Nagasaki, 1913

Act I

Lieutenant Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton of the U.S. Navy, amused by certain Japanese customs and determined to enjoy the pleasures of any country in which he finds himself stationed, has arranged through Goro, a marriage broker, to wed a young Japanese geisha named Cio-Cio San, whose nickname is Madama Butterfly. Pinkerton intends to marry in Japanese fashion for 999 years, but with a monthly escape clause. The American Consul, Sharpless, tries to dissuade Pinkerton, as he senses the bride believes the marriage will be binding. Pinkerton brushes aside the Consul’s concerns and orders Goro to summon the bridal company.

Butterfly appears with her relatives and friends. Following introductions, the marriage contract is drawn, witnessed, and signed. As the crowd toasts the couple’s happiness, Cio-Cio San’s name is ominously shouted by her uncle, a fanatical Buddhist monk. He curses Butterfly for rejecting her faith in order to marry the American. Pinkerton confronts him while her relative renounce the young girl. Pinkerton, touched by her weeping and anguish, consoles her as the evening descends.

Act II

Three years have passed since Pinkerton sailed away, leaving Butterfly with the promise that he would return when the red-breasted robins nested again. Suzuki is skeptical of his return and expresses concern that their money is almost gone. Butterfly angrily upbraids Suzuki and sings of the day when her husband will return to her.

Goro and Sharpless arrive. Sharpless has received a letter from Pinkerton, and attempts to read it to her, but she interrupts, asking about the frequency of robins nesting in America, as they have nested in Japan three times since Pinkerton’s departure. The Consul cannot answer. Goro attempts to interest her again in Prince Yamadori, a rich gentleman who loves her, but Butterfly declares proudly that she is already married. Goro informs her that by Japanese law, she is divorced, as her husband has left her. She declares herself judged only by the laws of the United States, and Yamadori departs sadly. Sharpless attempts again to read her the letter, but cannot continue. He finally asks what she would do if Pinkerton never returned. After a moment of shock, she replies that she would prefer to die. Suddenly, she shows her child to Sharpless, who, surprised, agrees that he resembles an American baby. She informs him that the child is named Sorrow, but that her husband, when he hears about the child, will quickly return, and the baby will be renamed Joy. Sharpless promises her that Pinkerton will be told and leaves. Soon after, a distant cannon announces the arrival of Pinkerton’s warship, the Abraham Lincoln. Butterfly ecstatic with anticipation, hurries to prepare for her beloved’s arrival, strewing the house with flowers. Butterfly, Suzuki, and the child peer out into the deepening darkness, waiting the arrival of Pinkerton. As night comes, first the child, then Suzuki fall asleep, but Butterfly, rigid and silent, holds her vigil.

Act III

Suzuki and the child are sleeping, but Butterfly has remained awake, watching and waiting. As the sun rises, Suzuki convinces Butterfly to rest and promises to awaken her when Pinkerton arrives.

Sharpless arrives with Pinkerton, accompanied by a woman. Suzuki’s suspicions are quickly confirmed as she discovers that the woman is Pinkerton’s wife, Kate. They have come to take his son back to America. As Suzuki mourns, Sharpless tries to convince her to accept Kate, and Pinkerton begins to comprehend the full measure of pain and anguish for which he alone is responsible. He cannot remain to face the unsuspecting Butterfly and leaves Sharpless to settle the matter.

Butterfly awakens, seeking her husband, but instead confronts Sharpless and Kate Pinkerton. Butterfly, dazed, offers Kate best wishes for happiness, and says that if Pinkerton comes back in a half hour, she will give him the child. Sharpless and Kate retreat, while Butterfly takes her father’s knife bearing the inscription, “To die with honor when one can no longer live with honor,” and prepares to commit suicide. Her child runs to her, and she bids him farewell, asking that he not forget her.

“Madama Butterfly and the Limits of Artistic Realism”

by Matthew Leone

Musicology Ph.D. Candidate

From early twentieth-century critics to modern biographers, “realism” is one of the most common labels applied to Puccini’s operas, and different authors have identified various forms of realism in these works—psychological, visual, historical, musical, and many others. The realism of Puccini’s 1904 opera Madama Butterfly, however, presents a special set of problems, particularly in confronting the opera’s portrayal of the Far East. On the one hand, Puccini and his collaborators went to considerable lengths to depict Japan and its culture as authentically as possible. In this regard, when compared to many works by Puccini’s contemporaries, Madama Butterfly represents a more nuanced, accurate, and perhaps—to our sensibilities, at least—respectful portrayal of early twentieth-century Japan. On the other hand, Puccini’s opera also reflects numerous nineteenth-century European misperceptions and stereotypes of Japan’s culture and people, as well as the biases of Puccini’s source material, and the composer’s own artistic motivations. When considering Madama Butterfly’s depiction of Japan, we may benefit from keeping in mind one of Oscar Wilde’s artistic axioms: “No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.”

In their initial research for the opera, Puccini and his team immersed themselves in various facets of Japanese culture. The costume designer Giuseppe Palanti consulted a wide sampling of publications on Japanese fashion and architecture, and although theFrench stage designer Albert Carré was unable to visit Japan in his research, he scoured the wealthy Parisian suburbs for authentic replicas of Japanese bridges and gardens while designing the Paris production. Puccini took even greater initiative in representing Japan realistically, and as was typical for him, his concerns encompassed multiple aspects of the opera. In 1902, he consulted the well-regarded geisha and actress Kawakami Sadayakko to discuss nuances of speaking and body language in Japan. Later that same year, Oyama Hisako (the wife of the Japanese minister in Rome) sang various traditional Japanese melodies for him, provided him with phonograph records of Japanese tunes, and even offered advice on character names.

Despite these aspirations, there are still many limits to Madama Butterfly’s realism. Perhaps most notable, the two main literary sources for the opera’s libretto—John Luther Long’s novella “Madame Butterfly,” and David Belasco’s staged drama based on the novella—contain a cluttered mixture of factual details and erroneous myths about Japan and its culture. While details such as the houses of paper and wood, the marriage contract, and even Butterfly’s method of suicide are roughly plausible, the depictions of Japanese religious practices contain numerous errors. At an even broader level, however, Long and Belasco’s vision of Japan, carried over into Puccini’s opera, also reflected a romanticized perception of the country found in countless European paintings, musical works, and literature of the late nineteenth century. Such artworks imagined Japan as a peaceful, naive land of innocent geishas, mysterious rituals, and unspoiled natural wonders, far removed from European modernity. As prominent as this perception was, though, it was hardly nuanced or realistic. By 1904, when Butterfly first appeared on the opera stage, Japan was already a burgeoning industrial and military power, having drawn some of its inspiration, paradoxically enough, from Europe’s own industrial and imperialist history.

Beyond the questionable source material and these general misconceptions, though, perhaps the biggest foil to Madama Butterfly’s realism is the very fact that it is indeed an opera first and foremost. For all their efforts at authenticity, Puccini and his team still placed considerable priority on creating a dramatically successful and emotionally compelling opera within the conventions of the genre. For instance, Puccini wove almost a dozen authentic Japanese melodies into his score, but he often used them as traditional operatic leitmotifs to represent characters and events. The tune “Suiryo-Bushi” (“Melody of Supposition”) is one such example. Heard clearly in Butterfly’s Act II aria “Che tua madre,” and again at the close of the opera, this common Japanese popular song from the 1880s becomes, in Puccini’s hands, a grandiose gesture associated specifically with Butterfly’s suicide and death.

In addition to using borrowed Japanese tunes as leitmotifs, Madama Butterfly also exemplifies Puccini’s own artistic interests and creative decisions, which often prioritized the dramatic portrayal of the plot and characters over questions of realism. Especially notable is Puccini’s fascination with visual atmosphere and lighting, which were major concerns for opera composers in general by the early 1900s. Inspired by Belasco’s play and its revolutionary use of stage lighting, Puccini actively sought to create visually arresting moments in his opera that enhanced both the plot’s dramatic content and the characters’ emotional states. Among the numerous examples in Madama Butterfly, Pinkerton and Butterfly’s duet at the close of Act I, along with the “humming chorus” and vigil scene in Act II, are especially gripping in their use of subtle lighting changes to signal, respectively, the transition from sunset into night, and from night into dawn. Finally, if Puccini’s correspondence with his librettists and publishers is any indication, one simple question seems to have plagued them more than any other in their three years of work on the opera: would Madama Butterfly be more dramatically effective in three acts, or two? Ultimately, theatrical concerns were more important to them than paper and wood houses.

If nothing else, Madama Butterfly reveals that realism in artistic works can be greatly nuanced. As we have seen, it is generally not enough to ask if the artwork is merely “realistic,” or a literal representation of real life. Regardless of medium or genre, even realistic artworks depict people, places, and ideas according to the perspectives of their creators, and within the boundaries of artistic conventions. Hints of authenticity mesh with dramatization and invention, and even mundane objects, like Butterfly’s fan or Pinkerton’s whiskey, can acquire special meanings. Yet it is perhaps this very blend of realism, perception, and dramatization that makes artworks such as Madama Butterfly as emotionally powerful and meaningful as they are. Like virtually any other work of art, Madama Butterfly presents us with its own vision of real-life people and events, and attributes such as the opera’s emotional content and characterization have the potential to transcend questions of which details are accurate or inaccurate. Taken on its own terms, then, the tragedy of Butterfly’s love and death can be just as real to us as any trinket in Butterfly’s house—and perhaps even more real and of greater importance than whatever details Puccini and his collaborators may have mishandled.

Arthur Fagen has been professor of orchestral conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music since 2008, where he is currently chair of the Orchestral Conducting Department. Additionally, he has been music director of the Atlanta Opera since 2010.

Fagen was born in New York, where he began his conducting studies with Laszlo Halasz. Further studies continued at the Curtis Institute, under the guidance of Max Rudolf, at the Salzburg Mozarteum, and with Hans Swarowsky. A former assistant of both Christoph von Dohnányi (Frankfurt Opera) and James Levine (Metropolitan Opera), Fagen’s career has been marked by a string of notable appearances. He has conducted opera productions at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Metropolitan Opera, Munich State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Berlin, New York City Opera, Theatre Capitole de Toulouse, Bordeaux Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, New Israeli Opera, Baltimore Opera, Edmonton Opera, Spoleto Festival, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, and Stadttheater Bozen. From 1998 to 2001, he was a regular guest conductor at the Vienna State Opera. On the concert podium, Fagen has appeared with internationally known orchestras including the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Orchèstre de la Suisse Romande, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Czech Philharmonic, Munich Radio Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, RAI Orchestras (Torino, Naples, Milano, Rome), Bergen Philharmonic, Prague Spring Festival, Dutch Radio Orchestra, and Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, among others.

Fagen has an opera repertory of more than 75 works. He has served as principal conductor in Kassel and Brunswick, as chief conductor of the Flanders Opera of Antwerp and Ghent, as music director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra, and as a member of the conducting staff of the Chicago Lyric Opera.

From 2002 to 2007, he was music director of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dortmund Opera. Following his successful concerts with the Dortmund Philharmonic at the Grosse Festspielhaus in Salzburg, Fagen and the Dortmund Philharmonic were invited to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels, and to Salzburg, Beijing, and Shanghai. He conducted in that period, among others, new opera productions of Siegfried, Götterdämmerung, and two Ring Cycles.

Fagen conducted a new production of Turandot at the Atlanta Opera in 2007, opening the season with enormous success and inaugurating the new opera house, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. Soon afterward in Atlanta, he conducted the contemporary opera Cold Sassy Tree by Carlisle Floyd.

He was first-prize winner of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Conductors Competition, as well as a prize winner of the Gino Marinuzzi International Conductors’ Competition in Italy.

Fagen has recorded for BMG, Bayerischer Rundfunk, SFB, and WDR Cologne. He records regularly for Naxos, for which he has completed the six symphonies of Bohuslav Martinů. The Naxos recording of Martinů’s piano concertos was awarded an Editor’s Choice award in the March 2010 issue of Gramophone magazine.

Lesley Koenig is currently managing director of the Weston Playhouse Theatre Company in Vermont, one of the country’s oldest theaters. With over 15 years experience in the executive management of performing arts organizations and a 37 career as an opera director, she began her professional career at age 17 as a stage manager with San Francisco Opera. At 23, she joined the Metropolitan Opera as a stage director, mounting over 40 productions with the company, including new productions of Les Contes d’Hoffmann and Così fan tutte, about which a famously harsh critic finished his review in the Los Angeles Times with “If only Così fan tutte were always like this. If only opera were always like this.” Around her work at the Met, Koenig directed in other top opera houses and festivals worldwide, including the Salzburg Festival, San Diego Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and numerous companies in Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland. During a sabbatical from her directing career, she earned an M.B.A. and an M.A. in Education from Stanford University (2001) and has since served as general manager of San Francisco Ballet (opening 63 new productions and acquisitions over a six year period), director of production at the Met, fellow at Stanford University in the Department of Philanthropy and Civil Society, general director of Opera Boston, and senior consultant with Arts Consulting Group. She holds three shared Emmy Awards for Outstanding Classical Program in the Performance Arts, and is fluent in German, Italian, and French. An honors graduate of Harvard University, she continues to lecture in major universities on the strategic management of non-profits, as well as conflict management and negotiation. Koenig continues to direct one or two opera productions every year.

Steven C. Kemp is a New York City-based set designer for theatre and opera. His credits for IU include Dead Man Walking and Oklahoma!. In spring 2017, he will design the IU Opera Theater production of The Music Man. Other opera designs include Silent Night, Lucia di Lammermoor, The Marriage of Figaro, Tosca, The Italian Girl in Algiers, Il Trovatore, Faust, Idomeneo and Anna Karenina (Opera San Jose), Rigoletto, Falstaff (Opera Santa Barbara/Opera San Jose), A Streetcar Named Desire (Merola/Opera Santa Barbara/Kentucky Opera/Tulsa Opera/Hawaii Opera Theatre/Opera Grand Rapids/Fresno Opera/Townsend Opera), Don Giovanni, The Elixir of Love (San Francisco Conservatory of Music), and Figaro 90210 (The Duke on 42, New York City). His designs in New York include numerous productions Off-Broadway for Keen Company, Mint Theater Company, Second Stage, The Playwrights Realm, Cherry Lane Theatre, New Worlds Theatre Project, The Shop, Red Dog Squadron, 59E59, and 47^th Street Theatre. Regional and international work includes Norwegian Cruise Lines, Asolo Rep, La Jolla Playhouse, Bucks County Playhouse, Royal George Theatre, and the Hungarian Theatre of Cluj. As associate designer, he has worked for The Metropolitan Opera, English National Opera, Sante Fe Opera, Dallas Opera, Minnesota Opera, San Diego Opera, and 10 Broadway productions, including Cabaret, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Memphis.

Costume designer Linda Pisano designs for theater, dance, musical theater, ballet, and opera throughout the United States; her ballet designs have toured the UK 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 a three-time winner of the National Stage Expo for performance design, and a four-time recipient of the Peggy Ezekiel Award for Excellence in Design. Her work was selected from top designers in the United States to be featured in a world design exhibition with the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow (2015) and the China Institute of Stage Design in Beijing (opening summer 2016). As professor of costume design at Indiana University, she directs their Theatre and Drama study abroad program in London, heads the Design and Technology Area, and co-authored the recent book The Art and Practice of Costume Design. Pisano designs professionally with many companies including Utah Shakespeare Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Opera San Antonio, BalletMet, The Jacobs School of Music and Lyric Repertory. Some of her most recent work around the country includes Miranda, Protean Hearts, Anne Frank, As You Like It, Salome (also with director Candace Evans), To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, Oklahoma!, Twelfth Night, Sense and Sensibility, Chicago, the opera Dead Man Walking, A Little Night Music, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, and the opera Akhnaten (also with Candace Evans). Upcoming work includes Music Man with director Vincent Liotta and Madama Butterfly with director Lesley Koenig, both at the Jacobs School of Music this season. Linda serves on the board of directors for 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 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.

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, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, Oklahoma!, La Fille du Regiment, and Florencia en el Amazonas. In the summers of 2014 and 2015, Huff served as choral instructor and conductor for IU’s 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. This past summer, he conducted Arthur Honegger’s King David for the Jacobs Summer Music series with the Summer Chorus and Orchestra.

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.

Lebanese-American soprano Marlen Nahhas is thrilled to be performing one of her dream roles on the Musical Arts Center stage while she pursues her Performer Diploma at Indiana University under the tutelage of voice teacher Carol Vaness. Last season, Nahhas played the role of Rosalinde in the IU Opera Theater production of Die Fledermaus. Other credits at IU include Bloody Mary in South Pacific and VoMo in the world premiere of P. Q. Phan’s opera The Tale of Lady Thi Kính. This summer, Nahhas was an apprentice artist with Central City Opera, where she covered the title role in Tosca and played the role of Mary in The Ballad of Baby Doe. In her time as a Bonfils-Stanton Apprentice Artist at Central City Opera, she was awarded the Young Artist award, the highest honor given to a standout young artist in the program. In the summer of 2016 Nahhas was a festival artist with the Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theater where she covered various roles including Mimi in La Bohème and Smitty in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. She was awarded first place in the Michael Ballam Concorso Lirico International Opera Competition as well as crowd favorite. Nahhas was also a winner in the Indiana district of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Competition and was awarded first place in the Schloss Mirabell Competition through the University of Miami Frost School of Music summer program. Other past roles for Nahhas include Antonia in Les Contes d’Hoffman, Violetta in La Traviata, Madame Lidoine in Dialogues of the Carmelites, and Mrs. Lovette in Sweeney Todd.

Mathilda Edge, soprano, is from Chandlerville, Ill. She has performed such roles as Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte (Mozart), First Lady in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Sandman in Hansel and Gretel (Humperdinck), Romilda in Xerxes (Handel), and The Milliner in Der Rosenkavalier (Strauss) on the IU Opera Theater stage. Most recently, Edge has been successful in a number of international, national, and regional competitions. In the past year she received third place in the both the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Award Competition and the 2016 Washington International Competition for Voice. She also won first place in the Bel Canto Chorus Regional Artist Competition in Milwaukee, Wis., as well as in the Bloomington, Ind., chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letter Vocal Competition. Edge also won the IndianaDistrict’s Metropolitan Opera National Council (MONC) and went on to take second place at the Central Region MONC auditions in November of 2015. Edge has appeared as a soloist at a number of colleges and universities including Indiana University, Indiana State University, Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville, and Illinois College. She most recently was the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at IU. Edge has been a recipient of the Georgina Joshi International Fellowship and is the current recipient of the Georgina Joshi Fellowship. Before attending Indiana University, Edge earned a dual Bachelor of Science in Management and Organizational Leadership and Music from Illinois College. Edge is currently in her final year working towards her Doctor of Music degree in Voice Performance at the IU Jacobs School of Music. She also earned her Master of Music degree at the Jacobs School. Edge currently studies with Brian Horne.

Justin Stolz is a current graduate student at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, studying under the tutelage of Timothy Noble. He is a recent graduate of The Glenn Gould School (The Royal Conservatory of Music), where he studied under Monica Whicher. In the past year, Stolz placed first in the S. Livingston Mather Competition (Cleveland) and made his IU Opera Theater debut as Don José in Bizet’s Carmen.

Trey Smagur is a 25-year-old tenor hailing from Clarkesville, Ga. He currently studies with Carlos Montané at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he is pursuing a Performer Diploma in Voice Performance. In the 2015-2016 academic year, he was awarded the Georgina Joshi Graduate Fellowship. Smagur has performed numerous times at IU, including lead roles in the mainstage theaters productions of Carmen (Don José), The Magic Flute (Tamino), and H.M.S. Pinafore (Ralph Rackstraw). Last summer, Smagur covered the role of Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon at Des Moines Metro Opera, and he was an apprentice artist and participated in Ravinia Steans Music Institute as a fellow in the voice program.

Jonathan Bryan, baritone, earned his bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University (LSU) and is in the second year of his master’s studies at the IU Jacobs School of Music. During his time at LSU, he performed many roles, including The New Moon (Besac), The Cradle Will Rock (Dick/Scoot), Così fan tutte (Guglielmo), and The Merry Widow (Danilo), as well as the title role in Don Giovanni. Outside of school, he has performed with La Musica Lirica in Novafeltria, Italy, where he appeared in its productions of La Rondine (Rambaldo) and L’impresario in angustie (Don Crisobolo). Most recently, Bryan has been found on the Wolf Trap Opera stage, where he sang in the chorus and covered the role of Junius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Bryan is a student of Wolfgang Brendel.

Hailing from Eden Prairie, Minn., Eric Smedsrud, baritone, is pursuing a Master of Music in Voice Performance under the instruction of Carol Vaness. He earned his Bachelor of Music from Lawrence University, where he performed the roles of Superintendent Budd in Britten’s Albert Herring, Frank Maurrant in Weil’s Street Scene, and Sam in Bernstein’s Trouble In Tahiti. Last year, he sang as a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra for their Orchestra Moves concert series. With IU Opera Theater, Smedsrud has performed the title role in Menotti’s The Last Savage and Joseph De Rocher in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking.

Kaitlyn McMonigle, mezzo-soprano, is finishing her master’s degree in Voice Performance at Indiana University where she studies with Carol Vaness. She made her IU Opera Theater role debut as Bradamante in Alcina and appeared last season as Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus. This past summer she returned to Wolf Trap Opera for her second season as a Studio Artist. In 2013, she participated in the Houston Grand Opera Young Artist Vocal Academy as well as the Chautauqua Music Festival Voice Program where she played Sister Mathilde in Dialogues of the Carmelites and worked with esteemed American composer Ben Moore as a soloist in a concert of his works. Other roles she has performed include Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Despina in Così fan tutte, Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (Central Florida Lyric Opera), and the Sorceress in Dido and Aeneas (Hubbard Hall Opera Theater in Cambridge, N.Y.). McMonigle grew up in Ocala, Fla., and earned her Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance at Florida State University in 2014. She is a two-time first place winner of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Southeast Regional Auditions and is an alumna of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute Voice Program.

Liz Culpepper, mezzo-soprano, is a second-year master’s student in Voice Performance at the Jacobs School of Music. She is studying with Patricia Havranek. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin (UT) in 2015 with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a minor in Religious Studies. At UT, Culpepper performed with the Butler Opera Center and the University of Texas Chamber Singers. She was a featured soloist for two years with the UT Bach Cantata Project. In the Spring of 2015, she performed the role of the Waitress in Speed Dating Tonight!, a one act opera by Michael Ching. She began her master’s degree at Indiana University in the fall of 2015. At IU, she has sung with NOTUS, Conductors Chorus, and Opera Chorus. She has appeared as a soloist with IU’s New Music Ensemble, NOTUS, and the Bloomington Chamber Singers. Last spring she performed the role of Frugola in Il Tabarro. This past summer, she attended Le Chiavi Institute of Bel Canto Studies in Houston, Texas. This is her debut with IU Opera Theater.

Tenor Darian Clonts, a native of Atlanta, Ga., is in the first year of his doctoral studies at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he recently earned his Master of Music degree in Voice Performance. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2012 from Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., where he studied voice with Uzee Brown Jr. In the summer of 2016, Clonts attended the Utah Festival of Opera & Musical Theater where he sang the role of Mingo in its production of Gershwin’s Porgy & Bess. He joined the Atlanta Opera for the 2012-2013 season and performed in its productions of Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi’s La Traviata, and Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri. Clonts has been seen in IU Opera Theater productions as Le Remendado in Bizet’s Carmen, Scientist in Menotti’s The Last Savage, and Parpignol in Puccini’s La Bohème. He has also previously appeared at IU as a member of the chorus 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. Clonts performed the role of Bob Boles in Britten’s Peter Grimes under the direction of Carol Vaness and Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni under the direction of Heidi Grant Murphy in the Graduate Opera Workshop. He is a student of Brian Horne.

Bradley Bickhardt is a 20-year-old tenor hailing from Columbia, N.J. He is currently a junior pursuing a B.M. in Voice Performance. While Goro is Bickhardt’s first principal role at IU, he has appeared in the ensembles of L’italiana in Algeri, Die Zauberflöte, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, and La fille du Régiment. This past summer he was an apprentice artist with Ash Lawn Opera. He is a student of Andreas Poulimenos.

Mezzo-soprano Melissa Krueger, a native of Houston, Texas, is currently in the second year of her master’s degree at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where she studies with Patricia Stiles. Krueger earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. With Spotlight on Opera in Austin, Texas, she performed the roles of Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Maddalena in Rigoletto, in addition to covering the role of Elizabeth Proctor in Ward’s The Crucible. During her time at Southwestern University, Krueger sang the roles of Jo in Adamo’s Little Women, Dorabella in Così fan tutte, Polly in The Beggar’s Opera, and Counsel in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial by Jury. In 2015, she participated in Opera Viva! in Verona, Italy, where she studied with Katherine Ciesinski and sang the role of Romeo in scenes from Bellini’s I Capuletti e i Montecchi. Krueger will be singing the role of Unulfo in the upcoming IU Opera Theater production of Rodelinda.

Soprano Alyssa Dessoye is pursuing a master’s degree from the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Carol Vaness. Hailing from Tampa, Fla., she earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Florida State University. There, she performed the roles of Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica. She was also a member of the Florida State Chamber Choir and toured nationally as well as internationally with the Florida State University Singers. This is her solo debut with IU Opera Theater.

Edward Graves is a native of Oxon Hill, Md., and is Performer Diploma student studying with Patricia Havranek. He earned a Bachelor of Music from Towson University, where he studied with Aaron Sheehan, and a Master of Music from the IU Jacobs School of Music. He has recently transitioned from baritone to tenor. Previous appearances with IU Opera Theater include Haly in Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers and Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus. This summer, he was a tenor soloist in Honegger’s King David with the IU Summer Chorus conducted by Walter Huff. This fall, he will be singing the title role in a scene from Mozart’s Idomeneo in Heidi Grant Murphy’s Graduate Opera Workshop.

Baritone Benjamin Seiwert earned his bachelor’s degree in Voice Performance at Indiana University under the tutelage of Patricia Stiles and is currently in his first year of studies for a Master of Music degree in Voice Performance. With IU Opera Theater, Seiwert has appeared as Dancairo in Carmen, Motorcycle Cop in Dead Man Walking, and The Painter and English Tailor in The Last Savage, and he has taken part in ten different opera choruses. Seiwert has been involved in several student-led production companies and has been seen with the University Gilbert and Sullivan society as Lord Tolloler in Iolanthe, Samuel in the Pirates of Penzance, and Robin Oakapple in Ruddigore. With New Voices Opera, Seiwert played the role of Charles in Swan’s Love written by Maxwell Ramage. With his hometown community theater, Seiwert has performed the roles of Bill Sykes in Oliver, Albert in The Wind in the Willows, Augustus Gloop in Willy Wonka, and Lun Tha in The King and I. In spring 2017, Seiwert will play the role of Harold Hill in the IU Opera Theater production of The Music Man. Seiwert is a student of Timothy Noble.

Chinese bass-baritone Ji Lu is a second year Performer Diploma student studying with Andreas Poulimenos. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Xinghai Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Yan Yang. After that, he went to the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied under Glenville Hargreaves and earned his master’s degree with distinction. Lu sang the role of Le Surintendant des Plaisirs in the Royal Academy Opera’s 2013 production of Massenet’s Cendrillon.

Bass-baritone Adam Walton, a native of Orem, Utah, is a doctoral student pursuing his degree in Voice Performance with Costanza Cuccaro. He received his bachelor’s degree at Brigham Young University, where he was named the 2009 male singer of the year. In 2011, he won the Singer’s Club of Cleveland scholarship competition. He received his master’s degree from Indiana University. He has spent several recent summers working with the Caramoor Bel Canto Young Artist Program. His stage credits include the four villains (The Tales of Hoffman), Simone (Gianni Schicchi), Gauguin (Vincent), Marco (A View from the Bridge), Superintendent Budd (Albert Herring), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), and Su Cu (in The Tale of Lady Thi Kính).

Baritone Milan Babic is a second-year undergraduate student at the IU Jacobs School of Music. He currently studies with Carlos Montané. Babic began his career as a student in IU Opera Theater’s program in its production of The Barber of Seville in 2015. He then continued his opera performance in Carmen as a chorus member in 2016. Before his undergraduate career at IU he traveled to Germany and attended the Sankt Goar music festival led by tenor Emilio Pons. He also participated in Classical Singer Magazine’s National Competition in Chicago where he placed in the semi-finals. Babic comes from Arlington Heights, Ill., where he attended Buffalo Grove High School. There he was involved in every choir, including Concert Choir, Chamber Choir, The Expressions Show Choir, and the vocal jazz group By Popular Demand. He led as president and vice president of the show choir and concert choir, respectively, and also played a role as section leader. Babic attended the Illinois Music Educators Association from 2012 to 2014 as a choir member for both the vocal jazz and choral divisions. He then ventured to Peoria where in 2014 and 2015 he attended the all-state Illinois Music Educators Association as a member of the vocal jazz ensemble. He also had the distinct honor to perform in the American Choral Directors Association festival in 2014 where he performed in the all-state show choir.

Baritone Stephen Walley is in his second year of undergraduate studies at the IU Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Wolfgang Brendel. Earlier this year, Walley performed Sir Despard in the IU Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s performance of Ruddigore and Falke in the Boston University Tanglewood Young Artists Opera production of Die Fledermaus. He has participated as a chorus member in the IU Opera Theater productions of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Die Fledermaus, Carmen, and La Fille du Regiment. A resident of Gladstone, N.J., Walley received the New Jersey Governor’s Award for Vocal Music in 2015. Past opera scenes credits include Edwin in Die Csàrdàsfürstin, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Papageno in The Magic Flute, Candide in Candide, and Strephon in Iolanthe. This performance of The Imperial Commissioner in Madama Butterfly is Walley’s first role with IU Opera Theater.