross

Ankur Rungta

Terry Shea

Matthew Simoncini

Richard Sonenklar

Lorna Thomas

Jesse Venegas

Gary L. Wasserman

Ellen Hill Zeringue

Directors Emeriti

Margaret Allesee

Elizabeth Brooks

Shelly Cooper

Cameron B. Duncan

Marjorie M. Fisher

Barbara Frankel

Herman Frankel

Dean Friedman

Jennifer Nasser

Charlotte Podowski

Audrey Rose

William Sandy

C. Thomas Toppin

Richard Webb

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

JULY 1, 2022 – JUNE 30, 2023

Kenn and Liz Allen

Lourdes V. Andaya

Naomi André

Harold Mitchell Arrington

Beverly Avadenka

Floy Barthel

Barbra Bloch

Gene P. Bowen

Betty J. Bright

Richard Brodie

Wayne S. Brown and Brenda Kee

Charles D. Bullock

James and Elizabeth Ciroli

Lois Cohn

Thomas Cohn

Françoise Colpron

Peter and Shelly Cooper

Helen Daoud

Maureen D’Avanzo

Ethan and Gretchen Davidson

Kevin Dennis and Jeremy Zeltzer

Cristina DiChiera

Lisa M. DiChiera

Shauna Ryder Diggs

Enrico and Kathleen Digirolamo

Debbie Dingell

Mary Jane Doerr

Michael Einheuser

Kenneth and Frances Eisenberg

Marianne Endicott

Alex Erdeljan

Fern R. Espino and Thomas Short

Paul and Mary Sue Ewing

Margo Cohen Feinberg and Robert Feinberg

Oscar and Dede Feldman

Carl and Mary Ann Fontana

Elaine Fontana

Bharat and Lynn Gandhi

Barbara Garavaglia

Yousif and Mara Ghafari

Carolyn Gordon

Toby Haberman

John and Kristan Hale

Doreen Hermelin

Derek Hodgson

Devon Hoover

John and Tara Ingle III

Alan and Eleanor Israel

Don Jensen and Leo Dovelle

Kent and Amy Jidov

Gary and Gwenn Johnson

Jill Johnson

Ellen Kahn

Peter and Danialle Karmanos

Stephanie Germack Kerzic

Mary Kramer

Michael and Barbara Kratchman

Thomas and Deborah Krikorian

Linda Dresner and Ed Levy, Jr.

Denise J. Lewis

Arthur and Nancy Liebler

Stephan and Marian Loginsky

Mary Alice Lomason

Franck and Soo Louis-Victor

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Don Manvel

Ronald and Zvjezdana Martella

Jack Martin and Bettye Arrington-Martin

Dexter Mason

Benjamin Meeker and Meredith Korneffel

Phillip D. Minch

Ali Moiin and William Kupsky

Donald and Antoinette Morelock

E. Michael and Dolores Mutchler

Allan and Joy Nachman

Juliette Okotie-Eboh

Peter Oleksiak

Linda Orlans

Richard and Debra Partrich

Spencer and Myrna Partrich

Daniel and Margaret Pehrson

Sara Pozzi

Waltraud Prechter

Ted & Carrie Pryor

Paul and Amy Ragheb

John and Terry Rakolta

Ruth F. Rattner

Irvin D. Reid and Pamela Trotman Reid

Pamela E. Rodgers

David and Jacqueline Roessler

Audrey Rose

Evan and Kelsey Ross

Anthony and Sabrina Rugiero

Ankur Rungta and Mayssoun Bydon

Hershel and Dorothy Sandberg

Donald and Kim Schmidt

Arlene Shaler

Terry Shea

Matthew and Mona Simoncini

Sheila Sloan

Phyllis F. Snow

Richard A. Sonenklar and Gregory Haynes

Mary Anne Stella

Lorna Thomas

James G. Vella

Jesse and Yesenia Venegas

Marilyn Victor

Bradley Wakefield and Meghann Rutherford

Gary L. Wasserman

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

Mary Lou Zieve

Ellen Hill Zeringue

Trustees Emeriti

Agustin Arbulu

Lawrence and Dodie David

Dean and Aviva Friedman

Preston and Mary Happel

Robert and Wally Klein

Charlotte and Charles Podowski

William and Marjorie Sandy

Roberta Starkweather

C. Thomas and Bernie Toppin

Founding Members

Lynn* and Ruth* Townsend

Avern* and Joyce* Cohn

John and Mardell De Carlo

David* and Karen V.* DiChiera

Aaron* and Bernice* Gershenson

Donald* and Josephine* Graves

Roman* and Katherine* Gribbs

John* and Gwendolyn* Griffin

Harry* and Jennie* Jones

Wade* and Dores* McCree

Harry J. Nederlander*

E. Harwood Rydholm*

Neil Snow

Phyllis F. Snow

Richard* and Beatrice* Strichartz

Robert* and Clara* “Tuttie” VanderKloot

Sam* and Barbara* Williams

Theodore* and Virginia* Yntema

KEY

* Deceased

Make Your Debut at the Opera House!

SUMMER PROGRAMS 2023

Operetta Remix

July 27–August 11, 2023; 10 am–4 pm

AGES 13 TO 18

Operetta Remix is perfect for young people ages 13 to 18 who want to gain experience and receive direction in singing, acting, stage movement, healthy vocal technique, and audition practice. Taught by experienced opera and theatre professionals, Operetta Remix will explore scenes and songs from your favorite operettas and musicals, and will culminate with a performance on the main stage of the Detroit Opera House at 7:00 pm on August 11, 2023.

Create & Perform

July 10–21, 2023; 10 am–4 pm

AGES 8 TO 12

Create & Perform is an innovative two-week program in which young people create their own stories, music compositions, and dances, culminating in a performance at the Detroit Opera House. Participants in the Create & Perform program get to take part in all aspects of mounting a new production, and will build their skills as performers, composers, designers, directors, and crew members while they write and perform an original opera. Final performance will take place Friday, July 21 at 6:00 pm.

For more information and to register, scan the QR code.

Scholarships available! E-mail Andrea Scobie, Director of Education, at ascobie@detroitopera.org

Detroit Opera Needs You!

With your dedication and partnership, Detroit Opera continues to provide meaningful artistic experiences for our community and inspire audiences of the future. You can make a difference with a gift to Detroit Opera. Your financial support for Detroit Opera today generates a significant portion of our overall funding and represents an investment in the next generation of opera and dance. Thank you for all the ways you support us!

Photo: James Glossop / Scottish Opera

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS

Detroit Opera Honor Roll

Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges these generous donors for their cumulative lifetime giving. Their support has played a vital role in the history of Detroit Opera since being founded by Dr. David DiChiera as Michigan Opera Theatre in 1971 and the building of the Detroit Opera House in 1996. Their leadership plays an integral part in the company’s viability, underwriting quality opera and dance performances, as well as awardwinning community and education programs.

$10,000,000 and above

Ford Motor Company Fund

The State of Michigan

William Davidson Foundation

$7,500,000 and above

General Motors

$5,000,000 and above

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan Stellantis

The Kresge Foundation

$2,000,000 and above

Mr.* and Mrs. Douglas Allison

Floy & Lee Barthel

Marvin, Betty & Joanne Danto

Dance Endowment and Marvin and Betty Danto Family Foundation

Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr.

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Frankel

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Lear Corporation

Masco Corporation

McGregor Fund

The Skillman Foundation

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

$1,000,000 and above

Mr. Robert & Mrs. Margaret Allesee*

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Mr.* and Mrs. Eugene Applebaum

AT&T Bank of America

Mr.* and Mrs. John A. Boll Sr. Compuware Corporation

Estate of Robert & RoseAnn Comstock

DTE Energy Foundation

Mrs. Margo Cohen Feinberg and Mr. Robert Feinberg

Mrs. Barbara Frankel* and Mr. Ronald Michalak

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Frankel*

The Fred A. & Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

Hudson-Webber Foundation

JPMorgan Chase

Mr. and Mrs. Peter Karmanos

Paul Lavins

Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation

Matilda R. Wilson Fund

Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Richard Sonenklar and Gregory Haynes Household

Gary L. Wasserman & Charles A. Kashner

Dr. and Mrs. Sam B. Williams*

Every effort has been made to accurately reflect donor names and gift levels. Should you find an error or omission, please contact Zach Suchanek at zsuchanek@detroitopera.org or 313.237.3427

KEY * Deceased

Contributors to Detroit Opera

Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges these generous corporate, foundation, government, and individual donors whose contributions to Detroit Opera were made between November 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022. The generosity of our donors is vital to sustaining Detroit Opera’s position as a valued cultural resource.

Foundations, Corporate & Government Support

$500,000+

William Davidson Foundation

$250,000-$499,999

The Fred A. & Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

$100,000-$249,999

Ford Motor Company Fund

General Motors Corporation

Hudson-Webber Foundation

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

The Mellon Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

OPERA America

Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation

$50,000-$99,999

Alex and Lil Erdeljan Foundation

Flagstar Bank

Gilbert Family Foundation

The Kresge Foundation

Marvin & Betty Danto Family Foundation

Milner Hotels Foundation

The Skillman Foundation

$25,000-$49,999

DTE Energy Foundation

Matilda R. Wilson Fund

MGM Grand Detroit

The State of Michigan

The Williams Family Fund

$10,000-$24,999

Audiovisions

J. Addison Bartush and Marion M. Bartush Educational Fund

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Crain Communications Inc.

Geoinge Foundation

Gerson Family Foundation, Inc.

Herman and Sharon Frankel Foundation

Huntington Bank

Ida and Conrad H. Smith Endowment for MOT

The Mary Thompson Foundation

Masco Corporation

McGregor Fund

The Miami Foundation

Oliver Dewey Marcks Foundation

Ralph L. and Winifred E. Polk Foundation

The Rattner and Katz Charitable Foundation

SOLO World Partners LLC

Williams, Williams, Rattner & Plunkett P.C.

Worthington Family Foundation

Burton A. Zipser and Sandra D. Zipser Foundation

$5,000-$9,999

A Comprehensive Dermatology Center

Chemico LLC

The Dolores And Paul Lavins Foundation

Honigman LLP

Ida & Conrad H. Smith Endowment

Ideal Group, Inc.

Independent Bank

The Karen & Drew Peslar Foundation

Louis and Nellie Sieg Fund

Ms. Maryanne Mott

The Right Productions, Inc.

Rugiero Promise Foundation

The Samuel L. Westerman Foundation

Seligman Family Foundation

Strum Allesee Family Foundation

$1,000-$4,999

ABM Janitorial Services

John A. & Marlene L. Boll Foundation

Financial One Accounting

The Gilmour-Jirgens Fund

James & Lynelle Holden Fund

Josephine Kleiner Foundation

Joyce Cohn Young

Artist Fund

Marjorie & Maxwell Jospey Foundation

Pellerito Manzella Certa & Cusmano Family Foundation

Sandy Family Foundation

Sigmund and Sophie Rohlik Foundation

Somerset Collection

Charitable Foundation

Individual Support

$100,000+

Ethan and Gretchen Davidson

Dr. Evelyn J. Fisher*

Estate of Barbara Lucking Freedman

Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr.

Matthew and Mona Simoncini

Richard Sonenklar and Gregory Haynes

Gary L. Wasserman & Charles A. Kashner

$50,000-$99,999

Richard and Mona Alonzo

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Mrs. Barbara Frankel* and Mr. Ronald Michalak

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Don Manvel

The Hon. Jack & Dr. Bettye Arrington Martin

The Nancy A. Norling Trust

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner

Jesse and Yesenia Venegas

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

$20,000-$49,999

Wayne Brown and Brenda Kee

Edward and Judith Christian

Mr. Adam Crysler & Dr. Oxana Crysler

Kevin Dennis and Jeremy Zeltzer

Alex & Lil Erdeljan Foundation

Fern Espino and Tom Short

Mrs. Elaine Fontana

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Frankel

Ann Katz

Ms. Mary Kramer

Michael and Barbara Kratchman

Paul Lavins

Denise J. Lewis

Nancy and Bud Liebler

Susanne McMillan

Ali Moiin and William Kupsky

Donald and Antoinette Morelock

James and Ann Nicholson

Peter Oleksiak

Ankur Rungta and Mayssoun Bydon

Lorna Thomas, MD

$10,000-$19,999

Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya

Mr. Joseph A. Bartush

James and Elizabeth Ciroli

Ms. Julia Donovan Darlow & Hon. John C. O’Meara

Shauna Ryder Diggs, MD

Enrico and Kathleen Digirolamo

Carl and Mary Ann Fontana

Ralph and Erica Gerson

Christine Goerke

John and Kristan Hale

Dr. Devon Hoover

Ms. Mary C. Mazure

Benjamin Meeker & Meredith Korneffel, MD

Mr. Stuart Meiklejohn

Mr. Cyril Moscow

Dr. Paulette Moulton

Allan & Joy Nachman Philanthropic Fund

William and Wendy Powers

Dr. & Mrs. Samir Ragheb

Ms. Patricia H. Rodzik

Joe Skoney and Luisa Di Lorenzo

Mr. & Mrs. C. Thomas Toppin

Ricard Ventura*

Ellen Hill Zeringue

Anonymous

$5,000-$9,999

Mr. & Mrs. Robert & Margaret Allesee*

Dr. Harold M. Arrington

Richard and Susan Bingham

Gene P. Bowen

Ilse Calcagno

Mr. Thomas Cohn

John and Doreen Cole

Ms. Violet Dalla Vecchia

Mark Davidoff and Marjorie Dunn

Ms. Laurie R. Frankel

Gil Glassberg and Sandra Seligman

James and Nancy Grosfeld

Addison and Deborah Igleheart

Kent and Amy Jidov

Mrs. Stephanie Germack Kerzic

Stephan and Marian Loginsky

Robert and Terri Lutz

Phillip and Dawn* Minch

Mrs. L. William Moll

Ms. Maryanne Mott

Ms. Shirley Moulton

Evan and Kelsey Ross

Anthony and Sabrina Rugiero

Barbara Van Dusen

Dr. John Weber & Dr. Dana Zakalik

Ned and Joan Winkelman

Anonymous

$3,000-$4,999

Paul & Lee Blizman

G. Peter and Martha Blom*

Bob and Rosemary Brasie

Beverly Hall Burns

Robert C. and RoseAnn B. Comstock*

Carolyn Demps and Guy Simons

Cristina DiChiera and Neal Walsh

Dr. Elizabeth Goodenough

Mr. Robert Hage

Barbara Heller

Mr. William Hulsker

Carole Ilitch

John and Arlene Lewis

Sharon Madison

Ms. Mary McGough

Ms. Evelyn Micheletti

George and Nancy Nicholson

Mr. George & Mrs. Jo Elyn Nyman

Brock and Katherine L. Plumb

Mrs. Rosalind B. Sell

Lois and Mark Shaevsky

Mr. Michael Simmons

Frank and Susan Sonye

Dr. Gregory E. Stephens, D.O.

Margaret Winters and Geoffrey Nathan

Lucia Zamorano

$2,500-$2,999

Thomas and Gretchen Anderson

D.L. Anthony, Ph.D.

Marcia Applebaum

Gregory and Mary Barkley

Ms. Nicole A. Boelstler

Mr.* and Mrs. John A. Boll Sr.

Mr. Charles D. Bullock

Dr. & Mrs. Ronald T. Burkman

Ms. Karen Curatolo

Walter and Lillian Dean

Dr. Raina Ernstoff & Mr. Sanford Hansell

Sally and Michael Feder

Robert and Amy Folberg

Yvonne Friday and Stephen Black

Clifford and Zoe Furgison

Glendon M. Gardner and Leslie Landau

Allan Gilmour and Eric Jirgens

Samuel* and Toby Haberman

Max Lepler and Rex Dotson

Mary B. Letts

Eugene and Lois Miller

Van Momon and Pamela L. Berry

Dr. & Mrs. Peter Nickles

Terry Packer

Sara A. Pozzi, Ph.D.

Irvin and Pamela Reid

Janice Ross

Susan Sills-Levey and Michael Levey

Susan A Smith

Ms. Mary Anne Stella

Joel Tauber

Buzz Thomas & Daniel Vander Ley

Dorothy Tomei

Jeff and Amy Voigt

Stanley Waldon

Prof. Michael Wellman

Bret and Susanna Williams

$1,000-$2,499

Nina and Howard Abrams

Mr. James Anderson

Robert and Elaine Appel

Mr. Michael Asher

Mr. Steve Bellock

Mr. Stanislaw Bialoglowski

Ms. Constance Bodurow

Donald and Marilyn Bowerman

Albert and Janette Cassar

Howard & Judith Christie

Fitzroy and April Clarke

Devon Shea Cook

James and Christine Cortez

Patricia Cosgrove

Lisa DiChiera

Mr. Cameron B. Duncan

Marjory Winkelman Epstein

Paul and Mary Sue Ewing

Burke & Carol Fossee

Bharat and Lynn Gandhi

Michael and Virginia Geheb

Thomas M. Gervasi

Jillian Gibbs

Mr. Lawrence Glowczewski

Philip and Martha Gray

Nadia Clealure Greenidge

Ms. Carole Hardy

Ms. Nancy B. Henk

Derek and Karen* Hodgson

Eleanor & Alan Israel

Richard and Involut Jessup

Ellen Kahn

Roberto Kalb & Mane Galoyan

Marc Keshishian and Susanna Szelestey

Mr. & Mrs. Gerd H Keuffel

Julie Kim

Edward and Barbara Klarman

Gregory Knas

Mary Jane & Jeff Kupsky

Meria Larson

Mr. John Lovegren & Mr. Daniel Isenschmid

Ms. Denise Lutz

Mr. Loreto A. Manzo

Ms. Florine Mark

Ms. Janet Groening Marsh

Ronald and Zvjezdana Martella

Patrick and Patricia McKeever

Brian and Lisa Meer

Xavier and Maeva Mosquet

Harold Munson and Libby Berger

Brian Murphy and Toni Sanchez-Murphy

Richard & Kathleen Nauer

Joshua and Rachel Opperer

Ms. Linda Orlans

Gilbert Padula

Mr. Michael Parisi

Coleen Pellerito

Mark and Kyle Peterson

Mr. Shane Pliska

Michael and Charlene Prysak

Dr. Monique Reeves

Peter Remington and Peggy Daitch

George and Aphrodite Roumell

William and Marjorie Sandy

Mary Schlaff and Sanford Koltonow

William and Mary Schwark

James and Laura Sherman

Thomas and Sharon Shumaker

Mr. Zon Shumway

Frank and Rose

Marie Sosnowski

Ms. Theresa Spear & Mr. Jeff Douma

Gabriel and Martha Stahl

Mrs. Susanne Radom Stroh

Paul Tomboulian

Jeffrey Tranchida and Noel Baril

Joseph and Rosalie Vicari

John and Susan Zaretti

$750-$999

Ms. Geraldine Atkinson

Ms. Kanta Bhambhani

Barbra Bloch

Mr. Alan S Brown

Frank and Jenny Brzenk

Tonino and Sarah Corsetti

Brandt and Vanessa Crutcher

Jerry* and Maureen D’Avanzo

Sharon and Vito Gioia

Katharine Nipper

Mrs. Beverly A. Thomas

Ms. Kathryn Wilson

$500-$749

Dr. Antonia Abbey

Dr. Goncalo Abecasis

Michael and Katherine Alioto

Dr. Naomi André

Robert and Catherine Anthony

Nancy Azizi

Ms. Allison Bach

Beth Baerman

Dr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Band

Mr. Sean A Bannon

Leland Bassett

Mr. Al Beachum

Cecilia Benner

Eugene and Roselyn Blanchard

Ms. Barbara Bowman

Gerald and Marceline Bright

Marsha Bruhn

Ms. Susan Cameron

Beverly & Reginald* Ciokajlo

Jonathan Cohn and Daniela Wittmann

John and Cynthia Cross Charitable Fund

Ms. Joyce E. Delamarter

Eugene* and Elaine Driker

Daniel and Susan Drucker

Madel Ernemann

Daniel H. Ferrier

Barbara Fisher and William Gould

Sue Force

Daniel and Katharine Frohardt-Lane

Carol Gagliardi and David Flesher

Mrs. Louise Giddings

John Gierak and Dona Tracey

Joseph and Lois Gilmore

Thea Glicksman

Mr. Robert Theodore Goldman

Mr. Nathaniel Good

Ms. Glynes Graham

Mrs. Stefania Gualdi

Giacinta Gualtieri

Mr. Tom Hamon

Ms. Albertine Harmon

Michael Hathaway

Paul and Nancy Hillegonds

Beth Hoger & Lisa Swem

Ms. Theresa Munger Howard

William and Sarah Hufford

Elanah Nachman Hunger

Robert Jesurum and Christine Petrucci

David and Theresa Joswick

Geraldine and Jacqueline Keller

Kathy Kercorian

Judith and Stephen Kesler

Ms. Lee Khachaturian

Justin and Joanne Klimko

Mr. Alex Koprivica

Ms. Cynthia Kratchman

William and Jean Kroger

Mr. Eric Krukonis

Andy Levin & Mary Freeman

John and Kimi Lowe

Joseph and Sandra Lupo

Dr. William Lusk

Mrs. Marsha Lynn

Ms. Margaret MacTavish

Ms. Vera C. Magee

Steven and Jennifer Marlette

Matthew Mason and Renate Klass

Mr. John McElroy

Ms. Lynne M. Metty

Dr. Anne Missavage & Mr. Robert Borcherding

Carol Treat Morton

Richard and Kathleen Nauer

Ms. Lois Norman

Mr. D. Sean Panikkar

Anne Parsons and Donald Dietz

Ms. Haryani Permana

Elaine and Bertram Pitt

Garry Post and Robert Hill

Mrs. Janet Pounds

Mr. Dennis C. Regan & Miss Ellen M. Strand

Concetta Ross

Leroy and Maria Runk

Donald Runyon

Mr. Rodney Michael Rusk

Dr. Christina Shanti

Walter Shapero and Kathleen Straus

Ms. Brenda Shufelt

Allan Skoropa

Melissa Smiley

Andrew J. Sturgess

Patricia Terry-Ross

Michele and Scott Toenniges

John M. Toth

Barbara and Stuart Trager

Maria Urquidi

Mat Vanderkloot

Dennis and Jennifer Varian

Ms. Janet Beth Weir

Meredith Weston-Band and Jeffery Band

David and Barbara Whittaker

Mr. W. Gary & Mrs. Cathy Wood

Mr. David D. Woodard

Every effort has been made to accurately reflect donor names and gift levels. Should you find an error or omission, please contact Zach Suchanek at zsuchanek@detroitopera.org or 313.237.3427

KEY

* Deceased

Gifts in Tribute

We extend a heartfelt thank you to the families, friends, colleagues, businesses and groups who generously made gifts to Detroit Opera in honor of or in memory of the special peoples in their lives, whose names are listed bold below.

IN HONOR OF

Wayne Brown

Hugh Smith and Marsha Kindall-Smith

Ryan Taylor

Ethan & Gretchen Davidson

Joshua and Rachel Opperer

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

Peter Remington and Peggy Daitch

Christine Goerke

M. Calien Lewis

Beth Kirton

PEO Chapter X

Chelsea Kotula

Bernard and Eleanor A. Robertson

Mary Kramer

David and Carol Domina

Alphonse Lucarelli

Mr. Adam Crysler & Dr. Oxana Crysler

Dr. William J. Kupsky & Dr. Ali Moiin

Elliott Broom

Daniele & Stefania Castiglioni, & family

Ms. Wendy L Ecker

Carole Ilitch

Mary Jane & Jeff Kupsky

William and Elizabeth S. Kupsky

Household

Ms. Elizabeth Kupsky

Ms. Linda Orlans

Ms. Jane M Pappalardo

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner

Susan J. Smith

Sanjay Soni

Ruth Rattner

Ann Katz

IN MEMORY OF

Tikiya Allen

Ms. Bonnie E Whittaker

Sylvester, Bedel

Mr. Brandon James Frey

Enola Dawkins Bell

Ms. Naomi Edwards

Martha Blom

Dorothy & Seth Hemming

John Boll

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

Mark Braciszewski

Jennifer & Megan Czar

Mary Munger Brown

Ms. Theresa Munger Howard

Reginald Ciokatlo

Beverly Ciokajlo

Gloria Clark

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Steven and Jennifer Marlette

Harry T. Cook II

Ms. Susan Chevalier

Karen DiChiera

J. Addison Bartush and Marion

M. Bartush Educational Fund

Mr. Richard D. Cavaler

Hon. Avern Cohn* & Ms. Lois

Pincus Cohn

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Nancy Kimball

Knudsen Family Fund at the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

Ms. Maryanne Mott

Ms. Maryanne Mott

Sarah Mumford

Patrick Murray

William & Martha Walsh

Kevin and Andrea Webber

Donald R. Epstein

Marjory Winkelman Epstein

Barbara Frankel

Janice and Larry Cohen

Melissa Cohen

Couzens, Lanksy, Fealk, Ellis, Roeder & Lazar P.C.

Gretchen & Ethan Davidson

Enrico and Kathleen Digirolamo

James and Margo Farber

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Frankel

Carolyn Gordon

David and Rose Handleman

Patti Kommel

Mark and Debbie Landau

Sarah Larges

Stanley Lecznar

Jan Rosen

Bernard and Donna Rubin

William and Marjorie Sandy

Brian Slickis

Dean Allan Maya Rose Slickis

Charles and Virginia Slickis

Mr. Charles Slickis

Debra Wichterman

Dorothy Gerson

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner

William & Janet Goudie

Edward Goudie

Eugene Hillelfinger

Ms. Betty J. Atkins

Wallace Ayotte

Elizabeth Bacon-Pituch and Keenan Pituch

Samson Crowl and Carolyn Crowl

Ruth Daley

Mark and Susan Mutter

Mario Iacobelli

Brent & Wendy Bowman

Beverly M Campbell

Jim Eagle

Mr. Howard Emorey

Jillian Gibbs

Dean, Amy, Jason, & Alyse Gilbert

Howard & Janice Goldman

Mr. & Mrs. Donald Hosmer

Jorge & Sonia Just

Ms. Martha F Leviant

Karol and Patrick Mikula

Mrs. Karol Mikula

Joy & Allan Nachman

Earl and Sandra Rusnak

Lori Soifer

Stephen & Michelle Vurdelja

Erica Ward Gerson

Mr. George Waxler

Patrick & Dawn Werner

George D Westermen

Ronald Kohls

Dennis and Judith Voketz

Ms. Robin Renae Walker

Mr. & Mrs. Darwin Larson

Nancy Larson Ratajczak

Susan Lessien

Brenda Sanford

Mado Lie

Brenda Sanford

Blackbaud Giving Fund

Ms. Barbara Homan

Bonnie J. Jobe & Lawrence

Walsh

Marc Lie

Adam Lynch

Kate Netto

Annie Antar

Eugene and Roselyn Blanchard

William and Margaret Harber

Andrew Spector and Onyi Iwela

Tatiana C. Padula

Gilbert Padula

Elita Lily Salustro

Alison Hirschel

Ms. Sharon A Jourdan

Anne Neale and Richard Scott

Barbara Redstone

Carol Roble

Anita Salustro

Ms. Evelia Steinke

Ms. Janet Stenger

Ariel Sharon

Mali Sharon

James Slowick

Ms. Claire Galed

Ms. Susan Hill & Mr. Bill Holmes

Ms. Margaret Peters

Dr. Charles B. Smith

Dr. Peggie Smith

Robert Green Sweeten

Mary Margaret Sweeten

Brigadier

General

Norman Thorpe

Stacey Boyle

Peter Schwartz

Ms. Diane Wanagat

Alice Tomboulian

Paul Tomboulian

Richard Ventura

David Kwasny

Martha & Barry Taylor

Daryl and Lucie Witte

Tamara Lehew Whitty

Jason and Randi Albright

Sarah Bentley

Mr. Dan Convery

Mark Freeman

Ron & Marilyn Hudale

Daniel & Sharon Ihlenfeld

John and Arlene Lewis

Robert and Jennifer Moll

Mr. Michael Novak

Mr. & Mrs. John Shipman Osler, Jr

Drs. Adam and Rebecca Rubin

Anthony and Theresa Selvaggio

Avis Stewart

Jennifer Woodman

Every effort has been made to accurately reflect donor and honoree/memorial names for gifts received between November 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022. Should you find an error or omission, please contact Zach Suchanek at zsuchanek@detroitopera.org or 313.237.3427

* Deceased

THE DAVID DiCHIERA ARTISTIC FUND

In remembrance of our founder and long-term general director, The David DiChiera Artistic Fund has been established to support and honor his artistic vision.

This fund enables Detroit Opera to produce compelling opera, present innovative dance, and engage with thousands of students and members of our community through our educational and outreach programs. Most importantly, it allows Detroit Opera to preserve David’s legacy and his dedication to the young people of Southeast Michigan and young emerging artists from all over the country.

Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges the generous corporate, foundation, and individual donors whose gifts to The David DiChiera Artistic Fund were made before December 31, 2022.

INDIVIDUAL

Joe Alcorn (in honor of Joan Hill)

Richard and Mona Alonzo

Carl Angott and Tom Ball

Pamela Applebaum

Hon. Dennis W. Archer and Hon. Trudy Duncombe Archer

Gordon and Pauline Arndt

Timothy and Linda Arr

Mr. Jeffrey Atto

Kenan Bakirci

Landis Beard

Virginia Berberian (in memory of Joan Hill)

Jere and Carole Berkey

Henri and Anaruth Bernard

Mr. Robert Hunt Berry

Ms. Christine Jessica Berryman

Martha and Peter Blom* (in memory of Joan Hill)

Douglas and Rhonda Bonett

Ms. Priscilla Bowen

Wayne Brown & Brenda Kee

Frank and Jenny Brzenk

Ms. Patricia Byrne

Jeff Cancelosi

James and Susan Catlette

Mr. Richard D. Cavaler

Carol Chadwick

Edward and Judith Christian

Howard and Judith Christie

Hon. Avern Cohn* and Ms. Lois Pincus

Paula Lisa Cole

Mr. Martin Collica

Deborah L Connelly (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Holly Conroy (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Helen Constan

Telmer and Carmen Constan

James and Diana Cornell

Pat Cosgrove

Mr. John Craib-Cox

Geoffrey Craig (in memory of Joan Hill)

Mr. Stephen J. Cybulski

Gail Danto and Arthur Roffey

Dodie and Larry David

Walter and Lillian Dean (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Kevin Dennis and Jeremy Zeltzer

Cristina DiChiera and Neal Walsh

Lisa DiChiera

Nicholas Dorochoff and Joe Beason

Linda Dresner and Ed Levy, Jr.

Cameron B. Duncan

Mr. Keith Otis Edwards

Ms. Elaine K. Ellison

Marianne Endicott

Daniel Enright

Sundra Michelle Epps

Beth Erman (in honor of Ruth Rattner)

Paul and Mary Sue Ewing

Sandra Fabris

Mr. Andrew D Fisher

Barbara Fisher and William Gould

Carl and Mary Ann Fontana

Mrs. Barbara Frankel* and Mr. Ronald Michalak

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Frankel

Peter and Nancy Gaess

Lawrence and Ann Garberding

Wika Gomez

Sylvia and Gary Graham

William Greene and Peter McGreevy

Kristina K. Gregg

John and Kristan Hale

Stephen Hartle

Erik Hill

Ms. Rhea Hill

Ms. Rita Hoffmeister

Anne and Bob Horner

William and Sarah Hufford

Patricia Jeflyn

Dirk A Kabcenell (in memory of Joan Hill)

Mr. Martin Kagan

Ann Frank Katz and Family (in honor of Ruth Rattner)

Ms. Francine C Kearns-King

Mr. and Mrs. Gerd H Keuffel (in memory of Joan Virginia Hill)

Colin Knapp

Frank Kong

Michael and Barbara Kratchman

Mr. Jacob Krause (in memory of Manya Korkigian)

Arthur and Nancy Ann Krolikowski

James and Ellen Labes

Chak and Lizabeth Lai

Max Lepler & Rex L. Dotson

Mado Lie*

Bryan R. Lind

William and Jacqueline Lockwood

Stephan and Marian Loginsky

James LoPrete

Stephen Lord

Ms. Renee Lounsberry

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Evan R. Luskin

Mary Lynch

Paddy Lynch

Marford Charitable Gift Fund

Ms. Jennifer Marling

Diana Marro Salazar

Ms. Alex May

Ms. Mary C. Mazure (in honor of Nadine DeLeury and Gregory Near)

Nadine McKay

Dr. Lisa Meils

Ms. Lynne M. Metty

Ali Moiin and William Kupsky

Mary Rose and Bill Mueller (in memory of Joan Virginia Hill)

Sarah Mumford

Katharine Nipper

Ms. Julia O’Brien

Jason O’Malley

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph A. Orlandi

Mrs. Sally Orley

Bonnie Padilla (in memory of Joan Hill)

Charles and Mary Parkhill

Nicole Patrick

Christopher Patten

Mr. Michael Poris

Mr. Wade Rakes, II

Rip and Gail Rapson

Ms. Deborah Remer

Ms. Marija D Rich

Pamela Rowland

Ankur Rungta and Mayssoun Bydon

Ms. Loretta W. Ryder

Barry and Deane Safir

Dmitriy and Svetlana Sakharov

William and Marjorie Sandy

Professor Alvin and Mrs. Harriet Saperstein

Dr. Mary J. Schlaff and Dr. Sanford Koltonow

Mr. David Schon

Yuval Sharon

Terry Shea and Seigo Nakao

Dorienne Sherrod

Peter and Mary Siciliano (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Ted and Mary Ann Simon

Matthew and Mona Simoncini

Joe Skoney and Luisa Di Lorenzo

Hugh Smith and Marsha Kindall-Smith

Kendall Smith

Lee and Bettye Smith

Richard Sonenklar and Gregory Haynes

Ms. Janet Stevens

Dr. Austin Stewart and Mr. Charlie Dill

Ronald Switzer and Jim McClure

Angela Theis

Mrs. Beverly A Thomas

Buzz Thomas and Daniel Vander Ley

Ms. Patricia A Thull

Mr. Jason P. Tranchida

Jeffrey Tranchida and Noel Baril

Elliott and Patti Trumbull

Mathew and Barbara Vanderkloot

Berwyn Lee Walker

William and Martha Walsh

Gary L. Wasserman and Charles Kashner

Kevin and Andrea Webber

Bradford J and Carol White

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

Peter Wilson (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Blaire R Windom

Mary Lou Zieve

CORPORATIONS & FOUNDATIONS

Aom, LLC

The Eugene & Marcia Applebaum Family Foundation

J. Addison Bartush & Marion M. Bartush Family Foundation

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

DeRoy Testamentary Foundation

Kresge Foundation

MOT Orchestra Fund (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Northern Trust Bank

Pal Properties, LLC

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE DETROIT OPERA HOUSE

The Detroit Opera Board of Directors began the first phase of fundraising for Detroit Opera House capital improvements in January 2020. This multi-phase capital campaign grew from recommendations identified in the facilities master plan completed by Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. Scheduled facility improvements and upgrades will shape the patron experience at the Opera House for years to come.

We look forward to sharing full details about the capital campaign in the coming months. Until then, we extend heartfelt thanks to the following donors who made contributions that enabled capital improvements to begin.

Leadership Gifts*

Ethan and Gretchen Davidson

William Davidson Foundation

National Endowment for the Humanities

Matthew and Mona Simoncini

Campaign Contributors*

Naomi André

Michael Azar

Nancy Azizi

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan

Gene P. Bowen

Elizabeth Brooks

Elliott Broom

Wayne Brown & Brenda Kee

Edward & Judith Christian

James and Elizabeth Ciroli

John and Doreen Cole

Hon. Avern Cohn* & Ms. Lois Pincus

Mr. Adam Crysler & Dr. Oxana Crysler

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Marvin & Betty Danto

Family Foundation

Ms. Julia Donovan Darlow & Hon. John C. O’Meara

Kevin Dennis & Jeremy Zeltzer

Shauna Ryder Diggs

Enrico & Kathleen Digirolamo

Mrs. Carol E. Domina

Mr. Cameron B. Duncan

Wendy L. Ecker

Mr. Michael Einheuser

Marianne T. Endicott

Alex and Lil Erdeljan Foundation

Fern Espino and Tom Short

Carl & Mary Ann Fontana

Mrs. Barbara Frankel* & Mr. Ronald Michalak

Mr. & Mrs. Herman Frankel

Toby Haberman

John & Kristan Hale

Dr. Devon Hoover

Eleanor & Alan Israel

Robert Jesurum and Christine Petrucci

The Karen & Drew Peslar Foundation

Velda Kelly

Ms. Mary Kramer

Michael & Barbara Kratchman

Denise J. Lewis

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Don Manvel

McGregor Fund

Benjamin Meeker & Meredith Korneffel, MD

Ali Moiin & Bill Kupsky

Donald & Antoinette Morelock

James and Ann Nicholson

Peter Oleksiak

Ms. Linda Orlans

Penske Corporation

Mr. Shane Pliska

Prof. Sara A. Pozzi Ph. D

Waltraud Prechter

Paul & Amy Ragheb

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner

Ankur Rungta & Mayssoun Bydon

Terry Shea & Seigo Nakao

The Skillman Foundation

Mr. Richard Slama

SOLO World Partners LLC

Richard Sonenklar & Gregory Haynes

The State of Michigan

Lorna Thomas, MD

Mr. & Mrs. C. Thomas Toppin

Jesse & Yesenia Venegas

R. Jamison & Karen Williams

Ellen Hill Zeringue

* Listing reflects gifts and pledges as of December 31, 2022 in alphabetical order.

AVANTI SOCIETY MEMBERS ENSURING THE FUTURE

Imagine a gift that outlives you, allowing future generations to experience and enjoy the world of opera and dance. That’s the goal of the Avanti Society, Detroit Opera’s planned gift recognition program.

The Italian word avanti means “ahead,” or “forward.” Detroit Opera’s Avanti Society represents a designated group of friends who have made plans to include Detroit Opera in their estates—whether by will, trust, insurance, or life income arrangement. We are grateful for the generosity and foresight of those listed below, who have chosen to declare their intentions and join the Avanti Society. Thank You Avanti Society Members!

Sarah Allison

Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya§

Mr. and Mrs. Agustin Arbulu§

Mr.* & Mrs. Chester Arnold§

Dr. Leora Bar-Levav

Mr. and Mrs. Lee Barthel

Mr. and Mrs. Brett Batterson§

Mr. W. Victor Benjamin

Mr.* and Mrs. Art Blair§

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bowlby

Mrs. Doreen Bull

Mr.* and Mrs. Roy E. Calcagno§

The Gladys L. Caldroney Trust

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Carson

Dr.* and Mrs. Victor J. Cervenak

Father Paul F. Chateau

Mary Christner

Mr. Gary L. Ciampa

Ms. Virginia M. Clementi

Hon. Avern Cohn* & Ms. Lois Pincus

Prof. Kenneth Collinson

Douglas and Minka Cornelsen

Dr. Robert A. Cornette§#

Mr.* and Mrs. Tarik Daoud§#

Mr. Randal Darby

Mr. Thomas J. Delaney

Walter and Adel Dissett

Ms. Mary J. Doerr#

Mrs. Helen Ophelia Dove-Jones

Mrs. Charles M. Endicott§#

Mr. Wayne C. Everly

David and Jennifer Fischer

Mr. and Mrs. Herb Fisher§

Mrs. Barbara Frankel* and Mr. Ronald Michalak§#

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Frankel§#

Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Freeman*

The Edward P. Frohlich Trust

Mrs. Jane Shoemaker French

Dr. and Mrs. Byron P. Georgeson§

Albert and Barbara Glover

Robert Green

Mr. Ernest Gutierrez

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Hagopian

Mr. Lawrence W. Hall§

Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Halperin§

Ms. Heather Hamilton

Charlene Handleman

Preston and Mary Happel

Mr. Kenneth E. Hart§

Mr. & Mrs. Eugene L. Hartwig§

Dr. & Mrs. Gerhardt A. Hein

Ms. Nancy B. Henk

Mrs. Fay Herman

Derek and Karen* Hodgson

Andrew and Carol Howell

Dr. Cindy Hung§

Eleanor and Alan Israel

Ms. Kristin Jaramillo§

Mr. Donald Jensen§

Mr. John Jesser

Mr. John Jickling

Maxwell and Marjorie Jospey

Mr. Patrick J.* & Mrs. Stephanie Germack Kerzic

Josephine Kessler

Edward and Barbara Klarman

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Klein#

Mr. & Mrs. Erwin H. Klopfer§#

Misses Phyllis & Selma Korn§ *

Myron and Joyce LaBan

Mr. Max Lepler & Mr. Rex Dotson

Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr.

Mr. Hannan Lis

Florence LoPatin

Mr. Stephen H. Lord

Ms. Denise Lutz

Laura and Mitchell Malicki

Ms. Jane McKee§

Bruce Miller

Drs. Orlando & Dorothy Miller§

Ms. Monica Moffat & Mr. Pat McGuire

Drs. Stephen & Barbara Munk

Miss Surayyah Muwwakkil

Mr. Jonathan F. Orser

Ms. Julie A. Owens

Mr. Dale J. Pangonis§

Mr. & Mrs. Charles A. Parkhill

Mr. Richard M. Raisin§

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner§#

Ms. Deborah Remer

Dr. Joshua Rest

Mr. & Mrs. James Rigby§

Mr. Bryan L. Rives

Ms. Patricia Rodzik§

David and Beverly Rorabacher

Dulcie Rosenfeld

Concetta Ross

Professor Alvin and Mrs. Harriet Saperstein

Ms. Susan Schooner§

Mark and Sally Schwartz

Drs. Heinz & Alice Platt Schwarz§

Mrs. Frank C. Shaler§

Ms. Ellen Sharp

Ms. Edna J Pak Shin

Mr. & Mrs. Harold Siebert

Mrs. Loretta Skewes

Ms. Anne Sullivan Smith

Ms. Phyllis Funk Snow§

Mr.* & Mrs. Richard Starkweather§#+

Ms. Mary Anne Stella

Mr. Stanford C. Stoddard

Dr. Jonathan Swift* & Mr. Thomas A. St. Charles§

Mr. Ronald F. Switzer§

Lillie Tabor

Mary Ellen Tappan Charitable Remainder Trust

Peter and Ellen Thurber

Alice* & Paul Tomboulian

Mr. Edward D. Tusset§

Jonathan and Salome E. Walton

Susan Weidinger

Mrs. Amelia H. Wilhelm§#

Mrs. Ruth Wilkins

Mr. Andrew Wise

Mr. & Mrs. Larry Zangerle

We express profound thanks to these Avanti Society members whose planned gifts to Detroit Opera have been received.

Robert G. Abgarian Trust

Mr.* and Mrs.*

Robert Allesee#

Serena Ailes Stevens

Mr. and Mrs. J. Addison Bartush§#*

Mr. and Mrs. Mandell Berman

Margaret and Douglas Borden

Charles M. Broh

Milena T. Brown

Charlotte Bush Failing Trust

Mary C. Caggegi

Allen B. Christman

Miss Halla F. Claffey

Robert C. and RoseAnn B. Comstock

Mary Rita Cuddohy

Marjorie E. DeVlieg

Nancy Dewar

James P. Diamond

Dr. David DiChiera

Mrs. Karen V. DiChiera

Dr. and Mrs. Charles H. Duncan§

Mrs. Anne E. Ford

Ms. Pamela R. Francis§

Mrs. Rema Frankel

Barbara Lucking Freedman

The Priscilla A.B. Goodell Trust

Freda K. Goodman Trust

Priscilla R. Greenberg, Ph.D.§#

Maliha Hamady

Patricia Hobar

Mary Adelaide Hester Trust

Gordon V. Hoialmen Trust

Carl J. Huss

H. Barbara Johnston

Mrs. Josephine Kleiner

Mr. & Mrs.

Arthur Krolikowski*§

Mr. Philip Leon

Dores and Wade McCree*

Lucie B. Meininger

Helen M. Miller

Ella M. Montroy

Ronald K. Morrison

Ruth Mott

Elizabeth M. Pecsenye

Clarice Odgers Percox Trust

Thomas G. Porter

Mitchell Romanowski

Ms. Joanne B. Rooney

Mr. & Mrs. Giles L. & Beverly Ross

Ms. Merle H. Scheibner

Ms. Laura Sias

Mrs. Marge Slezak

Edward L. Stahl

Dr. Mildred Ponder Stennis

Margaret D. Thurber

Mr. & Mrs. George & Inge Vincent§#+

Herman W. Weinreich

J. Ernest Wilde Trust

Helen B. Wittenberg

Mr. & Mrs. Walter & Elizabeth Work§

Joseph J. Zafarana

Mr. & Mrs. George M. Zeltzer§

KEY

§ Founding Members

# Touch the Future donors

* Deceased members

Membership in the Avanti Society is open to all who wish to declare their intention for a planned gift to Detroit Opera. Call Angela Nelson-Heesch to learn more, 313-237-3416.

DETROIT OPERA ADMINISTRATION & STAFF

Wayne S. Brown

PRESIDENT AND CEO

Yuval Sharon

GARY L. WASSERMAN

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Christine Goerke

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Roberto Kalb MUSIC DIRECTOR

DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS

Lane DeCamp, Chief Marketing & Development Officer

Julie Kim, Chief Artistic Production Officer

Alexis Means, Director of Operations and Patron Experience

Rock Monroe, Director of Safety and Security, DOH and DOHPC

Angela Nelson-Heesch, Director of Development

Matthew Principe, Director of Innovation

Andrea Scobie, Director of Education

Ataul Usman, Director of Human Resources

Patricia Walker, Chief Administrative Officer

Arthur White, Director of External Affairs

ADMINISTRATION

William Austin, Executive Assistant

Christy Gray, Office Administrator

Laura Nealssohn, Board Liaison

Timothy Lentz, Archivist & Director, Detroit Opera Archive and Resource Library

Catherine Staples, Associate Archivist, Detroit Opera Archive and Resource Library

Bryce Rudder, Digital Asset Manager & Senior Librarian, Detroit Opera Archive and Resource Library

COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

Branden Hood, Program Coordinator

Mark Vondrak, Associate Director/ Tour Manager

HOUSE OPERATIONS

Juan Benavides, Building Engineer

Kathie Booth, Volunteer Coordinator

Holly Clement, Events Manager

Jennifer George-Consiglio, Manager of Venue Operations

Dennis Wells, Facilities Manager

Emily White, Events Assistant

FINANCE

Kimberley Burgess, Accountant

Rita Winters, Accountant

HUMAN RESOURCES

Josh Kosakowski, Human Resources Coordinator

PATRON SERVICES

Development

Chelsea Kotula, Director of Institutional Giving

Valentino Peacock, Development Operations Coordinator

Samantha Scott, Manager of Annual Giving

Gwendolyn Sims, Database Operations Manager

Zach Suchanek, Stewardship Coordinator

Carmen Szurpicki, Major Gifts Officer

Marketing/Public Relations

Michael Hauser, Marketing Manager

Jennifer Melick, Communications and Media Relations Manager

Jon Rosemond, Marketing Operations Coordinator

Box Office

Amy Brown, Senior Manager of Ticketing and Box Office Operations

Evan Carr, Box Office Lead

Jeffery Sanders, Group Sales Associate

Ellen Smith, Box Office Associate

Stephanie Stoiko, Box Office Associate

ARTISTIC DEPARTMENT

Nathalie Doucet, Head of Music

Dagny Hill, Artistic Assistant

DANCE

Jon Teeuwissen, Artistic Advisor for Dance

Kim Smith, Dance Coordinator

INNOVATION

Austin Richey, Digital Media Manager and Storyteller

PRODUCTION

Administration

Elizabeth Anderson, Production Coordinator and Artistic Administrator

Kathleen Bennett, Production Administrator

Shannon Schroer, Production Assistant

Technical & Design Staff

Daniel T. Brinker, Technical Director

Moníka Essen, Property Master

Heather DeFauw, Assistant Lighting Designer/Assistant Technical Director

Billy Osos, Assistant Technical Director

Kaila Madison, Technical Assistant

Music

Suzanne Mallare Acton, Assistant Music Director and Chorus Master

Molly Hughes, Orchestra Personnel Manager

Jean Posekany, Orchestra Librarian

Costumes

Suzanne Hanna, Costume Director

Amelia Glenn, Wardrobe Supervisor

Patricia Sova, First Hand

Mary Ellen Shuffett, Fitting Assistant

Laura Brinker, Tailor

Maureen Abele, Dylan McBride, Paul Moran, Rachel Parrott, Lupe Vazquez, Stitchers

Wigs & Makeup

Elizabeth Geck, Crew Coordinator

Guilia Bernardini, Morgan Bogdanski, Erika Broderdorf, Kaitlyn Denzler, Denise Llombart, Mallory Maxton, Theodore Place, Denitra Townsend, Wig & Makeup Crew

Cedasha Randolf, Swing

Stage Crew

John Kinsora, Head Carpenter

Frederick Graham, Head Electrician

Gary Gilmore, Production Electrician

Pat McGee, Head Propertyman

Chris Baker, Head of Sound

Pat Tobin, Head Flyman

Mary Ellen Shuffett, Head of Wardrobe

IATSE Local #38 Stage Crew

IATSE Local #786 Wardrobe

DETROIT OPERA YOUTH CHORUS

Suzanne Mallare Acton, Director

Dianna Hochella, Assistant Director

Twannette Nash, Chorus Administrator

Joseph Jackson, Accompanist

Jane Panikkar, Preparatory Chorus Conductor

Maria Cimarelli, Preparatory Chorus Accompanist

SAFETY & SECURITY

Lt. Lorraine Monroe

Sgt. Demetrius Newbold

Officer Gary Cabean

Officer Dasaian Dupree

Officer A.M. Hightower

Officer Sullivan Horton

Detroit Opera is a proud member of

IN CASE OF EMERGENCY

Please observe the lighted exit signs located throughout the theater. In the event of an emergency, remain calm and walk, do not run, to the nearest exit. Ushers and security personnel are trained to assist. An emergency medical technician (EMT) is onsite during most events. Contact an usher or staff member if you need medical assistance.

GUEST SERVICES –Vincent Lobby

There are a variety of amenities located in guest services for your comfort and use. Wheelchairs, booster seats*, earplugs, assisted listening devices, feminine hygiene products, basic first aid items, and more are complimentary and available for your convenience. Coat check is also available. This area is located on the Madison Street side of the building. *Limited quantity

PHOTOGRAPHY, RECORDING, AND CELL PHONE USE

Photography and/or recording during any performance is strictly prohibited. Photographs taken in the lobby areas, before or after a performance, and during intermission are welcome. As a courtesy to all guests, please turn off all electronic devices and refrain from use during the performance.

RESTROOMS

Women’s restrooms are located off the Ford Lobby (Broadway Street entrance) and down the stairs, and on third floor (Madison Street entrance). Men’s restrooms are located under the Grand Staircase and on the third floor (Broadway Street side). There are two sets of elevators or stairs available to access all third-floor restrooms. All third-floor restrooms are wheelchair accessible (women’s restroom, press 3R in the elevator). There are single-use unisex wheelchair accessible restrooms on the first floor of the Broadway Street side of the building and the Madison Street side of the building. There is also a wheelchair accessible women’s restroom on the Broadway Street side of the building.

NO SMOKING

The Detroit Opera House is a non-smoking facility. This includes e-cigarettes, vapes, and other “smokeless” products.

USHERS

Ushers are stationed throughout the building to assist patrons as needed. Please direct questions, concerns, and feedback to them during your visit. Enjoy volunteering? Please go to guest services or the Detroit Opera website, www.detroitopera.org/volunteers, for information on becoming a volunteer.

LOST AND FOUND

During the performance, lost and found is located in guest services. Unclaimed items are logged and taken to the Safety and Security office after each performance. To inquire about a misplaced or lost item, please call 313-961-3500. Items left over 30 days will be discarded or donated.

RECORDING IN PROGRESS

Entry and presence on the event premises constitute your consent to be photographed, filmed, and/or otherwise recorded, and to the release, publication, exhibition, or reproduction of any and all recorded media for any purpose whatsoever in perpetuity in connection with Detroit Opera and its initiatives. By entering the event premises, you waive and release any claims you may have related to the use of recorded media of you at the event.

JUNE 10-24, 2023

Emerson String Quartet Michigan Final Farewell