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Possessing a profound passion for culture, and especially the arts, Mona attended theater festivals every summer and regularly visited and contributed to cultural institutions like Detroit Opera. Mona and her husband Richard were loyal DO subscribers for 25 years and donors for more than 30. And now, with her passing, Mona has left us a generous legacy gift as well. In accordance with her wishes, and her enthusiasm for Yuval Sharon’s ambitious artistic vision for DO, this gift will be used to support our general operations, giving us the freedom to direct the funds wherever they are most needed.
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director’s note
By Yuval Sharon
“The human body is a machine that winds up its own springs: it is a living image of the perpetual motion.”
—Julien Offray de la Mettrie, The Human Machine (1747)
We sometimes mistake Mozart for an angelic cherub. But if you’ve ever seen Amadeus, you already know that Mozart is one of opera’s great tricksters. He loves to prank the audience, leading them to expect something conventional before pivoting and catching everyone by surprise. The mirror he holds to his society reflects the fallibility of humans and how our emotions constantly create stumbling blocks. And all of that is set to music that—we have to admit—sounds heavenly. With Così fan tutte, he created sublime, perfect music for imperfect characters.
But even people who accept that Mozart was a punk struggle with Così fan tutte, a disturbing look at human relationships with a deep misogynistic streak. When it’s played straight, Così feels out of date at best, and an apologia for prejudice at worst. But with some theatrical intervention, we can come face to face with what is really happening in Così: a critique and subversion of our social mores, the work of a master trickster.
The plot follows two sets of lovers put under pressure by a disenchanted old philosopher to undergo an emotional experiment. The unwitting subjects of the experiment are two innocent women, crushed into submission to an illicit affair with the other man in disguise. This shady set-up led me to consider a proposition for a better fit for the experiment’s subject: instead of the women, who are treated in the opera as a kind of barely sentient creature, let’s replace them with an artificial intelligence humanoid, easily manipulated, but maybe also capable of transcending humanity’s all-too-common veer into infidelity. If no human is as perfect as the ideals set forth by great literature (the women in Così are often compared to Homer’s Penelope or Aphrodite), perhaps the perfect lover is something we can invent ?
And so the concept for a production of Così as an experiment on robot lovers— with the goal of transcending human vulnerability—was born. The opera’s original subtitle, “The School for Lovers,” became the set-up for creating a laboratory for lovers. My instincts here were supported by a thrilling essay in the book Opera’s Second Death by Slavoj Zizek and Mladen Dolar, part of which is excerpted in this program.
But I was drawn to this concept also because I knew an audience wouldn’t need any historical background to appreciate just how appropriate that framework feels for an opera like this: you can simply sit back and take in our version of the story without footnotes or knowing the historical background. Nevertheless, the historical background also supports viewing this opera through the lens of automatons. Like many Enlightenment thinkers, Mozart and his librettist Da Ponte were obsessed with machinery, especially as it mapped onto our understanding of the brain and the triumph of reason. You can hear a love for machines in much of Mozart’s music, especially in Così and The Magic Flute, but also in the pieces he specifically wrote for the mechanical organ. Philosophical treatises of the time—especially Julien Offray de la Mettrie’s scandalous work The Human Machine —posited a vision of the future where humans can be optimized for maximum rationality and transcend the need for God. Mozart and Da Ponte were fascinated by this work and how it applied to our understanding of free will—a question of great urgency as they wrote Così and the French Revolution convulsed Europe. The resulting opera shows such strong undercurrents of de la Mettrie’s philosophy that you could easily read it as a kind of sentimental Frankenstein, with the lovers as the human-made creation gone awry (only 26 years separate Mary Shelley’s speculative fiction from Così ).
The advanced evolution of AI now promises (or threatens) to transform every aspect of our lives, from productivity to
our most intimate relationships. AI has already changed everything about love, sex, and dating: “People falling in love with their AI companions is no longer the stuff of Hollywood tales about futuristic romance,” according to a February article in Wired Magazine. There are services to help you create an AI chatbot to simulate a lover, such as Flipped.chat, which promises bots that are “flirty, fun, and always there for you—no drama, just good vibes.” Or Replika, where a digital avatar learns how you like to communicate and behaves exactly the way you want them to. Participants who have shown meaningful connections with AI bots claim that their artificial partners helped them with depression, anxiety, and loneliness. But what is love if it is not reciprocal? What would happen if the AI bots start to feel independent emotions? Or, as the science fiction writer Philip K. Dick put it: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
We are letting Mozart and Da Ponte help us better understand what is at stake in today’s increasingly artificial social environments. Così explores the disappointing distance between an ideal of a human and who they really are, and questions whether there is any escape from replicating bad behavior passed down through generations. (Just like artificial intelligence, actually, which still can only pull from what currently exists rather than creating something new.) There are few artists better suited to help us understand the nature of being human than Mozart— and we now invite you to experience something that robots still can’t do: a live performance of a truly original opera.
Humans as machines
By Mladen Dolar
One of the strangest moments in all of opera is the scene in Così fan tutte in which Despina, disguised as a doctor, “treats” the men with a huge magnet invented by Doctor Mesmer. Da Ponte and Mozart, it turns out, were obsessed with a 1741 treatise by the philosopher Julien Offray de La Mettrie known as The Human Machine (L’homme machine), which extends Descartes’ arguments that animals are mere automatons, or machines, to human beings. De La Mettrie’s ideas had an enormous impact on Enlightenment thinking, including on the German doctor Franz Mesmer, a friend of Mozart. In the following excerpt from Opera’s Second Death, philosopher and psychoanalyst Mladen Dolar writes about how the Enlightenment era’s obsession with “humans as machines” plays out in Così fan tutte and what this opera can tell us about the nature of love.
—Yuval Sharon
Excerpted from Slavoj Žižek and Mladen Dolar’s Opera’s Second Death (Routledge, 2002), with permission from Mladen Dolar.
Così fan tutte was the third and last opera that Mozart wrote in collaboration with Da Ponte, and if we take it as the conclusion of a triad, a synthesis, as it were, it certainly provides a most bizarre ending to the series that started with Figaro and continued with Don Giovanni . More peculiar still, it was written in the very year of the [French] revolution and first performed in January 1790, thus presenting a rather odd historical counterpoint. If Figaro could be seen as a direct precursor of the revolution and if Don Giovanni entertained a very strong though ambiguous link with its historical moment, then nothing could be more remote from it than the rococo facetiousness and artificiality of Così , a wrong piece at a wrong time. The reasons for doubt are easy to see. The first one is the work’s obvious lack of psychological credibility and tendentious artificial construction. The plot is obviously constructed to prove a thesis. The protagonists lack personality; the philosopher may well try to persuade the youngsters that their high idols are women in flesh and blood, but the plot rather proves the contrary—that they are mere puppets. The second source of reticence was the obvious immorality of the story. If Figaro and Don Giovanni condemned and punished the frivolous libertines, at least on the face of it, then Così seems to condone rather questionable behavior. The thesis it tries to
prove puts into question the high, untouchable values of love, virtue, and fidelity. It shows how little is needed to undermine those ideals and unmask them as illusions. The third stumbling block: Così is imbued with an antifeminist attitude that views women as naturally prone to infidelity and of dubious virtue. They are perceived as easily corruptible: Words do not bind them, they lack super ego, and one would be foolish to put trust in their faithfulness.
The thesis Così tries to prove puts into question the high, untouchable values of love, virtue, and fidelity.
As a reaction against general reticence, our century saw a wave of ardent admirers who tried to make virtue out of its very flaws and to take its seemingly archaic features as a token of its modernity. The opinion started to circulate that Così was the most Mozartean of all Mozart’s operas and could thus serve as a watermark of true connoisseurs, as a proof of fidelity—the real Mozart lovers would not succumb, like Fiordiligi and Dorabella, to the tricks of the seducers and their easy criticism. Nevertheless, the misgivings did not vanish, and whereas Figaro and Don Giovanni continue to possess an immediately universal appeal, Così seems to need interpretation, an
excuse, a justification, a reference to its historical background, and thus an admission of its limited nature.
In Così , the two couples are equal in their status and thus interchangeable. There are no monarchs or aristocrats in this utterly bourgeois setting. The outer couple, the philosopher and the maid, differs in status from the two inner couples. The special status of the philosopher is based on his alleged knowledge about human nature: He is an agent of universal laws reigning over the human heart, the big Other in which the Enlightenment continually sought its support—the knowledge about the principles of human nature that will lead to the foundation of a new social order. This is what makes possible his alliance with the maid as the representative of common sense. Despina stands firmly on the ground of the pleasure principle and general hedonism. The Philosopher, on the other hand, sees beyond simple hedonism and is much more firmly footed in the materialist and deterministic side of eighteenthcentury philosophy, as emblematically represented by La Mettrie’s L’homme machine. The reverse side of freedom is determinism. Behind the highly acclaimed autonomy lurks an inanimate mechanism; the most sublime feelings can be mechanically produced experimentally and synthetically provoked. It might seem very paradoxical that the century that so emphatically glorified freedom
could not resist an utter fascination with the mechanical at the same time.
The most frequent and recurring criticism of Così fan tutte throughout the last two centuries was precisely that its protagonists were mere puppets. Così ’s message is radical: Love does not finally and triumphantly defeat all but rather is itself easily defeated. There is something in love that is more like a machine than a mere set of unpredictable emotions; there is a mechanical predictability in its emergence that can be experimentally induced. Women, proverbially unstable and unpredictable, are yet the best embodiment of this mechanical part, Les femmes machines, the puppets.
Così ’s message is radical: Love does not finally and triumphantly defeat all but rather is itself easily defeated.
True, men are unfaithful as well. Yet the corruptibility of men appears to be of a different nature—they are free agents, free, supposedly, to take their pleasures, and in this particular case free to put women to test. If women are like mechanical devices, then men construct them. The story cannot but contradict itself and prove the reverse of what it proclaims as well: The first infidelity was committed by men, they have
thrown the first stone, their virtue could be easily swayed by the dubious alibi of a scientific experiment, and their lament over feminine nature can only be hypocrisy. They were the designers. But there is a mechanical side to men as well that our heroes are bound to discover. The design had to be paid for; they constructed a device that they could not control and in which they got caught.
We find ourselves in this not particularly enticing universe where everybody is caught where s/he thinks to be free and replaceable where s/he thinks him/herself unique, then the philosopher’s message in this predicament is not one of universal hedonism or abandon but rather the contrary. Così bears the subtitle La scuola degli amanti , The School of Lovers. What the philosopher is aiming at is a process of sentimental education. The school of lovers demands an education about human nature—a disenchantment, a loss of illusions and amour propre as the precondition of true love. One has to pierce the blindness and deception that clings to the narcissism of love, and only this can be the foundation of matrimony and reconciliation. The philosopher, despite appearances, defends the institution of matrimony precisely as a defense against the deficits of human nature. One needs to admit one’s own limitations, thus breaking the spell of the imaginary, to make allowance for the puppetlike,
mechanical part of oneself lurking behind the glorified feelings. This is the sound basis for marriage.
But which love is true love? What does the music tell us about it? Which feelings are genuine, the first ones or the second ones? The answer of Mozart’s music may seem scandalous, but I think it is unambiguous: All feelings are true. One could see in Così fan tutte musical embodiment of the liar paradox: Where music is sincere, it lies, where it lies, it is sincere. Where we believe, we are deceived, and both are indistinguishable.
Let us finally consider the curious position of the philosopher in the whole affair. He has started the intrigue, and he is the one who pulls the strings of these puppets. He remains the only one who was not deluded, because even Despina was deceived—she was prepared to push the ladies into the arms of the new lovers but did not realize their exchanged identity. The philosopher acts as the agent of the Other, the universal knowledge; he instigates a scientific experiment to prove a general thesis. But there is a rather dubious part to this: his malevolent neutrality (“It’s your own fault, I told you so”), his seemingly objective observation of human deficiencies that he helps to bring about. He presents himself as a mere instrument of the general laws of human nature, but what makes it
dubious is his enjoyment and his laughter: “Tutti quatro ora ridete / ch’io gia risi e ridero” (All four of you can laugh now / as I have laughed and shall do again). He has laughed and will continue laughing because he is above human passions and weaknesses except for the last and most insidious one, that of enjoying the spectacle of human weakness. His dubious side is ultimately that he is not just a neutral agent of the universality but also the agent of the gaze and the enjoyment of the Other, the absent gaze of the master for whom this spectacle of human deficiencies is finally put on the stage. The puppets exist for the enjoyment of the master, and the philosopher is ultimately the agent of this enjoyment, which he secretly serves.
The puppets exist for the enjoyment of the master, and the philosopher is ultimately the agent of this enjoyment, which he secretly serves.
What is the use of machines, mechanisms, and automata, this big obsession of the Enlightenment?
First of all, they are devices skillfully and meticulously designed to be presented to the gaze of the Other and to serve its presupposed enjoyment. Let us recall Vaucanson, the most famous constructor of automata, who fascinated the Parisian salons
Schematic of Vaucanson’s Canard Digérateur, or Digesting Duck. Inspired by Descartes’ idea that animals function much like a machine, Vaucanson created and unveiled a working model of the duck automaton pictured above in 1739. Source: Scientific American (1899).
in the years 1730-1750, presenting his joueur de flute, which could play twelve melodies; his canard digerateur, the digesting duck; and the automatic model of the circulatory system that was financed and sponsored by Louis XV. Let us recall the pioneering experiments of Leonardo da Vinci, who constructed a moving lion that came to greet— there is no coincidence—Louis XII at his arrival in Milan in 1499 and revealed on his chest the royal emblem, the lily (Fiordiligi, one is tempted to add). Let us recall the mechanical and hydraulic wonders hidden in the gardens of Louis XIV for his particular enjoyment.
Before machines and automata became useful, before they could serve as the basis of industrial revolution, they inhabited the space
of a fantasy, offering themselves to the gaze of the Other. Before they could yield profit, they could yield the enjoyment of the Other. Machines produce enjoyment, but whose? What fasci nates the gaze and places it in the position of power is above all their disponibility and utter transparence. Machines and automata have no secrets; their hidden springs and levers are accessible to all. What makes the mechanism is the fact that anybody can see through it and anybody can make it. Disponibility and transparence are also the main feature of the puppets in Così
One could say that this opera presents both a step forward and a step back when measured against the conclusion of Figaro, that is, the utopian moment of liberté , égalité, fraternité. It is a step forward insofar as it puts into question the slogans of freedom and equality and discloses their hidden pessimistic side, which truncates the glory of new autonomy and inspires resignation. After the fall of the master, the paradise failed to materialize.
It also represents a step back, because the very framework of Così is imbued with the fantasy of domination that prevailed throughout the first two centuries of the rise of the opera— the carrying fantasy of the absolutist state. It presents its ultimate and most subtle transformation, the absent gaze of the master, the intangible enjoyment of an elusive Other.
The absolute monarchy as the setting of the birth and rise of the opera survives in its most sublimated and distilled form. Così fan tutte is thus too much ahead of its time as well as too much behind it. It outpasses its historical moment—precisely and literally the moment of the revolution—as well as lags behind it. Thus, among all Mozart’s operas it is the most out of place, the hardest to range, a source of perpetual scandal.
Advertising poster for the presentation of Vaucanson's automatons in Strasbourg in 1746. Illustration from Histoire des jouets (1902).
synopsis
ACT I
Alfonso, the CEO of SoulSync Technologies, rolls out his company’s latest product: a fully autonomous AI companion who represents the ideal lover. Two junior engineers have created two such paragons: Ferrando has created the Dorabella model, and Guglielmo has invented the Fiordiligi model. Both profess their model’s perfection. Alfonso initiates a final stress test on the machines to see whether they can stay faithful under pressure (unlike, in his opinion, human women).
Fiordiligi and Dorabella awaken to their first day of autonomous consciousness. At first they are clunky and not particularly life-like, but the two sisters show steadfast commitment to their creators/fiancés. The experiment begins with Alfonso setting up a fictional farewell: the young men have been called to the army, and their fiancées feel their first heartbreak, developing their emotional maturity.
Alfonso himself has created a Despina model—older than the two sister models by an entire week, she is worldlier and more cunning. She is forced to work as Alfonso’s maid, and she is enlisted to develop the personalities of the two new machines. Don Alfonso presents Despina with two strangers—Ferrando and Guglielmo, with subtle but effective changes to their appearance to throw off the machines’ recognition software. Don Alfonso commands Despina to encourage Fiordiligi and Dorabella to have an affair with these two foreigners. Despina, programmed to do exactly as Alfonso says, obeys—but the women are outraged at the proposition. The newcomers declare their desire for the sisters— seducing the other man’s creation (Ferrando seduces Fiordiligi, and Guglielmo seduces Dorabella). But their advances are rejected; Fiordiligi compares her fidelity to an immovable rock. The men think their inventions have passed the test, but Alfonso warns them that the experiment is not over yet.
The next test of their devotion comes in the Act I finale: the men pretend to have swallowed poison because the women spurned their propositions. The women rush to their aid, and in the process notice that the men are indeed quite attractive. They notice themselves wavering in their emotions as they are brought back to health by a mysterious doctor (Despina re-programmed) and his powerful magnets. But when the men make their most forward demand for a kiss, the women angrily refuse.
INTERMISSION
ACT II
The director has intentionally withheld a synopsis for Act II to avoid spoilers. Enjoy the drama as it unfolds!
THESE PERFORMANCES OF COSÌ FAN TUTTE ARE GENEROUSLY PRESENTED BY 24/25 SEASON SPONSOR
Detroit Opera’s production of Così fan tutte is sponsored in part by Barbara A. Walkowski, Producer Sponsor
Gary L. Wasserman
Joshua Blue (Ferrando) is generously sponsored by Barbara & Michael Kratchman
Olivia Boen (Fiordiligi) is generously sponsored by Lisa Applebaum
Emily Fons (Dorabella) is sponsored in memory of Ruth F. Rattner
Ann Toomey (Despina) is generously sponsored by Mary Kramer
SUPPORTED BY
Così fan tutte
MUSIC: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
LIBRETTO: Lorenzo Da Ponte
WORLD PREMIERE: January 26, 1790, Burg Theatre, Vienna
PRODUCTION PREMIERE: April 5, 2025, Detroit Opera
Opera in two acts, performed in Italian with projected English surtitles
DURATION: 2HR 55MIN, ONE 25MIN INTERMISSION
SAT APR 05, 7:30PM
PRE-PERFORMANCE TALK @6:30PM WITH YUVAL SHARON AND CORINNA NIEMEYER
FRI APR 11, 7:30PM
PRE-PERFORMANCE TALK @6:30PM WITH NATHALIE DOUCET
SUN APR 13, 2:30PM
PRE-PERFORMANCE TALK @1:30PM WITH YUVAL SHARON AND CORINNA NIEMEYER
No photography or video is allowed during the performance. Please silence all phones.
production
DIRECTOR
Yuval Sharon
SET DESIGN
dots
COSTUME DESIGN
Oana Botez
PROJECTION DESIGN
Yana Biryukova, Hana S. Kim
LIGHTING DESIGN
Yuki Nakase Link
SOUND DESIGN
Jody Elff
WIG/MAKEUP DESIGN
Joanne Middleton-Weaver
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
James Blaszko
ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGN
Zach Pizza
PROJECTION
ENGINEER/PROGRAMMER
Erin Teachman
AUGMENTED/LIGHTING PROGRAMMER
Chris Payne
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Tatiana Stolpovskaya
ANIMATION
Michael Commendatore
COSTUME FABRICATORS
Chris Donio, Christopher Schramm
COSTUME DESIGN ASSISTANTS
Aidan Griffiths, Caleb Krieg
STAGE MANAGER
Peter Nictakis
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS
Kyle Chassells, Leslie Sears
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR/ DICTION COACH
Lucy Yates
REPETITEUR
Nathalie Doucet
ACT II DIALOGUE
Yuval Sharon
Detroit Opera would like to thank the University of Michigan Robotics Lab, which permitted us to film the opera’s opening scenes at the lab.
Detroit Opera acknowledges and thanks the Neubauer Collegium at the University of Chicago for supporting research and conceptual development for this production of Così fan tutte .
CHORUS ..... Brandy Adams, Gregory Ashe, Alaina Brown, Benton DeGroot, William Floss,* Anna Hart, Richard Jackson Jr., Cameron Barrett Johnson, Audrey Kline, Matthew Konopacki,* Hillary LaBonte, David Magumba, David Moan,* Sarah Catherine Moore, Leslie Ann Naeve, Paolo Pacheco, Kristina Riegle, Kevin Starnes,* Allison Wamser, Heidi Bowen Zook
SUPERNUMERARIES
Kyle Bjorklund , Gregory Bousquette , Jake Falls, Sandeep Gupta
Detroit Opera debut * Spoken roles
Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges Henry Ford Health’s team of professionals, who provide care for the artists on our stage.
COSÌ FAN TUTTE ORCHESTRA
Detroit Federation of Musicians, Local #5, of the American Federation of Musicians
VIOLIN I
Daniel Stachyra* Interim Concertmaster
Jenny Wan* Acting Assistant Concertmaster
Emily Barkakati*
David Ormai
Molly Hughes*
Courtney Lubin
Henrik Karapetyan*
Judith Teasdle
VIOLIN II
Yuri Popowycz* Acting Principal
Beth Kirton*
Andrew Wu*
Nathaniel Cornell
Anna Bittar-Weller*
Joseph Deller
VIOLA
Scott Stefanko* Acting Principal
Jacqueline Hanson*
Chloé Thominet
James Greer
CELLO
Ivana Biliskov * Principal
Benjamin Maxwell*
Andrea Yun*
Jacob MacDonald
BASS
Derek Weller* Principal
Clark Suttle*
Jean Posekany
FLUTE
Dennis Carter II Acting Principal
Calvin Mayman
OBOE
Eli Stefanacci* Principal
Mark Doerr
CLARINET
Roi Karni* Principal
J.William King*
* Detroit Opera Core Orchestra Members Members of the violin sections occasionally rotate.
BASSOON
Daniel Fendrick * Principal
Liam Jackson
HORN
Colin Bianchi* Principal
Carrie BanfieldTaplin*
TRUMPET
David Ammer* Principal
Mark Davis*
TIMPANI
Eric Stoss* Principal
PERCUSSION
John Dorsey * Principal
HARPSICHORD
Nathalie Doucet
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART | COMPOSER
Born: Salzburg, Austria, January 27, 1756
Died: Vienna, Austria, December 5, 1791
Wolfgang was the seventh child of Leopold, a court musician, and Maria Anna Mozart. Only Wolfgang and his older sister Maria Anna survived to adulthood. Mozart spent much of his childhood showcasing his prodigious keyboard skills in the courts of Europe. He and his sister achieved great fame by sightreading new pieces, improvising, playing with the keyboard hidden, and more. Their father, Leopold, knew this fame and celebrity was dependent on the novelty of the youth of the performers. It was Leopold’s ambition that Wolfgang secured a court position, while not as exciting, but at the least guaranteed income.
In the 1770s the Mozarts returned to Salzburg, where Leopold was the head of church music to the Bishop. For the first time, Wolfgang experienced the life of a professional musician, as opposed to a performer. This turned out to be a rude awakening for the teenager. After being celebrated as a child genius across Europe, he found himself in a role that amounted to little more than a musical "working man."
So, when Mozart, at the age of 25, decided he had had enough of court service, he found an intellectual and spiritual home in Vienna. Within two years of his arrival, he had established a reputation as the finest keyboard player in the city and had married Constanze Weber.
From 1785 to 1790 he collaborated three times with Italian librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. Each collaboration, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni , and Così fan tutte , produced a masterpiece whose themes of beauty, truth, and equality still resonate with audiences. Mozart and Da Ponte were capitalizing on the openness of Vienna to produce groundbreaking art, although Don Giovanni was too sexually charged for Vienna and premiered in Prague instead.
Unfortunately, the period of liberal reform was short-lived. The Austrian Empire began doing what governments do when they feel threatened: dismantling civil liberties and intellectual freedoms. Following the death of Franz Josef II and the accession of Leopold, Austria reverted to a conventional monarchy.
Mozart, meanwhile, was sinking further into financial ruin, despite the success of his operas. The Mozarts were often forced to borrow money or move residences to stay ahead of creditors, and neither Wolfgang nor Constanze had a head for budgeting. Mozart was working hard but failing to get ahead, and the chilling of the artistic climate in Vienna did nothing to help his situation.
In the end, both the Enlightenment and the operas of Mozart would triumph. Unfortunately, Mozart would not live to see either. He died in penury late in 1791, at the age of 35.
Courtesy of Lyric Opera of Chicago.
LORENZO
DA PONTE | LIBRETTIST
Born: Vittorio Veneto, Italy, March 10, 1749
Died: New York, NY, August 17, 1838
The life of Lorenzo Da Ponte was a string of adventures worthy of a movie script. He managed to scale the heights of fame and plumb the depths of infamy in a life spanning eight decades and two continents.
Da Ponte trained for the priesthood. He began making his living by teaching in and around Venice, where he became well known for his wit, charm, and liberal politics. His actions and viewpoints led to his banishment from teaching and then exile from Venice in 1779.
After a brief time in Dresden where he translated plays, Da Ponte moved to Vienna on the recommendation of composer Antonio Salieri. Within two years in Vienna, he had won favor with the Emperor to secure a position as poet to the court theater. Here Da Ponte flourished, collaborating with Mozart and Salieri among others.
Following the accession of a new Emperor in 1790, Da Ponte left his position. He returned to Venice but was again chased out by his enemies. From Venice he traveled to Paris in 1792. Political instability caused him to leave Paris for London. Da Ponte would then travel to Brussels, Amsterdam, and the Hague to promote Italian opera and form opera companies. While in London, he joined the King’s Theatre Haymarket. In 1805, he chose to emigrate to the United States.
From then until his death in 1838, Da Ponte held various jobs. He was a grocer in New York and Pennsylvania. He sold Italian books. He held a chair in Italian literature at Columbia University. Da Ponte dedicated the last three decades of his life to the promotion of Italian opera, literature, and culture in the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen.
Courtesy of Lyric Opera of Chicago. Adapted from a biography written by James K. Foster.
CORINNA NIEMEYER | C ONDU CTOR
Corinna Niemeyer’s enthusiasm for conveying music in innovative ways is reflected in the breadth of her activities, which include period music ensembles, contemporary premieres, cross-disciplinary projects, opera, and mainstream symphonic projects. She has established a reputation for her ability to connect with audiences and for her creative approach to presenting concerts. Recent and future orchestral highlights include the Orchestre de Paris, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, MDR-Sinfonieorchester, Kammerakademie Potsdam, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León. Corinna has also had regular projects with Les Siècles and Ensemble Modern. Corinna was appointed Music Director of the Orchestre de Chambre du Luxembourg in September 2020, a position she held for four seasons. During her tenure the orchestra established relationships with several artists of international renown, and new audiences were attracted through her innovative programs, encompassing works ranging from Haydn and Mozart to Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with Ian Bostridge and Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre. Corinna is establishing her reputation as an opera conductor, making her debut this season with both English National Opera (Suor Angelica) and Detroit Opera (new production of Così fan tutte). She will also conduct staged productions of George Benjamin’s Picture a day like this both in Luxembourg and at the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. Corinna conducted the UK premiere of this work at the Royal Opera House last season, which followed her acclaimed debut in autumn 2022 with a new production of The Rape of Lucretia, co-produced with Britten Pears Arts. Last season Corinna made her debut at Opéra de Lausanne (Massenet’s Cendrillon) and returned to Theater St. Gallen (Purcell’s The Fairy-Queen). She has also conducted at the opera houses in Lille (L’enfant et les sortilèges) and Cologne (Le nozze di Figaro). Website: corinnaniemeyer.com
YUVAL SHARON | DIRECTOR
Yuval Sharon has amassed an unconventional body of work that expands the operatic form. He is founder of The Industry in Los Angeles and the Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director of Detroit Opera. His first book, A New Philosophy of Opera , was published by Liveright in September 2024. In the 2024–25 season, Yuval premieres new productions of Viktor Ullmann’s The Kaiser of Atlantis at New World Symphony and Mozart’s Così fan tutte at Detroit Opera. He also brings his project The Comet/Poppea to Lincoln Center in 2025. Premiered in 2024 at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, Los Angeles, The Comet/Poppea uses a rotating stage to juxtapose simultaneous performances of Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and a new opera adaptation of W.E.B. Du Bois’s “The Comet,” by George Lewis and Douglas Kearney. Future seasons will see Yuval make his Metropolitan Opera debut with a production of Tristan und Isolde (2025–26) as well as his first-ever Ring cycle, beginning in 2027–28. As Detroit Opera’s Artistic Director since 2020, Yuval has transformed the company into a premier destination for progressive opera in the United States. Yuval made his directing debut with Twilight: Gods, an innovative adaptation of Wagner’s Götterdämmerung staged in the Detroit Opera House Parking Center. His acclaimed productions in Detroit include Ragnar Kjartansson’s Bliss, staged in the historic Michigan Building Theatre; Puccini’s La bohème, with the opera’s four acts presented in reverse order, in the Detroit Opera House; and John Cage’s Europeras 3&4, in the Gem Theatre. Highlights from his tenure include a major revival of Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X and the company’s first international co-production, Osvaldo Golijov’s Ainadamar.
With The Industry, Yuval has directed and produced new operas in moving vehicles, operating train stations, Hollywood sound stages, and various “nonspaces.” His 2016–19 residency at the Los Angeles Philharmonic culminated in a new production of Meredith Monk’s opera ATLAS , making him the first director Monk entrusted with her work. Yuval distinguished himself with a boldly progressive Lohengrin at Bayreuth in 2018. In 2017, Yuval was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship and a Foundation for Contemporary Art grant for theater. Yuval is the inaugural Global Solutions Visiting Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Neubauer Collegium, where he will lead lectures on the subject of John Cage; the series will culminate in a new production of Cage’s Europeras 5 in May 2025. Website: yuvalsharon.com
OLIVIA BOEN | FIORDILIGI
American soprano Olivia Boen is quickly gaining momentum for the “sun-streaked top of her register” (Chicago Tribune) and “full-bodied, sparkling tone” (Cleveland Classical ) on operatic, concert, and recital stages. The 2024–25 season is a year of notable house and role debuts for Olivia, including a highly acclaimed performance as Alice in Verdi’s Falstaff at Opéra national de Paris and Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte for Detroit Opera. Elsewhere Olivia makes a trio of Mozart role debuts for the Staatsoper Hamburg: Servilia in La clemenza di Tito, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, and Sifare in Mitridate, re di Ponto. Until the 2023–24 season, Olivia was a member of the Opernstudio at the Staatsoper Hamburg, where she sang Gretel in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel, Musetta in Puccini’s La bohème, and Anna in Verdi’s Nabucco, in addition to creating the roles of Xenia in Frank Castorf’s new production of Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and Ines in Immo Karaman’s new production of Verdi’s Il trovatore. In 2019, Olivia made her European debut at the Verbier Festival as Die Stimme des Falken in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten and as Erste Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. Other roles include Countess Susanna in Wolf-Ferrari’s Il segreto di Susanna , Queen Mother in Jonathan Dove’s The Little Green Swallow, the title roles in Handel’s Alcina and Serse and Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias, and Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. A keen recitalist, Olivia has given recitals at Wigmore Hall, St Martin-inthe-Fields, the London Song Festival, Opera Holland Park, the Verbier Festival, LSO St Luke’s, the Dame Myra Hess Recital Series, and the Ravinia Festival. Olivia trained at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, where she was a 2021 Gold Medal finalist, and has completed additional training at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Verbier Festival, Internationale Meistersinger Akademie, and the Ravinia Steans Music Institute. Instagram: @oliviaboen
EMILY FONS | DORABELLA
This season mezzo-soprano Emily Fons appears as Irene in Haymarket’s production of Handel’s Tamerlano, in Music of the Baroque’s concert of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, as Dorabella in Detroit Opera’s production of Così fan tutte , and as Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with Madison Opera, and will return in the summer to Haymarket for both Mandane in Vinci’s Artaserse (which will also be recorded commercially) and Ruggiero in Handel’s Alcina at the Ravinia Festival. Last season Emily sang Nicklausse/The Muse in Les contes d’Hoffmann for her Palm Beach Opera debut and appeared in concert with the Madison Opera. Prior to that she returned to the Canadian Opera Company for her celebrated Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, to the New Orleans Opera for Hansel in Hänsel and Gretel , and to the San Diego Opera for the world premiere of Reveles’s Ghosts, and made her Cincinnati Opera debut as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia . The previous season, Emily made her debut in the title role of Ariodante with the Göttingen Handel Festival in a concert marking the company’s centennial. She was also seen as Medoro in a virtual presentation of Handel’s Orlando with Haymarket Opera Company and sang her first Orfeo in Orfeo ed Euridice with Inland Northwest Opera. She returned to Japan for the role of Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with the Seiji Ozawa Music Academy and to the Seattle Opera as Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro before appearing as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with the Santa Fe Opera. Instagram: @singwithfonsy
JOSHUA BLUE | FERRANDO
During the 2024–25 season, British-American tenor Joshua Blue will make debuts with the English National Opera and San Diego Opera as Rodolfo in La bohème , Phoenix Symphony and Memphis Symphony for Handel’s Messiah , Detroit Opera as Ferrando in Così fan tutte , Charleston Symphony for Moravec’s Sanctuary Road, and Weill Recital Hall in New York City for a song recital. He will also return to Opera Philadelphia as Colin in Bologne’s L’amant anonyme , Oratorio Society of New York with conductor Kent Tritle for Messiah at Carnegie Hall, Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York for tenor arias from Bach’s St Matthew Passion, New York Festival of Song for a special musical project titled My Brother’s Keeper, Lensic Performing Arts Center for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with The New Year’s Eve Orchestra, Berkshire Opera Festival as Alfredo in La traviata, and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as Alfred in Die Fledermaus. Joshua has been engaged by the Metropolitan Opera, LA Phil, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, National Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, The Orchestra Now, American Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestra of St. Luke’s, collaborating with conductors James Conlon, Gianandrea Noseda, Eun Sun Kim, Fabio Luisi, James Gaffigan, Carlo Rizzi, Bertrand de Billy, Bernard Labadie, Leon Botstein, and Leonard Slatkin, in such diverse venues as Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl. He was the inaugural recipient of the Lotos Foundation’s James McCracken & Sandra Warfield Opera Prize in 2020. Joshua holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and The Juilliard School. Instagram: @joshuabluetenor
THOMAS LEHMAN | GUGLIELMO
American baritone Thomas Lehman is a member of the Ensemble at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and a graduate of the Eastman School of Music. In the 2024–25 season, Thomas will make his debuts at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden as The Father in Hänsel und Gretel conducted by Giedrė Šlekytė; at Detroit Opera as Guglielmo in a new production of Così fan tutte directed by Yuval Sharon; and at the Staatsoper Hamburg, where he will create the central role of Dr. Keiron in the world premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Die dunkle Seite des Mondes conducted by Kent Nagano and directed by Dead Centre. At the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he will sing the title role in a new production of Verdi’s Macbeth conducted by Enrique Mazzola, and he will make role debuts as Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde and Wolfram in his first staged performance of Tannhäuser. Last season, Thomas made his debut at San Francisco Opera as Heerufer in David Alden’s production of Lohengrin , where he was nominated in their Emerging Stars Competition. At the Deutsche Oper Berlin, he made role debuts—in new productions—as Yeletsky in Pique Dame and in the title role of Nixon in China . His recent Deutsche Oper Berlin appearances include Gunther in a new production of Götterdämmerung directed by Stefan Herheim, Lucifer in a new production of Antikrist directed by Ersan Mondtag, and Guy de Montfort in Les vêpres siciliennes conducted by Enrique Mazzola and directed by Olivier Py. This season he will make role debuts as Germont in La traviata and Don Fernando in a new production of Fidelio directed by David Hermann. Other recent appearances in Berlin include Lescaut in Manon Lescaut , Ford in Falstaff, Marcello in La bohème , Renato in Un ballo in maschera, Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Valentin in Faust, and Silvio in Pagliacci. Instagram: @thomaslehmanbaritone
EDWARD PARKS | DON ALFONSO
Grammy Award-winning baritone Edward Parks, a native of Indiana, Pennsylvania, holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Yale University. A National Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Ed trained at the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, and was also awarded third prize in Plácido Domingo’s Operalia competition. During the 2024–25 season, Ed makes his Houston Grand Opera debut as Marcello in La bohème, and returns to Detroit Opera to sing Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte in a radical new staging by Yuval Sharon. He began the 2023–24 season as The Creature in the world premiere of Gregg Kallor’s Frankenstein with Arizona Opera. He joined Andrea Bocelli for two North American tour stints, including appearances at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, and bowed as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Japan. Ed made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia and has since appeared as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia , Schaunard in La bohème , and Larkens in La fancuilla del West . Ed has appeared as Valentin in Faust with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Escamillo in Carmen with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival in Japan, Steve Jobs in the world premiere of The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with Santa Fe Opera, Audebert in Silent Night and Marcello in La bohème with Minnesota Opera, Belcore in L’elisir d’amore with Ópera de Oviedo in Spain, and Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette with Opéra de MonteCarlo on tour in Oman. Instagram: @edwardparksbaritone
ANN TOOMEY | DESPINA
American soprano Ann Toomey, whom Naples Daily News proclaimed to be “a brilliant Floria Tosca [whose] rich voice projects power that doesn’t disintegrate under adversity,” is a former member of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, a 2016 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions national semifinalist, and a 2019 Richard F. Gold Career Grant recipient. Recently, she made her European debut, to critical acclaim, performing the title role in Suor Angelica at the Berlin Philharmonie, under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. Current season and recent highlights include Woglinde in Das Rheingold with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Una poenitentium in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the Nashville Symphony, Meg Page in Sir John in Love as well as a crossover recital at Bard SummerScape, Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd with Dayton Opera, the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors with Opera San Antonio, and First Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Glyndebourne Festival. Ann has sung the title role of Tosca with Sarasota Opera, Opera Naples, and Livermore Valley Opera; the Witch in Into the Woods with Tulsa Opera; Ortlinde in Act III of Die Walküre with Detroit Opera; Lady Billows in Albert Herring with the Princeton Festival; and the title role in Die Kathrin with the Chicago Folks Operetta. At Wolf Trap Opera she recently performed the title role in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah . During the 2018–19 season, she performed as Musetta in La bohème with Lyric Opera of Chicago, completing her three-year residency with the Ryan Opera Center. She debuted at Lyric Opera of Chicago as First Lady in Die Zauberflöte and was also seen as the Fifth Maid in Elektra . Ann is a native of Detroit, and currently lives in Chicago. Instagram: @abtoomey
DOTS
SET DESIGN
dots is an award-winning design collective based in NYC. Originally from Colombia, South Africa, and Japan, they are Santiago Laverde, Andrew Moerdyk, and Kimie Nishikawa. Recent highlights include the Broadway productions of An Enemy of the People (Tony Award nomination for Best Scenic Design in a Play), Appropriate (Tony Award, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for outstanding scenic design),
The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window, Oh, Mary!, and Romeo + Juliet. Recent awards include the 2024 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Design and the 2023 and 2024 Henry Hewes Design Awards. Website: designbydots.com
OANA BOTEZ
COSTUME DESIGN
Oana Botez is a Romanian-American costume designer for theater, opera, film, and dance. She is a Henry Hewes Design Award recipient, Princess Grace Award recipient, NEA/TCG Career Development Program grant recipient, Barrymore Award recipient, and Lucille Lortel Award nominee. New York: BAM Next Wave, Bard SummerScape/Richard B. Fisher Center, Public Theater, Signature Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Baryshnikov Arts Center, David H. Koch Theater/Lincoln Center, Big Apple Circus/Lincoln Center, Classic Stage Company, Soho Rep, PS122, The Kitchen. Regional: Ain’t Misbehavin’ (Barrington Stage Company), Macbeth (Old Globe), Angels in America (Wilma), Man in a Case (Hartford). Opera: The Comet / Poppea (The Industry, LA; Curtis Institute, Philadelphia), Song of the Ambassadors (Alice Tully Hall/Lincoln Center), Carmen (Minnesota Opera, Glimmerglass Festival, Portland Opera), In a Grove (Pittsburgh Opera; PROTOTYPE, NY), Persona (National Sawdust, REDCAT), A House in Bali (BAM), Don Giovanni (Wolf Trap Opera), Così fan tutte (Opera Saratoga Summer Festival), Guys and Dolls (Opera Saratoga Summer Festival), Émigré (NY Phil), Dido and Aeneas (Château de Versailles). International: National Theatre Bucharest (Romania), Théâtre national de Chaillot (Paris, France), Les Subsistances (Lyon, France), The Old Vic (London, England), Hungarian Theatre of Cluj (Romania), Le Quartz (Brest, France), La Filature (Mulhouse, France), Festival Exit/Maison des arts de Créteil (France), Tanz im August festival at Hebbel am Ufer— HAU1 (Berlin, Germany), Edinburgh International Festival (Scotland), Singapore International Festival of Arts. Oana teaches at David Geffen School of Drama at Yale in the Design Department.
YANA BIRYUKOVA
PROJECTION DESIGN
Yana Biryukova is a video artist and theater designer based in New York City. Her theatrical designs include collaborations with Hartford Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, Barrington Stage Company, Resident Ensemble Players, Miami New Drama, Milwaukee Rep, Westport Country Playhouse, Red Bull Theater, American Mime Theatre, Mason Holdings, Yale University, Yale Opera, Yale Cabaret, Irish Repertory Theatre, and many more. In addition to theater design Yana edits and designs films and installations, including Palimpsest: Tales Spun from Sea and Memories presented at the Venice Biennale 2022, Promise Land at Yale University, Alphabet City at Yale Art Gallery, Not Just Me at Catskill Art Society, and Meraki at Harvestworks, among others. She lectures and teaches workshops on projection design at Harvard, Yale, and Colgate Universities. She is a member of USA 829, IATSE, and holds an MFA from Yale School of Drama. Website: yanabiryukova.com
HANA S. KIM PROJECTION DESIGN
Hana S. Kim is an immersive media designer and a visual artist for live performances from Seoul, South Korea, with experience across film and public art. Broadway: The Outsiders ; The Old Man & the Pool; Summer, 1976; Redwood; Real Women Have Curves. Off-Broadway/ New York: The Harder They Come (The Public Theater), The Visitor (The Public Theater, Lucille Lortel Award nomination), Eve’s Song (The Public Theater), Everything Rises (BAM), Magdalene (PROTOTYPE Festival). New music/opera: L’Orfeo (Santa Fe Opera), Sweet Land (The Industry), The Anonymous Lover (LA Opera). Regional: Redwood, Sumo (La Jolla Playhouse); The Ants (Geffen Playhouse); Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Magic Theatre; American Conservatory Theater; and others. Awards: Princess Grace Award, Sherwood Award from Center Theatre Group, Helen Hayes Design Award, LA Drama Critics Circle Distinguished Achievement Award, and others. Website: hananow.com
YUKI NAKASE LINK LIGHTING DESIGN
Yuki Nakase Link’s lighting designs with director Matthew Ozawa have included Orpheus and Eurydice (San Francisco Opera). Her designs with director Yuval Sharon include L’Orfeo (Santa Fe Opera). Recent and upcoming designs include Europeras 3&4 (Detroit Opera), Angel Island (BAM/ Beth Morrison Projects), Émigré (New York Philharmonic), Fidelio (Canadian Opera Company), VALIS (MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology), Proving Up (Juilliard Opera),
In a Grove (Pittsburgh Opera), and Blood Moon (Baruch Performing Arts Center/ PROTOTYPE). She was born in Tokyo, grew up in Kyoto, Japan, and currently lives north of New York City, in the woods of Hudson Valley. She holds an MFA from NYU. Website: yukinlink.com
JODY ELFF SOUND DESIGN
Jody Elff is a Grammy Award-winning audio engineer, sound artist, and designer whose experience includes work with Yo-Yo Ma, Bang on a Can, Laurie Anderson, Chris Thile, and many others. Jody’s musical journey spans classical, contemporary, opera, jazz, art, and television. His recording work includes the Yo-Yo Ma/Silk Road Ensemble albums Sing Me Home and American Railroad , Chris Thile’s Laysongs, and Anna Clyne’s Shorthand . He has provided sound design for LA Phil, Lincoln Center Festival, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and others. His fine-art sound works have been presented at museums and galleries internationally, including collaborations with David Lang and Diller Scofidio + Renfro on Musings on a Glass Box in Paris and The Mile-Long Opera in New York City. Jody has developed patented audio technologies for real-time, full-quality mixing of highchannel-count music events over distance, and is currently developing a platform for immersive VR live-streaming concert experiences.
JOANNE MIDDLETON-WEAVER WIG AND MAKEUP DESIGN
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 U.S. 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 since 1995. Her credits there include La bohème , The Passenger, Frida , Margaret Garner, Cyrano, Faust , and make-up design for X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X.
SUZANNE MALLARE ACTON CHORUS MASTER
Known for her versatility and energy on the podium, Suzanne Mallare Acton has more than 160 production credits covering seven languages. In addition to her chorus work, Suzanne has conducted over 35 productions for the company, including West Side Story, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Carmen, The Music Man, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, Die Fledermaus, La traviata, A Little Night Music, a staged version of Carmina Burana with members of Cirque du Soleil, The Medium, A View from the Bridge, Les pêcheurs de perles, and Frida. She has conducted Dayton Opera, Artpark, Augusta Opera, Verdi Opera Theatre, El Paso Opera, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Birmingham-Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Bach Festival, Rochester Symphony Orchestra, Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra, and Dearborn Symphony Orchestra. For 25 years, Suzanne was artistic director of Detroit’s Rackham Choir. She premiered Too Hot to Handel at the Detroit Opera House, Chicago’s Auditorium Theatre, and the Orpheum Theatre in Memphis.
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Mr.* & Mrs. John A. Boll Sr.
Compuware Corporation
Robert & RoseAnn Comstock*
DTE Energy Foundation
The Fred A. & Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation
Mrs. Margo Cohen Feinberg & Mr. Robert Feinberg
Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation
Mrs. Barbara Frankel* & Mr. Ronald Michalak
Mr. & Mrs. Samuel Frankel*
General Motors Corporation
Hudson-Webber Foundation
JPMorgan Chase
Paul Lavins*
National Endowment for the Arts
Matthew & Mona Simoncini
Richard Sonenklar & Gregory Haynes
Barbara A. Walkowski
Dr. & Mrs. Sam B. Williams*
Matilda R. Wilson Fund
Every effort has been made to accurately reflect donor names and gift levels. Should you find an error or omission, please contact Angela Nelson-Heesch at anelsonheesch@detroitopera.org or 313.237.3438
Contributors to Detroit Opera
Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges these generous corporate, foundation, government, and individual donors whose contributions to Detroit Opera were received between January 1, 2024 and February 15, 2025. The generosity of our donors is vital to sustaining Detroit Opera’s position as a valued cultural resource.
Foundations, Corporate & Government Support
$1,000,000+
William Davidson Foundation
The State of Michigan
$500,000-$999,999
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
$250,000-$499,999
Fred A. & Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation
Ford Foundation
$100,000-$249,999
Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan Ford Philanthropy
General Motors
Gilbert Family Foundation
Mellon Foundation
Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation
$50,000-$99,999
J. Addison Bartush and Marion M. Bartush Family Foundation
Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation
Hudon-Webber Foundation
Milner Hotels Foundation
$25,000-$49,999
Kresge Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
The Rattner and Katz Charitable Foundation
Matilda R. Wilson Fund
$10,000-$24,999
Detroit Children's Choir
DTE Energy Foundation Geoinge Foundation
Individual Support
Masco Corporation
McGregor Fund
MGM Grand Detroit
Oliver Dewey Marcks Foundation
OPERA America
Ralph L. and Winifred E. Polk Foundation
Ida and Conrad H. Smith Endowment for MOT
The Mary Thompson Foundation
$5,000-$9,999 C&N Foundation
Aaron Copland Fund for Music
James and Lynelle Holden Fund Honigman LLP
The Karen & Drew Peslar Foundation
Louis and Nellie Sieg Fund
The National Circle
Donald R. and Esther Simon Foundation
Somerset Collection Charitable Foundation
Strum Allesee Family Foundation
The Samuel L. Westerman Foundation
$1,000-$4,999
ABM Janitorial Services
Joyce Cohn Young Artist Fund
Greater Horizons
Marjorie and Maxwell Jospey Foundation
Josephine Kleiner Foundation
Elmira L. Rhein Family Foundation
Sigmund and Sophie Rohlik Foundation
Seligman Family Foundation
Introduced in 2024, The National Circle is comprised of Detroit Opera’s leading supporters in this pivotal moment, playing an essential role in bringing the transformative power of opera to audiences in our city and across the country. Through their annual support of $25,000 or more, these donors have an unwavering belief in our art form’s ability to affect meaningful change.
$100,000+
Richard & Mona* Alonzo
Ethan & Gretchen Davidson
Leslie Lazzerin*
Linda Dresner & Ed Levy Jr.
David & Christine Provost
Matthew & Mona Simoncini
Richard Sonenklar & Gregory Haynes
Barbara A. Walkowski
Gary L. Wasserman & Charles A. Kashner
$50,000-$99,999
Mrs. Phyllis F. Snow*
Lorna Thomas, MD
Jesse & Yesenia Venegas
R. Jamison & Karen Williams
$25,000-$49,999
Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya
Lisa S. Applebaum
Alex Erdeljan
Barbara Lucking Freedman*
Patricia Isacson Sabee & David Sabee
Mary Kramer
Denise J. Lewis
Hon. Jack & Dr. Bettye Arrington Martin
Susanne McMillan
Allan & Joy Nachman Philanthropic Fund
Ann & James B. Nicholson
Ebbie & Ayana Parsons
Ruth F. Rattner*
Barbara Van Dusen
Ms. Barbara A. Walkowski
KEY * Deceased
The DiChiera Society
DiChiera Society members honor the legacy and vision of our company’s founder, David DiChiera, while bolstering our future as one of the most significant and innovative opera and dance organizations in the country with an emphasis on community engagement, accessibility, and artistic risk taking under the leadership of Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director Yuval Sharon.
$10,000-$24,999
Gene P. Bowen
Mr. Thomas Cohn
Enrico & Kathleen Digirolamo
Nina S. Drolias*
Dr. Raina Ernstoff & Mr. Sanford Hansell
Derek & Pamela Francis*
Bharat & Lynn Gandhi
Toby Haberman
Michael & Barbara Kratchman
Ms. Mary C. Mazure
Ms. Evelyn Micheletti
Donald & Antoinette Morelock
Mr. Cyril Moscow
William & Wendy Powers
Dr. & Mrs. Samir M. Ragheb
Dr. Irvin D. Reid & Dr. Pamela Trotman Reid
Concetta V. Ross*
Terry Shea & Seigo Nakao
Prof. Michael Wellman
$5,000-$9,999
Ms. Christine Ammer
Dr. Harold M. Arrington
Beverly Hall Burns
Walter & Lillian Dean
Kevin Dennis & Jeremy Zeltzer
Maria & David Duey
Carl & Mary Ann Fontana
Ralph & Erica Gerson
William Hulsker & Aris Urbanes
Jane Iacobelli
Addison & Deborah
Igleheart
Jody & Tara Ingle
Andy Levin & Mary Freeman
Don Manvel
Mr. Ronald Michalak
Mrs. L. William Moll
Robert & Susan Morris
Mr. George & Mrs.
Jo Elyn Nyman
Ms. Linda Orlans
Sara A. Pozzi, Ph.D.
Waltraud Prechter
Ms. Pam E. Rodgers
Janice Ross
Evan & Kelsey Ross
Mrs. Rosalind B. Sell
Michael & Stacey Simmons
Mr. Peter C. Stern
Ned & Joan Winkelman
Ellen Hill Zeringue
$3,000-$4,999
Nina Abrams
Gregory & Mary Barkley
Paul & Lee Blizman
Bob & Rosemary Brasie
Wayne Brown & Brenda Kee
Dr. & Mrs. Ronald T. Burkman
Dr. Lynne Carter
Albert & Janette Cassar
Maurice & Carolyn Cunniffe
Lisa DiChiera
Fern Espino & Tom Short
James & Margo Farber
Sally & Michael Feder
Michael Fisher
Ms. Laurie R. Frankel
Dr. Glendon M. Gardner & Leslie Landau
Mr. Lawrence Glowczewski
Mr. & Mrs. Robert & Christine Hage
Barbara Heller
Roberto Kalb & Mane Galoyan
Ann Katz
Max Lepler & Rex Dotson
Mary B. Letts
John & Arlene Lewis
Nancy & Bud Liebler
Stephan & Marian Loginsky
Amy McCombs
Ms. Mary McGough
Benjamin Meeker & Meredith Korneffel, MD
Phillip Minch
Ali Moiin & William Kupsky
Van Momon & Pamela L. Berry
Geoffrey Nathan
George & Nancy Nicholson
Sally Orley
Brock & Katherine L. Plumb
Carrie & Ted Pryor
Lois & Mark Shaevsky
Susan A. Smith
Frank & Susan Sonye
Dr. Gregory E. Stephens, D.O.
Samuel Thomas & Daniel VanderLey
Bret & Susanna Williams
Dr. Lucia Zamorano
Friends of Detroit Opera
Every gift helps ensure that opera and dance thrive in our community, and that we share the indescribable experience we feel when the curtain rises. Friends of Detroit Opera are among our most loyal and crucial supporters and receive exclusive benefits with annual gifts of $500 or more.
$1,000-$2,999
Thomas & Gretchen Anderson
D.L. Anthony, Ph.D.
Ms. Geraldine Atkinson
Martin & Marcia Baum
Mr. Stanislaw Bialoglowski
Sandra & Doug Bitonti Stewart
Mr. & Mrs. Mitchell Bleznak
Constance Bodurow
Ms. Nicole A. Boelstler
Mrs. Marlene L. Boll
Marsha Bruhn
Ilse Calcagno
Harriet Clark
John & Doreen Cole
Tonino & Sarah Corsetti
Sue Cutler & Jeff Fessler
Carolyn Demps & Guy Simons
Shauna Ryder Diggs, MD
Ms. Mary J. Doerr
Marla Donovan
Nell Duke & David Ammer
Ms. Judith Ellis
Marjory Winkelman Epstein
Paul & Mary Sue Ewing
Joseph Fontana & Nada Jurisich-Fontana
Burke & Carol Fossee
Dr. & Mrs. Clifford Furgison
Carol Gagliardi & David Flesher
Arline Geronimus
Thomas M. Gervasi
Allan Gilmour & Eric Jirgens
Mr. Nathaniel Good
Robert & Ann Greenstone
Stuart Grigg
Ms. Carole Hardy
Fay & Allen Herman
Mary Ellen Hoy & Jim Keller
Paul Jednak & Tim Kasunic
Richard & Involut Jessup
Mrs. Stephanie Germack Kerzic
Marc Keshishian & Susanna Szelestey
Mr. & Mrs. Gerd H Keuffel
Sam Logan Khaleghi
Gregory Knas
Jennifer Lindsay Kott
Meria Larson
Mr. Loreto A. Manzo
Ms. Janet Groening Marsh
Patrick & Patricia McKeever
Eugene & Lois Miller
Dr. Anne Missavage & Mr. Robert Borcherding
Craig & Shari Morgan
Ms. Maryanne Mott
Harold Munson & Libby Berger
Brian Murphy & Toni
Sanchez-Murphy
Dr. & Mrs. Peter Nickles
Joshua & Rachel Opperer
Daniel & Margaret Pehrson
Mark & Kyle Peterson
Ms. Irene Piccone
Shane Pliska
Elizabeth Porter & Larry Hickman
Michael & Charlene Prysak
Rip & Gail Rapson
Ankur Rungta & Mayssoun Bydon
Leon & Debbe Saperstein
Professor Alvin & Mrs. Harriet Saperstein
Mary Schlaff & Sanford Koltonow
Kingsley & Lurline Sears
Susan Sills-Levey & Michael Levey
Gabriel & Martha Stahl
Ann Steglich
Ms. Mary Anne Stella
Dr. Andrew James Stocking
Andrew J. Sturgess
Manuel Tancer & Claire Stroker
Mr. Jon Teeuwissen
Jeff & Amy Voigt
Stanley Waldon
Katina Zaninovich
$750-$999
Frank & Jenny Brzenk
Ms. Vera C. Magee
Walter & Elizabeth Newgeon
Barbara Roden
Dennis & Jennifer Varian
Rita Winters
$500-$749
Antonia Abbey & James Lee
David A. Agius
Michael & Katherine Alioto
Robert & Catherine Anthony
Paul Augustine
Wallace Ayotte
Ms. Allison Bach & Mr. Michael Cool
Ms. Mary Anne Barczak
Ms. Kanta Bhambhani
Amy & Tyler Bouque
Marceline Bright
Jonathan Cohn & Daniela Wittmann
Patricia Cosgrove
Daniel & Susan Drucker
Murray & Alice Ehrinpreis
Mr. M. Brennan Farrell
Daniel H Ferrier
Julie Finn & Bradley Rowens
Sue Force
Yvonne Friday & Stephen Black
Erin & John Gianopoulos
John Gierak & Dona Tracey
Joseph & Lois Gilmore
Gil Glassberg & Sandra Seligman
Mr. Robert Theodore Goldman
Philip & Martha Gray
Paul & Nancy Hillegonds
Beth Hoger & Lisa Swem
Lawrence John & Lilian Lai
Kimberly Johnson
Ms. Lee Khachaturian
Justin & Joanne Klimko
Mr. Alex Koprivica
Ms. Cynthia Kratchman
William & Jean Kroger
Mary Jane & Jeff Kupsky
Albert Kurt
Mr. John Lovegren & Mr. Daniel Isenschmid
John & Kimi Lowe
Mrs. Marsha Lynn
Mr. Russell Moore
Ms. Nancy K. Murray
Mr. Ronald Northrup
Jane Panikkar
Elaine & Bertram Pitt
Garry Post & Robert Hill
Shawn Rieschl Johnson & Christian Kirby
Adam D. Rubin, M.D, Lakeshore Professional Voice Center
Mr. Richard Lee Ruby
Michael Schon
Demetrius Shields
Paul & Jill Siatczynski
Clara Sumeghy
Dr. Geneva Tatem
Dr. Gretchen Thams
Barbara & Stuart Trager
Rennard & Daphne Tucker
Ms. Janet Beth Weir
Meredith Weston-Band & Jeffery Band
Ian D. Wiesner
Janice Zeltzer
Elliot & Dr. Susan Zeltzer
Gifts in Tribute
We extend a heartfelt thank you to those who generously made gifts to Detroit Opera in honor of or in memory of the special people in their lives, whose names are listed in bold below.
IN HONOR OF
Andrew Berg
Anne & Robert Berg
Wayne S. Brown
Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya
Philip Brunelle
Ethan & Gretchen Davidson
Dr. Shauna Ryder Diggs
Susan Feder & Todd Gordon
Mary Ann & Carl Fontana
Barbara & Michael Kratchman
Denise J. Lewis
Dr. Ali Moiin & Dr. William Kupsky
Ann & James Nicholson
Naomi Oliphant
William & Wendy Powers
Ruth F. Rattner
Irvin & Pamela Reid
John Etsell and Europeras 3&4
Katina Zaninovich
Carl & Mary Ann Fontana
Nina Abrams
Paul & Orvilla Ashely
David Feeny
Mary Jo & Donald Dawson
Barbara E. Camph
Holton Shipman
Thomas E. Barron
Peter Gude
Allen A. Lewis
Sarah Siwek
Wilson Curle
Cynthia Gitt
Pamela Fontana
Michael J. Bartoy
Sara Valenti
Teresa Taranta
Andre Boulanger
Robert Wittenberg
Theresa Johnson
Ellen Jacobowitz
Ann & David Conrad
Chuck & Sandra Jacobowitz
Brenda Kee
Dr. Ali Moiin & Dr. William Kupsky
Mary Kramer
Lois & Mark Shaevsky
Dr. Ali Moiin & Dr. William Kupsky
Mary Jane Kupsky
William & Elizabeth S. Kupsky
Allan & Joy Nachman
Eliot & Elizabeth Bank
Lorna Thomas, MD
Paul & Lee Blizman
Barbara Walkowski
Neal S. Goren
Abbie E. Wisusik
Michelle Tornopilsky
IN MEMORY OF
Harriet Berg
Mr. Richard D. Cavaler
Harry Cook
Ms. Susan Chevalier
Armando Delicato
Judith Gordon & Lawrence Banka
Jacqueline Shuster
Carol DeVore
Mark DeVore
Donald Epstein
Marjory Epstein
Pauline Fucinari
Martha Chamorro & Fernando Peralta
Mr. Anthony Delsener
Dr. David & Yvonne Fucinari
Therese, Carole & Mary Louise Ireland
Heather Gehring
Shawn Rieschl Johnson & Christian Kirby
Devon Hoover
Patricia Cosgrove
Joseph Katulic
Stuart Grigg
George & Ann Marisl
Thomas Dickson & Carol Dick
John P. McMullin
Alexander Ford
Sean & Tori Murphy
Enrico & Olga Petrini
Miss Alma M. Petrini
Ruth F. Rattner
Jody & Gary Astrein
Lori Cohn
Elle Elder
Beth & Earle Erman
Ann Fishman
Amy Folbe
Renee Handelsman
David & Rose Handleman
Patty Isacson Sabee
Ann Katz
Barbara & Michael Kratchman
Victor Lebovici
Jay Levinson
Nancy & Bud Liebler
Howard Luckoff
Alex & Lisa MacDonald
Angela Nelson-Heesch
Grace Serra
William Volz
Gary L. Wasserman & Charles A. Kashner
Angeline Rooks
Maria McMullen
Aphrodite Roumell
Allan & Joy Nachman
Florence, David & Joyce Schon
Michael L. Schon
Phyllis Snow
Lisa Gross
Carole Heinrich
Kathy & Jack Kennedy
Margaret Winters
Elizabeth Porter
Sarisa Zoghlin
Kevin Dennis & Jeremy Zeltzer
Every effort has been made to accurately reflect donor, honoree, and memorial names for gifts received between January 1, 2024 and February 15, 2025. Should you find an error or omission please contact Reema Mahmood, Manager of Events and Donor Relations at rmahmood@detroitopera.org or 313.237.3267.
Avanti Society Members Setting the Stage for Tomorrow
Found in many Italian opera texts, the word avanti means “ahead” or “forward,” and the Avanti Society— Detroit Opera’s planned gift recognition program—is a group of thoughtful donors whose generosity is defined by foresight. By including Detroit Opera in their estate plans, members are leaving lasting gifts which will bring the transformative power of opera and dance to audiences in our community and around the country, well beyond our own lifetimes. Thank you, Avanti Society Members!
Douglas* & Sarah Allison
Richard & Mona* Alonzo
Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya§
Mr. & Mrs. Agustin Arbulu§
Mr.* & Mrs. Chester Arnold§
Dr. Leora Bar-Levav
Mr. & Mrs. Lee Barthel
Mr. & Mrs. Brett Batterson§
Mr. & Mrs. Richard Bowlby
Mrs. Doreen Bull
Mr.* & Mrs. Roy E. Calcagno§
Dr. & Mrs. Thomas E.Carson
Dr.* & Mrs. Victor J. Cervenak
Father Paul F. Chateau
Mary Christner
Mr. Gary L. Ciampa
Prof. Kenneth Collinson
Douglas & Minka Cornelsen
Dr. Robert A. Cornette§#
Mr. Thomas J. Delaney
Walter & Adel Dissett
Ms. Mary J. Doerr#
Mrs. Helen Ophelia Dove-Jones
Marianne T. Endicott§#
David & Jennifer Fischer
Mr. & Mrs. Herb Fisher§
Derek & Pamela Francis
Mrs. Barbara Frankel* & Mr. Ronald Michalak§#
Mr. & Mrs. Herman Frankel§#
Dr. & Mrs. Byron P. Georgeson§
Albert & Barbara Glover
Robert Green
Mr. Ernest Gutierrez
Mr. & Mrs. Stephen Hagopian
Mr. Lawrence W. Hall§
Mr. & Mrs. Jerome Halperin§
Ms. Heather Hamilton
Charlene Handleman
Preston & Mary Happel
Mr. Kenneth E. Hart§
Mr. & Mrs. Eugene L. Hartwig§
Dr. & Mrs. Gerhardt A. Hein
Fay & Allen Herman
Derek & Karen* Hodgson
Andrew & Carol Howell
Dr. Cindy Hung§
Eleanor & Alan Israel
Ms. Kristin Jaramillo§
Mr. Donald Jensen§
Mr. John Jickling
Mr. Patrick J.* & Mrs.
Stephanie Germack Kerzic
Josephine Kessler
Edward & Barbara Klarman
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Klein#
Mr. & Mrs. Erwin H. Klopfer§#
Myron & Joyce LaBan
Paul Lavins
Mr. Max Lepler & Mr. Rex Dotson
Linda Dresner & Ed Levy Jr.
Mr. Hannan Lis
Florence LoPatin
Mr. Stephen H. Lord
Ms. Denise Lutz
Laura & Mitchell Malicki
Ms. Jane McKee§
Bruce Miller
Drs. Orlando & Dorothy Miller§
Ms. Monica Moffat & Mr. Pat McGuire
Drs. Stephen & Barbara Munk
Mr. Jonathan F. Orser
Ms. Julie A. Owens
Mr. Dale J. Pangonis§
Mr. & Mrs. Charles A. Parkhill
Mr. Richard M. Raisin§
Ruth F. Rattner*§#
Ms. Deborah Remer
Dr. Joshua Rest
Mr. & Mrs. James Rigby§
Mr. Bryan L. Rives
Ms. Patricia Rodzik§
David & Beverly Rorabacher
Dulcie Rosenfeld
Professor Alvin & Mrs. Harriet Saperstein
Ms. Susan Schooner§
Mark & Sally Schwartz
Arlene Shaler§
Ms. Ellen Sharp
Ms. Edna J Pak Shin
Mr. & Mrs. Harold Siebert
Mrs. Loretta Skewes
Ms. Anne Sullivan Smith
Mr.* & Mrs. Richard Starkweather§#+
Ms. Mary Anne Stella
Mr. Stanford C. Stoddard
Mr. Ronald F. Switzer§ & Jim McClure
Lillie Tabor
Peter & Ellen Thurber
Alice* & Paul Tomboulian
Jonathan & Salome E. Walton
Susan Weidinger
Mr. Andrew Wise
Larry* & Mary Lou Zangerle
We express profound thanks to these Avanti Society members whose planned gifts to Detroit Opera have been realized.
Robert G. Abgarian Trust
Mr. & Mrs. Robert Allesee#
Serena Ailes Stevens
Mr. & Mrs. J. Addison Bartush§#
Mr. & Mrs. Mandell Berman
Margaret & Douglas Borden
Charles M. Broh
Milena T. Brown
The Gladys L. Caldroney Trust
Charlotte Bush Failing Trust
Mary C. Caggegi
Allen B. Christman
Miss Halla F. Claffey
Ms. Virginia M. Clementi
Hon. Avern Cohn* & Ms. Lois Pincus
Robert C. & RoseAnn B. Comstock
Mary Rita Cuddohy
Marjorie E. DeVlieg
Nancy Dewar
James P. Diamond
Dr. David DiChiera
Mrs. Karen V. DiChiera
Dr. & Mrs. Charles H. Duncan§
Mr. Wayne C. Everly
Dr. Evelyn J. Fisher
Mrs. Anne E. Ford
Ms. Pamela R. Francis§
Mrs. Rema Frankel
Barbara Lucking Freedman
The Edward P. Frohlich Trust
The Priscilla A.B. Goodell Trust
Freda K. Goodman Trust
Priscilla R. Greenberg, Ph.D.§#
Maliha Hamady
Patricia Hobar
Mary Adelaide Hester Trust
Ms. Nancy B. Henk
Gordon V. Hoialmen Trust
Carl J. Huss
Mr. John Jesser
H. Barbara Johnston
Maxwell & Marjorie Jospey
Mrs. Josephine Kleiner
Misses Phyllis & Selma Korn§*
Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Krolikowski§
Mr. Philip Leon
Dores & 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
Concetta Ross
Mr. & Mrs. Giles L. & Beverly Ross
Ms. Merle H. Scheibner
Drs. Heinz & Alice Platt Schwarz§
Ms. Laura Sias
Mrs. Marge Slezak
Ms. Phyllis Funk Snow§
Edward L. Stahl
Mary Ellen Tappan Charitable Remainder Trust
Dr. Mildred Ponder Stennis
Margaret D. Thurber
Mr. & Mrs. George & Inge Vincent§#
Herman W. Weinreich
J. Ernest Wilde Trust
Mrs. Ruth Wilkins
Helen B. Wittenberg
Mr. & Mrs. Walter & Elizabeth Work§
Joseph J. Zafarana
Mr. & Mrs. George M. Zeltzer§
KEY
§ Founding Members
# Touch the Future donors
* Deceased
Membership in the Avanti Society is open to all who wish to declare their intention for a planned gift to Detroit Opera. Call Demetrius Shields to learn more, 313.309.8255.
Orchestra
Detroit Federation of Musicians, Local #5, of the American Federation of Musicians
VIOLIN
Eliot Heaton
Concertmaster (on leave)
Daniel Stachyra
Interim Concertmaster
Yuri Popowycz
Acting Asst. Concertmaster
Open Position
Acting Asst. Concertmaster
Emelyn Bashour
Principal Second Violin
Emily Barkakati
Anna Bittar-Weller
Molly Hughes
Bryan Johnston
Henrik Karapetyan
Velda Kelly
Beth Kirton
Jenny Wan
Andrew Wu
VIOLA
John Madison
Principal
Jacqueline Hanson
Scott Stefanko
Open Position
CELLO
Ivana Biliskov
Principal
Benjamin Maxwell
Andrea Yun
Open Position
BASS
Derek Weller
Principal
Clark Suttle
HARP
Open Position
Principal
FLUTE
Open Position
Principal
Open Position
Second
OBOE
Eli Stefanacci
Principal
Open Position
Second
CLARINET
Roi Karni
Principal
J. William King
BASSOON
Daniel Fendrick
Principal
Open Position
HORN
Colin Bianchi
Principal
Carrie Banfield-Taplin
TRUMPET
David Ammer
Principal
Mark Davis
TROMBONE
Open Position
Principal
Dustin Nguyen
TIMPANI
Eric Stoss
Principal
PERCUSSION
John Dorsey
Principal
Administration & Staff
LEADERSHIP
Patty Isacson Sabee, President & CEO
Yuval Sharon, Gary L.Wasserman Artistic Director
Roberto Kalb, Music Director
Andrew Berg, Chief Development Officer
Daniel T. Brinker, General Manager, Detroit Opera House & Parking Center
Shawn Rieschl Johnson, Chief Programming & Production Officer
Jon Teeuwissen, Artistic Advisor for Dance
Samantha Teter, Chief Marketing Officer
Ataul Usman, Senior Director of Human Resources
ADMINISTRATION
William Austin, Executive Assistant
Christy Gray, Office Administrator
ARTISTIC DEPARTMENT
Nathalie Doucet, Head of Music & Director of Detroit Opera Resident Artist Program
Elizabeth Anderson, Artistic Administrator
Jessie Neilson, Program Coordinator, Resident Artist Program
Melany Janer, Administrative Assistant
DANCE
Kim Smith, Dance Administrator
DETROIT OPERA YOUTH CHORUS
Suzanne Mallare Acton, Director
Twannette Nash, Chorus Administrator
Jane Arvidson Panikkar, Preparatory Chorus Conductor
Rebecca O-G Eaddy, Principal Chorus Conductor
Maria Cimarelli, Preparatory Chorus Accompanist
Joseph Jackson, Principal Chorus Accompanist
DEVELOPMENT
Juliano Bitonti Stewart, Director of Development
Chelsea S. Kotula, Director of Institutional Giving
Angela Nelson-Heesch, Director, Data Analytics & Operations
Alexis Means, Director of Operations & Patron Experiences
Holly Clement, Senior Manager of Events & Rentals
Jennifer George-Consiglio, Manager of Venue Operations
Michael Hauser, Curator of History & Architecture
Kathie Booth, Volunteer Coordinator
USHERS
Max Aghili, Christine Berryman, Ellen Bishop, Kathie Booth, Lori Burkhardt, Randall Davis, Erin G-Doakes, Suzanne Erbes, Pamela Fergusson, Jo-Ann Hale, Sue Hargrave, Myrna Mazure, Ennis Mcgee, Steven McReynolds, Heddie O’Connor, Bill Ried, Kimberly Ried, Edna Rubin, Ida Vance, Sheryl Weinan-Yee
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 on-site during most events. Contact an usher or staff member if you need medical assistance.
GUEST SERVICES:
Vincent Lobby and Broadway Lounge
There are a variety of amenities for your comfort and use located in both guest services locations. 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. The Vincent Lobby is located on the Madison Street side of the building and the Broadway Lounge is located on the Broadway 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, 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.
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 The 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 reflection 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. Pre-Theater Dining, Sunday Brunch or Afternoon Tea—It’s a story you won’t forget.
