PRESENTS Table of Contents Welcome................................................................................................................. 3 Staff and Board of Directors..........................................................................6 About Pittsburgh Festival Opera.................................................................7 Cornetti’s Candid Concert and After-Party | July 10................................8 Marianne: Unstaged | July 11, 18, and 25.................................................10 Pit Crew: Singer-Free Sundays | July 12, 19, and 26..............................13 Leitmotif: Walking through Wagner | July 16..........................................17 I, Too, Sing | July 17...........................................................................................18 Composer Spotlight: Mark Adamo | July 23.............................................20 Putting it Together: Online Young Artists Program | July 24..........21 2020 OYAP Faculty........................................................................................... 26 Rusalka: A Mermaid’s Tale | July 25............................................................27 Contributions, Gifts, and Institutional Support................................. 29 Welcome from the President We need 20-20 vision to view the events of 2020. Much of what we took for granted, including the highest ever level of our economy and the lowest ever level of unemployment, suggested a bright future for the performing arts. We at Pittsburgh Festival Opera were especially optimistic, having attracted the internationally known mezzo-soprano, Marianne Cornetti, as our Artistic Director. Marianne and our staff saw performing arts companies around the world canceling their seasons due to the pandemic. There was no way that, with the restrictions placed upon social gatherings, the remarkable schedule of events comprising our 2020 season could take place as planned. Our Artistic Director, staff, and teaching faculty reimagined the season’s program by postponing our main stage operas to next season and reworking the 14 elements which comprise this program into an online format. We welcome our audiences, new and old, to the odd world of 2020. Our Board of Directors and I hope that you enjoy the wonderful world of opera as it exists in this new format. Eugene N. Myers, M.D., FRCS Edin (Hon) President, Pittsburgh Festival Opera 3 From the Artistic Director Hi dear friends! When life gives you lemons, make Limoncello! We are living through a pandemic. We have embraced it, we are challenged by it, but we won’t give in to it. I am so happy to announce to you the debut of UNSTAGED, our online festival. From July 10-26, you will find 12 wonderful events that have been programmed to broadcast on our original festival dates before COVID-19. There is something for everyone: Cornetti’s Candid Concert & Live Afterparty with Anna Singer; 3 orchestra showcases; Rusalka: A Mermaid's Tale; I, Too, Sing presented by Candace Burgess; Leitmotif, Walking through Wagner; conversations with artists, a Composer Spotlight with Mark Adamo; our Young Artists and our voice faculty for our newly renamed Hans and Leslie Fleischner Online Young Artists Program, and our fun Finale with Anna Singer and Rob Frankenberry sending our virtual online festival to a close. I hope you will enjoy UNSTAGED, our online festival - pandemic style! Marianne Cornetti Artistic Director 4 From the Executive Director 2020. In a few years, we will look back on this pivotal year and remember the difficulties and disruptions to our daily lives and the seeds of change that were planted. For those of us who make a living in the opera business, 2020 represents a seismic shift in how we are able to disseminate operatic content, stay relevant to you and our community, and provide opportunities to opera artists across the industry - not to mention being interesting and engaging enough for you to want to click on us and stick with us. What you are about to see in UNSTAGED is work specifically created and designed to be performed for an online audience on a small screen .I'm proud of the staff at Pittsburgh Festival Opera and the artistic leadership of Marianne Cornetti. UNSTAGED represents the hope that we all need that we will once again assemble in the theater to experience the power of the human voice. UNSTAGED represents the resilience of your Pittsburgh Festival Opera Board of Directors, donors, supporters, and staff - the proof that we will not let a pandemic stop us from communicating the beauty that happens when people work together toward a common goal. UNSTAGED is an opportunity for you to get a little closer to the people who make opera a wonderful community - and by joining us today, you help us feel essential. We hope that you will find it in your heart to donate to Pittsburgh Festival Opera during these most challenging times. When we were forced to cancel our 2020 season, all of our ticket revenue evaporated. All of the content you experience in UNSTAGED is completely free, but that means that Pittsburgh Festival Opera receives no earned income for this one- of-a-kind experience. When you tune-in to the Festival Finale 'telethon' on July 26, please help support our return to the stage in 2021 with your financial gift, or you can donate anytime by clicking the donate button on our website. Thank you for watching us and be sure to share this website with all your friends and most of all, please stay safe and healthy as you enjoy our Festival! Christopher Powell 5 Executive Director Administrative Staff Christopher M. Powell Executive Director Marianne Cornetti Artistic Director Roxy MtJoy Director of Institutional Advancement Rob Frankenberry Hans and Leslie Fleischner Young Artists Program, Director Seamus Ricci Director of Education Lindsay Lehman Artistic Administrator B Crittenden Company Operations Assistant Iain Crammond UNSTAGED Video Editor Board of Directors Dr. Eugene N. Myers, President Joseph Bielecki, Vice-President Clement George, Treasurer Gail Novak Mosites, Secretary Mildred Miller Posvar, Founder Sharon Alvarez * Dr. Roxana Barad * John C. Barber, MD. Dr. Margaretha Casselbrant * Demareus N. Cooper J. Douglas Florey * William Guy * Carole Kamin * Michael Knaub Dr. Etsuro K. Motoyama * Lana Neumeyer Lieutenant Commander, Dr. John Pastin * Juddson Poeske Marina Posvar * Janice Rosenberg * Elizabeth Russell Dr. James Sahovey * Phyllis J. Sidwell * Carolyn Smith Peggy Smyrnes-Williams * Maria Spacagna * Roseanne Wholey 6 About Pittsburgh Festival Opera Pittsburgh Festival Opera presents innovative opera by producing American works, reinterpreting older works, and new works for the widest possible audience. The company focuses on diversity in programming and casting, crossing boundaries and bringing together talents from all the arts, encouraging new talent, and broadening audiences through outreach and education, to create a body of work that is original, entertaining, contemporary, and relevant. Pittsburgh Festival Opera brings the power of world-class performances to humanize, energize and re- define opera as an experience that is up-close and personal, approachable, and relevant to today’s audiences. We break boundaries in the arts, bringing together audiences and artists of all backgrounds to engage in experiences that inspire and enthrall. The company was founded in 1978 by Mildred Miller Posvar and Helen Knox. In its over 40-year history, Pittsburgh Festival Opera has presented more than 50 Pittsburgh premieres and 28 world premieres. Mildred Miller 7 Cornetti's Candid Concert July 10 Marianne Cornetti, Mezzo-Soprano Walter Morales, Piano I t ' s a G r a n d N i g h t f o r S i n g i n g R o g e r s a n d H a m m e r s t e i n ' s S t a t e F a i r S t r i d e l a V a m p a G i u s e p p e V e r d i ' s I l T r o v a t o r e M e m o r y A n d r e w L l o y d W e b b e r ' s C a t s I G o t R h y t h m G e o r g e G e r s h w i n A c e r b a v o l u t t à F r a n c e s c o C i l e a ' s A d r i a n a L e c o u v r e u r C a n ' t H e l p L o v i n ' T h a t M a n o f M i n e K e r n a n d H a m m e r s t e i n ' s S h o w b o a t I C o u l d H a v e D a n c e d A l l N i g h t L e r n e r a n d L o w e ' s M y F a i r L a d y C l i m b E v e r y M o u n t a i n R o g e r a n d H a m m e r s t e i n ' s T h e S o u n d o f M u s i c 8 Cornetti's Candid Concert and After-Party Walter Morales and Anna Singer and the PFO Team Walter Morales Salazar, a native of Costa Rica, is the Music Director of the Edgewood Symphony Orchestra. His previous positions include Music Director of Undercroft Opera, Carnegie Mellon University Contemporary Ensemble, Head of Music of Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Assistant Director of Orchestral Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, Assistant Conductor of the Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic and Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Philharmonic. He is the First Prize winner of the 2015 American Prize in Conducting. In 2016, he became the first candidate to receive four American Prize nominations in Conducting in the divisions of Professional Orchestra, Professional Opera, University Opera and Community Orchestra. He has been a guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, Heredia Symphony Orchestra, Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra, Butler County Symphony Orchestra, McKeesport Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Youth Chamber Orchestra, Pittsburgh Festival Opera, Pittsburgh Youth Chamber Orchestra, University of Costa Rica Symphony Orchestra, University of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and Rutgers Chamber Orchestra.