Directed by: Fenlon Lamb Music by: Giacomo Puccini Libretto by: Luigi Illica & Giuseppe Giacosa Original Production April 2022 - New Orleans Opera DESIGNERS Steven Kemp - Set Designer Danielle Domingue Sumi - Costume Designer Don Darnutzer - Lighting Designer Danyale Cook - Hair & Make-up Designer ORIGINAL CAST Joseph Colanieri - Conductor Vanessa Isiguen - Mimi Yongzhao Yu - Rudolfo Zachary Nelson - Marcello Kearstin Piper Brown - Musetta Christian Zaremba - Colline Spencer Reichman - Schaunard Director's Note About 25 years ago, I sang one of the milkmaids in La Bohème for a summer festival in Washington D.C.  I had very little connection to or experience with this masterpiece and from my limited vantage point I couldn’t understand the allure of the most popular, most performed opera in the world. It was a means to an end, one of my first gigs, some summer pocket change for a jaded college student. As far as I could tell it was the usual bill of fare: boy meets girl, large crowd scene with fun and hijinks ensues, followed by sickness and a quarrel with the inevitable death of the soprano soon after. Why was everyone so enamored with this seemingly run-of-the-mill, Italian opera? In actuality, when La Bohème premiered in 1896 at the Teatro Regio in Turin, the critics’ response was quite underwhelming. Next to the weightiness of Wagner’s mythological and epic operas, this pedestrian subject matter and Puccini’s orchestration choices came off as fluffy and unimportant. “Just as La Bohème does not leave much impression in the mind of the listeners, it will not leave much impression on the history of our lyric theater,” opined the critic Carlo Bersezio. Others agreed and one critic went as far as to beg Puccini to return to “the great and difficult battles of art.” It wasn’t until several weeks after the premiere that the entire audience in Palermo refused to leave the theater and demanded a repeat of the last scene in its entirety. Here, finally, was the key to appreciating this achingly beautiful and poignant love story with its soaring melodies and commonplace subjects. The genius lay in the intimacy and the human connections and relations played out in the opera; the audience could see their own struggles and triumphs. Puccini’s publisher, G. Ricordi, whole-heartedly believed in the success of La Bohème and swore that if the opera hadn’t succeeded “in hitting the nail squarely on the head, I will change my profession and sell salami.”  After my initial doubts about the opera so many years ago, I won’t go so far as to change my career now in atonement but I absolutely have to join Ricordi’s sentiments and swear my allegiance to this sublime piece of theater. What better subject for an opera than all the small things that make up a life? The chance meeting of two neighbors, a Christmas Eve celebration with friends, the arguments and frustrations expressed between two sets of lovers and the sacrifice and support given to a dying friend…all of these simple but powerful moments supported by Puccini’s amazingly direct music get right to the heart of the human experience. Henri Murger provided the source material for this exquisite tragedy in his serialized vignettes Scènes de la vie de bohème and described Bohemia as a district in the department of the Seine bordered on the North by hope, work and gaiety, on the South by necessity and courage, on the West and East by slander and the hospital; an apt description of the artist’s way of thinking and a wonderful entrée into this opera. As a fly on the wall, we have an intimate glimpse into the trials and tribulations of these young Bohemians who understand that braving cold and hunger is nothing compared to the spoils of a life following their passions and that hope and love are the very foundations of a life well-lived. MEDIA

Created by: Audrey Babcock Music by: Kurt Weill Book by: Audrey Babcock Original Production Manhattan 2005 - The Duplex Additional Production dates 2008 - DiCapo Opera 2021 - Marble City Opera Creative Team (Marble City) James Marvel - Director Ray Fellman - Music Director S. Katy Tucker - Projection Design David Majzlin - Sound Design Vita Tzykun - Set and Costume Consultant Tlaloc Lopez Waterman - Lighting Design Cory Weaver - Photography Ruth Mitchell - Wig and Make-up Consultant ORIGINAL CAST Audrey Babcock - Lily Weiss Ray Fellman - Joe Director's Note This one woman tour de force with piano follows the fictional queer, Jewish, cabaret singer Lily Weiss as she claws her way through the Nazi infested cabarets of Berlin, to the brothels of Paris, and finally as a stow away on a ship bound for America. MEDIA

The San Francisco Opera rolled into Los Gatos over the weekend to give residents a taste of “La Bohème.” The scaled-down production included singers, sets, costumes and the rest, but there were a few things missing — like tickets, seats, walls and a roof overhead. This was populist opera alfresco, designed to make Puccini’s beloved masterpiece easily available — both physically and conceptually — to new audiences. On Sunday, March 26, under balmy blue skies, it seemed to be working as intended. An estimated 600 attendees sprawled on the grass in the town square, with the public library as a benign backdrop, to watch Rodolfo, Mimì and the other impoverished Bohemian artists fall in love, quarrel, make up and die. The response was enthusiastic. “I had never seen the opera before, so I really appreciated the way they made it more accessible,” said Los Gatos resident Kylie Clark. “I also liked the way they put some English in — and it’s so impressive the way they can do that with their voices!” “Bohème Out of the Box,” part of the company’s centennial season , was conceived as a way to bring opera out of the War Memorial Opera House and into far-flung communities of the greater Bay Area. The box in the title is a single, easily portable staging area, open to the audience like a schoolchild’s shoebox diorama. In director Jose Maria Condemi’s nimble staging, the action moves from inside the box to both the top and the ground level in front, conjuring the crowded tenements in which the Bohemians make their lives. Those run-down apartments are Parisian in the original. But in this version, compressed to just over an hour and sung in a mix of English and Italian, the action has been deftly whisked away into a semblance of the contemporary Bay Area. The composer Schaunard now plays in a punk band, and the philosopher Colline hosts a podcast about politics and culture. “It’s tough being an artist in this city,” one of the characters proclaims. “Everything is so expensive, and work is hard to find.” . . . – San Francisco Chronicle Read full article.

March 23, 2023 | Canvas Rebel We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Phil Rice a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below. Phil, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken. I never imagined I would leave my hometown of Detroit, but the dream of becoming an actor was too strong to ignore. So, at the beginning of 2018, even though I only had a few hundred dollars to my name, I took the biggest risk of my life and made the move to Hollywood. The first few months were tough. Most of the jobs I applied for didn’t allow me the flexibility I needed to accommodate an actor’s schedule, so I took on different odd jobs to make ends meet. I lived in a small house with three roommates who were all aspiring artists themselves. Over time, I grew exhausted from working long hours and dealing with their antics, but I knew that I couldn’t give up. It didn’t take long to realize that the competition in “The City of Dreams” was fierce. I was constantly rejected and felt like I was letting my friends and family down. I wondered if I had made a mistake leaving my life in Detroit behind. But, I kept pushing forward, determined to succeed. . . Continue reading...

Award-winning opera singer Christian Mark Gibbs made his Broadway debut on March 9 at Lincoln Center Theater, after performing in more than a dozen productions in cities that included New York and Washington, and most recently in Finland. In a March 6 post on Facebook, the vocalist said, “I make my Broadway debut in Camelot on Broadway. This cast is phenomenal and I really can’t wait to share what we have been working on at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre at Lincoln Center Theater. I’m so excited, I am so happy.” The Guyanese-heritage singer with an astounding operatic range, will perform in the highly anticipated revival of Lerner and Loewe’s “Camelot” with a stellar cast set to come together in the production on opening night, April 13. Gibbs is a former featured artist at Carnegie Hall – Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage, where he performed in productions such as Cuba Gooding Sr. at “Wu-Tang – an American Saga.” He was also principal artist at Washington National Opera, among many others. The Aspen Music Festival and School, and Colorado State University graduate, is expected to once again wow patrons. According to the playbill, Gibbs will join the cast led by Tony winner Andrew Burnap, Tony nominee Phillipa Soo, and LCT returnee Jordan Donica, as ensemble, and will understudy one of the lead roles, Lancelot du Lac. This version of Lancelot is a new take on the classic King Arthur tale with a new book written by Academy and Emmy Award-winning writer, Aaron Sorkin, based on the original Aklan Lerner. The original orchestrations will be played by a 30-piece orchestra led by Kimberly Grigsby. Tony winner Bartlett Sher will direct alongside Byron Easley as choreographer, according to the playbill. – Caribbean Life

"Ars Lyrica, Houston's preeminent early music ensemble, under the sparkling direction of Matthew Dirst, has staged an utterly magnificent production of George Frideric Handel's first international smash hit: his baroque opera seria Agrippina (1709). This opera rarity is the company's first fully staged work, and it's wildly successful. With this peerless production, Ars Lyrica pays Handel the greatest homage. The show has style, wit, glorious singing, elegant design." - Houston Press

If you’re already enamored of mezzo-soprano Audrey Babcock as Aldonza in the Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre’s production of Man of La Mancha and in the title role of the opera Carmen , you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. In Beyond Carmen – Ms. Babcock’s pas de deux with classical guitarist Andrés Vadin – she delivered a sultry, beguiling, seductive vocal performance at the Ellen Eccles Theatre on July 26. Ms. Babcock’s singing was simply fabulous. Although Georges Bizet’s Carmen was a Gypsy, recent scholarship has suggested that Prosper Mérimée derived his inspiration for the original femme fatale from a Separadim , a Hispanic Jew. The majority of Separadim were expelled from Spain in the late 15th Century¸ but those few that remained acquired an exotic reputation in the minds of the Spanish. Ms. Babcock chooses to interpret her Carmen as Sephardic, so she performed Beyond Carmen singing in French and Ladino, a Judeo-Spanish dialect. The result, she said, was a night of songs and music that Carmen and her fellow smugglers might have sung around a campfire – bewitching songs that expressed what it means to be fiercely female and free. Ms. Babcock delivered stunning vocals as she explored Ladino folk songs and lullaby’s, all leading up to the Bizet’s familiar “Habanera,” followed by a taste of flamenco as an encore. It was a spellbinding experience, to which the modest crowd at the Ellen Eccles Theatre responded with an enthusiastic standing ovation. Ms. Babcock’s partner in Beyond Carmen – the incomparable guitarist Andrés Vadin — is a native of Cuba and a graduate from the Guillermo Tomas and Amadeo Roldan Conservatory of Music. He developed a passion for jazz, rock, flamenco and classical music at a young age, moving with total ease from each of those genres to another. They have performed Beyond Carmen together numerous times in multiple venues. Following her performance, Ms. Babcock graciously thanked the theater’s production crew (lighting designer Jordyn Cozart; sound designer Tyler Berg; tech director Brent Innes; prop master Alex Graham; and stage managers Quinn Morgan and Amanda Johnson) and UFOMT founding director Michael Ballam. Ms. Babcock has performed the role of Carmen more than 100 times, cementing her reputation as the fiercest of femme fatales in opera circles. – Cache Valley Daily Read full article.

Catalina Cuervo She is currently the leading role in the opera Frida with the Michigan Opera Theater Company of the Detroit Opera House in Detroit, United States. She is a singer, Arabic dancer and model, and is recognized worldwide for performing in the most productions of the Piazzola work, “María de Buenos Aires”, including with the companies Florida Grand Opera, Cincinnati Opera and Syracuse Opera. She represented Colombia in the international “Neue Stimmen” competition in Germany and was a finalist . She also won the Chicago Division for the “Classical Singer Magazine” Competition and was a finalist in New York for the same contest. – Colombia.co

"Stephanie Havey’s stage direction accompanied by Emma Antenen’s set design, and Erik Teague’s costume design simultaneously unified the production. Havey’s staging truly captured the intimacy of the text. In the program notes, Havey credits historian Tony Butler’s concept of “memoryscapes” and the creation of “living map,” which is depicted in her stage direction. The execution of this concept with the visuals allowed for an intermingling of Hannah’s memories, thoughts, and reflections to be easily understood and performed. Havey’s directorial choices were accentuated by the set design and costuming which meshed together through color and textures. The stage and props being completely white amplified the soft colors worn by the performers, and left no room for distractions from Hannah’s story. . . There was nothing in this production that did not leave me in awe. Every part of it was well-prepared, thoughtful, and deeply touching." – OperaWire " As One is directed by Stephanie Havey, who makes the most of every minute. . . The set is pretty bare save for a bicycle, chest and some boxes. Havey makes potent use of light boxes and lanterns that symbolize Hannah’s memories. The use of projections, courtesy of projections co-designers Nicholas Hussong and Nicholas Chimienti, also works." – ArtsAtl

"There are five performances remaining of Washington National Opera’s season-closing production of Carmen . Only one, however, is worth your time: Rehanna Thelwell will sing the title role once more, on May 27, and she is, in her role debut, a stupendous Carmen. WNO’s Cafritz Young Artist Program, which frequently offers some of its singers a chance to perform leading roles in a performance or two of each of their productions, as was the case on Sunday, is not known for minting stars. Yet Thelwell is one of the singular talents to emerge from it in the past six years. Her top-flight voice is distinctive and rangy, the center lithe, silky, and clear, and her chest voice voluptuous and authoritative. She’s a gutsy, energetic actress and her take on Carmen favors high-spirited immediacy rather than aloof fatedness. With a bit more time. . . she has the makings of a superior Carmen." – Parterre Box

“…Matthew Pearce, blends strength with sensitivity as an equally solid and especially stylish Don José. . . his voice lends itself well to French repertoire and the ease with which he colored his singing, including some beautiful voix mixte , gave his brusque Don José a believable air of desperation.” – Parterre Box

The Washington Post : In ‘Unknown,’ a composer and a poet offer new perspectives on war and 100 years of soldiers with names lost to time "What does war sound like? It depends upon your proximity to it. It can sound like the chaos and carnage of the battlefield. It can sound like the rhythmic roar of protest. It can sound like the austere brass of ceremony or the deafening silence left by those we’ve lost, the space we save for memory. “Unknown,” a new song cycle from composer Shawn Okpebholo and poet Marcus Amaker, attempts to examine war from every angle at once. And in succeeding, it offers a new mode of memorial and a reimagined take on what makes a piece of music patriotic..." Read full article.