The Ohio Light Opera 2017 Summer Season Program

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Resident Professional Company of The College of Wooster Freedlander Theatre

TABLE OF CONTENTS Welcome..........................................................................5 Annual Fund Donors...................................................9 Endowment Gifts........................................................ 12 The James F. Stuart Legacy................................... 13 Tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Stanley C. Gault...........14

Everything.

Right where you need it.®

Our Mission................................................................... 15 The Music Man............................................................. 16 Cast, Musical Numbers, Argument, & Background

• Refreshed lobby and fitness facilities • The Garden Grille & Bar • Heated indoor pool, whirlpool • Guestrooms feature microwave oven, refrigerator and Keurig® Brewer.

Anything Goes............................................................20 Cast, Musical Numbers, Argument, & Background H.M.S. Pinafore........................................................... 24 Cast, Musical Numbers, Argument, & Background

959 Dover Road, Wooster, OH 44691 330-202-7701 www.wooster.hgi.com

“God Save the Queen”............................................ 27 Primrose........................................................................30 Cast, Musical Numbers, Argument, & Background

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The Student Prince................................................... 34 Cast, Musical Numbers, Argument, & Background Countess Maritza....................................................... 38 Cast, Musical Numbers, Argument, & Background The Lady of the Slipper.......................................... 42 Cast, Musical Numbers, Argument, & Background Festival Staff............................................................... 48 Festival Cast................................................................ 56 Festival Orchestra..................................................... 66 Festival Technical and Artistic Staff.................. 74 Festival Symposium................................................. 82 Taking Light Opera Seriously The College of Wooster......................................... 86 Dining, Accommodations & Shopping............. 88 Complete Repertoire...............................................90 Acknowledgments.................................................... 92 Ticket Information & Prices................................... 93 2017 Schedule.............................................................94

We love having you here.

• Cloud Nine – the Hampton Bed experience • Guestrooms feature mini-refrigerator, microwave & coffeemaker • On the House® hot breakfast • Heated indoor pool & all new JumpStart® fitness center 4253 Burbank Road, Wooster, Ohio 44691 330-345-4424 • www.wooster.hamptoninn.com

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Out of respect to the performers, the use of cell phones, cameras, or any other electronic device is prohibited in the theater. We ask that you please turn all these devices off completely for the duration of the performance, so that you and those around you can enjoy the show.

Both Hotels are 2015 TripAdvisor Circle of Excellence Winners! ohiolightopera.org

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YOUR

NEWS YOUR

ADVERTISING YOUR

COMMUNITY SINCE

1839 IN PRINT AND ONLINE EVERYDAY, 24/7 SUBSCRIBE TODAY AT OHIO.COM

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Box Office: 330.263.2345

THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA WELCOME

Steven A. Daigle Artistic Director

Laura Neill Executive Director

Dear Friends of Ohio Light Opera, As America’s Premier Lyric Theater Festival, The Ohio Light Opera presents innovative, entertaining, and traditional productions of classic operettas and musicals, including shows not staged for many years. This season’s offerings afford patrons a sampling of many of lyric theater’s most popular shows and composers. For our faithful OLO patrons, there are titles included that define the unique mission and tradition of preserving the European and American operetta art form.

Our blockbuster 2017 season includes Meredith Willson’s The Music Man, Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, George Gershwin’s Primrose, Gilbert & Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince, Emmerich Kálmán’s Countess Maritza, and Victor Herbert’s The Lady of the Slipper.

Building on the success of and enthusiastic response to the last three years, there will be a Festival Symposium on the Lyric Theater Tradition in the 2017 season. It is scheduled for August 1-4 and will feature lectures and concerts. Visit us online at www.ohiolightopera.org for more information and announcements about the upcoming season.

We welcome College of Wooster President Sarah Bolton to Freedlander Theatre during her first full summer in Wooster. From OLO’s beginning in Wooster in 1979, we continue to express our gratitude for the College of Wooster’s sustaining support.

Thank you for your loyal support of The Ohio Light Opera. Your generosity, through attendance and annual gifts, makes each season possible.

With warmest regards,

Artistic Director

Executive Director

THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA BOARD OF DIRECTORS Michael Miller, Chair Steven A. Daigle, Artistic Director and Vice Chair Marlene Kanipe, Treasurer, ex officio Nan Miller, Secretary

Jayne Churchmack Ronald Holtman Ambassador John Ong Sara L. Patton John Schambach Richard N. Seaman Laura M. Neill, Executive Director

Honorary Members Bill & Marilyn Blanchard Lois Freedlander Jean W. Knorr Boyd & Eloise Mackus Barbara Robinson Ernie Stein

ohiolightopera.org

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MUSIC FESTIVAL

SUMMER HOME OF

THE CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA

JUL

18

PM

GERSHWIN & TCHAIKOVSKY

DIEHL

SSAT ATU URRD DAY AY

The Cleveland Orchestra Jahja Ling, conductor Aaron Diehl, piano

M MO ON ND DAY AY

JUL

38

PM

A SALUTE TO AMERICA Blossom Festival Band Loras John Schissel, conductor

SCHISSEL

2O17 BLOSSOM

FFO OU UR RTTH H--O OFF--JJ

P R E S E N T E D BY

JU

TICKETS:

800-686-1141

SSAT ATU URRD DAY AY

JUL

88

PM

BERLIOZ’S SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE The Cleveland Orchestra Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

JUL

15 8

PM

BEETHOVEN’S SEVENTH SYMPHONY

JUL

227

PM

LING

The Cleveland Orchestra Franz Welser-Möst, conductor

DVOŘÁK’S NEW WORLD

The Cleveland Orchestra Jahja Ling, conductor Eli Matthews, violin

with Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra

JUL

29 8

PM

ROMANTIC RACHMANINOFF

PETRENKO

Blossom Music Center has provided an inviting and gracious summer home for The Cleveland Orchestra since it opened in 1968. Located just north of Akron, Ohio, and about 25 miles south of Cleveland, Blossom is situated on 200 acres of rolling hills surrounded by the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Its beautiful outdoor setting is an integral part of the Blossom experience — and unrivaled among America’s summer music festival parks for the clear sightlines from across Blossom’s expansive Lawn and the superb acoustics and architectural beauty of the famed Blossom Pavilion.

Come early to savor the summer weather. Bring your own picnic, or purchase from a variety of onsite options available, including a wide selection of wines, spirits, and beers.

Once again this summer, The Cleveland Orchestra is offering free Lawn tickets to young people ages 17 and under for all Blossom Festival concerts. Two “under 18s” will be admitted with each paid adult admission. “Under 18s Free” is a program of The Cleveland Orchestra’s Center for Future Audiences, an initiative endowed by the Maltz Family Foundation to engage and expand the Orchestra’s audience for symphonic music.

The Cleveland Orchestra Vasily Petrenko, conductor David Fray, piano

==features featuresfireworks, fireworks,weather weatherpermitting permitting

AUGUST

SSU UN ND DAY AY

AUG

The Cleveland Orchestra Jahja Ling, conductor Aaron Diehl, piano

48

PM

AUG

Blossom Festival Band Loras John Schissel, conductor

AUG

19 8

AUG

67

PM

ROMANTIC VIENNA

The Cleveland Orchestra Juraj Valčuha, conductor Stefan Jackiw, violin

13 7

PM

HOLLYWOOD HEROES AND SUPERHEROES The Cleveland Orchestra Richard Kaufman, conductor

PM

BOLÉRO!

The Cleveland Orchestra Fabien Gabel, conductor Juho Pohjonen, piano

SSU UN ND DAY AY PM

A NIGHT AT THE OPERA

AUG

16 7

WALL

The Cleveland Orchestra Franz Welser-Möst, conductor Erin Wall, soprano

JUL

PM

AUG

The Cleveland Orchestra Gustavo Gimeno, conductor Johannes Moser, cello

ULY LY 97

12 8

STRAVINSKY’S THE FIREBIRD

SCHISSEL

A SALUTE TO AMERICA

JUL

PM

The Cleveland Orchestra Robert Trevino, conductor Behzod Abduraimov, piano

TTU UEESSD DAY AY

JUL

58

TCHAIKOVSKY FAVORITES

S U N D AY

ABDURAIMOV

DIEHL

S AT U R D AY

GIMENO

2

8 PM GERSHWIN & TCHAIKOVSKY

GABEL

JUL

JACKIW

ULY D U LY--W WEEEEK KEEN ND

26 8

AUG

PM

27 7

PM

HOLST’S THE PLANETS

A TRIBUTE TO ELLA FITZGERALD

The Cleveland Orchestra Cristian Măcelaru, conductor Augustin Hadelich, violin

The Cleveland Orchestra Randall Craig Fleischer, conductor with Capathia Jenkins, Harolyn Blackwell, Aisha de Haas

PM

BEST OF BROADWAY

The Cleveland Orchestra Jack Everly, conductor with Christina DeCicco, Ted Keegan, Ron Remke, Richard Todd Adams

23 7

PM

FIRE AND RAIN 1970s Folk Anthems The Cleveland Orchestra Rob Fisher, conductor AJ Swearingen, guitar and vocals Jayne Kelli, guitar and vocals

KELLI & SWEARINGEN

JUL

SEPTEMBER F R I D AY

SEP

1 8:30

PM

MOVIE NIGHT

SEP

2 8:30

PM

SEP

3 8:30

E.T. THE EXTRA TERRESTRIAL

The Cleveland Orchestra Brett Mitchell, conductor

TICKETS:

S U N D AY

S AT U R D AY

clevelandorchestra.com

PM

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THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA

2017 ANNUAL FUND

We are grateful for the generosity of the following donors to the 2017 Ohio Light Opera Annual Fund.

Lord Chancellors ($10,000 and above) Brad Bennett Don & Shirley Buehler Joan Buehler Burton D. Morgan Foundation

Yvonne Kรกlmรกn Ralph & Grace Jones Foundation Norman K. Keller Live Publishing Company

Michael & Nan Miller Ohio Arts Council Ambassador & Mrs. John Ong Seaman Corporation

Jean Knorr & Family Bitsy & Joe Loewenstein J.D. & Arlene Milliken Sara L. Patton

Dee & Mary Vaidya WCLV Lynn & Cyndy Willett

Lisa & Glen Grumbling Michael & Linda Kennedy

Prof. Alan Miles Ruben & Judge Betty Willis Ruben

Dick & Mimi Lewellen Chuck & Dawn McCaghy Dwight & Christina McCawley Betty McNutt Gordon F. Musch John Schambach

Geri Sherman Richard Springman & Pamela Elsass Jean Wingate

Anonymous Michael Acree Mrs. Elsa G. Anderson Bob Baer & Judy Cohen-Baer Robert Bendall Phil Bowers David & Carol Briggs Briggs Financial Group Robert & Virginia Cassady Certified Angus Beef Marilyn & Dave Cooper Eugene L. Cox Bedouin & Randall Dennison Pamela & David Everett

Bill & Claudette Finke Marvin Fletcher Eleanor & Joseph Hingtgen Jim & Mary Jicha Richard LeSueur Luke & Nita Lovell Keith & Alison Miles Stephen Miles Clark & Joyce Neill Allen & Jane Noble Jonathan F. Orser Wally & Diane Pretzer Ward Randol Stanley Ransom

Kenneth E. Shafer Cheryl & Stephen Shapiro Tim & Jenny Smucker Janis & Gardnar Stevens Dr. Sigel G. & Mrs. Mabel V. Stocker Andrea Traubner, in memory of Richard Traubner Dr. Gerald D. Turbow Maria & Miro Vida Dr. & Mrs. H. Reid Wagstaff Wooster Hydrostatics Julie & Jerry Yaffe

Peers or Peris ($350 to $599) Anonymous Mrs. James C. Abbott Julius L. Amling Edward M. Andrews & John H. McCrary Julia & Bruce Bain Mike & Judy Berliner Sally Bernhardt Linda Betzer Debora Bittaker & A.V. Shirk Bill & Pauline Bittner

Marlene S. Blackford Dennis Bond Robert & Constance Bouchard Linda Bromund Dan & Elizabeth Candler & Frank L. Skillern Michael & Susan Clark Dick & Lois Clemmer Marian T. Cropp Robert W. DeCoursey Tom & Patsy Doak Linda Earley

Anne & Tom Engel Howard & Terry Epstein Bob & Lori Everett Mr. & Mrs. Ramsey H. Fahim Patricia Fodor Mya L. Gosling Dave & Pam Grant Louise E. Hamel Ivan Handwerk & daughter, Alicia Handwerk Thomas M. Donnan & L. Lee Helsby Sheila & Roger Hollenbaugh

Mikados ($5,000 to $9,999) Tom & Lois Bruch David & Linda Bush Lois Freedlander Ron & Prue Holtman Sorcerers ($2,500 to $4,999) Clarence & Connie Drennon Joe & Mary Dulle

Pirate Kings ($1,250 to $2,499) Anonymous Terry & Evan Buck Ann Fox Stan & Diane Hales Sharna & Bruce Kinsel David Knapp

Englishmen ($600 to $1,249)

The Ohio Arts Council helped fund this program with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence, and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. The Ohio Arts Council is committed to the economic, educational, and cultural development of the state. The Council believes the arts should be shared by the people of Ohio. The arts arise from public, individual, and organizational efforts. The OAC supports and encourages these efforts.

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Pamela & Edward Jajko, in memory of Costi Baramki David James Byron & Sue Kentner Dr. & Mrs. Steven Kuerbitz Oliver & Pat Lugibihl Dr. John R. Madison Kay Marshall Spiro Matsos, in memory of Pam Matsos The Mersol Family Bill & Jane Miller Karen & Randall E. Moore Dr. & Mrs. Paul Morton The Moser Family, in memory of Evelyn Moser Jeffrey & Jackie Nicholls R. Nottingham & P. Harrell Lee & Maria Parks David Patton, in memory of Maggie Patton Gunther & Dorothy Piepke Michael & Barbara Porte W. K. Porter Dr. Frank W. Quillen & Nathalie Trent Egidijus & Vida Radvenis Jodie & Linn Raney Harold J. Reese Mary & Den Rich Edna L. Rosen Andy & Cindy Ruckman Dr. & Mrs. Martin Saltzman Dr. & Mrs. Douglas W. Sanders Roger Simmons Carlos Singer Jean Soper Talia Starr Larry & Carol Stewart Phil Sticksel Timothy D. Strope James & Martha Taggart L. Gordon Tait David Tovey Judy Van Wie The Howie Vactor Estate George Weckman Janet Welty Ted & Sandy Wiese Lorraine Wright J. Young John & Linda Zimmermann Yeomen ($250 to $349) Anonymous Elaine Arnold & Barbara Adams Walter & Elva Bixler Bill & Janet Burkholder Mr. & Mrs. Lucien Case Mrs. Charles D. Celmer

Ruth & Paul Crowley Charles L. Cureton David L. Dalrymple John & Adriana Dryer Jon & Mary Fancher Violet Findley Mrs. Raymond Gallo, Jr. Christopher & Amy Gamper, in memory of Frank Knorr Catherine & Tom Graves Mary Ann Grumbling Martha Hancock Nancy Harmelink Donald Hayden Ray & Carol Hils Elizabeth & Bob Hooker Gary Nemeth & Gail Jones-Nemeth Sally Kreuger Dr. & Mrs. Steven J. Kuerbitz Sheila Kuzman, in memory of John P. Kuzman Charles & Connie Lepold Anne Carey & Berry Lyons Judy Penn Mallonn Bob McInnes Mr. & Mrs. Richard Middaugh Elizabeth Mitchell, in memory of Joan Strope Michael Nichols, in memory of Susan Davis Nichols Nan Norton Joan Lee Parsons Amber Gillice Petry John & Nancy MarĂ­a Schuesselin Ken & Rita Schuesselin Robert & Susan Slagle Mr. & Mrs. Vernon Sponseller John E. Titmas Karl R. Warner Dorothy Zellers James Zimmerman, in memory of Barbara Lockard-Zimmerman Flowers of Progress ($125 to $249) Anonymous Mr. & Mrs. Allen Adair Mr. & Mrs. Richard C. Anderson Shirley M. Ashby Mr. & Mrs. Gilbert Aumiller Mr. & Mrs. Jack Balogh Greg & Linda Barbu Barbara Barna Mr. & Mrs. Brian W. Bishop Mr. & Mrs. Carl R. Bowers Carol E. Brenneman David Brittain Alison Brown, in memory of Mag. Siegmund Haider Clarendia Brown

Mr. & Mrs. Raymond Buckland Roy & Joan Burgess Ken & Polly Burns Richard & Susanne Campbell Margaret Chorney Wendell & Ruth Cole Robert & Mary Crumm Mrs. Herbert C. Douglas Tom & Judy Driskell Joe & Dee Durbin Mr. & Mrs. Anthony Efremoff Thomas & Meredith Elliott Dr. Charles & Mrs. Carol Faiman Dr. Ron Fleming Suzanne Fligiel Dr. & Mrs. J. W. Flowers George & Catherine Frey Mary & Gerald Fuerst Hallie P. Garner Barbara Garris Hope Langer Gertler, in memory of Stanley H. Langer Frank & Linda Gollinger Carolyn Griffeth & Rusty Cowden, in memory of Evelyn Moser Ray & Marge Gunther Nancy & William Hachtel Malinda Heineking, in memory of Janice M. Ladd Suzanne R. & Douglas M. Hicks Ira Hinden & Stefani Koorhan Karen Hollo, in memory of Elaine M. Bielniak Doug & Joan Hoover Evelyn Howell Katherine M. Hull Marcia & Stanley Jaffe John & Liz Jarvey Mr. & Mrs. Richard D. Johnson Willard H. Johnson Grace Chamberlin Kelly Rolland & Anne King Michael & Penny Kinter Mary Knox Henry & Patricia Kurdziel Gregg Leach & Monte Porter Joan & Stan Levy Anne Lewellen Mrs. R. J. Linderman Mrs. Joan C. Long Michael & Kelly Lukuch Mr. & Mrs. Alan Markus Pennie & Dick Martin Larry & Kathy Mast, in memory of Evelyn Moser Beverly McCall Marc Miller Mark & Beth Ann Mitchell Lynn Moomaw Audrey, Emily & Jane Moore Roy & Cindy Moore

The Ohio Light Opera Annual Fund provides essential financing for each OLO season, and we are grateful for the loyal support of so many donors through the years. If you want to help ensure that the unique mission of The Ohio Light Opera continues, we ask that you make a gift to the 2017 Ohio Light Opera Fund. Please contact: Laura Neill at 330-263-2090, lneill@wooster.edu for information on how to make a gift to The Ohio Light Opera Annual Fund.

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Marion J. Mulligan Dr. & Mrs. Charles Neer Bob & Edie Penick David Porter & Margaret Poutasse David Pozorski & Anna Romanski Betty & John Raber Jean Ragland Mary Rawlings John D. Regetz Barbara Robinson Mr. & Mrs. Byron S. Rose Jacob & Marjorie Rosenbaum

Chris Saylor John & Rebecca Schmidt, in memory of Mary Ann Cureton Sanford & Marion Schwartz Rose Ella Sears M.R. Severiens Wes & Connie Shilling James M. Smith Hiram L. Smith, in memory of Michael Darling Kent & Judy Smith Mr. & Mrs. George Spencer

Ruth & Chuck Spivak Karen & Phil Steiger Mary Stockton & Jeff Perkins Sheldon & Rebecca Taft Joseph Tatnall & Daniel Colburn Brant & Mary Tedrow Mr. & Mrs. J. Lynn Thompson Thomas Vanden Eynden W. Steven Woodward Bob & Diane Yates

The donor list includes gifts received prior to May 30th. Please let us know if your name has been inadvertently omitted or incorrectly listed.

The Ohio Light Opera gratefully acknowledges a grant from the Laura B. Frick Charitable Trust to help underwrite the distribution of complimentary tickets to local social service agencies for use by persons who otherwise could not attend OLO performances.

Corporate Matching Gifts Eli Lilly & Company

General Electric Company

Wells Fargo Educational Fund

Production Sponsors The Ohio Light Opera appreciates the generous support from the following corporations, foundations, and individuals who have helped underwrite production costs for the 2017 season: Brad Bennett Briggs Financial Group David & Carol Briggs Tom & Lois Bruch Don & Shirley Buehler Joan Buehler David & Linda Bush Lois Freedlander

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Ron & Prue Holtman Ralph & Grace Jones Foundation Yvonne Kálmán Norman K. Keller Jean Knorr & Family Live Publishing Company Bitsy & Joe Loewenstein Michael & Nan Miller

J.D. & Arlene Milliken Burton D. Morgan Foundation Ambassador & Mrs. John Ong Sara L. Patton Seaman Corporation Dee & Mary Vaidya WCLV Lynn & Cyndy Willett

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THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA ENDOWMENT The Ohio Light Opera Endowment was established in 1993 by a generous gift from founding Artistic Director James F. Stuart. Additional gifts have helped ensure the current and future financial stability of the Company.

A restricted fund in The College of Wooster’s endowment, the Ohio Light Opera Endowment is managed professionally and provides support for a portion of annual OLO expenses. We encourage you to consider making a gift or estate commitment to the Ohio Light Opera Endowment. Please contact Laura Neill at 330-263-2090, lneill@wooster.edu to receive information on how to make an endowment gift.

The Brian Woods Award Eleven years ago, the company lost one of its most talented and supportive young company members. Tenor Brian Woods exemplified in so many ways the best that the Ohio Light Opera has to offer. He was a devoted and enthusiastic supporter of this company’s unique mission. Brian’s love for operetta extended far beyond this company. As a performer and educator, he gave selfless hours to bringing his love for operetta into the the hearts of thousands of patrons and to many students. As part of his legacy, the company (along with his widow, Jessie Wright Martin) established an endowment in his honor. As part of this endowment, each year a company member is presented the Brian Woods Award. This is given to a returning company member who exemplifies some of the qualities that made Brian a champion for this company and the lyric theater art form. A few years ago, it was decided that in the future the award would be vetted by past award winners who are presently in residency (six performers), along with key artistic and administrative personnel. Although the majority of awards have been given to singers in the past, any company member may receive the award.

Past Recipients of The Brian Woods Award: ’07 Peter Nathan Foltz — singer ’08 Todd Strange — singer ’09 Stephen Carr — stage director ’10 Boyd Mackus — singer

’11 Ted Christopher — singer and stage director ’12 Nathan Brian — singer ’13 Benjamin Krumreig — singer

’14 Stephen Faulk — singer ’15 Eric Andries — coach/ accompanist ’16 Jacob Allen — performer/director

The 2017 recipient of the Brian Woods Award:

JOHN SCHUESSELIN — trumpet and orchestra personnel manager In Memory Of Frank Knorr Ms. Ellen S. Alter Bill & Marilyn Blanchard Linda Bromund Jean Coleman Mr. & Mrs. Henry J. Copeland Mr. & Mrs. Richard M. DeLon Mr. & Mrs. Floyd L. Downs Lois Freedlander Dr. & Mrs. Thomas M. Graves Mr. & Mrs. Walter C. Grosjean

Mr. & Mrs. David T. Grube Stan & Diane Hales Ron & Prue Holtman Elizabeth & Bob Hooker Mr. & Mrs. Charles E. Hurst Jean Knorr Dick & Mimi Lewellen Dr. & Mrs. Joseph E. Loewenstein Mr. E.M. Lukuch Dr. & Mrs. Richard W. Martin

Michael & Nan Miller Mr. & Mrs. Robert Mindek Jon & Laura Neill Mr. & Mrs. Frank Rasmussen Larry & Carol Stewart Dr. & Mrs. Douglas C. Topping Mr. & Mrs. Robert Treece Mr. & Mrs. Vernon Sponseller Mr. & Mrs. David J. Wilkin The Wooster Rotary Foundation

In Memory Of Victoria (Tori) Bowers Chuck & Pam Armbruster Bob Baer & Judy Cohen-Baer John & Adriana Dryer

Deb Haldiman Dick & Mimi Lewellen John & Sandy McIlvaine

David Lynn Sherck

Lowell & Loretta Nault Peter & Marcia Schmeckebier Lynn & Cyndy Willett

On October 20, 2016, David Lynn Sherck, of Asheville, NC, age 82, rejoined his beloved wife Carol, who predeceased him in 2015. Dave and Carol were invited to join the OLO advisory board by then artistic director James Stuart, a few years after they moved to Wooster. As they became better acquainted with the company, their enthusiasm for and interest in OLO was clear, and contagious. When Dave and Carol were still active on the board and had moved to North Carolina, one or both of them would contact the OLO office regarding the fall Ohio State Football schedule, with the hope that they could fit both a board meeting and home game into the same weekend while in Ohio. True Ohio fans all around! We will miss you, Dave.

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TAKING LIGHT OPERA SERIOUSLY!

THE LEGACY OF OLO FOUNDER

S JAMES F. STUART S

“I had long realized that operetta requires no less a commitment to quality than does grand opera, both in front of and behind the curtain. My objective from the beginning with OLO was to return artistic integrity to operetta. Through coaching on the importance of taking light opera seriously, the company has nurtured an audience that has itself gained a new appreciation for a once seemingly moribund art form.”

James F. Stuart

James F. Stuart Founding Artistic Director 1928-2005

When James Stuart, in 1979, began The Ohio Light Opera at The College of Wooster, he had already built a successful career as a musical and theatrical educator, producer, director, and performing artist. Born in Baton Rouge in 1928, he studied at LSU and earned a doctor of musical arts degree at the Eastman School of Music. For seven seasons, he performed the principal tenor roles with Dorothy Raedler’s American Savoyards and the Martyn Green Gilbert and Sullivan Company. Over several decades, he appeared with opera companies in New York, Boston, Cleveland, Chautauqua, Atlanta, and New Orleans. He sang the Husband in the world premiere of Raffaelo de Banfield’s Lord Byron’s Love Letter, opposite Patricia Neway, and performed the title role in the American premiere of Rameau’s Platée. Among the distinguished musical artists with whom Stuart performed are singers Beverly Sills, Joan Sutherland, Richard Tucker, and Robert Merrill; and conductors Franz Allers, Richard Bonynge, Boris Goldovsky, Louis Lane, Julius Rudel, and Robert Shaw.

Under Stuart’s vision and guidance, The Ohio Light Opera evolved into the nation’s premier venue for the presentation of both the masterworks and forgotten gems of the lyric theater repertoire. His translations for the Company include those for Auber’s Fra Diavolo, Lecocq’s La fille de Madame Angot, Hahn’s Ciboulette, Kálmán’s Die Bajadere and Der Zigeunerprimás, Strauss’ Der lustige Krieg, and Offenbach’s Monsieur Choufleuri.

In recognition of his contributions to lyric theater, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by The College of Wooster, and was invested in the College of Fellows of the American Theatre in a ceremony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Stuart was further honored by his inclusion in several standard biographical works: Dictionary of International Biography, International Who’s Who in Music, Who’s Who in America, and International Who’s Who of Intellectuals.

James Stuart in The Gondoliers, 1996

S To make a lasting gift to The Ohio Light Opera, contact Executive Director Laura Neill at 330-263-2090.

ohiolightopera.org 13

Mr. and Mrs. Stanley C. Gault

Mr. and Mrs. Gault at the 1993 dedication of Gault Alumni Center

This season of the Ohio Light Opera is dedicated to Mr. and Mrs. Stanley C. Gault. As loving and caring stewards of this community, they provided an unmatched legacy of philanthropy to benefit The College of Wooster and myriad charities throughout the City of Wooster.

In the 150-year history of the College, there have been no greater champions than Stan and Flo Gault. Stan’s lifelong support for civic causes and volunteer service was most evident in his three decades of leadership on the College Board of Trustees. As individual donors, the Gaults’ financial gifts have enhanced virtually every aspect of campus life.

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Stan and Flo recognized, very early, the cultural importance of the Ohio Light Opera as part of the College’s broad liberal arts tradition.

They were among its first financial supporters and they enthusiastically shared OLO with their friends and acquaintances. Stan was also quick to recognize OLO’s positive financial impact on the economy of the greater Wooster area.

From humble beginnings, Stan and Flo achieved great success in their personal and business lives, but never lost sight of their personal values. We will be forever grateful for their grace, their joyful spirits and their generosity.

AMERICA’S PREMIER LYRIC THEATER FESTIVAL

La Vie Parisienne, OLO 2016

OUR MISSION For thirty-eight seasons, The Ohio Light Opera has dedicated itself to the exploration and production of the best of traditional operetta and musical theater. Founded by James Stuart as a Gilbert and Sullivan repertory summer festival, the company has grown to encompass all forms in the light opera canon. This includes the complete Gilbert and Sullivan repertoire, as well as the recognized treasures from the Viennese, French, Hungarian, German, British, and American repertoire. Along with this unique mission, the company also reconstructs and produces those rare operetta titles of artistic value that were popular in their own times but have long since been forgotten. The historical performance practices of each work premiered are delicately balanced with the resources of a state-of-theart theater and engaging and entertaining performance values. Each summer, between seven and nine titles are presented in a revolving format of approximately 60 performances over a seven-week period. Nearly 20,000 patrons each season see productions in The College of

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Wooster’s intimate Freedlander Theatre. About 150 company members from around the United States are selected each year to become a part of our residency program. The 40 performing artists who make up the vocal ensemble are chosen for their abilities to perform and work at the highest level in all disciplines demanded by the company’s specialized repertoire: singing, acting, and dancing. With over 130 titles produced, over 250 productions, and 750,000 patrons watching, The Ohio Light Opera has become the forerunner in promoting the light opera genre.

The company’s contribution to the preservation and promotion of traditional lyric theater has received recognition in prominent national and international publications and its work is frequently cited by leading scholars of operetta and light opera. In residency on The College of Wooster campus, the summer festival offers a country setting with an inviting community that is proud of the unique service this company has given to its many patrons and to the art form.

—Steven A. Daigle

• Located in Downtown Wooster • Close to College of Wooster & Ohio Light Opera • Downtown Restaurants & Shopping • 100 Appointed Guest Rooms • Free Hot Breakfast, Wi-Fi, & Wall Street Journal • Modern Fitness Center, Avon Shop, Elevator, & Handicapped Room • Hotel Lounge Open Daily

ohiolightopera.org 15

THE MUSIC MAN (1957)

Music, Lyrics and Book by.................... Meredith Willson Story by............... Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey Conductor................................................. J. Lynn Thompson Stage Director............................................. Ted Christopher Choreographer/Assistant Director.........Spencer Reese Set Designer......................................................... Justin Miller Costume Designer....................................... Charlene Gross Lighting Designer........................................... Justin Gibson Sound Designer............................... Christopher Plummer Charlie Cowell............................................................ Jonathan Heller Conductor.............................................................................. Adam Kirk Harold Hill..................................Nathan Brian*/Ted Christopher** Mayor George Shinn.....................................................Kyle Yampiro Ewart Dunlop..........................................................Christopher Sapp Oliver Hix.......................................................................... Royce Strider Jacey Squires......................................................................... Tom Carle Olin Britt........................................................................... Peter Morgan Marcellus Washburn......................................... Benjamin Krumreig Tommy Djilas................................................................ Spencer Reese Marian Paroo..................................... Sarah Best*/Danielle Knox** Mrs. Paroo.......................................................................... Alexa Devlin Amaryllis........................................................ Madeleine Christopher Winthrop Paroo........Bryson Christopher†/Lincoln McMullen‡ Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn.......................................... Yvonne Trobe Zaneeta Shinn.....................................................................Olivia Doig Gracie Shinn............................................................Anna Christopher Alma Hix...................................................................... Gretchen Windt Maud Dunlop............................................................... Teresa Perrotta Ethel Toffelmier..........................................................Katherine Corle Mrs. Squires................................................................Tzytle Steinman Constable Locke...........................................................Nathan Kessel Ensemble Tom Carle, Cody Carlson, Grace Caudle, Katherine Corle, Noelle Crites, Alexa Devlin, Olivia Doig, Jonathan Heller, Seth Johnson, Mason Kelso, Nathan Kessel, Adam Kirk, Ivana Martinic, Garrett Medlock, Peter Morgan, Teresa Perrotta, Sarah Polinski, Spencer Reese, Hannah Rowland, Christopher Sapp, Tzytle Steinman, Royce Strider, Megan Taylor, David Varney, Stephen Walley, Gretchen Windt, Kyle Yampiro Youth Cast Anna Christopher, Bryson Christopher, Madeleine Christopher, Hope Kennedy, Gracelyn Lepold, Ethan Mann, Emma Martinez, Lincoln McMullen, Oliver Miller, Ella Smucker

BRAND GUIDELINES This production of The Music Man has been partially underwritten by gifts from: 16 Box Office: 330.263.2345

Understudy for Marian Paroo: Grace Caudle * 6/17, 6/24, 6/30, 7/9, 7/25, 8/5, 8/8 ** 6/21, 6/27, 7/5, 7/13, 7/29, 8/6, 8/11 † 6/17, 6/21, 6/27, 6/30, 7/5, 7/13, 7/29, 8/6, 8/8, 8/11 ‡ 6/24, 7/9, 7/25, 8/5

J.D. & Arlene Milliken Dee & Mary Vaidya

SETTING ACT I Scene Scene Scene Scene Scene Scene Scene Scene Scene

1......A railway coach, morning, July 4, 1912 2..................River City, Iowa, center of town 3............................................The Paroo’s house 4......................................Madison Gymnasium 5......................... Exterior of Madison Library 6..........................Interior of Madison Library 7................................................................ A street 8...........................................The Paroo’s porch 9................................................. Center of town

ACT II Scene 1........................................Madison Gymnasium Scene 2.................................................The hotel porch Scene 3............................................The Paroo’s porch Scene 4................................................. The footbridge Scene 5................................................................ A street Scene 6.................................................... Madison Park Scene 7... River City High School assembly room

15-minute intermission

MUSICAL NUMBERS Overture

ACT I

Rock Island................................................................................................................................. Salesmen, Passengers Iowa Stubborn.............................................................................................................................................Townspeople Ya Got Trouble............................................................................................................................ Harold, Townspeople Piano Lesson/If You Don’t Mind My Saying So.................................................................... Marian, Mrs. Paroo Goodnight, My Someone................................................................................................................ Marian, Amaryllis Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean........................................................................................ Eulalie, Townspeople Ya Got Trouble (reprise)....................................................................................................................................... Harold Seventy Six Trombones........................................................................................................... Harold, Townspeople Sincere..................................................................................................................... Harold, Jacey, Ewart, Oliver, Olin The Sadder but Wiser Girl.............................................................................................................. Harold, Marcellus Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little/Goodnight Ladies............................ Ladies, Harold, Jacey, Ewart, Oliver, Olin Marian the Librarian............................................................................................................................................... Harold My White Knight...................................................................................................................................................... Marian The Wells Fargo Wagon.....................................................................................................Townspeople, Winthrop Finale.....................................................................................................................................................................Ensemble 15-minute intermission

ACT II

Entr’actre It’s You..................................................................................................................................... Jacey, Ewart, Oliver, Olin Shipoopi....................................................................................................................................Marcellus, Townspeople Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little (reprise).................................................................................................................. Ladies Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You?.......................................................Harold, Jacey, Ewart, Oliver, Olin, Marian Gary, Indiana................................................................................................................ Winthrop, Marian, Mrs. Paroo Lida Rose (reprise)............................................................................................................. Jacey, Ewart, Oliver, Olin It’s You........................................................................................................................................................................... Ballet Till There Was You.................................................................................................................................. Marian, Harold Goodnight, My Someone/Seventy Six Trombones (reprise).................................................. Harold, Marian Till There Was You (reprise)................................................................................................................................ Harold Finale Ultimo

S “There was love all around” S THE MUSIC MAN is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.MTIShows.com

ohiolightopera.org 17

ARGUMENT

ACT I: “Professor” Harold Hill has developed a reputation among traveling salesmen … and none of it good. In order to sell his band instruments and uniforms, he promises, in town after town, to form a local boys’ band. After he gets paid, it’s off and away—and no band. He is concentrating this time on River City, Iowa. To focus attention on the town’s need for a band, he attacks the new pool hall as a sign that depravity is creeping into the community. His argument is convincing, but it turns out that the pool hall is owned by Mayor Shinn, who orders the school board to check out Harold’s credentials. When they approach him, he turns them into a barbershop quartet and disappears. An old friend has warned him about Marian, the town librarian and music teacher. To Harold, this represents a familiar opportunity, but his advances are met with a brick wall. Later at the Fourth of July celebration, Harold takes advantage of a disrupting prank to move in and sell his band idea. Marian’s research on Harold’s past pays off, but she withholds the evidence when she discovers that he is helping her brother Winthrop to cure his speech impediment, and that even she is falling under his spell.

ACT II: The band instruments have arrived, but it is going to take a little longer for the uniforms and instruction books. Future band members have been busily working on Harold’s “think system” of musicianship, and Harold has just met Marian at the footbridge. She confesses that she has known that he was a fake since the third day he was in town. Now it’s Harold who is off-balance. The uniforms arrive, but so does Charlie Cowell, the anvil salesman and Harold’s archenemy. Marian tries to prevent Charlie from getting to the Mayor, but is unsuccessful. She wants to warn Harold, but Charlie reaches him first. Harold still has time to run, but can’t—he’s hooked on Marian. The angry town, hearing that he’s a fake, drags Harold to the ice cream social, where everyone has gathered. The talk is ugly, but Marian speaks out in his defense. When the band arrives in assorted uniforms, Harold is handed a baton. “Think, men, think” is his command.

BACKGROUND

Although Meredith Willson (1902-1984) had impressive musical credentials—flutist for John Philip Sousa and for Arturo Toscanini and the New York Philharmonic, composer of film scores for The Great Dictator and The Little Foxes, conductor for NBC radio and television—he confessed that he didn’t know the territory as far as the Broadway musical was concerned.

For years he resisted suggestions from friends, including Frank Loesser, that he should write a musical about his Iowa boyhood, before yielding in 1951 to promptings by producers Cy Feuer and Ernest Martin. His first drafts for “The Silver Triangle,” the original working title, consisted of sketches of recollected life in Mason City, Iowa, bits of dialogue, and some songs. The sketches clearly suggest a romanticized home town, as this portrait of a brakeman swinging his lantern reveals: “at the end of a gracefully circling hand—a Mayo with his scalpel, a Heifitz toying with his bow, a Manolete noodling with his

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rapier.” Feuer and Martin were encouraging—at one point a CBS television production seemed possible, but the deal fell through, and they eventually lost interest. Willson struggled for several years to give coherent shape to the story of Harold Hill, a con man who gets more than he bargained for in River City, Iowa. A subplot, centering on a spastic boy, bedeviled him for months until he and a writer friend, Franklin Lacey, hit upon the idea of a boy, Winthrop Paroo, made shy by his lisp and given confidence by the con man. Willson worked hard on what he called speech songs. “I had developed an abiding conviction through the years that, in a musical comedy, the musical numbers ought to grow out of the dialogue without interruption or jerkiness.”

So he created numbers like “Trouble,” in which an unsuspected rhythm underlying the dialogue leads into song that has the same rhythm.

Iowa stubbornness kept Willson at the project and, in December 1956, Kermit Bloomgarden agreed to produce The Music Man. Morton Da Costa signed on as stage director and Herbert Greene as music director. Candidates for Harold Hill included Danny Kaye, Gene Kelly, and Dan Dailey, but Robert Preston, an actor with no

training as a singer or a dancer, wowed Da Costa with his audition performance of “Trouble.”

Barbara Cook, who is still enchanting audiences— most recently with her autobiography—became the original Marian, the one character based on an actual person, Willson’s mother. After the usual traumatic Philadelphia tryout, The Music Man opened at New York’s Majestic Theater on December 19, 1957, joining the ranks of such contemporaneously long-running musicals as West Side Story, My Fair Lady, and Bells Are Ringing. Praised by the New York Times’ Brooks Atkinson as “a warm and genial cartoon of American life,” it chalked up 1375 performances and won eight Tony Awards in 1958, including Best Musical and Best Performance by an Actor in a Musical (Preston). Forrest Tucker led the big parade on the first national tour, and Van Johnson wooed the librarian in London. Preston repeated his role in Warner Bros.’ 1962 movie adaptation. Willson had more modest Broadway successes with The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1960) and Here’s Love (1963), but 1491 played only in Los Angeles.

Adapted from the original of Raymond McCall

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P R E M I E R E

ANYTHING GOES (1934)

Music and Lyrics by.............................................Cole Porter Original Book by........... P. G. Wodehouse & Guy Bolton Revision by............ Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse Conductor........................................................... Steven Byess Stage Director..................................................Steven Daigle Choreographer/Assistant Director.........Spencer Reese Set Designer.......................................................Daniel Hobbs Costume Designer.......................................... Kristina Miller Lighting Designer.................................. Brittany Shemuga Sound Designer............................... Christopher Plummer Reno Sweeney, evangelist-turnednightclub singer........................................................... Alexa Devlin Billy Crocker, assistant to Elisha........................... Spencer Reese Hope Harcourt, American debutante................... Danielle Knox Mrs. Evangeline Harcourt, Hope’s mother..................................................Julie Wright Costa Sir Evelyn Oakleigh, Hope’s wealthy English fiancé..............................................Kyle Yampiro Lord Oakleigh, Evelyn’s father............................Ted Christopher Moonface Martin, “Public Enemy Number 13”.........Daniel Neer Bonnie, sidekick to Moonface............................Hilary Koolhoven Elisha J. Whitney, Ivy League Wall Street banker..................................................... Peter Morgan Reno’s Angels Purity.............................................................................Tanya Roberts Charity........................................................................... Grace Caudle Chastity..................................................................... Teresa Perrotta Virtue.................................................................................... Sarah Best The Ritz Quartette/Sailors........ Tom Carle, Christopher Sapp, ..................................................Royce Strider, Jonathan Heller Charley................................................................................ Mason Kelso Wang..............................................................................Stephen Walley Captain.............................................................................Nathan Kessel Bartender (John)............................................................David Varney Bellboy.............................................................................. Cody Carlson Reporter..........................................................................Adam Griffiths First Cameraman..........................................................Nathan Kessel Bishop Dodson......................................................... Garrett Medlock Snooks....................................................................................Olivia Doig Steward............................................................................. Cody Carlson Purser................................................................................. Seth Johnson First Federal Man..................................................... Jonathan Heller Federal Man......................................................................David Varney Mrs. Wentworth............................................................ Yvonne Trobe Mrs. Frick............................................................................ Gillian Hollis Chief Officer..................................................................Adam Griffiths Teenager.................................................................... Hannah Rowland Teenager............................................................................ Noelle Crites

This production of Anything Goes has been partially underwritten by gifts from: Don & Shirley Buehler • Ralph & Grace Jones Foundation Ambassador and Mrs. John Ong • Sara L. Patton 20 Box Office: 330.263.2345

Ship’s Drunk...........................................David Varney Mr. Swift ...........................................Garrett Medlock Ensemble Sarah Best, Tom Carle, Cody Carlson, Grace Caudle, Noelle Crites, Olivia Doig, Adam Griffiths, Jonathan Heller, Gillian Hollis, Seth

SETTING

ACT I Scene 1.................................. The Weylin Caprice Bar Scene 2................The afterdeck (midnight sailing) Scene 3.......................Mr. Whitney’s and Dr. Moon’s ...........................................cabins (the next morning) Scene 4..................The afterdeck (same morning) Scene 5.....................Sir Evelyn’s cabin (afternoon) Scene 6....................The afterdeck (early evening)

Johnson, Mason Kelso, Nathan Kessel, Ivana Martinic, Garrett Medlock, Teresa Perrotta, Sarah Polinski, Tanya Roberts, Hannah Rowland, Christopher Sapp, Tzytle Steinman, Royce Strider, Megan Taylor, Yvonne Trobe, David Varney, Stephen Walley

ACT II Scene 1.................................... The lounge of the ship ...................................................................(that evening) Scene 2...............................The brig (five days later) Scene 3........... Conservatory of Sir Evelyn’s home ......................................in England (a few days later)

15-minute intermission

MUSICAL NUMBERS Overture

ACT I

I Get a Kick Out of You............................................................................................................................................Reno Bon Voyage.........................................................................................................................................Crew, Passengers All Through the Night.................................................................................................................... Billy, Hope, Sailors There’ll Always Be a Lady Fair...........................................................................................................................Sailors Where Are the Men?.................................................................................. Bonnie, Angela, Women Passengers You’re the Top.................................................................................................................................................. Billy, Reno There’ll Always Be a Lady Fair (reprise)........................................................................................................Sailors Anything Goes............................................................................................................................................Reno, Sailors Anything Goes (reprise).................................................................................................................Reno, Passengers Finale.......................................................................................................... Billy, Hope, Reno, Moonface, Ensemble 15-minute intermission

ACT II

Entr’acte Public Enemy Number One........................................................................................... Crew, Sailors, Passengers Blow, Gabriel, Blow.............................................................................................................. Reno, Crew, Passengers Be Like the Bluebird........................................................................................................................................ Moonface All Through the Night (reprise).................................................................................................................Billy, Hope I Get a Kick Out of You (reprise)..........................................................................................................................Reno The Gypsy in Me........................................................................................................................................................ Hope Finale Ultimo...................................................................................................................................................... Ensemble

S “The world has gone mad today, and good’s bad today” S ANYTHING GOES is presented by arrangement with Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc., 560 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10022.

ohiolightopera.org 21

ARGUMENT

ACT I: In a bar, before sailing for Europe, Wall Street banker Elisha J. Whitney fires his inefficient but lovable general manager, Billy Crocker.

Billy, however, has convinced evangelist-turnednightclub singer Reno Sweeney to switch her booking, sail on Whitney’s ship instead, and, as a kind gesture to his now-ex-boss, provide him top entertainment. Although Reno “gets a kick” out of Billy, he hasn’t yet returned her affections; he is hooked on Hope Harcourt, a girl whom he met in a taxi some months before, but has lost track of. When he goes down to the ship to wish Reno and Whitney bon voyage, he runs into Hope, who is boarding with her aristocratic English fiancé Sir Evelyn Oakleigh. They are traveling to his home in England and a marriage of convenience that will result in the amalgamation of their two family businesses. Billy, intent on winning Hope, decides to stay onboard, albeit with no ticket or cabin. He is aided by “Reverend” Moon, actually a criminal who had managed earlier, with the help of Billy, to escape the eyes of two detectives and board the ship. He agrees to let Billy share his cabin. When, during the Atlantic crossing, the purser is informed that Moon’s roommate is really Public Enemy Number One, Billy is forced to adopt a series of disguises to avoid detection.

Meanwhile, he has engaged Reno’s help in trying to compromise Evelyn and force a breakoff of his impending marriage to Hope. When he is finally identified as Public Enemy Number One, Billy expects to be tossed into the brig, but finds himself instead a celebrity among the ship’s passengers.

that Hope has lost interest in him because of his purported criminal credentials, confesses that he is not really Public Enemy Number One, he is hauled off to the brig as an imposter, along with Reverend Moon, who has tried to protect Billy by claiming that he is really the wanted one.

Reno, tapping into her background, assumes control of the revival meeting. In the brig, Billy and Reverend Moon, through a clever scheme, manage to re-disguise themselves and escape.

The ship finally docks in England. At Sir Evelyn’s home, the wedding preparations are interrupted by the arrival of three interlopers: the disguised Billy, Reverend Moon, and, now also, Reno.

They are determined, by whatever means necessary, to stop the wedding. When Whitney shows up unexpectedly, the situation gets only more complicated … that is, until he proposes a deal that Hope cannot refuse.

BACKGROUND

The cultural exuberance that characterized the Roaring Twenties was certainly felt on Broadway. American operetta, spearheaded

by Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg, reached its heyday through works such as Rose Marie (1924), The Student Prince (1924), The Vagabond King (1925), The Desert Song (1926), and The New Moon (1928). Jerome Kern, in his groundbreaking 1927 Show Boat, lifted the American musical to new heights, and composers such as Vincent Youmans (No, No, Nanette), Ray Henderson (Good News), George Gershwin (Lady, Be Good!, Oh, Kay!), and Richard Rodgers (A Connecticut Yankee) infused Broadway with a new jazz-oriented energy.

ACT II: Reverend Moon, given credit by Billy During the decade, more than 500 musical for guiding him along a righteous path, is asked stage works opened on the Great White Way— to lead an evangelist meeting. When Billy, fearing operettas, book musicals, and revues. By the end of the decade, however, the Great Depression and sound films had changed the ways in which Americans sought entertainment. The 1930s were, for the most part, tough years for the Broadway musical. Gershwin followed his big 1931 hit, Of Thee I Sing, with two flops (Let ’em Eat Cake and Pardon My English). Kern went six years (1933-1939) without a Broadway opening; Irving Berlin wrote no book musicals during the entire decade. The lure of Hollywood, sooner or later, proved irresistible to the vast majority of composers and lyricists who had spent the previous decade writing for the stage. Rodgers 22 Box Office: 330.263.2345

and Hart, who had penned 16 musicals between 1925 and 1931, wrote not a one between 1932 and 1934, concentrating instead on songs for films (The Hot Heiress; Love Me Tonight; The Phantom President; and Hallelujah, I’m a Bum).

Gershwin, Berlin, and Kern all migrated to the West Coast to write for the silver screen at one time or another during the 1930s.

While Broadway careers of many were halted, transformed, or shifted, there was one Broadway composer and one lyricist—actually one and the same person—who was on the steady rise during the early 1930s: Cole Porter. At a rate of basically one show per year—Paris in 1928, Fifty Million Frenchmen in 1929, The New Yorkers in 1930, Gay Divorce in 1932, Nymph Errant in 1933, Anything Goes in 1934, Jubilee in 1935 … and continuing on at this pace … he introduced a new paradigm to Broadway, one of wit, cynicism, social awareness, snobbery (sometimes tonguein-cheek, sometimes not), and naughtiness that defied Broadway traditions, titillated the public, and kept the censors constantly on their toes.

Anything Goes, at 420 Broadway performances, was the second-longest-running book musical of the 1930s (after Of Thee I Sing), and Porter’s greatest achievement until he emerged from a “thought-to-be-washed-up” position in the late 1940s and wrote Kiss Me, Kate. The original libretto of Anything Goes was written by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse, the latter in his final

assignment as a musical show librettist. Their script (now, unfortunately, lost), whose final act involves the cast in a shipwreck, apparently did not pass muster with show producer Vinton Freedley, who used the real-life sinking of the Morro Castle in September of 1934 as an excuse to call for a rewrite of the book, this time with Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse as authors.

(A quarter-century later, they wrote the book for The Sound of Music.) Porter’s astonishing score combined newly-written tunes with at least one that he pulled out of his trunk. “I Get a Kick Out of You” had been written a few years earlier for an aborted show titled Star Dust; “All Through the Night” was a replacement for the song “Easy to Love,” whose high notes proved too taxing for star William Gaxton; and “You’re the Top” was reputedly written in a Paris restaurant as the composer and his lady friend entertained themselves with rhyming compliments. And … just for the record … Porter was no more able to resist the call of Tinseltown than his colleagues.

And, like them, he succeeded there … with tunes he wrote for films such as Born to Dance, Rosalie, Broadway Melody of 1940, The Pirate, and High Society. Anything Goes was filmed twice: in 1936 with Ethel Merman, reprising her original stage role, teamed with Bing Crosby, and in 1956 with Crosby, Mitzi Gaynor, Donald O’Connor, and Zizi Jeanmaire.

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H.M.S. PINAFORE or The Lass That Loved a Sailor (1878)

Music by............................................................Arthur Sullivan Libretto by............................................................W. S. Gilbert Conductor................................................. J. Lynn Thompson ......................................................... Wilson Southerland Stage Director..................................................Steven Daigle Choreographer...............................................Spencer Reese Set Designer.......................................................Daniel Hobbs Costume Designer....................................... Charlene Gross Associate Costume Designer............. Jennifer Ammons Lighting Designer.................................. Brittany Shemuga Sound Designer....................................Samantha Palumbo The R. Hon. Sir Joseph Porter, KCB, first lord of the admiralty....................................... Boyd Mackus Captain Corcoran, commanding the H.M.S. Pinafore.....................................................Daniel Neer Ralph Rackstraw, able seaman.................. Benjamin Krumreig* ........................................................................... Stephen Faulk** Dick Deadeye, able seaman..................................... Nathan Brian Bill Bobstay, boatswain’s mate.......................... Ted Christopher Bob Becket, carpenter’s mate................................ Peter Morgan Tom Tucker, midshipmite............................................ Oliver Miller Josephine, the Captain’s daughter................Hilary Koolhoven* .................................................................................Olivia Doig** Cousin Hebe, Sir Joseph’s first cousin.............Gretchen Windt Mrs. Cripps / Little Buttercup, a Portsmouth bumboat woman............................. Alexa Devlin Ensemble Nathan Brian, Tom Carle, Ted Christopher, Katherine Corle, Adam Griffiths, Gillian Hollis, Mason Kelso, Nathan Kessel, Grant Knox, Audrey Lee, Ivana Martinic, Peter Morgan, Sarah Polinski, Spencer Reese, Tanya Roberts, Hannah Rowland, Christopher Sapp, Royce Strider, Megan Taylor, Gretchen Windt Understudy for Captain Corcoran: Royce Strider Understudy for Dick Deadeye: Peter Morgan * 6/29, 7/8, 7/20, 8/2 ** 7/1, 7/15, 7/28, 8/12

This production of H.M.S. Pinafore has been partially underwritten by gifts from:

24 Box Office: 330.263.2345

Joan Buehler David & Linda Bush

SETTING

Time................................................................................................................................................................. 19th century Place................................................................................ Quarter-deck of the H.M.S. Pinafore, off Portsmouth Act I................................................................................................................................................................................ Noon 15-minute intermission Act II..............................................................................................................................................................................Night

MUSICAL NUMBERS Overture

ACT I

We Sail the Ocean Blue........................................................................................................................................Sailors I’m Called Little Buttercup...........................................................................................................................Buttercup The Nightingale Sighed..........................................................................................................................Ralph, Sailors A Maiden Fair to See...............................................................................................................................Ralph, Sailors I Am the Captain of the Pinafore.....................................................................................Capt. Corcoran, Sailors Sir, You Are Sad!.............................................................................................................. Buttercup, Capt. Corcoran Sorry Her Lot Who Loves Too Well.......................................................................................................... Josephine Over the Bright Blue Sea................................................................................... Women Relatives of Sir Joseph Sir Joseph’s Barge Is Seen...................................................................................................................................Sailors I Am the Monarch of the Sea........................................................Capt. Corcoran, Sir Joseph, Hebe, Chorus When I Was a Lad.......................................................................................................................... Sir Joseph, Chorus For I Hold That on the Seas.......................................................................................... Sir Joseph, Hebe, Chorus A British Tar Is a Soaring Soul...................................Ralph, Boatswain’s Mate, Carpenter’s Mate, Chorus Refrain, Audacious Tar.....................................................................................................................Josephine, Ralph Finale: Can I Survive This Overbearing?.....................................Ralph, Chorus, Dick Deadeye, Josephine Oh Joy, Oh Rapture Unforeseen!...........................................................Josephine, Hebe, Ralph, Ensemble This Very Night, with Bated Breath....................................................................................................... Ensemble 15-minute intermission

ACT II

Entr’acte Fair Moon, to Thee I Sing....................................................................................................................Capt. Corcoran Things Are Seldom What They Seem..................................................................... Buttercup, Capt. Corcoran The Hours Creep on Apace......................................................................................................................... Josephine Never Mind the Why and Wherefore............................................... Josephine, Capt. Corcoran, Sir Joseph Kind Captain, I’ve Important Information...................................................... Dick Deadeye, Capt. Corcoran Carefully on Tiptoe Stealing........................................................................................................................ Ensemble Farewell My Own................................................................. Ralph, Josephine, Sir Joseph, Buttercup, Chorus A Many Years Ago.......................................................................................................................... Buttercup, Chorus Finale.................................................................................................................................................................... Ensemble

S “Never mind the why and wherefore” S ohiolightopera.org 25

ARGUMENT

ACT I: High spirits prevail aboard the H.M.S. Pinafore as bumboat woman Little Buttercup distributes sweets and tobacco to the crew.

Seaman Ralph Rackstraw’s mind, however, is on Josephine, the daughter of their Captain Corcoran. He is in love with her even though she is socially unattainable. Unaware of his affection, Josephine is in love with Ralph, but pride prevents her from revealing this because of his low station.

Josephine, meanwhile, is sought in marriage by Sir Joseph Porter, First Lord of the Admiralty, whose advances she refuses to acknowledge. Sir Joseph holds strong views about the treatment of sailors—he maintains that a British sailor is any man’s equal (excepting his own) and should always be treated with politeness, without recourse to bad language or abuse. This inspires Ralph to declare his love to Josephine, who soon forgets her pride and confesses her true feelings to him. Plans are quickly made to smuggle the couple ashore that night to be married.

ACT II: The Captain tries to explain to Sir Joseph that his daughter’s indifference toward him is explained by her bedazzlement at his exalted rank. Meanwhile, the only crewmember who is not happy at the news of the pending elopement is the cantankerous Dick Deadeye. He betrays their intentions to the Captain and they are caught before they can leave the ship. Furious at Ralph’s actions, the Captain loses his cool and utters a swear word that is, unfortunately, overheard by Sir Joseph. He is appalled at such an outburst and turns to Ralph for an explanation. Unfortunately, Ralph only makes matters worse by revealing that he is in love with Josephine. Sir Joseph wastes no time in sentencing the young sailor to the dungeon cell. All looks hopeless for the two lovers … but Little Buttercup still has an ace up her sleeve.

BACKGROUND

For the 16th season, H.M.S. Pinafore has docked at Freedlander Theatre. The most frequently performed work in Ohio Light Opera’s repertoire (more than 125 performances), this Gilbert and Sullivan creation has been an audience favorite on both sides of the Atlantic for 139 years. The initial long run in London prompted numerous unauthorized productions in this country, where Sullivan’s melodies were relentlessly played by organ grinders, Gilbert’s words became tag lines for would-be comedians, and the creators earned 26 Box Office: 330.263.2345

not one penny in royalties. The University of Wooster’s 1880 yearbook offered as the tenth commandment of a mock decalogue: “Thou shalt not commit Pinafore gags.” One suspects that many of the students attended one or more of the three pirated touring productions that reached the Quinby Opera House in 1879 and early 1880.

To counter the American piracy and to demonstrate the superiority of the authentic version, London producer Richard D’Oyly Carte decided to bring a company to New York. On December 1, 1879, at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, Sullivan conducted the score as he intended it to be heard, and Gilbert, on stage in a sailor’s costume, made sure that the chorus moved properly. The packed house roared its approval.

Yet Pinafore had almost sunk after its launching on May 25, 1878. Although the audience at the Opera Comique in London was enthusiastic, the reviews were condescending for the most part (“A frothy production destined soon to subside into nothingness,” the Daily Telegraph sniffed). Sullivan, however, stirred up interest by conducting a medley of Pinafore extracts at a Covent Garden Promenade Concert.

The denouement of Pinafore is not one of Gilbert’s happiest inventions (we are suddenly forced to accept Ralph and Captain Corcoran as equal in age), but his jabs at glib and hypocritical egalitarianism still strike home today. Sir Joseph proclaims “the principle that a British sailor is any man’s equal, excepting mine.” That last phrase harmonizes Gilbert’s view with Samuel Johnson’s: “Sir, your levelers wish to level down as far as themselves; but they cannot bear leveling up to themselves.” Sullivan’s score guarantees a voyage without the dangers of wrecks or seasickness. Whether in “We Sail the Ocean Blue,” the opening chorus that rhythmically invites the audience to come on board; the Mozartean eloquence of Josephine’s “Sorry Her Lot;” or the mock heroics of “For He Is an Englishman,” the music retains its freshness after tens of thousands of performances.

Adapted from the original of Raymond McCall

God Save The Queen In keeping with the tradition established at the Savoy Theatre in London, we will sing God Save the Queen before each Gilbert & Sullivan performance.

S

God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save the Queen: Send her victorious, Happy and glorious, Long to reign over us: God save the Queen.

S Queen Victoria attending a performance of The Mikado.

Photo by Matt Dilyard, from the 2012 Ohio Light Opera production.

ohiolightopera.org 27

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P R E M I E R E

PRIMROSE (1924)

Music by...................................................... George Gershwin Lyrics by................... Desmond Carter and Ira Gershwin Book by............. Guy Bolton and George Grossmith, Jr. Conductor........................................................... Steven Byess Stage Director........................................Julie Wright Costa Choreographer.............................................. Spencer Reese Set Designer..........................................................Kiah Kayser Costume Designer................................................Kim Griffin Lighting Designer.......................................... Daniel Huston Sound Designer..........................................Dominic Mosher Jason.........................................................................................Tom Carle Freddie Falls........................................................Benjamin Krumreig May Rooker.................................................................... Tanya Roberts Sir Barnaby Falls............................................................ Kyle Yampiro Joan, his ward.......................................................................Sarah Best Hilary Vane, a novelist..................................................Nathan Brian Toby Mopham............................................................... Stephen Faulk Michael, Pinkie’s brother.......................................... Cody Carlson Manager of Hotel.............................................................Mason Kelso Pinkie Peach......................................................................Alexa Devlin Lady Sophia Mopham............................................ Katherine Corle Pritchard, her maid......................................................Yvonne Trobe Post Girl........................................................................Teresa Perrotta Hazel.............................................................................Gretchen Windt Jenny.................................................................................Megan Taylor Jack........................................................................... Christopher Sapp Jean.................................................................................. Ivana Martinic Marjory..............................................................................Grace Caudle Maud............................................................................ Tzytle Steinman Flower Seller...................................................................Grace Caudle Turk..................................................................................... David Varney Quartet (Sirens).............................. Olivia Doig, Teresa Perrotta, .....................................................Sarah Polinski, Megan Taylor Ensemble Grace Caudle, Katherine Corle, Olivia Doig, Adam Griffiths, Jonathan Heller, Mason Kelso, Nathan Kessel, Hilary Koolhoven, Ivana Martinic, Garrett Medlock, Teresa Perrotta, Sarah Polinski, Spencer Reese, Christopher Sapp, Royce Strider, Tzytle Steinman, Megan Taylor, Yvonne Trobe, David Varney, Stephen Walley, Gretchen Windt

This production of Primrose

BRIGGS FINANCIAL GROUP

has been partially underwritten

David & Carol Briggs Ron & Prue Holtman • Michael & Nan Miller

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by gifts from: 30 Box Office: 330.263.2345

SETTING

ACT I........................................................................The old ferry landing in Little-Ferry-on-Thames, England 15-minute intermission ACT II.................................................. Hotel Splendide in Le Bouquet, a seaside resort in France (July 14) no intermission ACT III.......................................................................................... The Vauxhall Club, Mopham House, Park Lane

MUSICAL NUMBERS Overture

ACT I

Leaving Town while We May..............................................................................................................................Chorus Till I Meet Someone like You.................................................................................................................. Freddie, May Isn’t It Wonderful?...........................................................................................................................................Joan, Men This Is the Life for a Man....................................................................................................................................... Hilary When Toby Is out of Town........................................................................................................................... Toby, Girls Some Faraway Someone...........................................................................................................................Hilary, Joan The Mophams...............................................................................................................................Toby, Pinkie, Michael Finale.................................................................................................................................................................... Ensemble 15-minute intermission

ACT II

Look at My Roses........................................................................................................... Chorus, Turk, Flower Seller Four Little Sirens......................................................................................................................................................Sirens Berkeley Square and Kew..................................................................................................................... Joan, Freddie Boy Wanted................................................................................................................................................................Pinkie Wait a Bit, Susie............................................................................................................................ Hilary, Joan, Chorus Mary, Queen of Scots...............................................................................................................................Toby, Freddie Naughty Baby....................................................................................................................................................Joan, Men Finale.................................................................................................................................................................... Ensemble no intermission

ACT III

Ballet I Make Hay when the Moon Shines....................................................................................................................Pinkie Beau Brummel........................................................................................................................................... Hilary, Chorus Finale Ultimo...................................................................................................................................................... Ensemble

S “There’s some sweet faraway someone” S PRIMROSE is presented by arrangement with Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc., 560 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10022.

ohiolightopera.org 31

ARGUMENT

ACT I: On the upper reaches of the Thames, the charming, but inexperienced, Joan lives with her guardian, Sir Barnaby Falls. Just over the garden wall is moored the houseboat of successful novelist Hilary Vane, whose latest serial, entitled Primrose, has captured the attention of Joan, who assumes that the author has taken her as a model for the title character. Whereas Barnaby has arranged for Joan to marry his up-to-date nephew Freddie, the boy has set his sights on the parson’s daughter, May Rooker, while Joan’s attention is directed toward her hero-worship of Hilary. The foppish Toby Mopham, scion of an old family, reveals to his friend Hilary that—as the result of a champagne-induced proposal— he is regrettably engaged to Pinkie Peach, who, under the name Madame Frazaline, is a beauty specialist in London’s West End and very desirous of marrying into a distinguished family.

Toby is Hilary’s house guest and has invited Pinkie to lunch in hopes that Hilary will be able to get him out of this mess. When Joan drops in and sees a fainting Pinkie in Hilary’s arms, she becomes disillusioned with her novelist, while the happy Toby sees it as grounds to break off his engagement to Pinkie.

ACT II: At the Hotel Splendide at a French seaside resort, all are celebrating Bastille Day. Joan, still pining over what she perceives as her shattered romance with Hilary, is left little choice but to accede to her guardian’s wishes and marry Freddie, although they are determined to live in separate homes.

Hilary hatches a plan whereby Toby impersonates a medium and conjures up for Barnaby wild visions of Joan and Freddie’s impending married life, thus prompting Barnaby

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to forgo his wedding plans for the couple.

Decked out by Pinkie in jazz-age makeup and costume, Joan seeks to win back the full attention of Hilary, who begins to doubt whether his “primrose” is really the unsophisticated flower of his dreams.

ACT III: At the Mopham house in central London, Toby’s mother, Lady Sophia, has allowed Pinkie to turn the mansion into a nightspot—the Vauxhall Club. Pinkie has, in addition, taken the bold step of banishing Toby from his own home—at least until he apologizes for toying with her when he was disguised as the medium.

Toby does finally manage to make it inside the house, but he is promptly thrown out by Pinkie’s brother Mike. When a loud whistle announces the arrival of a police officer—ostensibly a raid to investigate the illicit use of the home as a nightclub—the gathered guests fear for the worst, especially when the officer presents some ultimatums to Barnaby.

BACKGROUND

George Gershwin (1898-1937) is arguably America’s most popular and beloved composer.

His output—over a two-decade career tragically cut short by a brain tumor at age 38—transcended the boundaries between stage, film, and the concert hall. No composer has a longer list of memorable and enduring song classics—from “Swanee” in 1919 through “Love Is Here to Stay” in 1937. And yet, surprisingly, much of his stage work remains to be “discovered.” It is only in this century that the first recordings of his early shows Tip-Toes, Tell Me More, and Sweet Little Devil appeared. Two of his middle-period shows, Treasure Girl (1928) and Show Girl (1929), have not been afforded complete recordings—

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remarkably, some of their music is lost! And what about his early shows: Half Past Eight (1918), La La Lucille (1919), A Dangerous Maid (1921), Our Nell (1922), and The Rainbow (1923)? In the middle of all this is a most remarkable 1924 show, Primrose, that George wrote for London’s West End. It was remarkable on many fronts: (1) it chalked up a most impressive 255-performance run; (2) it saw George fully crossing the threshold into the jazz-inspired stylings that would soon take Broadway by storm; (3) three of its songs were orchestrated by George, his first venture into orchestration, something that he did only sporadically in his later musicals; (4) it is his earliest show—and the first of only four Gershwin musicals—for which a piano-vocal score was published at the time of the premiere; (5) it is the only Gershwin musical for which a fairly complete original cast recording was made; (6) it is one of the first musicals for which George’s brother and librettist is credited as “Ira” rather than the pseudonymous “Arthur Francis.”

It was London show producer George Grossmith, Jr. (son of the famed Gilbert and Sullivan comic star) who, inspired by his recent success with two Jerome Kern West End shows, The Cabaret Girl and The Beauty Prize, turned to another American, George Gershwin, to create a show (originally) titled The Clinging Vine and based on a story by Fred Jackson, Gershwin’s librettist for the earlier La La Lucille. Guy Bolton, who, seven years earlier, had teamed with P. G. Wodehouse and Jerome Kern in creating the “modern American musical,” was chosen to write the script, while newcomer Desmond Carter was tasked with the lyrics. Although Ira Gershwin is

credited as co-lyricist on six of the fifteen songs, he worked very little on the show. The six songs, in fact, were ones that George and Ira had written a year or two before—two for A Dangerous Maid, one for Nifties of 1923, and three of uncertain origins. When George arrived in London, he handed over the songs to Carter, who adapted them for the current show. It is a testament, no doubt, to Ira’s genius—and to brotherly inspiration—that among these six tunes were virtually all the major hit songs from Primrose.

Producer Grossmith’s objective, in bringing Kern, Gershwin, and others to London, was to ensure that his shows had the requisite American “sound” that his 1920s audiences were demanding. But, the shows still had to cater to British tastes. Thus, it is not surprising that the music for Primrose—to say nothing of the plot— offered a tip-of-the-hat to Gilbert and Sullivan, Edwardian musical comedy, and British music hall. When American show producers Alex Aarons and Vinton Freedley bought the rights to produce it on Broadway, and announced a fall 1925 opening, they did so as a reflex to the show’s popularity in London. Upon further thought, however, they deemed the show too British to appeal to American audiences, and the planned production was dismissed. Primrose did run successfully in 1925 in Melbourne and Sydney, but was soon thereafter forgotten. This Ohio Light Opera production—truly an opportunity of a lifetime—is the first fully-staged, fullyorchestrated production of the show in almost a century.

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ohiolightopera.org 33

THE STUDENT PRINCE (1924)

Music by....................................................Sigmund Romberg Book and Lyrics by................................. Dorothy Donnelly Based on the play Old Heidelberg by.................... Wilhelm Meyer-Förster Conductor................................................. J. Lynn Thompson Stage Director..................................................Steven Daigle Choreographer...............................................Spencer Reese Set Designer.......................................................Daniel Hobbs Costume Designer.............................................Mark Snyder Lighting Designer.................................. Brittany Shemuga Sound Designer....................................Samantha Palumbo Four Lackeys......................Christopher Sapp, Garrett Medlock, ..................................................Royce Strider, Jonathan Heller Prime Minister von Mark............................................. Royce Strider Doctor Engel, the Prince’s tutor...............................Boyd Mackus Prince Karl Franz, heir to the throne...........................Grant Knox Gretchen, maid at the Inn..................................... Gretchen Windt Ruder, keeper of the Inn, Kathie’s uncle............... Peter Morgan Toni, waiter at the Inn................................................... Spiro Matsos Lutz, the Prince’s valet....................................................Daniel Neer Hubert, a footman......................................................... Cody Carlson Count Hugo Detlef, student, leader of the Saxon Corps.......................... Benjamin Krumreig Von Asterberg, student, member of Saxon Corps.....Tom Carle Lucas, student, leader of Rheinisher Corps........Nathan Kessel Kathie, maid at the Inn.................................................. Gillian Hollis Grand Duchess Anastasia, mother of Princess Margaret................................ Yvonne Trobe Princess Margaret, fiancée of Karl Franz.............. Grace Caudle Captain Tarnitz, officer attending Princess Margaret.....................................................Stephen Faulk Baron Arnheim, gentleman of the court......Christopher Sapp Countess Leyden, lady of the court................ Hannah Rowland Captain of the Guard....................................................David Varney Rudolph Winter, cousin of Kathie........................ Spencer Reese Ensemble Tom Carle, Cody Carlson, Katherine Corle, Stephen Faulk, Adam Griffiths, Jonathan Heller, Mason Kelso, Nathan Kessel, Hilary Koolhoven, Benjamin Krumreig, Audrey Lee, Ivana Martinic, Garrett Medlock, Peter Morgan, Arielle Nachtigal, Teresa Perrotta, Spencer Reese, Hannah Rowland, Christopher Sapp, Tzytle Steinman, Royce Strider, Megan Taylor, David Varney, Stephen Walley, Gretchen Windt Understudy for Kathie: Oliva Doig Understudies for Prince Karl Franz: Adam Griffiths and Tom Carle Understudy for Doctor Engel: Stephen Walley Understudy for Count Hugo Detlef: David Varney

This production of The Student Prince has been partially underwritten by gifts from: Lois Freedlander • Jean Knorr & Family 34 Box Office: 330.263.2345

SETTING

Time............................................................. Spring, 1860 15-minute intermission PROLOGUE............. Antechamber in the palace at ACT III........ A room of state in the royal palace at Karlsberg Karlsberg, two years later ACT I......... Garden of the Inn of the Three Golden no intermission Apples at the University of Heidelberg ACT IV........................... Same as Act I, the next day no intermission ACT II.........Sitting-room of Prince Karl, at the inn, four months later

MUSICAL NUMBERS Overture

PROLOGUE

By Our Bearing So Sedate................................................................................................................................Lackeys Golden Days.................................................................................................................................. Karl Franz, Dr. Engel

ACT I

Garlands Bright with Glowing Flowers............................................................................Girls, Gretchen, Ruder To the Inn We’re Marching..................................................................Students, Von Asterberg, Lucas, Detlef Drink! Drink! Drink!................................................................................ Detlef, Students, Von Asterberg, Lucas Come Boys, Let’s All Be Gay, Boys.......................................Kathie, Detlef, Von Asterberg, Lucas, Chorus Heidelberg, Beloved Vision.............................Dr. Engel, Karl Franz, Ruder, Kathie, Lutz, Gretchen, Girls Gaudeamus Igitur..................................................................................................................................................Chorus Golden Days (reprise)......................................................................................................................................Dr. Engel Deep in My Heart, Dear.................................................................................................................. Kathie, Karl Franz Finale.................................................................................................................................................................... Ensemble Come, Sir, Will You Join Our Noble Saxon Corps?

Drinking Song (reprise) Serenade: Overhead the Moon Is Beaming When the Spring Wakens Ev’rything Come Boys, Let’s All Be Gay, Boys no intermission

ACT II

Introduction Student Life........................................................................................................................................................ Ensemble Thoughts Will Come to Me.......................................................................................Karl Franz, Dr. Engel, Kathie 15-minute intermission

ACT III

Opening Waltz Just We Two.......................................................................................... Princess Margaret, Capt. Tarnitz, Chorus Gavotte What Memories, Sweet Rose...............................................................Karl Franz, Dr. Engel, Students, Kathie no intermission

ACT IV

Serenade Intermezzo Let Us Sing a Song............................................................................................................................................Students Finale Ultimo...................................................................................................................................................... Ensemble

S “Golden days … days of youth and love” S THE STUDENT PRINCE is presented by arrangement with Tams-Witmark Music Library, Inc., 560 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10022.

ohiolightopera.org 35

ARGUMENT

PROLOGUE AND ACT I: Prince Karl Franz, grandson of the aging King of Karlsberg, has left his restricted life and, accompanied by his tutor Dr. Engel and pompous valet Lutz, begins a year of study, incognito, at Heidelberg University.

Upon his arrival, he is instantly charmed by the sights and sounds of student revelry, and is invited by Detlef, the student leader of the Saxon Corps, to join their ranks. Just as quickly, he becomes smitten with the waitress Kathie, niece of the proprietor of the Inn of the Three Golden Apples.

ACTS II-IV: A visit from Karlsberg’s Princess Margaret, to whom he is betrothed by decree of his dynastically-minded grandfather, convinces Karl Franz that he and Kathie, now deeply in love, must escape together to Paris. News arrives, however, that the King is dying and that Karl Franz must return to Karlsberg. He promises Kathie that he will return, but she has her doubts. Two years pass, and Karl Franz is now king, although he has managed to delay his marriage to Margaret, who, much to the chagrin of the ministers, has responded favorably to

36 Box Office: 330.263.2345

the attentions of the dashing Captain Tarnitz.

When word reaches Karl Franz that Kathie, still in Heidelberg, spends all her time weeping in her room, he decides to return ... just this one time. His arrival, however, is preceded by that of Princess Margaret, who has a heart-to-heart with Kathie.

BACKGROUND

When The Student Prince opened at Jolson’s 59th Street Theatre on December 2, 1924, Will Rogers was starring in the Ziegfeld Follies, Fred and Adele Astaire in Lady, Be Good!, Ethel Barrymore in The Second Mrs. Tanqueray, Lunt and Fontanne in The Guardsman, Marilyn Miller in Peter Pan, and the Marx Brothers in I’ll Say She Is. Irving Berlin was presenting the fourth annual Music Box Revue, Rose Marie was going strong, and Abie’s Irish Rose was in its third year. This partial roster of stars and hit shows recalls one of the liveliest periods in the history of Broadway. Prosperity stimulated box office sales; the Depression and competition from talkies were several years in the future, and the sun never set on the Shubert theatrical empire. That empire was expanded by the prolific Sigmund Romberg

(1887-1951). A student of civil engineering and music in Vienna, he chose the latter for a career in spite of parental objections. Emigrating from his native Hungary to New York in 1909, he scratched out a living as a pianist and orchestra leader in various restaurants. Some of his piano compositions came to the attention of J. J. Shubert, who hired him as a staff composer.

As such, he contributed to other composers’ shows (for example, Kálmán’s 1916 Her Soldier Boy) and to revues. Between 1914 and 1917, Romberg wrote 275 numbers for 17 Broadway shows. Maytime (1917), an adaptation of a German operetta, had a run of 492 performances and enhanced Romberg’s prestige. Blossom Time (1921), a reworking of a Viennese operetta (with a score based on familiar themes by Franz Schubert), had an even longer run and confirmed his status as the Shubert Brothers’ star composer.

The Shuberts, nevertheless, were unhappy with Romberg during the run-up to The Student Prince. As historian Gerald Bordman puts it, they were “aghast at what they considered Romberg’s operatic music, appalled at the unhappy ending, and utterly bewildered by Romberg’s demand for a large, strong-voiced male chorus rather than a long line of feminine beauties.” At one point they removed his name from the billing, but Romberg sued successfully to have it restored before the premiere. The producers’ worries vanished with the rave notices the show received. The New York Times, for example, headlined its review: “Prodigious operetta ... magnificently sung.”

It ran for 608 performances, and nine touring companies took it across the country. In 1927, Ernst Lubitsch directed a silent film version, starring Ramon Novarro, Norma Shearer, and

Jean Hersholt. Mario Lanza’s voice was heard on the soundtrack of the 1954 version, which featured Edmund Purdom and Ann Blyth.

Dorothy Donnelly, an actress-turned-writer who had adapted the book for Blossom Time, based the text on The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg, a play popularized in this country at the turn of the century by actor Richard Mansfield, a matinee idol of the time. An earlier musical version of the story was heard in Milan in 1908: Eidelberga mia! The sold-out houses for Ohio Light Opera’s five previous productions of The Student Prince attest to its enduring appeal.

The story of a young prince who chooses duty over love triggers recollections for most adults of difficult choices made when young, and prompts musings of what might have been. For college graduates, the interpolation of the venerable student song, “Gaudeamus igitur,” summons visions of golden days, and only the cold-hearted can resist the youthful ardor of the “Serenade” and the tenderness of “Deep in My Heart, Dear.”

Adapted from the original of Raymond McCall

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COUNTESS MARITZA Gräfin Mariza (1924)

Music by..................................................... Emmerich Kálmán Libretto by......... Julius Brammer and Alfred Grünwald English Translation by.................................. Nigel Douglas Conductor..............................................Wilson Southerland Stage Director..................................................Steven Daigle Choreographer...............................................Spencer Reese Set Designer......................................................... Justin Miller Costume Designer.......................................... Kristina Miller Lighting Designer...........................................Daniel Huston Sound Designer.......................................... Dominic Mosher Assistant Director............................................ Kyle Yampiro Countess Maritza..........................................................Tanya Roberts Prince Moritz Dragomir Popolescu.........................Boyd Mackus Baron Koloman Zsupán, property owner from Varasdin..................................Grant Knox Count Tassilo Endrödy-Wittenburg............................Daniel Neer Lisa, his sister..............................................................Katherine Corle Karl Stephan Liebenberg............................................ Nathan Brian Princess Bozena Cuddenstein zu Chlumetz......................................................Julie Wright Costa Penizek, her servant......................................................Kyle Yampiro Tschekko, an old servant of Maritza........................ Spiro Matsos Berko, a gypsy...............................................................Stephen Faulk Manja, young gypsy girl.......................................... Teresa Perrotta Ilka, guest of Maritza............................................. Hannah Rowland Rosika, village teenage girl................................. Arielle Nachtigal Juliska, village teenage girl................................ Hannah Rowland Ilonka, village teenage girl..............................................Olivia Doig Sari, village teenage girl............................................... Gillian Hollis Ensemble Sarah Best, Cody Carlson, Grace Caudle, Olivia Doig, Stephen Faulk, Adam Griffiths, Jonathan Heller, Gillian Hollis, Seth Johnson, Nathan Kessel, Adam Kirk, Hilary Koolhoven, Garrett Medlock, Peter Morgan, Arielle Nachtigal, Teresa Perrotta, Sarah Polinski, Hannah Rowland, Tzytle Steinman, Megan Taylor, Yvonne Trobe, David Varney, Stephen Walley, Kyle Yampiro Understudy for Countess Maritza: Teresa Perrotta Understudy for Manja: Tzytle Steinman

This production of Countess Maritza has been partially underwritten by gifts from: Yvonne Kálmán • Norman K. Keller Bitsy & Joe Loewenstein • Lynn & Cyndy Willett 38 Box Office: 330.263.2345

SETTING

Time.................................................................................................................................................................................1924 ACT I.............................................................The terrace of one of Maritza’s country houses in the Balkans.

15-minute intermission ACT II............................... A summer afternoon — a drawing room in the same house, four weeks later. no intermission ACT III.......................................................................................... The same, at 9 o’clock the following morning.

MUSICAL NUMBERS Overture

ACT I

Luck Is a Golden Dream........................................................................................................................................ Manja How Do You Do?............................................................................................................... Tassilo, Village Teenagers Vienna Mine!..............................................................................................................................................................Tassilo Set the Gypsy Music Playing........................................................................................................... Maritza, Chorus Childhood Memories................................................................................................................................... Lisa, Tassilo Let’s Go to Varasdin............................................................................................................................Maritza, Zsupán Finale: Play Gypsies........................ Maritza, Lisa, Tassilo, Zsupán, Popolescu, Tschekko, Manja, Chorus 15-minute intermission

ACT II

Entr’acte Mister Törek, Mister Törek................................................................................Maritza, Lisa, Ilka, Ladies, Tassilo When I Start Dreaming.............................................................................................................................Lisa, Zsupán Waltz Our Worries Away.....................................................................................................................Maritza, Tassilo Corks-a-Popping.......................................................................................... Maritza, Popolescu, Zsupán, Chorus Ball Music Be Mine, My Love, Be Mine.................................................................................................................Maritza, Tassilo Farewell My Love.........................................................................................................................................Lisa, Zsupán Finale.................................................................................................Maritza, Tassilo, Zsupán, Popolescu, Chorus no intermission

ACT III

Entr’acte When I Start Dreaming (reprise)..................................................................................................................... Zsupán Nut-Brown Maiden from the Prairie.......................................................................Maritza, Popolescu, Zsupán Life Could Be So Free from Strife.....................................................................................................................Tassilo Let’s Go to Varasdin (reprise)................................................................................................................Lisa, Zsupán Finale Ultimo......................................................................................................................Maritza, Tassilo, Ensemble

S “Play gypsy … play me that haunting refrain” S By arrangement with Boosey & Hawkes, Inc., Agent in the USA for Josef Weinberger, Ltd., London, publisher and copyright owner.

ohiolightopera.org 39

ARGUMENT

ACT I: In order to pay his father’s debts and earn enough money for his sister Lisa’s dowry, Count Tassilo has been forced to sell his possessions and take a menial job as bailiff, under the assumed name Bela Törek, at one of Countess Maritza’s estates in the Hungarian borderlands. Maritza pays an unaccustomed visit to her estate to announce her engagement to a Baron Koloman Zsupán. The fiancé is, however, fictional—a ruse created by Maritza to discourage her many golddigging suitors. When Lisa arrives as one of the guests, her brother Tassilo has to do some fast talking to convince her to keep his identity secret.

Surprisingly, a real Baron Zsupán, a wealthy Hungarian pig farmer, turns up to claim Maritza as his bride, after learning of his own engagement to her in the newspaper. When Maritza, at her hosted soirée, condescendingly has a flask of wine delivered to the excluded Tassilo, and he refuses to sing for her guests, she fires him.

position as employer, reinstated Tassilo as estate manager. They fantasize over what life together might be like if there were not such a difference in their social positions. But … the plot takes a new twist as Maritza becomes convinced by her elderly suitor, Prince Popolescu, that Tassilo is only posing as her bailiff to secure a financially rewarding marriage for himself. When she turns her anger on Tassilo, he storms out.

ACT III: Finding herself the next morning without an estate manager, and with all her help still sleeping off the night’s festivities, Maritza must bear down and do some of the work around the estate herself. Tassilo arrives to say farewell and to present Maritza with the estate accounts, which must be turned over to his successor.

Just then, Maritza’s servant Tschekko shows in Princess Bozena Cuddenstein zu Chlumetz, Tassilo’s aunt, who has a thing or two to say herself about her nephew’s behavior.

ACT II: Lisa and Zsupán agree that, if he weren’t BACKGROUND On April 20 of this year, in the space adjacent to still in love with and pursuing Maritza, the two of them could easily fall for one another. Maritza the Budapest Operetta Theater and most recently has, after reconciling her feelings with her occupied by a nightclub, the 160-seat Kálmán Imre Teatrum (Emmerich Kálmán Theater) opened to festive celebration and a performance of The Riviera Girl, the 1917 Broadway version of the composer’s beloved operetta Die Csárdásfürstin (The Gypsy Princess). Perhaps the only theater in the world named after an operetta composer, it is a heartfelt tribute by a city and country to a native-born-and-raised son, who is currently the most performed operetta composer in the world. Although only three of his 20 operettas premiered in Budapest, Kálmán never abandoned his roots and, over almost half a century, continually infused his works— sometimes overtly, sometimes subtly—with the harmonies, rhythms, and folk influences of his homeland. It is precisely the weaving of this Hungarian musical palette with the waltz stylings of Viennese music that led to the creation of an unmistakable “Kálmán sound”—at times jubilant, at times sorrowful, at times haunting, but always engaging and memorable. The recent revival of interest—in America and Europe—in 330-264-6006 the composer’s lesser-known works has had no 1626 Beall Ave., Wooster, OH 44691 greater champion than the Ohio Light Opera, bbonline.com/oh/mirabelle which has produced 12 of Kálmán’s works, with recordings for all either released or planned for the future. Although Die Csárdásfürstin is,

Wake Up to the Charm!

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unquestionably, Kálmán’s most popular work internationally, in English-speaking countries, that honor goes to his 1924 Gräfin Mariza (Countess Maritza). This summer, OLO revisits the work for the fifth time—a popularity among Freedlander audiences exceeded only by The Student Prince and the works of Gilbert and Sullivan.

It was in May of 1920 that Kálmán, along with his librettists Alfred Grünwald and Julius Brammer, and his publisher Wilhelm Karczag, signed a contract to create a work entitled Gräfin Mariza. The role of Tassilo was intended for tenor Hubert Marischka, who had starred in Kálmán’s 1914 operetta Gold gab ich für Eisen (I Gave Gold for Iron), was Karczag’s son-inlaw, and, formerly, the son-in-law of Merry Widow librettist Victor Léon. However, upon hearing Kálmán play through the first act in 1922, Marsichka refused to play the role of a penniless count forced to work as a manager on Maritza’s estate, complaining that “a former officer does not permit himself to be treated that condescendingly.” Marischka recounted for the composer a scene that he had played in a 1915 operetta by Béla Zerkovitz, in which, as a suicidal Hungarian count finding himself a member of a gypsy band in America, he “snatches a violin from the soloist’s hand” and “begins to dance a

wild csardas with his lover.” “Write a scene like that for me,” said Marischka to Kálmán. And that is exactly what Kálmán did—creating a firstact finale, with its “Play Gypsies, Dance Gypsies” refrain, that remains one of operetta’s most iconic moments. Kálmán biographer Stefan Frey refers to this scene—in fact, the whole operetta—as “an emotional roller coaster,” in which, “between laughing and crying, this countess develops her very special charm—a charm of ambiguity that no other operetta expresses as strikingly.”

Within a few years of its February 1924 premiere at the Theater an der Wien, Gräfin Mariza had played the world over—from Sweden to Mexico, from Russia to Argentina.

With an English libretto by Harry B. Smith, Countess Maritza opened at Broadway’s Shubert Theatre in September of 1926—one of few operetta imports whose Viennese score was (thankfully!) left relatively intact. The show ran for 321 performances, toured for many years, and became a perennial staple of civic light opera companies. This summer’s production at OLO employs a translation—one of the best in the operetta repertoire—by opera historian/ performer Nigel Douglas, and done for the 1983 Sadler’s Wells production in London.

Michael D. Miller

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P R E M I E R E

THE LADY OF THE SLIPPER or A Modern Cinderella (1912) Music by.............................................................Victor Herbert Lyrics by.............................................................. James O’Dea Book by............. Anne Caldwell and Lawrence McCarty Conductor........................................................... Steven Byess Stage Director..................................................Steven Daigle Choreographer...............................................Spencer Reese Set Designer.......................................................Daniel Hobbs Costume Designer....................................... Charlene Gross Lighting Designer.................................. Brittany Shemuga Sound Designer....................................Samantha Palumbo The Crown Prince Maximilian....................... Benjamin Krumreig Prince Ulrich, his brother............................................ Royce Strider Captain Ladislaw, aide-de-camp to Maximilian........ Tom Carle Baron von Nix, Cinderella’s father.....................Ted Christopher Atzel, the Baron’s butler..............................................Kyle Yampiro Mouser, the Baron’s cat............................................ Spencer Reese Albrecht, a shoemaker........................................Christopher Sapp Louis, his assistant.......................................................... Mason Kelso Joseph, a milliner.................................................... Garrett Medlock Matthias, a furrier..................................................... Jonathan Heller Punks, from the cornfield..........................................Stephen Faulk Spooks, from the cornfield......................................... Nathan Brian Cinderella.................................................................... Gretchen Windt Dollbabia, Cinderella’s step-sister..........................Tanya Roberts Freakette, Cinderella’s step-sister................................. Sarah Best Romneya............................................................................. Alexa Devlin The Fairy Godmother..............................................Katherine Corle Valerie, maid at the Baron’s.................................. Teresa Perrotta Sophia, Albrecht’s wife..........................................Tzytle Steinman Irma, Joseph’s wife....................................................... Grace Caudle Clara, Louis’ wife.................................................................Olivia Doig Ludovica, Matthias’ wife............................................ Sarah Polinski Maida................................................................................... Gillian Hollis Gretchen.................................................................... Arielle Nachtigal Major Domo......................................................................Kyle Yampiro Ensemble Tom Carle, Cody Carlson, Grace Caudle, Olivia Doig, Adam Griffiths, Jonathan Heller, Gillian Hollis, Seth Johnson, Mason Kelso, Hilary Koolhoven, Audrey Lee, Garrett Medlock, Ivana Martinic, Arielle Nachtigal, Daniel Neer, Teresa Perrotta, Sarah Polinski, Spencer Reese, Hannah Rowland, Christopher Sapp, Tzytle Steinman, Royce Strider, Yvonne Trobe, David Varney, Stephen Walley, Kyle Yampiro Understudy for Cinderella: Grace Caudle

This production of The Lady of the Slipper has been partially underwritten by gifts from:

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SETTING

ACT 1 Scene 1..........................................................................................................Kitchen in the castle of Baron von Nix Scene 2.................................................................................................................................. On the way to the palace 15-minute intermission ACT 2................................................................................................. Ballroom in the palace of Prince Maximilian no intermission ACT 3 Scene 1.............................................................................................................................................. The Baron’s kitchen Scene 2.............................................................................................................. Throne room of the Prince’s palace

MUSICAL NUMBERS Overture

ACT I

We Are Waiting for the Baron..........................................................Tradesmen, Their Wives, and Assistants Fond of the Ladies..................................................................................................................... Atzel, Ladies, Chorus Romneya Music Meow! Meow! Meow!...................................................................................................................... Cinderella, Mouser Like a Real, Real Man.......................................................................................................Cinderella, Punks, Spooks The Garden Party.................................................................................................................................... Punks, Spooks Witches Ballet The Ride to the Castle 15-minute intermission

ACT II

Oh, the Bal Masqué............................................................................................................................................... Chorus Princess of Far Away....................................................................... Capt. Ladislaw, Cinderella, Prince, Chorus Them Was Our Childhood Days........................................................................................................ Punks, Spooks Ballet Suite Bagdad.........................................................................................................................................................Punks, Chorus A Little Girl at Home........................................................................................................................ Prince, Cinderella Punch Bowl Glide Finale............................................................................................................................................ Prince, Capt. Ladislaw no intermission

ACT III

Entr’acte Harlequinade The Lady of the Slipper................................... Girls, Capt. Ladislaw, Chorus, Baron, Dollbabia, Freakette Put Your Best Foot Forward, Little Girl................................................................ Prince, Court Ladies, Pages Finale Ultimo.......................................................................................................................................................Ensemble

S “Just to sway, just to play, like a moonbeam of May” S ohiolightopera.org 43

ARGUMENT

ACT I: At the home of Baron von Nix, local tradesmen, their wives, and assistants await the arrival of the Baron, as they anticipate the ball that evening, at which the Prince will select the fairest lady in the kingdom to share his crown and life. Sisters Freakette and Dollbabia take great interest in the wares of shoemaker Albrecht and his wife Sophia—they are determined to be decked out to the nines when they attend the ball.

They have, however, little interest in paying for the goods. Their fast-thinking father, the Baron, further deflects the merchants’ demands for payment by indicating that he has included all of them in his will. The Baron’s good mood turns sour, however, when his butler, Atzel, informs him that, for lack of pay, the house servants are going on strike. The sisters are upset—now they will have to dress themselves. They summon their sister Cinderella and waste no time bossing her around, despite protestations from her supportive father. When the fortune teller Romneya arrives, the sisters are anxious to learn their chances of winning the Prince—but with no money paid … no fortune told. But Cinderella has found a silver coin and offers it to the soothsayer, who informs her that good fortune will soon be knocking at her door. Cinderella pleads with her father to make an exception this time and take her to the ball. But, fearing the wrath of Freakette and Dollbabia, he has no choice but to refuse.

Romneya, meanwhile, has discreetly placed on the floor a little bell. When Cinderella shakes it, the fireplace opens, disclosing a fairy godmother, who summons up from the cornfield two fellows, Punks and Spooks, who will accompany Cinderella to the ball.

ACT II: Prince Maximilian and his brother Ulrich have arrived at the ball incognito, disguised as a Russian ambassador and a visitor from Bagdad.

Dollbabia and Freakette suspect that they might be the royal pair, but can’t figure out which one is the Prince. The Baron tries to convince Romneya to read their palms and determine their identities.

Cinderella, in a beautiful gown, makes her entrance, claiming to be a “princess of far away.”

Fearing, later in the evening, that they have been discovered, Maximilian and Ulrich convince Punks and Spooks to dress like them and assume their identities as ambassador and exotic visitor.

Meanwhile, the Prince begins sweet-talking Cinderella—they fantasize about a life together.

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When the clock strikes midnight, Punks, Spooks, and Cinderella disappear … but, of course, she drops a slipper. The Prince announces to all that the girl whose foot it graces will be his bride.

ACT III: The next morning, back at the Baron’s home, the maid announces that the Prince and his retinue are approaching, along with a page carrying the slipper on a velvet cushion. Dollbabia and Freakette are determined, one way or the other, to get their feet into the slipper, but to no avail. Cinderella, back in tatters, reveals to her father that she was indeed the beautiful girl at the ball, but dared not, moments before, join her sisters in trying on the slipper—the Prince doesn’t want a ragamuffin, she claims. Back at the site of the ball, Cinderella appears, is reunited with the Prince, but requests of the fairy godmother a special wish.

BACKGROUND

Few fictional figures have proved more fertile fodder for musical stage treatment than Cinderella. From opera (Rossini’s La Cenerentola, Massenet’s Cendrillon) to ballet (Prokofiev’s Cinderella, Johann Strauss’ Aschenbrödel) to musical comedy (Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella) to parody (Vivian Ellis’ Mr. Cinders), this endearing character has reigned over the centuries, seemingly indestructible. Irish-born composer Victor Herbert had already tapped into fairy tales (Alice and the Eight Princesses, 1905) and comic strips (Little Nemo, 1908) when he wrote the score for a 1912 musical fantasy, The Lady of the Slipper, whose subtitle, A Modern Cinderella, suggests that this will be anything but a traditional take on the character. Newspapers described it as “Cinderella done over,” and “a modern perversion of the nursery tale.” To placate any audience members who, entering the theater, might have “feared the worst,” the synopsis in the original program began reassuredly with “Once upon a time” and ended with “And they lived happily ever afterwards.”

Show producer Charles Dillingham, already with six Herbert shows to his credit (including Mlle. Modiste and The Red Mill), assembled a star cast: child-vaudeville-star-turned-musicalcomedy-soubrette Elsie Janis; Vernon Castle, one-half of the ascending dance team (wife Irene, unhappy with her small part, got herself fired); and the comedy team of Montgomery and Stone, who, a decade earlier, had played the scarecrow

and tin woodman (called Mick Chopper) in the first Broadway musical version of The Wizard of Oz. In The Lady of the Slipper, they played Punks and Spooks, who emerge from a cornfield and assist in getting Cinderella to the ball and eventually into the prince’s arms. And, finally, in a minor role, there was Peggy Wood, just starting out on Broadway, but who would go on to create lead roles in Sigmund Romberg’s Maytime, Noël Coward’s Bitter Sweet, and Jerome Kern’s The Cat and the Fiddle, as well as portraying the mother abbess in the film version of The Sound of Music. Cinderella’s stepsisters were named Dollbabia and Freakette, more suggestive (writes operetta historian Kurt Gänzl) of The Rocky Horror Picture Show than a 1912 musical.

After a three-week tryout in Philadelphia, The Lady of the Slipper opened on October 28, 1912 at Broadway’s Globe Theatre. Reviews were unanimously rave: “A mighty good show” (New York Times), “Sensational success of the season” (New York Sun), “The best musical show on Broadway since Peter Stuyvesant bought his wooden leg” (New York Herald), “Children will love it” (New York Mail), “Never has New York been treated to a more delightful little thing” (The Billboard). Critics took particular note of the second-act finale, “Drums of the World,” in which a ballet sequence features percussion instruments that conjure up the sounds of five continents, similar in geographic spirit to what Herbert did vocally with “Serenades of All Nations” in his 1898 The Fortune Teller, and orchestrally in his A Suite of Serenades (Chinese, Cuban, Oriental, Spanish) from 1924.

The show ran for a more-than-respectable 232 performances and then toured to 18 states and Canada. So why—if it was so well received in its day—has The Lady of the Slipper received not a single full production in over a century?

Why has not even one note of the score been commercially recorded and released since soon after its premiere? You be the judge … but if its entertainment value—musical and dramatic— is anything like that of OLO’s production of Herbert’s Dream City and the Magic Knight, for which the same questions were asked three years ago, you are in for a rollicking day in the theater.

Michael D. Miller

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The Little Dutch Girl

La Vie Parisienne

Have a Heart

The Dancing Years

The Mikado

Kiss Me, Kate

La Vie Parisienne

Have a Heart

The Dancing Years

Kiss Me, Kate

Kiss Me, Kate

Annie Get Your Gun

The Dancing Years

The Mikado

2016 Season Photos by Matt Dilyard

La Vie Parisienne

The Mikado

Annie Get Your Gun

The Little Dutch Girl

FESTIVAL STAFF STEVEN DAIGLE, artistic director, is professor of opera and head of the Eastman Opera Theatre program at The Eastman School of Music. He has served as part of the artistic staff for more than 300 lyric theater productions, along with calling over 400 professional operatic performances as a production stage manager. Daigle’s experience as a stage director encompasses over 150 titles and a wide range of lyric theater repertoire: Madama Butterfly, Our Town, Manon, Silk Stockings, Serse, Passion, La Traviata, Zip! Goes A Million, To Hell and Back, Il Trovatore, Don Giovanni, Oh, Lady! Lady!!, Carmen, La Rondine, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Norma, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Susannah, I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Claudia Legare, La finta giardiniera, Il turco in Italia, Così fan tutte, Transformations, La bohème, Suor Angelica, The Tender Land, Porgy and Bess, L’elisir d’amore, and Pelléas et Mélisande, among others. Productions include collaborations with legendary Broadway composer Charles Strouse, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Robert Ward, Carlisle Floyd, and conductors Louis Lane, Robert Spano, and Evan Whallon. Reviews and articles of Daigle’s work have been published in Opera News, Opera London, American Record Guide, Gramophone, Fanfare, Classical Singer, and Opera Now. As a champion of early American operetta and musical theater, he continues to pursue the preservation of the art form, and has received critical acclaim for his commitment to research, reconstruct, and produce neglected musicals of early Broadway.

With Ohio Light Opera, he served as stage manager, assistant director, and general manager under the guidance of company founder James Stuart, and in 1999 was appointed artistic director. His first year with the company was in 1990. At OLO he has called over 300 performances as a stage manager, served on the technical or artistic staff for over 150 productions, and directed over 80 titles, including many American premieres in original versions: Lehár’s Der Zarewitsch (The Zarevitch), Künneke’s Der Vetter aus Dingsda (The Cousin from Batavia), and Kálmán’s Der Zigeunerprimás (Sari), Ein Herbstmanöver (Autumn Maneuvers), Das Veilchen vom Montmartre (The Violet of Montmartre), Der gute Kamerad (A Soldier’s Promise), Marinka, Die Faschingsfee (Miss Springtime), and Der kleine König (The Little King). As artistic director, he has created five 48 Box Office: 330.263.2345

performance translations for Kálmán operettas, expanded OLO offerings to include traditional musicals (including those of Kern, Gershwin, Porter, Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, Lerner and Loewe, and Rodgers and Hammerstein), and introduced over 50 new titles to the company’s vast and unique repertoire, including works of Benatzky and Stolz, Bock and Harnick, Friml, Leigh, Loesser, Schubert and Berté, Sousa, Styne and Sondheim, and Willson. Daigle has also supervised OLO’s highly acclaimed series of CD and DVD recordings on the Newport Classic, Operetta Archives, and Albany Records labels, including historical reconstructions and world-premiere recordings of Friml’s The Firefly, Romberg’s Maytime, Herbert’s Naughty Marietta, Sweethearts, and Dream City and the Magic Knight, Kern’s The Cabaret Girl, and six operettas of Emmerich Kálmán. The company’s unique mission and service to the traditional lyric art form (Viennese, French, and German operetta; Edwardian musicals and Gilbert and Sullivan; early American operetta and musical theater) has been recognized internationally through scholarly publications.

Steve served on the faculty of Kent State University, and as assistant director and acting director of the Opera Theater program at the Oberlin Conservatory. In the summer of 1998, he served on the faculty of the Oberlin in Italy program in Urbania, Italy. In September 2003, The Ohio Light Opera was given an Award of Achievement

by Northern Ohio Live for its role in preserving operetta for the past 25 years. In the spring of 2006 he received the Outstanding Alumnus award from Southeastern Louisiana University. From 2009-13 he served as chair of the voice and opera department at the Eastman School of Music. Future directing engagements include The Tender Land and Philip Glass’ Les enfants terribles.

In May of 2015, Steve received the Eisenhart Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Eastman School of Music and the University of Rochester.

JULIE WRIGHT COSTA, associate artistic director, is held in high regard as an interpreter and director of operetta, singing numerous leading roles nationally.

Julie is honored to celebrate her 26th season performing with the Ohio Light Opera and delighted to return to the Wooster community, which feels like a second home. With the Ohio Light Opera,

she has sung in over 100 different productions, performed some 70 roles, and directed over 20 of OLO’s season titles. This season, she was honored to serve as an eminent resident artist with The University of Wyoming, serving as a lecturer and directing its opera scenes program. Next season, Julie will stage Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld for the Western Plains Opera Company, as well as J. S. Bach’s Schweigt stille, plaudert (The Coffee Cantata), BWV 211, for the Salt Lake Symphony. Also with the Salt Lake Symphony, she will perform as a soloist in Robert Kapilow’s Green Eggs and Ham, and the world premiere of her husband’s (John Vasconcelos Costa) composition, Songs of Love and Loss, for soprano and orchestra. During OLO’s 39th festival season, Julie will direct Gershwin’s Primrose, in addition to performing Mrs. Evangeline Harcourt in Anything Goes and Princess Bozena Cuddenstein zu Chlumetz (say that five times quickly) in Countess Maritza.

In charge of the casting process for OLO, Julie traveled to seven cities, auditioning over 300 singers from across the country throughout November and December. Career highlights include performances with the opera companies of Nevada, Chautauqua, Cleveland, Michigan, Carolina, and Utah, as well as performances with the symphonies of Charlotte, Illinois, Utah, and Detroit. Favorite performances include leading roles in productions of La bohème, The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, The Turn of the Screw, Bitter Sweet, La Rondine, Countess Maritza, Giuditta, Camelot, Carousel, and the title role in Hello, Dolly! As a director, she has staged productions for the Moab Music Festival, Nevada Opera, Opera Southwest, The Eastman School of Music, The University of Utah, and The Ohio Light Opera, among others.

She can be heard on compact disc recordings for the Newport Classic, Albany Records, and Operetta Archives labels. Julie resides in Salt Lake City with her husband, composer John and their dachshunds, Freddie and Rose. She is a tenured professor of voice and voice area head at the University of Utah School of Music.

J. LYNN THOMPSON, music director, has a successful career that includes more than 40 years as conductor, artistic leader, recording artist, performer, and educator. This season is Thompson’s 28th with The Ohio Light Opera, for which he will have led over 1000 performances of more than 120 different productions, including two world premieres and several American premieres.

Additionally, Thompson and OLO have recorded 18 full-length CDs on the Newport Classic and Albany Records labels. In 2007, Thompson was named artistic director emeritus of Atlanta Lyric Theatre, a company he assisted in founding in 1980 and for which he has served as music director, conductor, and artistic director.

Thompson attended the University of Tennessee and Georgia State University, and has studied with Robert Shaw, Robert Ward, Donald Neuen, and Samuel Jones. He has collaborated with conductors Louis Lane and Robert Spano; singers Michael Hume, Peter Harrower, and Victoria Mallory; and pianist Paul Ford, accompanist for Stephen Sondheim for over 20 years. Composers Robert Wright and George Forrest consulted on Thompson’s 1998 production of Kismet in Atlanta, and he worked closely with the Kurt Weill Foundation in the remounting of the rarely performed The Firebrand of Florence with OLO in 1999. Thompson has served as principal guest conductor with Pensacola Opera and as guest conductor with the Akron Symphony, Theatre of the Stars in Atlanta, and the Empire State Orchestra in Schenectady. In 2009, he joined the music faculty of Birmingham-Southern College and, while in the area, conducted productions of West Side Story, The Consul, Gianni Schicchi,

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and Cabildo. J. Lynn and his wife Adelia, along before serving as assistant concertmaster in the with their two golden retrievers, Buck and orchestra, and his daughter Avani was born in Maggie, currently reside in Newport News, VA, Wooster during the 2015 summer festival. where, at Christopher Newport University, he JOHN SCHUESSELIN, trumpet/ serves as director for the University Orchestra orchestra personnel manager, and music director for Theatre and Opera CNU. is returning for his 32nd season This season at OLO, Mr. Thompson conducts with the Ohio Light Opera.

The Music Man, The Student Prince, H.M.S. Since 1999, John has been on Pinafore, and the annual July 4th Pops concert. the faculty of the University of STEVEN BYESS, associate music Mississippi, where he teaches director, is celebrating his 19th trumpet, high brass methods, season with OLO, where he has and performs with the University of Mississippi conducted 74 productions and Faculty Brass Quintet. He earned degrees in 21 audio and video recordings. trumpet performance from the Eastman School He is renowned for his versatility, of Music, Kent State University, and Louisiana multi-faceted presence on the State University. His orchestral experience podium, passion for music includes performing with the North Mississippi education, and his devotion to promoting a Symphony, Charleston Symphony, Chicago lifelong love and enthusiasm for music and the Sinfonietta, Memphis Symphony, Meridian arts. Equally adept with symphonic, opera, Symphony, New World Symphony, Rochester operetta, music theater, and ballet repertoire, Philharmonic, and Tupelo Symphony Orchestras.

Maestro Byess is also the music director of He has presented at the Hawaii International the Portland Columbia Symphony Orchestra Conference on Arts and Humanities in Honolulu, (Oregon), the North Mississippi Symphony the College Music Society’s Southern Regional Orchestra, and the Arkansas Philharmonic Conference in Memphis, and the College Music Orchestra. He was formerly on the faculties of Society’s National Conference in Richmond, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the University VA. The Schuesselin family is excited to spend of Denver, California State University-Los another summer with the friendly faces of OLO. Angeles, and the University of Michigan. He CHARLENE ALEXIS GROSS, studied conducting at the Cleveland Institute of production manager/resident Music with Louis Lane and Carl Topilow, with costume designer, has been Charles Brück at the Pierre Monteux Memorial resident costume designer for School for Conductors, and was an assistant OLO since 2005 and production conductor to Robert Shaw at the Shaw Institute manager since 2008.

Her in Souilliac, France. Mr. Byess has been a more than 45 costume and set frequent conductor at the Pine Mountain Music designs with OLO include Call Festival in Michigan, conducting productions of Le tragédie de Carmen (Bizet/Brook), a highly Me Madam, Madame Pompadour, Pride and acclaimed production of Leonard Bernstein’s Prejudice, Of Thee I Sing, The Mikado, and The Candide, and Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. He Dancing Years. Select national designs include conducted productions of Puccini’s La bohème Endgame (Massoud Saidpour), Cleveland and a critically acclaimed production of Robert Museum of Art; Inherit the Wind (Seth Gordon), Ward’s The Crucible at the International Vocal Cleveland Playhouse; A Christmas Story (Jason Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Bizet’s Carmen with Parrish), Florida Repertory Theatre; Sangreal Emerald City Opera (Colorado), and Sullivan’s (Shirley Huston-Findley), Ingenuity Festival; and H.M.S. Pinafore with Intermountain Opera The Gamesters’ Manhattan Magic at the Sands (Montana). Byess also recently conducted Weill’s Casino, Atlantic City. NYC designs include the Street Scene and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance Flea, Rattelstick Theatre, Perry Street Theatre, at the Eastman School of Music, and led multiple NYC Fringe Festival, Joyce SoHo, Symphony performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Space, and Kunnigham Studios. Dance designs Orchestra and the Florida Orchestra. He is a include GroundWorks, the Yard (Martha’s conductor for the Carnegie Hall Weill Music Vineyard), West Wave Dance Festival, and NBC Institute Link Up orchestra education concerts, Nightly News. Notable Broadway and London performing for over 60,000 children in multiple West End assistant costume design credits U.S. communities since 2013. A proud seasonal include the Pulitzer Prize-winning Top Dog/ resident of Wooster, his daughter Julianna was Under Dog (Emilio Sosa, costume designer) and a member of the OLO cast for several seasons, A Class Act (Carrie Robbins, costume designer).

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Off-Broadway and regional work include Seattle Repertory, Guthrie, NY Public Theater, New York Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theatre Company, Berkshire Theatre Festival, and the Classic Stage Company. Educational design credits include the Juilliard School, Columbia University, NYU, Ashland University, Baldwin Wallace, University of Memphis, and The College of Wooster, where she has been the resident costume designer for the Theatre and Dance Department since 2004. This fall Charlene is excited to join Penn State University as costume design faculty for the BFA/ MFA program, and all the new adventures it is sure to bring.

TED CHRISTOPHER, baritone/ principal guest director, saw his first OLO performance in 1982, and it was love at first sight. Since 1997, he has been lucky enough to work here in all but two festival seasons. Favorite roles over the years include Arthur (Camelot), Billy (Carousel), Danilo (The Merry Widow), The King (The King and I), Ludwig (The Merry War), Florestan (VĂŠronique), Villon (The Vagabond King), and, of course, anything by Gilbert and Sullivan (at OLO, he has performed the complete

canon, save one). In 2005 he began directing at OLO, while continuing as a performer. Some notable productions include The Student Prince, The Fortune Teller, Blossom Time, The Desert Song, Die Fledermaus, H.M.S. Pinafore, and Oh, Kay! This season, Ted will perform Harold Hill (The Music Man), Lord Oakleigh (Anything Goes), Boatswain’s Mate (H.M.S. Pinafore), and Baron von Nix (The Lady of the Slipper), and he will direct The Music Man. In the off-season, he sings, directs, and teaches. In opera, he has appeared throughout the United States and Canada in repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century. In concert, he has sung at some of the major concert halls of the world, including Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, the Rudolfinum (Prague), and the Schauspielhaus (Berlin). Ted is a featured artist on several recordings of the critically acclaimed Milken Archive of American Jewish Music, as well as on several recordings from OLO. He currently serves on the faculty of Pennsylvania State University, where he is artistic director of Penn State Opera Theatre. Previous faculty appointments include the University of Memphis and the Eastman School of Music. Ted is particularly gratified to appear onstage this season with all three of his children, who, if it is possible, love this place

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even more than he does. As always, he is grateful to the College of Wooster and the community at large for the generosity and gracious welcome they extend to him and the entire troupe every summer.

conducting debut in a program of Wagner opera scenes. After appearing as a rehearsal pianist at OLO from 2006-08, Wilson has since traveled the world: he served as a pianist, coach, assistant conductor, and recitalist at Opera Africa in Pretoria, South Africa, the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, Les Azuriales Opera in France, Si Parla Si Canta in Italy, AIMS-Graz in Austria, and the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman. He was one of 24 singer/pianist duos worldwide chosen to compete in the Wigmore Hall International Art Song Competition in London. Stateside, Wilson was a principal coach at Seattle Opera for three seasons, as well as an associate conductor/pianist at Gotham Chamber Opera and Chelsea Opera (NYC), Opera Omaha, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Birmingham, Opera Memphis, Spoleto USA, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. For six years Wilson was the primary pianist under Maestro Lorin Maazel at his Castleton Festival, and he accompanied the esteemed conductorviolinist in recital at the Kennedy Center (DC). A former faculty member of Vanderbilt University and the University of Alabama, Wilson was chosen to perform on Juilliard’s vocal arts honors recital in Alice Tully Hall. Recently he was the head coach, associate conductor, and language specialist for Puccini’s La Rondine at the New Israeli Opera, featuring opera superstar Angela Gheorghiu. At the Eastman School of Music, Wilson recently conducted the revised world premiere of Jake Heggie’s Out of Darkness.

He holds degrees in piano from Vanderbilt University and The Juilliard School, and is currently an assistant professor of opera at the Eastman School of Music.

SPENCER REESE, choreographer/ tenor, is delighted to return to OLO for his fourth season. A firm believer in Irving Berlin’s suggestion that “the best things happen while you’re dancing,” Spencer is thrilled that OLO continues to prove that. After two seasons as assistant choreographer, he had the honor to choreograph the full 2016 season, a positon he returns to this summer. Other favorite choreography projects include Philip Glass’ Hydrogen Jukebox and She Loves Me, both with Eastman Opera Theatre, where he was a student of Steven Daigle. He completed his master’s degree in stage directing at Eastman in the spring of 2015. He is currently pursuing a DMA in voice at the University of Connecticut, where he is a student of Constance Rock. He recently directed American opera scenes and an outreach production of Jack and the Baked Beanstalk.

Being in front of the curtain last season at OLO taught Spencer a new set of practical skills. He learned how to money-launder as Chick Owen in Have a Heart, made boots (and magic) as Frick in La vie parisienne, and danced ’til he dropped as Paul in Kiss Me, Kate. He has since sung Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore and Don Basilio/Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, both with UConn Opera Theatre. With his operatic training and notoriously “fidgety feet,” other favorite roles include Larry Potter in Oh, Kay! ERIC ANDRIES, rehearsal (OLO 2015), Harry Beaton in Brigadoon (OLO accompanist, is pleased to return 2015), The Cat in the Hat in Seussical, and to Ohio Light Opera for a tenth Monostatos in Die Zauberflöte. A competitive year. He has a wide range of ballroom dancer, Spencer and his partner have musical experience in several won more than 250 individual awards and placed genres. Over the past few years, third at the USA Dance National Championships. he has been the rehearsal pianist When not onstage (or backstage), Spencer enjoys for several opera companies, spending time with family, indulging in all things including Omaha Opera, Des Moines Opera, Disney, and accumulating a wardrobe that would Amarillo Opera, Shreveport Opera, Mobile be Fred-Astaire-approved.

Opera, Syracuse Opera, Indianapolis Opera, and the Ashlawn Music Festival. Eric has been the WILSON SOUTHERLAND, musical director for touring educational opera conductor and pianist, is in troupes with Opera Iowa, Portland Opera, and demand throughout the United Nashville Opera. In addition, he is an avid jazz States, Africa, Europe, and pianist and has worked with Princess Cruise Line the Middle East. He made his as piano player for the showband. He was also conducting debut to high acclaim the keyboardist/arranger for a local salsa music with Philip Glass’ Les enfants group that was featured at the New Orleans terribles at North Carolina Jazz and Heritage Festival. Eric has been band Opera in 2012, and subsequently made his NYC 52 Box Office: 330.263.2345

leader and pianist for several musical shows as well. A native of Baton Rouge, he holds degrees from LSU in piano performance and has studied abroad in France and Austria.

working with Virginia Opera.

When she’s not in rehearsals, she can oft be found around Wooster eating cupcakes with friends or singing karaoke. Some of her MARK ROBERT SNYDERfavorite OLO productions over SCHULTE, costume designer, the years include: Of Thee I will be designing the costumes for Sing, Gypsy, Camelot, Guys and The Student Prince. He is thrilled Dolls, Silk Stockings, The Dancing Years, and to be celebrating his 14th year everything Gilbert & Sullivan (though H.M.S. with the Ohio Light Opera. He Pinafore is perhaps her favorite of them all). has served in the past as wardrobe master and as part of the cast. He DANIEL HUSTON, lighting will be starting his 16th year in the fall at the designer/assistant production University of Akron, where he is an assistant manager/scenic charge, is costume designer and production assistant in excited to be returning for his costuming for dance, theater, and opera. Mark seventh season with the Ohio received two ACTF Kennedy Center Awards for Light Opera. The technical his costume designs of A Flea in Her Ear and nomad of OLO strikes again.

Godspell. He is a member of the Akron Canton This summer he will be lighting Stage Hands Union I.A.T.S.E. Local 48.

Primrose and Countess Maritza, in addition to his responsibilities as scenic charge and assistant KATIE HUMPHREY, production stage manager, production manager. Last year he designed the is thrilled to be back in Wooster’s loving arms for lighting for The Mikado, La vie parisienne, her seventh season with OLO. A native of North and The Little Dutch Girl, and was also in Carolina, she has enjoyed working in past seasons the chorus of Have a Heart. A native Ohioian, with Children’s Theatre of Charlotte and Opera Daniel graduated from Mount Union College, Carolina, and she most recently spent a season before receiving his MFA in lighting design from

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Michigan State University. A freelance lighting designer out of New York City, some of Daniel’s recent lighting designs include Almost Maine at the College of Wooster, SEX! with The Dirty Blonde Productions in New York City, Assassins, Le nozze di Figaro, and Venus in Fur at the University of South Dakota, and American Night at Teatro Milagro in Portland, OR. This past year Daniel also had the opportunity of working with Spaeth Design on the Christmas windows at Bloomingdale’s and Tiffany in New York City.

He spent this past semester teaching here at the College of Wooster as a visiting professor of lighting design.

designer, is excited to return to OLO for her third season. Her recent designs include last season’s Annie Get Your Gun, Have a Heart, and The Dancing Years. She also designs at various theaters in the Washington, DC area, where she currently resides, including at Mosaic Theatre of DC, 1st Stage, and Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Brittany has assisted on numerous productions as well, including Fish in the Dark on Broadway and Mary Poppins at Olney Theatre Center.

Originally from Akron, Brittany received her MFA in lighting from the University of Maryland.

Her upcoming productions include Twist Your Dickens at the Kennedy Center.

JUSTIN MILLER, scenic designer, is pleased to be returning to OLO after an eight-year hiatus. Justin received his MFA in production design from Michigan State University and his BFA in theater from Tarleton State University in Stephenville, TX. In the fall, he will be joining the faculty of the Conservatory of Theatre & Dance at Southeastern Missouri State University as assistant professor of scenic design. Justin is an advocate for environmentally sustainable theater production, and promotes increased safety awareness and accountability in theater production. He is a proud member of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and the Broadway Green Alliance.

DANIEL HOBBS, scenic designer, is happy to be returning to OLO for a third straight year.

Past designs include last year’s Have A Heart and La vie parisienne, and this year he’ll be designing Anything Goes, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Student Prince, and The Lady of the Slipper. Daniel has his MFA in production design from Michigan State University and currently lives and works in New York City, as well as designing around the country. Most recently, his work could be seen at Ashland University in Ohio and Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

KRISTINA MILLER, costume designer, is excited to be returning to OLO after having been away for eight years.

Kristina holds an MFA in theatrical production design from Michigan State University and a BFA in theater from Tarleton State University. This spring Kristina served as a visiting artist at Seton Hill University, where she designed costumes for Medea. This year her work was also seen at Stages Reparatory Theatre in Houston, where she designed the set for an original holiday panto production of The Wonderful Wizard. Other Houston credits include End of the Rainbow, Girls Night, Sexy Laundry, and The Landing Theatre Company’s world premiere of Exit 27, for which she received the Laura Award for artistic excellence in scenic and costume design. Kristina has also served as an instructional assistant professor of theater in the department of performance studies at Texas A&M University.

BRITTANY

SHEMUGA,

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resident

lighting

JUSTIN H. GIBSON, lighting designer/associate lighting designer, is thrilled to be back for his fifth season with Ohio Light Opera. In previous seasons at OLO, he has served in all capacities in the lighting department, including being the assistant lighting designer for all last season. Justin is a recent graduate of East Carolina University, finishing with concentrations in lighting design, sound design, and stage management. During his time off, Justin enjoys hammocking on the beautiful campus of the College of Wooster, and blowing his money on little knick-knacks from various shops downtown. Once OLO has concluded this season, he will be embarking to Memphis as a lighting designer for Playhouse on the Square.

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, sound designer, developed the sound degrees at Michigan Technological University and has experience in theater and film sound design, recording, live sound reinforcement, and sound system consulting. In addition to his second season overseeing the sound at the Ohio Light Opera, he is currently working on a National Endowment for the Arts funded project, “Listening to Parks,” creating an interactive multimedia experience exploring the soundscapes around Lake Superior.

His professional activity includes adapting, directing, and composing music for Shakespeare’s

Henry V, designing sound for the New York City premiere of Cherylene Lee’s The Legacy Codes, recording the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, one-off live sound mixing for Ravi Shankar, and sound design for the PBS special Yoopera!

Christopher is commissioner of sound for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT). He was recognized by the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) in 2007 as a national teaching artist, won the 2012 KCACTF service award, and was the first winner, in 2012-13, of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education and KCACTF region 3 prize for innovative teaching.

Christopher is currently vice-chair of design, technology, and management for KCACTF region 3.

KIAH KAYSER, assistant scenic designer/scenic designer—Primrose, is thrilled to be returning to OLO for another summer. Kiah is a recent MFA graduate from the University of Arkansas, where she designed Assassins, The Diary of Anne Frank, Twelfth Night, and The Chairs. She has enjoyed working for many summer stock theaters, including Prairie Repertory Theatre, Repertory Theatre of Iowa, and Story Children’s Theatre.

for the Baylor Opera Theatre. She has worked as a designer and assistant designer for Baylor Theatre, Waco Civic Theatre, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Performing Arts Supply Company, Theatre Under The Stars, Houston Family Arts Center, Florida Repertory Theatre, and Ohio Light Opera. She was on tour with Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey with the Legends production, as the head seamstress, and traveled the country by train. Her most recent designs are Big River (FRT), Miss Nelson is Missing (FRT), And Then There Were None (HFAC), and The Turn of The Screw (BU). She is thrilled to be back at OLO to design Primrose.

SAMANTHA PALUMBO, assistant sound designer, is thrilled to start her first season at OLO. Samantha is from Phoenix and is a student at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, working towards her BA in sound design. In addition, she is a musician, having played the violin for 12 years and taken courses in music theory and composition while at college. After finishing her time at Michigan Tech, Samantha is hoping to pursue a career as a sound designer for both film and theater. She hopes that this summer at OLO will be a good learning experience and a step in the right direction for achieving that goal.

Samantha is excited for all this season has to offer, and is glad to be sound-designing opera for the first time. She is particularly looking forward to OLO’s production of The Music Man, as that is one of her favorite musicals.

MATT CHILCOAT, technical director, is excited to be experiencing OLO for the first time. Matt has spent the last three years as the technical director for Angelo State University in Texas, where he received a KCACTF award for excellence in scenic design, and was nominated for the ASU STEPHANIE EUBANK, costume shop president’s award for staff excellence. While in manager, is excited to spend her first summer Texas, he also designed lighting for the Angelo at OLO. She is currently a draper at Indiana Civic Theatre and the San Angelo Civic Ballet. Repertory Theatre, for shows such as The Three Before working in education, Matt worked as Musketeers, Boeing Boeing, and Stuart Little. technical director for Arabian Nights Dinner Stephanie has an MFA in design from Michigan Theatre, Mad Cow Theatre, and Walt Disney State University. Costume design credits include World: show development and production in Pride and Prejudice, Carrie, the Musical! and Orlando. Between productions, Matt is an The Serpent Lady. accomplished scuba diver and world traveler, The Home of Old World Pastries coming to Ohio after two months in Mexico and World Class Coffees getting his PADI dive master certification. After OLO, Matt hopes to return to Mexico to get his PADI dive instructor certification, so that he can start introducing people to the underwater world.

The Home of Old World Pastries KIM GRIFFIN, assistant costume designer, World Class Coffees serve lunch! graduated from Baylor University with We a BFA in gourmet breakfast andand Mon. theater design and technology, with an emphasis Open Mon. - Sat. 7:30 am- Thur.

- 6 pm7:30 am - 5 pm Fri.11 - Sat. am - 7 pm • Sun. 11 am - 4 pm Sun. am -7:30 4 pm in costume design and a minor in music. She will 122 South Market Wooster, Oh 44691 122St., South Market St.,Wooster, Oh 44691 be starting her MFA in costume design at Rutgers 330-264-8092330-264-8092 University in the fall. She began her career as We serve gourmet breakfast and lunch! the resident costume designer, for four years,

ohiolightopera.org 55

FESTIVAL CAST SARAH BEST, mezzo-soprano/ dance captain, happily returns to OLO for her seventh season, as Marian Paroo (The Music Man), Joan (Primrose), and Freakette (The Lady of the Slipper). In the past, she has waltzed, tapped, hornpiped, ribbondanced, tumbled, and even strummed the ukulele in OLO productions. Some of her favorites include: Kiss Me, Kate, The Dancing Years, One Touch of Venus, Can-Can, Ruddigore, Silk Stockings, The Gondoliers, A Connecticut Yankee, The Mikado, The Pirates of Penzance, and Jubilee.

In May, Sarah completed her MM degree at the University of Maryland, with the Maryland Opera Studio, where she recently performed Lucretia (The Rape of Lucretia), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), and Venus (Orphée aux Enfers).

The 2017 season also included performances of Guenevere (Camelot), Requiem (Mozart), and Gloria (Vivaldi). Sarah has appeared as a featured performer at Symphony Space, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, and New York City Center. Additionally, she has performed with the Wooster Symphony Orchestra, Augusta Opera Ensemble, The Daraja Ensemble, AshLawn Opera, the Operetta Foundation in Los Angeles, Liederkranz Opera Theatre, Light Opera of New York, Luzerne Music Center Festival, New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, the American Symphony Orchestra, Bard Music Festival, and Opéra Louisiane.

will be performing the roles of Harold Hill (The Music Man), Dick Deadeye (H.M.S. Pinafore), Hilary (Primrose), and Spooks (The Lady of the Slipper). nathanbrian.com

TOM CARLE, tenor, is thrilled to return for his second year with OLO. On stage, Tom most recently appeared as Barry O’Day in the VHRP Live! performance of Eileen by Victor Herbert.

Other performance credits include Fenton in Verdi’s Falstaff with Westminster Opera Theater, Tom Rakewell in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress with Opera Brooklyn, Ecclitico in Westminster Opera Theater’s production of Haydn’s Il mondo della luna, and Drunken Man in The Little Prince with Opera Fayetteville. This winter, Tom had the pleasure of singing as an apprentice artist with Sarasota Opera, where he participated in various outreach concerts and covered L’Aumonier in Dialogues of the Carmelites. In the 2016-17 season, he appeared as tenor soloist in The Unity Choir’s productions of Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and the Gounod Requiem. He recently recorded an album with the Paragon Ragtime Orchestra and Grammy-winning producer Judith Sherman.

The album, released in December 2015, features popular and lost tunes written by ragtime composer Irving Berlin. Tom is thrilled to appear this season as Jacey Squires in The Music Man, Ritz Quartet Tenor 1 in Anything Goes, Jason in Primrose, Captain Ladislaw in The Lady of NATHAN BRIAN, baritone, has the Slipper, and Von Asterberg in The Student had quite a year. He got married, Prince. took an extended honeymoon, CODY CARLSON, baritone, moved to California, and created, is currently a vocal performance produced, and starred in a new major at the University of Utah kids’ show (thescrappyduo.com).

School of Music. He previously Nathan first appeared on the studied musical theater at the Ohio Light Opera stage in 2003 American Musical and Dramatic as Freddy in My Fair Lady. Since then, he has Academy in New York City. been seen as Frank Butler (Annie Get Your Gun), Favorite shows have included: Ko-Ko (The Mikado), Ruddy (Have a Heart), Rudi Kleber (The Dancing Years), Tommy Carmen, The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus, A (Brigadoon), Sky Masterson (Guys and Dolls), Chorus Line, The Apple Tree, Into the Woods, Curly (Oklahoma!), Jimmy Winters (Oh, Kay!), and Thoroughly Modern Millie. Cody is ecstatic Steve Canfield (Silk Stockings), Dick Trevor to be working with Ohio Light Opera this (Lady, Be Good!), President Wintergreen (Of summer.

Thee I Sing), Martin Barrett (A Connecticut Yankee), J. Bilkington Holmes (Dream City and GRACE CAUDLE, mezzo-soprano, is thrilled to The Magic Knight), Red Shadow (The Desert return to OLO after a two-year hiatus, during Song), Giuseppe (The Gondoliers), and Robin which she performed across Europe, Asia, the (Ruddigore). Back for his tenth season, Nathan Middle East, California, and New York City.

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She is a versatile performer, with a variety of roles in both musical theater and light opera. Some of her favorite credits include Disney’s Beauty and the Beast International Tour (ensemble, Mrs. Potts and Wardrobe u/s), The Wizard of Oz (Glinda), Lincoln Center Spring Gala (chorus), The Student Prince (Princess Margaret), South Pacific (Nellie), and Candide (Paquette). Grace, a Dallas native, has called NYC home for ten years. She is a proud Pace University graduate, with a BFA in musical theater. www.gracecaudle.com KATHERINE CORLE, soprano, is delighted to be returning to OLO for a third season, appearing as Lisa in Countess Maritza, the Fairy Godmother in The Lady of the Slipper, Lady Sophia Mopham in Primrose, and Ethel Toffelmier in The Music Man. In past seasons, she has appeared as Clara in La vie parisienne, Ruth in Ruddigore, and Mimi in Can-Can. She has performed frequently in operetta productions with Light Opera of New York and, most recently, VHRP Live! Some of her favorite opera roles include Mimì in La bohème, the Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro, and Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos. Originally from Minnesota, Katherine attended NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where she received a BFA with honors in theater. She is a student of Dorothy Stone.

ALEXA DEVLIN, mezzosoprano, is in pure disbelief that this is her fifth season with The Ohio Light Opera, performing as Mrs. Paroo in The Music Man, Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, Pinkie Peach in Primrose, and Romneya in The Lady of the Slipper. In years past, she had the honor of playing Annie Oakley (Annie Get Your Gun), Hattie (Kiss Me, Kate), Sally Adams (Call Me Madam), Fanny Welch (Oh, Lady! Lady!!), Amanda Boggs (Dream City and the Magic Knight), Lady Thiang (The King and I), Janice Dayton (Silk Stockings), Buttercup (H.M.S. Pinafore), and Adelaide (Guys and Dolls). Other favorite roles include Ruth Sherwood (Wonderful Town), Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Fay Apple (Anyone Can Whistle), The Baker’s Wife (Into the Woods), and The First Prioress (Dialogues of the Carmelites). She also performs with the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players and was a soloist for the Lotos

Club Foundation. Alexa is a proud graduate of Carnegie Mellon University. Originally from Pittsburgh, Alexa is now one year closer to being considered a true “New Yorker”—she’s lived just shy of five years, in the hustle and bustle of Manhattan, with her wonderful husband David.

OLIVIA DOIG, soprano, is a Chicago native who holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Wheaton College (IL) and a master’s degree in vocal performance from FSU. Olivia first came to love performing while singing in children’s choruses at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and now performs a range of classical and musical theater repertoire. Previous roles include Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Gabriel (Haydn’s The Creation), Anne Truelove (The Rake’s Progress), Laurie (The Tender Land), Cinderella (Into the Woods), Mabel (The Pirates of Penzance), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), and Gretel (Hansel and Gretel). Olivia has also trained and performed with Opera in the Ozarks, OperaWorks, the Kunming Opera Festival in China, and the Schubert-Institut in Baden, Austria. She has received awards from the Chicago Bel Canto Foundation, the Orpheus Voice Competition, the Chicago Italian Cultural Center, the Tallahassee Music Guild, the Grandquist Music Festival, and the Illinois and Chicago NATS chapters.

STEPHEN FAULK, tenor, returns for his eighth season at OLO as Ralph Rackstraw (H.M.S. Pinafore), Toby Mopham (Primrose), and Punks (The Lady of the Slipper). Favorite roles from previous seasons include: Ted Sheldon (Have A Heart), Nanki-Poo (The Mikado), Charlie Dalrymple (Brigadoon), Boris Adzinidzinadze (Can-Can), Richard Dauntless (Ruddigore), Kenneth Gibson (Call Me Madam), Freddy Eynsford-Hill (My Fair Lady), Marco Palmieri (The Gondoliers), Frederic (The Pirates of Penzance), The Defendant (Trial by Jury), Count Lothar Mereditt (Miss Springtime), Captain Ladislas (The Fortune Teller), Ottokar (The Gypsy Baron), and Henri D’Absinthe (Dream City and The Magic Knight).

Stephen has performed with the Light Opera of New York, New York Street Opera, Troupers Light Opera, Little Orchestra Society, Opera Carolina, the Savannah Philharmonic, Augusta Opera, VHRP, LIVE!, Georgia Southern Opera, and the Operetta Foundation in Los Angeles. ohiolightopera.org 57

Other career highlights include: Carl Linden (Bitter Sweet), Mr. Erlanson (A Little Night Music), Simon O’Hara (Naughty Marietta), St. Brioche (The Merry Widow), Lopez (The Serenade), Kid Conner (The Red Mill), Barry O’Day (Eileen), and Christian de Neuvillette (Herbert’s Cyrano de Bergerac). After seven years in New York City, Stephen moved to Pasadena, CA and is the co-creator and host of an online kids’ show, The Scrappy Duo. thescrappyduo. com

previous seasons, Hollis played Beauty in OFTY’s Beauty and the Beast, Guilette in Chicago Folks Operetta’s Ball at the Savoy, Sister Lillianne in Dead Man Walking with Madison Opera, where she also covered Marie in La Fille du Régiment, and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi with Ash Lawn Opera. This season, she returned to OFTY as Adina in The Elixir of Love, and makes her regional debut in her new hometown as Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro with Cleveland Opera Theater.

ADAM GRIFFITHS, tenor, is excited for his debut with OLO. He is currently working on his master’s degree in vocal performance at the University of Utah. He is a highly sought-out soloist around his community, spent three years performing in Consortium, a prestigious men’s septet, and spent two years performing at the Desert Star Playhouse dinner theater. Some favorite roles include Sparky in Forever Plaid, The Mute in The Fantasticks, and Bob Cratchit in the worldpremiere opera A Christmas Carol. He has a passion for teaching and maintains a full studio of private voice students.

SETH JOHNSON, tenor, is from Pekin, IL. He is a recent graduate of Bradley University and a recent resident of Bowling Green, OH. Since moving to Ohio, Seth has been involved with many opera companies, including Great Lakes Light Opera, Toledo Opera, and Cleveland Opera Theater. He has appeared in the chorus of Le nozze di Figaro, in the role of a Magus in Gift of the Magi, and in the small role of Young Pastor in Vanessa.

MASON KELSO, baritone, is a BFA musical theater major at Missouri State University. While at MSU, Mason has had roles JONATHAN HELLER, baritone, in A Little Night Music (Henrik is ecstatic to be performing as Egerman), Legally Blonde: The a young artist with the Ohio Musical (Carlos), Hair (Tribe Light Opera this summer. He Member), and Die Fledermaus. just graduated from the Eastman Mason has also been in Springfield Little School of Music, where he majored Theatre’s production of 9 to 5: The Musical in vocal performance under the (Josh) and Lawrence Arts Center’s production of tutelage of Jan Opalach. Last Spamalot (Sir Galahad). In fall 2017, Mason will summer, Jonathan performed with the College be returning to MSU to start his senior year of Light Opera Company, where he played roles such college, and will be a member of the ensemble as Vicomte Cascada (The Merry Widow), Second in Pippin.

Yeoman (The Yeomen of the Guard), and Frid NATHAN KESSEL, bass/ (A Little Night Music). At Eastman, he has had baritone, is studying at the the great opportunity of performing the roles of Eastman School of Music under Baritone (Hydrogen Jukebox) and, most recently, Anthony Dean Griffey, and will be Manfred Lewin (Out of Darkness). In the fall, he starting his senior year in the fall. will attend NYU to pursue his master’s in musical Kessel was deemed young artist theater and vocal pedagogy. Much love to Mom, of the year by the Boston Globe Dad, Angelea, and all his extended family for in 2013, as well as distinguished always supporting him in his endeavors. artist of the town of Shrewsbury, MA. He has been GILLIAN HOLLIS, soprano, performing with the Boston Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to join Ohio Light as a chorus member since he was 16 years old.

Opera this summer as Kathie in This past summer, Kessel performed with Ash The Student Prince. In 2016, she Lawn Opera, and in the fall he made his debut appeared in this role with Opera with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra as Grand Rapids and toured with Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance. In November, Opera for The Young as Queen of Kessel will be performing at Eastman as Ottone the Night in The Magic Flute. In in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. He 58 Box Office: 330.263.2345

is making his first appearance with Ohio Light Vanished. Grant is no stranger to the OLO stage.

Opera and is very excited to be a part of this This summer marks his ninth season here in eventful summer.

Wooster, where you can see him as Prince Karl Franz in The Student Prince and Baron Koloman DANIELLE KNOX, soprano, a Zsupán in Countess Maritza. Knox is a graduate native of Long Island, enjoys a of the Eastman School of Music (BM, MM) varied career that includes opera, and Northwestern University’s Bienen School of musical theater, and oratorio. Music (DM). He serves as artist/teacher of voice She has sung leading roles with and director of opera at Furman University in Tri-Cities Opera, Ohio Light Greenville, SC, where he resides with his wife Opera, Atlanta Lyric Theater, Danielle and daughters Emilia and Evelyn.

Chamber Opera of Chicago, Light Opera Works, Rochester Lyric Opera, HILARY KOOLHOVEN, soprano, and the Castleton Festival, under the baton of has returned for a second season Lorin Maazel. OLO audiences will remember at OLO, and could not be more her as Sarah Brown (Guys and Dolls), Alice/ delighted. This year she will be playing Sandy (A Connecticut Yankee), Marian Paroo Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore and (The Music Man), Yum-Yum (The Mikado), Bonnie in Anything Goes. A native Phyllis (Iolanthe), Mi (The Land of Smiles), and of Salt Lake City, she received her Mary Lloyd (The Duchess of Chicago). Danielle BA from Westminster College in has been featured on OLO cast recordings, 2014 and recently graduated with her master’s including Blossom Time, The Sorcerer, Robin degree from the University of Utah. Since 2015, Hood, and Maytime. Favorite regional opera she has enjoyed being a regular member of the credits include Musetta (La bohème), Rosina chorus at Utah Opera. Previous roles with OLO (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Frasquita (Carmen), include Peep-Bo in The Mikado and Pauline in First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), and Zerlina (Don La vie parisienne. Some of Hilary’s favorite roles Giovanni). Danielle received a bachelor’s in in the past have been Ilia in Idomeneo, Rosita in vocal performance from the Eastman School of Un mari à la porte, Angelina in La Cenerentola, Music and a master’s in opera from Binghamton and Margaret in The Light in the Piazza. In her University. Currently, she is director of voice at spare time, she enjoys reading exceptionally large the Fine Arts Center of Greenville, SC, where books, playing video games, and cooking for her she resides with her husband, Grant Knox, and friends and family. their two daughters, Emilia and Evelyn. She is BENJAMIN KRUMREIG, tenor, thrilled to return to OLO for her eighth season, is excited to be returning to OLO as Marian Paroo in The Music Man and Hope in for a fifth season, as Marcellus Anything Goes.

Washburn in The Music Man, GRANT KNOX, tenor, is a native Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. of Atlanta. He has appeared Pinafore, and Freddie Falls in with Cincinnati Opera, Atlanta Primrose. A native of Cleveland, Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Benjamin received his BM from Chautauqua Opera, Tri-Cities the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory Opera, Ohio Light Opera, and of Music. He then earned his MM from the with Maestro Lorin Maazel’s University of Illinois School of Music. Well-versed Castleton Opera Festival. Equally in opera, operetta, and musical theater, Benjamin’s at home in concert repertoire, Knox has performed roles include George Gibbs in Ned Rorem’s Our with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, Illinois Town, Arcadio in Daniel Catán’s Florencia en el Philharmonic, Peninsula Music Festival, and in Amazonas, Marco in The Gondoliers, Freddy recital at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady, Fenton in Verdi’s Arts. As a proponent of contemporary music, he Falstaff, and Pluto in Offenbach’s Orpheus in has worked with composers Libby Larsen, John the Underworld. Previous roles at OLO include Musto, Jake Heggie, and William Bolcom, and Rodney Hatch in One Touch of Venus, Charlie sang the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s The Dalrymple in Brigadoon, Gardefeu in La vie Unknown Room, Three Songs for Tenor and parisienne, Nanki-Poo in The Mikado, and Ralph Violin, with the Constella Festival of Music in Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore. He currently Cincinnati. Last spring, Knox collaborated with studies voice with baritone Mark Schnaible. celebrated pianist Martin Katz in Janácˇek’s rarely heard song cycle The Diary of One Who ohiolightopera.org 59

AUDREY LEE, mezzo-soprano, returns for a third season as a young artist. She will be performing in H.M.S. Pinafore, The Student Prince, and The Lady of the Slipper. In her first season with OLO, she had the pleasure of being part of the talented ensemble in Brigadoon. Last season, she was in five productions, including Annie Get Your Gun, The Mikado, and The Dancing Years (Wanda). Some favorite past musical roles include Oklahoma! (Ado Annie), Little Shop of Horrors (Audrey), and Into the Woods (Cinderella). Audrey is from Wooster and is a graduate of Bowling Green State University, with a degree in film production and music. While at BGSU, she was a member of the A Capella Choir and the Women’s Chorus. Audrey is thrilled for another season with the Ohio Light Opera and the opportunity to learn and grow as an artist. This will be a fun and busy summer, as she is recently engaged and planning a December wedding.

in vocal performance from the University of Utah. While in Utah, she has been studying with her mentor, Julie Wright Costa.

Her past role experience includes Lisette in La Rondine, the Ghost of Christmas Past in the new opera The Christmas Carol, Sister Constance in Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia.

SPIRO MATSOS, tenor, Wooster’s escoffier, celebrates his 36th season with the Ohio Light Opera. He will be seen on stage this year as Toni in The Student Prince and Tschekko in Countess Maritza.

Spiro has been recorded singing professionally in both his native Greece and in this country. OLO fans have learned to look forward to his carefully crafted comic cameos and to enjoy the food and atmosphere in his restaurant on Liberty Street in downtown Wooster. There the walls are covered with OLO production photographs from seasons BOYD MACKUS, baritone, past, and the booths are often occupied by is celebrating his 30th season company members. This season is dedicated to this summer with Ohio Light his beloved wife, Pamela Miller Matsos.

Opera. Over this period, he GARRETT MEDLOCK, tenor, is has been involved in over 1300 a recent graduate of the University performances on the Freedlander of Utah, with a BM in vocal stage, including lead roles in performance. A fanatic for opera shows ranging from American and the stage, he has performed musicals (Camelot, South Pacific, Man of numerous operatic roles at La Mancha, Of Thee I Sing) to European Utah, Lawrence University, operettas (The Cousin from Batavia, Countess and in various domestic and Maritza, White Horse Inn, Gypsy Love), and appearances—many in starring roles—in all 14 international young artist programs. Most Gilbert and Sullivan comic operas. Mr. Mackus recently, Garrett had the pleasure of singing has performed over 90 leading opera and operetta Nemorino in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love roles throughout the United States, and has been (Utah, 2017) and Dr. Caius in Verdi’s Falstaff critically acclaimed from the concert hall to the (La Musica Lirica, 2016). As is the case for operatic stage. Several of his recital projects many opera singers, Garrett’s love for music have been recorded and distributed by National and singing started with involvement in musical Public Radio. Mr. Mackus owns an international theater during childhood, and he is excited to business in Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated delve back into this endearing genre and bring Manuscripts, and also serves as artistic advisor his passion to Ohio this summer. of Wade Artist Management in New York City.

PETER MORGAN, bassBoyd will be seen this summer as Sir Joseph baritone, is delighted to be Porter in H.M.S. Pinafore, Doctor Engel in The spending his first summer as a Student Prince, and Prince Popolescu in Countess young artist with OLO, as Olin Maritza.

Britt in The Music Man, Dick Deadeye (cover) and Bob Becket IVANA MARTINIC, soprano, is excited to be in H.M.S. Pinafore, Ruder in in her first season at OLO, as Jean in Primrose.

The Student Prince, and Elisha J. Originally from Arizona, she received her BA from the Eastman School of Music in 2014 and Whitney in Anything Goes. Peter recently made has just recently obtained her master’s degree his main-stage debut with both the Lyric Opera 60 Box Office: 330.263.2345

of Chicago as 3rd Cockney in My Fair Lady and Sarasota Opera, as an apprentice artist, singing the Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly and Thierry in Dialogues des Carmélites.

Additional recent highlights include Leporello in Don Giovanni, Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro, Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte, and the title role in Sweeney Todd.

This fall Peter will be returning to the Lyric Opera of Chicago, where he will be covering the role of David Sands in the Midwest premiere of The Scorpion’s Sting by Dean Burry. A graduate of Eastern Michigan University (undergrad) and Roosevelt University (graduate), Peter enjoys playing his various guitars in his spare time, as well as sampling local pizza and obsessively rewatching episodes of The Office.

ARIELLE NACHTIGAL, soprano, summer events coordinator, and house manager, is thrilled to be returning to OLO for her second season, and her first season on stage as a young artist. She recently graduated with her MM in vocal performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Kathryn Cowdrick. She has most recently performed the roles of Emily Webb in Ned Rorem’s Our Town, Carmela in Umberto Giordano’s Mese mariano, and the title role in Puccini’s Suor Angelica. This past year she was awarded the Helen Boatwright Award, after placing first in the Civic Morning Musicals competition. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Montana, she was a student of David Cody—an OLO alumnus. A true Montana girl at heart, she always makes time for dogs, sunsets, or simply floating the river on hot summer days.

DANIEL NEER, baritone, enjoys a uniquely diverse career as a singer-actor in lyric musical theater, vocal chamber music, art song, contemporary opera, and multimedia projects. Career highlights include performances at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Guggenheim Museum, Morgan Library, The Apollo, Chicago Art Institute, and festivals including Aspen, Bar Harbor, Ostrava, Prototype, Next Wave, Queens New Music, and Brooklyn BEAT. Daniel has collaborated on new works for American Repertory Theatre, New York City Opera, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, American Opera Projects, Center for Contemporary Opera, Experiments in Opera,

Miller Theater, UrbanArias, and Music-Theatre Group, and has performed with Rebel Baroque Orchestra, Ensemble Moto Perpetuo, Metropolis Ensemble, Two Sides Sounding, Trinity Wall Street, Ensemble Pi, Ekmeles, and Mark Morris Dance Group. Broadway credits include Baz Luhrmann’s La bohème and Coram Boy, directed by Melly Still. He studied music and theater at The Ohio State University, University of Michigan, and the Royal Academy of Music in London. Daniel returns to OLO for his seventh season, performing the roles of Tassilo (Countess Maritza), Captain Corcoran (H.M.S. Pinafore), Moonface Martin (Anything Goes), and Lutz (The Student Prince).

TERESA PERROTTA, soprano, made her debut with the Eastman Opera Theatre as the Soprano 1 in the subversive opera Hydrogen Jukebox by Philip Glass. This year, she was the lead in the collegiate premiere of Jake Heggie’s newest opera, Out of Darkness; was part of the inaugural season of Eastman’s opera outreach program; and played Gilda in Lori Laitman’s children’s opera, Three Feathers. Ms. Perrotta’s international recital debut was of Norwegian and English art songs in Oslo. She recently graduated from the Eastman School of Music, and will be continuing her studies at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music for a master’s in voice this fall. At Eastman she was awarded the Ornest Award, and was the only undergraduate to be a finalist in the elite Friends of Eastman Opera aria competition this past year. A native of Orlando, she is an avid scuba diver and devoted theme park goer.

SARAH POLINSKI, soprano, is delighted to be making her debut with the Ohio Light Opera. She recently graduated summa cum laude from Mansfield University, with a BM in music education and vocal performance. Last summer, Sarah performed with the College Light Opera Company on Cape Cod, with roles including Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls, Valencienne in The Merry Widow, Belle in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, and Anne in A Little Night Music. Her credits from Mansfield University include Fiona in Shrek: The Musical, Cinderella in Into the Woods, Yonah in Children of Eden, Rosemary in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and Fantine in Les Misérables. Upon graduation, Sarah continued her work at the Brooklyn Academy ohiolightopera.org 61

of Music, and toured with the Sundog Theatre Company’s Ellis Island: Gateway to a Dream in NYC (combining her two passions of teaching and performing).

Hannah enjoys caring for others as a registered nurse. Hannah is happy to announce that she was recently married to the love of her life, Jerry.

Hannah is a student of Cynthia Wohlschlager.

TANYA ROBERTS, soprano, returns for her fourth season as the title role of Countess Maritza, May Rooker (Primrose), Dollbabia (The Lady of the Slipper), and Purity (Anything Goes). She hopes that you remember her as Anna (The King and I), Lilli (Kiss Me, Kate), Eliza (My Fair Lady), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), Gabrielle (La vie parisienne), and Dolly (Have a Heart).

Tanya has performed over 55 roles, ranging from the Baroque to the 20th century, throughout North America, Europe, and the Middle East.

She has appeared with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Michigan Opera Theatre, Edmonton Opera, Lyrique-en-Mer Festival de Belle-Île, The Banff Centre, Ash Lawn Opera Festival, Sound of Austria, and the Tel Aviv Vocal Arts Festival, among others. Tanya recently made her solo debut at Carnegie Hall with the NYC Chamber Orchestra in Mozart’s Solemn Vespers, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as the soprano I cover in Bach’s Mass in b minor. 2016-17 season highlights include Fünfte Magd (Elektra) with Edmonton Opera, Lady Maude (Eileen) with the Victor Herbert Renaissance Project, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem with the Mineola Choral Society, and singing with Norah Jones on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Tanya is a native of Toronto and graduate of McGill University. www.tanya-roberts.com.

CHRISTOPHER SAPP, tenor, is ecstatic to be returning to Ohio Light Opera for his second season. Most noted past roles include Anthony in Sweeney Todd, Matt in The Fantasticks (University of Georgia), Robert in The New Moon, Luis in The Gondoliers (College Light Opera Company), and, most recently, the role of Dinny in the 100th anniversary of Victor Herbert’s operetta Eileen (VHRP Live!). Christopher will be returning to New York University this fall to complete his second and final year of the masters of music in voice performance program. He is very thankful for another summer of basking in the fresh air of Wooster.

HANNAH ROWLAND, mezzosoprano, is thrilled to be back this season with the Ohio Light Opera as a young artist. Hailing from Wooster, Hannah has grown up going to OLO productions, and has been involved in theater in this community for the past 20 years. Hannah had a wonderful time last season in Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun, Have A Heart, La vie parisienne, The Dancing Years, and The Little Dutch Girl, and is looking forward to another fantastic season with the company. She recently graduated from Malone University in Canton, OH, where she performed in a number of productions. Most recently, Hannah has played the roles of Amahl in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro, the Witch in Into the Woods, and Madame Flora in The Medium. When she is not on stage, 62 Box Office: 330.263.2345

TZYTLE STEINMAN, is originally from sunny Southern California and is now a master’s student in vocal performance at Northwestern University, where she studies with W. Steven Smith.

She is excited to be joining Ohio Light Opera this summer. Last summer she was a young artist with Utah Festival Opera. Her previous performance experience includes Mother Marie in Dialogues of the Carmelites, Thelma in Later the Same Evening, Stewardess in Flight, and Mercedes in Carmen.

When she is not singing, Tzytle enjoys to dance, cook, and to do yoga.

ROYCE STRIDER, baritone, is tickled pink to be returning for his third summer with OLO, playing Oliver Hix in The Music Man and Prince Ulrich in The Lady of the Slipper, among other ensemble and cameo roles throughout the season. Last summer he entertained Wooster audiences as the 2nd Gunman in Kiss Me, Kate and as Detective Baker in Have a Heart. Hailing from Norman, OK, Royce completed his MM at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. Recent appearances with the Moores Opera Center include the leading role of the Mayor in John Musto’s comic opera The Inspector, Capulet (Roméo et Juliette) Reverend Hale (The Crucible), Monsieur de Brétigny (Manon), Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), and Prince Yashvin (David Carlson’s

Anna Karenina). Other favorite roles include the Baker (Into the Woods), Betto (Gianni Schicchi), Le superintendent des plaisirs (Cendrillon), and Starveling in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. When not gracing a stage, Royce enjoys eating veggie burgers, gaming, nature walks, and reading trashy books with his cat, Hamlet.

MEGAN TAYLOR, mezzosoprano, recently graduated from the American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City. She is thrilled to be making her professional performance debut with the Ohio Light Opera this season. Megan would like to thank all of her friends and family for their love and support. She also wants to give a special thanks to her voice teacher, Dorothy Stone, for helping her improve her skills and opening up so many wonderful opportunities for her. Megan hopes that everyone enjoys watching the shows as much as she has enjoyed being a part of them.

Student Prince, Mrs. Wentworth in Anything Goes, and Pritchard in Primrose. Most recently, Yvonne has performed the roles of Helene in Hin und Zurück, The Governess in The Turn of the Screw, Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, and Emma Goldman in Ragtime. A native of Rochester, NY, Yvonne graduated from the Eastman School of Music, as the Renee Fleming Scholarship Recipient, with her master’s in vocal performance and literature, studying with Kathryn Cowdrick. She also has her bachelor of music and bachelor of theater degrees from the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam, where she studied with Donald George.

DAVID VARNEY, tenor, is currently a student at Snow College in Ephraim, UT. He is a vocal performance major, studying with Brian Stucki. David also participates in the plays and YVONNE TROBE, soprano, is delighted to musicals put on at the college. join the Ohio Light Opera for the first time, in Recent roles include Luiz in The the roles of Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn in The Gondoliers, Chauvelin in The Scarlet Pimpernel, Music Man, Grand Duchess Anastasia in The and Harry Roat in Wait Until Dark.

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STEPHEN WALLEY, baritone, is going into his third year of undergraduate studies at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, under the tutelage of Wolfgang Brendel. This past year, Stephen played Sir Despard in Ruddigore with the University Gilbert and Sullivan Society, Falke in BU Tanglewood Young Artist Opera’s production of Die Fledermaus, and The Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly with IU Opera Theater.

He has participated as a chorus member in IUOT’s productions of Il barbiere di Siviglia, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, La fille du regiment, and Peter Grimes. In 2017, Stephen was a finalist in the Tri-State Vocal Competition with the Opera Guild of Dayton and received the Bella Voce award from the Bel Canto Foundation.

A resident of Gladstone, NJ, Stephen received the New Jersey Governor’s Award for Vocal Music in 2015. Past opera scenes credits include Edwin in Die Csárdásfürstin, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Candide in Candide, and Strephon in Iolanthe. This fall at IU, Stephen will perform Masetto in a new production of Don Giovanni.

GRETCHEN WINDT, mezzosoprano, is thrilled to return to OLO for a fourth season.

Previous roles include Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus, Meg Brockie in Brigadoon, Pitti-Sing in The Mikado, and Métella in La vie parisienne. Gretchen has performed with Utah Opera and Symphony, Cincinnati Opera, Opera Idaho, Sarasota Opera, Opera Southwest, Chesapeake Chamber Opera, Bowen Park Opera, DuPage Opera Theatre, and Sugar Creek Symphony and Song. Originally

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64 Box Office: 330.263.2345

KYLE YAMPIRO, baritone, is elated to be returning to OLO for his third season. He has previously performed both opera and musical theater with various regional companies, including Broward Stage Door Theatre (FL), College Light Opera Company (MA), Thin Air Theatre Company (CO), Blue Gate Musicals (IN), Luray Opera Theatre (VA), and Texas Family Musicals.

Favorite roles include Tony Esposito in The Most Happy Fella, Julian Marsh in 42nd Street, the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Henry (the elevator boy) in Have a Heart, and Bobinet in La vie parisienne. Right after completing his DMA in voice performance, pedagogy, and literature, with an optional singing health emphasis, at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA, he spent the 2016-17 academic year as the visiting assistant professor of voice for the musical theater program at the University of Memphis. In addition to performing and teaching, he also freelances as a writer, arranger, clinician, and adjudicator for a cappella groups.

After over a decade away from home, he looks forward to returning to Long Island this fall to pursue performing opportunities, audition in the NYC area, and be reunited with some of the very best pizza and bagels. www.kyleyampiro.com

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from Chicago, she received her BME from North Park University, her MM from the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, and, most recently, her DMA from the University of Utah. Since joining the faculty at the University of North Alabama this past year, she has studied the idiosyncrasies of Southern dialect, while sporting tweed elbow patches and savoring pimento cheese spread. www.gretchenwindt.com

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2017 FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

Saki Kurose concertmaster

Tatiana Zueva assistant concertmaster

Jeffrey Anderson clarinet

Jacob Boca trumpet

Ethan Brozka horn

Sydney Campen harp

Laura Chalmers clarinet

Sarah Gartin percussion

Peter Gooch trombone

Nicholas Goodwin flute

Emily Grissing cello

Kolten Heeren double bass

M. BelĂŠn HernĂĄndez violin

Mellvin Jackson horn

Saikat Karmakar violin

Laura Kellogg flute

Charlotte Kies clarinet

Alexander Kruzel trombone

Donald McEwan trumpet

Devin Morton oboe

Valeriya Nedviga violin

Alec Norkey violin

Pedro Oveido viola

Veronica Parrales cello

Iva Raykova viola

Thomas Roblee percussion

Emory Rosenow violin

Joshua Schairer bassoon

John Schuesselin trumpet

Jack Steward string bass

Robin Vorkink oboe

Spencer Wilson bassoon

66 Box Office: 330.263.2345

SAKI KUROSE, concertmaster, is excited to be joining OLO for her first season. She began her violin studies in Washington, DC with members of the National Symphony Orchestra. She is an active solo, chamber, and orchestral musician, and has given performances at many prestigious venues, including the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. She received her bachelor’s degree from Rice University and her master’s degree from Cleveland State University, where she served as concertmaster for the CSU Symphony Orchestra and studied with Peter Otto, first associate concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra.

Saki is currently principal second violin in the Mansfield Symphony Orchestra, and a member of the Canton Symphony Orchestra. Saki has led orchestra workshops for high schools in the Cleveland area and enjoys giving private lessons.

When not performing or teaching, she likes to take her dogs for a walk by the lake, or cook and bake different kinds of dishes and pastries.

and research assistant to the department of music theory. Prior to his move to Pittsburgh, he graduated from the College of Wooster with degrees in trumpet performance and music theory, completing a senior independent study on the vocal music of Ned Rorem. Outside his musical career, Jake enjoys reading, cooking, and visiting local breweries.

ETHAN BROZKA, horn, has a broad range of performance experience, including symphony orchestra, chamber, and modern music. He most recently completed a master’s degree as a teaching assistant at the University of Iowa. His past teachers include Julie Landsman, Roland Pandolfi, Jeffrey Agrell, David Wakefield, and Susan McCullough. Ethan has served as fourth horn of the Dubuque Symphony Orchestra and guest principal horn of the Quincy Symphony Orchestra. He holds an artist diploma from the Oberlin Conservatory, and has studied at the University of Denver, The Royal Danish TATIANA ZUEVA, assistant concertmaster, Conservatory, the Aspen Music Festival and is excited for her second season with OLO. She School, and the Music Academy of the West. graduated from St. Petersburg Conservatory in This fall, Ethan will begin a fellowship with The Russia and is now working on her DMA degree at Orchestra Now, under the direction of Leon Michigan State University with Dmitri Berlinsky. Botstein.

She also plays in several orchestras in Michigan: SYDNEY CAMPEN, harp, will be a senior Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, Traverse this fall at the University of Illinois, where she Symphony, and West Michigan Symphony. studies harp performance under the tutelage of JEFFREY ANDERSON, clarinet, is pleased Ann Yeung. In addition to pursuing an education to be returning to the OLO pit orchestra for a in music, Sydney performs throughout central fourth season. He just finished his DMA degree Illinois. Most recently, Sydney has performed in clarinet performance at the University of with the University of Illinois Symphony Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music, with Orchestra, Danville Symphony Orchestra, and a cognate in piano performance. Highlights of the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra. She won year include a performance of his arrangement of the 2017 UI Symphony Concerto Competition the scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer and will be featured as a soloist in its 2017-18 Night’s Dream for clarinet choir at the inaugural season. To complement her passion for music, Clarinet Minifest of the Cincinnati Clarinet Sydney serves as the secretary-treasurer for the Consortium, and learning two new instruments Roslyn Rensch Central Illinois chapter of the for his lecture recital entitled “The Chalumeau American Harp Society, the advertising manager and Early Clarinet: Friends or Foes?” Jeffrey is for the World Harp Congress Review, as well as a veteran theory TA at CCM, teaching theory/ a house manager for the Krannert Center for the musicianship 3 and 4—he thoroughly enjoys Performing Arts. Some of Sydney’s favorite things blowing his students’ minds with radical theory are reading, playing with puppies, and traveling.

ideas. Favorite shows of past OLO seasons LAURA CHALMERS, clarinet, is excited include Dream City and the Magic Knight and to be returning for a third season at OLO. Ruddigore. www.jeffreyandersonmusic.com.

She is a Montreal native. Despite numerous JACOB BOCA, trumpet, is thrilled to be interventions, Laura decided that she wanted returning to Wooster for his third season with the nothing more than to be an orchestral clarinetist, Ohio Light Opera. In May 2017, he graduated a decision that lead her to study a double DEC in from the Carnegie Mellon University School music and science at Vanier CEGEP in Montreal, of Music, where he earned a master’s degree with Zaven Zakarian. She then went on to do her in trumpet performance, studying with Neal bachelor’s in music at McGill University, with Berntsen of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. Alain Desgagne, and was then fortunate enough While at CMU, Jake served as both a teaching to study with her personal hero, James Campbell, ohiolightopera.org 67

and then with Eli Eban at Indiana University for her master’s and doctorate, for which she just finished her coursework. Laura was a finalist in IU’s concerto competition this year. She is also the assistant instructor in the clarinet studio at Indiana University, which allows her to yell at the freshman quite a bit, thereby achieving one of her greatest goals in life.

SARAH JAYNE GARTIN, percussion, holds a BM degree in music performance from The Florida State University, where she studied with John Parks IV. While at FSU, she participated and won the Percussive Arts Society Orchestral Mock Audition. After graduating, Gartin went on to receive her MM degree in performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Michael Burritt, Bill Cahn, and Chip Ross. While at Eastman, she achieved the performance certificate, which is given to students with the highest level of performing ability. Since 2012, Gartin has participated in the following music festivals: Eastern Music Festival, Chautauqua, OLO, and Texas Music Festival. She is currently an avid freelancer in Texas, where she has performed with The San Antonio Symphony, Midland-Odessa S&C, The Woodlawn Theatre, Mid-Texas Symphony, and more. This is her second season with the Ohio

Light Opera and she couldn’t be more thrilled to be back in Wooster.

PETER GOOCH, trombone, is thrilled to be returning to OLO for his third season. A native of Wooster and recent graduate of Wooster High School, Peter just completed his second year as a music performance major at The Ohio State University, where he studies with Joseph Duchi.

Peter’s hobbies include music composition, golf, and camping. He has performed with the OSU Wind Symphony, OSU Symphony Orchestra, College of Wooster Jazz Ensemble, the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, and the Eastman Trombone Choir. His future aspirations lie in the field of orchestral performance. Currently, Peter is a freelance jazz and classical musician in northeast Ohio. His past instructors include Larry Zalkind, Scott Garlock, Ken Holzworth, Dan Adams, and Doug Bennett.

NICHOLAS GOODWIN, flute, is thrilled to join the OLO orchestra for the first time. A seasoned pit musician, Nick has performed with the North American tour of The Phantom of the Opera, the national tour of The Sound of Music, and was a member of College Light Opera Company for three seasons. He has been an orchestra fellow at Brevard Music Center and

Tue., Wed., Thu. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Fri. & Sat. 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.

(Closed Sunday & Monday)

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Round Top Festival Institute, and is currently a semifinalist for the New World Symphony. As a solo competitor, he has been a finalist in the Texas Flute Society Myrna Brown Competition and the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Nick resides in Austin, where he maintains a private teaching studio and busy freelance schedule. His principal teachers include Marianne Gedigian, Janet Arms, and Judith Braude. A native of Middleton, MA, Nick holds degrees from The University of Texas at Austin (MM) and The Hartt School, University of Hartford (BM).

EMILY GRISSING, cello, is thrilled to be returning for her second season with OLO. She was captivated and inspired by live classical professional orchestral music at age two, and immediately dove into a life dedicated to in-depth study and performance of music. While other children played in sandboxes, Emily practiced piano, composed music, listened to opera, classical, jazz, and more, while also exploring literature, mathematics, physics, and lingual curiosities. She has studied cello, conducting, free improv, flute, voice, viola, double bass, musical theater, music theory, early music, and more, while establishing herself as an accomplished, collaborative musician. She has held professional

cello positions since age 22, and has participated in prestigious music festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Eastern Music Festival, and the National Orchestral Institute. Close to Emily’s heart is sharing music with others through performance, mentoring, and teaching.

KOLTEN HEEREN, double bass, grew up in Yorkville, IL. He currently attends the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pursuing a double major in music composition and double bass performance, for which he studies with Michael Cameron. During the academic year, Kolten regularly performs with the Champaign/ Urbana Symphony, Jacksonville Symphony, and Sinfonia de Camera. This summer, Kolten will also be attending the June in Buffalo festival for composers. In addition to classical music, he has performed in a wide spectrum of genres, ranging from jazz and tango to avant-garde. Outside of music, Kolten enjoys hiking in the mountains.

Sadly, there are very few to be found in Illinois.

M. BELÉN HERNÁNDEZ, violin, started her musical journey in her native Argentina. She earned degrees in violin performance and music theory from Universidad Nacional de Tucumán (2007), Carson-Newman University (BM 2014),

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and University of Northern Colorado (MM 2016).

She has performed with many orchestras in the United States and Argentina. Belén is currently pursuing a doctorate in violin performance, with a second emphasis in conducting, at the University of Northern Colorado, where she has been the teaching assistant since 2014. Belén is happy to play her second season with OLO. MELLVIN JACKSON, horn, is an artist diploma student at CCM, studying with Randy Gardner and Liz Freimuth. He earned his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and his bachelor’s from the Peabody Conservatory.

He was 4th horn in the LaCrosse Symphony Orchestra in Wisconsin. Melvin has also explored the musical language of jazz, composing several works in that idiom. When not playing the French horn, Mr. Jackson also enjoys cooking and playing chess.

SAIKAT KARMAKAR, violin, recently graduated from Michigan State University with a master’s in violin performance, studying with Walter Verdehr. This will be his first season with the Ohio Light Opera. Previously, he has joined the Hollywood Concert Orchestra in its annual tour of China, and played violin and viola in the ARCO Chamber Orchestra. He has had the great fortune to perform in solo and chamber master classes with Mikhail Kopelman, Martin Beaver, and Clive Greensmith of the Tokyo String Quartet, and members of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. While in his undergraduate studies at the University of Georgia with Michael Heald, he led the Studio Jazz Orchestra and the Georgia Clay String Quartet, which went on to perform two tours of the southeastern United States. His past summers were spent at Brevard Music Festival and the Meadowmount School for Strings. In his spare time, he enjoys most racquet sports and hiking.

looks forward to the OLO performances this summer and hiking at Spangler Park in Wooster. www.laurakelloggflutist.com CHARLOTTE KIES, clarinet, is thrilled to perform in her first season with OLO. She is currently second clarinetist with the Steamboat Symphony Orchestra in Steamboat Springs, CO. An opera and musical theater enthusiast, Charlotte has performed in numerous staged productions, including Brigadoon and My Fair Lady at the Covedale Center for Performing Arts in Cincinnati, and South Pacific with Oyster River Players in Exeter, NH. This May, Charlotte presented a lecture-recital on madness in Peter Maxwell Davies’ semi-staged music-theater work, Miss Donnithorne’s Maggot (1974), at the University of Cincinnati – College-Conservatory of Music. She earned her BM from Indiana University and her MM from Carnegie Mellon University, and is a DMA candidate at CCM. In her spare time, Charlotte enjoys biking, cooking, and traveling. At the end of the season, Charlotte will be moving to Pittsburgh to join her husband, Chad, who had been employed as a percussionist in Japan for three years.

ALEXANDER KRUZEL, trombone, is an enthusiastic musician and traveler, happy to be performing with OLO this summer for the first time. Alexander is from Dayton and is currently an undergraduate student at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music (CCM), studying with Timothy Anderson. In 2015 he was a founding member of the Zinzinnati Trombone Quartet and, more recently, performed as a featured soloist with the CCM Brass Choir. Alexander loves to travel; in the fall of 2015, he spent five months studying trombone in Aarhus, Denmark, and has recently set out to visit every national park in the United States. He is also an amateur gourmand, enjoying such delicacies as potato LAURA KELLOGG, flute, is pleased to be chips on his sandwiches and pineapple on his returning to OLO for a fourth season. Last year, pizzas.

Laura completed her DMA from the University DONALD MCEWAN, trumpet, joins the of Oklahoma. She has a BM in performance Ohio Light Opera for the first time this season. from Michigan State University and an MM in He has held positions with the Opera in the performance from Wright State University. While Ozarks festival orchestra, North Carolina Brass attending WSU and OU, she held a graduate Band, and the Sewanee Summer Music Festival teaching assistantship. Her teachers include faculty brass quintet. He performs regularly as Valerie Watts, Christopher Chaffee, and Richard a substitute musician with the North Carolina Sherman. Preceding her seasons with OLO, Symphony, Asheville Symphony, Richmond Laura attended the Chautauqua Music Festival Symphony, Winston-Salem Symphony, and in New York for two summers. She has also Greensboro Symphony. He is also an active performed with the Cimarron Opera, the Fort freelancer and teacher in the North Carolina Smith Symphony, and the Lansing Symphony area. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Orchestra. Laura is a private flute instructor and Oberlin Conservatory and a master’s degree from freelance performer in Southeast Michigan. She the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 70 Box Office: 330.263.2345

where he is currently finishing a doctorate in trumpet performance.

Philharmonic Orchestra (OH). Valeriya currently holds contracts with the Richmond Symphony DEVIN MORTON, oboe, English horn, is Orchestra (IN) and the Springfield Symphony thrilled to return for a second season at OLO. Orchestra (OH). She is a teaching assistant at A native of Mississippi, Devin currently resides The Ohio State University, where she is pursuing in Kansas City, MO, where he is a doctoral her master’s in violin performance and minor in oboe performance student at the University of theater production.

Missouri-Kansas City. At the conservatory, he ALEC NORKEY, violin, a resident of Napoleon, performs extensively with the Conservatory MI, began violin lessons at the age of five, Wind Symphony, Conservatory Orchestra, and through the Jackson Symphony Orchestra. At is a frequent soloist in the Bach’s Lunch cantata eight, he performed with this orchestra, and concert series. An active chamber musician, later won the 2005 youth concerto competition.

Devin regularly performs with the Midwest He was a winner of the 2012 Hope College Chamber Ensemble and Classical Revolution Concerto Competition, was a finalist in the Kansas City. Additionally, he has performed as 2015 Douglas Wayland Chamber Music principal oboe with the Mississippi Symphony Competition, and was recently a finalist in the and North Mississippi Symphony Orchestras. Lansing Matinee Musicale Young Artist Award Devin holds an MM from Arkansas State University and a BME from Mississippi State University. His primary teachers include Celeste A mixed-voice A mixed-voice Johnson, Barbara Bishop, and Dan Ross. adult volunteer chorus adult volunteer chorus Along with his performance obligations, Devin celebrating its its 10th year, celebrating 15th year, dabbles in musicology and instrument repair. presenting a variety of of presenting a variety He especially loves cooking—particularly handconcerts annually. concerts annually. crafting fresh breads, pastas, and pastries.

WeWe welcome new members welcome new members who love to sing! who love to sing!

VALERIYA NEDVIGA, violin, was born in www.waynechoralunion.org www.waynechoralunion.org Russia and has studied at the Schnittke State Institute of Music (Russia), Columbus State University (GA), and the University of Northern Colorado. She has received many awards, including outstanding solo at the Young Prague Festival, first place at the Baltic Autumn Festival in Tallinn, Estonia, second place at the Musica Classica Competition in Moscow, and alternate winner at the MTNA Young Artist Competition (USA). Valeriya has participated in concerts at the North London Festival of Music and Drama, was guest artist at the Performing Arts Institute at the Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, PA, was assistant concertmaster at the Opera in the Ozarks Festival in Arkansas, and served as acting concertmaster for the Tuscarawas

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for Strings. He has participated in master classes and has enjoyed performing in a variety of music programs, such as the Interlochen Advanced String Quartet Program, the Illinois Wesleyan University Chamber Music program, the Chautauqua Institute Music School Festival Orchestra, and the National Music Festival at Washington College. Alec recently completed a master’s degree in violin performance at Bowling Green State University, and will be continuing his studies this coming fall at Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

PEDRO OVEIDO, viola, a native of Paraguay, came to the United States to pursue his studies in viola performance, first at Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, KS, before transferring to nearby Wichita State University. While in Paraguay, he performed with every major orchestra in the country, holding the principal viola position at the Orquesta de la Universidad del Norte. He is currently a musician for the Wichita Symphony Orchestra and has recently been appointed as associate principal viola at the Symphony Orchestra of Northwest Arkansas in Fayetteville. This is Pedro’s second season with the Ohio Light Opera.

VERONICA PARRALES, cello, is delighted to join OLO for her first season this year. She received training at Manhattan School of Music and Purchase Conservatory, before obtaining a master’s degree at Hunter College and completing the course work for a DMA at Rutgers University, while studying with Jonathan Spitz. Growing up in New York City, Veronica was exposed to many wonderful musical resources and freelanced for ten years before taking orchestral auditions.

She recently won the position of principal cello for the Mississippi Symphony and continues to serve as assistant principal cello for the Baton Rouge Symphony. Veronica has collaborated with world-renowned artists, in venues including Carnegie Hall, Symphony Space, and Lincoln Center. She is versed in a variety of styles, including jazz, Latin, and improvisation.

Veronica was formerly a teaching artist with the New Jersey Symphony, faculty at Princeton String Academy, and a Suzuki instructor for the Rutgers University Extension Division.

four, and graduated the National Musical School “Lyubomir Pipkov,” where she studied viola in the class of Stefan Jilkov. Iva earned a BM degree at Texas Christian University, where she studied under Misha Galaganov. She continued her studies at Southern Methodist University, earning a master’s degree in viola performance, in the class of Barbara Sudweeks. At the moment, Iva is pursuing an artist certificate at TCU. She is an active performer and pedagogue and has appeared in festivals such as AIMS in Graz, Castleton Festival, Brevard Music Center, and Music in the Mountains. Iva has performed with the Irving Symphony, San Angelo Symphony, Plano Symphony, Waco Symphony, and Oddysseus Chamber Orchestra, among others. She has also performed as a chamber and orchestral musician in the United States, Germany, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, and Bulgaria.

THOMAS ROBLEE, percussion, is currently assistant band and orchestra director of Alliance City Schools. After completing degrees from SUNY Fredonia and The University of Akron, he has been performing with OLO for ten years. Thomas is timpanist of the Tuscarawas Philharmonic and has performed with the Akron, Ashland, and Wooster Symphony Orchestras.

He performed for marimba virtuoso Keiko Abe during June of 2012 in Fredonia, NY, and continuously presents clinics and performances of traditional African music on gyil (Ghanaian xylophone) and drums. When not performing, Thomas enjoys downhill skiing, mountain biking, and traveling.

EMORY ROSENOW, violin, is happy to be back for her fourth season with OLO. She recently graduated from Cleveland State with a performance certificate, studying with Takako Masame. Previously, she received her master’s from Oklahoma State and bachelor’s from Kansas State. Emory played with the Tulsa Symphony during her master’s studies, and has played in many stage productions throughout her career, from Mozart operas to modern musicals. When she isn’t stuck in orchestra pits, she enjoys baking and trying to convince her cat, Mr. Butters, to lose weight.

JOSHUA SCHAIRER, bassoon, is a native of IVA RAYKOVA, viola, was born in Sofia, the Northern Colorado area and is thrilled to be Bulgaria, began her musical studies at the age of joining OLO for his first season. He has played

Visit our website ohiolightopera.org 72 Box Office: 330.263.2345

with orchestras throughout Colorado, including the Colorado Spring Philharmonic, the Cheyenne Symphony, the Greeley Philharmonic, and the Boulder Symphony. He especially enjoys playing opera with the Loveland Opera Theatre Orchestra and the UNC Opera Program. He is a founding member of the Bear Lake Wind Quintet, which won third place in the 2017 Southard Music Competition. Joshua holds a BM and MM from the University of Northern Colorado, studying with Charles Hansen and Tristan Rennie.

During the summer, he has been known to hold impromptu chamber music concerts throughout the Northern Colorado area. He can be heard performing regularly throughout Colorado, and maintains an active private studio. When not practicing or making reeds, Josh enjoys watching ice hockey and soccer, and laying in his hammock with a book.

ROBIN VORKINK, oboe and English horn, is thrilled to be joining OLO for her second season.

Her previous show experience has included some of the classics, including Carmen, William Tell, The Magic Flute, The Marriage of Figaro, A Christmas Carol, Beauty and the Beast, The Wizard of Oz, The Sound of Music, and Fiddler on the Roof. Robin is originally from California and received her first degree from UCLA. But after spending several years in “corporate” America, she decided to ditch the day job and pursue her music career fulltime. Robin is currently majoring in oboe performance at the University of Utah, and studies with Bob Stephenson.

SPENCER WILSON, bassoon, is thrilled to be joining OLO for his second season. Spencer earned his master’s degree in music performance from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and he has made it his passion to educate JACK STEWARD, string bass, has taught people on the bassoon and to make the instrument at The College of Wooster for ten years and more recognizable. Originally from Chesapeake, always looks forward to participating in the pit VA, Spencer now works as a freelance musician, for the Ohio Light Opera. He has performed reed maker, clinician, and private instructor in professionally for 42 years, in all styles of music, Dallas. Spencer is a student of Sue Barber and in several Ohio orchestras, big bands, Broadway William Ludwig. productions, chamber music, and small jazz ensembles.

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FESTIVAL TECHNICAL AND ARTISTIC STAFF SCENE SHOP AND STAGE CREW TYLER BENSEN, master carpenter, is excited to be returning to OLO for a second season.

Tyler is a theater arts major with a German minor at the University of Pittsburgh. He was recently the assistant technical director for Pitt’s production of Hair, and the technical director for its production of Aglaonike’s Tiger. Tyler has also experimented with sound design. Recent credits include sound designer for Pitt’s production of Peter and the Starcatcher, as well as assistant sound designer for Pittsburgh Public Theater’s production of The Fantasticks.

BA in music performance at Goshen College, playing roles including the Count in Le nozze di Figaro and Judas in Godspell 2012. Currently, Ben is working on his MM in vocal performance at Bowling Green State University, and plans on pursuing a career in opera. Ben hails from Goshen, IN and is happily married to his wife and fellow OLO employee, Alexandria.

BEN GANGER, carpenter, is excited for his first season with the Ohio Light Opera. He worked as the master electrician at Goshen College, for which highlights included building a New York penthouse for the set of Le nozze di Figaro, turning a proscenium space into an in-the-round space for Julius Caesar, and light-designing Bombers, for which he received honorable mention for realized light design at the KCACTF Region III Festival. Although he is working in a technical capacity at OLO, his studies have focused on vocal performance. He earned a

projects from her collegiate and high school years include a 12-foot turntable for Cendrillon, building Greased Lightning, a whole forest of Truffula trees for Seussical, and her first two assistant technical directing experiences with CCM Dance. However, the most fun show experience she’s had so far would have to be American Idiot, because she loves the music of Green Day, and her duties as prop drug handler never failed to be entertaining. Her other interests include hiking, general exploration, playing video games, collecting candles, and trying new foods.

OLIVER HERRON, carpenter, has returned to OLO for his second season. He has worked many shows over the last two years at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg. Oliver, hailing CARSON BISHOP, shop foreman, is a senior from Kirksville, MO, is working on his BFA, at East Carolina University in the theater design with a focus on technology and design. He offers & production program, focusing on technical special thanks to his friends, and a thank you to direction. This past year he completed his his mentors Jeff Pletz and Michael Benson. He is capstone show, 1776. He has worked at The excited to be back at OLO. Monomoy Theatre in Chatham, MA as assistant CARI KAMPER, carpenter, is excited for her technical director. Carson is very excited to be first season with OLO, following her sophomore spending the summer with The Ohio Light year with the University of Cincinnati’s CollegeOpera.

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She would not be where she is today without JR director for The Sparrow, as well as Empire of Simons, and she hopes everyone has a delightful the Eternal Void. At U of M, Stephen also works summer of theater. as a production assistant, in various production STEPHEN TOMLIN, assistant technical roles, for all theatrical performances. He hails director, is pleased to be joining the OLO team. from Sattler, a small town in central Texas, Previous to this season, he began his first year of and did his undergraduate work at Texas State graduate school at the University of Memphis, University, under the tutelage of Shane Smith and for the purpose of attaining an MFA in technical Dwight Markus. direction. There, Stephen was the technical SCENIC ARTISTS SARAH GRACE HARRIS, scenic artist, is thrilled to be joining the Ohio Light Opera team this year for the first time. Growing up in a family full of artists, it is no surprise to see that she has followed the same path. Sarah Grace started off her scenic artist career interning for many theaters in the Dallas area, where she grew up. This past summer, she spent time in Madrid, teaching technical theater and comedy improv at a local arts school; she hopes to return soon.

Afterwards, she worked at Trinity Shakespeare Festival as intern charge artist and as a dresser.

She recently received her degree in theater from Belhaven University in Jackson, MS, where she worked as its guest scenic charge. She also spends time as a stage manager and backstage coordinator. In her free time, Sarah Grace is always looking for a new skill to learn.

ERIKA METSCHER, scenic artist, is pleased to be working her first season with the Ohio Light Opera. She is a recent graduate of East Carolina University, in Greenville, NC, where she focused in scenic design, scenic painting, and prop artistry.

In addition to her numerous prop and painting credits, Erika served as scenic designer for ECU’s season closer, Lend Me a Tenor. In past summers,

Erika has been a charge artist for The Huron Playhouse in Huron, OH, and a scenic artist for the Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre in Conway.

After her time with the Ohio Light Opera, she will begin a nine-month internship with The Sacramento Theatre in California. Aside from theater, Erika enjoys crafting and making artist books.

RENÉE SURPRENANT, charge scenic artist, is very pleased to join OLO this summer for the first time. She has lived and worked for the past seven years in Michigan, where she earned her MFA in production design from Michigan State University, and then held the position of professor of set design and technical director at Hillsdale College. This fall, she will move home to Rhode Island to begin her new job as professor of set design at Brown University. Renée’s professional credits also include the position of set designer and internship coordinator at La Musica Lirica, a professional opera training program in Novafeltria, Italy. Her time here in Wooster will be cut short by her return to this program in mid-June, but she is thankful for the opportunity to contribute her skills to OLO’s exciting season and dynamic company.

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COSTUMES AND WARDROBE JENNIFER AMMONS, assistant costume designer, is entering her third and final year as a graduate student in costume design at the University of Memphis. Her designs for the university include: Measure for Measure, Empires of Eternal Void, and Bull. She was also assistant to Charlene Gross for the University of Memphis Department of Opera productions this past spring of Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica. Last summer she served as assistant to Janice Benning Lacek on the University of Memphis-Tennessee Shakespeare Company joint production of Henry V. Other Memphis-area designs are Pinkalicious for New Day Children’s Theatre and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet at Hatiloo Theatre. Previously she was the resident costume designer and shop manager for Mars Hill University and Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre near Asheville, NC. Some designs from MHU and SART include: Flyin West, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Sunshine Boys, The Children’s Hour, and Sylvia.

TAYLOR GREENE, wardrobe, is elated to be working his first season with Ohio Light Opera.

A rising senior at SUNY Potsdam, Taylor studies costume technology with Alexis Foster and Janet Sussman. He would like to thank Charlene Gross for this incredible opportunity; one may never know whom one will meet on a plane towards St. Louis. After Taylor receives his BA in theater in May 2018, he hopes to go back to NYC and wardrobe for both stage and film.

REILLY JOHNSON, wardrobe/stitcher, is excited to be at OLO for the first time. Born in Atlanta, she is studying garment history and construction at Duke and UNC Chapel Hill through a self-designed major. Reilly’s love of costumes began as a hobby in high school and blossomed into her main passion in college. Her dad has finally stopped asking when she will be going to med school. She has been involved with theater at both of her universities and spent last summer season working on costumes for The Lost Colony (on Roanoke Island)—she misses living on the beach. In addition to theater, BEATRICE COLLINS, crafts, is excited to Reilly has also worked on several short films and be joining the Ohio Light Opera for its 2017 commercials for start-ups. She is excited to work season. She is approaching her last year as a in opera for the first time this summer. graduate costume design student at San Diego CLARA JEAN KELLY, draper, is a third-year State University, under the mentorship of Denitsa MFA candidate in the costume design program Bliznakova and Teri Tevares. Beatrice has worked at Florida State University, and is originally in the costume crafts area for State, building from Charlotte, NC. She has previously worked everything from puppets for The Big Friendly at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, PA, as well Giant to boxer shorts for the Full Monty. She has as at Creede Repertory Theatre in Creede, CO. also designed for the San Diego State Opera and, She is excited to be a part of Ohio Light Opera’s this past fall, designed an all-female production costume shop this summer. of Julius Caesar, directed by Delicia TurnerSonnenberg. She is very excited to work on the KATHARINA KOEHLER, first hand, is here various shows this season, and is looking forward at OLO for her first summer. She is originally to all the songs that will definitely become stuck from Edgewood, KY, having studied at Northern Kentucky University, getting a degree in design in her head. and technology. She is now at Florida State CAITLIN ELRED, costume stitcher, is thrilled University getting her master’s in costume to be joining OLO this season. She recently design, and will be designing Rosencrantz graduated from Central Michigan University with and Guildenstern Are Dead in the fall. Other a BFA in costume design and technology. Caitlin summer places that she has worked are Wagon worked at the CMU University Theatre costume Wheel, Bard College Summer Escape, and The shop for three years and has led wardrobe crews Commonwealth Theatre Company. She looks on shows like A Chorus Line, Marvin’s Room, forward to this summer season and is excited to and Oklahoma! Through her undergrad, she has be here. collaborated with her peers on student-produced theater, including costume design for Rosemary ADAM MARTIN, wardrobe supervisor, is with Ginger, A Skull in Connemara, and Bug. Last grateful to return to OLO for his second season. summer, Caitlin was a costume intern at the Hope He recently graduated, with a BA in theater, Summer Repertory Theatre, where she assisted the from North Greenville Univeristy in Greenville, costume designer of Oedipus. She is an avid artist SC. He recently spent an internship at Flatrock and graphic designer in her spare time and has Playhouse in North Carolina and is excited to see the places he will be pursuing this passion. won student awards for her poster design.

76 Box Office: 330.263.2345

This is his first summer in this position and he is thrilled to serve and work with the OLO family.

Thank you to Ramona Parsons for passing on her love of theatrical arts and to Cyndi Lohrmann for her mentorship this last year. When not in the costume shop, Adam loves exploring the outdoors; while in Ohio, he hopes to go hiking and experience the natural beauties of the state.

MICHELLE PETTIT, stitcher, just completed her first year as an MFA student in costume technology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This is her first summer at Ohio Light Opera. Michelle graduated from Wittenberg University with a BA in theater in 2016. She enjoyed working in the costume shop there and helped costume many shows, including Much Ado About Nothing, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and The Importance of Being Earnest. Last summer, Michelle worked as a stitcher apprentice at the Black Hills Playhouse.

Shows she costumed included Jeeves Intervenes and The Addams Family. The previous summer (2015), Michelle was a stitcher and wardrobe assistant at Maples Repertory Theatre. Michelle has costumed Into the Woods Jr., The Little Mermaid Jr., Sleeping Beauty Kids, and Legally Blonde for the Columbus Children’s Theatre.

Michelle is from Dublin, OH and was introduced to theater costuming at Dublin Jerome High School.

AMBER PHILLIPS, costume shop assistant manager, is pleased to be returning to Ohio Light Opera for the second year. Last year she was a costume stitcher, and is excited to be returning as costume shop assistant. She is a recent graduate of East Carolina University, completing her BFA in theater arts, focusing on costume design and construction. Amber has worked on several theatrical productions, as well as designed and sewn for children’s shows and dance pieces.

Amber enjoys mentoring beginner sewers, draping costumes, and many other aspects of costuming.

MARY RATHELL, assistant costume designer, is very excited to be working at Ohio Light Opera this summer. She received a BA in theater arts from Davis & Elkins College and is currently working towards her MFA in costume design and technology at Virginia Tech. Mary is a proud alumna of both the Cleveland Play House apprenticeship program and Florida Studio Theatre’s internship program. Other regional

credits include Shawnee Summer Theatre of Greene County, Central City Opera, Shenandoah Summer Music Theatre, Connecticut Repertory Theatre, Cleveland Public Theatre, and Groundworks DanceTheater. Mary would like to thank her friends and family for all their love and support.

HANNAH SMITH, stitcher, is thrilled to be returning to the OLO costume shop for her second year in a row. Hannah is a rising junior at the College of Wooster, majoring in theater and dance, focusing in costume design and construction. She is an employee of the College costume shop and spends her time during the school year helping bring the College’s main stage shows to life through costumes. Her work during the 2016 OLO season included stitching doublets left and right for Kiss Me, Kate, inhaling hair spray while maintaining the wigs during full rep, and discovering just how quick quick changes can be. She will be spending the fall of 2017 working as a stage management intern at the New Group Theatre in New York City.

COLLEEN SNYDER, wardrobe assistant, is very excited to be joining OLO for the first time.

She is a rising junior theater major at Denison University in Granville, OH. Thus far into her Denison career, she has been the wardrobe mistress/hair designer for a production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson. Previously, she worked for two seasons with MTVArts in Mount Vernon, OH. In her time with them, she was the assistant hair/wig mistress on productions of Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast. Colleen is thrilled for this opportunity and sincerely hopes you enjoy the show.

TAYLER WINER, wig master, is excited for her first season with the Ohio Light Opera. She worked, last summer in upstate New York at the Seagle Music Colony, as the wig assistant to Steven Bryant, wig designer for the Fort Worth Opera and San Diego Opera. She is from a town about 30 minutes north of Boston and currently attends the University of North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem. Tayler will enter her fourth and final year this fall as a wig and makeup design major. She loves what she does and has a lot of passion for her work. While she does enjoy opera and theater very much, she also aspires to be a makeup artist in the film industry, and is fully dedicated to working toward that goal.

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SOUND DOMINIC MOSHER, assistant sound designer, is excited to be at OLO for his second summer.

He is pursuing his degree in audio production at Michigan Technological University and will be working under his professor, Christopher Plummer, the lead sound designer for this OLO season. Dominic has spent much time over the past few years at Michigan Tech, perfecting his

craft and learning much about the wonderful world of sound. He has done unrealized, as well as realized, sound designs for plays such as Richard III and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Last summer he worked as a sound intern in Holland, MI, where he filled the positions as A2 for The Fantasticks and front-of-house mix engineer and playback operator for Oedipus Rex.

STAGE MANAGEMENT EMILY BARBER, assistant stage manager, is a native New Orleanian, with a BM from Loyola University New Orleans. Having studied as a vocal performance major, Emily is equally comfortable on stage as she is behind it. She has performed with both her university’s opera program and New Orleans Opera Chorus for a number of years. After performing the titular role in Loyola’s production of Puccini’s Suor Angelica, Emily transitioned into stage management. She has previously stage-managed Loyola’s opera scenes, as well as its production of Weill’s Street Scene. In the summer of 2016, Emily developed an appreciation for Gilbert and Sullivan while working with the International Gilbert and Sullivan Festival in Harrogate, England. After spending this summer with the Ohio Light Opera, Emily is excited to be joining New Orleans Opera Association’s stage management team in its upcoming season.

LOUIS MARKOWITZ, assistant stage manager, recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in theater arts and a BA in English literature. He is ecstatic to be joining OLO for the first time this summer. Louis most recently worked on the world premiere of the stage version of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, with Prime Stage Theatre Company. While at Pitt, he served as the SM on The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Good Kids, Urinetown, and Stop Kiss. Last summer, he worked on productions of Mary Poppins and Ring of Fire in Potsdam, NY. After the summer, Louis plans to continue working in stage management and possibly pursue graduate study.

KRISTEN WEST, assistant stage manager, is elated to be returning to the Ohio Light Opera for her second season. Last season, she served as master fan repairman, seasoned printer whisperer, and lover of Wooster. Kristen is a proud graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work.

PROPERTIES NATHANIEL FITZSIMONS, properties artisan, is back at OLO for his third season, in an effort to re-claim his mustache and spread bad puns to the masses. A student at UNC Charlotte, Nate will be working at Children’s Theatre of Charlotte next fall and aims to graduate by next spring. He thanks his family, his peers, and you for reading this far.

a book. If you can draw her away from her book though, Alex would love to talk to you about her other hobbies and interests, including Shakespeare, board games, Doctor Who, and rubber ducks. Alex currently lives in Bowling Green, OH with her husband Ben, and their German shepherd River. In the fall, she will be stage-managing Bowling Green State University’s opera productions: Gluck’s L’ivrogne corrigé and ALEXANDRIA (ALEX) GANGER, run crew, Tom Johnson’s The Four-Note Opera. is thrilled to join the tech team at OLO for the first time. Born and raised in Goshen, IN, OLIVIA HALL, run crew, is excited to join the Alex obtained her BA in English from Goshen crew of the Ohio Light Opera this summer, after College in 2016. Despite studying English in completing her second year of undergraduate undergrad, she has been pursuing a career in education at the College of Wooster. During the stage management, after managing her college’s school year, she works in the college’s costume production of Godspell in the fall of her senior shop, participates in the marching and symphonic year. Outside the theater, Alex can usually be bands, and is an active member of Greenhouse found curled up in a chair somewhere with and WOODS. She is very excited to have this 78 Box Office: 330.263.2345

chance to expand her technical skill and theatrical He is from Middle of Nowhere, Illinois, where knowledge this summer. he runs a DJ business with his father. He loves KAITIE HUGHES, properties artisan, is happy singing, dancing, acting, and video games. As to return to OLO for her third season. Kaitie for awards, does this internship count? He loves recently finished a props apprenticeship at to design lights for scenes that he hopes will Hartford Stage and is delighted to apply her engulf people. He is a little child playing with many new skills to projects for operetta. She pretty colors. Some of his favorite artists include loves furniture and graphic design, and will most Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, George Thorogood, Huey Lewis, and MKTO, and he can often be likely ask if she can pet your dog. heard singing these in the school hallways …

IAIN JOSEPH, run crew, is a rising junior at the in the school bathrooms … and in the school College of Wooster, where he is studying music classrooms too. composition. This is his first season with OLO. This past year he worked in the scene shop for SIDNEY MARTIN, props master, is pleased to the College, building sets for Almost, Maine, as be returning for her third season, after being a well as for various senior productions. Before props artisan and scenic artist at OLO. Notable attending the College, he was part of the drama to her young career, she recently spent a year at club in his high school in Massillon, OH, notably Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she worked as stage crew for Hello, Dolly! and Beauty on the Humana Festival. Prior, she was prop and the Beast, and playing 1st horn in the pit master for Il Trittico and La bohème at the Utah orchestra for 42nd Street and The Wizard of Oz. Festival Opera. She also had fun as an artisan at He is excited to become familiar with the shows the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia and the Great Lakes Theatre Festival in Cleveland, in the being performed this season. two short years since she graduated with a BA in JENEVIEVE LEE, properties artisan, is theater and dance from The College of Wooster. excited to be working with Ohio Light Opera After the season ends, she will pursue her MFA this summer, her first season with OLO. She is in properties design at University of Cincinnati’s currently attending the University of Wisconsin- College-Conservatory of Music.

Green Bay, studying technical theater. She will DORA MASE, run crew, is from Columbus, be returning there in the fall for her senior year, OH and is a recent graduate of the College of studying with Jeffrey Entwistle.

Wooster. During the past four years, she worked LOGAN LOWE, run crew, has recently as a costume shop assistant. She is excited to join completed his first year of college at Blackburn. the Ohio Light Opera for her first season.

He will be continuing next year at Eastern BRIAN THORP, run crew, is a sophomore Illinois University, where his girlfriend eagerly chemistry major attending the College of awaits his return. This past year he designed Wooster. This is his first year working for the lights for an Alice in Wonderland adaptation Ohio Light Opera, although he has worked as and was the assistant light designer for a world a stagehand for the College of Wooster Theatre premiere variety show, That Takes Me Back. for more than a year. Brian grew up in St. Louis.

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ELECTRICS TREY EIKLEBERRY, electrician, is excited to be returning to OLO for his second season this summer. A senior at Bowling Green State University, he is currently studying technical theater, with a minor in film studies. Since finding his passion for theater in 2015, Trey has been diligently following the teachings of his professors and peers, whom he can never thank enough for their guidance and inspiration. Outside of the

theater, he enjoys fencing, watching films, and playing card games.

TYLER J. KING, master electrician, is pleased to be with OLO for his first year. A native of Fredericksburg, VA, he is currently a student at Shenandoah University and has most recently been the lighting designer for its production of Once on This Island.

SPOT OPERATORS JULIET FREED, spot operator, is a junior chemistry major and Chinese language minor at Bowling Green State University. She is very excited to return to OLO this season.

ANNELIESE WAGONER, spot operator, is excited to be returning to OLO for her fifth season. In the two seasons prior to her three years as spot operator, she was in Gypsy (2010) as a newsboy and in The King and I (2013) as one of the King’s children. Anneliese will be a

sophomore at the College of Wooster in the fall.

She is majoring in chemistry, with a minor in math. She is also continuing her dance career— she has been doing ballet for eight years—by participating in fall dance concerts and by trying out for the dance team this fall. Anneliese is also involved on campus in the sorority Epsilon Kappa Omicron. She enjoys acting and being a part of the theater, singing, dancing, reading, and spending time with her family and friends.

ADMINISTRATIVE/FRONT OF HOUSE STAFF EMILY ANDERSON, house manager, is incredibly excited to be working with OLO for the first time this summer. She is a rising junior at the College of Wooster, double-majoring in English and music, with a focus in vocal performance.

Most recently, she played Marcellina in the College’s “sliced and diced” performance of The Marriage of Figaro. She is currently studying voice with Sue Wallin and will perform her first recital this upcoming spring. As her father is in the military, she grew up in a variety of places, but currently resides in Carlisle, PA with her mother, father, and three younger sisters.

soprano and teaching artist at Great Lakes Light Opera in Cleveland. There, she helped produce and premiered Cinderlena, a children’s educational program. Rachael currently sings with the Toledo Opera Chorus, and will be featured as returning soprano soloist in First Presbyterian’s Messiah Community Sing-Along.

CAMPBELL ELLIOTT, box office assistant, has just finished his junior year at the College of Wooster, where he is studying biochemistry.

He is working with OLO for his first season this summer, and is quite happy with it, except when he forgets to eat, which happens far more often RACHAEL CAMMARN, box office assistant, is then it should for an organism that needs to eat thrilled to return to OLO for her second season. to live.

She is currently working on her MM in vocal HELENA GASTIER, house manager, is performance at Bowling Green State University. pleased to be returning for her second season She received her BA in vocal performance from with Ohio Light Opera. She is an Ohio State Concordia College in Moorhead, MN in 2015. student studying molecular genetics and French, That year, she was awarded a scholarship to the and is planning to pursue a graduate degree in International Music Festival of the Adriatic in physician assistant studies after completing Duino, Italy. In addition to performing her own her undergraduate degree. Helena is a Wooster repertoire, she collaborated with composers native; she graduated in 2015 from Wooster Jacinth Greywoode and Jeff Schaller. Rachael High School, where she acted in various plays made her solo stage debut in 2016 with Opera and musicals. Being an OLO company member Circle Cleveland as the Second Spirit in The allows her to enjoy theater from a different Magic Flute. From 2015-17, she served as resident perspective.

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IMOGEN HENDRICKS, box office assistant, is a student at the College of Wooster, working towards a BA in English literature and a BM in oboe performance. She is thrilled to be spending her summer with the Ohio Light Opera. In past summers, she has attended the Northern Virginia Writer’s Project and has been lucky to receive scholarships to the Kenyon Review Young Writer’s Workshop and the Virginia Governor’s School for the Visual and Performing Arts.

Imogen is a student of Cynthia Warren.

KATIE SCHWAB, box office assistant, is a rising sophomore at the College of Wooster and is very excited for her first season with Ohio Light Opera. She is looking forward to seeing all of the shows and enjoying the beauty of the campus without the stress of classes. She is a neurobiology major at the college.

EMILY NEILL, house manager, is happy to join OLO this summer as part of the front-of-house staff. As a native of Wooster, she has performed in several OLO productions, including last summer’s The Dancing Years and The Little Dutch Girl. She is a senior psychology major at The College of Wooster and has previously studied voice with faculty member and OLO alumna Susan Wallin. She plans to pursue a career within the field of psychology. Having performed in past OLO productions as Amaryllis in The Music Man and in the children’s chorus of Countess Maritza, she looks forward to what she considers will be the best OLO season yet.

at the College of Wooster, studying theater administration and mathematics. During the school year, she works with OLO, as well as the COW Theatre and Dance Department’s public relations team. Becca will be graduating this coming December with a BA in theater and dance, and plans to continue pursuing a career in arts administration.

SARAH SCHWEIT, house manager, is excited to be welcomed into the OLO family for her first season. After 16 weeks of student-teaching choir, she graduated in May from James Madison SANDY MCILVAINE, front-of-house staff, is University with a BM in vocal music education. thrilled to be a part of the year-round staff of Adoring the stage as much as teaching, some of OLO. This season marks her 17th summer with her favorite stage credits include Hope Caldwell the company, while wearing many “hats” along in Urinetown, Penny Pingleton in Hairspray, the way. What a marvelous journey it has been. and Rose Gordon in Flowers for Algernon.

Sandy now lives in Smithville with her husband, Sarah looks forward to finding both teaching John, and their nine-year-old golden doodle, and performing opportunities that will fulfill her Denali. She would like to dedicate this year to passions for music, production, and people. her mother, Evelyn Moser, who passed away in REBECCA SNEDEKER-MEIER, assistant July 2016, but not before celebrating her 95th box office manager, is thrilled to be returning birthday with her attendance at OLO. to OLO for her third season. Becca is a student

ALEXANDRA SWIGER, box office manager, is excited to be returning to OLO for her fifth season, after a brief hiatus last year working with the Stark County Hunger Task Force. Alex is a graduate of Ohio University, where she studied communications and sports management. She resides in Massillon with her husband Travis and dog Hank, and is expecting two new additions to her family later this summer.

S FIND THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA ON S

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A Festival Symposium on the Lyric Theater Tradition

Taking Light Opera Seriously TUESDAY, AUGUST 1 - FRIDAY, AUGUST 4 TICKETS — $45/DAY — $150/WEEK

CALL 330.263.2345 FOR TICKETS LIVE CONCERTS AUGUST 1—OPERETTA: SAUCY, SULTRY, AND SENTIMENTAL: A MUSICAL AND THEATRICAL TRIBUTE TO FRANZ LEHÁR Hungarian-born Franz Lehár, never losing sight of his initial ambitions to write opera, infused his 40 operettas with a sensuous, Pucciniesque quality.

This staged vocal tribute features waltzes, marches, fox-trots, and tangos from fourteen of his shows, as well as a number of SYMPOSIUM SCHEDULE

his most popular non-show songs. You most certainly will recognize tunes from The Merry Widow, Giuditta, and Eva, but be equally dazzled in discovering gems from the composer’s unknown masterpieces like Die blaue Mazur (The Blue Mazurka), Die Juxheirat (The Mock Marriage), Wo die Lerche singt (Where the Lark Sings), and Frühling (Spring).

TUESDAY AUGUST 1

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 2

Lyric Theater Roundtable 1 Host: Steven Daigle

Concert: Songs from the Cutting-Room Floor (part 1)

10:30-10:45 a.m.

10:30-10:45 a.m.

Operetta Film Presentation

Concert: Songs from the Cutting-Room Floor (part 2)

William Everett Sigmund Romberg and the Fashioning of Early 20th-Century American Musical Theater

Steven Ledbetter Bring the Whole Family!

Concert Tribute to Franz Lehár 8:00 p.m.

Regina Oost Launching H.M.S. Pinafore, or The Lads That Loved a Profit 6:30 - 7:15 p.m.

Morning Coffee: 9:00 a.m.

Morning Session I: 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Break

Morning Session II: 10:45-11:45 a.m.

Lunch

Afternoon Session: 1:00-1:45 p.m.

Evening Session:

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AUGUST 2—SONGS FROM THE CUTTING-ROOM FLOOR The path from conception to opening night of an operetta or musical was typically a long one, with songs reworked, reassigned, deleted, or added to fit the evolving demands of the show and its stars. This concert, presented by members of the OLO cast, will feature discussion and performance of songs that were originally cut from the shows of this season’s repertoire or added to later productions. By popular demand, this concert has been expanded to two hours.

AUGUST 3—GILBERT WITHOUT SULLIVAN Although the pairing of Gilbert and Sullivan in 1871, and for a quarter-century beyond, remains unmatched in the annals of operetta, each worked with others before, during, and after their collaboration. OLO presents a semi-staged concert version of one of the most enchanting of these excursions: Gilbert’s 1869 one-act “musical legend” Ages Ago, with music by Frederic Clay.

The musical score is absolutely delightful, with more than a hint or two of Gilbert with Sullivan.

One need only note that the storyline deals with ancestral paintings coming to life to realize the influence that this highly successful stage work had on the future of British operetta.

AUGUST 4—ONCE UPON A TIME …

AT OLO: EXPLORING THE STORYBOOK WORLD OF OPERETTA OLO’s production this summer of Victor Herbert’s Cinderella musical The Lady of the Slipper is one of the company’s few musical forays into the world of fairy tales. Yet from Aesop’s The Ant and the Grasshopper to Perrault’s Bluebeard to Johann Strauss’ first operetta, based on Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves, to numerous operettas and musicals based on the life and works of Hans Christian Andersen, fairy tales have provided the inspiration for hundreds of lyrical stage works.

Join with us as OLO cast members take you on a magical journey through operettas and musical comedies that trace their origins to classic fairy tales and fables from the days of yore.

THURSDAY AUGUST 3

FRIDAY AUGUST 4

Regina Oost Ages Ago: W. S. Gilbert at the Gallery of Illustration 9:30-10:15 a.m.

Concert: Once Upon a Time—The Storybook World of Operetta

10:15-10:30 a.m.

10:30-10:45 a.m.

Semi-Staged Concert: Gilbert without Sullivan Ages Ago 10:30-11:45 a.m.

Concert: Operetta’s Irreverent Take on Society at Large

William Everett Young Love in Old Heidelberg: Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince

Richard Norton Anything Goes and the Musicals of the 1930s

Michael Miller Operettas Lost and Not Found 6:30-7:15 p.m.

Lyric Theater Roundtable 2 Host: Steven Daigle 6:30-7:15 p.m.

AUGUST 4—ALL IN GOOD FUN: OPERETTA’S IRREVERENT TAKE ON SOCIETY AT LARGE From their very beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century, operetta and musical theater have thrived on satire and parody: of political institutions (e.g., Gershwin’s Of Thee I Sing), of social movements (Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience), of mythological figures (Offenbach’s La belle Hélène), and of grand opera (Oscar Straus’ The Merry Nibelungs). In this concert, OLO performers will lead us through a survey of songs from some of the most clever, hilarious, biting, and engaging show parodies—some familiar and some not.

We gratefully acknowledge the Ralph & Grace Jones Foundation for generously supporting our symposium this year.

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TALKS TALKS BY WILLIAM EVERETT Sigmund Romberg and the Fashioning of Early 20th-Century American Musical Theater Born in Hungary, Sigmund Romberg (18871951) became one of the most important and versatile composers of musical theater in the early decades of the twentieth century. He arrived in New York in 1909, worked as a café pianist, and began writing popular songs that were featured in lavish revues. He became significant in the adaptation of European operettas for American audiences and creating original works for the American stage, including The Student Prince (1924), The Desert Song (1926), and The New Moon (1928). During the 1930s, he journeyed to Hollywood to work in the film industry.

He toured with his own group of singers and orchestras in the 1940s, bringing his nostalgic style of music to adoring audiences. All the while, he continued to write for Broadway, with Up in Central Park opening in 1945.

Young Love in Old Heidelberg: Sigmund Romberg’s The Student Prince Sigmund Romberg and Dorothy Donnelly’s operetta The Student Prince (1924) was the longest-running Broadway musical of the 1920s, with over 600 performances in its initial run. Its lush score, rousing male chorus, and sentimental ending, where the romantic leads are not together at the final curtain, endeared it to the hearts and ears of millions. The work showcased several paradigms of 1920s-style American operetta, including a fanciful setting, glorious waltzes, and finely crafted ensemble numbers. The Student Prince was particularly significant in its celebration of beer during Prohibition (“Drinking Song”) and its role in rehabilitating German culture, albeit a romanticized non-political one, in America after World War I. TALK BY STEVEN LEDBETTER Bring the Whole Family!

Some turn-of-the-century operetta classics told stories that cautious parents might regard as unsuitable for children. But the example of scrupulously “proper” Gilbert and Sullivan operettas had created a new family audience.

Producers looked for other properties that might work similar magic. Several Victor Herbert shows are in this category: first, of course, Babes in 84 Box Office: 330.263.2345

Toyland, then Wonderland (Alice and the Eight Princesses), Little Nemo (based on a popular newspaper cartoon), and this season’s The Lady of the Slipper. This talk will discuss the elements that make these shows especially family-friendly.

TALK BY MICHAEL MILLER Operettas Lost and Not Found How embarrassing it must be for the cultural gatekeepers of operetta and musical theater (if, indeed, there ever were any) that works by major composers remain, to this day, seemingly irretrievably lost. The prime example is Gilbert and Sullivan’s first collaboration, Thespis, but there is no shortage of such missing works across the musical spectrum. This talk will showcase several of these stage works and trace the history of how in the world they disappeared.

TALK BY RICHARD NORTON Anything Goes and the Musicals of the 1930s Anything Goes is widely regarded as the archetype of 1930s American musical comedy, with a beloved score of standards by Cole Porter. But its evolution from shipwreck by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse to shipboard farce

by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse speaks volumes about just how musicals of the 1930s were actually assembled. Great songs, stars and jokes … or to quote a famous Ira Gershwin lyric introduced by Ethel Merman four years earlier: “Who could ask for anything more?”

TALKS BY REGINA OOST Ages Ago: W. S. Gilbert at the Gallery of Illustration W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan first appeared together on a playbill in 1869, two years before they collaborated on Thespis. Gilbert’s and Clay’s Ages Ago opened at German Reed’s Gallery of Illustration on November 22 of that year, sharing the bill with Sullivan and Burnand’s Cox and Box, which had been playing since May. When Gilbert wrote Ages Ago, he was a wellestablished humorist, and audiences found in this work several motifs that characterized his earlier dramatic pieces. But the scope of productions at the Gallery of Illustration prompted Gilbert to adapt his formulas, and the play’s muted examination of class and consumerism hints at thematic concerns that would become central

to Gilbert’s subsequent works. This talk will focus on what Gilbert brought to the Gallery of Illustration when he penned Ages Ago, as well as what the experience of working with the German Reed company contributed to his later collaboration with Sullivan.

lyrics and memorable music played major roles in establishing the opera’s popularity, but so did the canny production and marketing strategies of impresario Richard D’Oyly Carte, a third and often overlooked member of the creative team.

In a competitive theatrical market, the three collaborated to distinguish their opera both at Launching H.M.S. Pinafore, home and abroad, staging a second launch in New or The Lads That Loved a Profit York City when pirated American productions H.M.S. Pinafore was the second full-length comic threatened the collaborators’ renown and opera by W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, and pocketbooks. This presentation will focus on the their first international hit. Its success in London 1878 London and 1879 New York premieres of spawned touring company performances in H.M.S. Pinafore to illuminate strategies Gilbert, England, licensed productions in Australia, and Sullivan, and Carte used to ensure the opera’s pirated versions in the United States. The clever popularity and commercial success.

PRESENTERS STEVEN DAIGLE is Artistic Director of Ohio Light Opera and Dramatic Director of Eastman Opera Theatre. In his tenure at OLO, he has expanded the company’s scope to include early and mid-century American musicals, introduced more than 68 new titles to OLO’s repertoire, stage-directed scores of productions, and created new performance editions for five Kálmán operettas and 2014’s revelatory Dream City and The Magic Knight by Victor Herbert.

WILLIAM A. EVERETT is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Musicology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, where he teaches courses ranging from medieval music to American musical theater. His books include Sigmund Romberg (2007), Rudolf Friml (2008), and Music for the People: A History of the Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra, 1933-82 (2015).

He is contributing co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to the Musical and The Palgrave Handbook of Musical Theatre Producers.

MICHAEL MILLER is the chair of the Ohio Light Opera Board of Directors and the president of Operetta Foundation, which has produced staged versions of long-forgotten shows and released more than 30 CDs and DVDs of rare operetta and early musical comedy.

RICHARD NORTON is the co-author of American Musical Theatre: A Chronicle and the author of the three-volume A Chronology of American Musical Theatre, which reproduces complete playbill information for every musical that has played Broadway since 1866. He has contributed to numerous musical theater publications, including a German monograph devoted to White Horse Inn, and is currently authoring a book on Frederick Loewe.

REGINA B. OOST is Cobb Alumnae Professor of English at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA, where she teaches British literature, world literature, women’s literature, and Victorian and Edwardian drama. She has published articles and books on Mary Shelley, James Hogg, Gothic STEVEN LEDBETTER is a scholar, writer, fiction, and Charles Dickens, and most recently lecturer, and conductor, who served as the acclaimed Gilbert and Sullivan: Class and Musicologist and Program Annotator for the the Savoy Tradition, 1875-1896. She is currently Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1979 to 1998. writing a book that focuses on American He is an editor of the complete works of Gilbert productions of the Savoy operas from 1879 to and Sullivan and is currently writing a book on 1893. the music of Victor Herbert.

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THE COLLEGE OF WOOSTER The College of Wooster is America’s premier college for mentored undergraduate research.

Since 2002, U.S. News & World Report has asked college presidents and deans which colleges provide the best undergraduate research opportunities and senior capstone experiences.

Only two have made both lists every year: Wooster and Princeton. The presidents and deans also ranked Wooster seventh among all liberal arts colleges where “the faculty has an unusually strong commitment to undergraduate teaching.”

Founded in 1866, Wooster enrolls approximately 2,000 students, who choose from more than 50 academic programs in the sciences, humanities, business and the arts.

Wooster offers an excellent, comprehensive liberal arts education, culminating in a rigorous senior project, in which each student works one-on-one with a faculty mentor to conceive, organize and complete a significant research project on a topic of the student’s own choosing.

Through this distinctive program, every Wooster student develops abilities valued by employers and graduate schools alike: initiative, selfconfidence, independent judgment, creative problem solving, and strong written and oral communication skills.

Almost a third of Wooster’s students play intercollegiate athletics, a third perform in at least one musical group, and a quarter are involved in theater and the arts.

Notable Wooster alumni include award-

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winning filmmakers Duncan Jones ’95, director of Source Code and Moon, and J.C. Chandor ’96, writer and director of Margin Call and All Is Lost; Jennifer Haverkamp ’79, director of the Environmental Defense Fund’s international climate program; Donald Kohn ’64, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve; Laurie Kosanovich ’94, general counsel for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; and Sangram Sisodia ’77, director of the Center for Molecular Neurobiology at the University of Chicago.

Experience international Lyric Theater classics in the charming atmosphere of Wooster, Ohio “Renowned summer festivals within driving distance once didn’t seem so far away. Shaw and Stratford in Canada, and even Ravinia in Chicago, remain magnets for those who are high on theater and music ....

It’s a relief to know that a day trip to seek artistic replenishment need not crush the budget. One of the most reasonable and delightful destinations is Wooster, where The Ohio Light Opera is in its 30th season of operetta merriment.”

Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer

“It’s nothing less than remarkable that ... [The Ohio Light Opera] singers and instrumentalists gather from around the country to arrange a seasonal platter of rotating repertory — Viennese operetta, Gilbert & Sullivan shows, classic American musicals — that these indefatigable performers serve with style through the months of June, July and August.”

Elaine Guregian, The Beacon Journal

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DINING, ACCOMMODATIONS & SHOPPING Dining Blue Barn Winery & Vineyard.......330.844.0381 Broken Rocks Café & Bakery.......330.263.2949 City Square Steakhouse.................330.601.1573 Harris & Huth Wine Merchants..................................330.592.8273 The Henry Station.........................330.825.1945 Matsos Family Restaurant & Pizza......................................330.264.8800 Olde Jaol Steakhouse & Tavern.................................330.7498.5098 Pine Tree Barn...............................330.264.1014 Quince Bakery & Cafe..................330.816.0233 TJ’s Restaurants............................330.264.6263 Tulipan Hungarian Pastry and Coffee Shop.........................330.264.8092 Accommodations Bed & Breakfast Black Squirrel Inn..........................330.317.6627 Gasche House Bed & Breakfast.....440.796.3111 Market Street Inn..........................330.262.4085 Mirabelle Bed & Breakfast............330.264.6006 Cabins/Campgrounds Meadow Lake Park.......................330.435.6652 Hotel/Motel Best Western Wooster Hotel..........330.264.7750 Hampton Inn Wooster.........330.202.7701 x429 Hilton Garden Inn Wooster.............................330.202.7701 x429 Rodeway Inn.................................330.262.5008 St. Paul Hotel................................330.601.1900 Wooster Inn/ The Wooster Inn Pub.................330.263.2660 Entertainment/Attractions Akron Symphony Orchestra..........330.535.8131 Ashland Symphony.......................419.289.5115 The Cleveland Orchestra...............216.231.1111 Secrest Arboretum.........................330.263.3761 Wayne County Choral Union........330.464.9988 Wayne County Convention and Visitors Bureau....................330.264.1800 Wooster Country Club..................330.263.1890

88 Box Office: 330.263.2345

Shopping Books in Stock..............................330.262.2665 The Cheese Shoppe.......................330.264.6214 Coblentz Chocolates.....................800.338.9341 Everything Rubbermaid................330.264.7119 Friendtique....................................330.262.2012 Lehman’s.......................................330.347.7772 Local Roots ....................................30.263.5336 Motts Oils & More.......................330.601.1645 P. Graham Dunn...........................330.828.5260 Pallotta Ford Lincoln....................866.605.9250 Quailcrest Farms...........................330.345.6722 Roomscapes..................................330.262.1088 Shisler’s Cheese House..................330.682.2105 Simply Smuckers Store and Cafe.....................................330.684.3929 VHSource LLC..............................917.815.8899 White Jewelers..............................330.264.3324 Wilson Bookstore..........................330.263.2422 Wooster Gift Corner.....................330.264.6117 World Crafts.................................330.857.0590 Services/Manufacturing Akron Beacon Journal/ ohio.com....................................330.996.3000 Danbury Woods of Wooster..........330.415.8328 Foxfield Preserve Natural Cemetery....................................330.359.5236 Kendal at Oberlin/ Kendal at Home.........................440.449.2688 Postnet..........................................330.345.7447 Ray Crow Cleaners.......................330.262.5010 Remax Realty — Traci Pauley.......330.749.0029 Seaman Corporation.....................330.202.4435 United Titanium............................330.264.2111 WKSU...........................................330.672.3114 Wooster Brush Company..............330.264.4440 Wooster Heart Group...................330.202.5700 Banking/Financial Briggs Financial Group..................330.264.2811 Commercial & Savings Bank.........330.674.9015 Critchfield, Critchfield & Johnston , Ltd........................330.264.4444 Edward Jones................................330.262.3572 Farmer’s Bank...............................330.765.0583

GILBERT & SULLIVAN

H.M.S. Pinafore THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA J. Lynn Thompson CONDUCTOR

Steven Daigle ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

43 COMPLETE RECORDINGS

AVAILABLE ON CD

Tomás Bretón La Verbena de la Paloma

André Messager Véronique

Reginald De Koven Robin Hood

Lionel Monckton The Arcadians

Rudolf Friml The Vagabond King • The Firefly

Jacques Offenbach The Brigands • Bluebeard

Gilbert & Sullivan Utopia Limited • Patience • Princess Ida The Grand Duke • The Gondoliers The Mikado • Ruddigore • The Sorcerer The Yeomen of the Guard The Pirates of Penzance • H.M.S. Pinafore

Sigmund Romberg Maytime • Blossom Time

Victor Herbert Dream City and the Magic Knight Eileen • Mlle. Modiste Naughty Marietta • The Red Mill Sweethearts • The Fortune Teller Emmerich Kálmán The Bayadere • Sari • Autumn Maneuvers Countess Maritza • The Violet of Montmartre A Soldier’s Promise • Miss Springtime Jerome Kern The Cabaret Girl

Franz Schubert Das Dreimäderlhaus John Philip Sousa El Capitan Oscar Straus The Chocolate Soldier Johann Strauss A Night in Venice Carl Zeller Der Vogelhändler Compilations Gems from The Ohio Light Opera, Vol. 1 Gold and Silver

These recordings are mastered and adapted from our summer productions. Most are released as two-CD sets and are available in the lobby during the season and in finer book and music stores. Patrons may also call The Ohio Light Opera at 330.263.2345 to purchase compact discs or visit www.ohiolightopera.org to view CDs and to order online.

Available on DVD: Kálmán: A Soldier’s Promise, Herbert: Mlle. Modiste, Kálmán: The Duchess of Chicago, Herbert: Dream City and the Magic Knight, Kálmán: The Little King, Kern: Have a Heart.

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COMPLETE REPERTOIRE 1979-2017 THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA — STEVEN DAIGLE, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Daniel Auber Fra Diavolo................................................’88 Lindsay Warren Baker & Amanda Jacobs Pride & Prejudice.......................................’06 Ralph Benatzky & Robert Stolz White Horse Inn.........................................’05 Irving Berlin Call Me Madam..........................................’14 Annie Get Your Gun..................................’16 Jerry Bock & Sheldon Harnick Fiddler on the Roof....................................’09 Tomás Bretón La verbena de la paloma.............................’99 Emmanuel Chabrier L’étoile.................................................’91, ’08 Federico Chueca & Joaquín Valverde La gran vía.................................................’99 Noël Coward Bitter Sweet.........................................’93, ’98 Reginald De Koven Robin Hood...............................................’04 Leo Fall The Dollar Princess....................................’95 Madame Pompadour..................................’11 Rudolf Friml The Vagabond King.............................. ’87,’04 Rose Marie.................................................’03 The Firefly..................................................’06 Edward German Merrie England...........................................’84 Tom Jones..................................................’92 George & Ira Gershwin Of Thee I Sing............................................’09 Lady, Be Good!..........................................’13 Oh, Kay!....................................................’15 Primrose.....................................................’17 William Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan H.M.S. Pinafore...... ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, ’84, ’85, ’87, ’90, ’93, ’98, ’02, ’06, ’09, ’13, ’17 The Mikado...... ’79, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’84 ’85, ’88, ’92, ’95, ’00, ’04, ’08, ’12, ’16 The Pirates of Penzance.’79, ’80, ’81, ’83, ’84, ’86, ’89, ’94, ’99, ’03, ’07, ’11, ’14 The Gondoliers....... ’79, ’82, ’85, ’88, ’92, ’96, ’01, ’06, ’13 The Yeomen of the Guard.... ’79, ’81, ’84, ’86, ’90,’97, ’01, ’08, ’15 Iolanthe...... ’79, ’81, ’84, ’87,’91, ’98, ’05, ’10 Ruddigore... ’79, ’82, ’85, ’88,’95, ’02, ’09, ’15

90 Box Office: 330.263.2345

Trial by Jury........... ’79, ’80, ’81, ’84, ’86, ’89, ’98,’11 The Sorcerer............ ’80, ’82, ’86, ’89, ’96, ’05 Patience............ ’80, ’83, ’86, ’91, ’97, ’04, ’10 Princess Ida.................... ’80, ’85, ’94, ’99, ’07 Utopia Limited........ ’80, ’83, ’87, ’93, ’00, ’12 The Grand Duke.......................... ’81, ’95, ’03 Reynaldo Hahn Ciboulette...................................................’90 Victor Herbert Naughty Marietta ...............................’89, ’00 Eileen.........................................................’97 The Red Mill..............................................’01 Sweethearts.................................................’02 Mlle. Modiste.............................................’09 The Fortune Teller......................................’11 Dream City and The Magic Knight................’14 The Lady of the Slipper................................’17 Richard Heuberger The Opera Ball...........................................’90 Emmerich Kálmán Countess Maritza............ ’85, ’89, ’94, ’03, ’17 The Gypsy Princess...................... ’86, ’93, ’10 The Bayadere..............................................’98 Sari/Der Zigeunerprimás............................’01 Autumn Maneuvers ...................................’02 The Violet of Montmartre..........................’04 A Soldier’s Promise/Der gute Kamerad.......’05 The Duchess of Chicago.............................’07 Marinka: The Mayerling Story....................’08 Miss Springtime..........................................’12 The Little King...........................................’14 The Little Dutch Girl.................................’16 Jerome Kern The Cabaret Girl........................................’08 Oh, Lady! Lady!!.......................................’14 Have a Heart..............................................’16 Eduard Künneke The Cousin from Batavia.....................’00, ’02 Charles Lecocq Clairette/La fille de Madame Angot............’89 Le petit duc................................................’00 Franz Lehár The Merry Widow........... ’83, ’90, ’96, ’04, ’11 The Count of Luxembourg............’88, ’97, ’10 The Land of Smiles..............................’90, ’03 Giuditta......................................................’94 Gypsy Love................................................’95 The Czarevitch...........................................’08 Friederike...................................................’15

Mitch Leigh Man of La Mancha.....................................’05 Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe Camelot...............................................’00, ’11 Brigadoon............................................’02, ’15 My Fair Lady.......................................’03, ’14 Frank Loesser Guys and Dolls...........................................’12 André Messager Véronique...................................................’97 Karl Millöcker The Beggar Student.............................’87, ’96 Lionel Monckton The Arcadians............................................’98 Otto Nicolai The Merry Wives of Windsor.....................’95 Ivor Novello The Dancing Years.....................................’16 Jacques Offenbach The Brigands................................’83, ’92, ’03 La Périchole........................................’84, ’93 La vie parisienne........................... ’85, ’99, ’16 La belle Hélène............................. ’86, ’94, ’09 Bluebeard............................................’87, ’07 Orpheus in the Underworld..........’88, ’91, ’01 The Grand Duchess of Gerolstein......... ’89, ’13 Christopher Columbus...............................’95 Robinson Crusoe........................................’96 Regrets Only/M. Choufleuri................’96, ’98 The Island of Tulipatan..............................’05 Evening Wind.............................................’11 Cole Porter Jubilee........................................................’11 Silk Stockings.............................................’13 Can-Can.....................................................’15 Kiss Me, Kate.............................................’16 Anything Goes............................................’17 Richard Rodgers & Oscar Hammerstein II Carousel.....................................................’01 South Pacific...............................................’04 The Sound of Music....................................’07 Oklahoma!.................................................’08 The King and I...........................................’13 Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart A Connecticut Yankee................................’12 Sigmund Romberg The Student Prince.... ’82, ’85, ’92, ’99, ’07, ’17 The Desert Song........................... ’86, ’95, ’08 The New Moon.............................’91, ’97,’06 Maytime.....................................................’05 Blossom Time.............................................’12

Franz Schubert & Heinrich Berté Das Dreimäderlhaus...................................’02 John Philip Sousa El Capitan..................................................’10 Oscar Straus The Chocolate Soldier.................. ’88, ’98, ’12 A Waltz Dream...........................................’91 Johann Strauss A Night in Venice.................. ’81, ’91, ’99, ’09 The Gypsy Baron.................. ’82, ’89, ’00, ’13 Die Fledermaus............... ’86, ’92, ’97, ’05, ’14 Wiener Blut..................................’87, ’93, ’98 The Merry War...........................................’01 The Queen’s Lace Handkerchief.................’06 Jule Styne & Stephen Sondheim Gypsy.........................................................’10 Arthur Sullivan & F.C. Burnand Cox and Box... ’79, ’80, ’81, ’84, ’89, ’96, ’99, ’11 Arthur Sullivan & B.C. Stephenson The Zoo.....................................................’99 Franz Von Suppé Boccaccio............................................’83, ’02 My Fair Galatea.........................................’90 Heitor Villa-Lobos Magdalena..................................................’92 Robert Ward Lady Kate...................................................’94 Robert Ward & James Stuart A Friend of Napoleon.................................’05 Kurt Weill Street Scene.................................................’90 Kurt Weill & Ira Gershwin The Firebrand of Florence..........................’99 Kurt Weill & Ogden Nash One Touch of Venus...................................’15 Meredith Willson The Music Man...................................’06, ’17 Quade Winter & William Gilbert Thespis.......................................................’96 Quade Winter & Frank Desprez The Carp....................................................’99 Robert Wright & George Forrest The Great Waltz.........................................’94 Song of Norway.........................................’96 Kismet........................................................’10 Carl Zeller Der Vogelhändler......................... ’93, ’94, ’07

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2017 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Over the last 38 years, the staff at the College of Wooster has been instrumental in Ohio Light Opera’s success. Without their enthusiasm and support of our endeavors, the Company would not function as seamlessly as it does. The “in kind” services and “hidden assets” over the years have made it possible for OLO to exist as a unique part of the educational mission at Wooster. We acknowledge them with grateful hearts for their support and assistance.

HEARTFELT THANKS go out to: Spiro Matsos for being our #1 patron and supporter.

S Dan Adams, and the Wooster High School band, for loaning us musical instruments and for supporting OLO. S Ben Small, Gail Smith and John Schambach for your tireless work on behalf of the company all year around.

S Michael and Nan Miller for your never-ending commitment to the company.

S Charlene Gross for your wonderful work in both the Department of Theatre and Dance and Ohio Light Opera at the College of Wooster.

S Lara-Joelle (“LJ”) Strunsky of The Ira Gershwin Music Estate, and Michael Feinstein, for your help in making possible this summer’s production of Primrose.

S David Packard, Paul Corneilson, and Khori Dastoor, of the Packard Humanities Institute, for your help in securing performance materials for The Lady of the Slipper.

S Mark Horowitz, of the Library of Congress, for your year-after-year support of OLO’s research efforts in the library’s Music Division.

S Steven Byess for your editing of orchestrations and music arrangements.

S Adam Aceto for Primrose musical notation and editing from original orchestra manuscripts.

S 92 Box Office: 330.263.2345

TICKET INFORMATION & PRICES Season Subscriptions: Subscribe for the Season!

Choose four, five, six, or seven performances at a discount from individual ticket prices.

Student Tickets: Patrons may purchase tickets for children and students. Babes in arms will not be admitted to performances.

Individual Ticket Pricing (Musicals/Operettas) Single Tickets..........................................................$53/$49 Students (ages: 16-23).................................................. $20 Children (ages: 3-15)....................................................... $10

Air Conditioning: Freedlander Theatre is air conditioned. Some Ohio Light Opera patrons might like to bring a sweater or jacket to wear during the performance.

Subscription Rates (Musicals/Operettas—Price Per Ticket) 7 Different Performances.................................. $46/$42 6 Different Performances.................................. $48/$44 5 Different Performances...................................$49/$45 4 Different Performances.................................... $51/$47

Decorum Reminder: Freedlander Theatre is an intimate space. Please keep in mind that talking during the overture and/or throughout the performance is distracting to fellow audience members as well as to the performing company. Also, please refrain from opening noisy candy or gum wrappers during the show. Please turn off all noise-emitting devices before entering the theater. Photography and recordings of any kind are prohibited.

Ordering Tickets: The Ohio Light Opera accepts Visa, MasterCard, and Discover Card. You may call 330-2632345, order tickets online at ohiolightopera.org, or mail your order to the box office at: The Ohio Light Opera The College of Wooster 1189 Beall Avenue Wooster, OH 44691 If you have requested your tickets to be mailed, you will receive them at least one month prior to the performance. No refunds. No cancellations.

Box Office Location & Hours: Freedlander Theatre 329 East University Street Wooster, OH 44691 Monday-Friday........................................ 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Saturday.................................................... 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Sunday.................................................................12 noon-3 p.m.

24-Hour Order Online: Visit our secure website, ohiolightopera.org, to view available seats, order, and pay for your tickets. Subscription rates are available for phone, fax, and mail order only.

Group Discounts: Last year, more than 2,000 people saw Ohio Light Opera performances with our group discount plan. (Musicals/Operettas)

Late Seating: All performances begin promptly at 2 p.m. for matinees and 7:30 p.m. for evening shows. In deference to the comfort and listening pleasure of the audience in the house, late-arriving patrons will not be seated while the performance is in progress. Latecomers are asked to wait quietly until the first convenient break in the program, when ushers will assist you into the theatre. These arrangements are at the discretion of the house manager in consultation with the artistic director and performing artists. Thank you for your cooperation.

Pre-Performance Talks Friday and Saturday Evenings at 6:30 p.m.: Enhance your enjoyment of the evening’s performance by learning lesser-known facts about the show’s history and tips to recognize the unique special pleasures of each show. We feature lecturers seasoned in the experience and study of operetta. No reservations are necessary. Lectures begin promptly at 6:30 p.m. and are held in the Lean Lecture Room, down the hall from Freedlander Theatre Lobby. Check for signs in the lobby for the location of these informative and free gatherings!

A Festival Symposium on the Lyric Theater Tradition:

Daily Price........................................................................$45

4 Day Price.................................................................... $150

See pages 82-85 for details and schedule

20-46 people...................................... $50/$46 per ticket 47-100 people........................$49.50/$45.50 per ticket over 100 people................................. $49/$45 per ticket Put together a group of people and come to Wooster for an afternoon or evening of operetta—a joy for all at wonderful savings! Call the Box Office at 330-263-2345 or 330-263-2329 to order tickets for your group. Our group sales coordinator will be glad to assist you with your plans.

Ticket Exchanges: You have the privilege of exchanging tickets, subject to availability, within the 2017 season.

Tickets being exchanged must be RECEIVED in the ticket office no later than 48 hours prior to the performance date on the original tickets. Exchanges may be made in person or by mail. There is a $3.00 PER TICKET charge for exchanges. No other exchanges are possible.

Unused Tickets: Ticket holders unable to use or exchange their tickets may notify the ticket office so that those tickets can be resold. These “turnbacks” make seats available to other music lovers and can provide additional income to the Opera.

Lost Tickets: If you lose your original tickets, duplicates can be made for you.

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THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA 2017 PERFORMANCE CALENDAR Freedlander Theatre, 329 East University Street, Wooster, OH 44691 THE OHIO LIGHT OPERA 2017 PERFORMANCE CALENDAR SUNDAY

MON

2PM

TUESDAY 2PM

WEDNESDAY 2PM

THURSDAY

7:30PM

2PM

7:30PM

FRIDAY 2PM

7:30PM

SATURDAY 2PM

7:30PM

June 17 ★ The Music Man* June 18

June 19 June 20

June 21 The Music Man

June 25 June 26 June 27 The Music Man July 2

July 3

CONCERT

July 9

July 10

The Music Man July 16

July 18 The Student Prince

July 23

July 24

Anything Goes July 30

July 31

The Music Man

July 6

July 13

July 19

July 25

The Lady of Primrose the Slipper

August 1

August 2

★

HMS Pinafore

The Student Prince

August 3

July 1

July 8 HMS Primrose* Pinafore

July 14

July 21 Countess Maritza

July 27 Countess Maritza

July 7

Anything Primrose Goes*

July 20

July 26

The Music Man

June 24

HMS Anything Pinafore Goes*

Anything Goes

The Music Man

★ Countess Maritza

June 30 The Music Man

★ Primrose

The Student Prince*

July 28 HMS Primrose* Pinafore August 4

July 15 HMS Pinafore

The Student Prince*

July 22 Primrose

Anything Goes*

July 29 The Music Man

Anything Goes*

August 5

The Student Prince

HMS Countess The Lady of Maritza the Slipper Pinafore

Countess Anything The Lady Primrose The Music Maritza Goes* of the Man* Slipper Festival Symposium On The Lyric Theater Tradition, August 1-4

The Lady of the Slipper August 6

June 29

July 12 ★ The Student Prince

June 23

Anything The Music Goes Man*

★ HMS Pinafore

July 5 The Music Man

July 11 Anything Goes

July 17

June 28 Anything Goes

July 4 POPS

June 22 ★ Anything Goes

Aug 7

August 8

August 9

The Lady The Music of the Man Slipper

August 10 Countess Maritza

The Student Prince

August 11 The Music Man

Primrose*

August 12 Anything HMS Goes Pinafore*

★ Indicates an Opening Performance * Indicates a Pre-Performance Talk at 6:30 p.m. prior to Friday & Saturday evening performances.

Informative & Free! £ Limited seating availability – get your tickets today!

OLO 2017 Festival Special Events JUNE 17 Opening Night Gala The audience is invited to celebrate the opening of our 39th Summer Season by attending our Opening Reception in Freedlander lobby following the 7:30 p.m. performance of The Music Man.

and how Harold Hill arrives in an Iowa town intent on forming a boys’ marching band. This show continues to capture the hearts of young and old. See the show that is loaded with memorable tunes such as “Ya Got Trouble,” “Goodnight, My Someone,” “Seventy Six Trombones,” “Marian the Librarian,” “Wells Fargo Wagon,” “Gary, Indiana,” and “Till There Was You.”

JULY 4 Pops Concert 7-8 p.m. Downtown Wooster

AUGUST 1-4 A Festival Symposium on The Lyric Theater Tradition JULY 5 Kids' Day, THE MUSIC MAN 1-2 p.m. Lean Lecture Room (in Wishart Hall, adjacent to Freedlander Individual tickets available for Symposium Concert Series, $25/ticket Theatre) Learn about this classic American musical For more detailed information regarding our events, please log on to ohiolightopera.org or call The Ohio Light Opera box office at 330.263.2345.

94 Box Office: 330.263.2345

2017/ 2017/ 2017/ 181818 CONCERT CONCERT CONCERT TICKETS TICKETS TICKETS ON ON ON SALE SALE SALE NOW! NOW! NOW!

CLASSIC CLASSIC CLASSIC

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callcall 330.535.8131 call 330.535.8131 330.535.8131 or or akronsymphony.org or akronsymphony.org akronsymphony.org

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