Nineteenth-Century Seville, Spain

Act I

Soldiers and townspeople mill around in a square in Seville. A young peasant girl, Micaela, asks the soldiers if they have seen Don José. Telling her he’ll be back soon, they try to persuade her to stay with them, but she declines. The relief soldiers, including Don José, arrive. Factory bells ring, and a group of cigarette girls arrives to return to work, including the popular gypsy beauty Carmen. She focuses her attention on Don José, who pretends not to notice. Before leaving, she seductively tosses a flower at him. Alone, Don José recovers the flower and reflects on Carmen’s charms. Micaela finds him and delivers both a letter and a kiss from his mother, who asks her son to marry Micaela. Don José promises his love and fidelity to Micaela, despite the temptations of Carmen. A ruckus erupts from the cigarette factory. Carmen has injured another woman, and the officer Zuniga commands Don José to escort Carmen to prison.But Don José succumbs to her charms. He agrees to a rendezvous and lets Carmen escape.

Act II

At Lillas Pastia’s inn, Carmen and her friends Frasquita and Mercedes consort with Zuniga and other soldiers. A group of revelers arrives, celebrating Escamillo, the illustrious bullfighter. The crowd cheers as Escamillo boasts of his victories. He notices Carmen, but she remains indifferent. Zuniga, also smitten, tells Carmen that he plans to return to the inn later to visit her. When the crowd disperses, the smugglers Remendado and Dancairo try to enlist the aid of Carmen, Frasquita, and Mercedes. Mercedes and Frasquita agree to help them smuggle contraband, but Carmen, expecting Don José, wants to stay at the inn. Don José arrives, and Carmen dances for him. But distant bugles signal him to return to his quarters, and he prepares to leave. Carmen mocks his obedience and encourages him to run away with her and lead the free gypsy life. Don José remains unconvinced until Zuniga returns to the inn seeking Carmen. In a jealous rage, Don José defies his officer’s orders to leave. As the smugglers pounce on Zuniga and escort him out of the inn, Don José has no choice but to remain with the gypsies.

Act III

At the mountain hideout of the smugglers, Don José longs for his mother, who still believes him an honest man. Carmen taunts him and urges him to leave, but he refuses. Frasquita and Mercedes tell their fortunes with a deck of cards. When Carmen takes her turn, the cards foretell death for her and Don José. The gypsies set off to smuggle contraband, leaving Don José behind to guard the camp. Micaela arrives at the mountain hideout searching for Don José and hides among the rocks. Escamillo approaches the camp looking for Carmen. He and Don José exchange words and begin to fight. But the smugglers return in time to stop Don José from wounding Escamillo, who invites them all to the bullfight in Seville. Her hiding place discovered, Micaela begs Don José to return home to his mother, who is dying. Despite his violent jealousy, Don José leaves with Micaela.

Act IV

At the bullfight, a crowd gathers to watch the procession of toreadors. Escamillo and Carmen arrive together. Mercedes and Frasquita warn Carmen that Don José is lurking about. Carmen, unafraid, waits alone for Don José. He approaches and begs her to leave with him. She insists that their affair is over, that she does not love him anymore, and that she now loves Escamillo. As Don José’s demands become more desperate, Carmen throws the ring he once gave her at him. Don José murders Carmen, while the crowd inside the bullring cheers Escamillo.

by Bret McCandless
Musicology Ph.D. Student

Carmen has seeped into the public imagination through its riveting melodies, dynamic storytelling, and sensational ending. Based on the novella by Prosper Mérimée and set to music by Georges Bizet on a libretto by the celebrated Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, Carmen remains one of the most performed operas in the repertoire: the Metropolitan Opera performed it for the one-thousandth time in 2015. Even if this is your first time seeing it in the opera house, you probably are familiar with many of the songs and the tragic ending. The story of the downfall of the naïve soldier Don José due to his irreconcilable desire for the gypsy Carmen has been adapted for numerous cartoons, films, and stage versions. Bizet’s lively music, which the composer described as “full of color and melody,” alternates between several styles for the different characters: playful children’s music, music of the utmost sincerity and piety for Micaëla, pompous and preening music for the toreador Escamillo, Hispanic tunes and dance music for Carmen, and rapturously lyric music for Don José. It is this varied and dazzling music that has continued to attract audiences for generations.

Despite its current international acclaim, the opera’s initial run was not so successful. Carmen premiered at the Opéra-Comique in Paris on March 3, 1875, after months of delays in rehearsal. Earlier that very day, Bizet’s appointment as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour was announced. Many French musical celebrities were there on opening night, and the audience seemed delighted with the first act. All seemed to portend success. But as the plot continued with Don José’s increasing desire for the tempting Carmen despite her growing indifference, the audience became dissatisfied with the opera. The critics were disappointed and upset not only with Bizet’s musical style, but also with the amorality of the heroine and her penchant for picking up men and flinging them aside on a whim. Critics also judged the opera too realistic and depressing due to the staged murder of Carmen and Don José’s unredeemed descent from bourgeois respectability, especially within the context of the usual opéra comique fare of romantic tales with happy endings suitable for family audiences. The chorus was especially dismayed at the demand for realism, as they were told to act like individuals onstage, which upset the norm of merely standing in a line and singing to the audience. In this first run, Carmen often played to half-empty houses. A small boost to ticket sales came only after Bizet’s early death at the age of 37 on the night of the thirty-third performance; he died believing his work to be a failure.

However, the story of Carmen does not end with this tepid French reception, as a modified version of the opera quickly rose to prominence. In October 1875, Carmen was staged at the Vienna Court Opera. The original Paris version had dialogue between the musical numbers, the defining feature of opéra comique. For Vienna, however, sung dialogue written by Bizet’s friend Ernest Guiraud replaced the spoken dialogue in order to create a “grand opera,” which also included a ballet in the second act based on Bizet’s L’Arlésienne Suite. While the ballet has often been discarded, the version of Carmen with sung dialogue is the version audiences outside of France know today, though stagings with the original dialogue have become more popular recently. Carmen’s success originates in this international reception, where it was enthusiastically received by personalities as diverse as Wagner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Otto von Bismarck, and Nietzsche, among others. In fact, it was Carmen that inspired Nietzsche to reject Wagner’s aesthetics of “brutal sound” for Bizet’s “graceful and light” orchestration. In addition, Nietzsche singles out Bizet’s tunes and popular song forms, devoid of Wagner’s “endless melody” style of composition. Perhaps it is telling that Don José’s meandering, lyric music comes closest to the aesthetics of endless melody, and it is his journey into insatiable lust that leads to his and Carmen’s ultimate demise. It will also lead to Don José’s own unstaged execution, which many early audience members likely knew from the novella.

Even for audiences who were unfamiliar with the story going in to the opera, Don José’s fate of unyielding, and fatal, attraction to Carmen is known from the very beginning. Throughout the opera, Bizet uses a musical motif—often called the “fate motif”—to comment on Don José’s attraction to Carmen. This figure emerges at the very end of the prelude to the first act when, after the active, celebratory music that will accompany the victorious toreador later in the opera, the prelude suddenly stops. Out of this void comes a shimmering minor chord, followed by a short, but forceful utterance by the cellos. The melodic characteristics of this fate motif evoke images of anguish and the Orient, and in this context, become musical symbols of the exotic gypsy Carmen. The cellos play the motif in different keys, but it never resolves, instead exploding into a highly dissonant chord. It returns throughout the opera whenever Carmen and Don José have a noteworthy interaction: when Carmen drops her flower for Don José in Act I, when he returns to her after being imprisoned in Act II, when Carmen foresees death for them both while fortunetelling in Act III, and immediately before and after he kills her in Act IV. By outlining the course of the drama in the prelude and weaving this unifying motif in between memorable popular songs, Bizet creates an engaging and dynamic opera.

Despite its captivating music, the opera’s conclusion can prove unsettling for modern audiences. Scholars have questioned some of the gendered aspects of the opera, debating whether Carmen’s death is necessary and whether this has any effect on the ethics of continuing to perform the opera. Some ascribe Carmen’s death to “fate,” as the opening motif suggests, and argue that Carmen embraces her fate because it is inevitable. Others contend that the ending serves to reassert patriarchal control over Carmen’s sexual transgressions and her ethnic Otherness. Bizet’s music may even evoke desire in the listener for Don José to dispatch of Carmen in order to resolve the chromatic tension. In a more nuanced reading, Don José is the psychological victim, as there is no place in his culture to indulge in the freedom that Carmen inspires, and this frustration ultimately results in violence. No matter the interpretation, Carmen will always end in the heroine’s violent death, and it is the audience who must decide whether the pleasure derived from the magnificent music will outweigh the ethical implications of Bizet’s magnum opus.

David Effron’s 50-year career has included appearances with major symphonies and opera companies around the globe. He has conducted 105 operas and most of the standard symphonic works. For 18 years, he was on the conducting staff of the New York City Opera, where he conducted many performances, not only in New York, but also with the City Opera residencies in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. He has been the music director of the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra and the artistic director of the Central City (Colo.) Opera and the Brevard Music Center (N.C.). For 10 years, he was the general music director of the Heidelberg (Germany) Castle Festival. After his tenure as music director of the Music School Festival Orchestra in Chautauqua, N.Y., the David Effron Fellowship was established. He taught at the Curtis Institute of Music and, for 21 years, was head of the orchestral program at the Eastman School of Music. Since 1998, he has been an active conductor at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he is a professor of music in the Orchestral Conducting Department. Effron was the conductor of the Grammy Award-winning recording of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait narrated by William Warfield. His discography also includes a Pantheon recording with soprano Benita Valente, which won the German Record Critics’ Award. He earned degrees from the University of Michigan and Indiana University. He was an assistant to Maestro Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Cologne (Germany) Opera House. He has been a Fulbright Scholar and a recipient of a Rockefeller Foundation Grant. He was named Musician of the Year by the National Federation of Music Clubs and was awarded an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University.

Opera News calls director Jeffrey Marc Buchman “a formidable talent,” and the Miami Herald claims “Buchman has mastered an art beyond the powers of many directors.” Last season, he created the world premiere of Carson Kievman’s new opera, Intelligent Systems, which was named “Most innovated innovative? production of 2015” by the Miami Herald. His busy season also included a return to Indiana University for La Bohème, a new production of Gianni Schicchi and Suor Angelica for University of Miami, Così fan tutte for the Brevard Music Festival, Don Giovanni for the Miami Summer Music Festival, Haydn’s Lo Speziale for the New World School of the Arts, Manon Lescaut for Mobile Opera, and Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Syracuse Opera. In addition, he created a ground-breaking multimedia arena event for the Grand Rapids Symphony that included over 1,500 performers performing with 3D motions graphics.

In the 2013-14 season, he created new productions of La Traviata for Indiana University, La tragédie de Carmen for Syracuse Opera, Don Giovanni for UCLA, Il Barbiere di Siviglia for the Orlando Philharmonic, La Cenerentola for Green Mountain Opera Festival, Le Nozze di Figaro for the Miami Summer Music Festival, L’Elisir d’Amore for Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s Summer Program, and No Exit for Florida Grand Opera, which was named “One of the best and brightest of 2014” by the Miami Herald. Buchman also created the world premiere of Carson Kievman’s innovative chamber opera, Fairy Tales: Songs of the Dandelion Woman. Other recent highlights include Buchman’s debut with Atlanta Opera—directing Carmen—and a triumphant return to Florida Grand Opera for new productions of The Magic Flute and Rigoletto, L’Elisir d’Amore for Toledo Opera, Roméo et Juliette for Intermountain Opera, Turandot for Mobile Opera, South Pacific for Anchorage Opera, Il Trovatore and Faust for Opera Naples, Hansel and Gretel for Sarasota Opera, and Cold Sassy Tree for Sugar Creek Symphony & Song.

His work with young singers has been extensive. He has directed young artists at Seattle Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Tulsa Opera, Sarasota Opera, Chautauqua Opera, UCLA, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music’s Summer Program, Brevard Music Festival, Indiana University, Miami Summer Music Festival, and the New World School of the Arts.

Buchman began his music studies at the Baltimore School for the Arts and later at the Interlochen Arts Academy. He earned a Bachelor of Music in Opera degree from the Boston Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in Voice degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in his native city of Baltimore, Md. He studied German at the Goethe Institut in Prien am Chiemsee, Germany, and Spanish at the Instituto Cervantes. He trained in the Young Artist Program of the Florida Grand Opera, where he later was honored with the company’s Evelyn P.Gilbert Award, and also in the Studio and Apprentice Artist programs of Central City Opera, where he was received its Studio Artist of the Year award. Winner of the prestigious Luciano Pavarotti International Voice Competition, Buchman began his work in opera as an acclaimed singer noted for his ability to merge acting and singing. Other prizes include first prize in the National Voice Competition of the National Society of Arts and Letters and a Richard F.Gold career grant from the Shoshana Foundation.

Robert O’Hearn earned his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 1943. Now retired, as principal designer for IU Opera and Ballet Theater, O’Hearn designed sets and costumes for more than 40 productions and taught in the Opera Studies program for many years. Prior to coming to IU, he designed sets and costumes for the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna Staatsoper, Vienna Volksoper, Hamburg Staatsoper, New York City Opera, Greater Miami Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, and Ballet West. O’Hearn served as professor for the Studio and Forum of Stage Design in New York from 1968 to 1988. He has given lectures and classes at Carnegie Mellon, Brandeis, and Penn State University. In 2005, he received the Robert L.B.Tobin Award for Lifetime Achievement in Theatrical Design

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 IU African American Art Institute’s Dance Ensemble, and Cardinal Stage Company. In addition to his work in Bloomington, he has worked at Spoleto Festival USA. Mero originally hails from Charleston, S.C., but calls Bloomington home.

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 120 productions and receiving critical acclaim in the United States and abroad. Huff earned 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 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, The Last Savage, South Pacific, Die Zauberflöte, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Dead Man Walking, and Die Fledermaus. In June 2015, 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.

Brent Gault has taught elementary and early childhood music courses in Texas, Wisconsin, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Indiana. He specializes in elementary general music education, early childhood music education, and Kodály-inspired methodology. Gault also has training in both the Orff and Dalcroze approaches to music education. He has presented sessions and research at conferences of the American Orff-Schulwerk Association, Dalcroze Society of America, International Kodály Society, International Society for Music Education, Organization of American Kodály Educators, and MENC: The National Association for Music Education.In addition, he has served as a presenter and guest lecturer for colleges and music education organizations in the United States and China. Articles by Gault have been published in various music education periodicals, including the Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education, Journal of Research in Music Education, Music Educators Journal, General Music Today, Kodály Envoy, Orff Echo, and American Dalcroze Journal.In addition to his duties with the Jacobs School Music Education Department, Gault serves as the program director for the Indiana University Children’s Choir, where he conducts the Allegro Choir. He is a past president of the Organization of American Kodály Educators.

Born in Barcelona, Spain, Rosa Mercedes is an internationally acclaimed dancer and choreographer in flamenco, escuela bolera, classical Spanish, and regional dance. Trained by many of the world’s great Spanish dance masters, she expanded her training to include dance styles such as ballet, jazz, historic, and modern dance, which produced in her a style that combines the power and fire of flamenco with a lyricism and line rarely seen in Spanish dance. Hailed by Dance Magazine as “a virtuoso,” her talents have been featured by dance companies, dance festivals, and symphony orchestras throughout the United States and Europe.

As a soloist and principal dancer, she has received great critical acclaim performing throughout the United States, Europe, South America, and Canada with companies including María Benítez’s Teatro Flamenco, Compañía Flamenca de Carmen Cortés, Ballet Español de Lucía Real y El Camborio, Ballet Español de Madrid, Zorongo Flamenco Dance Theatre, and Ballet Español Rosita Segovia. She was also rehearsal director and choreographer with the companies of both Maria Benitez and Rosita Segovia.

Mercedes has enjoyed an extensive career in opera and zarzuela under conductors such as James Levine, Marco Armiliato, and Julius Rudel, and alongside major singing talents such as Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Agnes Baltsa, Denyse Graves, and José Carreras. Her work in opera began at the Liceu in Barcelona and led her to being featured as a principal dancer and later as a choreographer with companies such as the Metropolitan Opera, Opera di Roma, Seattle Opera, Atlanta Opera, Michigan Opera Theatre, Dallas Opera, Baltimore Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Florentine Opera, Palm Beach Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Opera Lyra Ottawa, Syracuse Opera, Green Mountain Opera, Brevard Music Festival, Tulsa Opera, and many others.

Her versatility in a wide variety of dance styles is demonstrated in her vast repertoire, which includes Lucia de Lammermoor, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Zauberflöte, Aida, La Gioconda, Turandot, La Traviata, Carmen, Rigoletto, Don Quichotte, Don Giovanni, Il Trovatore, Ainadamar, The Passenger, Così fan tutte, Le Nozze di Figaro, La Cenerentola, Faust, Ballo in Maschera, Die Fledermaus, Salome, The Merry Widow, Coronazione di Poppea, Roméo et Juliette, Madama Butterfly, La Vida Breve, and Samson et Dalila.

Other career highlights include performances with Savion Glover in Miami on Tap, a gala for UNICEF alongside Audrey Hepburn and Liza Minelli, a special collaboration for the production Tango with Armando Orzuza and Daniela Arcuri (of Evita and Tango Pasión), performances with Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, and José Carreras in the Three Tenors Gala with the Metropolitan Opera, concerts with the Gypsy Kings and Sara Montiel, and the internationally televised program Premios Lo Nuestro with David Bisbal.

Mercedes is a recipient of several awards, including the Dance Miami Choreographers Fellowship and the ACCA Critics Choice Award in dance. She serves on several grant panels and is a dance panelist and master teacher for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. She has over 30 years of teaching experience and is highly sought after as a master teacher around the world. She also specializes in master classes in movement for singers as well as coaching singers in specific role preparation.

As artistic director of Duende Ballet Español, she created an eclectic repertoire of over 20 works that honor Spain’s music, poetry and richly varied dance styles, embracing innovation while preserving and remaining true to Spanish dance traditions.

Matt Herndon is an advanced actor combatant with The Society of American Fight Directors, a Bloomington native, and a graduate of IU (B.A. in Theatre and Drama, 2011). He has choreographed the violence for several local productions, including Così fan tutte and Dead Man Walking for IU Opera Theater; Billy Witch, She Kills Monsters, and Mad Gravity for the Bloomington Playwrights Project; king oedipus, Macbeth, Oleanna, and The Rimers of Eldritch for Ivy Tech Theatre; The Lieutenant of Inishmore for University Players; The Crucible and Waiting for Lefty for Bloomington High School North; Sonia Flew for Jewish Theatre of Bloomington; and IU independent productions of Sunday on the Rocks, Closer, and Hamlet. Herndon has also served as the stunt coordinator for several local short films, including Disdain, Daystime, Caligo, Sequela, Team Inspire, Born Again, and Pilgrimage.

Gary Arvin is currently associate professor of vocal coaching, repertoire, and diction at the Jacobs School of Music. Previous credits with IU Opera Theater include serving as diction coach for recent productions of Werther, Cendrillon, Faust, Roméo et Juliette, and The Light in the Piazza. Before joining the faculty at Indiana University, Arvin was a vocal coach and assistant conductor for Houston Grand Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and Santa Fe Opera, and taught at the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. As a Fulbright Scholar, he studied at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna after earning degrees in voice and languages from IU and in vocal coaching from the University of Illinois. As a collaborative pianist with singers, he has appeared in recital throughout the United States, Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Finland, and Korea, and distinguished himself as a pianist-collaborator both here and abroad for Gérard Souzay in French mélodies, Hans Hotter in German lieder, and Sir Peter Pears in the vocal works of Benjamin Britten.Arvin has recorded for ORF (Austria), National Radio of Finland, National Radio of the Czech Republic, and Sung-Eun Records (Korea).

Daniela Siena brings many years of experience in teaching Italian diction and language to singers. She was introduced to operatic diction by Boris Goldovsky, who was seeking a native speaker without teaching experience to work with singers according to his own pedagogical principles. Siena went on to teach in a number of operatic settings (among them, the Curtis Institute of Music, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, and Seattle Opera). Over the years, she worked with a number of well-known singers, including Samuel Ramey, Justino Díaz, Carol Vaness, Wolfgang Brendel, June Anderson, Gianna Rolandi, and Jerry Hadley. The conductors, coaches, and stage directors with whom she has worked include Otto Guth, Max Rudolf, Edoardo Müller, David Effron, Arthur Fagen, Anthony Pappano, Anthony Manoli, Terry Lusk, Dino Yannopoulos, Tito Capobianco, Andrei Șerban, John Cox, and John Copley. At New York City Opera, Siena worked closely with Beverly Sills—as her executive assistant, as a diction coach, and as the creator of English supertitles for a dozen operas. More recently, she worked for two years as a coach for the Young Artists Program of the Los Angeles Opera and, for the past six years, she has taught in Dolora Zajick’s summer Institute for Young Dramatic Voices. Born in Florence, Italy, to an Italian mother and a Russian émigré father, Siena arrived in the United States at age seven. She received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College and, in her twenties, worked for two years in Italy as secretary to the president of the Olivetti Company. Many years later, she continued her education, earned a master’s degree, and became licensed as a psychotherapist by the state of California, where she practiced for 15 years. The mother of two grown children, she moved to Bloomington to be near her son, who lives here with his wife and two young daughters.

Trey Smagur is a 25-year-old tenor hailing from Clarkesville, Ga. Last year, he was awarded an encouragement award at the Southeastern Regional Metropolitan Opera Council Auditions. Last summer, Smagur was an apprentice artist at the Des Moines Metro Opera Company, where he will be returning this summer to cover Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon. He currently studies voice performance with Carlos Montané at the Jacobs School of Music in pursuit of a performer diploma and was awarded the Georgina Joshi Graduate Fellowship for the 2015-16 academic year. Smagur has performed numerous times at IU, including lead roles in IU Opera Theater’s productions of Mozart’s The Magic Flute (Tamino) and Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore (Ralph Rackstraw).

Canadian tenor Justin Stolz is currently a graduate student at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Timothy Noble. He is a recent graduate of The Glenn Gould School at The Royal Conservatory of Music, where he studied under Monica Whicher as an Investco Scholarship recipient and a 125 Scholarship recipient. His voice studies began with Mary McGhee in his hometown of Thunder Bay, Ontario.Stolz’s recent performance credits include Mr. Owen in Argento’s Postcard from Morocco, Rodolfo in Puccini’s La Bohème, Young Gypsy in Rachmaninoff’s Aleko, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Pane in Cavalli’s La Calisto. Other notable performances include Leon in the Canadian premiere of Milhaud’s La mère coupable and Count di Belprato in Cagnoni’s Don Bucefalo. Last fall, Stolz placed first in the Annual S. Livingston Mather Competition in Cleveland, Ohio.His performance tonight as Don José marks his IU Opera Theater debut.

Courtney Ellen Bray made her debut in Germany in the title role of Cenerentola in Rossini’s La Cenerentola. As a singer under contract in Germany, she performed a large and varied repertoire, including opera, operetta, orchestral concerts, and art song recitals. She has appeared as a leading lyric mezzo-soprano in Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Mexico, and the United States. Roles include Suzuki in Madame Butterfly, Giulietta in The Tales of Hoffmann, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, Maddalena in Rigoletto, Mistress Quickly in Falstaff, and Iphigénie in Iphigénie en Tauride, and scenes as Azucena in Il Trovatore and Amneris in Aida. In 2006, Bray made her American concert hall debut on the main stage of Carnegie Hall, as a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem and Bruckner’s Te Deum. She returned to New York to sing at Carnegie again in the United States premiere of Cherubini’s Medée in the original French version. She has been a featured soloist with the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra in Mexico. This led to invitations by both the Silesian Philharmonic and the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra to appear as featured soloist in festival opera concerts. She performed Erda from Wagner’s Das Rheingold in Teatro Goldoni in Livorno, Italy, and Waltraute’s Narrative from Götterdämmerung in Oklahoma. As the two-time first-place winner of the Benton-Schmidt Vocal Competition, she earned her master’s degree at the University of Oklahoma in May 2013. Bray is currently pursuing a performer diploma at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Carol Vaness.

Spanish soprano Patricia Illera is a first-year master’s student at Indiana University under the tutelage of Carol Vaness. After pursuing her Bachelor of Medicine degree from the Autonomous University of Madrid, she started her Bachelor in Voice Performance in the Escuela Superior de Canto de Madrid, where she studied with soprano Sara Matarranz and vocal coach Jorge Robaina. Illera then had the opportunity to perform the roles of Paloma in Barbieri’s El Barberillo de Lavapiés and Gertrud in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. While a soprano section leader in the Madrid Youth’s Choir, she appeared also as a soloist in Vivaldi’s Gloria, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and Mozart’s C Minor Mass, among others. She was a winner of the Joven Orquesta y Coro de la Comunidad de Madrid (JORCAM) Competition award and the Academy of International Education scholarship, as well as a finalist in Elda’s International Competition and the Magda Olivero International Voice Competition. Illera participated in the European Young Artists Program, performing the roles of Mimi in Puccini’s La Bohème, Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, and several of Zarzuela’s roles. She has studied with professional singers such as Santiago Calderón, Nicola Beller, Francesca Roig, Carlos Chausson, Alessandra Althoff, and Ileana Cotrubas, and with vocal coaches such as Giulio Zappa, Borja Mariño, Miquel Ortega, and Alberto Malazzi.

Soprano Yuji Bae, a native of South Korea, is a performer diploma student at the Jacobs School of Music. She earned her bachelor’s degree in music from Seoul National University (SNU), where she studied with Philip Kang. After earning her B.M. degree from SNU, she studied at Rimini Academia, where she performed the role of Violetta in Verdi’s La Traviata. She also studied at the Rossini Conservatorio in Pesaro, Italy. Bae has performed as a rising star in Seoul and in a gala concert in Pesaro, Italy. She is a first-place winner of the Concorso Internazionale Città di Pesaro (summer 2014), first-place winner of the Korea Herald Music Competition, third-place winner of the Music Education News Competition, special-prize winner of the National Teenager Music Competition, and second-place winner of the Bucheon Teenager Music Competition. She sang the role of Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute last year. Bae is a student of Costanza Cuccaro.

Soprano Claire Lopatka is making her solo debut with IU Opera Theater in this production of Carmen. She is a senior pursing her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance under the tutelage of Heidi Grant Murphy. At IU, she has been privileged to also study with other distinguished faculty members, including Scharmal Schrock and Teresa Kubiak. In Lopatka’s hometown of State College, Pa., she began her operatic studies with Norman Spivey of Penn State University. She spent a summer in France with the Franco-American Vocal Academy and performed the role of Achilles in Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène. She spent last summer in Utah performing with the Utah Festival, covering the roles of Musetta in Puccini’s La Bohème and Julie Jordan in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Lopatka will return to Utah this summer to perform the role of Lauretta in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi and to cover Magnolia in Kern and Hammerstein’s Show Boat.

Ross Coughanour is a baritone from Santaquin, Utah, currently pursuing a master’s degree at Indiana University. He earned a B.A. in Vocal Performance from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 2013. While at BYU, Coughanour performed such roles as Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Ben in Menotti’s The Telephone, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Dr. Stone in Menotti’s Help, Help, the Globolinks!, Somarone and Leonato in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, and the Duke of Plaza-Toro in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers. He has also played the Marquiz in Verdi’s La Traviata with the Utah Lyric Opera, Uncle Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Utah Lyric Opera, and Edwin in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury with Snow College Opera. At IU, he was featured as Mang Ong in the world premiere of P.Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kính, Marcello in Puccini’s La Bohème, Melisso in Handel’s Alcina, and the Pirate King in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance.

Originally from Fuzhou, Fujian province, China, Jianan Huang is a second-year master’s student in the Jacobs School of Music and a recent graduate of Adelphi University. At IU, he has sung a baritone solo with the University Choir and made his IU Opera Theater debut as Speaker in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. He recently made his New York City debut as Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte. In 2014, Huang participated in the International Vocal Arts Institute Summer Program and sang the role of Belcore from Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’amore. He also participated in the Manhattan School of Music Summer Opera Program, where he sang the role of Mercurio in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea. He has participated in the Opera Breve Vocal Intensive Workshop in Wichita Falls, Texas, for the past two summers, singing the roles of the Count in Mozart’s Le Nozzedi Figaro and Marco in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.In 2016, he won second prize of the National Society of Arts and Letters National Annual Awards Competition, and in 2013, he won first prize in the National Association of Teachers of Singing New York City regionals competition. Huang currently studies with Andreas Poulimenos.

Jeremy Gussin, bass-baritone, is a second-year doctoral student studying under Andreas Poulimenos.From Iowa City, Iowa, he completed his undergraduate studies in music education at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (UWEC). While at UWEC, Gussin performed as Papageno in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with UWEC Opera, sang with the DownBeat Award-winning Jazz Ensemble I under the direction of Bob Baca, and composed for and student-conducted the Singing Statesmen. A strong proponent of contemporary popular music, Gussin participated as a panelist in a discussion on vocal jazz and contemporary a cappella at the national American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) convention in 2013. He arranged two pieces for the “A Community that Sings” initiative at the 2014 North Central Division ACDA convention in Des Moines, Iowa. While at IU, he has performed as a soloist for the Singing Hoosiers and the Vocal Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Ly Wilder and the late Steve Zegree. Gussin has appeared in IU Opera productions of Verdi’s Falstaff (Pistola), Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro (Antonio), P.Q.Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kính (Ly Troung), Menotti’s The Last Savage (Maharajah), and Heggie’s Dead Man Walking (Warden). He sings professionally on studio sessions for clients such as Hal Leonard Corporation, Alfred Music, and Lorenz Corporation through Airborne Studios in Zionsville, Ind.

Bass-baritone Andrew Richardson is a doctoral student at the Jacobs School of Music. Hailing from South Bend, Ind., he earned his bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from DePauw University and his master’s degree from Indiana University. While at IU, Richardson has appeared as George Benton (Heggie’s Dead Man Walking), Rambaldo (Puccini’s La Rondine), Sarastro and the Second Armored Man (Mozart’s The Magic Flute), the Maharajah (Menotti’s The Last Savage), The Father (Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel), Ariodate (Handel’s Xerxes), the Notary (Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier), Benoit/Alcindoro (Puccini’s La Bohème), Antonio (Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro), and Wagner (Gounod’s Faust). He performed the role of Uberto in a special production of Pergolesi’s La serva padrona at IU. Other performances include Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro), Simone (Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi), and Colline (La Bohème). Over the summer, Richardson performed Schubert’s Winterreise at the Green Castle Summer Music Festival as well as in recitals featuring Brahms’ Vier ernste Gesänge and Schumann’s Liederkreis, Op. 39. He is a student of Andreas Poulimenos.

Mark Billy is a lyric baritone and Native American (Choctaw) from Finley, Okla. His undergraduate studies in voice at the University of Oklahoma (OU) were under the mentorship of baritone Richard Anderson. Billy made his operatic debut as Il Commendatore in OU Opera Theatre’s 2012 production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni. In 2013, he sang the role of Thoas in OU’s production of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, and in 2014, he sang the lead role of Simon in OU’s choreographed production of Haydn’s oratorio Die Jahreszeiten. He has also received instruction from legendary mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne in both master classes and private lessons. This past fall, he appeared in the chorus for IU Opera’s production of Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. In December 2015, he was featured in an opera workshop as Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff and as the title role in Rigoletto. Billy will sing Lescaut in scenes from Massenet’s Manon for an opera workshop this April. He studies with soprano Carol Vaness.

Romanian baritone Teofil Munteanu is currently a freshman pursuing a B.M. in Voice Performance. He is the recipient of an Indiana University Jacobs School of Music Premier Young Artist Award Scholarship and a Music Faculty Award Scholarship. He sang in Lotte Lehmann Akademie’s production of Mozart’s Così fan tutte and has performed throughout Germany in many recitals. He was the youngest artist in the Sankt Goar International Music Festival and Academy’s Opera Audition session(s). At the academy, Munteanu worked with many artistic directors, pianists, and singers, including soprano Elena Gorshunova, Helmut Deutsch, and Sebastian Schwarz. He has performed in concert with the Phoenix Opera under the baton of John Massaro. Munteanu was most recently seen as a prison guard in IU Opera Theater’s 2015 production of Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. He has studied privately with Gail Dubinbaum and John Massaro. He is currently studying with Andreas Poulimenos.

Soprano Emma Donahue is a native of Vinalhaven, Maine. At age 8, she premiered the role of the Migratory Bird in William Bolcom’s The Wind in the Willows and at age 12, appeared as a soloist in the musical Islands on Broadway. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where her operatic credits include Adina (Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore), Belinda (Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas), Adele (Strauss’s Die Fledermaus), Nannetta (Verdi’s Falstaff), and Violetta (Verdi’s La Traviata). Internationally, she has performed Ismene in Mozart’s Mitridate in Melbourne and Musetta in La Bohème at Opera on the Avalon in Newfoundland. Donahue debuted last year as Queen of the Night in IU Opera Theater’s production of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. Other IU credits include Lisette (Puccini’s La Rondine), Suor Genovieffa (Puccini’s Suor Angelica), and Nella (Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi) with the Vaness Opera Workshop, as well as appearances in Menotti’s The Last Savage and P.Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kính. As a concert soloist, she has sung in Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Requiem with the University Singers, Beethoven’s Mass in C Major with the University Chorale, and Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the IU Summer Philharmonic. She currently holds the position of soprano soloist for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s Discovery Concert Series. An IU Artistic Excellence Award recipient, Donahue is pursuing a Master of Music degree as a student of Carol Vaness.

Soprano Madeline Ley is completing her master’s degree at the Jacobs School of Music. Originally from Elkton, Md., she earned her B.M. in Voice Performance from Wheaton College Conservatory of Music. While there, Ley was a soloist with the Wheaton College Concert Choir in Mozart’s Requiem and Aaron Copland’s In the Beginning. She was also involved in the opera program at Wheaton, where she sang the role of Hansel in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and sang in Mozart opera scenes as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro, and Zerlina from Don Giovanni. In summer of 2011, Ley studied opera at the Manhattan School of Music, where she sang inthe scenes program as Mercedes from Carmen and Third Lady from Die Zauberflöte. Before finishing her undergraduate studies, she studied abroad with Oberlin in Italy, where she sang the scenes of the role of Zenobia from Handel’s Radamisto and in the chorus of Puccini’s La Bohème. At IU, she has performed as Kätchen in Massanet’s Werther and in the chorus for P.Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kính, Puccini’s La Bohème, and Mozart’s The Magic Flute. She is a student of Timothy Noble.

Chelsea DeLorenz is a mezzo-soprano from Garland, Texas, in her second year of graduate studies under the tutelage of Patricia Stiles. She previously attended The University of Texas at Austin, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa with degrees in both Spanish and voice performance. This past summer, DeLorenz performed the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon with the Miami Summer Music Festival. Other recent credits include the roles of Ruth (Pirates of Penzance) with the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society, Hansel (Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel), and Susanna Walcott (Ward’s The Crucible).

Mezzo-soprano Marianthi Hatzis 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. Hatzis has appeared with IU Opera Theater as Zulma in Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri and Liat in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. She has performed the role of Second Woman and was the understudy of Dido in Dido and Aeneas with Lefkas Music in Lefkada, Greece. Additionally, she has appeared with New Voices Opera in its Fall Exhibition as the title mezzo role in Kimberly Osberg’s opera Thump. She has also performed in the Jacobs School of Music’s Summer Opera Workshop as Poppea in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea and Giannetta in Donizetti’s L’Elisir d’Amore. Hatzis has appeared as a soloist in IU’s contemporary vocal ensemble NOTUS, University Singers, and Conductors’ Chorus, and was a member of Eric Whitacre’s Chicago premiere of Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings.She won first place in the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Competition and first place in the Fourth-Year College Women division of the Indiana National Association of Teachers of Singing Chapter. She has performed for audiences such as the Metropolitan Iakovos of Chicago and the Greek Archdiocese of Chicago. She will be singing in the Young Artist Program of SongFest this May with a full- tuition scholarship. A native of Greece, she lives in Chicago and plans to continue her studies in Europe this coming year.

Andres Acosta is a first-year graduate student at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Carlos Montané. Acosta, a Miami, Fla., native, earned his undergraduate degree from Florida State University as a part of David Okerlund’s studio. He made his IU Opera debut as Alfred in Strauss’s Die Fledermaus earlier this season. He has recently portrayed the roles of Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Sellem in Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Sam Kaplan in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene. Acosta was awarded the Judy George Junior Young Artist First Prize Award in the 2015 Young Patronesses of the Opera Voice Competition. He was nominated as 2014 Humanitarian of the Year at Florida State University and is recognized as a Brautlecht Estate Endowed and Music Guild Scholar.

Baritone Benjamin Seiwert is a senior pursuing a B.M. in Voice Performance at Indiana University. While at IU, he has performed the roles of The Painter and English Tailor in The Last Savage by Menotti and The Motorcycle Cop in Dead Man Walking by Heggie. He has also performed the roles of Lord Tolloller from Iolanthe and Samuel from The Pirates of Penzance with the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society. Seiwart has sung in several opera choruses, including Massanet’s Cendrillon, Verdi’s Falstaff, Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore, Rossini’s L’Italiani in Algeri, Menotti’s The Last Savage, and Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. He is a student of Patricia Stiles.

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.