March 13, 2012 – “An Evening With Cole Porter”* – Opera Underground Series.
Underground 119, 119 S. Congress, Jackson, MS
The fourth event in the Opera Underground series brought to you by Mississippi Opera is “An Evening With Cole Porter”, featuring the dynamic duo, Maryann Kyle and James Martin. This will be another sell out, and a night not to miss! So join us for this unforgettable evening at Underground 119 to hear songs written by Cole Porter from some of the most successful Broadway musicals that continue to delight audiences since the 1920s. Door opens at 6:30 p.m. Show starts at 7:30. Food and beverage available, but not included in ticket price. The Art Gallery upstairs will also be open.

*Please note program change.

2011/2012 Season

You know those signs you get when your cable goes out . . . "Your service has been temporarily interrupted"? Well, this blogspot was temporarily interrupted and will now continue. So, be on the lookout for new postings in the near future. Madama Butterfly was "superb" and a big success. We have had 3 cabaret performances in the new Opera Underground, which were all successes beyond our best expectations. On the horizon are 2 more Opera Underground performances (March 13 James Martin and Maryann Kyle - May 8 Lester Senter) and L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love) arrives by wagon train on April 21 (DO NOT MISS THIS CAUSE IT IS GOING TO BE FUUUNNNNN!

Meet the cast of The Barber of Seville - coming April 9 to Jackson

JORDAN SHANAHAN (Figaro), a recent graduate of the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Jordan Shanahan has already attracted the attention of the Metropolitan Opera, who engaged him for their productions of Satyagraha by Philip Glass, Dr. Atomic by John Adams and Hamlet by Thomas. Other companies who have engaged his services include the Santa Fe Opera and the Netherlands Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Orlando Opera, and Natchez Opera. This spring, he sang Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor for Opera Cleveland and the Green Mountain Opera Festival.
His repertoire includes forty roles that encompass a variety of musical styles, periods and vocal demands, including baroque operas of Cavalli (La Calisto) plus world premieres of important new works (An American Tragedy). Other notable roles in his repertoire include Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Silvio in I Pagliacci, andJoe in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking.
His reputation has been furthered by consistent success in important competitions, including awards of 1st place (or its equivalent) by the Gerda Lissner Foundation, the Loren Zachary Society, the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, the George London Foundation, the Denver Lyric Opera Guild, the Metropolitan Opera National Council, and the Union League of Chicago.

On the concert stage, Mr. Shanahan has enjoyed success in recitals in New York, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Portland Oregon, Seattle, and also in The Netherlands, and France. He has appeared as an orchestral soloist with the Honolulu Symphony, the Orlando Philharmonic, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mr. Shanahan’s recent recordings include two CD’s of the music of Thomas Pasatieri; the title role the one act opera Signor Deluso on the Grammy nominated “Divas of a Certain Age”, and “Songbook” a collection of songs both available from Albany Records. He is also featured in the Netherlands Opera production of Don Carlo available on DVD from Opus Arte.

Mr. Shanahan was born and raised in Hawai’i, where he appeared in several plays and musicals with local companies, and was an accomplished musician. He received a scholarship to the University of Hawai’i and studied trombone and composition. On the advice of his trombone teacher he began studying voice as a way of improving his musical skills during his first year at UH, and was soon invited to join Hawai’i Opera Theatre, initially as a chorister, and later as a member of the Mae Zenke Orvis Opera Studio. In `1998, he matriculated at Temple University in Philadelphia and sang five leading roles there over the next three years.


Soprano AUDREY LUNA (Rosina), whom Opera News says "has power and a blazing coloratura facility that most lyric sopranos can only dream of," is fast emerging as one of the country's brightest young artists. In her triumphant debut last summer in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Musical America said: "Luna made a simply delectable Zerbinetta, and one (miracle of miracles!) absolutely at home both onstage and in the coloratura excesses of the character's display aria."

In the 2010-11 season Ms. Luna makes her debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte and returns to sing Najade in Ariadne auf Naxos. She also sings the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Naples, Venus in Le Grand Macabre with New York Philharmonic, appears as soloist in Messiah with the National Philharmonic, and in Mozart's Mass in C Minor with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra. Other 2010-11 engagements include singing as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Green Umbrella concert series in Unsuk Chin's Cantatrix Sopranica, conducted by Benjamin Shwartz; and as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia, in a joint production with Opera Memphis and Mississippi Opera. In the summer of 2010 she sang Queen of the Night with Santa Fe Opera and Zerbinetta with Tanglewood Music Festival. She sings Madame Mao in Nixon in China with Lyric Opera of Kansas City and Queen of the Night for Spoleto Festival USA in season 2011-12.

Recent seasons include multiple returns to the National Philharmonic as soloist in Brahms' Requiem, Makris' Symphony for Soprano and Strings, and Vivaldi's Gloria; Gilda in Rigoletto with San Antonio Opera; Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel with Syracuse Opera; soloist in Messiah with East Texas Symphony Orchestra; Queen of the Night with Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Ontario and El Paso Opera; Blondchen in The Abduction from the Seraglio with Hawaii Opera Theatre; Cunegonde in Candide with Toledo Opera; as soloist in Carmina Burana with the National Philharmonic, also with the Sioux City Symphony; and as soloist with the Marina del Rey Symphony in an opera gala concert.

Other highlights include Juliette in Roméo et Juliette and Anne in Sondheim's A Little Night Music, both for Hawaii Opera Theatre; Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia with Portland SummerFest; The Controller in Jonathan Dove's Flight, Adina in L'elisir d'amore, Giulietta in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, and Erisbe in Cavalli''s Ormindo, all with Pittsburgh Opera as a resident artist; the Accuser in Bright Sheng's world premiere of Madame Mao as an apprentice artist with Santa Fe Opera; Belinda in Dido and Aeneas and Amor in Orfeo ed Euridice with Bel Canto Northwest Festival; Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and Yum-Yum in The Mikado both with The Pentacle Theater in Portland, Oregon; as soloist in Fauré's Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, and Bach's Magnificat at Saint Peter in Chains Cathedral in Cincinnati; and Bach's Weinachts Oratorium with Cincinnati Baroque Ensemble. She also appeared in recital, making her European debut, at the Bach to Bartók Festival in Imola, Italy.

Audrey Luna is the 2009 winner of the Loren L. Zachary Vocal Competition and received the top prize awarded in the 2009 Renata Tebaldi International Voice Competition. She has also been awarded first place in the Caruso International Voice Competition, and Eleanor Lieber Awards, and has garnered prizes from the George London Foundation, the José Iturbi International Voice Competition, Elardo International Opera Competition, the Liederkranz Foundation, the Licia Albanese - Puccini Foundation, and the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.


MICHAEL GALLUP (Bartolo), a versatile singing actor, has earned praise for more than two decades as a regular guest of a number of opera companies throughout the United States, including the Los Angeles Opera, Dallas Opera, New Jersey State Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Opera Pacific, Portland Opera, Seattle Opera, San Diego Opera, Long Beach Opera, Arizona Opera, Anchorage Opera, Dayton Opera, Orlando Opera and Palm Beach Opera. He has also performed opera at the Hollywood Bowl under Michael Tilson Thomas, Sir Charles Groves and Leonard Slatkin.
Notable roles for Los Angeles Opera (where he has appeared in forty one productions) include Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Faninal in Der Rosenkavalier, the Sacristan in Tosca, Trinity Moses in The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Doctor Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro and The Barber of Seville, Taddeo in L’Italiana in Algieri, Don Alfonso in Cosí fan tutte, Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’amore, Zuniga in Carmen, Czar Nicholas II in Deborah Drattel’s operatic adaptation of Nicholas and Alexandra, and Alcindoro/Benoit in La Bohéme.

Elsewhere he has performed to great acclaim the roles of Leporello for Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Pacific, Dayton Opera and Utah Opera, Dulcamara, Don Magnifico and Doctor Bartolo for Arizona Opera, Dr. Bartolo in The Barber of Seville for Opera Pacific and Duluth Festival Opera, Dulcamara for the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Pooh-Bah in The Mikado for Utah Opera and Hawaii Opera, Mustafà in L’Italiana in Algieri for the Palm Beach Opera, Faninal for Portland Opera, Alcindoro/Benoit for Dallas Opera, Opera Pacific, and Vancouver Opera, Don Alfonso in Cosí fan tutte and Osmin in The Abduction from the Seraglio for the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival. Last season, he sang Bartolo for Opera Pacific and the Sacristan for Phoenix.


DAVID ADAMS (Almaviva) has performed in a variety of settings throughout the United States and Europe. His work in opera has been described in Opera News as ‘light and flexible, yet fiery and expressive’. Specializing in the music of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini, roles to his credit include the title character in Acis and Galatea, and Jupiter in Semele, both by Handel. In the works of Mozart, Mr. Adams has sung Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Tamino in Die Zauberflöte, Belmonte in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Ferrando in Cosí fan tutte, and the title roles in La Clemenza di Tito and Idomeneo. From Rossini’s works, he has been highly sought after in portrayals of Almaviva in The Barber of Seville and Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri. Other Rossini roles include Pirro in Ermione, Argirio in Tancredi, as well as both Rodrigo and Otello in Otello. American companies where Mr. Adams has performed include The Metropolitan Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, The Caramoor Festival (with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s), New York City Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, The Kansas City Symphony, The Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Shreveport Opera, Syracuse Opera, Opera Birmingham, Houston’s Orchestra X, Augusta Opera, Opera Southwest, Civic Opera Theater of Kansas City, and Pittsburgh Opera.

On the concert stage, Mr. Adams has performed many of the major works of Bach, including the Evangelist in the St. Matthew Passion (having also performed numerous concerts singing the tenor solo selections), Tenor soloist in St. John’s Passion, Magnificat, and recently a B Minor Mass. Other oratorio credits include performances as soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Saint Paul, Haydn’s Creation, Beethoven’s Mass in C, Handel’s Messiah, Esther, and Saul, and the Verdi Requiem. Mr. Adams’ variety of concert performance opportunities includes work in Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and various halls throughout the country and in Europe. Mr. Adams may be heard as the Celebrant in Rachmaninov’s Liturgy of Saint John of Crysostum on a critically acclaimed recording of the work by the Kansas City Chorale for Nimbus Records. Recently Mr. Adams’ work with the Kansas City Chorale, in conjunction with the Phoenix Bach Choir, has garnered many accolades, including involvement in a recording project nominated for Best Choral
Album from the Grammy Awards.

In both operatic and concert settings, Mr. Adams is still very active throughout the United States. Recent and upcoming engagements include performances of Purcell’s The Fairy Queen , Conrad Susa’s Transformations in Dallas and Santa Fe, Verdi’s Requiem, recitals in Kansas City, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Teatro Lirico d’Europa, Tenor Soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Tenor Soloist in the Mozart Requiem, Tenor Soloist in the Haydn Lord Nelson Mass and Orff's Carmina Burana in Carnegie Hall, Anthony in Sweeney Todd with Mobile Opera, and a return to Mobile in the title role of Candide in October.


LESTER SENTER (Bertha) has a vocal repertoire extending to over 60 roles and she has appeared with leading opera companies, festivals and symphonies across America and abroad. Among these are Spoleto, Glimmerglass, Des Moines, Dallas, New Orleans, Denver, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Birmingham, Mobile, Memphis, Shreveport, Minneapolis, Guadalajara and Dublin.

During the 2004-2005 season, she was guest soloist with the Mississippi, Shreveport and the University of Southern Mississippi Symphonies. Opera engagements included Mama Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana with Opera Memphis, Zita in the Mississippi Opera production of Gianni Schicchi, and the Mother in Tales of Hoffmann with the New Orleans Opera. She also appeared in a solo Gershwin Review in Charleston, SC. In addition, Miss Senter was a guest artist at Judith Zaimont’s faculty recital (University of Minnesota).

In this same season she produced and starred in a multi-media production of Robinson & Friends to commemorate the Centennial of Mississippi Artist and Writer, Walter Anderson. Robinson & Friends was first produced in Jackson then toured to the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs. From Mississippi, the production went to the Smithsonian Institution, then to the Phillips Collection in Washington, DC before performances at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, TN and the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. This spring, Robinson returned to Mississippi with shows in Natchez and Brookhaven, and a week’s residency in El Dorado, Arkansas.
Miss Senter has recorded 11 CDs including, “The Memory is a Living Thing”, based on the writings of Eudora Welty and has just completed music of the Natchez Trace Collection, from the University of Texas Center for American Studies, for presentation by the Natchez Trace Parkway to celebrate the completion of the final stretch of the Parkway in Jackson and Natchez.

2005-2006 brings opera performances of Katisha in The Mikado with the Mississippi Opera, Buryjovka in Jenufa with the New Orleans Opera, Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance with Inland Opera; recitals of French Love songs – Chansons d’Amour, with Copiah-Lincoln Community Art Series and Songs from the Natchez Trace Collection in Texas and Mississippi; and symphony appearances of the Beethoven 9th with the Shreveport Symphony and the Berlioz Nuit d”Ete with the Meridian Symphony.
Miss Senter has a D.M.A. in piano and voice, the first double major presented by the University of Texas in Austin. In 2001 Miss Senter was the recipient of the Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, presented by the Mississippi Arts Commission. In August 2004 she received The Mississippi Honored Artist Award from the National Museum of Women in the Arts.
Miss Senter is represented by Anthony George Artist Management of New York.


CHRISTOPHER TEMPORELLI (Basilio) has thrilled audiences across the United States and abroad appearing in a wide repertoire of roles in Opera, Concert, as well as in Recital. Praised for his brilliant voice and consummate stagecraft, Toronto's The Globe and Mail declared him "...clearly one to watch...the total package" for his critically acclaimed Canadian main-stage debut.

Christopher has performed main-stage roles with such renowned companies as Glimmerglass Opera, Fort Worth Opera, Lake George Opera, Virginia Opera, Toronto, Canada's Opera Atelier, and Syracuse Opera; joined the roster of New York City Opera; has won merit in such competitions as the Liederkranz and in the world of Music Television was recognized on a live New York broadcast to the 2007 San Remo Festival in Italy - then programmed internationally on the RAI network.
Performances include at Carnegie, Weil Hall as a winner in the Liederkranz Competition, the Concert Hall of the Kennedy Center as soloist with the Washington Chorus, The Hudson Theater, Symphony Space, the Columbus Citizen's Club, the Liederkranz Foundation and the New World Stages. Recent Recital appearances have taken place throughout New York, Florida and the Caribbean.

Upcoming performances include a return to Syracuse Opera, New Chorale Society, debut with Opera Memphis, as well as with the National Art Centre Orchestra of Canada under the direction of Maestro Pinchas Zukerman.
In Europe performances include at the "Haus zur Lieben Hand" in Freiburg, Germany and as a concert pianist in numerous European cities, including in the palaces of the Tsars in St. Petersburg Russia. Christopher is on the roster of Barrett Vantage Artists.



JEREMIAH JOHNSON (Fiorello) is an Artist in Residence with Opera Memphis. He is currently staring in the world premiere of Michael Ching's Midsummer Nights Dream as Oberon and Theseus. Mr. Johnson has recently sung Il Re in Verdi's Aida as well as John Proctor in The Crucible with University of Memphis.

Jeremiah Johnson is a Texas native who most recently was a student at Cincinnati Conservatory of Music. While at CCM Jeremiah sang Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia as well as singing in the midwest permiere of Miss Lonelyhearts. Mr. Johnson has also performed with Indiana University Opera Theater as Belcore in L'elisir d'amore. In previous seasons at Indiana Universtiy Mr Johnson performed Peter in Hansel and Gretel as well as Graf Waldner in Strauss' Arabella. Mr. Johnson received his bachelor’s degree in 2005 from Texas Tech University where his roles included Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Baron Douphol in La Traviata, and Sgt. Quigly in the world premiere of Belinni’s War. For four years, he performed as a Young Artist with Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre. Mr. Johnson was then invited back as a cover for the role of Sharpless in Madama Butterfly.








STEPHEN CAREY (Conductor), a native of York, Pennsylvania, has worked with opera companies such as Pensacola Opera, Jefferson Performing Arts Center, Bel Canto Opera, AIMS in Graz, Austria, Opera in the Ozarks, Ashlawn Highland Opera Festival, Chautauqua Opera, and the Utah Festival Opera. At Opera Memphis, Mr. Carey is Assistant Artistic Director, Director of the Artist-in-Residence program, Chorus Master, and Principle Pianist/Vocal Coach. Mr. Carey has expanded the Education and Outreach program to include 2 touring school shows, a black history program, and a concert series. These programs tour throughout the mid-south region. Mr. Carey has conducted The Face on the Barroom Floor, The Informer, and the All the Good Stuff programs at Opera Memphis, which feature the Opera Memphis Artist-in-Residence ensemble and the Memphis Symphony. Mr. Carey has also conducted performances of The Barber of Seville and Annie with the Ashlawn Highland Opera Festival. This season Mr. Carey will be conducting performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Opera A Capella and The Barber of Seville.










LARRY MARSHALL (Director) debuted as a director with A Faith Journey, a docu-musical on the life of Martin Luther King at Riverside Theatre in 1990. He was recently the Associate Director and performed the role of "Rum" in the Kennedy Center's presentation of Carmen Jones, with Vanessa Williams and Placido Domingo. He has also been the Associate Director for the New York Harlem Theatre's production of Porgy and Bess since 1993, and has staged productions that have played most of the major opera houses in Europe, among which are "La Fenice" in Venice, Teatra del Opera in Rome, Teatro Bellini in Catannia, The Ronacher Theater in Vienna, and Teatra des Westins in Berlin. Mr. Marshall directed The Atlanta Opera's production ofPorgy and Bess in the fall of 2005, and the Memphis Opera in 2006. He directed Verdi's Macbeth for the Memphis Opera in January 2008. In 1999 he co-directed and starred in the 2nd musical review of This Joint Is Jumpin’ at New York's Supper Club, and in 2000 conceived and directed its “Tribute to the 20th Century”. The two shows ran for a total of 5 years at the Supper Club.









Notary, Ed Dacus
Lighting Designer/TD, Bill Kickbush
Sets by Stivanello Costume Co., Inc.
Costumes by Sona Amroyan
Wigs/Make-up, Blake Galtelli
Rehearsal Accompanist/Continuo, Tyson Deaton
Chorus Master, Ed Dacus
Chorus Manager, Merina Dillard
Chorus: Larry Blackman, Neal Buckley, Frank Fillingham, Hosea Griffith, Eric Hambrick, Vic Hartung, Mario Henderson, Jerry Morgan, Chuck Runyan, and Derrick Truss

Susanna Phillips, Soprano

*Recipient of the Beverly Sills Artist Award 2010

*In Concert with Mississippi Opera and The Mississippi Chorus on January 14, 2011

Alabama native Susanna Phillips has attracted special recognition for a voice of striking beauty and sophistication. Recipient of the Metropolitan Opera’s 2010 Beverly Sills Artist Award, she appears at the Met this season as Pamina in Julie Taymor’s celebrated production of The Magic Flute, and as Musetta in La bohème, the role with which she made her debut in 2008. She also portrays Musetta on the Met’s Japan tour in June in a cast that includes Anna Netrebko and Joseph Calleja. This past summer she was a featured artist in the Met’s Summer Recital Series in Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park, and a resident artist at the Marlboro Music Festival.

Susanna Phillips begins her 2010/11 season as Euridice in Minnesota Opera’s Orfeo ed Euridice with David Daniels, under Harry Bicket, before her Metropolitan Opera engagements. Additionally in opera she performs her first staged Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Birmingham, and sings Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Boston Lyric Opera. Concert highlights include the Marilyn Horne Foundation gala at Carnegie Hall, and a solo recital in Chicago.

Last season Susanna Phillips returned to the Met as Pamina with conductor Bernard Labadie. An alumnus of The Juilliard School, she made her New York solo recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall as recipient of the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Debut Recital Award. Following her Baltimore Symphony debut under Marin Alsop, the Baltimore Sun proclaimed, “She’s the real deal.” Susanna Phillips also appeared with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Adina in L'Elisir d'Amore, and with Opera Birmingham as the Countess in Le Nozze di Figaro. In May she garnered rave reviews for her debut at the Fort Worth Opera Festival as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

In the banner year of 2005, Susanna Phillips was the winner of four of the world's leading vocal competitions - Operalia (both First Place and the Audience Prize), the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the MacAllister Awards and the George London Foundation. She completed the Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago in 2007.

Since making her Santa Fe Opera debut as Pamina in the summer of 2006, Susanna Phillips has returned to Santa Fe in a trio of Mozart operas: as Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Countess Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni. Recent seasons have brought significant operatic debuts, including Mozart’s Countess with the Dallas Opera, Donna Anna with Boston Lyric Opera and her first Violetta with Opera Birmingham. She performed the notoriously difficult role of Elmira – to great acclaim - in a Tim Albery production of Reinhard Keiser's The Fortunes of King Croesus in her debut with Minnesota Opera conducted by Harry Bicket. As a participant in the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center, she sang Diana in a new Robert Carsen production of Iphigenie en Tauride opposite Susan Graham, Juliette in Romeo et Juliette and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus. She has sung leading roles at Madison Opera and Utah Opera, and Blanche de la Force in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites at Kentucky Opera.

In recital, Susanna Phillips has appeared at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC under the auspices of the Vocal Arts Society, and at Carnegie Hall with the Marilyn Horne Foundation in New York.

Her continually expanding concert repertoire has been showcased with many different prestigious organizations. She has performed with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic as part of their annual "Composer's Festival" under Alan Gilbert, Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the Chicago Symphony, and Beethoven's Mass in C and Choral Fantasy for her Mostly Mozart Festival debut at Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York under Kent Tritle. She has also sung Dvorak's Stabat Mater with the Santa Fe Symphony, Brahms' Deutsches Requiem with the Santa Barbara Symphony, and appeared opposite baritone Wolfgang Holzmair in Wolf's Spanisches Liederbuch at New York's Weill Recital Hall. Other recent concert and oratorio engagements include Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mahler's Fourth Symphony, Mozart's Coronation Mass, the Fauré and Mozart Requiems, and Handel's Messiah. She made her Carnegie Hall debut with Skitch Henderson and Rob Fisher with the New York Pops.

Susanna Phillips is a winner of the Marilyn Horne Foundation Competition, and was awarded grants from the Santa Fe Opera and the Sullivan Foundation. Additionally, she was the first prize winner of the American Opera Society Competition and the Musicians Club of Women in Chicago.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1981 and raised in Huntsville, Susanna Phillips is grateful for the ongoing support of her community in her career. She sang Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder and her first performances of the title role in Lucia di Lammermoor in a concert version with the Huntsville Symphony, and she returns frequently to her native state for recitals and orchestral appearances. Over 400 people traveled from Huntsville to New York City in December 2008 for her Metropolitan Opera debut as Musetta in La bohème.

Meet the stars of Passion and Fireworks: The Heart of Opera

The Coloratura:

Emily Hindrichs, soprano, is emerging as one of the important coloratura sopranos of our time. In the spring 2009, she made her English National Opera debut in Die Zauberflöte as Queen of the Night, and will reprise the role at the New Orleans Opera in 2010, at the Seattle Opera in 2011 and in her Oper Frankfurt debut in 2012. She will also perform on tour Bach’s B minor mass with L’Ensemble Médical at the St. Markus Church in Munich, St. Paul’s Cathedral in Boston, Carnegie Hall, and in Washington DC to benefit Doctors Without Borders and Partners in Health.
Noted engagements from the past two seasons include a return to the Seattle Opera Young Artist Program as a guest artist to perform Tytania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, her debut with Gotham Chamber Opera in NYC covering Flaminia in Haydn's Il Mondo Della Luna, and in concert, Strauss’s Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme with the Seattle Symphony, Bach’s B Minor Mass with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with Musica Sacra in Boston, Schoenberg’s Herzgewächse with Emmanuel Music in Boston, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Tenebrae as part of the Music of Remembrance series at Nordstrom Hall in Seattle.
Additional concert engagements include Mrs. Nordstrom in A Little Night Music at Tanglewood with the Boston Pops, the premiere of John Harbison’s Milosz Songs with the New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble, Mozart arias with the Seattle Philharmonic, Handel’s Jephtha and Bach’s Johannespassion at the International Bachakademie in Stuttgart, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre, Britten’s Les Illuminations at the Europäisches Musikfest in Stuttgart, and Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s Cantata 140 at the Trinity Church in Boston.
While a member of the Seattle Opera Young Artists Program, she performed the title role in Rita, Feu/Princesse/Rossignol in L’enfant et les Sortilèges and Lauretta/Nella in Gianni Schicchi. At the New England Conservatory, she performed Elle in La Voix Humaine, Therese in The Breasts of Tirésias and Amy in Little Women. Other recent engagements include the Flier in the Amelia workshop at Seattle Opera with composer Daron Hagen and director Stephen Wadsworth, Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute with the Syracuse Opera, Norina in Don Pasquale with Opera Providence, Gilda in Rigoletto with La Musica Lirica, and Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites at Indiana University.
Ms. Hindrichs was the recipient of a 2009 Sullivan Foundation Award, won first place in the Les Azuriales Opera Competition in France, and was awarded 2nd place in the Washington International Competition. Of her performance, the Washington Post said, “Emily Hindrichs…offered works by Ravel, Richard Strauss, Handel and Verdi. To this taste, she had the finest voice of the contestants – firm, full, lustrous, agile and distinctive…her personal charm, her sure sense of pitch, and her refusal to indulge in the inane birdy mimesis that so often passes for coloratura singing were strong attributes.” Ms. Hindrichs has a Bachelor of Music and Masters in Music from the University of Southern Mississippi, a M.A. in Musicology from the University of Exeter (U.K.), and a D.M.A. in vocal performance from New England Conservatory.

The Dramatic:

Maryann Kyle, soprano, has sung leading roles with the Mississippi Opera, Chattanooga Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, the Southern Arts Festival Opera, the University of Illinois, East Tennessee Opera, LSU Opera, Gulf Coast Opera, and The Opera at USM. She has shared the stage with some of world’s greatest artists including performing the role of Micaela in Carmen, opposite internationally known mezzo-soprano, Denyce Graves, as a guest soloist with The Miami Festival, opposite famed bass-baritone William Warfield, and as soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Timothy Nobles and Marietta Simpson. In addition, she appeared as a soloist on the pop music stage with famed artists Patti Labelle, Patti Austin, Dionne Warwick, Ann Nesby and Vesta Williams.
While at the University of Illinois, she toured extensively with John Wustman in the Songs of Franz Schubert Recital Series. Wustman described her as “a lyric soprano of great and unusual gifts: an extremely musical singer that brings great beauty and style to all music that she performs,” and Kurt Klippstatter said that she "…possesses a beautiful soprano voice which is both expressive and technically well founded. Her combined vocal and dramatic talents make her a natural…"
In 2000, Dr. Kyle appeared as an Ensemble Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera and performed the roles of Clothilde in Norma, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the Foreign Woman in The Consul.
Kyle’s most recent opera appearances include Mrs. Ford in Falstaff, Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème, and Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with the Mississippi Opera. Other major opera roles have included Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Violetta in La Traviata, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, the Countess and Susannah in Le Nozze di Figaro, Micaela in Carmen, Musetta and Mimi in La Bohème, the title role in Floyd’s Susannah, the Evil Queen in the world-premiere performances of Zaninelli’s Snow White and many others.
Her involvement in collaborative efforts includes her continuing relationship with the Mississippi Arts Commission as a touring artist. Kyle and pianist Theresa Sanchez make up the duo “Bellescanto” and perform throughout the year presenting recitals and educational outreach performances. “Bellescanto” has presented several themed recitals including “A Tribute to Leontyne Price”, as well as tributes to the American Musical Theatre and American Art Song. This very active duo performs throughout the year around the region.
She is also actively involved in the professional vocal group known as the “Mississippi Vocal Arts Quartet.” This vocal ensemble performs music of all periods and styles. MVAE presents an exciting program of opera, musical theatre, vocal jazz, and classical music from the Renaissance to the 21st Century, and continues to keep a very busy performing schedule.
Kyle is currently Director of Southern Opera and Music Theatre Company’s Outreach and Workshop program and associate professor of voice at The University of Southern Mississippi. In addition, she is an artist/teacher in residence with the Operafestival di Roma and Festival Musica nas Montanhas in Brazil. She is an active member of NATS and MTNA and is a much sought after coach and teacher. Maryann Kyle’s students are actively involved in performance of both opera and musical theatre and have garnered numerous awards including state and regional Metropolitan Opera National Council audition winners, Sullivan Foundation winners, Washington International Vocal Competition, Birmingham and Lynam opera competition finalists, NATS regional and state award winners, NATS Governor’s Award winners, apprenticeships with Seattle Opera, Lake George Opera Festival, Aspen Festival, Wolf Trap, AIMS, and Operafestival di Roma. Kyle’s students have sung leading and supporting roles at the English National Opera, Tanglewood, Seattle Opera, and prestigious symphonies around the world. Her students continue to pursue their studies in major conservatories and schools including, Indiana University, San Francisco Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Oklahoma City University.

The Mezzo:

Lauded by the New York Times for her “emotional range,” and for her “plummy, nuanced mezzo” by Backstage, American mezzo-soprano Sarah Heltzel made her Seattle Opera debut in 2005 as Siegrune and Flosshilde in their acclaimed Der Ring des Nibelungen. Ms. Heltzel spent much of the 2004-2006 seasons with Seattle, also singing Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Miss Jessel in Britten's Turn of the Screw, as a member of the Young Artist Program. She returned to sing Siegrune in Die Walküre and Flora in Verdi’s La traviata with the company in the 2009-2010 season, as well as singing Orlofsky in Mississippi Opera’s Die Fledermaus. Engagements for the upcoming 2010-2011 season include Dryade in Toledo Opera’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Desideria in Menotti’s The Saint of Bleecker Street with Dicapo Opera Theater.
Recent appearances include her critically acclaimed performance as the Marquise de Merteuil in Susa's The Dangerous Liaisons with Dicapo Opera Theatre, the title role in Bizet's Carmen with both Tacoma Opera and Skagit Opera, Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde with the Boston Chamber Music Society, Respighi's Il Tramonto with the Red Rocks Music Festival, and Brahms' Liebeslieder Walzer for Music at Southhampton: "Sustainable Treasures." With Chautauqua Opera she has sung Cherubino, and the Monitor in Puccini's Suor Angelica. This past December Ms. Heltzel sang Messiah with Seattle Symphony, where she previously appeared as the alto soloist in Janacek's Glagolitic Mass in 2007.
Ms. Heltzel made her concert debut at Alice Tully Hall with the New York Symphonic Ensemble as the 2003 recipient of the Panasonic Harmony Award and has since performed Verdi's Requiem for the "Requiem for Darfur" benefit concert at Carnegie Hall. Additional concert engagements have included Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Handel’s Messiah; she has recently been a featured soloist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. Equally at home on the recital stage, Ms. Heltzel has performed numerous song recitals in the New York, Boston, and Seattle areas.
In previous seasons, Ms. Heltzel sang Candy Mallow and the Squirrel Mistress in American Lyric Theater’s workshop of Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket. She has also sung Mère Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites in Tel-Aviv with the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, and appeared as Giulietta in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and as Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther with the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Italy. At Manhattan School of Music, she performed the roles of Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Zweite Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, among others. Other credits include La Messaggiera in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and the title role of Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein.
Ms. Heltzel received a 2006 Apprentice Award from Chautauqua Opera, and was an encouragement grant recipient in the 2009 and 2005 Gerda Lissner Foundation competitions. She was a winner in the 2004 Sun Valley Opera Competition as well as the 2002 Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition (Junior division). Ms. Heltzel holds a Bachelor of Music from Gordon College (MA), and both a Master of Music degree and a Professional Studies Certificate from Manhattan School of Music.

The Tenor:

Lyric tenor, Eric Margiore who was praised by Opera News for his "brilliance and style, brio and high-octane vocalism," is establishing himself as an international contender in the principal Italian bel canto and romantic tenor repertoire. The tenor is quickly becoming known for his uniquely Italianate timbre and his "American Idol looks," with a "real presence, intelligence, and level-10 intensity."
Future projects for the young tenor include him singing at the Minnesota Opera in the lead tenor role of Edgar Linton in Bernard Herrmann’s, Wuthering Heights, Alfredo in La Traviata with the Hawaii Opera Theatre, singing with the Stockton Opera in California as Rodolfo in La Boheme, and as the guest soloist in a holiday pops concert with the Stockton Symphony Orchestra and in a gala concert, Passion and Fireworks for the Mississippi Opera. Eric most recently had outstanding reviews for his singing of Alfredo in La Traviata, and the tenor soloist in Verdi's Reqiuem, with the Utah Festival Opera, and also as a soloist in concert with Marcello Giordani, for the Marcello and Friends encore series.
2009 had Mr. Margiore reprising the role of Il Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto with Opera Naples and he was again commended by Opera News, in his return to the Opera Theatre of St. Louis for his official company debut and role debut as Narraboth in Salome under the baton of Maestro Stephen Lord. He also sang gala concerts with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and with the Virginia Opera and he also made his debut in Asia with Opera Hong Kong in performances of Tamino in Die Zauberflote in Hong Kong and Beijing, China, with Paul Curran directing and Jari Hamalainen conducting.
The 2008 season saw Eric Margiore making his stage debut with the role of Gerald in Lakmé at Tulsa Opera. He then made his role and house debut of Il Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto with the Palm Beach Opera, with a reprise of the role at Opera Naples. Eric made his role and house debut with the Sarasota Opera singing Conte Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and had a further invitation to reprise this role with the Baltimore Opera. Other notable appearances include his role debut of Alfredo in La Traviata at the Shreveport Opera, Cassio in Otello with the Vero Beach Opera under the baton of Maestro Steven Crawford; and concert appearances including a musical revue at Radio City Music Hall, Mozart's Coronation Mass in his third appearance at Carnegie Hall, The World of Opera: Concert of Arias and Duets for the Vero Beach Opera, followed by a Sicilian-themed holiday solo concert with the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra in Louisiana.
During the 2007 season, Eric joined the New York City Opera to make his State Theater debut in a gala concert Opera for All led by principal conductor Maestro George Manahan. As well in his debut season he was assigned to cover Le Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon. 2007 also saw Mr. Margiore's collaboration begin with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis where he covered both Arturo and Riccardo, in the Malibran version of I Puritani. While in residence with St. Louis, he was selected as a soloist for the Colin Graham Memorial Concert and had his unofficial debut with the company when he stepped in last minute to sing, Arturo in two important performances of I Puritani that were praised by Opera News. Mr. Margiore then joined the Charleston Symphony Orchestra for a concert performance of Tony in West Side Story and sang his role debut of Rodolfo in La Boheme with the Opera Ischia Festival in Italy, while performing several concerts in southern Italy. Further projects included a gala concert Tutti in Piazza in Stockton, California as well as the CD recording of Thomas Pasatieri’s La Divina as the Young Conductor on Albany Records with the Opera Company of Brooklyn.
In 2006, after his transition from baritone, Eric sang Azael in Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue for his debut with Opera Naples, a concert of Neapolitan songs and opera arias, Festa Italiana, with the Stockton Symphony Orchestra as well as concert versions of Alfredo in La Traviata, Rodolfo in La Boheme, and Il Duca di Mantova in Rigoletto with the New Opera Festival di Roma, in Rome, Italy.
In addition to his performing, Eric has been recognized by many important vocal competitions and foundations. He was the winner of a grant from the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation, the Licia Albanese/Puccini Foundation, and was an international quarterfinalist for Placido Domingo’s Operalia, in 2007 and 2009. He was also a two-time winner in the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, a finalist in the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Young Artist Auditions and a Metropolitan Opera National Semi-Finalist.
Eric hails from Long Island, New York, USA, and he is a proud Italian-American coming from a Sicilian and Neapolitan family heritage. Eric finished his professional training at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Glimmerglass Opera, and Chautuaqua Opera's young artist programs and holds degrees from New York University and the Mannes College of Music.

The Baritone:

With a repertoire of more than 50 roles, Guido LeBrón has won international acclaim with leading opera companies throughout United States, Latin America and Europe in the leading baritone roles of Rigoletto, La Traviata, Aida, Un Ballo in Maschera, Tosca, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, La Fanciulla del West, Il Tabarro, Gianni Schicchi and Cavaleria Rusticana. He was most recently seen as Belcore in L’elisir d’Amore with Teatro de la Opera, Puerto Rico, Scarpia in Tosca with Opera Tampa, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera de Puerto Rico, Count di Luna in Il Trovatore with Atlanta Opera, and Sharpless in Madama Butterfly with Florentine Opera. Upcoming he returns to Florentine for the world premiere of Rio de Sangre, sings Scarpia in Tosca with Opera de Puerto Rico and Tri Cities Opera, Marcello in La Bohème in Puerto Rico and Nicaragua, and the lead baritone role in the zarzuela La Tabernera del Puerto at Bellas Artes, San Juan.
In the Bel Canto repertoire, he has sung the leading baritone roles in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Faust, Lucia di Lammermoor, L’Elisir d’Armore, I Puritani and Don Pasquale. Other roles include Guglielmo (Così fan tutte), Il Conte (Le Nozze di Figaro), Escamillo (Carmen), Gérard (Andrea Chénier) and Wolfram (Tannhäuser). Since 1998 he has been the house baritone for both Fundación Puertorriqueña de Zarzuela y Opereta and Pro-Arte Lírico de San Juan where he has sung the leading baritone roles in the zarzuelas La Tabernera del Puerto, La Leyenda del Beso, La Duquesa del Tabarín, Los Gavilanes, La Viuda Alegre, La del Soto del Parral and La del Manojo de Rosas among others at Teatro de Bellas Artes in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
He has appeared in leading roles with the Wexford Festival in Ireland, Teatro National de Nicaragua, Teatro Principal de Mallorca, Santiago de Compostela, and Teatro Arriaga in Bilbao, Spain, as well as L’Opéra de Montréal, Morelia, Mexico, Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica, Opera de Puerto Rico, Teatro de la Opera and Opera al Fresco in San Juan; Teatro Nacional de Santo Domingo, Washington National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Metropolitan Opera, Opera Orchestra of New York, Atlanta Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Florentine Opera, Tulsa Opera, Utah Opera, Nashville Opera, Virginia Opera, Knoxville Opera, Connecticut Opera, Opera Tampa and Tri-Cities Opera. His concert engagements include appearance with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Binghamton Symphony Orchestra and the Eugene Symphony Orchestra.
The former set and lighting designer from San Juan, Puerto Rico is a graduate of Fordham University, Binghamton University and the Tri-Cities Opera Resident Artist Program.

THE CHORUS:
Soprano
Sarah Chaudhary
Alaina Coleman
Merina Dillard
Margaret Grantham
Ann B. Johnson
Shawn Morgan
Suzanne Starkey

Mezzo-Soprano
Bethany Ammon
Mary Atchley
Janet Brunson
A. Barbara Edwards
Maria P. Garris
Vee Govan
Sherry Harfst
Mary Hauck
Sue Hauer
Janese Lewis
Debbie Tucker

Tenor
Josh Black
Larry Blackman
Frank Fillingham
Derrick T. Truss, Jr.

Baritone/Bass
Curt Ayers
D. Royce Boyer
Eric Hahn Hambrick
Vic Hartung
Mario Henderson
Jerry Morgan

Meet the Cast of Die Fledermaus

WILLIAM BOGGS (Conductor), Artistic Director of Opera Columbus, is consistently praised by critics as “daring,” “enlightened,” “superbly musical” and “sensual.” He has led some of his company’s greatest successes including Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Carmen, Pirates of Penzance and Macbeth. As the former General Director of Columbus Light Opera, where he received tenure, he produced over 200 performances of the works of Strauss, Léhar, Offenbach, Gilbert and Sullivan, Friml, Romberg, and Herbert, including The Gondoliers, The Merry Widow, La Traviata, Die Fledermaus, and La Bohème.Maestro Boggs also served as Music Director of the Welsh Hills Symphony Orchestra, the third conductor in its sixty-year history.
He recently conducted the world premiere of Robert Aldridge’s Elmer Gantry with Nashville Opera, Die Fledermaus with Opera Carolina, The Student Prince with Nashville Opera, Pirates of Penzance with Indianapolis Opera, a Mario Lanza tribute concert for the Fresno Grand Opera, and the Opera Columbus’s productions of La Bohème, Turandot, La Cenerentola and Les Pêcheurs de Perles. In the 2009-2010 season, engagements include an Elmer Gantry remount at Florentine Opera of Milwaukee, Die Fledermaus at the Mississippi Opera, Philip Glass’ The Fall of the House of Usher at the Nashville Opera, and Opera Columbus’ production of I Pagliacci and Romeo et Juliette
Maestro Boggs made his debut with the International Festival of Macau in performances of Chicago. Other noted engagements include Pirates of Penzance at Opera Carolina, Die Zauberflöte with Hawaii Opera Theater, Noye’s Fludde and The Mikado with Mississippi Opera, The Merry Widow and Die Fledermaus with Baltimore Opera, Cavalleria Rusticana with Cincinnati Opera, Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Dayton Opera, La Cenerentola at Lake George Opera, Aida and South Pacific with Fresno Grand Opera.
As an orchestral guest conductor, Maestro Boggs has performed symphonic works of Mozart, Bernstein and Bizet with the Columbus Symphony, the works of Bach, Mozart and Handel with the Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra, the works of Sibelius, Respighi, and Mendelssohn with the Central Ohio Symphony Orchestra, the works of Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Mozart with the Louisville Orchestra, the works of Frank, Stravinsky and Copland with the Orquestra Sinfonica del Estada de Mexico, and holds the title Conductor Emeritus of the Welsh Hills Symphony Orchestra.
Maestro Boggs received his Bachelor of Music, cum laude from Ohio State University where he went on to earn a Master of Music in Conducting and worked on his Doctoral Studies in Opera Production. He continued his Postgraduate Studies in Conducting with The Juilliard School in New York.

BILL FABRIS (Production and Staging Director) is a stage director with a national reputation for excellent, innovative and entertaining productions. Equally at home in the worlds of opera and musical theatre, he recently directed Le nozze di Figaro and Carousel for Shreveport Opera. His production of Massenet’s Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame won critical acclaim at Opera Boston where he returned to direct Candide. A regular at Chautauqua Opera, he has directed The Gondoliers, H.M.S. Pinafore, The Mikado and The Barber of Seville. Die Fledermaus makes Fabris’ debut with Mississippi Opera and he’s thrilled to be working with a group of talented artists who have sung in several productions listed in the next paragraph.
His work regularly appears on the stages of opera companies throughout the US. For Opera Columbus he staged The Threepenny Opera; OperaDelaware: Der fliegende Holländer, Carmen, Cavelleria Rusticana and Pagliacci. Opera Carolina: The Pirates of Penzance and Die Fledermaus; Mobile Opera: The Tender Land, Rigoletto & The Merry Widow; Opera Colorado Artist Center: Roméo et Juliette; Eugene Opera: Die Fledermaus & The Mikado; Natchez Festival of Music: Falstaff, My Fair Lady, Die Fledermaus, Fiddler on the Roof & The Magic Flute; Cedar Rapids Opera Theater: L’elisir d’amore & Aida; Ash Lawn-Highland Festival: Oklahoma!, Kiss Me, Kate and The Wizard of Oz; Lyric Opera of San Antonio: Don Pasquale and La Cenerentola; South Carolina Opera: The Merry Widow, H.M.S. Pinafore and The Mikado; Anchorage Opera: Trouble In Tahiti, Don Pasquale and Il barbiere di Siviglia; Amarillo Opera: Tosca & Così fan tutte; Opera East Texas: La Bohème; Indianapolis Opera: The Pirates of Penzance. Other musicals include Little Shop of Horrors for Stage One, A Wonderful Life for Circa ’21 Playhouse and Fiddler on the Roof at Mt Gretna Summer Theatre.
His New York credits include The Desert Song, The Merry Widow, Countess Maritza and the recent critically acclaimed City Center productions of The Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore. Off-Broadway, Fabris directed the 20th anniversary production of Boy Meets Boy.
Internationally, he directed Nine at the Stadsschouwburg Theatre in Brugge, Belgium, A Little Sondheim Music and The Music of Leonard Bernstein at the Liceu in Barcelona, as well as the European tours of Jesus Christ Superstar and Hair. He also choreographed the award-winning short film Boot Camp, which has been a featured selection in numerous international film festivals including Berlin, St Petersburg and Sundance.
Future engagements include: L’elisir d’amore for Opera East Texas, Tosca for Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre and Souvenir for the Cyrano Playhouse in Anchorage.

MARYANN KYLE (Rosalinde) has sung leading roles with the Mississippi Opera, Chattanooga Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, the Southern Arts Festival Opera, the University of Illinois, East Tennessee Opera, LSU Opera, Gulf Coast Opera, and The Opera at USM. She has shared the stage with some of world’s greatest artists including performing the role of Micaela in Carmen, opposite internationally known mezzo-soprano, Denyce Graves, as a guest soloist with The Miami Festival, opposite famed bass-baritone William Warfield, and as soprano soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Timothy Nobles and Marietta Simpson. In addition, she appeared as a soloist on the pop music stage with famed artists Patti Labelle, Patti Austin, Dionne Warwick, Ann Nesby and Vesta Williams.
While at the University of Illinois, she toured extensively with John Wustman in the Songs of Franz Schubert Recital Series. Wustman described her as “a lyric soprano of great and unusual gifts: an extremely musical singer that brings great beauty and style to all music that she performs,” and Kurt Klippstatter said that she "…possesses a beautiful soprano voice which is both expressive and technically well founded. Her combined vocal and dramatic talents make her a natural…"
In 2000, Dr. Kyle appeared as an Ensemble Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera and performed the roles of Clothilde in Norma, the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos, and the Foreign Woman in The Consul.
Kyle’s most recent opera appearances include Mrs. Ford in Falstaff, Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème, and Countess in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro with the Mississippi Opera. Other major opera roles have included Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte, Violetta in La Traviata, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Lady Billows in Albert Herring, the Countess and Susannah in Le Nozze di Figaro, Micaela in Carmen, Musetta and Mimi in La Bohème, the title role in Floyd’s Susannah, the Evil Queen in the world-premiere performances of Zaninelli’s Snow White and many others.
Her involvement in collaborative efforts includes her continuing relationship with the Mississippi Arts Commission as a touring artist. Kyle and pianist Theresa Sanchez make up the duo “Bellescanto” and perform throughout the year presenting recitals and educational outreach performances. “Bellescanto” has presented several themed recitals including “A Tribute to Leontyne Price”, as well as tributes to the American Musical Theatre and American Art Song. This very active duo performs throughout the year around the region.
She is also actively involved in the professional vocal group known as the “Mississippi Vocal Arts Quartet.” This vocal ensemble performs music of all periods and styles. MVAE presents an exciting program of opera, musical theatre, vocal jazz, and classical music from the Renaissance to the 21st Century, and continues to keep a very busy performing schedule.
Kyle is currently Director of Southern Opera and Music Theatre Company’s Outreach and Workshop program and associate professor of voice at The University of Southern Mississippi. In addition, she is an artist/teacher in residence with the Operafestival di Roma and Festival Musica nas Montanhas in Brazil. She is an active member of NATS and MTNA and is a much sought after coach and teacher. Maryann Kyle’s students are actively involved in performance of both opera and musical theatre and have garnered numerous awards including state and regional Metropolitan Opera National Council audition winners, Sullivan Foundation winners, Washington International Vocal Competition, Birmingham and Lynam opera competition finalists, NATS regional and state award winners, NATS Governor’s Award winners, apprenticeships with Seattle Opera, Lake George Opera Festival, Aspen Festival, Wolf Trap, AIMS, and Operafestival di Roma. Kyle’s students have sung leading and supporting roles at the English National Opera, Tanglewood, Seattle Opera, and prestigious symphonies around the world. Her students continue to pursue their studies in major conservatories and schools including, Indiana University, San Francisco Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Manhattan School of Music, and Oklahoma City University.

VICTOR KHODADAD (Eisenstein) as born in Shiraz, Iran of an Iranian father and a Cuban mother, and shortly after his birth the entire family moved to the U.S. His mother, a classically trained pianist and conductor, provided a childhood full of music and performing
opportunities. In college he pursued a classical theatre training and in 1992 received a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from San Francisco’s American Conservatory
Theater. Following several years of work in Los Angeles, including membership with the Improv group Los Angeles Theatresports, he moved to New York to pursue his career in theatre. By 2000, Mr. Khodadad had worked at Boston Center for the Arts, Hartford Stage Company, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Theatreworks/USA and Yale Repertory Theater. He was also in the original New York International Fringe Festival production of Urinetown!(the musical). While the majority of his efforts had been placed on getting work as an actor, he would occasionally be cast in musicals. After playing the role of Jesus in a production of Jesus Christ Superstar at Swine Palace Productions, directed by Barry Kyle, former Associate Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the fusion of music and drama prompted Mr. Khodadad to shift his focus and begin formal vocal study with Jerome Pruett, Associate Professor of Voice at The Hartt School, in April of 2001. In the summer of 2001, he was cast as Ferrando and Don Ottavio in concert readings in Italian for New York Opera Productions. After a turn as a super in the Met’s War & Peace he found himself, in the summer of 2002, in the Resident Artist Program at Natchez Opera Festival and then traveling to Italy, via a talent scholarship, to take part in the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium where he studied Italian and voice with Master Teachers Enza Ferrari and Bruno Rigacci. Recitals performed in New York and New Haven helped raise money for that trip. Singing in the chorus of Connecticut Opera in the fall of 2002 brought him his first contact with a larger regional house and encouraged him to continue his studies. This paid off when, in the summer of 2003, he returned to Natchez Opera Festival, alternately performing the roles of Benvolio and Romèo in Romèo et Juliette, and then to Hot Springs Music Festival, where he continued to gain experience singing with orchestra by performing in their production of The Magic Flute. The culmination of these efforts was enough to get him accepted into the Graduate Professional Diploma Program at The Hartt School of Music where he could gain leading role operatic experience and continue studying with Mr. Pruett.
In February of 2004, playing the role of The Male Chorus in Benjamin Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at The Hartt School, conducted by Kyle Swann, Assistant Conductor for Connecticut Opera, proved to be another turning point for Mr. Khodadad. This was the beginning of a string of performances including Testo in Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda, Tamino in“The Magic Flute sung in German and conducted by the Met’s Stephen Crawford, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and his professional operatic debut singing the role of Lensky in Eugene Onegin at Opera Theater of Connecticut which was the opera’s premiere in that state. This production was presented in English with full orchestra conducted by Doris Lang-Kosloff. His performances over the past year include Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and Alfred in Die Fledermaus, both at Natchez Festival of Music, Ferrando in Così fan tutte with the Burgas Philharmonic Orchestra in Italian and for Opera of the Hamptons in English, and Sesto in Julius Caesar at Opera Theater of Connecticut conducted by Kyle Swann. In November of 2005, Mr. Khodadad made his Mississippi Opera debut singing the role of Alfredo in La Traviata and this October will make his debut with Commonwealth Opera by singing the role of Rodolfo in La Bohème directed by Ron Luchsinger, as well as debuting with New York Metro Vocal Arts Ensemble in New York City as Alfred in “Die Fledermaus” in November. As time permits, Mr. Khodadad coaches privately with legendary tenor Nicolai Gedda in Switzerland.

JAMES C. MARTIN (Dr. Falke) has won critical acclaim for his performances in opera and concert as a versatile singer/actor and entertainer, with an artistic repertoire that spans from Bach to be-bop, Britten to Burleigh and Berg to Bernstein. He has appeared to reviews of the highest acclaim with leading musical organizations throughout the United States and abroad, including the Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera’s Western Opera Theater Tour, the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, New York City Opera, Tapestry New Opera Works in Toronto, L’Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg, FRANCE, Theater Basel in Basel, SWITZERLAND, the Norwegian Royal Opera House of Oslo, NORWAY, the Mississippi Opera Association, and the Metroplitan Opera Guild; the music festivals of Marlboro, Ravinia, Aspen, Moab, Colmar, and Tel Aviv; concert and recital appearances with NY’s Lincoln Center in their American Songbook and African-American History series, the Collegiate Chorale, the contemporary ensemble Continuum, Caramoor, MOMA’s Summergarden series, Joy in Singing, the American Composers Orchestra, Meet the Composers, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Red: an Orchestra, Mississippi Symphony, Mississippi Chorus, and the New York Festival of Song at such distinguished venues as Lincoln Center Jazz, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Concertgebouw of Amsterdam, the United States National Cathedral, and the Library of Congress.
Representative operatic roles include Mozart’s Figaro/Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni/Don Giovanni, Papageno/Die Zauberflöte and Publio/La clemenza di Tito, Puccini’s Marcello, Schaunard and Benoit/La bohème, and Betto/Gianni Schicchi, Verdi’s Pistola/Falstaff and Baron Duphol/La Traviata, Sam in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Britten’s Noye/Noye’s Fludde, Ananaias/The Burning Fiery Furnace, and Jen Jensen/Paul Bunyan, L’horloge comtoise & Le chat noir/L’enfant et les sortilèges by Ravel, Silvio/I’ Pagliacci of Leoncavallo, as well as Johann/Werther, Liberto/L’incoronazione di Poppea, Farfarello/L’Amour des Trios Oranges, Ibn Salaam/The Song of Majnun, Dr. Reischmann/Elegy for Young Lovers, #6 “Iron Hans”/Transformations, and premieres of Ibn Salaam/The Song of Majnun, Dr. Breslau/The Woman at Ottowi Crossing, Dr. Faustus/Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights and the role of the black American exploring pioneer Matthew Henson in Facing South. Mr. Martin’s concert repertoire includes Handel’s Messiah, the passions of Bach, the requiems of Mozart, Fauré and Brahms, and a multitude of chamber works and innovative song recitals. He is an avid champion of the American Popular Song, specifically the works of African-American composers.
An advocate of new music, he has premiered and performed new, as well as recently discovered, concert and operatic works by many contemporary composers including George Walker, Anthony Davis, Tania Leon, Aaron Copland, Conrad Susa, Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen, Bright Sheng, Jonathon Sheffer, Lowell Liebermann, Sofia Gubaidulina, Arvo Pärt, Viktor Ullmann, Luigi Dallapiccola, Stefan Wolpe, Tristan Keuris, Bohuslav Martinu and a host of others. Equally at home in musical theater, his credits include Billy Flynn/Chicago, Joe/Show Boat, Leading Player/Pippin, Henry Higgins/My Fair Lady, Billy Crocker/Anything Goes, Quixote & Cervantes/Man of La Mancha, Lucky/Dames at Sea, Billy/Some Enchanted Evening and Bill Starbuck/110 in the Shade.
An active music educator, Mr. Martin has worked closely developing outreach programs, master classes and concert workshops with regional organizations including the Mississippi Music Conference for Church Music & Liturgy, Lyric Opera of Chicago’s “Opera in the Neighborhoods,” New York City Opera Education, the Hattiesburg Civic Chorus & Concert Association’s Meistersingers, and at the Juilliard School where he has frequently served as director/coordinator of its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration. He is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).
Mr. Martin received his Bachelor of Music degree from Illinois Wesleyan University and his Master of Music from the Juilliard School, with continued studies as a young artist/apprentice and fellowship recipient with the Juilliard Opera Center, the Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Les Jeunes Voix du Rhin in Strasbourg, France. He is a recipient of the William Schuman prize, the SONY Elevated Standards award, the Theodore Presser and Irene Diamond scholarships, two Gluck fellowships and a Lilly grant. He studied voice with David Nott, Cynthia Hoffmann and Benita Valente. Other mentors and coaches include Steven Blier, Michael Barrett, John Humphrey, Luis Battllé, Marilyn Horne, Hermann Prey, Joan Sutherland, Reri Grist, George Shirley, Paul Sperry, Edward Berkeley, Kenneth Merrill, Diane Richardson, Owen Burdick, and Broadway legend Barbara Cook.
Other ventures and interests include directing, graphic design. and multiple collaborative arts projects including the newly formed Mississippi Vocal Arts Ensemble, as well as local fundraising and outreach activities. James now makes his home in Jackson, Mississippi, where he serves as Instructor of Voice at Millsaps College and Jackson State University while maintaining an active performance and teaching schedule in both his local and global communities.

Soprano SARAH CALLINAN (Adele), a 2009 Metropolitan Opera National Council Audition Regional Finalist, is on the brink of a budding career. Ms. Callinan recently spent several seasons singing with the Connecticut Opera where she performed many main-stage roles including Frasquita in Carmen, Gianetta in L’elisir d’amore, Elvira in L’italiana in Algeri, Nella in Gianni Schicchi, Despina in Così fan tutte, Blonde in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and most recently Zerlina in Don Giovanni to critical acclaim.
In the 2008-2009 season Ms. Callinan made her Connecticut Concert Opera début singing Monica/Girl in The Medium/Trouble in Tahiti. She also sang Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute with Boston Lyric Opera's New England Tour, Frasquita in Carmen with Michigan Opera Theater and performed the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah with Commonwealth Opera.
Future engagements include Despina in Così fan tutte with Cape Cod Opera, Adele in Die Fledermaus with Salt Marsh Opera, a return to Connecticut Concert Opera to sing the title role in Lakmé and her début with Opera New Jersey singing Frasquita in Carmen. Other recent noted engagements include Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Mississippi Opera, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel with Opera Theatre of Connecticut, Yum-Yum in the Mikado with the Connecticut Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Josephine in H.M.S Pinafore with Simsbury Light Opera.
On the concert stage, Ms. Callinan has appeared as a soloist in both the Celebrate America and Holiday Pops concerts with the Hartford Symphony, performed in a concert of operatic arias and ensembles at the Sanibel Music Festival and was the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Vesperae Solennes de Confessore with the Farmington Valley Chorale.
In the summer of 2005, Ms. Callinan made her first international appearance winning the Jenny Lind Competition, which resulted in a recital tour in Sweden. Ms. Callinan was awarded first prize in the 2006 Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, first prize winner of the Friday Woodmere Music Club Competition, first prize winner and winner of the "Most Promising Coloratura" award in the Amici Competition, a finalist in the Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Competition and won second prize at the Peter Elvins Vocal Competition.
Ms. Callinan, a native of Worcester, MA, attended the Hartt School of Music, graduated Magna cum laude from the University of Connecticut with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Music and a Performer’s Certificate in Voice.

JASON BUDD (Frank) is receiving accolades and recognition for his buffo performances. In a recent performance as Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Michigan Opera Theatre, the Detroit Free-Press exclaimed, “Jason Budd as Bartolo was the definition of a buffa bass: rotund, blustery, funny, with an alluring, deep-chested voice.” Of an L’Elisir d’Amore performance, Opera News said, “Jason Budd's Dulcamara was a good-natured quack, nimble of limb and voice.”
Most recent engagements include Sacristan in Tosca with Virginia Opera; the title role in Falstaff with Opera in the Heights; Benoit/Alcindoro in La Boheme with Opera Cleveland and the Princeton Festival; Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Montfleury in the world premiere of Cyrano at the Michigan Opera Theatre; and Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore with Cedar Rapids Grand Opera.
Next, he performs Bartolo in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Skylight Opera, Benoit/Alcindoro in La Boheme with the Arizona Opera, Johann in Werther at Opera Cleveland, Zuniga in Carmen with Opera Western, and Frank in Die Fledermaus with the Mississippi Opera.
A house favorite at Orlando Opera, Mr. Budd has performed multiple roles in recent seasons including the title role in Gianni Schicchi, Frank in Die Fledermaus, Major General in Pirates of Penzance,The Bonze in Madama Butterfly, Pooh-Bah in The Mikado, 1st Soldier/5th Jew in Salome, Crespel/Luther in Les Contes d'Hoffmann, Monterone in Rigoletto, Don Florito in Luisa Fernanda, Benoit/Alcindoro in La Boheme, Sir Joseph in H.M.S. Pinafore, Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Melchoir in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Speaker/First Priest in The Magic Flute, and Sacristan in Tosca.


Lauded by the New York Times for her “emotional range,” and for her “plummy, nuanced mezzo” by Backstage, American Mezzo-soprano SARAH HELTZEL (Orlofsky) made her Seattle Opera debut in 2005 as Siegrune and Flosshilde in their acclaimed Der Ring des Nibelungen. Ms. Heltzel spent much of the 2004-2006 seasons with Seattle, also singing Cherubino in Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Miss Jessel in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, as a member of the Young Artist Program. She returns to sing Siegrune in Die Walküre and Flora in Verdi’s La traviata with the company in the 2009-2010 season. In the coming season, Ms. Heltzel also takes on Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus for Mississippi Opera.
Recent appearances include her critically acclaimed performance as the Marquise de Merteuil in Susa’s The Dangerous Liaisons with Dicapo Opera Theatre, the title role in Bizet’s Carmen with both Tacoma Opera and Skagit Opera, Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with the Boston Chamber Music Society, Respighi’s Il Tramonto with the Red Rocks Music Festival, and Brahms’ Liebeslieder Walzer for Music at Southhampton: “Sustainable Treasures.” With Chautauqua Opera she has sung Cherubino, and the Monitor in Puccini’s Suor Angelica. This past December Sarah sang Messiah with Seattle Symphony, where she previously appeared as the alto soloist in Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass in 2007.
Sarah made her concert debut at Alice Tully Hall with the New York Symphonic Ensemble as the 2003 recipient of the Panasonic Harmony Award and has since performed Verdi’s Requiem for the “Requiem for Darfur” benefit concert at Carnegie Hall. Additional concert engagements have included Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Handel’s Messiah; she has recently been a featured soloist with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra. Equally at home on the recital stage, Ms. Heltzel has performed numerous song recitals in the New York, Boston, and Seattle areas.
In previous seasons, Sarah sang Candy Mallow and the Squirrel Mistress in American Lyric Theater’s workshop of Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket. She has also sung Mère Marie in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites in Tel-Aviv with the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, and appeared as Giulietta in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann, and as Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther with the International Institute of Vocal Arts in Italy. At Manhattan School of Music, she performed the roles of Hermia in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Zweite Dame in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, among others. Other credits include La Messaggiera in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and the title role of Offenbach’s The Grand Duchess of Gérolstein.
Sarah received a 2006 Apprentice Award from Chautauqua Opera, and was an encouragement grant recipient in the 2009 and 2005 Gerda Lissner Foundation competitions. She was a winner in the 2004 Sun Valley Opera Competition as well as the 2002 Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition (Junior division). Sarah holds a Bachelor of Music from Gordon College (MA), and both a Master of Music degree and a Professional Studies Certificate from Manhattan School of Music.

ELIZABETH PASARILLA RICHARDSON (Ida) is pleased to be performing again with the Mississippi Opera. Within the last year she has appeared with MS Opera as Suor Genevieve in Suor Angelica, a featured soloist in The Best of Opera Choruses and a chorus member in Reneé Fleming – Voice of the Century. She has also participated in their productions of Cavalleria Rusticana and La Boheme. She most recently finished a run of the children’s show Frog & Toad with New Stage Theater, where she has also starred in the last two runs of A Christmas Carol. Other favorite stage credits include Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance, Cinderella in Into the Woods, Mrs. Ham in Noye’s Fludde and Maria in West Side Story. Elizabeth also possesses a great love for choral music and has performed as a soprano soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria, Faure’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah. Having completed her Bachelor of Music at Wheaton College and her Master of Music at the University of Southern California, she has had the opportunity to meet and work with such gifted artisans as composer and director Marvin Hamlisch, conductor John Nelson and soprano Sylvia McNair. Elizabeth is a resident of Clinton, MS. She and her husband Justin are excitedly awaiting the birth of their first child, due to arrive in July.

Tenor CARL R. DYKES (Alfredo) has studied voice, French, and Italian. While a student, he received numerous awards and accolades. Carl also participated in and won several vocal competitions including the Fulton Ghallager award for Operatic Vocal Excellence accompanied by a scholarship. Dykes also appeared in numerous concerts on stage singing Handel, Fauré, Mozart, Bach, and Verdi. During his senior year of study, he was accepted to the Cleveland Institute of Music for work towards an MFA. Carl has appeared on stages in cities around the world including; New York’s Carnage Hall, Munich, Stockholm, Warsaw, Paris, Luxemburg, Bruges, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Riga Latvia, Berlin, and many more. Some roles in which he has appeared are; Alfredo in La Traviata, Nanki Poo in The Mikado, Frederick in Pirates of Penzance, Francois Villon in The Vagabond King, and Ralph Rackstraw in H.M.S. Pinafore. His voice has been heard as feature soloist live on MPR, (Minnesota Public Radio) on several occasions, and he has performed opera arias during “Opera Gala Nights A’La Asti’s” of New York singing lyric tenor. His voice can also be heard on numerous CD recordings with musical styles from chamber to a cappella, and from choral to opera, and even self-written country music. During the day Carl is a Financial Consultant at Community Investment Professionals with Community Bank in Brandon, MS.

Tenor EDWARD DACUS (Dr. Blind) has appeared in over thirty character and leading opera roles with several regional opera companies, including the New Orleans Opera, Mississippi Opera, Lyric Opera of Waco, Ohio Light Opera, and the Baton Rouge Opera under some the country’s premiere conductors and stage directors. Roles include Beppe in Pagliacci, the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, Goro in Madama Butterfly, Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, Camille in The Merry Widow, Malcolm in Macbeth, Guillot in Manon, Spoletta in Tosca, Basilio and Don Curzio in Le nozze di Figaro, and Gastone in La traviata. Dacus is Associate Professor of Music at Mississippi College and serves as organist/choirmaster at the Church of the Creator in Clinton.





BILL FABRIS (Frosch) is an actor/director who started his career performing in musical theatre and opera. Broadway/Touring credits include The Pirates of Penzance, Jubilee, La Cage aux Folles, Alcazar de Paris, Chicago, Jesus Christ Superstar & Hair. Off-Broadway: Pageant (created role of Miss Bible Belt, Ruth Ann Ruth). He has performed with Chautauqua Opera in Die Fledermaus & She Loves Me, the world premiere of Tonkin at OperaDelaware and with Opera Company of Philadelphia and Opera South Carolina. Regional performances include Candide (Paper Mill Playhouse) and Sweeney Todd (TheatreVirginia). Most recently he sang the role of Beadle Bamford in Sweeney Todd at Shreveport Opera and is trying to grow gracefully into older character roles.







ERIC HAHN HAMBRICK (Ivan) is a native of the Jackson area. He holds Vocal Performance and Business Administration degrees from USM and Mississippi College. He has performed on stages from the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco to Carnegie Hall. He has been a part of Mississippi Opera Chorus for about 25 years. He also is a member of The Mississippi Chorus and The Mississippi Chorus Chamber Choir. He has performed in numerous theatres across the state and serves on the Board of Directors at Black Rose Theatre in Brandon. Some of his favorite roles have been Horace Vandergelder in Hello Dolly, Mr. Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors, Mr. Bumble in Oliver, the Minstrel in Once Upon a Mattress and Burl and Stanley Sanders in Smoke on the Mountain and Sanders Family Christmas. He also enjoys performing with Mississippi Murder Mysteries. He has been involved in the Music Ministry at First Baptist Church in Jackson since his teenage years.

Meet the Cast of Suor Angelica and Cavalleria Rusticana!

Douglas Kinney Frost (Conductor) is Music Director of Syracuse Opera He has lead orchestras throughout North and South America receiving critical acclaim in recent performances including Porgy and Bess at the prestigious Teatro Colon, La Bohème at the Florida Grand Opera, a new production of Madama Butterfly and La Traviata with Anchorage Opera, the Boston premiere of Little Women at the New England Conservatory, The Magic Flute at the Syracuse Opera, and Postcard from Morocco at the University of Michigan. He was the associate conductor and chorus master for Opera Colorado’s Nixon in China, which was recently released on the Naxos recording label. In concert, the breadth of his repertoire has been highlighted in performances with the National Symphony of Mexico, the Bellas Artes in Mexico City, and orchestras in Brazil and Uruguay, Russian Federal Orchestra in Moscow, St Petersburg Festival Orchestra, Kharkov Philharmonia in Ukraine, and the National Orchestra of Korea in Seoul, Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra, and in the U.S. with the Colorado Bach Festival, Rochester Philharmonic, Westminster College, Utah, Virginia and Richmond Symphonies, among others.






Stephanie Gregory (soprano), Suor Angelica, debuts in this title role with Mississippi Opera. A native of Mississippi, Ms. Gregory made her debut as Magda in Puccini’s La Rondine with the Orchestra Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. Ms. Gregory has just completed the role of Tosca with Opera Theater of Connecticut. She sang her first Mimi in La Bohème with Opera Ischia, a role she later reprised with Mississippi Opera., and was also featured in the roles of Micaëla in Missouri and South Carolina as well as Musetta with the Opera Theater of Connecticut and Violetta in South Carolina and with the New Opera Festival di Roma, in Rome Italy. In 2004, she completed a concert tour of South America with the Yale Alumni Chorus singing the soprano soloist in Rossini’s Stabat Mater. She made her debut in the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires with the Orquesta Filarmônica de Buenos Aires. Other cities included were Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, Santiago, Chile and La Plata, Argentina. Other operatic roles for the 2001 ‘American Jenny Lind’ include Lucia in The Rape of Lucretia, Nannetta in Falstaff, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore, Ilia in Idomeneo and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail. Opera engagements in 2008/2009 include Violetta in La Traviata in South Carolina as well as reprising the title role of Suor Angelica for Opera Theater of Connecticut.
Her solo work includes Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Stravinsky’s Les Noces, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem and ‘Great’ Mass in C Minor, Samuel Adler’s Stars in the Dust, and Haydn’s Creation and Lord Nelson Mass. Her first recording endeavor, Stars In The Dust, music by Meira Warsheaur, which was recorded by the Slovak Radio Orchestra in Bratislava was recently released by Albany Records. Ms. Gregory received a Master of Music degree in Opera Performance as well as an Artist’s Diploma from Yale University. She also graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a Bachelor of Music Education degree, specializing in piano and choral conducting.


Jeniece Golbourne (mezzo-soprano), La Principessa/Santuzza, returns to Mississippi Opera where she was Mistress Page in Falstaff. She has performed as Maddalena in Rigoletto with New Jersey Opera; the title role in Carmen, Béatrice in Béatrice et Bénédict, Suzuki in Madama Butterfly, and Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte at the Manhattan School of Music; Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Westminster Opera Theater; the Principessa in Suor Angelica with the American Singers Opera Project; and both Adalgisa in excerpts from Norman and Eboli in excerpts from Don Carlo with Opera Noire. Concert highlights have included Amneris in Aïda with the Annapolis Chorale and Symphony; arias from Carmen with the Deutsche Kammeracademie Neuss am Rhein Orchestra; the Verdi Requiem with the Würzburg Orchestra; da Falla’s El Sombrero de Tres Picos with the Manhattan School of Music Orchestra; an Opera Concert with the Prague Castle Guard and Police Orchestra, Czech Republic; and an American Songs Concert with the Collegiate Chorale and the New York Repertory Orchestra, conducted by Robert Bass. Jeniece Golbourne is a graduate of Westminster Choir College, and received her Master of Music in Voice Performance from the Manhattan School of Music. She has performed in the master classes of Fedora Barbieri, Marilyn Horne, Alberto Zedda, Martin Katz, Willie Waters, and Bo Skovhus.
Engagements for Ms. Golbourne during the 2008-09 season include Azucena in Il Trovatore with Virginia Opera and with Eugene Opera.


Marcos Aguiar (tenor), Turiddu, sang his first Otello in 2008 with the DuPage Opera Theater and with the Vero Beach Opera. He also appeared as Dick Johnson in Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West with the Di Capo Opera Theater, Canio in I Pagliacci with the Augusta Opera, and during the summer he sang the role of Des Grieux in Puccini’s Manon Lescaut with the Utah Festival Opera in Logan, Utah.
A frequent performer in concert and opera, Marcos has appeared as a soloist with the State of São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestras of the Municipal Theater of São Paulo and Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, the Louisiana Philharmonic, among others. In 2003, as a winner of the 6th Aldo Baldin Vocal Competition in Brazil, he was awarded his prize by principal judge, Fiorenza Cossotto. In the same year he debuted as Don José in Bizet’s Carmen at the Opera Festival in Florianopolis, Brazil. In 2004, he sang concert versions of the roles of Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Don José in Carmen at The Municipal Theater of São Paulo and also sang the role of Don José at the Teatro da Paz Opera Festival in Belém, Brazil. In 2005, Marcos made his debut at the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro singing the role of Macduff in Verdi’s Macbeth. He appeared again in Carmen and Madama Butterfly at the 2006 and 2007 Indiana University Opera Theater seasons, again singing the roles of Don José and Pinkerton. Marcos Aguiar holds a Bachelors degree in Music and Voice from Santa Marcelina College in São Paulo, Brazil, and a Masters Degree in Music from Loyola University in New Orleans.

Maksìm Ivanov (baritone), Alfio, was born in Russia and has been praised for his portrayal of many operatic roles including Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Marcello and Schaunard in La Bohème, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Dandini in La Cenerentola, Onegin in Eugene Onegin, Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Robert in Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, and Ford in Falstaff. In the United States he has sung leading roles with such companies as Glimmerglass Opera, the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Opera Providence, Opera Theater of Connecticut, Boheme Opera of New Jersey, Sanibel Music Festival and Ash-Lawn Highland Festival among others. A frequent soloist on the concert stage, his most recent performances include Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at Woolsey Hall in New Haven, “Viva Italia: An Evening of Italian Arias” with the Wallingford Symphony and was a special guest soloist in an evening of Russian repertoire with the Connecticut Grand Opera and Orchestra.
Mr. Ivanov is a two time winner of the Metropolitan Opera competition in Connecticut, and has won numerous other prizes including the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition, the New York’s Jensen Foundation, Liederkranz Opera, the Licia Albanese Voice Competitions and the Shubert Theater International Opera Competition.
Mr. Ivanov holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from State University of New York at Stony Brook. He received his Bachelor of Music (cum laude) from the University of Pennsylvania and a Master of Music degree from both the Manhattan School of Music and Yale University.
Currently Mr. Ivanov is an Adjunct Professor of Music at the Connecticut College in New London, CT.