OPERA MESE MARIANO Music by Umberto Giordano Libretto by Salvatore di Giacomo LE VILLI Music by Giacomo Puccini Libretto by Ferdinando Fontana Sung in Italian with English supertitles First Performances Mese Mariano: March 17, 1910; Teatro Massimo, Palermo, Italy Le Villi: May 31, 1884; Teatro dal Verme, Milan, Italy College of Charleston Sottile Theatre May 25, 27, 29, and 31; June 2, 4, and 7 at 7:00pm SPONSORED BY BMW MANUFACTURING CO. Conductor Maurizio Barbacini Director Stefano Vizioli Set Designer Neil Patel Costume Designer Roberta Guidi di Bagno Lighting Designer Matt Frey Choreographer Pierluigi Vanelli CAST (in order of vocal appearance) MESE MARIANO Superiora Linda Roark-Strummer Suor Pazienza Ann McMahon Quintero Carmela Jennifer Rowley Suor Cristina Yanzelmalee Rivera Suor Celeste Allison Faulkner* Suor Maria Nicole Fragala* La Contessa Shari Perman* Suor Agnese Anne Marie Stanley* Don Fabiano Justin Su’esu’e* Supernumeraries Kathleen Lushman*, Allison Miller* Children’s Chorus Julian Ford, Olivia Gould, Adelaide Harper, Jillian Hethcox, Emma Joyce, Simone Kavarana, Natasha Kavarana, Alexandra Key, Maggie McKay, Meagan Mims, McKenna Simmons, Davis Varnado, Dorothy Yaun *Members of the Westminster Choir LE VILLI Guglielmo Levi Hernandez Anna Jennifer Rowley Roberto Dinyar Vania Fairies Caroline Abbott, Maggie Bailey, Ashley Padgett, Alexis Temkin, Jennifer Altman, Kristen Burgsteiner, Stephanie Bussell, Renee Mattson, Ann Davis Moore, Starla Wood Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra Westminster Choir Assistant Conductor Sergei Pavlov Assistant Director Pierluigi Vanelli Vocal Coach Diane Richardson Musical Preparation Bénédicte Jourdois Choral Preparation Joe Miller Children’s Choral Preparation Amanda Castellone Production Stage Manager Becca Eddins Dancefx Charleston Jenny Broe Supertitles Chadwick Creative Arts Costume Construction Sartoria Farani di Roma 29 OPERA MESE MARIANO | LE VILLI ANN MCMAHON QUINTERO’S (mezzo- JENNIFER ROWLEY (soprano, Carmela, soprano, Sour Pazienza, Mese Mariano) Mese Mariana and Anna, Le Villi), winner 2012–13 season includes the roles of Mary of the 2012 Richard Tucker Career Grant, in Der fliegende Holländer with Boston burst onto the international scene as a Lyric Opera; Mistress Quickly in Verdi’s last-minute replacement in the title role Falstaff with Virginia Opera; Amneris in Aida of Donizetti’s Maria di Rohan at the 2010 with Annapolis Opera; and Messiah with Caramoor International Music Festival. She Boston Baroque. Career highlights include followed with successes at the Norwegian Azucena in Il trovatore with Opéra Royal de National Opera as Musetta in La bohème Wallonie; Old Lady in Candide with Portland Opera; Hippolyta (released on DVD), and at the Savonlinna Opera Festival as Donna in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Boston Lyric Opera; Verdi’s Anna. Other recent engagements include her Carnegie Hall debut; Requiem with Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; La Haine in Gluck’s her New York City Opera debut as Queen Orasia in Telemann’s Armide; Marquise Melibea in Il viaggio a Reims with New Israeli Orpheus; and a return to Savonlinna as Lucifer in Free Will. She Opera; Baba the Turk in The Rake’s Progress with Angers Nantes joined the roster of the Metropolitan Opera this season and will Opéra; Auntie in Peter Grimes, Tisbe in La Cenerentola, and Third make her debut there as Musetta next season. She will also return Lady in Die Zauberflöte with Washington National Opera; Olga to Savonlinna this summer to make her role debut as Violetta in Olsen in Street Scene with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; Isabella La traviata, and she is engaged to perform at Covent Garden in in L’italiana in Algeri with Palm Beach Opera; Glasa in Kátyá future productions. Kabanová with The Santa Fe Opera; the title role in Vivaldi’s Juditha Triumphans with Boston Baroque; and Beethoven’s DINYAR VANIA’S (tenor, Roberto, Le Symphony No. 9 with the Columbus Symphony. Villi) career highlights include Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with Pensacola Opera and YANZELMALEE RIVERA (soprano, Suor Knoxville Opera; Don Jose in Carmen with Cristina, Mese Mariano) is a graduate of the Lyric Opera of Kansas City; Duke in Rigoletto Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico and with Opera Grand Rapids and Knoxville the University of Illinois. She has participated Opera; Rodolfo in La bohème with New York in master classes with Montserrat Caballé, City Opera, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Justino Díaz, Sherill Milnes, and Joan Dayton Opera, Madison Opera, and Knoxville Dornemann. With the University of Illinois Opera; Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore with Sacramento Opera; Opera, she has sung Susanna from Le nozze Alfredo in La traviata with Opera Cleveland; Edgardo in Lucia di di Figaro, Despina from Così fan tutte, Lammermoor with Syracuse Opera; Cavaradossi in Tosca with and Beatriz from Daniel Catán’s La hija de Rappaccini. After her Dallas Opera, Sacramento Opera, and Toledo Opera; and a concert recent debut as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte through the Martina with Boston Landmarks Orchestra. Vania was named Syracuse Arroyo Foundation Young Artist Program in New York City, The Opera’s “Artist of the Year,” won first place in the Giulio Gari New York Times praised her as “a lush-sounding soprano.” During International Vocal Competition, won second prize in the Licia this past season, Rivera was a resident artist of Teatro Nacional Albanese-Puccini Competition, and was a semi-finalist in Placido Sucre in Quito, Ecuador, and in 2012 she sang the soprano solo Domingo’s Operalia. In 2013–14 he makes his debut with Virginia in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the National Symphony Opera as Don Jose in Carmen. Orchestra of Ecuador. MUSIC STAFF LINDA ROARK-STRUMMER (soprano, Superiora, Mese Mariano) has sung roles BÉNÉDICTE JOURDOIS (musical that include Abigaille in Nabucco and preparation) is a graduate of the Lindemann Lucrezia in I due Foscari with the Teatro alla Young Artist Development Program at the Scala; the title role in Tosca with the Arena Metropolitan Opera and is currently on di Verona; Odabella in Attila and Lina in faculty at the Curtis Institute of Music and Stiffelio with the Teatro La Fenice; Leonora the Manhattan School of Music. An active in Il trovatore with the Vienna State Opera; festival musician, Jourdois has been working Minnie in La fanciulla del West and Herodias at the Chautauqua Institution Summer in Salome with New York City Opera; Lady Macbeth in Macbeth program since 2008 and at the Castleton with the Teatro Massimo Bellini in Catania, the Teatro Municipal Festival and Spoleto Festival USA since 2011. Jourdois has in Santiago, and L’Opéra de Montréal; the title role in Giovanna performed both as a soloist and collaborative pianist in numerous d’Arco in Verona; the title role in Turandot with Portland Opera; venues in Europe and in the United States, including Alice Tully the title roles inTosca and Jenůfa with Opernhaus Zürich; and the Hall and Carnegie Hall in New York, and has worked in such major Mother Abbess in The Sound of Music with Tulsa Opera. Roark- North American opera houses as the Pittsburgh Opera and the Strummer has also appeared in concert with The Philadelphia Houston Grand Opera. Born in Paris, Jourdois holds degrees Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Orchestre Métropolitain, the Nashville from the Conservatoire National de Region de Saint-Maur, the Symphony, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the National Conservatoire National Superieur de Musique de Lyon, Mannes Symphony Orchestra. College, and The Juilliard School. 32 OPERA MESE MARIANO | LE VILLI of Chicago; Madama Butterfly at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Suor ROBERTA GUIDI DI BAGNO (costume Angelica and Cavalleria rusticana at the Opera Theatre of Saint designer) has a worldwide reputation as a Louis; Rigoletto at Parma’s Verdi Festival;Simon Boccanegra at The set and costume designer. She has worked Santa Fe Opera; Vivaldi’s Montezuma at the São Carlos National for many major opera houses and ballet Theatre in Lisbon; Samson et Dalila at the St. Galler Festpiele; companies around the world, including Rigoletto at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing; Teatro alla Scala, Teatro di San Carlo, Teatro Il barbiere di Siviglia at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse; Acis and dell’Opera di Roma, Spoleto Festival USA, Galatea at the Macao International Music Festival; andI Lombardi Royal Albert Hall, Lyric Opera of Chicago, alla prima crociata at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. Among his Pacific Northwest Ballet, San Francisco many activities dedicated to social work, Vizioli has directed Ballet, Joffrey Ballet, Tulsa Ballet, Houston Ballet, Deutsche Oper Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors in the Pagliarelli prison. Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Chorégies d’Orange, Opéra de Nice, Royal Danish Ballet, Shanghai Ballet, Hong Kong Ballet, Sydney MATT FREY (lighting designer), designer for Spoleto Festival Entertainment Centre, and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. In 1997, USA’s 2012 production of Feng Yi Ting, has designed lights for Guidi di Bagno was awarded the Leonide Massine Prize for ballet theater, opera, multimedia performances, and dance. Recent for her artistic achievement. Other credits include Don Pasquale, work includes The Rite of Spring with Ridge Theater and The conducted by Riccardo Muti; Otello; L’incoronazione di Poppea; Philadelphia Orchestra; Appropriate, directed by Gary Griffin, and Parsifal; La belle Hélène; Nabucco; John Cranko’s Eugene Onegin Gnit, directed by Les Waters, with Actors Theatre of Louisville; starring