La bohème

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The UTAH SYMPHONY | UTAH OPERA program is published by Mills Publishing, Inc., 772 East 3300 South, Suite 200, Salt Lake City, Utah 84106. Phone: 801.467.8833, Email: advertising@millspub.com, Website: millspub.com. Mills Publishing produces playbills for many performing arts groups. Advertisers do not necessarily agree or disagree with content or views expressed on stage. Please contact us for playbill advertising opportunities.

© COPYRIGHT 2023

WELCOME

On behalf of the board, musicians, and staff of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera, it is our pleasure to welcome you to the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre and today’s performance.

STEVEN BROSVIK President & CEO

We begin this 2023–24 opera season with a perennial favorite—Puccini’s La bohème. It’s no wonder that audiences enthusiastically return to this timeless story of love, loss, and friendship set to Puccini’s masterful emotion-evoking score. As you’ve come to expect from Utah Opera, today you will be transported to the artists’ garret and Café Momus by superb singing actors collaborating with our exceptional orchestra. We hope the experience inspires you to return to the opera throughout the season and to join the orchestra at Abravanel Hall for symphonic concerts with extraordinary guest soloists, engaging family concerts, and our immersive films series with scores performed live to picture!

Throughout this past summer USUO performed great live music in a variety of locations that celebrate Utah’s natural beauty—at USUO’s official summer home of the Deer Valley® Music Festival, in outdoor venues along the Wasatch front, and throughout the state during our Music Elevated: Forever Mighty® State Tour. As the season changes and a new school-year begins, we are happy to return to our regular indoor venues, and to perform in schools throughout the state.

Director

Did you know that, in addition to the more than 100 subscription concerts and operas performed at USUO home venues, last year our artists presented more than 350 education performances designed specifically for students in schools and venues throughout the state? The people of our great state have long recognized the power of the arts to inspire the human spirit and to motivate the betterment of mankind. USUO reflects this value through a deep commitment to music education and strives to meaningfully impact every community in the state through our education and community engagement programs.

BRIAN GREEFF Board of Trustees Chairman

Thank you for attending today’s performance. We hope to see you again soon for memorable productions of musical storytelling for the whole family that will leave you enriched through the shared experience of great live music!

Sincerely,

CHRISTOPHER MCBETH Artistic

Introducing the 2023-24

Utah Opera Resident Artists

LAURA BLEAKLEY

Pianist

Honolulu, HI

@bleakdafreak

JEREMIAH TYSON

Tenor

Dallas, TX

@geauxldenboy98

SARAH SCOFIELD

Mezzo-soprano

Paris, France

@mezzoscofrano

JASMINE RODRIGUEZ Soprano

Santa Fe Springs, CA

@jasmine_soprano

TSHILIDZI NDOU

Baritone

Johannesburg, South Africa

@tshilidzi_baritone_ndou

For more information about the Resident Artists and Utah Opera education programs visit UtahOpera.org/education

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

ELECTED BOARD

Brian Greeff* Chair

Annette W. Jarvis* Vice Chair and Secretary

Joanne F. Shiebler* Vice Chair

Steven Brosvik* President & CEO

Austin Bankhead Dr. Stewart E. Barlow

Judith M. Billings

George Cardon-Bystry

Gary L. Crocker

John D’Arcy*

David L. Dee*

Barry L. Eden*

Jason Englund

Senator Luz Escamilla

Theresa A. Foxley

Brandon Fugal Dr. Julie Aiken Hansen

Daniel Hemmert*

Dennis H. Hranitzky

Stephen Tanner Irish

Thomas N. Jacobson

Abigail E. Magrane

Brad W. Merrill

Judy Moreton

Dr. Dinesh C. Patel

Frank R. Pignanelli

Gary B. Porter

Shari H. Quinney

Miguel R. Rovira

Stan Sorensen

Dr. Shane D. Stowell

Naoma Tate

Thomas Thatcher

W. James Tozer

David Utrilla

Kelly Ward

Don Willie

Kim R. Wilson

Thomas Wright*

Henry C. Wurts*

MUSICIAN REPRESENTATIVES

Edward Merritt*

Hugh Palmer*

EX-OFFICIO

Jean Vaniman

Onstage Ogden

LIFETIME BOARD

William C. Bailey

Kem C. Gardner*

Jon Huntsman, Jr.

G. Frank Joklik

Clark D. Jones

Herbert C. Livsey, Esq.

Thomas M. Love*

David T. Mortensen

Scott S. Parker

David A. Petersen

Patricia A. Richards*

Harris Simmons

David B. Winder

TRUSTEES EMERITI

Carolyn Abravanel

Dr. J. Richard Baringer

Howard S. Clark

Kristen Fletcher

Richard G. Horne

Ronald W. Jibson

E. Jeffery Smith

HONORARY BOARD

Jesselie B. Anderson

Kathryn Carter

R. Don Cash

Raymond J. Dardano

Geralyn Dreyfous

Lisa Eccles

Spencer F. Eccles

Dr. Anthony W. Middleton, Jr.

Edward Moreton

Marilyn H. Neilson

Stanley B. Parrish

Marcia Price

Jeffrey W. Shields, Esq.

Diana Ellis Smith

* Executive Committee Member

FIRST LOVE, FIRST LOSS: YOUR STORY, SET TO MUSIC

By Michael Clive

It used to be the “ABC operas”—Aida, Bohème and Carmen—but in recent years, La bohème has become the undisputed heavyweight champ of the opera world. And once you’ve seen this vividly emotional evocation of first love and first loss, it’s easy to understand why: People everywhere have experienced close friendships, young love and the loss of someone dear to us. We see and hear an intense, beautiful evocation of our own lives whenever and wherever Bohème takes the stage.

Small wonder, then, that this opera has sent its roots deep into popular culture. There’s Jonathan Larsen’s Rent, of course, and Baz Luhrmann’s Broadway Bohème Andrew Lloyd Webber is often said to channel Puccini. In Moonstruck, Cher, as Loretta Castorini, attends Bohème with Nicolas Cage’s Ronny Cammareri. She’s never been near an opera before, but by the third act she’s fallen under its spell. The nononsense Loretta could well identify with Mimì—like her, a hardworking, pragmatic young woman. “I mean, she was coughing her brains out, and still she had to keep singing!” Felix Unger, the persnickety half

of television’s Odd Couple, felt much the same way. His brainstorm for collectible trading cards: “Great Moments in Opera. Mimì dies!”

For opera companies, Bohème’s enormous popularity is both blessing and curse. Older operagoers, who have seen their favorite operas repeatedly and are urban companies’ most reliable patrons, are often proprietary about Bohème down to the smallest detail; by contrast, some hardcore opera lovers are exasperated at the thought of yet another me-too Bohème, as are younger audience members seeking a fresher dramatic experience. But once the music starts, sincerity matters more than the directorial approach. But once the music starts, sincerity matters more than the directorial approach. A wellstaged, sincerely enacted Bohème has an emotional sweep that is all but irresistible to anyone has ever been young and in love. And when an opera company revives a more traditional staging again and again, they are able to prove that this art form that provides a sublime, multidimensional experience that illuminates the most intensely emotional moments in our lives.

LA BOHÈME

By Michael Clive

Opera in Four Acts

Music by Giacomo Puccini

Libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

Based on the fictionalized memoir

Scènes de la vie bohème by Henri Murger

To Be Young, In Love, and In Paris

I don’t understand the Parisians

Making love every time they get the chance

I don’t understand the Parisians

Wasting every lovely night on romance

This charming lament comes to us from a girl named Gigi—the gawky teenager poised on the brink of womanhood in Hollywood’s 1958 best-picture Oscarwinner. Her words are funny precisely because we do understand the Parisians. We know that they are surrounded by the joys and sorrows of love in the most romantic city on earth…that to be young, in love and in Paris is a universal ideal of romance. And we know that soon, inevitably, Gigi will know it, too.

Puccini’s swooningly emotional evocation of young Parisians in love has made La bohème, by some reckonings, the most popular opera ever composed. The story of the lovers Mimì and Rodolfo and their band of friends ends sadly, with Mimì’s death. Still, it is far gentler than the gritty operas— often violent and shockingly sexualized— that brought Puccini to prominence as the foremost composer of Verismo (“realistic”) operas. The turn away from romanticism and idealism toward realism was reflected in books ranging from Balzac’s La Comédie

humaine and Zola’s Germinal to the novels of Charles Dickens and stories of Guy de Maupassant; on the opera stage, Bizet’s 1875 masterpiece Carmen shocked respectable Parisians with its frankness, opening the way for Puccini’s close colleagues Leoncavallo and Mascagni. Their accounts of sex, squalor and street life in Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci astounded audiences in 1890 as Carmen had 15 years earlier. In 1893 Puccini’s first big hit, Manon Lescaut, grafted an elegant veneer onto an equally sordid story. By 1895, when Puccini composed La bohème, operagoers were eager for just such a music-drama as this—one that combined a realistic account of illness and the privations of urban poverty with a glowingly sympathetic portrayal of young love.

Henri Murger, the source for the episodes dramatized in La bohème, wrote from firsthand experience. Like Puccini’s Rodolfo (and like the George Orwell of Down and Out in Paris and London), Murger was born to financial privilege and spent time “slumming” for the sake of his art; he spent the 1840s writing now-forgotten poetry while living in a series of frigid attic apartments and hotel rooms in Paris’s Latin Quarter, an area that housed the lower class and a large student population. If Murger’s hardships were real, his choices suggest a certain dilettantism…a kind of willful wantonness. His disapproving father withheld financial support, forcing Henri to resort to writing personal essays to help pay the rent. Urged on by a friend, he produced some thirty

LA BOHÈME

installments entitled Scènes de la vie de Bohème, which were published in 1848 in the satirical Parisian periodical Le Corsaire. The following year these vignettes, which together told a realistic and largely autobiographical story of life and love on the seamy Left Bank, were rewritten as a play. Its tremendous success secured Murger sufficient income to move to the more respectable side of the Seine.

Although Murger died relatively young, his stories have endured. His use of the word “bohemian” came to identify for

later generations the poverty-stricken, footloose lifestyle of aspiring young artists and youth in rebellion. It’s easy to see why these tales, when animated by Puccini’s genius, are irresistibly popular. Who hasn’t experienced the pleasures and pains of everyday life? The vicissitudes of hardship, poverty and despair? The pleasures of a good meal and the company of friends? Murger’s stories were so apt for this purpose that in the space of nine years they inspired operas by three different composers. Only Puccini’s remains in the standard repertory.

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OPENING NIGHT DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF

DR. JUDY W. BRADY

Known throughout the community for her philanthropic and professional contributions to the social services, Judy Brady was also a beloved friend and advocate for the arts. She believed that, in addition to mental and physical health, the soul itself required care and feeding and that few things could provide those as well as the performing arts. Judy’s spirit, enthusiasm, and that special smile that radiated throughout the lobby of the Janet Quinney Lawson Capitol Theatre every time she arrived to see an opera performance (always impeccably dressed) will be sorely missed.

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LA BOHÈME

OCTOBER 7 (7:30PM), 9 (7:00PM), 11 (7:00PM), 13 (7:30PM), 15 (2:00PM)

JANET QUINNEY LAWSON CAPITOL THEATRE

Composed by Giacomo Puccini & Libretto by Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa

Premiere - 1 February 1896, Teatro Reggio, Turin

Previously at Utah Opera - 1978, 1983, 1988, 1995, 2003, 2010, 2017

Sung in Italian with English Supertitles

COMPANY

Rodolfo Christopher Oglesby**

Mimì ........................................................... Laura Wilde

Marcello .................................................... James Westman

Musetta Marina Costa-Jackson

Schaunard Tshilidzi Ndou*

Colline.................................................... William Guanbo Su

Benoit/Alcindoro ................................................ Daniel Belcher

Parpignol Jeremiah Tyson*

Prune Man Marcus Lee

Customs-House Officer .......................................... Nelson LeDuc Sergeant .................................................... Charles Hamilton

ARTISTIC TEAM

Conductor Robert Tweten

Stage Director ................................................. Garnett Bruce

Scenic Designer .............................................. Peter Dean Beck

Costume Designer Susan Memmott Allred

Lighting Designer James Sale

Hair and Makeup Designer ........................................ Kate Casalino

Chorus Director and Assistant Conductor ..................... Sharon Bjorndal Lavery

Children’s Choir Director Melanie Malinka

Principal Coach Carol Anderson

Rehearsal Pianist .............................................. Laura Bleakley*

Assistant Director ................................................ Ian Silverman

Stage Manager Peter Nictakis

Assistant Stage Managers Hope Griffin, Jayden Dudley

Assistant Lighting Designer ........................................ Ari Jamieson

Supertitle Musician ........................................ Christine McDonough

Scenery & Properties provided by Arizona Opera, with original stage direction by Henry Akina

The performance run time is approximately 2 hours 30 minutes with one intermission

*Current Utah Opera Resident Artist

**Former Utah Opera Resident Artist

COMPANY

Christopher Oglesby (California)

Rodolfo

Most Recently at Utah Opera, Roméo et Juliette

Former Utah Opera Resident Artist

Recently:

La bohème, Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera; Madama Butterfly, Sarasota Opera; Grand Teton Music Festival; Kát’a Kabanová, West Edge Opera

Upcoming:

Lucia di Lammermoor, Puccini Gala Concert; Sarasota Opera

Laura Wilde (South Dakota)

Mimì

Utah Opera Debut

Recently:

Salome, Houston Grand Opera; Tosca, Arizona Opera; Peter Grimes, The Metropolitan Opera

Upcoming:

Die Walküre, The Atlanta Opera; Elektra, The Dallas Opera

James Westman (Ontario, Canada)

Marcello

Most Recently at Utah Opera, Lucia di Lammermoor

Recently:

Rigoletto, Opera San Antonio; Edmonton Opera; Opéra de Montréal;

Nabucco, Opéra de Québec; La traviata, Pacific Opera Victoria

Upcoming:

La traviata, Opéra de Montréal

Marina Costa-Jackson (Utah)

Musetta

Most Recently at Utah Opera, Pagliacci & Gianni Schicchi

Recently:

Suor Angelica, San Diego Opera

Manon Lescaut, North Carolina Opera

Upcoming:

The Tales of Hoffmann, Royal Opera House

COMPANY

Tshilidzi Ndou (Johannesburg, South Africa)

Schaunard

Most Recently at Utah Opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

Recently:

Current Utah Opera Resident Artist; La tragédie de Carmen, Chautauqua Opera; Rigoletto, Utah Opera

Upcoming:

The Little Prince, Utah Opera; Le nozze di Figaro, Utah Opera

William Guanbo Su (Beijing, China)

Colline

Utah Opera Debut

Recently:

Susannah, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Die Zauberflöte, The Metropolitan Opera; La bohème, Boston Lyric Opera; Salome, Houston Grand Opera

Upcoming:

Don Giovanni, The Santa Fe Opera; Madama Butterfly, Houston Grand Opera; La clemenza di Tito, Staatsoper Hamburg

Danny Belcher (Texas)

Benoit/Alcindoro

Most Recently at Utah Opera, Silent Night

Recently:

Die tote Stadt, Opera Colorado; The Wreckers, Houston Grand Opera

Upcoming:

Die Fledermaus, Pensacola Opera; The Sound of Music, Houston Grand Opera

Jeremiah Tyson (Texas)

Parpignol

Utah Opera Debut

Recently:

Current Utah Opera Resident Artist; Treemonisha, Opera Theatre of St. Louis;

Susannah, Opera Theater of St. Louis

Upcoming:

Messiah, Utah Symphony; The Little Prince, Utah Opera

ARTISTIC TEAM

Garnett Bruce (Texas)

Stage Director

Most Recently at Utah Opera, La traviata

Recently:

Falstaff, Palm Beach Opera;

Il trionfo dell’onore, Butler Opera Center UT Austin

Upcoming:

Turandot, Los Angeles Opera; Cavalleria rusticana and Pagliacci, Opera Carolina

Robert Tweten (New Mexico)

Conductor

Most Recently at Utah Opera, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs

Recently:

Beethoven Symphony No. 4, Santa Fe Pro Musica; Flight, Utah Opera

Upcoming:

La Calisto, New England Conservatory of Music

Sharon Bjorndal Lavery (New Jersey)

Chorus Director

Most Recently at Utah Opera, La fille du régiment

Recently:

Great Scott, San Diego Opera; Patience, Baylor Opera Theatre

Upcoming:

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera 2023-2024 Season

Peter Dean Beck (New York)

Set Designer

Most Recently at Utah Opera, La traviata

Recently:

The Marriage of Figaro, Hawaii Opera Theatre; Cendrillion, Guys and Dolls, Eklund Opera, University of Colorado

Susan Memmott Allred (Utah)

Costume Designer

Most Recently at Utah Opera: Tosca

Recently:

Gianni Schicchi, On Site Opera

Upcoming:

La traviata, Pittsburgh Opera

ARTISTIC TEAM / CHORUS

James Sale (Colorado)

Lighting Designer

Most Recently at Utah Opera, Flight

Recently:

Sweeney Todd, Austin Opera; Falstaff, Palm Beach Opera

Kate Casalino

Hair & Makeup Designer

Most Recently at Utah Opera, Tosca

Recently:

Die Schweigsame Frau, Bard Summerscape; Silent Night, Utah Opera

Upcoming: The Little Prince, Utah Opera

Melanie Malinka (Germany)

Children’s Choir Director

Most Recently at Utah Opera, The Flying Dutchman

Recently:

Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, Grand Teton Music Festival; The Little Prince, Utah Opera;

Bach’s Magnificat, The Cathedral of the Madeleine; Carmina Burana, Utah Symphony

Upcoming:

Wozzeck Act III, Utah Symphony; Little Prince, Utah Opera

Chorus

SOPRANO

Lauren Cartwright

Bohannan

Lyndsay Browning

Audrey Christensen

Kahli Dalbow

Genevieve Gannon

Deborah Johnson

Kristen Lenth

Katie Sullivan

Carolyn Talboys-Klassen

ALTO

Charity Cooper

Alicia Fairbanks

Jennifer Hancock

Becca Keel

Julie McBeth

Caitlin Marshall

Lindsay Whitney

Sammie Tollestrup

Val Tholen

Supernumeraries

TENOR

George Burdick

Ryan Francis

Brynnen Green

Elijah Hancock

Rodrigo Hernandez

Benjamin Jacobs

Marcus Lee (Prune Man)

Zachary Smith

Carl Wadsworth

BASS

Buddy Eyre

Charles Hamilton (Sergeant)

Jefferson Green

Thomas Klassen

Nelson LeDuc (CustomsHouse Officer)

Giovanni Nuvan

Sam Thomas

Daniel Tuutau

Carson Smith

Nannette Ovard Tanner McDaniel Sam Stuart Jack Tingey

November 4, 2023 beginning at 11:00am

Libby Gardner Concert Hall University of Utah

The Utah District round of the competition is open to the public and admission is free.

Visit UtahMONCAuditions.org after October 28 to view a schedule of singers, updated times, and health and safety policies.

The Utah District Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition is supported by the residents of Salt Lake County through the Zoo, Arts & Parks (ZAP) Program, private contributions, and the University of Utah School of Music.

THE MADELEINE CHOIR SCHOOL

The Madeleine Choir School, a mission of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salt Lake City and a service of the Cathedral of the Madeleine, is an elementary school for children in Pre-Kindergarten through Grade Eight located in downtown Salt Lake City. Established in 1996, the school continues the cathedral tradition of inspiring young people to become engaged scholars, effective communicators, dedicated liturgical musicians, and responsible world citizens who seek to build a civilization of justice, mercy and love.

Modeled after historic cathedral schools in Europe, the Choir School music curriculum is unmatched in the state of Utah. Students graduate from the school having received intensive vocal training, advanced music theory and music history instruction, and a minimum of two years of violin study. The Madeleine Choir School also provides outstanding instruction in the humanities, mathematics and the sciences, as well as foreign languages, visual arts, theology, and athletics, and offers students strong character formation and a holistic approach to exceptional age-appropriate learning.

Children’s Chorus

Anaya Alt

Lilah Burrell

Addison Campbell

Gabrielle Cutshall

William Cutshall

Gwyneth Foy

Elizabeth Glenn

Andrew Lupash

Atticus Maw

Ethan Molina

Meg Nuvan

Isabella Sausedo

Colsen Taylor

William Taylor

Mason Woods

Eleanor Zidow

The choristers in Grades Five through Eight regularly assist with the worship life at the Cathedral of the Madeleine and participate in the Annual Concert Series. During the academic year they can be heard at the Cathedral’s 5:15 p.m. Mass Monday through Thursday, and on Sundays at the 11:00 a.m. Mass. Student choristers also participate in yearly domestic and international performance tours and just recently traveled to Milan, Florence, Assisi and Rome where they presented musically charged performances in the Milan Duomo, Florence’s historic Santa Croce, the Basilica of St. Francis in Assisi, and St. Ignatius Church in Rome. They also celebrated the Mass with beauty in all four of Rome’s Archbasilicas, including St. Peter’s Basilica for a Papal Mass on the Epiphany with Pope Francis. The Choristers of the Madeleine Choir School regularly collaborate with the Utah Symphony | Utah Opera and other arts organizations, including Grand Teton Music Festival.

Please visit utmcs.org for a list of scheduled admissions events, or contact our Director of Admissions at admissions@utmcs.org or 801-323-9850 ext. 103.

The year is 1886. Ruth Bowen, a young widow from New York City, makes her way with her mother-in-law Naomi to Utah where she encounters Benjamin Bowen, Naomi’s brother-inlaw and prominent Salt Lake City businessman/ polygamist. Ruth’s eastern fashions and New York City charm create a sensation, but before Benjamin is able to fulfill his “next-of-kin obligation,” he is forced to flee the city to avoid arrest for unlawful cohabitation.

A New Opera

By: William Call

a girl from New York

Later Benjamin and Ruth attempt a rendezvous, which leads to Benjamin’s arrest and extended prison term. Still in prison

Benjamin proposes

marriage, but the Manifesto of 1890 stands in the way. Ruth takes a train home to New York City. Benjamin’s attempts to pursue her are circumvented. Fate has seemingly made their separation permanent, but then in an unexpected turn of events…

COMPOSER & LIBRETTIST

Giacomo Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire. Puccini was born in Lucca in Tuscany, Italy into a family with five generations of musical history behind them. Starting in 1891, Puccini spent most of his time at Torre del Lago where he composed Manon Lescaut (1893), his third opera, and first great success. Manon Lescaut launched his remarkable relationship with the librettists Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. This collaboration produced Puccini’s most well-known and beloved operas, La bohème, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly. Puccini died on November 29, 1924. When news of his death reached Rome during a performance of La bohème, the opera was immediately stopped, and the orchestra played Chopin’s Funeral March for the stunned audience.

Luigi Illica wrote librettos for composers such as Giacomo Puccini (usually in partnership with Giuseppe Giacosa), Alfredo Catalani, and Umberto Giordano. His most famous opera librettos are those for La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Andrea Chénier. Illica’s personal life often imitated his libretti. He was always photographed with his head slightly turned because he lost his right ear in a duel over a woman. As a playwright of considerable quality, he is today remembered through one of Italy’s oldest awards, the Luigi Illica International Prize founded in 1961, which is awarded to world-famous opera singers, opera conductors, directors, and authors.

Giuseppe Giacosa was an Italian poet, playwright, and librettist. His father was a magistrate, and Giacosa went to the University of Turin and earned a degree in law, but did not pursue this career. Giacosa gained initial fame for writing the poems in the opera Una partita a scacchi (A Game of Chess) in 1871. His main focus was playwriting, which he accomplished with both insight and simplicity, using subjects set in Piedmont and themes addressing contemporary bourgeois values. He wrote La signora di Challant (La Dame de Challant, The Lady of Challand) for noted French actress Sarah Bernhardt, which she produced in New York in 1891.

LUIGI ILLICA Librettist

GIUSEPPE GIACOSA librettist

GIACOMO PUCCINI Composer

STORY OF THE OPERA

Act I

In the attic apartment he shares with friends in the Latin Quarter of Paris, the poet Rodolfo stares out the garret window as the artist Marcello paints. They grouse about the cold and burn the manuscript of Rodolfo’s play in their stove for heat. Then the philosopher Colline returns, followed by the musician Schaunard—who, having managed to buy food, wine and cigars after an unexpected job, is jubilant. Their landlord arrives to collect the rent, but is thwarted when a combination of wine, flattery and confusing banter sends him packing without the money he’s owed; the friends will divide it for a Christmas Eve outing at the Cafe Momus downstairs.

Remaining alone in their apartment as his friends leave, Rodolfo hears a knock: their neighbor Mimì, whose candle has blown out. In the few moments it takes for her to lose her key, both lose their hearts and exchange life stories. The frail Mimì coughs and at first demurs to join Rodolfo. But as the act ends they descend the stairs together, ecstatically singing of their newfound love on their way to the cafe.

Act II

Christmas Eve at the Cafe Momus is a boisterous affair. Rodolfo buys a bonnet from a vendor for Mimì while Colline buys a coat and Schaunard a horn. The street bustles with children and celebrants. Musetta, a flamboyant flirt who is Marcello’s ex, arrives on the arm of the doddering, wealthy Alcindoro, whom she torments and manipulates by turns. She sends him away to have her suddenlytoo-tight shoe repaired, then rushes into passionate embrace with Marcello. Alcindoro returns just in time to be presented with the bill for all the festivities

he’s missed. This joyful outing is perhaps the greatest happiness that these six friends will ever know together.

Act III

Two months have passed, and it is a cold Febuary morning at an entry point into the city. Wracked by coughing, Mimì searches for Marcello, who currently lives near the gate at a tavern where he works as a signpainter. Mimì confides to him that despite the love that she and Rodolfo share, she is tormented by his jealousy. But then Rodolfo confides—and Mimì overhears—his fears over her worsening health; his jealousy is a ruse that he hopes will push her toward a wealthier lover who can take better care of her. They resolve to separate “senza rancor,” without bitterness. But then, unable to bear parting, they resolve to remain together until spring. Their non-farewell provides a musical foil for the bickering of Marcello and Musetta, who can neither live with each other nor without each other.

Act IV

Back in their garret apartment, Marcello and Rodolfo are trying to ply their respective arts, but they have women on their minds: Mimì and Musetta have left them for wealthier men. But then Musetta appears, her former gaiety replaced by seriousness. She is gravely concerned for Mimì, who is weakened by illness and has asked Musetta to bring her to Rodolfo. They help her onto a bed and she briefly feels better, but is near death. Colline leaves to pawn his overcoat for medicine; Rodolfo brings out the bonnet he bought for her on Christmas Eve, which he has kept as a remembrance. The six friends share their last moments of affection with Mimì as her life ebbs away, and the opera ends as Rodolfo helplessly calls her name.

BACKGROUND ON THE OPERA

La bohème’s enduring appeal is not only that it is a timeless tale with which we can identify; it is that Puccini and his librettists have captured, in word and music, the story and its characters. The bohemian life was something Puccini could write and compose about; he had lived in a garret apartment as a student at the Milan Conservatory, and for a time shared it with Mascagni, composer of Cavalleria rusticana. His first two operas had been disappointing failures, but from them he had learned that a bad libretto could ruin even a good story and a better-than-average score. The opera that followed, Manon Lescaut, was his first big hit and had no fewer than seven different writers, including the composer Leoncavallo and Puccini himself. Two of its librettists, Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica, worked with him on his next three operas, all of which have achieved lasting success.

Nonetheless, collaboration with Puccini did not always go smoothly. He was demanding in his attention to detail and demanded constant revision, often finishing an opera’s orchestration before finalizing the vocal lines. Yet this attention to detail is Puccini’s genius: Every word and note in La bohème serves the characters and the story. The transitions from conversational exchange and crowd banter to arias, duets, and quartets and back again, flow with an appealing naturalness. The characters reveal their thoughts and feelings, and events in the story are believable.

La bohème is shaped around two love stories, the fragile new love between the poet Rodolfo and Mimì, his downstairs neighbor, and the tempestuous, on-againoff-again affair between the painter Marcello and Musetta, the beautiful coquette. But the center of our attention is Mimì, not a queen or courtesan, but a humble seamstress who embroiders flowers on bonnets and other garments. She’s a common working woman, apparently simple in her desires, yet not as

innocent as she initially seems. Her love affair with Rodolfo is complicated by his jealousy and his realization that she suffers from late-stage consumption, which is only worsened by their poverty and the cold— themes that recur throughout the opera.

Surprisingly, Puccini’s use of melody subjected him to criticism; he has been accused of succumbing to sentimentalism and being an unworthy successor to earlier great Italian composers. But Puccini’s sense of theater is a glory of his music. Rather than framing displays of vocal agility such as one finds in Bellini or Rossini, his melodies are constructed in gentle, step-like intervals that make his lyrical arias and duets some of the most easily recognizable in opera. In Bohème Puccini fully established his signature style, which is heard in the rhythmic relationship between the vocal lines and the orchestration. Both orchestration and vocal parts are full of color, and in Bohème Puccini begins to use particular instruments, as well as tempo, for descriptive effect. And finally, leaving nothing to chance, Puccini wrote copious instructions on his scores for the conductor.

La bohème was not an immediate success. Critics were unappreciative at its world premiere in Turin in 1896. London’s Covent Garden refused to mount it when first offered the opportunity, and a 1924 American textbook edition of Scènes de la Vie de Bohème even omitted the stories of Mimì and Musetta, considering them inappropriate for college students. But Bohème’s (and Puccini’s) success was soon confirmed, championed by conductor Arturo Toscanini and tenor Enrico Caruso. In a more recent tribute to Bohème’s appeal, Jonathan Larson based his rock-opera Rent on it, setting the action in New York’s East Village with Mimì as an HIV/AIDS patient. Rent premiered in New York exactly one hundred years after La bohème’s opening in Turin.

UTAH SYMPHONY

Matthew Straw

Assistant Conductor

VIOLIN*

Madeline Adkins

Concertmaster

The Jon M. & Karen Huntsman Chair, in honor of Wendell J. & Belva B. Ashton

Kathryn Eberle

Associate Concertmaster

The Richard K. & Shirley S. Hemingway Chair

Laura Ha

2nd Associate

Concertmaster

Claude Halter

Principal Second

Wen Yuan Gu

Associate Principal Second

Evgenia Zharzhavskaya

Assistant Principal Second

Karen Wyatt

2nd Assistant Principal Second

Erin David

Joseph Evans

Lun Jiang

Rebekah Johnson••

Tina Johnson~

Alison Kim

Amanda Kofoed~

Jennifer Kozbial Posadas~

Veronica Kulig

David Langr

Hannah Linz

Yuki MacQueen

Alexander Martin

Rebecca Moench

Hugh Palmer

David Porter

Lynn Maxine Rosen

Barbara Ann Scowcroft

Ju Hyung Shin

Bonnie Terry

Julie Wunderle

VIOLA*

Brant Bayless Principal

The Sue & Walker

Wallace Chair

Yuan Qi

Associate Principal

Julie Edwards

Joel Gibbs

Carl Johansen

Scott Lewis

John Posadas

Whittney Sjogren

Leslie Richards~

CELLO*

Matthew Johnson

Acting Principal

The J. Ryan Selberg

Memorial Chair

Andrew Larson Acting Associate Principal

John Eckstein

Walter Haman

Anne Lee

Louis-Philippe Robillard

Kevin Shumway

Hannah Thomas-Hollands~ Pegsoon Whang

BASS*

David Yavornitzky Principal

Corbin Johnston

Associate Principal

James Allyn

Andrew Keller

Edward Merritt

James Stroup~

Jens Tenbroek

Thomas Zera

HARP

Louise Vickerman Principal

FLUTE

Mercedes Smith Principal

The Val A. Browning Chair

Lisa Byrnes

Associate Principal

Caitlyn Valovick Moore

PICCOLO

Caitlyn Valovick Moore

OBOE

Zachary Hammond

Principal

The Gerald B. & Barbara F. Stringfellow Chair

James Hall

Associate Principal

Lissa Stolz

ENGLISH HORN

Lissa Stolz

CLARINET

Tad Calcara Principal

The Norman C. & Barbara Lindquist Tanner Chair, in memory of Jean Lindquist Pell

Erin Svoboda-Scott Associate Principal

Lee Livengood#

Chris Bosco~

BASS CLARINET

Lee Livengood#

Chris Bosco~

E-FLAT CLARINET

Erin Svoboda-Scott

BASSOON

Lori Wike

Principal

The Edward & Barbara Moreton Chair

Leon Chodos

Associate Principal

Jennifer Rhodes

CONTRABASSOON

Leon Chodos

HORN

Jessica Danz Principal

Edmund Rollett

Associate Principal

Jonathan Chiou

Julia Pilant~ Stephen Proser

TRUMPET

Travis Peterson

Principal

Jeff Luke

Associate Principal

Peter Margulies

Paul Torrisi

TROMBONE

Sam Elliot Acting Principal

Andrew Zaharis~ Acting Second Trombone

BASS TROMBONE

Graeme Mutchler

TUBA

Alexander Purdy Principal

TIMPANI

George Brown Principal

Eric Hopkins Associate Principal

PERCUSSION

Keith Carrick Principal

Eric Hopkins

Michael Pape

KEYBOARD

Jason Hardink Principal

LIBRARIANS

Clovis Lark Principal

Claudia Restrepo

ORCHESTRA

PERSONNEL

Walt Zeschin

Director of Orchestra

Personnel

Hannah Thomas-Hollands Orchestra Personnel Manager

•• Second Violin

* String Seating Rotates

** On Leave # Sabbatical

~ Substitute Member

INDIVIDUAL DONORS

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera is grateful to our generous donors who, through annual cash gifts and multi-year commitments, help us bring great live music to our community.

Gifts as of August 20, 2023

* in-kind donation ** in-kind & cash donations † deceased

MILLENNIUM ($250,000+)

Anonymous Kem & Carolyn Gardner

Jacquelyn Wentz

ENCORE ($100,000 TO $249,999)

Adrienne W. Larson†

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Estate of Linda & Donald Price

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Harris H. & Amanda Simmons

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OVERTURE ($25,000 TO $49,999)

Fran Akita

Thomas Billings & Judge

Judith Billings

Jim & Susan Blair

Bloomfield Family Foundation

Judy & Larry Brownstein

Kristen Fletcher & Dan McPhun

Doyle Arnold & Anne Glarner

David & Angela Glenn

Intuitive Funding

Tom & Lorie Jacobson

Thomas M. & Jamie Love

Mr. & Mrs. Charles McEvoy

Edward Moreton

Fred & Lucy Moreton

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Mark & Dianne Prothro

Peggy & Ben Schapiro

Theodore & Elizabeth Schmidt Foundation

Shiebler Family Foundation

Elizabeth Solomon

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Wheatley Family Charitable Fund

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Selberg

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Anonymous

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Jeannette J. Townsend

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W. Browning

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Martha R. Humphrey

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Millerberg Family Giving Fund

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Leslie Peterson & Kevin Higgins

Frank R. & D’Arcy

Dixon Pignanelli

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Albert J. Roberts IV

James & Anna Romano

John F. Foley, M.D. & Dorene Sambado, M.D.

Sandefur Schmidt

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INDIVIDUAL DONORS

ALLEGRO ($5,000 TO $9,999)

4Girls Foundation

Anonymous [8]

Alan, Carol, & Annie Agle

Douglas Anderson

Margaret & Grant Bagley

Austin & Kristi Bankhead

Kyle & Melissa Barnett

David Brown

William & Patricia Child

Larry Clemmensen & Jen Stamp

Marc & Kathryn Cohen

LJJ Fund at the Community Foundation of Utah

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Anne Daigle & Rich Heyman

Ruth & Phil Davidson

John D Doppelheuer M.D. & Kirsten A. Hanson M.D.**

Frank & Kathleen Dougherty

Carol & Greg Easton

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Griswold**

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Moench

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Powell

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Gibbs† & Catherine W. Smith

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Paul Taylor

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Jaelee Watanabe

Mark & Debbie Weinstein

Douglas & Becky Wood

ABRAVANEL & PETERSON SOCIETY ($2,500 TO $4,999)

Anonymous [3]

Marcia Aaron

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PJ Aniello

Pam & Paul Apel

Drs. Crystal & Dustin

Armstrong

Tina & John Barry

Charles & Jennifer Beckham

Lowell Bennion

Dr. Melissa Bentley

Alice & Bill Bierer

Céline Browning

Richard & Suzanne Burbidge

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Mr. & Mrs. William D. Callister

Dr. Anthony† & Charlene

Carter

Mark & Marcy Casp

Blair Childs & Erin Shaffer

Dr. Sidney Cole

Debbi & Gary Cook

Dr. Thomas D. & Joanne A. Coppin

Cindy Corbin

Rod & Kim Cullum

Thomas D. Dee III & Dr. Candace Dee

Michael & Sheila Deputy

Matt & Nancy Dorny

Karey & Phillip Dye

Hans & Nanci Fastre

James Finch

Blake & Linda Fisher

Karen Fletcher

Shawn & Karin Fojtik

Adele & James Forman

Linda Francis

Thomas & Darlis Fuller

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Robert & Annie-Lewis Garda

Larry Gerlach

Jeffrey L. Giese, M.D. & Mary E. Giese

Kenneth & Amy Goodman

INDIVIDUAL DONORS

ABRAVANEL & PETERSON SOCIETY ($2,500 TO $4,999) CONTINUED

Shari Gottlieb

Sue & Gary Grant

Dr. & Mrs. John Greenlee

Brad Hare MD & Akiko

Okifuji PhD

Jonathan Hart

Jeff & Peggy Hatch

Nancy Ann Heaps

John Edward Henderson

Don Hendricks

Marian & Matt Hicks

Richard & Ruth Ann Hills

Michael Huerta & Ann

Sowder

Jay & Julie Jacobson

Drs. Randy & Elizabeth Jensen

M. Craig & Rebecca Johns

Chester & Marilyn Johnson

Maxine & Bruce Johnson

James R. Jones & Family

Neone F. Jones Family

Dr. Michael A. Kalm

Dr. James & Carolyn

Katsikas

Michael & Amy Kennedy

Howard & Merele Kosowsky

Gary Lambert

Jeffrey LaMora

Dr. Donald & Alice Lappe

Tim & Angela Laros

Harrison & Elaine Levy

Franklin Lewis

Michael Liess

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Abbot B & Joan M Lipsky Fund

John & Kristine Maclay

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Kathryn & Jed Marti

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Dale & Carol Matuska

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Clayton McNeel

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MJZR Charitable Trust

Michael E. Montgomery

Glenn & Dav Mosby

Metta Nelson Driscoll

Ashton Newhall

Vincent & Elizabeth Novack

Patrick O’Connell

Stanley B. & Joyce M. Parrish

Elodie Payne

Lisa Poppleton & Jim Stringfellow

W.E. & Harriet R. Rasmussen

Sarah Ratchye

Glenn Ricart

Gina Rieke

Lee Rippel

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Rollo

Rebecca Roof & Gary Smith

Royall Family Charitable Fund

Rachel Sabin

Mark & Loulu Saltzman

Margaret P. Sargent

Diana Scardilli

Dru & Debbie Schmitt

William G. Schwartz & Jo

Ann Givan

Lisa & Joel Shine

Christine St. Andre & Cliff

Hardesty

Roberta Stanley

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Eddie Stone

Briant Summerhays

David O. Tanner

Douglas & Susan Terry

Sal & Denise Torrisi

Dr. Albert & Yvette Ungricht

Richard Valliere

Susan & David† Wagstaff

Gerard & Sheila Walsh

Susan Warshaw

Renee & Dale Waters

Mr. & Mrs. J. Craig Weakley

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Kelly & James Whitcomb

Cindy Williams

Barry & Fran Wilson

David & Jerre Winder

E. Woolston† & Connie Jo

Hepworth-Woolston

Caroline & Thomas Wright

Peter Zutty

INDIVIDUAL DONORS

FRIEND ($1,000 TO $2,499)

Anonymous [5]

Carolyn Abravanel

Christine A. Allred

Margaret Anderson

Dr. Ann Berghout & Dennis Austin

Jan & Graham Baker

Marlene Barnett

Sue Barsamian

Karen Bennett

Victoria Bennion

C. Kim & Jane Blair

Diane Banks Bromberg & Dr. Mark Bromberg

Paula Bronson

Dana Carroll & Jeannine

Marlowe Carroll

Mr. & Mrs. Fred L.

Carter, Jr.

George & Katie Coleman

Community Trust of Utah

Dr. & Mrs. David Coppin

David & Carol Coulter

Jason & Kristin Covili

James Dashner

Jennifer Davenport

Margarita Donnelly

Dr. Paul Dorgan

Eric & Shellie Eide

Matthew Follett

Dr. Robert Fudge & Sylvia Newman

David & Sheila Gardner

Ralph & Rose† Gochnour

Andrea Golding Legacy Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Richard

R. Graham

Mr. Keith Guernsey

Dr. Elizabeth Hammond

Travis W. Hancock

Kenneth & Kate Handley

Helene Harding

LeeAnn Havner

Lex Hemphill & Nancy Melich

Barbara Higgins

Connie C. Holbrook

Ms. Jennifer HorneHuntsman

Caroline & David Hundley

Stephen Tanner Irish

Gordon Irving

Eldon Jenkins & Amy Calara

Rhett & Willow Jeppson

Bryce & Karen† Johnson

Nicholas Johnson

John S. Karls

Robert & Karla Knox

Mary Koch

Joel Longhurst

Patricia & Mark Lucas

David Luker

Shannon & Kirk Magelby

Heidi & Edward D. Makowski

Jerilyn McIntyre & David Smith

Gary McNally

Warren K.† & Virginia G. McOmber

Dr. Nicole L. Mihalopoulos & Joshua Scoville

Richard & Robin Milne

Jim & Nanette Michie

Janna L. Morrison

Barry & Kathy Mower

Dan & Janet Myers

Marilyn H. Neilson

Maura & Serge Olszanskyj

Stephanie Pappas

Dr. Marzia Pasquali & Ms. Nicola Longo

Dr. S. Keith & Barbara Petersen

George & Jan Pilko

Roxanne Post-Gilbert

Frances Reiser

Marcia JS Richards

Diane & Dr. Robert

Rolfs, Jr.

Nancy Rossman

F. Jayne Roth

Gail T. Rushing

Leona Sadacca

Ted & Lori Samuels

Grant H. Schettler

August Schultz

Carl Sedlak

Roger & Connie Seegmiller

Gerald† & Sharon Seiner

Barbara Slaymaker

Janette Smith

Dr. & Mrs. Michael

H. Stevens

Emily Stewart

Jim Swayze

Brent & Lissa Thompson

Lori Turner

James Upchurch

Dr. Ralph & Judith

Vander Heide

Dr. James C. Warenski

Stephen & Elizabeth Watson

Frank & Janell Weinstock

Dan & Amy Wilcox

David B. & Anne Wirthlin

Gayle & Sam Youngblood**

Laurie Zeller & Matthew Kaiser

ENDOWMENT

DONORS TO UTAH SYMPHONY | UTAH OPERA ENDOWMENT

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera is grateful to those donors who have made commitments to our Endowment Fund. The Endowment Fund is a vital resource that helps the long-term well-being and stability of USUO, and through its annual earnings, supports our Annual Fund. For further information, please contact 801-869-9015.

Anonymous

Edward R. Ashwood & Candice A. Johnson

Gael Benson

C. Comstock Clayton Foundation

Estate of Alexander Bodi

The Elizabeth Brown Dee Fund for Music in the Schools

Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation

Thomas D. Dee III & Dr. Candace Dee

Hearst Foundation

Estate of John Henkels

Roger & Susan Horn

Carolyn T. Irish Revocable Trust

Estate of Marilyn Lindsay

The Right Reverend

Carolyn Tanner Irish† and Mr. Frederick Quinn

Loretta M. Kearns†

Vicki McGregor

Edward Moreton

Estate of Pauline C. Pace

The Linda & Don Price Guest Artist Fund

Perkins-Prothro Foundation

Kenneth† & Jerrie Randall

The Evelyn Rosenblatt Young Artist Award

Bill & Joanne Shiebler

Steven P. Sondrop Family Trust

James R. & Susan Swartz

GIFTS MADE IN HONOR

Doyle Clayburn

Anne & Ashby Decker

Nancy & Eric Garen

Heather Weinstock

GIFTS MADE IN MEMORY

Fred Andersen

Jay T. Ball

John Bates

Earle Robert Bevins III

Danny Boy

Mariah Bradfield

Orson Clay

Joan Coles

JoDeane Cruz

Esther Markey Davenport

Marlene Dazley

Jack Golden Edwards

Carolyn Hanks

John Husband

Karen Johnson

Adrienne W. Larson

Lona Mae Stratford

Hyde Lauritzen

Polly Lehwalder

Maxine & Frank McIntyre

Julie Palfreyman

Clark L. Tanner Foundation

Norman C. & Barbara L. Tanner Charitable Trust

Norman C. & Barbara L. Tanner Second Charitable Trust

O.C. Tanner Company

Estate of Frederic & Marilyn Wagner

M. Walker† & Sue Wallace

Jack & Mary Lois

Wheatley Family Trust

Edward & Marelynn† Zipser

Leslie Peterson

Carol Zimmerman

Nancy & Gene Parry

Glade & Mardean Peterson

Maria A. Proser

Dan Ragan

Nedra S. Robison

Robert Sedgewick

Robert C. Sloan

Jayme Terran

James Edward Wright

INSTITUTIONAL DONORS

We thank our generous donors for their annual support of Utah Symphony | Utah Opera.

* in-kind donation ** in-kind & cash donation

$100,000 OR MORE

AHE/CI Trust

HJ & BR Barlow Foundation

C. Comstock Clayton Foundation

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Foundation

Lawrence T. & Janet T. Dee Foundation

$50,000 TO $99,999

Anonymous Dominion Energy

The Florence J. Gillmor Foundation

$25,000 TO $49,999

Arnold Machinery

Associated Food Stores

BMW of Murray/BMW of Pleasant Grove

Cache Valley Electric Deer Valley Resort*

Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC

Marriner S. Eccles Foundation

George S. & Dolores Doré Eccles Foundation

Emma Eccles Jones Foundation

Frederick Q. Lawson Foundation LOVE Communications*

Larry H. & Gail Miller Family Foundation

S.J. & Jessie E. Quinney Foundation

Sorenson Legacy Foundation

Stowell Leadership Group, LLC*

O.C. Tanner Company Zions Bank

The

Little America Hotel*

Richard K. & Shirley S. Hemingway Foundation

The Kahlert Foundation

The John C. Kish Foundation

Charles Maxfield & Gloria F. Parrish Foundation

Perkins-Prothro Foundation

Joanne L. Shrontz Family Foundation

Simmons Family Foundation

Summit Sotheby’s

Nora Eccles Treadwell Foundation

Grand America Hotel &

Janet Q. Lawson Foundation

INSTITUTIONAL DONORS

$1,000 TO $9,999

Anonymous

Big D Construction

Rodney H. & Carolyn Hansen Brady Charitable Foundation

The Capital Group

David Dee Fine Arts

Spencer F. & Cleone P. Eccles Family Foundation

Grandeur Peak

Global Advisors

Victor Herbert Foundation

Holland & Hart**

$10,000 TO $24,999

Altabank

B.W. Bastian Foundation

Brent & Bonnie Jean Beesley Foundation

Bertin Family Foundation

R. Harold Burton Foundation

Marie Eccles Caine Foundation-Russell Family

Caffé Molise*

Cultural Vision Fund

Hotel Park City

Hyatt Centric Park City**

KKC Foundation

Kum & Go Charitable Fund

Pago on Main*

Parsons Behle & Latimer

Ray, Quinney & Nebeker Foundation

Red Rock Brewing Company*

Rocky Mountain Power Foundation

Ruth’s Chris Steak House*

Squatters Pub Brewery*

Victory Ranch & Conservancy

Young Electric Sign Co.*

Black Physicians of Utah

The Fanwood Foundation Western Office

The Helper Project

Millcreek Coffee Roasters*

Swire Coca-Cola, USA*

Greenberg Traurig

Joseph & Kathleen Sorenson Legacy Foundation

McCarthey Family Foundation

Opera America

Raymond James & Associates

Regence BlueCross

BlueShield of Utah

The Joseph & Evelyn Rosenblatt

Charitable Fund

St. Regis / Deer Crest Club**

Stay Park City

The Swartz Foundation

W. Mack and Julia S. Watkins Foundation

WCF Insurance

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera would like to especially thank our major sources of public funding that help us to fulfill our mission and serve our community

ADMINISTRATION

ADMINISTRATION

Steven Brosvik President & CEO

David Green

Senior Vice President & COO

Micah Luce

Director of Human Resources & Organizational Culture

Julie McBeth

Executive Assistant to the CEO

Marcus Lee

Executive Assistant to the COO & Office Manager

Natty Taylor

Human Resources Coordinator

OPERA ARTISTIC

Christopher McBeth

Opera Artistic Director

Sharon Bjorndal Lavery

Chorus Director & Opera Assistant

Conductor

Carol Anderson

Principal Coach

Michelle Peterson

Director of Production

Ashley Tingey

Production Coordinator

Sarah Scofield

Resident Artist, Mezzo-soprano

Jeremiah Tyson

Resident Artist, Tenor

Tshilidzi Ndou

Resident Artist, Baritone

Jasmine Rodriguez

Resident Artist, Soprano

Laura Bleakley

Resident Artist, Pianist

OPERA TECHNICAL

Sam Miller

Technical Director

Kelly Nickle

Properties Master

Dusty Terrell

Scenic Charge Artist

JR Orr

Head Carpenter/Shop Foreman

COSTUMES

Carol Wood

Costume Director

Verona Green

Costume Rentals & Stock Manager

Milivoj Poletan

Master Tailor

Dawnette Dryer

Cutter/Draper

Sophie Thom

First Hand

Melanie Lamb

Costume Specialist

Isaac Green

Rentals Assistant

Liz Wiand

Rentals Assistant

Amy Fernelius

Connie Warner

Stitchers

SYMPHONY ARTISTIC

Anthony Tolokan

Artistic Consultant

Walt Zeschin

Director of Orchestra Personnel

Hannah Thomas-Hollands

Orchestra Personnel Manager

Morgan Moulton

Artistic Planning Manager

Isabella Zini

Artistic Planning Coordinator & Assistant to the Music Director

Matthew Straw

Assistant Conductor

SYMPHONY OPERATIONS

Cassandra Dozet

Senior Director of Operations

Melissa Robison

Front of House Director

Chip Dance

Director of Production

Jen Shark Operations Manager

Sarah Madany

Stage Manager

Christopher Danz

Assistant Stage Manager

DEVELOPMENT

Leslie Peterson

Vice President of Development

Katie Swainston

Individual Giving Manager

Lisa Poppleton

Grants Manager

Dallin Mills

Development Database Manager

Maren Holmes Manager of Special Events

Ellesse Hargreaves

Corporate Engagement Manager

MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Meredith Kimball Laing

Vice President of Marketing & Communications

Adia Thornton

Director of Marketing

Robert Bedont

Marketing Manager

Megs Vincent

Communications Manager

Nina Starling

Website Content Coordinator

PATRON SERVICES

Faith Myers

Director of Patron Engagement

Jaron Hatch

Patron Services Manager

Toby Simmons

Patron Services Assistant Manager

Caitlin Marshall

Sales & Engagement Manager

Genevieve Gannon

Group Sales Associate

Amber Bartlett

Lorraine Fry

Jodie Gressman

Michael Gibson

Sean Leonard

Ian Painter

Ananda Spike

Val Tholen

Rocky Porter

Salem Rogers

Chloe Toyn

Patron Services Associates

ACCOUNTING & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Steve Hogan

Vice President of Finance & CFO

Mike Lund

Director of Information Technologies

Melanie Giles

Controller

Jared Mollenkopf

Patron Information Systems Manager

Bobby Alger

Accounts Payable Specialist

Karine Mnatsakanyan

Payroll Specialist

EDUCATION

Ben Kipp

Director of Education & Community Engagement

Jessica Wiley

Symphony Education Manager

Kevin Nakatani

Opera Education Manager

Beth Foley

Education Coordinator

We would also like to recognize our interns and temporary and contracted staff for their work and dedication to the success of utah symphony | utah opera .

© Adam Elliott

CRESCENDO AND TANNER SOCIETIES

Utah Symphony | Utah Opera offers sincere thanks to our patrons who have included USUO in their financial and estate planning.

For more information, please contact Leslie Peterson at lpeterson@usuo.org or 801-869-9012, or visit usuo.org/ planned-giving.

CRESCENDO SOCIETY OF UTAH OPERA

Anonymous

Mr. & Mrs. William C. Bailey

Judy Brady & Drew W. Browning

Dr. Robert H.† & Marianne Harding Burgoyne

Shelly Coburn

Dr. Richard J.† & Mrs. Barbara N.† Eliason

Anne C. Ewers

Joseph & Pat Gartman

Paul (Hap) & Ann† Green

Annette W. & Joseph Q. Jarvis

Edward R. Ashwood & Candice A. Johnson

Clark D. Jones

Turid V. Lipman

Herbert C. & Wilma Livsey

Richard W. & Frances P. Muir

TANNER SOCIETY OF UTAH SYMPHONY

Beethoven Circle (gifts valued at more than $100,000)

Anonymous (3)

Doyle Arnold & Anne Glarner

Edward R. Ashwood & Candice A. Johnson

Dr. J. Richard Baringer

Haven J. Barlow†

Dr. Melissa J. Bentley

Marcy & Mark Casp

Shelly Coburn

Raymond & Diana Compton

Mahler Circle

Anonymous (3)

Eva-Maria Adolphi

Dr. Robert H.† & Marianne

Harding Burgoyne

Mr. & Mrs. Kenneth E. Coombs

Paul (Hap) & Ann† Green

Robert & Carolee Harmon

Richard G. & Shauna† Horne

Virginia A. Hughes

Turid V. Lipman

Anne C. Ewers

Annette W. & Joseph Q. Jarvis

Flemming & Lana Jensen

James Read Lether

Daniel & Noemi P. Mattis

Anthony & Carol W. Middleton, Jr., M.D.

Robert & Diane Miner

Glenn Prestwich

Marilyn H. Neilson

Carol & Ted Newlin

Patricia A. Richards & William K. Nichols

Mr.† & Mrs. Alvin Richer

Jeffrey W. Shields

G.B. & B.F. Stringfellow

Dr. Ralph & Judith Vander Heide

Edward J. & Marelynn† Zipser

Herbert C. & Wilma Livsey

Dianne May

Jerry & Marcia McClain

Jim & Andrea Naccarato

Stephen H. & Mary Nichols

Mr. & Mrs. Scott Parker

Mr. & Mrs.† Michael A. Pazzi

Richard Q. Perry

Chase† & Grethe Peterson

Glenn H. & Karen F. Peterson

Kenneth A.† & Jeraldine S. Randall

Mr.† & Mrs. Alvin Richer

Patricia A. Richards & William K. Nichols

Sharon & David† Richards

Harris H. & Amanda P. Simmons

E. Jeffery & Joyce Smith

G.B. & B.F. Stringfellow

Mr.† & Mrs. M. Walker Wallace

Thomas A. & Sally† Quinn

Dan† & June Ragan

Mr. Grant Schettler

Glenda & Robert† Shrader

Mr. Robert C. Steiner & Dr. Jacquelyn Erbin†

JoLynda Stillman

Joann Svikhart

Edward J. & Marelynn† Zipser

“YOU ARE THE MUSIC WHILE THE MUSIC LASTS.”~T.S. Eliot

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

UTAH SYMPHONY | UTAH OPERA

123 West South Temple Salt Lake City, UT 84101 801-533-5626

EDITOR

Megs Vincent

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