Don Giovanni

DON GIOVANNI LYRIC THEATRE @ ILLINOIS Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart | Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte Filippo Ciabatti, conductor | Nathan Gunn, director and featured artist Thursday-Saturday, February 22-24, 2018, at 7:30pm Sunday, February 25, 2018, at 3pm Tryon Festival Theatre THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

This production of Don Giovanni has been sponsored in part by the following generous gifts:

THE ESTATE OF PHYLLIS CLINE

MICHAEL AND SUSAN HANEY THE ACT OF GIVING OF ACT THE A. MARK NEUMAN IN HONOR OF SERGEANT SHAWNA M. MORRISON (1978-2004), THE FIRST FEMALE STUDENT FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN TO FALL IN COMBAT SERVICE IN THE UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES

2 WELCOME

We are delighted to welcome you to the 2017-18 February brings Mozart’s Don Giovanni to the Lyric Theatre @ Illinois season! We are showcasing Tryon Festival Theatre, directed and sung by a wide range of sung theatre this year, from Nathan Gunn in his directorial debut! classical masterpieces to children’s stories to edgy March, two workshops of new operas, written by off-Broadway titles to absurdist political satire. women for women, in cooperation with American September brought us [title of show], a co- Opera Projects and the Prototype Festival. production with Allerton Park, Jeff Bowen and And finally, She Loves Me, Harnick and Bock’s Hunter Bell’s hilarious and moving exploration of charming musical about a pair of perfume shop the lives of young creative minds in today’s New clerks—is the tension between them secretly love? York City. In November, Hansel and Gretel by the Now in our fourth year, Lyric Theatre continues Brothers Grimm, with a breathtakingly beautiful to grow rapidly. At clinics and masterclasses score by Engelbert Humperdinck. Gingerbread around North America, Europe, and Asia we houses, dew fairies, witches, and angels ushered are being recognized as leaders in the 21st- in the holidays for every age. century development of performers, pedagogy, In December, we explored Russia and the production, and new works. We’re excited to Revolution of 1917 with Tschaikovsky, Borodin, share our community here at Krannert Center for and Prokofiev scenes surrounding the workshop the Performing Arts with the world. of Black Square, a new opera by a creative team Yours, that has recently been at the center of artistic and Julie and Nathan Gunn political events at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow. DIRECTORS, LYRIC THEATRE @ ILLINOIS

3 PROGRAM DON GIOVANNI LYRIC THEATRE @ ILLINOIS Music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte Filippo Ciabatti, conductor Nathan Gunn, director and featured artist

Thursday-Saturday, February 22-24, 2018, at 7:30pm Sunday, February 25, 2018, at 3pm Tryon Festival Theatre

ACT I

20-minute intermission

ACT II

This production includes gun shots, smoke, haze, strobe effects, and mature content.

Lyric Theatre @ Illinois is produced by the University of Illinois School of Music (Jeffrey Magee, director).

4 DON GIOVANNI CONDUCTOR MEDIA DESIGNER Filippo Ciabatti Anja Hose DIRECTOR PROPERTIES MASTER Nathan Gunn Kyra Lyon CHORUS MASTER/ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR HAIR/MAKEUP COORDINATOR Fernando Malvar-Ruiz Samantha C. Jones CONTINUO MUSIC ADMINISTRATOR Alex Munger Michael Tilley ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR COACHING STAFF/ACCOMPANISTS Sarah Wigley Jaime Cohen Jeeson Eun FIGHT CHOREOGRAPHER Alphonsus Kiu Zev Steinberg Cadis Ying-Jie Lee SCENIC DESIGNER Alex Munger José Manuel Díaz-Soto STAGE MANAGER COSTUME DESIGNER Cathy Fazio Nicole Zausmer TECHNICAL DIRECTOR LIGHTING DESIGNER Dylan Kind Eric Van Tassell ASSISTANT DIRECTOR/SUPERTITLES SOUND DESIGNER Nole F. Jones Matt Powell

5 CAST DON GIOVANNI CHORUS Nathan Gunn^ Corey James Barlow Euigun Lee# Colleen Bruton Kevin Lucas (Cover) Grant Stephen Pierce Ebert Elizabeth Gartman DONNA ANNA Olivia Candace Gronenthal † Anna Kristine Phillips Caitlin Elizabeth Hennessy Yunji Shim* Scott Christian Knier DONNA ELVIRA Nic Koch Gabrielle LaBare* Wes Litten Kimberly Ann Ouellette† Jessica Rose Ragsdale Jessica Rose Ragsdale (Cover) Geoffrey Schmelzer Maggie Wolfe LEPORELLO Jonathan Michael Cortez† PARTY MUSICIANS Dean Perry Moore, II* Terence Lo Grant Stephen Pierce Ebert (Cover) Kayla Schoeny Alyssa Tong ZERLINA Laura Schachner† ^February 22, 23, 24 Loucine Brigitte Topouzian* *February 22, 24 Maggie Wolfe (Cover) †February 23, 25 #February 25 MASETTO Kevin Lucas† Xiaoyi Zha*

DON OTTAVIO Ryan Bryce Johnson* Andrew Turner† Corey James Barlow (Cover)

COMMENDATORE Philip Phillips

DONNA ELVIRA’S WOMAN Caitlin Elizabeth Hennessy

6 ORCHESTRA VIOLIN OBOE Connie Bao Matthew Harms Noah Larson Erin Mathewson Gaeun Kim Edyta Krejner CLARINET Claudia Kubarycz-Hoszowska Dasom Nam Daniel Ostrow Jacey Schick Lina Saleh BASSOON Trevor Thompson Alex Brake Alyssa Tong Megan Braunschweig Hannah Woo FRENCH HORN VIOLA Molly Frederick Natalie Briggs Clark Stevens Elsie Han Jacqueline Scavetta TRUMPET Nicole Gillotti CELLO Saori Kataoka Nikita Annenkov Masha Begacheva TROMBONE Terence Lo Walter Cook Kayla Schoeny Matt Granger Nick Wurl BASS James Jaeger TIMPANI Justin Slater Sebastian Nassar Guilherme Ehrat Zils KEYBOARD FLUTE Jamie Cohen Zach Osinski Cadis Lee Sammy White

7 SYNOPSIS ACT ONE Capitol has acquired and then pillaged to feed Libertine Capitol Building, Manhattan, NY, Elvira’s sexual jealousy by describing these minutes before the close of trading ”belle” as if they were women. Elvira does drugs An office bustling with energy and activity. The to drown her misery. Commendatore attempts to see Don Giovanni about the attempted takeover of his company, The main office Sebastian Shipping. A group of workers from the company arrive to set up for a party. Zerlina has been charged with Leporello stands sentinel outside Giovanni’s getting the party ready for Libertine Capitol. office, complaining about his lot in life and his Masetto’s food truck is catering the event so he desire for power and wealth. Don Giovanni is there working. The staff are goofing around is inside, aggressively taking over Sebastian pretending to be the guests. Masetto and Zerlina Shipping. Donna Anna, his childhood friend and play the guests of honor in a mock wedding. heiress to the family company, is panicking. He Leporello arrives with Giovanni who sets his sight has secretly hacked into her computer and can on Zerlina. see her through her computer camera. Giovanni decides to have an impromptu party The Commendatore has discovered Giovanni’s at his office. Leporello is ordered to distract scheme and bursts in, wishing to fight. Giovanni Masetto. Giovanni and Zerlina are left alone. shoves him out of the door. The Commendatore dies on the stairs. Libertine Capitol lobby Giovanni woos Zerlina, who is intrigued by the Giovanni is under the impression that he killed attention from her employer. Elvira has regained Anna’s father. Leporello considers his master’s consciousness just in time to save the ”miserable takeover of Sebastian Shipping as ”rape” and the innocent” from Giovanni’s clutches. death of the Commendatore ”murder.” Giovanni wants to celebrate after his huge victory Anna asks Ottavio for help in saving her father’s over Sebastian Shipping. Ottavio enters with company. He pledges to spill his own blood in Anna seeking Giovanni’s help. He promises to order to do so. help in every way he can. Elvira enters and attacks Giovanni. He has her escorted out of the building. Leporello upbraids Giovanni for his sins. Giovanni He returns to Anna and Ottavio to apologize and responds angrily, but he is interrupted by the say that he must leave them in order to be sure arrival of his wife, Donna Elvira. The Don tries to Elvira gets home safely. His words gives his true calm Elvira and reassure her that he does love her. nature away: he calls her ”bellissima” (one of his She wants none of it, so he asks Leporello to tell ”belle”). Anna suddenly recognizes him as the her what he has been up to . . . Leporello begins man who attacked her (Sebastian Shipping) and to weave his web of deceit. then killed her father. He realizes that Elvira is vulnerable. He knows Anna retells the story of Giovanni attacking her exactly how he can begin bringing Giovanni down. (the company) as she was helpless and alone in He uses the list of companies that Libertine her office. Her story is meant to raise jealousy Leporello returns with Elvira, sees the light from in Ottavio. She asks him to avenge her and her the corner where Masetto and Zerlina are, and father. He is determined to help her. decides to investigate.

Leporello enters complaining about Giovanni Don Ottavio then enters, having been sent by again. Giovanni sees Leporello and asks him how Donna Anna to avenge her father’s murder. everything is going. Leporello has done all that They all individually want to punish him. Masetto he asked in order to prepare for the party and suggests that all three of them do it. They seize Zerlina has arrived. Finally, things seem to be Leporello, still disguised as Giovanni. going well and a big celebration for his conquest can finally happen. Leporello begs for forgiveness from the four of them and claims that he is also a victim. He Giovanni sings in celebration. escapes to Giovanni’s secret room.

Libertine Capitol lobby Ottavio is convinced that there is no doubt Masetto and Zerlina find themselves early for Giovanni is the killer. He goes to the back of the party. In order to make peace with Masetto, the office to get online to spread the news of Zerlina suggests he beat her. Masetto skulks off Giovanni being a ”rapist and murderer.” Masetto to the protest of Zerlina. The party begins. Anna, does the same on his mobile. Elvira also joins the Ottavio, and Elvira arrive in disguise and join the social media attack. festivities. An imbroglio ensues. Leporello has come out of hiding. He is in ACT TWO Giovanni’s office. We see the breaking news of the Commendatore’s death. His image is everywhere Libertine Capitol lobby/Don Giovanni’s office and inescapable. Rumors swirl about Don Giovanni and Leporello argue. Giovanni smooths Giovanni. Giovanni enters. Seeing that Leporello is over his complaints with money and a proposition terrified, Giovanni has him invited to dinner. to lure Elvira away. Giovanni’s secret room begins to call to him and he feels the desire to sing to the Anna has arrived at Libertine Capitol in search portrait of his mother, who seems very real to him. of Ottavio. Ottavio assures her that Giovanni will soon be punished and they can finally be married Giovanni’s secret room tomorrow. She implores him for time to grieve. Giovanni suddenly hears someone talking. He snaps out of his reverie. Meanwhile, a horrific buffet is taking place. Elvira makes a last attempt to save Giovanni. Giovanni’s office/Libertine Capitol lobby The Commendatore is first seen flickering in Masetto enters with a gang of men bound on and out of all the screens. Everything else starts finding Giovanni and killing him for his ”insult” to dim. He is draining the life out of Libertine to Zerlina’s virtue. Disguised as Leporello, Don Capitol. There are also flashes of the rumor and Giovanni decides to tell Masetto how to find slander which have been written against Giovanni Giovanni and asks to help. When his men depart, on social media and other outlets occurring in Giovanni reveals his identity and punishes Masetto. different places on the set. They slowly grow in intensity. Giovanni is consumed by the world he Zerlina discovers the wounded Masetto and helped to create. offers a natural remedy. —Michael Tilley, music administrator 9 PROGRAM NOTES “Hell is full of amateur musicians. Music is the above the shoddy factory-produced mannequins brandy of the damned.” George Bernard Shaw who figure as mere ciphers in her eyes . . . ” To Hoffmann, and others, Giovanni had become the Who is Don Giovanni? Since this dramma giocoso archetype of the Romantic artist, a creative being premiered on October 29, 1787, at the National freed from any external laws, beholden only to his Bohemian Theater in Prague, every generation own self-determining will. has struggled to answer this question. It seems an intentional enigma. His first words in the opera In the short story in question, Hoffmann’s are “you will never know who I am!” The very unnamed traveler awakens in his hotel room first audience probably thought the character at a chime of bells and clamor of orchestra. a thin disguise for one in their midst: Giacomo He learns that his hotel room adjoins a secret Casanova, the world’s greatest lover. He was later passageway to the visitor’s box at a theatre asked whether he had seen the opera. “Seen it? where Don Giovanni is being performed. During I practically lived it!” (Recent discoveries indicate the interval, Donna Anna appears in his box and that Casanova may even have had a hand in converses with him, in fact revealing herself as his writing the libretto.) muse: “I have sung you; and, what comes to the same thing, your melodies are me.” The traveler As with his first collaboration with Lorenzo understands the opera through the lens of love, da Ponte, Le Nozze di Figaro, Mozart found “by whose mysterious and powerful agency the audiences in Prague far more appreciative of his fundamental constituents of his being are at once genius than those in Vienna. Emperor Joseph II annihilated and transfigured.” declared the opera “divine, perhaps even more beautiful than ‘Figaro,’ but it will try the teeth This quintessentially romantic reading casts Anna as of my Viennese.” Upon hearing of the remark, Giovanni’s opposite, an “archetype of the divinely the composer supposedly replied, “Well, give feminine.” Giovanni’s “visit” had overwhelmed them time to chew it!” The tepid Viennese her with an “infernal incandescence that rendered response even prompted several rewrites and vain her every effort to resist . . .” Her act two aria substitutions on the part of the composer. aria, “Non mi dir,” inspires the narrator’s fervent Perhaps Beethoven himself encapsulated the prayer: “Unbosom thyself to me, o spiritual realm: nature of the response with his pronouncement: thou remote, uncharted Jinistan of unexampled “Art should never let itself be detoured by the splendor, pervaded by an inexpressible, heavenly extravagance of such a scandalous subject.” sorrow akin to the ineffable joy of the enraptured soul that transcends all such promises of earthly 40 years later, the Don was reimagined by iconic happiness as are vouchsafed to the rabble!” No Romantic novelist E.T.A. Hoffmann—the “A” is great fan of the rabble, Hoffmann . . . . for Amadeus, chosen by the author to replace his given name, the more prosaic “Wilhelm.” “Nature It seems that the 19th century might have been endowed the Don, her spoiled favorite child, with as obsessively fascinated as our own with the every quality that can exalt humanity, in its closest journey of the anti-hero, although I will leave it approach to the divine, above the vulgar rabble, to the reader to determine whether Giovanni or 10 Walter White deserves a colder place in hell. The Twice thus far in our survey undoubtedly next philosopher to grapple with the meaning of intelligent, sensitive men have confronted the this “joking drama” was Denmark’s second-most dissolute libertine, the sexual predator. Yet instead famous melancholic, Søren Kierkegaard. (The of reviling this devil, they exalt him as a hero. How original melancholy Dane was also linked with the are we to possibly make sense of this as modern opera by Gustave Flaubert who declared Don viewers? Is it simply that they were so enmeshed Giovanni, Hamlet, and the sea, “the three finest in a patriarchal structure that they were blinded to things God ever made.”) the monstrosity of Don Giovanni’s character?

Kierkegaard published his first book, the essay For one thing, Kierkegaard (and Hoffmann too) collection Either/Or, under the pseudonym Victor insist that our first task is not to look, but to Eremita—Latin for “victorious hermit.” In fact, listen, for Don Giovanni is absolutely musical. Eremita is one of four personae employed in the “He desires sensuously; he seduces with demonic book, acting as editor to papers he discovers. The power of the sensuous; he seduces all. Words, lines, first half Either)( comprises the papers of a young are not suitable for him, for then he immediately aesthete, known only as “A,” who, like his idol becomes a reflective individual. He does not have Giovanni, embodies the aesthetic outlook. “A” that kind of continuance at all but hurries on in an has studied not only Don Giovanni, but also The eternal vanishing, just like the music, which is over Marriage of Figaro and The Magic Flute to prove as soon as the sound has stopped and comes his idea that “music is a higher, or more spiritual into existence again only when it sounds once art, than language.” again.” Further, Giovanni is a musical chameleon, adopting the style of each of his victims. Before the publication of Either/Or, Kierkegaard wrote in his journal: “In a sense I can say of Kierkegaard expands on his premise: “The very Don Juan what Donna Elvira says to him: ‘Thou secret of this opera is that its hero is also the murderer of my happiness.’ For in truth: this play force in the other characters. Don Giovanni’s has so diabolically enraptured me that I can never life is the life principle in them. His passion forget it. It is this play that has driven me, like sets in motion the passion of the others. His Elvira, out of the calm night of the cloister.” In passion resonates everywhere; it resonates in the book’s second essay, “The Musical Erotic,” and supports the Commendatore’s earnestness, music is said to perfectly embody the sensuous- Elvira’s wrath, Anna’s hate, Ottavio’s pomposity, erotic because of its essential immediacy. This Zerlina’s anxiety, Masetto’s indignation, Leporello’s immediacy mirrors the inability of the aesthete, confusion . . . . The other figures in the opera Don Giovanni, to forego the passing pleasure of are not characters, either, but essential passions, the present. Giovanni represents the final stage of which are posited by Don Giovanni and to that the erotic (the first two represented by Cherubino extent, in turn, become musical. In other words, and Papageno), where desire is absolutely just as Don Giovanni entwines everybody, so all of genuine, victorious, triumphant, irresistible, and them entwine Don Giovanni; they are the external demonic. This desire also inevitably leads to consequences that his life continually posits.” despair, an existential angst that prompts the search for the ethical life (the “Or” of the book’s title).

11 Next they warn against becoming too fixated Don Giovanni was the most influential opera on mere moral indignation. Again, Kierkegaard in Shaw’s musical education. Self-taught, he warns: “Therefore, to say that the opera is started his studies not with finger exercises, immoral is fatuous and comes only from people but the opera’s overture, so he would “at least who do not understand how to interpret a totality know where the notes were right or wrong.” He but are trapped by details. The definitive aim also used the anti-hero of the “world’s greatest of the opera is highly moral, and the impression opera” in at least three of his literary productions. it leaves is altogether beneficent, because First, in the novel The Unsocial Socialist, then in everything is large scale, everything has genuine, a short story “Don Giovanni Explains,” in which unadorned pathos, the passion of desire no less the Don appears to explain how he has been than the passion of earnestness, the passion of wronged by history to a young girl on her way enjoyment no less than the passion of anger.” home from a third-rate production of the opera.

We begin to see that Giovanni, though childless, Finally, Shaw gave the Don a full resurrection has numerous progeny. While nearly every into the modern age. In Man and Superman: A theatre-goer is familiar with the plays of George Comedy and a Philosophy, Giovanni appears Bernard Shaw, his music criticism is less well transformed into John Tanner—an anglicization known. Yet Shaw considered this writing one of the original, Juan Tenorio—and cast as a of his most important activities. William Irvine revolutionary. In fact, most of the opera’s cast reports that “Shaw was by no means content to reappear: Anna, the Commendatore, Leporello, tell composers how to compose, musicians how Ottavio. As the title might suggest, the play is to play, stage managers how to produce, and concerned with creative evolution, and takes audiences how to feel. He also told financiers Nietzsche’s concept of the Superman (or overman of music how to venture and manage, and the technically) for its topic. In true Nietzschean government how to legislate with reference to fashion, the characters are inversions of their musical problems. In his critical pages the English, originals—Octavius is now a man of action and a placid and political people, discovered with the most sympathetic character. Anna is in love amazement that music was a burning political with, and pursuing marriage with, Tanner. issue, and might at any moment explode into social revolution.” Shaw credited Mozart with In a third act dream, subtitled “Don Juan In Hell,” teaching him dramatic structure, and wrote to Tanner is transformed into Giovanni, who has an American actress that “. . . if you don’t know a long philosophical argument with the devil. Mozart, you will never understand my technique.” As mouthpiece for Shaw, Don Juan “rejects a Darwinistic approach of natural selection in favour

12 of a biological and intellectual evolution in which “Hear Don Juan, that is to say, if you cannot get a a creative Life-Force ultimately leads mankind conception of him by hearing him, then you never by trial and error to the goal of a God-like will. Hear the beginning of his life, as the lightning Superman who will solve the world’s social and flashes forth from the murk of the thunderclouds, political problems.” When the Devil tells Ann the so he bursts forth from the depths of earnestness, superman has not yet been created, she cries that swifter than the lightning’s flash, more inconstant she believes in the Life to come, and runs off in and yet as constant; hear how he rushes down search of “A father—a father for the Superman.” into the manifold of life, how he dashes himself Tanner and Ann eventually marry, but he explains: against its solid dam; hear those light dancing “This is not happiness but the price for which the tones of the violin, hear the signal of gladness, strong sell their happiness. What we have done hear the exultation of lust, hear the festive this afternoon is to renounce happiness, renounce happiness of enjoyment; hear his wild flight, he freedom, renounce tranquility, above all, renounce is transported beyond himself, ever swifter, ever the romantic possibilities of an unknown future, for more impetuously; hear the unbridled demands the cares of a household and a family.” of passion, hear the sighing of love, hear the whisper of temptation, hear the whirlpool of So who is Don Giovanni? We have asked three seduction, hear the stillness of the moment, hear, great thinkers and received three responses. hear, hear Mozart’s Don Juan!” Perhaps it is up to us to answer for ourselves. But let us ask Kierkegaard for one more clue:

13 DIRECTOR’S NOTE The legend of Don Juan is a story that everyone at sometime or another has heard. He is a seducer, a misogynist, a murderer, a villain . . . . The story is black and white. He is a bad guy. There is no debate necessary and his punishment should be swift and terrible.

Mozart and Da Ponte took it upon themselves to tell this story in their operatic masterpiece, Don Giovanni. It was first premiered almost 230 years ago, yet remains relevant in today’s world. Because so many ideas about the character of Don Juan and what led him to his downfall have been voiced over the years, I decided to let Mozart and Da Ponte tell the story in a modern setting that can relate to today’s audience. Don is a powerful man, a man outside the law, a corporate raider who uses his money and charisma to get what he wants. Nothing comes between him and his insatiable desires.

This, obviously, is unsustainable and will come to an ugly end, but (as is often staged in this opera) is it truly the Statue of the Commendatore that comes to life and drags him to hell, or is something else happening behind the scenes and within what’s left of his soul that leads to a spiraling descent into a hell of his own making? The words and the music tell us a story that peels away the obvious and has us ask ourselves a timeless question: do the ends justify the means?

Tonight, it is up to all of you to answer that question.

—Nathan Gunn, director

14 PROFILES Corey James Barlow (Chorus/ Jonathan Michael Cortez Don Ottavio Cover) is a (Leporello) is a junior in vocal freshman studying lyric theatre performance here at the at the University of Illinois. His University of Illinois. He is a most recent roles include baritone studying under Aaron in Love, Sex, Death, and Jerold Siena. Jonathan serves Cake and Jamie Wellerstein in as the Publicity Manager for The Last Five Years. During his the Varsity Men’s Glee Club, high school career he and Treasurer of Crescendo— appeared in Months on End (Ben), Peter and The an organization in support of underrepresented Starcatcher (Alf), Sabrina Fair (David), Anything students in the School of Music. Don Giovanni is Goes (Sailor), Joseph and the Amazing Jonathan’s first opera performance. Technicolor Dreamcoat (Joseph), Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Topher), Sweeney Grant Stephen Pierce Ebert Todd (Company), and Evita (Che). (Chorus/Leporello Cover) has a Bachelor of Science in music Colleen Bruton (Chorus) is a education and vocal junior studying Lyric Theatre at performance, and is currently the University of Illinois. She pursuing a master’s degree in studies under Sarah Wigley, vocal performance and and previously studied under literature at the University of Yvonne Gonzales Redman. Illinois. His undergraduate Highlights of her previous roles include the husband in Amelia Goes to the stage credits include Joseph Ball, Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni, Cinderella’s and the Amazing Technicolor Prince in Into the Woods, and Henry Pimpernel Dreamcoat; The Light in the Piazza; Kiss Me, Kate; from Christopher Sly at Manchester University. Titanic: The Musical; and Spamalot. She was recently awarded First Place at the Chicago NATS Musical Theatre competition. Colleen is also a member of the University of Illinois Chamber Singers.

15 Elizabeth Gartman (Chorus) is Nathan Gunn (Don Giovanni/ a junior studying vocal Director/Co-Director for Lyric performance and music Theatre @ Illinois) has made a composition/theory here at reputation as one of the most the University of Illinois. She exciting and in-demand was most recently featured in baritones of the day. Nathan the Lyric Theatre @ Illinois has sung around the world in production of Poppea nearly every major venue and (Valletto) and in Viva Verdi!. with every major conductor. Outside of Lyric Theatre @ Illinois, Elizabeth is an His repertoire includes opera, operetta, musical active participant in the University of Illinois theatre, recital, and oratorio. He is a recipient of Women’s Glee Club, an assistant to the Illini the Rose D’Or award, the Beverly Sills award, two Women, and a member and composer for the U Grammys for best opera recording, and was a of I Group for New Music. Additionally, she Metropolitan National Council winner. He is teaches voice lessons and tutors music theory and featured on numerous recordings and DVDs and serves on the Student Advisory Board for the is an alumnus of the University of Illinois where he School of Music. is currently a professor of voice and the Co- Director for Lyric Theatre @ Illinois. Olivia Candace Gronenthal (Chorus) is a junior studying Caitlin Elizabeth Hennessy vocal performance with Dawn (Chorus/Elvira’s Woman) is a Harris. Most recently, she sophomore studying vocal appeared as Hansel in Lyric performance under the Theatre @ Illinois’ production direction of Jerold Siena. She of Hansel and Gretel. In the most recently performed in 2016-2017 season, she the Lyric Theatre @ Illinois appeared in Lyric Theatre @ productions of The Light in the Illinois’ productions of The Light in the Piazza as Piazza and Hansel and Franca Naccarelli cover/Flower Seller/Tour Guide/ Gretel. Caitlin is also a member of the University Prostitute, Poppea as Amore Primo, and The Women’s Glee Club. Third Lady and Third Spirit in Die Zauberflöte with The Toronto Summer Opera Workshop. She has Ryan Bryce Johnson (Don also been a young artist in Greensboro Light Ottavio), tenor, is a native of Opera and Song’s Young Artist Program and Muleshoe, Texas, and is made her opera debut with La Nuova Aurora in currently pursuing a master’s their production of Purcell’s King Arthur. degree in vocal performance and literature at the University of Illinois, where he is studying with Jerold Siena. Ryan also holds a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from Texas Tech University and has sung multiple operatic and musical

16 theatre roles with Texas Tech Opera Theater. In performed internationally in reputable venues the spring of 2016, he made his debut as Basilio in such as the Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro, later appearing in the Town Hall in Sydney, Australia. He participated in roles of Piangi in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) Phantom of the Opera and Sam in Carlisle Floyd’s competitions and was selected for the statewide Susannah in the 2016/2017 season. In the summer honors groups his junior and senior years (Honors of 2016, Ryan performed the role of Frederic in All-State Orchestra and Honors All-State Vocal Lubbock Moonlight Musical’s production of Jazz). With minimal operatic experience (only Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. On previously appearing as part of the children’s the concert stage, his performance highlights ensemble in Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème), Nic’s include soloist for Handel’s Messiah with the stage credits are mainly musical theatre Lubbock Symphony Orchestra in 2015 and for characters including King Arthur in Spamalot, Phil Claudio Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine: Davis in White Christmas; Schroeder in You’re a Gloria Patri with the Texas Tech University Choir in Good Man, Charlie Brown; the ”All Good Gifts” 2016. Ryan was also the junior winner for the soloist in Godspell; and a myriad of ensemble Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico National roles in Oliver!, Bye Bye Birdie, Oklahoma!, Les Association of Teachers of Singing competition Misérables, and more. for 2015. Gabrielle LaBare (Donna Scott Christian Knier (Chorus) Elvira) is a first-year master’s is a sophomore studying music student at the University of composition. He previously Illinois under the tutelage of appeared with Lyric Theatre @ Yvonne Redman. Gabrielle’s Illinois as Hunter in [title of previous performances include show]. Other credits include the Mother in Little Red’s Most John Hinckley Jr. in Assassins Unusual Day, Terentia in with PM&L Theatre, and a Captain Lovelock, and the Chorus member in Kurt Weill’s Sandman/Dew Fairy in Hansel and Gretel. She has Street Scene. performed as a soloist with the Nazareth College Symphony Orchestra and Nazareth College Wind Nic Koch (Chorus), a student Symphony. During the past two years, she held an of Professor Dawn Harris, is internship and assistantship at the Rochester Lyric making his Lyric Theatre debut Opera and Lyric Theatre. Gabrielle received her at the University of Illinois. BM in vocal performance from Nazareth College Currently pursuing lyric of Rochester. theatre and French in his freshman year, Nic can be found both on stage and in the orchestra (recently playing winds in the Illinois Student Musical’s production of Pippin). During his high school career, he

17 Euigun Lee (Don Giovanni), the Saw in Threepenny Opera. For scenework, high-baritone, is a versatile Kevin appeared as Rocco in Fidelio and Faninal in artist who won critical acclaim Der Rosenkavalier. Kevin also performed scenes for his performances in opera at the Castleton Festival as Guglielmo in Così fan and concerts. He performed Tutte, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, and Frederik the title role in Mozart’s Le in A Little Night Music. Additionally, he has Nozze di Figaro in 2001, appeared in ensembles for Così fan Tutte, Romeo Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi in et Juliette, Lakmé, and Candide. Presently, Kevin 2012, Cavalli’s La Calistoin is a candidate for a Master of Music degree in 2012, and Verdi’s Falstaff in 2013. In 2013 he was vocal performance and literature studying with honored with the Stotler Fellowship at the U of I, Jerold Siena; he expects to complete his won the East Bay Opera Lyric Scholarship coursework in May of 2019. competition, and was selected as a Finalist of Dean Perry Moore, II New York Lyric Opera in 2015. Currently, he (Leporello) is a second-year studies with Nathan Gunn in the DMA program graduate student at the for voice and choral conducting at the University University of Illinois, and a of Illinois. Euigun currently holds a PGD, San graduate of Bowling Green Francisco Conservatory of Music; MM, San State University (BGSU) with a Francisco Conservatory of Music School; and BM, bachelor’s degree in music Catholic University of Music. (specialization in voice Wes Litten (Chorus) is a performance, Cum Laude with sophomore at the University Honors). He was raised in Oak Park, Michigan, by of Illinois studying vocal his mother, Robyn Diane Moore, and late father, performance. He has studied Dean Perry Moore. He joined the Cherubic Choir music and Italian in Italy and when he was three years old and continues to has performed in several sing at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church to this operas including Gianni day. He began with theatre at his high school Schicchi, La Bohème, and alma mater, University of Detroit Jesuit High Lucia di Lamermoor. School. Dean believes that ”Music is an escape to a new reality. Through music, the problems of the Kevin Lucas (Masetto/Don world can melt away.” Dean has always Giovanni Cover) is a lyric participated in as many ensembles as he is able. baritone originally from Wall He has been a part of the Cherubic and God’s Township, New Jersey. Kevin Gifted Host Choirs at Hartford Memorial Baptist completed his Bachelor of Church; the Cub Choir and Show Choir at U of D Music in voice performance at Jesuit High School; and the Men’s Chorus, A Rutgers University. While Cappella Choir, and Collegiate Chorale at BGSU. there, he appeared in roles Dean was also a member of the First United such as second commissioner Methodist Church Choir and participated with the in Dialogues des Carmélites, Le Chat in L’enfant et Toledo Opera Company during his time at BGSU. les sortilèges, The Usher in Trial by Jury, and Bob Currently he is a bass section leader at Wesley

18 United Methodist Church. Dean has also been Anna Kristine Phillips (Donna involved in opera theatre since his time at BGSU, Anna) is a lyric soprano from where he appeared in The Merry Widow by Franz Knoxville, Tennessee. She Lehár, Pirates of Penzance by Sir Arthur Sullivan, completed her undergraduate Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian Carlo education with a bachelor’s Menotti, Dialogues of the Carmelites by Francis degree in vocal performance Poulenc, Signor Deluso by Thomas Pasatieri, from Middle Tennessee State Porgy and Bess by George Gershwin, and University, where she received Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni. Notable the award for Outstanding roles include Pritschitsch in The Merry Widow, Achievement in Voice for the 2016 school year. Anna Balthazaar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Kristine Phillips is now pursuing a master’s degree in Gorgibus/Town Magistrate in Signor Deluso, and vocal performance at the University of Illinois. Roy Johnson/Priest from Light in the Piazza. Kristine competed as a Semifinalist in the National Orpheus Competition of 2016. She has performed Kimberly Ann Ouellette the role of Laurie from Aaron Copeland's The (Donna Elvira), soprano, is a Tender Land, as well as Second Lady from Wolfgang first-year masters student from Amadeus Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte in the 2015 Portland, Maine. Some of her season at Opera Breve Young Artist Program. recent operatic roles include Rosalinda in Die Fledermaus, Philip Phillips Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, (Commendatore) is a professor Countess Almaviva in Le nozze of physics at the University of di Figaro, and Mrs. Ford in The Illinois, and made his Merry Wives of Windsor. Kimberly has sung in the performance debut as recently chorus of Opera Maine’s productions of Madama as five years ago when a Butterfly, La Boheme, and Tosca. Kimberly was a colleague asked him to sing in member of the AIMS in Graz opera studio where his band. He began taking she sang highlights from Carlisle Floyd’s vocal lessons, and has studied Susannah, Beethoven’s Fidelio, and Verdi’s La for the past three years with Cynthia Coleman. He forza del destino. She was recently a Bel Canto sang in the summer opera program Le Château fellow at the Texas Music Festival in Houston, de la Voix in 2015 in the role of Chato. His Texas. Kimberly has been a concert soloist with repertoire encompasses Blitch from Susanna, the Southern Maine Symphony Orchestra, Lieder, and the roles of Zarastro and Figaro. Oratorio Chorale (Portland, Maine), the Portland Bach Festival, and the University of Southern Maine Chorale. She holds a Bachelor of Music from the University of Southern Maine, and currently studies with Jerold Siena.

19 Jessica Rose Ragsdale Geoffrey Schmelzer (Chorus), (Chorus/Donna Elvira Cover) a native of Skokie, Illinois, is a completed her Bachelor of freshman studying vocal Arts at Pepperdine University performance at the University where she studied with Ida of Illinois. As a child, he sang Nicolosi. She performed on the in a children’s choir and mainstage as the Second Spirit performed in musical theatre in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. shows each summer. He began While attending Pepperdine, studying guitar at age 10 and she performed with the Chamber and Concert has performed at venues throughout Chicago as choirs as well as the Pepperdine Improv Troupe. a guitarist and vocalist. In high school, he sang in She also participated in Pepperdine’s celebrated choir, participating in ILMEA festivals, as well as in Heidelberg Summer Music Program where she a vocal jazz ensemble, and played guitar in jazz performed opera scenes from Gianni Schicchi, band. Here at the University of Illinois, he is a Idomeneo, and Fidelio, as well as chamber music in member of the Men’s Glee Club and Oratorio Heidelberg, Germany, and Hermagor, Austria. Society. He studies with Jerold Siena. Outside of Pepperdine. Jessica has participated in several training programs and conservatory Yunji Shim (Donna Anna), programs including Youth Theatre Conservatory at soprano, is a doctoral student Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, Wesley Balk in voice performance and Opera/Musical Theatre Institute in Minneapolis, literature at the University of Minnesota, and the NYU Classical Voice Intensive Illinois. She received a in New York. Currently, she is pursuing her master’s master’s degree in music at degree at the University of Illinois, where she was Eastman School of Music in awarded the Stotler Fellowship. She is currently 2013 and a bachelor’s degree studying with Yvonne Gonzales Redman. in music at Seoul National University in South Korea in 2011. Winner of the Laura Schachner (Zerlina) is Krannert Center Debut Artist Award in 2017, Shim pursuing her Master of Music performed the role of Ottavia in Poppea and in vocal literature and appeared as a soloist of Verdi’s Requiem in Viva performance at the University Verdi! at the U of I. In 2013 she performed in Don of Illinois. Born in Milwaukee, Giovanni as Donna Anna in Charlotte, North Wisconsin, she has worked Carolina, at Central Piedmont Community within many musical genres, College. As a soloist in 2011, she performed and gravitates toward new scenes from Faust by Schumann in Kodak Hall at music and working with active Eastman School of Music. She is the winner of the composers. Laura works as a graduate assistant Young Artist Competition of the Artist for Lyric Theatre @ Illinois. Recent roles include Presentation Society in St. Louis and won the Susanna from Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Gilda Second Prize at Southern Illinois Young Artist in Viva Verdi!, and The Dew Fairy in Hansel and Organization vocal competition. She has studied Gretel with Lyric Theatre @ Illinois. Laura is a with Cynthia Haymon-Coleman, Dr. Robert student of Dawn Harris. McIver, Dr. Hyunju Yun, and Soonhee Lee. Loucine Brigitte Topouzian Maggie Wolfe (Chorus/Zerlina (Zerlina) is a junior at the Cover) is a junior pursuing a University of Illinois pursing degree in vocal performance. her Bachelor of Music in vocal She studies with Professor performance under the Yvonne Redman and coaches instruction of Professor Sylvia with Dr. Paul Transue. She is Stone. Loucine spent the last also a member of the two summers in Italy University of Illinois Chamber participating in the Scuola Singers. Maggie made her Italia Opera Program, where she performed as Lyric Theatre @Illinois debut in 2016 as Amore in Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore, Sesto in Giulio Poppea, and has also appeared in King Arthur, Mary Cesare, and Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro. In Poppins, 42nd Street, and The Sound of Music. addition to opera, Loucine performs the National Anthem at U of I sporting events. Loucine is a Xiaoyi Zha (Masetto), a First Place winner of the Indiana NATS Chapter. baritone from China, is currently pursuing his doctoral Andrew Turner (Don Ottavio), degree in vocal performance African American tenor, has and literature under the performed a variety of lead direction of Professor Nathan and supporting roles in Gunn. Xiaoyi received his Washington State including Bachelor of Art in music Camille de Rosillon in The education from the Music Merry Widow and Frederick College of Capital Normal University in Peking, Frankenstein in Young China, and master’s degree from the San Frankenstein. He placed first Francisco Conservatory of Music. Xiaoyi has at the Inland Empire NATS competition for the performed roles such as Melchior in Menotti’s past three years and was a Finalist/Co-Winner of Amahl and the Night Visitors, Frank in Strauss’ Die the 2016 Washington State University Concerto Fledermaus, Sylvano in Cavalli’s La Calisto, and Competition where he performed with the Maestro Spinellocchio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Washington State University’s Symphony His recent credits with Lyric Theatre @ Illinois Orchestra. He received Honorable Mention in the include Somarone in Berlioz’s Beatrice and 2017 Coeur d’Alene Young Artist Competition. Benedict, Chorus in Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love, Andrew will be premiering with the U of I and covered Belcore in The Merry Widow. He has Oratorio Society in their spring performance of also performed Kromow and covered Baron Zeta. Rachmaninoff’s All Night Vigil. Currently he is He also has appeared in scenes from Il Tabarro, La pursuing a master’s degree in vocal performance Bohème, and Don Giovanni. Xiaoyi was the First and literature at the U of I, where he is studying Prize winner of the Shandong Province Young with professor Jerold Siena. Singers’ Vocal Competition and a Semifinalist in the 2014 New York Lyric Opera Theatre Vocal Competition. Xiaoyi has previously studied and coached with Leroy Kromm and Timothy Bach.

21 Filippo Ciabatti (Conductor/ Julie Jordan Gunn (Co- Music Director), a native of Director for Lyric Theatre @ Florence, Italy, was appointed Illinois) is a pianist, educator, music director of the and music director. She has Dartmouth Symphony performed on many of North Orchestra in 2016, after an America’s most prestigious international search. Also in recital series, including the 2016, Filippo conducted Tosca Aspen Festival, Boston’s at Opera North (New Celebrity Series, the Carnegie Hampshire), directed by Russell Treyz; and Hall Pure Voice Series, the Cincinnati Chamber Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Lyric Music Society, the Cliburn Foundation, the Dallas Theatre @ Illinois, directed by Christopher Gillett. Opera, the Krannert Center for the Performing In May 2015, he made his South American debut Arts, Lincoln Center Great Performers, conducting the Universidad Central Symphony Manhattan’s Café Carlyle, the Metropolitan Orchestra in Bogota, Colombia, where he also Opera Summerstage, Notre Dame’s DeBartolo taught masterclasses in orchestra and Italian Center, the Ravinia Festival, St. Paul’s Schubert opera. With La Nuova Aurora Opera, he Club, San Francisco Performances, the Sydney conducted full productions of Handel’s Rodrigo Opera House, Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, (2015) and Purcell’s King Arthur (2016). From 2017 University of Chicago Presents, Washington’s to 2018, Filippo has been invited to conduct Vocal Arts Society, the 92nd Street Y, and the Madama Butterfly at Opera North (New United States Supreme Court. She has been Hampshire), and Hansel and Gretel and Don heard in recital with William Burden, Richard Giovanni (directed by Nathan Gunn) for Lyric Croft, Elizabeth Futral, Isabel Leonard, Stefan Theatre @ Illinois. Filippo has appeared as guest Milenkovich, Kelli O’Hara, Mandy Patinkin, Yvonne conductor with many orchestras, including the Gonzales Redman, Michelle De Young, the Lamont Symphony Orchestra, Sangamon Valley Pacifica and Jupiter Quartets, and her husband Symphony Orchestra, East Central Illinois Youth and artistic partner, Nathan Gunn. Orchestra, University of Illinois Symphony Orchestra, and Truman State Symphony This season, she is giving recitals and cabarets at Orchestra. He also served as choirmaster of the Interlochen Center for the Performing Arts, Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Champaign. As a the DeBartolo Center, Vanderbilt University, pianist and coach in Italy, Filippo worked for the Thomasville, GA, Western Michigan University, Cherubini Conservatory, Maggio Musicale McCallum Theater for the Performing Arts, Wallis Fiorentino, and Florence Opera Academy, and Annenberg Center in Beverly Hills, and Bravo! Vail. performed with singers such as Adriana Marfisi Director of Lyric Theatre Studies at the University and Silvia Bossa. He has played for masterclasses of Illinois, she produces three mainstage operas of Renée Fleming, William Matteuzzi, Donald or musical theatre works a year at Krannert George, and Isabel Leonard. Center for the Performing Arts. A faculty member at the School of Music, she enjoys teaching singers, pianists, chamber musicians

22 and songwriters, and conducting new works and Fernando Malvar- musical theatre. She has given masterclasses at Ruiz (Chorus Master/Assistant universities and young artists’ programs all over Conductor) served from 2004 the United States, including the Aspen Festival, the to July 2017 as the Music Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, Houston Grand Director of American Boychoir, Opera Studio, Interlochen Center for the Arts, serving boys in grades four the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Opera Theatre through eight, whose St. Louis, Ryan Young Artists’ Program, Santa Fe preeminent Concert Choir Opera, and Ravinia’s Steans Institute. She enjoyed tours globally to tremendous tenures as artist-in-residence at Cincinnati Opera critical acclaim. His 13-year tenure was and the Glimmerglass Festival. She is the founder highlighted by some 200 performances and up to of the Illinois School of Music Academy, a program five national and international tours annually, as for talented pre-college chamber musicians and well as appearances with the New York composers. Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Dr. Gunn enjoys working at the intersection Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal of different disciplines and collaborates with Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony artists in the fields of theatre, dance, and design Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, St. whenever possible. She has served as a coach or Olaf Choir, Westminster Choir, and New York conductor at Chicago Opera Theater, Highlands Choral Artists, among many others. He has Opera Studio, the Metropolitan Opera Young worked on the world’s leading stages with such Artist Program, Opera North, Opera Theater conductors as Marin Alsop, Pierre Boulez, Charles St. Louis, Southern Methodist University, Dutoit, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Mstislav Theaterworks!, and Wolf Trap Opera. She is Rostropovich, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Valery committed to new works and in recent seasons Gergiev; musicians ranging from cellist Yo-Yo Ma has been part of several world premieres, as a to trumpeter Wynton Marsalis; pop artists such as co-producer, a pianist, or as a conductor: Twilight Beyoncé Knowles, Sir Paul McCartney, and Josh Butterfly (Thomas), Dooryard Bloom (Higdon), Groban; and opera singers Kathleeen Battle and Polly Peachum (Scheer/Van Horn), Variations on a Jessye Norman. Under Malvar-Ruiz, the American Summer’s Day (Meltzer), Letters from Quebec to Boychoir (based in Princeton, New Jersey) also Providence in the Rain (Gill), and Bhutto (Fairouz). appeared on the 77th annual Academy Awards She works with Beth Morrison Projects and and performed for the 9/11 Memorial Service American Opera Projects to produce workshops broadcast live globally on CNN in 2006. He also and academic premieres of new operas. conducted the choir on six recordings and served A member of ASCAP, she is the author of many as the music director on the 2014 filmBoychoir , arrangements of songs for chamber groups and inspired by the choir, directed by François Girard, orchestras. Her arrangements have been heard and starring Dustin Hoffman, Kathie Bates, and at Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, Deborah Winger, as well as the American DeBartolo Center, Ithaca College, Interlochen, Boychoir. Kennedy Center, Krannert Center, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and in Sun Valley, Idaho.

23 Jaime Cohen (Coaching Staff/Accompanist) is a productions of The Light in the Piazza and second-year master’s student in vocal coaching Beatrice and Benedict. Other credits include and accompanying at the University of Illinois. stage manager of the Krannert Center/Banks She currently studies under Dr. Julie Gunn. She Bridgewater Lewis Fine Arts Academy production received her bachelor’s degrees in music and of Dreamgirls and assistant stage manager of anthropology at Kenyon College. While at the U The Pirates of Penzance and Seussical at the Utah of I, she has served as a rehearsal accompanist Festival of Opera and Musical Theatre. and pianist for Viva Verdi!, The Light in the Piazza, and Hansel and Gretel. In the fall of 2017, she Anja Hose (Media Designer) is a second-year music directed [title of show] for the Allerton MFA student from Boulder, Colorado. Recent Music Barn Festival. media designs at the University of Illinois include Hansel and Gretel; The Light in the Piazza; Viva José Manuel Díaz-Soto (Scenic Designer), a Verdi!; Circulation; November Dance; and Mr. Burns, native from Bayamón, Puerto Rico, holds a BA a post-electric play; as well as assistant media in fine arts from the University of The Sacred designs on February Dance (2016) and Poppea. Heart; credits in Drama from the University of Credits outside the U of I include media design Puerto Rico, and an MFA in scenic design from for Sleep Deprivation Chamber at the Station the University of Illinois. José has been designing Theatre in Urbana and lighting design for original for drama, musical theatre, and television for aerial dance productions of Into the Unknown and 15 years. Recently completed projects include The Bird House at Frequent Flyers Productions in Dangerous Liaisons; Marisol; An Inspector Calls; Colorado. Jeffrey; The House of Bernarda Alba; Our Town; Polaroid Stories; Between You, Me, and the Dylan Kind (Technical Director) is a third-year Lampshade; and RED. Musical theatre and opera Scenic Technology MFA student from San credits include Evita; Into the Woods; Godspell; Antonio, Texas. He received his BFA in theatre The Sound of Music; Les Misérables; Mary technology and design from the University of Poppins; Man of La Mancha; Don Pascquale; A Evansville in Evansville, Indiana. After receiving Midsummer Night’s Dream; Kiss Me, Kate; Sister his BFA, he moved to New York City to begin his Act; and Once on This Island. TV and film credits professional career, mainly serving as a freelance include 23 Hours, Prótesis, Parece que fue ayer, fabricator, welder, and automation board operator. Contraseña, El color de la guayaba, Demasiada During his time in New York, he worked at a variety Tita, and Las combatientes. of theatres including the Public Theater and the Signature Theater and worked on shows such as Cathy Fazio (Stage Manager) is a third-year Fortress of Solitude, Our Lady of Kibeho, and the MFA stage management student. Most recently, Public Theater’s premiere of Hamilton. This past she served as the stage manager of Illinois summer, Dylan served as the technical director Theatre’s production of Travesties. Her University for the Aspen Music Festival and School as part of of Illinois credits include stage manager of the the Aspen Opera Center, working on the season Illinois Theatre production of In the Blood, and productions of La Traviata and La Clemenza di assistant stage manager and company manager Tito. After graduating Dylan plans to pursue a of Long Lost (a new play by Donald Margulies, career in commercial fabrication work. directed by Daniel Sullivan). She was an assistant stage manager of the Lyric Theatre @ Illinois 24 Alphonsus Kiu (Coaching Staff/Accompanist), a Solti Accademia Repetiteur’s Course and had native of Penang, Malaysia, is a third-year DMA masterclasses with the late Jeffrey Tate, Richard student in vocal accompanying and coaching Bonynge, Jonathan Papp, James Vaughan, and at the University of Illinois. He studied with Mark Markham. She was invited to play in Georg Julie Gunn, Dennis Helmrich, and is currently a Solti Accademia Singers’ Course in July 2017. Cadis student of Michael Tilley. While at the U of I, he is currently studying for her DMA in vocal coaching accompanied the Oratorio Society, Opera Scenes and accompanying at the University of Illinois Workshop, and Voice Studios. For the past four under the tutelage of Michael Tilley. summers, he worked as coach/accompanist at the Interlochen Summer High School Vocal Arts Kira Lyon (Properties Master) is a second-year Program where he collaborated with young MFA student studying properties design and talents. While here at the U of I, he received management. She is a native of Hattiesburg, the Nancy Kennedy Wustman Memorial Award Mississippi, and received her BFA in theatre in Vocal Accompanying (2017). While earning performance from the University of Southern his masters degree at Bowling Green State Mississippi. Kira’s work has been previously seen University, he and his partners were awarded at the U of I through her work on Failure: A Love the First and Third Prize in the Conrad Art Song Story and In the Next Room. Before attending Competition (2015). school, Kira worked as a freelance designer in Chicago. Some of her credits include the world Cadis Ying-Jie Lee (Rehearsal Accompanist) premiere of Byhalia, MS with Definition Theatre graduated with a Bachelor of Classical Music Company, New Colony, and Steppenwolf; and with Honors at UCSI University (Kuala Lumpur) Passing Strange with the University of Illinois at under the tutelage of Morag Yong Ker Syn, where Chicago. Her most recent professional position she majored in classical piano performance. An was props master for the 2017 summer season enthusiast of collaborative piano, she extensively with Virginia Heritage Theatre Company. collaborates with vocalists and instrumentalists. In 2014, Cadis took part in the Winter Journey Alex Munger (Coaching Staff/Accompanist) is a Camp held in Hua Hin, Thailand, where she had second-year MM student in vocal coaching and the opportunity to perform in the masterclass of accompanying, studying with Dr. Julie Jordan world-renowned collaborative pianist Graham Gunn. This past year, he was involved in The Light Johnson. Her accompaniment experience in the Piazza and Viva Verdi!. He received his further developed when she accompanied BM in piano performance from the University of in the Bangkok Opera Foundation’s sixth Wisconsin-Eau Claire. ASEAN International Singing Competition in Matt Powell (Sound Design) is a first-year audio 2014. Cadis earned her Master of Music (Piano graduate student. His previous sound designs Accompaniment) under the tutelage of Scott from the University of Nebraska at Kearney Mitchell in Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. In include Rehearsal for Death, Die Fledermaus, August 2016, Cadis was involved in the Research Vintage, Lady from the Sea, The Threepenny and Development Project on Bela Bartok’s Opera, The Movie Game, Two x Tenn, and The Bluebeard’s Castle organized by OperaUpClose. Illusion. He has additionally done audio engineer She had the opportunity to collaborate with work at the University of Illinois for The Other Mark Austin, Laura Bowler, and Flora McIntosh. Shore, All the King's Men, and Assassins. In April 2017, she participated in the Georg 25 Christina Rainwater (Scenic Charge) is a Festival. His orchestrations and arrangements, member of United Scenic Artists Local 829, from solo piano to full symphony to rock opera, and has been a professional Scenic Artist for have been heard across the country and abroad. 16 years. She received a BFA in Theatre from He has also composed music for the stage and a Missouri State University, and an MFA in Scenic feature-length soundtrack. He plays, sings, and Art from University of North Carolina School of writes for the Argentine Tango groups Extasis the Arts. There, she developed the workshop ”A and Orquesta Tipica di Natural Tango. Distress-ing Subject” on distressing techniques for scenery, properties, and costumes. She was the Eric Van Tassell (Lighting Designer) worked Scenic Charge Artist at the Flat Rock Playhouse in in Chicago for nearly a decade with numerous Flat Rock, North Carolina for two years. She has storefront theatre companies, and is a Non-Equity an ongoing working relationship at Goodspeed Jeff Award-Nominated and Broadway World Musicals, where she had the pleasure of working Chicago Award-Nominated Lighting Designer. on the musicals Camelot, Carnival, Carousel, Hello Eric is in his final year as an MFA lighting design Dolly!, and La Cage aux Folles. She also worked for candidate at the University of Illinois. A graduate Feld Entertainment in Palmetto, Florida, including of Hope College, Eric’s artistic home in Chicago Disney’s Princesses on Ice and Disney’s Playhouse was Oracle Theatre where he designed lights for Tour II. This summer she worked for six weeks at numerous productions including The America The Muny, St. Louis, as a journeyman Scenic Artist. Play, The Mother (nominated Broadway World Chicago Award for Best Non-Equity Lighting), and Zev Steinberg (Fight Choreographer) is a visiting The Ghost Sonata (nominated Non-Equity Jeff professor of stage combat, movement, and acting Award for Lighting Design). Additional Chicago at University of Illinois. Zev has choreographed credits include Chalk (Sideshow Theatre), Genesis violence in theatres all over the Midwest and (Definition Theatre),Beautiful Broken (Broken has been recognized 11 times for his artistic Nose Theatre), and They Are Dying Out (Trap Door achievements. Zev is a Certified Teacher and Theatre). University of Illinois design work includes recipient of the Paddy Crean Award with the November Dance (2017); Romeo and Juliet; and Society of American Fight Directors. Zev is also Dontrell, Who Kissed The Sea. This past summer a certified yoga teacher. Zev holds his MFA in he returned to Hope College as the production acting from Michigan State University, after manager for Hope Summer Repertory Theatre. graduating with a BFA from the Department of Theatre at the University of Illinois. Sarah Wigley (Associate Director) is a clinical assistant professor of voice for Lyric Theatre Michael Tilley (Musical Adminstrator) spent six @ Illinois at the University of Illinois, where years as musical director for Franc D’Ambrosio’s she instructs Lyric Theatre Studio and Musical national tours before joining the faculty of Lyric Theatre Repertoire. Wigley holds an MM in voice Theatre @ Illinois. As a conductor, he has led performance from Colorado State University and ensembles from Central City Opera, Opera a BM in voice from the University of Minnesota. Colorado, Emerald City Opera, and Boulder While residing in Minneapolis, Wigley performed Opera. He has been a featured performerwith the professionally with regional companies such as Colorado Symphony Orchestra and other regional the Guthrie Theatre, Skylark Opera, the Mystery orchestras, as well as with the Martha Graham Cafe, Minnesota Centennial Showboat, and Dance Company at the Vail International Dance Minnesota Opera. Sarah’s Denver credits include 26 roles such as Aldonza in Man of La Mancha (Open Stage Theatre), Emma in Jekyll and Hyde (Inspire Creative Theatre), Dolores in The Wild Party (Ignite Theatre), and Miss Scarlett in Clue: The Musical (Candlelight Dinner Playhouse). Sarah Wigley has served as faculty for the Musical Theatre department at the University of Northern Colorado as well as Parlando School for the Arts in Boulder, Colorado, and has had several students appear on Broadway and in national tours and regional theatres across the nation.

Nicole Zausmer (Costume Designer) is a third- year MFA costume design student at the U of I who received her BA from Indiana University (2012). Recent designs include In The Next Room (Illinois Theatre); Failure: A Love Story (Illinois Theatre); Mr. Burns, a post-electric play (Illinois Theatre); Man of La Mancha (Bigfork Summer Playhouse); Boeing-Boeing (Town Hall Arts Center); and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (Oklahoma City Theatre Company).

Lyric Theatre @ Illinois acknowledges with gratitude the cooperation of the voice and accompanying faculties of the University of Illinois School of Music in supporting the talented students in its productions.

27 PRODUCTION STAFF ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS AUDIO ENGINEER Grace Chariya Nora Simonson Autumn J. Mitchell DECK RUNNING CREW ASSISTANT TECHNICAL DIRECTOR Ashton Goodly Mark Quiles Caylei Hallberg Vacketta Herzog ASSISTANT SCENIC DESIGNER Ilana Weiner Eleni Lukaszczyk PROPS RUNNING CREW ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER Tyler Cook Will Sturman Chloe Cosgrove

HAIR AND MAKEUP ASSISTANT COSTUME RUNNING CREW Sharne Van Ryneveld Jade Johnson COSTUME TECHNICIAN Samantha Padillo Jessica Hensley Leojae Payton

ASSISTANT COSTUME TECHNICIAN MAKEUP RUNNING CREW Rae Melnik Charlie Bauer Diba Tannazi ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNER Konrad Ciolkosz LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR Adam Major SCENIC ARTIST Christina Rainwater SOUND BOARD OPERATOR Shelly Liu MASTER ELECTRICIAN Michael Cummings VIDEO OPERATOR Latrel Crawford

FOLLOW SPOT OPERATOR William Burke

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