Act I

On a South Pacific island during World War II, Nellie, a young Navy nurse from Arkansas has become involved with Emile de Becque, a French plantation owner. At the same time, a Seabee, Luther Billis, to relieve the boredom of waiting for something to happen, hatches a plan to travel to Bali Ha’i to see the mysterious “boar’s tooth ceremony.” When a young marine lieutenant, Joe Cable, arrives on the island for an undercover mission, he becomes the object of fascination to “Bloody Mary,” a Tonkinese souvenir seller. She weaves a spell for him about the magic of Bali Ha’i and, as Billis looks on, he now sees his chance to get to the island by convincing Cable to join him.

Nellie, on the other hand, begins to have doubts about her involvement with Emile and decides to break up with him. However, when she bumps in to him unexpectedly, she realizes that she is too much in love with him to break it off and, instead, accepts an invitation to meet his friends. Meanwhile, Cable approaches de Becque for help with his reconnaissance mission on a nearby Japanese-held island. De Becque refuses and Cable, with nothing to do, is told to go on leave until he can continue his mission. He decides to take Billis up on the offer to visit Bali Ha’i. On the island, Bloody Mary introduces Cable to her daughter, Liat. Cable and Liat quickly fall in love. Emile and Nellie have also become engaged, but when Nellie learns that Emile has had children with a dark-skinned Polynesian woman, Nellie’s racial prejudice surfaces. As the act ends, she runs off distraught.

Act II

The base is preparing for the Thanksgiving show. Bloody Mary arrives and encourages Cable, whose relationship between Liat has grown serious, to get married. However, like Nellie, Cable is plagued by his own racism and cannot deal with the idea of marrying a dark-skinned woman. When he finally admits that he cannot marry Liat, Bloody Mary is furious and drags Liat off, swearing that she will marry her to a French planter instead.

At the same time, depressed by Nellie’s rejection, Emile shows up and offers to join Cable on his mission behind Japanese lines. When he confronts Cable about these ideas of prejudice that he does not understand, Cable bitterly admits that he cannot help it, it is how he was raised. Together, each with their own reasons of escape, they undertake the mission and relay intelligence that helps turn the tide of the war. Unfortunately, Cable is killed just as they achieve their success. Back at the naval base, Nellie is moved by Liat’s grief on being told of Cable’s death. Thinking that Emile has died with him, Nellie decides to put aside her prejudice and care for Emile’s children. As she is sitting down to dinner with the children, Emile unexpectedly returns home; Nellie is overjoyed and agrees to marry him.

by Caitlin E. Brown

Acclaimed musical theater duo Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had significant careers individually before joining forces in the early 1940s. Hammerstein, the grandson of an opera impresario, established his reputation for socially conscious musicals with Jerome Kern in Show Boat (1927). The classically trained Rodgers composed a number of Broadway hits alongside Lorenz Hart, including Babes in Arms (1937) and Pal Joey (1940). The first Rodgers and Hammerstein collaboration, Oklahoma! (1943), marked the beginning of not just a long-standing partnership, but also a celebrated moment in the American musical, characterized by some historians as a decisive shift to the musical play (a form in which the music was fully integrated into a more serious plot) and to a so-called Golden Age of Broadway.

After the relative disappointment of Allegro in 1947, Rodgers and Hammerstein felt pressured to produce another hit. When South Pacific premiered at the Majestic Theatre on April 7, 1949, audiences embraced the nostalgic look at World War II, the exploration of racial prejudice, and, of course, the enduring music. South Pacific also earned critical acclaim. Reviewer William Hawkins wrote: “This is the ultimate modern blending of music and popular theatre to date, with the finest kind of balance between story and song, hilarity and heartbreak.” Rodgers and Hammerstein sought to create works that transcended the divide between opera and musical theater. As a result, their careful balance of drama, romance, and humanity has found a place in the opera theater and feels at home alongside works by Bernstein, Gershwin, Weill, Gilbert and Sullivan, and even Bizet. Audiences were delighted that the pair cast Ezio Pinza, on loan from the Metropolitan Opera, opposite Broadway star Mary Martin in the original production. It ran for a total of 1,925 performances over five years, won eight Tony Awards, and secured the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1950.

For their book, Rodgers and Hammerstein adapted James Michener’s 1947 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection of stories, Tales of the South Pacific. Molding the source material for the musical theater stage proved difficult, so they decided to orient the musical around the two-couple convention while increasing each relationship’s complexity in order to address some of Michener’s key themes. This convention called for one serious primary relationship and a comedic secondary one, but Rodgers and Hammerstein adjusted it and included two romances that faced serious challenges. In the primary relationship, a nurse from the segregated South (Nellie Forbush) falls in love with an older French planter (Emile de Becque), but her prejudice hinders her acceptance of his two mixed-race children. In the secondary plot, an American lieutenant (Joe Cable) falls in love with a Tonkinese girl (Liat) that he cannot bring home to his educated Philadelphia family. The plot also diverged from Michener’s in its desexualized portrayal of Nellie, Cable’s ultimate reprieve from making a decision about Liat, and the flattening of the American GI’s wartime experience in the South Pacific, but the dramatically balanced narrative mostly retained the spirit of Michener’s book.

The confrontation of deep-rooted racial bias on the musical stage obviously presented a challenge. The project was timely, as American soldiers had returned home to find race relations were much the same as they were before World War II, and other contemporary Broadway shows explored similar themes. Most audiences will remember the verse-less “You’ve Got to Be Taught” as a crucial moment. Cable sings to Nellie in Act II of the racially biased education they both received as children, emphasizing that such attitudes were bred in them not born. After some criticism, the pair asked Michener if he thought they should eliminate the song; Michener replied, “If you cut that song, you cut the whole musical.” Rodgers and Hammerstein agreed.

Rodgers’ score is one of his most varied and sophisticated, and he acknowledged that neither the lyrics nor the music consistently came first. Instead, he seemed concerned with the expressiveness of his music and its relation to the dramatic integrity of the work as a whole. “To begin with,” Rodgers noted, “I write scores and not isolated song numbers; therefore the particular song in question must bear a family resemblance to the other musical material in the piece.” The lush scoring owes less to Rodgers, though, than it does to his orchestrator, Robert Russell Bennett, with whom he worked throughout his career. Opera audiences will find a familiar format in the overture: its sweeping opening chords transport the listener to the South Pacific through the Bali Ha’i motive and then take a short excursion through the show’s major musical themes.

South Pacific relies on the essence of a specific historical moment, but it has remained in the musical theater and opera repertories since its premiere. A generation of Americans listened to the cast recording on the radio and long-playing (LP) records. And modern viewers still feel they might have lessons to learn from the show’s bold challenge of social norms. South Pacific speaks to the American historical consciousness, but it also dares its audience to imagine how the future might be different.

Conductor

Constantine Kitsopoulos has made a name for himself as a conductor whose musical experiences comfortably span the worlds of opera and symphony, where he conducts in such venues as Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Royal Albert Hall, and musical theater, where he can be found leading orchestras on Broadway. Kitsopoulos is in his eighth year as music director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra and continues as general director of Chatham Opera, which he founded in 2005. He serves as music director of the Festival of the Arts BOCA, a multi-day cultural arts event for South Florida, and was most recently appointed artistic director of the OK Mozart Festival, Oklahoma’s premier music festival, where he led his second season this past June.

In addition to his ongoing music director commitments, in the 2014-15 season, Kitsopoulos led the New York Philharmonic in holiday subscription concerts following a notable debut last season. He returns to the symphony orchestras of San Francisco, New Jersey, Houston, and North Carolina, and makes debuts with the Florida Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, and Toledo Symphony. A frequent guest conductor at Indiana University, he led Menotti’s The Last Savage earlier in the season.

Highlights of recent seasons include appearances with the Baltimore, Colorado, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh symphony orchestras, as well as the Calgary Philharmonic, National Arts Centre Orchestra, and New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall. Summer concerts have included Saratoga Performing Arts Center with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Symphony, Blossom Festival with the Blossom Festival Orchestra, Sun Valley Festival, Atlanta Symphony, and Dallas Symphony. International appearances have seen him conduct China’s Macao Orchestra with Cuban band Tiempo Libre, the Tokyo Philharmonic, and the Russian National Orchestra.

Beyond his symphonic work, Kitsopoulos maintains a busy opera schedule. In recent seasons, he has led annual productions at IU Opera Theater of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore (2013-14), Verdi’s Falstaff (2012-13), Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge (2011-12), Strauss’s Die Fledermaus (2010-11), and Loesser’s The Most Happy Fella. Previous seasons’ operatic highlights include the Dicapo Opera Theatre’s productions of Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Gounod’s Faust, and all three versions of Puccini’s Madame Butterfly, Chatham Opera’s debut production of Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors, Hong Kong Municipal Opera’s production of Bizet’s Carmen in both Hong Kong and Beijing, and Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at Alice Tully Hall. He also served as music director and created the orchestrations for the world premiere production of Ed Dixon’s Fanny Hill at the Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut.

Kitsopoulos has continued to show his ability and interest in performing new works and conducting a wide variety of genres. He conducted the Red Bull Artsehcro, an orchestra consisting of students from the top conservatories and university music programs in the country, in a concert at Carnegie Hall featuring a program of world premieres by Raul Yanez and Laura Karpman.

Also much in demand as a theater conductor, both on Broadway and nationwide, Kitsopoulos is currently music director and conductor of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella on Broadway. He most recently served as music director and conductor of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical revival that ran until September 2012. Prior to that, he was conductor and musical director of the Tony-nominated musical A Catered Affair, the Tony-nominated musical Coram Boy, and the American Conservatory Theatre’s production of Kurt Weill’s Happy End, for which he recorded the cast album at Skywalker Ranch. Other musical theater highlights include serving as music director and principal conductor of Baz Luhrmann’s highly acclaimed production of Puccini’s La Bohème, conducting the new musical Mambo Kings in San Francisco, serving as music director of Frank Wildhorn’s Dracula and Les Misérables, and conducting Matthew Bourne’s Broadway production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake.

Kitsopoulos’ most recent recording is the Grammy Award-winning original Broadway cast album of the Tony Award-winning Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, released in May 2012 on P. S. Classics. His first recording, Baz Luhrmann’s production of La Bohème, is available on Dreamworks. Also available are recordings of Happy End, the only English-language recording of the work, and an original Broadway cast recording of A Catered Affair on P. S. Classics.

He studied conducting with his principal teacher Vincent La Selva, as well as Gustav Meier, Sergiu Commissiona, and Semyon Bychkov. He studied piano with Marienka Michna, Chandler Gregg, Ed Edson, and Sophia Rosoff.

Stage director Vincent Liotta has been both a professional stage director and a dedicated educator for more than 40 years. He is currently chair of the Opera Studies Department in the Jacobs School of Music, where he teaches stage directing, acting, and operatic literature. As a stage director, he has been involved in creating many world premiere productions. Most recently, he conceived and directed the much-acclaimed premiere of Vincent by composer Bernard Rands and librettist J. D. McClatchy for IU Opera Theater. Among other notable premieres in which he has taken a creative lead are Coyote Tales by Henry Mollicone and Too Many Sopranos by Jacobs composer Edwin Penhorwood. His professional projects have been seen on four continents—including Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Puccini’s La Bohème in Seoul, Korea; the eastern-European premiere of Bernstein’s Candide for the Romanian National Opera in Cluj-Napoca; Puccini’s Madama Butterfly for Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and La fanciulla del West at the Canadian National Opera in Toronto. Liotta’s operatic repertory covers the entire history of opera, from Cavalli to John Corigliano. In 1993, he co-founded the Utah Festival Opera. In addition to directing, he has authored and translated works for the musical theater, including a new libretto for Victor Herbert’s operetta, Naughty Marietta, and Viva Verdi, an original biographical evening about the life and work of Giuseppe Verdi. He has done new English translations for The Merry Wives of Windsor and Orlando Paladino in addition to a new libretto for The Merry Widow. For many years, Liotta has collaborated with Harold Prince on productions of Turandot and Don Giovanni, as well as on the world premiere of Willie Stark.

Selene Carter is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance at Indiana University Bloomington. A certified instructor in the Bill Evan’s Laban-based modern dance technique, she received Chicago’s highest honor for dance, the Ruth Page Award, for her work there. In September 2014, her choreography was presented at the Harkness Dance Center/92^nd Street Y by Doug Varone & Dancers. This spring, her choreography will be presented by the Regional Alternative Dance Festival, Kalamazoo, Mich., Breaking Ground Dance & Film Festival, Tempe, Ariz., and in Wild Space Dance Company’s, Reckless Wonders, Milwaukee, Wis.

Satsu Holmes is a dance and theater artist currently based in Bloomington, Ind. South Pacific marks her first collaboration with IU Opera Theater. Her recent choreography includes work for Reimagining Opera for Kids (María de Buenos Aires) and IU Theatre (Lysistrata) as well as collaboration with the School of Fine Arts on a graphic design installation for the IU Art Museum (“Gravity”). A performer, Holmes has recently worked with IU Theatre (M. Butterfly, The School for Scandal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream), IU Dance Theatre (Hammer & Nail, Rite of Summer, STOP!!!), Trinity Laban and the Laban Theatre (One Way or Another, Repertory Extracts, In conversation with light), and Indiana Festival Theatre (Solana). A student of Kanoe Cazimero, she is also a freelance hula dancer. Her backstage credits include work as a wardrobe supervisor, dresser, costume assistant, and assistant/stage manager. She is currently a production assistant with Reimagining Opera for Kids, and this spring, she will wardrobe supervise IU Theatre’s Romeo and Juliet. Holmes recently graduated from Indiana University, earning degrees with highest distinction in dance (B.S. Kinesiology), and theatre and drama (B.A. with honors thesis), with minors in music and French. She holds a Diploma in Dance Studies from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance (London, U.K.), where her research focused on the working relationship between dance teachers and musicians. The inaugural recipient of the Theresa Anne Walker Scholarship for excellence in theatre, Holmes is from Honolulu, Hawaii.

Previously for Indiana University, William Forrester designed The Most Happy Fella, La Rondine, Der Rosenkavalier, and Merry Widow, and is happy to be back at IU working with Vincent Liotta again. Among the regional theaters he has designed for are The Alliance Theatre (Atlanta); the Alabama, Colorado, and Utah Shakespeare Festivals; Arizona Theatre Company; Denver Center Theatre; Honolulu Theatre for Youth; Kansas City Rep; Utah Festival Opera; and Yale Rep. Forrester recently designed The Three Sisters for The American University in Cairo and has designed for a number of theaters in the Seattle area, where he resides.

Linda Pisano designs for theatre, dance, musical theatre, ballet, and opera throughout the United States; her ballet designs have toured the U.K. and Canada. An award-winning designer, her work has been featured in the Quadrennial World Design Expo in Prague and the World Stage Design exhibition, and she’s a four-time recipient of the Peggy Ezekiel Award for Excellence in Design. Her work will be featured on exhibition with the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow, Russia, this summer. A professor of costume design at Indiana University, she also directs its Theatre and Drama study abroad program in London and designs regularly with such companies as Utah Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Opera San Antonio, and BalletMet. For IU Opera Theater, she has designed La Traviata, Lady Thi Kihn, Vincent, Der Rosenkavalier, The Merry Widow, The Most Happy Fella, and La Rondine, and will return next year with Dead Man Walking. She serves on the board of directors of the United States Institute for Theatre Technology and is a member of the United Scenic Artists, Local 829.

Patrick Mero is the head of lighting for IU Opera and Ballet Theater. He has designed the lighting for La Traviata, H.M.S Pinafore, Le Nozze di Figaro, Werther, Falstaff, Xerxes, Don Giovanni, Albert Herring, La Bohème, Tosca, L’Italiana in Algeri, West Side Story, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Suor Angelica, Gianni Schicchi, and Alcina. He has also done extensive design work for the Jacobs School of Music Ballet Department, the African American Art Institute’s Dance Ensemble, and Cardinal Stage Company. In addition to his work in Bloomington, he has worked at the Spoleto Festival USA. Mero originally hails from Charleston, S.C., but calls Bloomington home.

Julie Randolph Sloan has been the production mixer for Jersey Boys on Broadway since its inception in La Jolla, Calif., in 2004. As production engineer under sound designer Steve Canyon Kennedy, she opened the Chicago, Las Vegas, London, and two national tour companies of Jersey Boys. As mixer, she opened the Broadway revivals of Guys and Dolls (2008) and Jesus Christ Superstar (2011). She toured for over five years with productions of Hairspray, Jesus Christ Superstar, Elton John and Tim Rice’s Aida, and Annie Get Your Gun. While living in Arizona, she designed and mixed several productions for Arizona Theater Company, Phoenix Theater, Valley Youth Theater, and Childsplay. She is a member of IATSE Local 336 in Phoenix. Sloan completed the A.S. in Audio Technology program at IU in 1996.

Along with his responsibilities as professor of choral conducting and faculty director of opera choruses at the Jacobs School of Music, Walter Huff continues his duties as Atlanta Opera chorus master. He has been chorus master for The Atlanta Opera since 1988, preparing the chorus in more than 100 productions, receiving critical acclaim in the United States and abroad. Huff received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and his Master of Music degree from Peabody Conservatory (Johns Hopkins). He studied piano with Sarah Martin, Peter Takács, and Lillian Freundlich, and voice with Flore Wend. After serving as a fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, he received Tanglewood’s C. D. Jackson Master Award for Excellence. Huff served as coach with the Peabody Opera Theatre and Washington Opera, and has been musical director for The Atlanta Opera Studio, Georgia State University Opera, and Actor’s Express (Atlanta, Ga.). He also has worked as chorus master with San Diego Opera. He served on the faculty at Georgia State University for four years as assistant professor, guest lecturer, and conductor for the Georgia State University Choral Society. Recently, he was one of four Atlanta artists chosen for the first Loridans Arts Awards, given to Atlanta artists who have made exceptional contributions to the arts life of Atlanta over a long period of time. While serving as chorus master for The Atlanta Opera, Huff has been the music director for The Atlanta Opera High School Opera Institute, a nine-month training program for talented, classically trained high school singers. He has served as chorus master for the IU Opera Theater productions of Don Giovanni, The Merry Widow, Akhnaten, Le Nozze di Figaro, Lady Thi Kính, H.M.S. Pinafore, La Traviata, The Italian Girl in Algiers, La Bohème, and The Last Savage. This past June, Huff served as choral instructor and conductor for the Sacred Music Intensive, a workshop inaugurated by the Organ and Choral departments at the Jacobs School. In addition, he maintains a busy vocal coaching studio in Atlanta.

Soprano Jessamyn Anderson, from Carmel, Ind., is a senior pursuing a B.M. in Voice Performance under the tutelage of Scharmal Schrock. Her IU Opera credits include Cousin Hebe in H.M.S. Pinafore, Margot in The Merry Widow, and the choruses of The Last Savage and Falstaff. Also at IU, she played the title role in Iolanthe, the first show produced by the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, and premiered the role of Mooch in Mooch the Magnificent, a children’s opera written for Re-Imagining Opera for Kids. Anderson was placed in the graduate opera workshop last year, where she performed scenes as Flora in Turn of the Screw, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Madame Pompous in Too Many Sopranos. As a studio artist at Opera in the Ozarks, she played the Fairy Godmother and Tisbe, a stepsister, in an outreach, mash-up opera production of Cinderella, as well as Isabel in the mainstage production of The Pirates of Penzance. She will be working for Ohio Light Opera Company this summer, her first professional young artist program. Past favorite roles include Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly!, Aunt Eller in Oklahoma!, and Judy in I Married an Angel. Anderson is a frequent soloist with the Indiana Wind Symphony and is a Herbert Presidential Scholar, Founder’s Scholar, and Dean’s Talent Scholarship recipient at IU.

Kayla Eilers, from Louisville, Ky., is a junior B.F.A. student in musical theatre. Her credits with IU Theatre include Legally Blonde (Elle Woods), Guys and Dolls (Hot Box Girl/Suzie), Chicago (Roxie Hart), Sunday in the Park with George (Nurse/Party Guest), and Spring Awakening (Ensemble). Other credits include Carner and Gregor’s 2014 Barely Legal Showtune Extravaganza, Indiana Festival Theatre’s Godspell, Bloomington Playwrights Project’s Island Song, Derby Dinner Playhouse’s The Wizard of Oz (dance ensemble), and the International Thespian Festival’s The Drowsy Chaperone (Janet). She was a 2012 National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts YoungArts finalist and is a student of Ray Fellman.

Brazilian baritone Bruno Sandes is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance as a student of Carol Vaness. He is a recipient of the Barbara and David Jacobs Scholarship. Sandes earned a degree in interior design at the Federal Institute of Alagoas, Brazil, before relocating to Bloomington, Ind. The baritone has performed in many opera scenes, including Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (Papageno) and Le Nozze di Figaro (Count Almaviva and Bartolo), and Gounod’s Faust (Valentin). His recent roles with IU Opera Theater include Taddeo in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algieri, Le Surintendant des Plaisirs in Massenet’s Cendrillon, and Sùng Ông in the world premiere of P. Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kính. Sandes also performed the roles of Steward in Ezra Donner’s Ile, Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and Joly in Schönberg’s Les Misérables. He sang on tour through Austria, Italy, and Germany. He won first place in the XI Maracanto International Voice Competition and was one of the winners of the 2013 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Competition, selected as a semifinalist in the IX Maria Callas International Voice Competition, one of six singers from around the world in the 42nd International Winter Festival of Campos do Jordão (largest classical music festival in Latin America), and chosen in 2010 as the best classical singer of the Northeast of Brazil by the Art and Culture Critics Association. Sandes recorded a CD of Brazilian chamber songs based on folk and love themes, Minha Terra (My Land), with pianist Shelley Hanmo as grand winners of the 2014 IU Latin American Music Center Recording Competition.

Icelandic bass-baritone Jóhann Schram Reed, a first-year master’s student at Jacobs studying under Wolfgang Brendel, is making his Indiana University Opera Theater debut. Most recently seen in the role of Inspector Javert in Les Miserablés at the Bay View Music Festival, other recent engagements include Jupiter (Orphée aux Enfer), Pistola (Falstaff), Dr. Dulcamara (L’Elisir d’Amore), Mr. Ford (Die Lustigen Weiber von Windsor), and the title role in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro. Before commencing his undergraduate studies in 2010, Reed was presented with the Most Promising Young Artist award by his hometown of Reykjavík for his studies and performances there. Since then, he has been well received both in competitions and performances across California, Virginia, and New York, including private recitals, opera productions, and choral engagements.

Brazilian tenor Rafael Campos Salles studied voice with soprano Martha Herr in São Paulo. He was part of the opera studio class of Abel Rocha, the conductor of the Municipal Theatre of São Paulo. Campos Salles also sang in Italy, where he studied with Susanna Rigacci and Alessandro Luongo. He was one of six singers selected for concerts and master classes in the largest music festival in Latin America—the International Winter Festival of Campos do Jordão. He was a soloist in productions of Faurè’s Promethée (Hermes), Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers (Francesco), Purcell’s The Fairy Queen (Autumn), and, most recently, Dido and Aeneas (Aeneas), produced by Reimagining Opera for Kids. A recipient of the Young Artist Award Scholarship, he started his undergraduate program in vocal performance at the Jacobs School of Music in August 2012. Studying under the direction of Robert Harrison, he was in the chorus of IU’s 2012 production of The Merry Widow and has performed as a soloist with the Latin American Popular Music Ensemble. After being privately coached by Broadway actor Timothy Shew, Campos Salles also received lessons from Scott Alan, Sam Carner, and Derek Gregor in the art of musical theater. Recently, he was the lead role in the original musical Em Pedaços in Brazil. He is also a member of the Singing Hoosiers under the direction of Steve Zegree.

Tenor James Reynolds is a native of Bellingham, Wash., where he received his Bachelor of Music degree at Western Washington University, studying under the vocal guidance of heldentenor and IU alumnus Edward Cook. Throughout the years of his undergraduate training, his vocal talents awarded him several leading roles at the university, including the Sailor in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Fredric in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, and Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. He was granted multiple concerto solos with the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, including Bach’s Magnificat, Buxtehude’s Magnificat, Mozart’s Regina Coeli, Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, and Vaughn Williams’ Dona nobis pacem. Reynolds is in his second year of his master’s degree at the Jacobs School, where he has performed the roles of Raoul de St. Brioche from Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow and Aeneas in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Outside of IU Opera, this spring, he will be performing the roles of Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia in a program of opera scenes run by Heidi Grant Murphy. Reynolds is a student of Patricia Stiles.

Eileen Jennings of Cleveland, Miss., is a mezzo-soprano studying with Patricia Havranek. She is in her final semester of course work for the Doctor of Music in Voice Performance degree. She has previously appeared in IU Opera productions as Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinafore, Dame Quickly in Falstaff, Madame de la Haltiere in Cendrillon, Florence Pike in Albert Herring, Princess Clarissa in The Love for Three Oranges, and Ilona Ritter in She Loves Me. She is a private voice instructor and music teacher for the Janice Wyatt Summer Arts Institute in Cleveland, Miss.

Marlen Nahhas, soprano, is a second-year master’s student in the voice studio of Carol Vaness. Previous roles include VoMo in the world premiere of The Tale of Lady Thi Kinh with IU Opera Theater, the title role in Suor Angelica, Antonia (Les Contes d’Hoffman), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Violette (La Traviata), Mrs. Lovette (Sweeney Todd), and Mrs. Flannery (Thoroughly Modern Millie). This summer, she will be a festival artist at the Utah Music and Theatre Festival.

Baritone Scott Stauffer is pursuing his master’s degree in voice. Previously at IU, he has been seen as Johann in Werther and Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow, as well as in the choruses of Akhnaten and La Traviata. This past summer, Stauffer performed at Bay View Music Festival as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte and Grantaire in Les Misérables. Prior to that, Stauffer has played Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, Rev. Olin Blitch in Susannah, Frank Maurrant in Street Scene, and Private Willis in Iolanthe. He is a student of Timothy Noble.

Evan Forbes is a junior voice performance major at Indiana University. A native of Sacramento, Calif., he has appeared with IU Opera Theater as the Boatswain in H.M.S. Pinafore. Additionally, he has appeared in the choruses of Cendrillion, Xerxes, The Marriage of Figaro, and L’Italiana in Algeri. Most recently, he appeared as Strephon in the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s inaugural production of Iolanthe. He is a student of Timothy Noble.

Marianthi Hatzis, mezzo-soprano, is pursuing her bachelor of music degree at the Jacobs School of Music. She is a recipient of the Dean’s Scholarship and studies with Patricia Stiles. She made her debut with IU Opera Theater as Zulma in this season’s production of L’Italiana in Algeri. She has performed the role of Second Woman and was the understudy of Dido in Dido and Aeneas with Lefkas Music in Lefkada, Greece. Other stage credits include Carlotta in The Phantom of the Opera and Maria in The Sound of Music. Additionally, she has appeared with New Voices Opera in its Fall Exhibition and in scenes as Poppea in L’incoronazione di Poppea and Giannetta in L’Elisir d’Amore with the Jacobs School’s Summer Opera Workshop. At the age of 16, she performed as a member of the Chorus of Angels in Eric Whitacre’s Chicago premiere of Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings. She has performed for audiences such as the Metropolitan Iakovos of Chicago and the Greek Archdiocese of Chicago and will be singing in the Young Artist program of SongFest this May with a full tuition scholarship. In addition, Hatzis was the winner of the actress competition in the 2008 National American Miss pageant. A native of Greece, she lives in Chicago, Ill.

Soprano Meadow Nguy is a student of Ray Fellman in the second year of her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Musical Theater degree. She performed as Hunyak in Indiana University Theatre’s 2013 production of Chicago and Leilani in University Player’s 2014 Legally Blonde, and will be creating the role of Arabella in the world premiere of Stay Dog Theatre’s Spellbound in St. Louis, Mo. Nguy performed as a featured dancer in IU’s 2014 production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood and as a company member in University Player’s 2014 production of 35 MM. Nguy performed in Chicago at the 2012 Millennium Park Concert with the Broadway Players and appeared in the 2012 Broadway or Bust series on PBS. She was the winner of the 2012 Illinois High School Musical Theater Award in the Jimmy Nederlander Competition and the 2014 Norvelle Theater Excellence Award.

Tenor Nathanael Hein, a native of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, is a second-year Performance Diploma student at the Jacobs School of Music. Hein recently received his master’s degree under the tutelage of Vinson Cole at the Cleveland Institute of Music. While there, he performed the role of Count Belfiore in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera and Prince Charmant in Massenet’s Cendrillon. During his undergraduate work at Bowling Green State University, Hein performed the title roles in Britten’s Albert Herring and Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. In addition, he appeared as Azael in Debussy’s L’enfant Prodigue with the Duke Symphony Orchestra. Last year, he performed the role of Gastone in IU Opera Theater’s production of La Traviata.

A native of Florham Park, N.J., baritone William Huyler is in his fourth year of undergraduate studies, pursuing a Bachelor of Music Education with Choral Emphasis degree. He has previously appeared with IU Opera Theater as Bill Bobstay in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore and as a member of the chorus in Handel’s Xerxes. His growing list of performance credits includes performing as the baritone soloist with the IU International Vocal Ensemble and as a member of the IU Summer Festival Chorus’s production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. He is the past president of the student chapter of the American Choral Directors Association at Indiana University and is the former conductor of the Voices of the World Children’s Choir at United Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, Ind. He is a student of Marietta Simpson.

Baritone Curtis Crafton is a native of Idaho. After earning a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Voice degree from the College of Idaho, he earned a Master of Music in Voice Performance degree from the Jacobs School of Music. While at IU, he has been involved in numerous mainstage productions. He has been seen as The Herald and Master of Ceremonies in Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon (2009), Duke of Verona in Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (2010), and Marchese D’Obigny in a new production of

Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata (2014). In 2011, Crafton made his Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as a chorus member and Brabantine Knight in Richard Wagner’s Lohengrin under the direction of Sir Andrew Davis. On the concert stage, he has sung the part of Pontius Pilate in J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew’s Passion with the Bloomington Chamber Singers. While at the College of Idaho, he sang Pontius Pilate/bass soloist in J. S. Bach’s St. John’s Passion and was the baritone soloist in Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem. Crafton is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music degree as a student of Wolfgang Brendel.

A senior at the Jacobs School of Music, Deiran Manning is pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance in addition to a B.A. in History. He currently studies voice with Wolfgang Brendel. Manning has sung the role of the Lord Chancellor with the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, as well as Papageno from Die Zauberflöte and Guglielmo from Così fan tutte in the IU Opera workshop. He has also performed in the Winter Harbor Music Festival Opera workshop, singing the roles of Pedrillo from Die Entführung aus dem Serail and the Lord Chancellor from Iolanthe. In addition, Manning has performed as a member of Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble in New York City and as a member of the chorus in IU Opera Theater productions of Faust, Candide, La Bohème, Falstaff, and H.M.S. Pinafore.

Bass-baritone Jerome Síbulo, from the Philippines, is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music degree at the Jacobs School of Music, where he also earned his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees. He was last seen as Aeneas in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Reimagining Opera for Kids, with which he also sang the roles of Ben in Menotti’s The Telephone and Orlando Spinks in the world premiere of Lauren Bernofsky’s Mooch the Magnificent. With IU Opera Theater, he created the role of Lý Truong in the world premiere of P. Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kinh and sang the roles of Kommissarius in Der Rosenkavalier, Louis in William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge, Pinellino in Gianni Schicchi, Grégorio in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Al in The Most Happy Fella, and numerous opera choruses. He is currently involved with Intimate Opera of Indianapolis, where he recently sang Dater #19 in Michael Ching’s Speed Dating Tonight!, Joe in Bill Kloppenburg’s Fear Not the Robot, and the title role in Scott Perkins’ Charon. Other opera roles include Leporello in Don Giovanni, Fasolt and Donner in Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Lord Capulet in Don Freund’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and El Señor de El Paso in the world premiere of Gabriela Ortiz’s ¡Unicamente la Verdad! He studied voice with Dale Moore and Antonio Hila, and is currently a student of Alice Hopper.

Tenor Darian Clonts, a native of Atlanta, Ga., is in the final year of his Master of Music in Voice Performance degree at the Jacobs School of Music. He made his debut with IU Opera Theater singing the role of Parpignol in the 2014 production of Puccini’s La Bohème. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2012 from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., where he studied voice with Uzee Brown Jr. In 2011, Clonts was awarded second place in the vocal solo competition of the Metropolitan Atlanta Musicians Association’s branch of the National Association of Negro Musicians. He joined The Atlanta Opera for the 2012-13 season and performed in its productions of Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri. He attended the Princeton Festival in the summer of 2014, where he performed in Porgy and Bess as a member of the chorus and a soloist. Clonts previously performed in the IU Opera Theater production of The Last Savage as Scientist. He also has previously appeared at IU in Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri, Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and Strauss’s Die Fledermaus as a member of the chorus. He performed the role of Bob Boles in Britten’s Peter Grimes in opera workshop under the direction of Carol Vaness and is a student of Brian Horne.

Tenor Max Zander is in the second year of his master’s degree studies. During his tenure at IU, he has appeared as Dr. Blind in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Basilio in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Bardolfo in Verdi’s Falstaff, Njegus in Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Rabbi in Menotti’s The Last Savage, Modiste/Liveryman in Massanet’s Cendrillon, and various characters in Candide as well as in the choruses of numerous other productions. Zander has also appeared as Prunier in Puccini’s La Rondine with Carol Vaness’s Graduate Opera Workshop and as Tolloller in the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s inaugural production of Iolanthe. His other operatic credits include Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore with the Montefeltro Festival in Italy, Flute in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Monostatos in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Halifax Summer Opera Festival in Canada, and Borsa in Rigoletto with the North Shore Music Festival. As a festival artist with Utah Festival Opera & Musical Theatre, Zander sang the roles of Parpignol in Puccini’s La Bohème and Anselmo in Man of La Mancha. He covered the roles of Sancho in Man of La Mancha and J.Pierrepont Finch in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He will return to the MAC stage for Oklahoma!, his sixteenth IU Opera production. He is a native of Great Neck, N.Y., and is currently a student of Patricia Stiles.