Act I
As a birthday treat to himself, King Ouf I scours the city in search of a suitable victim to execute. The ambassador Hérisson de Porc-Epic and his wife, Aloès, enter with his secretary, Tapioca, and Laoula, the daughter of the king of a neighboring country. They are traveling incognito, and the princess is being passed off as Hérisson’s wife. Their mission, of which Laoula is unaware, is to marry her to Ouf. Complications arise when Laoula and a poor peddler, Lazuli, fall in love at first sight. Scolded for flirting, Lazuli insults the disguised king and thus becomes a desired candidate for death by impalement. However, Siroco, the king’s astrologer, reveals that the fates of the king and the peddler are inextricably linked; the stars predict that they will die within 24 hours of each other. Fortunes change again, and Lazuli is escorted with honors into the palace.

Act II
Lazuli, feted and well fed, grows bored with luxury and longs for Laoula. Ouf, still unaware of the disguises, furthers the lovers’ hopes of marriage by imprisoning the supposed husband, Hérisson. The lovers depart, but Hérisson escapes and orders the peddler to be shot. Gunfire is heard, but although Laoula is brought in, there is no sign of Lazuli. Ouf bemoans his impending death.

Act III
Lazuli, having escaped harm, overhears Ouf, Siroco, and Hérisson discussing the situation and eventually reveals himself to Laoula. They plan a second elopement. The king and Siroco try to raise their spirits with a large glass of green chartreuse. Ouf, desperate to produce an heir to the throne, plans to marry Laoula, even if for an hour, but finds that he has run out of time. However, when the clocks strike five and nothing happens, Ouf declares that the astrologer’s predictions must have been wrong. The Chief of Police then appears with Lazuli, who was caught on his way out of the country. The king blesses Lazuli and Laoula’s marriage to the cheers of all.

By Kristin Rasmussen
M.A. Musicology Student

Twenty-first-century concert audiences know French composer Emmanuel Chabrier chiefly for his 1883 España, but for nineteenth-century audiences, Chabrier was better known for his 1877 operetta L’Étoile. Described by Igor Stravinsky as a “masterpiece” and by Francis Poulenc as “the source of subsequent French operettas,” L’Étoile is a product of the relationships Chabrier crafted in Parisian salons, and with these connections, he produced an operetta that exemplifies his compositional finesse and raised the bar for the genre.

Although until he was 40, he earned a living in law and civil service, Chabrier practiced music for most of his life. He kept up his studies in piano and composition while working for the Ministry of the Interior and further advanced his technique by maintaining close ties to other French artists, writers, and musicians. He gathered in Parisian salons with the composers Massenet and Fauré, Impressionist painters Manet and Degas, and befriended numerous writers, including Verlaine and Villiers de l’Isle-Adam. Many of these friendships were established in the wake of the 1861 Parisian premiere of Richard Wagner’s Tannhäuser, which created a sensation at the Opéra. Chabrier, then 20, copied out the entire score, and he joined a society of Wagner enthusiasts. His relationship with Verlaine, a poet and Symbolist, was particularly fruitful. They collaborated on two operettas in the mid-1860s. Although both stage works survive today only in fragments, the satirical Fisch-Ton-Kan was likely brought to completion. Comedic elements of this story and several of its characters foreshadow those in L’Étoile.

Chabrier met librettists Eugène Leterrier and Albert Vanloo at the home of painter Alphonse Hirsch. After performing some of his compositions for them, including an early version of what would become Lazuli’s Act I romance “O petite étoile” (originally set to a text of Verlaine), the two librettists invited Chabrier to compose the score for their latest project. The three artists began work on the operetta in 1875, and on November 27, 1877, L’Étoile premiered at Jacques Offenbach’s Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens in Paris. Out of this union arose an opéra bouffe that operetta scholar Richard Traubner deemed “the very finest champagne.”

L’Étoile in many ways follows a formula typical for the genre: it contains spoken dialogue, songs, dances, and a farcical plot. The difficulty of the score, however—richly orchestrated and overflowing with free harmonic dissonances—was such that members of the orchestra for the operetta’s premiere at the Bouffes rebuffed it at first glance.

Women’s voices dominate L’Étoile. Chabrier’s decision to cast one of the main male roles, the peddler Lazuli, as a trouser role created opportunities for treble duets and trios in various guises. The Act III trio “Un amoureux, Princesse” sung by Laoula, Lazuli, and Aloès is especially impressive. Here, lyrical triplet melodies and chromatic ascending lines in the upper woodwinds and strings combine to make the treble voices truly sparkle. These moments recall one of the most memorable numbers in the operetta, “O petite étoile,” the Act I romance sung in the mezzo voice assigned to Lazuli. The peddler dreams wistfully of Laoula, a young woman he has met on the road, wondering what message the royal astrologer, Siroco, will read amongst the stars. With subtle harmonies that build into explosive modulations, Lazuli demands answers of the stars.

A multitude of disguises and the astral prophecy connecting the fates of Lazuli and Ouf make for countless comic complications. Chabrier’s purposeful musical choices wordlessly caricature his characters, most outlandishly so in the finale to Act I, in which Ouf selects Lazuli as the victim for that year’s birthday execution (after the young man has struck the disguised king). Naturally, Ouf means to sound dignified as he issues his hideous royal proclamation—traditional brass and percussion announce his declaration, but other musical decisions fight against this conventional trope. Syncopated rhythms and eager harmonies propel an increasingly frenzied chorus into a screaming choral voice. The winds, meanwhile, are planted firmly on an F Major chord while the strings outline this harmony in frantic eighth notes. These musical manipulations give this passage the character of a feverish spectacle rather than a solemn royal declaration.

L’Étoile was well received by its initial audience and by critics, but its slapstick plot may have been excessive for some members of the public, and the difficult music apparently prevented other companies from taking on the challenge of the work. After its initial run, L’Étoile was not revived in full until a performance in Brussels in 1909, 15 years after the composer’s death. The original production closed after 48 performances. It was publicly stated that this was due to the illness of one of the cast members, but in Emmanuel Chabrier and His Circle, biographer Rollo H. Myers suggests that perhaps the closing of the operetta had more to do with an expected increase in costs from the theater after its fiftieth staging.

Chabrier’s sophisticated score, rich in clever manipulation and subtle expression, inspired generations of French composers and set a new standard for the genre of operetta. These same qualities, paired with its delightfully silly plot, are why L’Étoile has found renewed success in the twenty-first century and become a fixed star on our opera stages.

Marzio Conti began his career as a flutist, debuting at the Salzburg Festival at the age of 20 with “I Solisti Veneti.” He has been considered internationally as one of his generation’s exponents of the flute—playing, recording, and teaching classes for the most important international institutions. He decided to leave concertizing in the mid-nineties to devote himself entirely to conducting. A student of Piero Bellugi, Conti soon began to be named titular director in several Italian orchestras and abroad. Since then, he has directed prestigious orchestras around the world, varying from symphonic repertoire to opera and often collaborating with renowned ballet companies. He has numerous recordings with international labels. Conti has appeared frequently on television and radio, promoting contemporary music in addition to traditional symphonic repertoire and opera. He has held positions as principal and artistic director in several Italian and foreign orchestras. His last position was titular director of Spain’s Oviedo Filarmonia from 2011 to 2017, receiving prizes including the prestigious Gold Medal Auditorium of Oviedo, considered the highest artistic recognition of the city. In recent years, he has served several times on the jury of the arts in the Princess of Asturias Awards. Conti has played, directed, and recorded with some of the greatest soloists, singers, stage directors, dancers, and choreographers on the international scene. Since 2014, he has collaborated as guest conductor and professor with the Jacob School of Music, and since 2017, he has served as principal guest conductor of the American Institute of Musical Studies festival in Graz. (Photo by Antonio Mercurio)

Born in Montreal, Alain Gauthier developed his directing skills at the Université du Québec à Montréal. As an apprentice director with the Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, he confirmed his talent for stage direction. Collaborating regularly with the Opéra de Montréal, he has staged a number of important works. His last collaboration with the company, Written on Skin, met with immense success. Elsewhere in Canada, he was invited to stage Carmen for the Edmonton Opera and Calgary Opera, and La vie parisienne and The Magic Flute with the Opéra de Québec as well as many concerts and operas with young artists at the Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Atelier lyrique de l’Opéra de Montréal, Université de Montréal, and Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Gauthier also worked with Montreal’s Orchestre Métropolitain and its conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, to create a concert version of Don Giovanni and has conceived staged concert versions of Carmen and Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and its artistic director, Kent Nagano. In the United States, Gauthier had a successful collaboration with Cincinnati Opera, staging L’Étoile, Così fan tutte, Pagliacci/Gianni Schicchi, and Carmen. He also worked with the Minnesota Opera, Austin Opera, and New York City Opera as well as the Clarion Orchestra and Columbus Orchestra. He recently directed The Daughter of the Regiment at Opera Carolina and The Barber of Seville at Manitoba Opera. He also presented a Canadian coproduction of La Traviata at Manitoba Opera, Edmonton Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, Vancouver Opera, and Calgary Opera. Last season, Gauthier directed a new production of The Elixir of Love for the Opéra de Québec and his own production of La Bohème at Cincinnati Opera.

Walter Huff is professor of choral conducting and faculty director of opera choruses at the Jacobs School of Music. He served as chorus master for the Atlanta Opera for more than two decades, leading the renowned ensemble in more than 125 productions, with critical acclaim in the United States and abroad. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and a 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). 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 has served as chorus master for many IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater productions, including L’Étoile, It’s a Wonderful Life, Lucia di Lammermoor, West Side Story, The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, Dialogues of the Carmelites, The Elixir of Love, Bernstein’s Mass, Le Nozze di Figaro, Parsifal, Suor Angelica, La Traviata, Little Women, The Barber of Seville, Xerxes, La Bohème, The Magic Flute, The Coronation of Poppea, Falstaff, Highway 1, USA, La Rondine, and H.M.S. Pinafore. For five years, Huff has served as choral instructor and conductor for the Jacobs School’s Sacred Music Intensive. He conducted the Jacobs Summer Music series productions of Arthur Honegger’s King David and Stephen Paulus’s The Three Hermits. This past summer, Huff returned for his fourth year as a faculty member at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute. He also maintains a busy vocal coaching studio in Atlanta.

Tim McMath is a Brooklyn-based freelance scenic designer who has designed more than 100 productions at theaters around the country. His recent favorites include Peter Pan (Rose Theater), Lucky Stiff, Peter and the Starcatcher, Les Miserables (Bristol Valley Theater), Brief Encounter (New York University), and Willy Wonka (Flint Youth Theater). McMath has also served as associate designer for the Broadway productions of The Humans, Fun Home, Once on This Island, The Real Thing, The Realistic Joneses, and Spring Awakening. He earned an M.F.A. from the University of Washington.

Linda Pisano designs for theater, dance, musical theater, ballet, and opera throughout the United States; her ballet designs have toured the United Kingdom and Canada. An award-winning designer, she was selected to represent the United States in costume design in the World Stage Design Exhibition in Taipei. Her work has been a jury winner for exhibition in the Quadrennial World Exhibition in Prague twice, and she is 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 and published in the “Costumes of the Turn of the Century” exhibition with the Bakhrushin Museum in Moscow and the China Institute of Stage Design in Beijing. As professor of costume design at IU, she also directs its Theatre and Drama study abroad program in London, chairs its Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance, and coauthored both the Art of the Character: Highlights from the Glenn Close Costume Collection and The Art and Practice of Costume Design. Pisano designs professionally with many companies throughout the United States. Some of her favorite projects include The Daughter of the Regiment, Anne Frank (play and opera), Salome (with Patricia Racette), To Kill a Mockingbird, Romeo and Juliet, Sense and Sensibility, Chicago, Madama Butterfly, The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus, A Little Night Music, and the opera Akhnaten. She served as an elected member of the board of directors for the United States Institute for Theatre Technology for two terms and is a member of United Scenic Artists, Local 829. (Photo by Sarah J. Slover)

Andrew Elliot is a makeup artist, wig designer, stylist, and cellist. His design and music work can be seen and heard with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater, Beef and Boards Dinner Theatre, Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre, Actors Theatre of Indiana, Phoenix Theatre, Zach & Zack Productions, Summer Stock Stage, and more. His makeup and stylist work can be seen locally and nationally in various publications, commercials, billboards, industrials, and editorials. He spent 2020 recreating icons of film, fashion, and theater, which gained national attention, with features in The New York Times, NowThis News, The Indianapolis Star, and Indianapolis Monthly.

Bridget S. Williams is a Chicago-based lighting designer for theater, opera, dance, and events. She is currently an assistant lighting designer for Lyric Opera of Chicago; she also works on independent projects nationally. Williams earned an M.F.A. in Lighting Design from Indiana University before accepting a teaching position at Interlochen Center for the Arts as the instructor of design and production. During her time at Interlochen, she taught all aspects of design and production to students in grades 9-12, while also designing several theater and dance productions for Interlochen’s production division. Most recently, she has designed for Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Festival of Chicago, Cardinal Stage Company, and Valiant Theatre. Williams has also worked in several capacities for the Joffrey Ballet School, The Juilliard School, Contemporary American Theater Festival, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Indiana Festival Theatre, Jewish Theatre of Bloomington, Thunder Bay Theatre, Children’s Theatre of Madison, Miller Auditorium, and Kalamazoo State Theatre.

Jennifer Ringo is known internationally as an accomplished language coach and teacher of vocal diction. She has prepared productions for Lyric Opera of Chicago, Santa Fe Opera, Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Thornton School of Music–USC, Herb Albert School of Music–UCLA, Cincinnati May Festival, IU Jacobs School of Music, and Aspen Opera Theater. Ringo has worked with the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists at the Los Angeles Opera as well as the Steans Institute at Ravinia, International Vocal Arts Institute in Montreal, and Summer Opera Tel Aviv. Her master classes include AIMS in Graz, Austria, Arizona Opera, Thornton School of Music, and UC Santa Barbara, among others. She has taught vocal diction at Bard College and the Thornton School of Music. She has sung leading soprano roles with San Francisco Opera, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Grand Théâtre de Genève, Houston Grand Opera, and the Canadian Opera Company, among others. She earned degrees in voice from the University of Iowa and attended The Juilliard School. Ringo studied diction with Nico Castel, Robert Cowart, Janine Reiss, and Pierre Vallet and maintains vocal studios in New York and Los Angeles.

Cori Ellison, a leading creative figure in the opera world, has served as staff dramaturg at Santa Fe Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, and New York City Opera. Active in developing contemporary opera, she leads Opera Lab, a unique new practical training program for composers, librettists, and performers at The Juilliard School, where she serves on the vocal arts faculty. She is also a founding faculty member of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program and was the first dramaturg invited to participate in the Yale Institute for Music Theatre. At New York City Opera (NYCO), she was a curator of the annual VOX American Opera Showcase and cofounded and led City Opera’s “Words First” program for opera librettists. She has been a sought-after developmental dramaturg to numerous composers, librettists, and commissioners, including Glyndebourne, Canadian Opera Company, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Icelandic Opera, Arizona Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, Santa Fe Opera, Miller Theater, Opera Birmingham, On-Site Opera, Indiana University, and Crane School of Music. She has served as production dramaturg for projects including The Coronation of Poppea at Cincinnati Opera; Orphic Moments at the Salzburg Landestheater, National Sawdust, and Master Voices; Aci, Galatea, e Polifemo at National Sawdust; Washington National Opera’s Ring cycle, Opera Boston’s The Nose, and Offenbach!!! at Bard Summerscape. She is a faculty member at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Program for Singers and has taught and lectured for schools, performance venues, and media outlets worldwide. She creates supertitles for opera companies across the English-speaking world and helped launch Met Titles, the Met’s simultaneous translation system. Her English singing translations include Hansel and Gretel (NYCO), La vestale (English National Opera), and Shostakovich’s Cherry Tree Towers (Bard Summerscape). She has often written for The New York Times and has contributed to books including The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The Compleat Mozart.

Conor Brereton is a tenor from Las Vegas, Nevada, making his debut with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater. Previously on the operatic stage, he has been seen as Sroufe in Adolphus Hailstork’s Rise for Freedom (University of Michigan), Gabriel von Einsenstein in Die Fledermaus (University of Michigan), Tamino in The Magic Flute (Miami Music Festival), L’Imperatore in Turandot (Opera Grand Rapids), Gherardo in Gianni Schicchi (Festival Napa Valley), The Officer in Ariadne auf Naxos (The Cleveland Orchestra), Prunier in La Rondine (Oberlin in Italy), Filandro in Cimarosa’s Le astuzie femminili (Oberlin in Italy), The Chaplain in Dialogues of the Carmelites (Oberlin Conservatory), and as The Prologue in The Turn of the Screw (Oberlin Conservatory). In concert, Brereton has appeared as The Fence Post/Pastor soloist in Craig Hella Johnson’s Considering Matthew Shepherd (University of Michigan), tenor soloist in Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore (Oberlin Conservatory), tenor soloist in The Messiah, Sing-Along (Credo Music), and Nanki-Poo in The Mikado in Concert (University of Nevada Las Vegas). He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Oberlin Conservatory and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan. He is currently pursuing a Performer Diploma at the Jacobs School of Music as a student of Russell Thomas.

From Covington, Virginia, tenor Jonathan Elmore’s role credits include Ralph Rackstraw (H.M.S. Pinafore), Tamino (The Magic Flute), and Ferrando (Così fan tutte). His scene and chorus credits include Chorus/Guillot (Eugene Onegin), Fritz (L’Amico Fritz), and Roméo (Roméo et Juliette). He was a first-place winner of the Great Composers Competition International–Best Grieg Performance in 2020. Upcoming engagements include a recital at Virginia Tech for VT Voice Day. Elmore earned a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance degree from Virginia Tech, where he studied with Brian Thorsett. Elmore also recently attended Music Academy of the West as a studio artist. He is currently finishing Master of Music degree studies at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Heidi Grant Murphy.

Bass Theo Harrah, from Louisville, Kentucky, is a junior at the Jacobs School of Music, where he studies voice performance with Jane Dutton. His previous credits at Jacobs include Der Zweiter Geharnischter in The Magic Flute, Dick Deadeye in H.M.S. Pinafore, and the choruses of Falstaff and Highway 1, USA. Outside of Jacobs, he has been seen as Colline in La Bohème and Simone in Gianni Schicchi at the Canto Program.

Bass Noah Lauer performed the role of Sarastro in the Jacobs School of Music production of The Magic Flute last fall. He also premiered the role of Iorwerth last spring in the New Voices Opera production of Rhiannon’s Condemnation. He has previously performed with Chamber Opera Chicago as a sailor and soloist in a new musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, which toured to the United Kingdom and Canada; Charlie in the children’s opera Miracle!, and ensemble in Amahl and the Night Visitors. Other performances include Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Grandpa Moss in The Tender Land, Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte, and The Gondoliers at Luther College, and the title role in The King and I, Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors, Captain Von Trapp in The Sound of Music, Captain Keller in The Miracle Worker, Warner in Legally Blonde, and Les Misérables at Theatre Cedar Rapids. He placed second at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Central Regional Competition. Laurer currently studies voice with Peter Volpe and is in his second year of the Master of Music in Voice Performance program.

Soprano Raelee Gold is a doctoral student under the tutelage of Brian Horne. Her previous appearances with Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater include Amore in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea and Amy in Adamo’s Little Women. Last spring, she sang Leila in scenes from Bizet’s Les pêcheurs des perles in Heidi Grant Murphy’s Opera Workshop. A native of Dallas, Texas, Gold earned a master’s degree with dual emphasis in voice performance and pedagogy from Westminster Choir College, where she appeared in L’enfant et les sortilèges (La Princesse and Le Feu) and The Bartered Bride (Ludmila). While at Westminster, she also appeared with CoOPERAtive Opera in La Traviata (Annina). She earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance degree from Texas Tech University, where she sang Suor Genovieffa in Suor Angelica and Damigella, Virtú, and Pallade in The Coronation of Poppea. In concert, she has sung the soprano solos in Handel’s Messiah, Fauré’s Requiem, Poulenc’s Gloria, Mozart’s Requiem, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass. She was a soloist with Tri-Cities Opera’s interdisciplinary recital project Installation | Music and was featured in Westminster Choir College’s Art Song Festival. Gold was the recipient of the Wilfred C. Bain Scholarship in Opera for the 2020-21 academic year.

Haley Guerra is a first-year master’s student at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Heidi Grant Murphy. A native of McAllen, Texas, Guerra earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas–Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), where she studied music education and voice. During her time there, she won first prize in the Texoma region National Association of Teachers of Singing Competition three years in a row. She performed as Frasquita in UTRGV Opera Theater’s all-Spanish production of Carmen. She was also the winner of the UTRGV Concerto/Aria competition, and last winter, she was invited to sing in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition as a district qualifier. This is her debut with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater.

Elise Miller was most recently seen performing in a cabaret show with the up-and-coming company The Wildstage. In the 2021-22 season, she played Lowri in the premiere of Rhiannon’s Condemnation by composer Leigha Amick with New Voices Opera. Miller also was part of IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater’s production of La Rondine as Lolette and a member of the chorus, as well as its production of The Coronation of Poppea as Nerone. In June 2021, she attended the Vienna Summer Music Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida, performing Virginia Woolf in a staged premiere of The Loathly Lady, and sang an improvisational opera version of Carnival of the Animals. Other performance credits include Beth March in Little Women (IU Jacobs Opera Theater), La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi (Music On Site, Inc.), Silly Girl and Enchanted Object in Beauty and the Beast (Woodlawn Theater), Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly (Mediterranean Opera Festival). She premiered the role of Jean in a contemporary opera called The War Bride by Nathan Felix at Luminaria: San Antonio Arts Festival in 2018. She was a resident artist with OPERA San Antonio from 2016 to 2020 and was in the chorus of their its mainstage productions of Tosca, Faust, La Traviata, and Carmen. She is currently in the first year of her doctoral degree studies with Heidi Grant Murphy.

Mezzo-soprano Dajeong Song, originally from Daejeon, South Korea, is a second-year doctoral student at the Jacobs School of Music, where she studies under the tutelage of Jane Dutton. She earned her M.M. and Professional Studies Diploma in Vocal Performance from San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Konkuk University, Seoul. Song has been on stage at the Opera in the Ozarks summer program in several opera performances, including Die Fledermaus (Prince Orlofsky) and The Ballad of Baby Doe (Mama McCourt and Effie). She has also been seen on the opera stage at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in several performances, including Trouble in Tahiti (Dinah), Rodelinda (Unulfo), and Suor Angelica (Zelatrice). Song has sung in master classes with Frederica von Stade, Barbara Reed-Honn, Martin Katz, and George Shirley. She worked at high schools in South Korea as a music teacher and a choir conductor. She recently debuted with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater in the role of Aunt Lou in Highway 1, USA.

Lauren Nicholls is a mezzo-soprano from Richmond, Virginia, currently in the senior year of her undergraduate degree in voice performance studies. During her time at the Jacobs School of Music, she has studied under the tutelage of Julia Bentley and Jane Dutton. This marks her IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater role debut. She has previously performed in the choruses of Jacobs’ The Magic Flute and H.M.S Pinafore. Nicholls has also recently participated in the summer program Opera Lucca, where she performed the role of Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica.

Mezzo-soprano Emily Warren is a native of Buffalo, New York. She earned a master’s degree and Performer Diploma from the Jacobs School of Music, studying with Patricia Stiles. With IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater, she has appeared as Dryade (Ariadne auf Naxos) and, most recently, Sesto (Giulio Cesare). An accomplished musician and performer of new music, Warren performed the role of Teacher in the collegiate premiere of Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with Jacobs Opera Theater. She has also premiered works with New Voices Opera and sung with IU’s contemporary vocal ensemble NOTUS. Other role highlights include Ramiro (La finta giardiniera), Carmen (Peter Brook’s The Tragedy of Carmen), and Dritte Dame in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra’s fully staged production of The Magic Flute. Warren is a first-year doctoral student studying with Carol Vaness.

Matthew Perez is a second-year master’s student studying with Carlos Montané and making his Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater debut. He is originally from San Antonio, Texas, where he earned a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Texas at San Antonio in 2021. His previous roles include Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance and Fernando in Goyescas. He has also sung with the IU Jacobs Opera Chorus and NOTUS ensembles. He was most recently chosen for a summer vocal fellowship with the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago.

Jon Marc Olivier, tenor, is a graduate student from Olney, Maryland, in the studio of Brian Horne. Olivier has previously been seen on the Musical Arts Center stage as Der Erster Geharnischter Mann in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, as well as in the choruses of Falstaff and La Rondine. He has sung the roles of Le Rainette in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges and the Father-Confessor in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites, both at his alma mater, Loyola. He has sung professionally as a chorister and a soloist with the Louisiana Philharmonic and the New Orleans Opera Association. This December, he will earn his graduate certificate in vocology from the Jacobs School of Music.

Anthony Josep is a baritone in his senior year at the Jacobs School of Music. This past year, he performed the role of Papageno in IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater’s production of The Magic Flute and debuted as Elviro in its production of Xerxes. He has also performed the role of Périchaud in IU’s most recent production of La Rondine. He has been featured in the chorus of the IU Jacobs Opera Theater productions of La Rondine, Falstaff, La Bohème, The Barber of Seville, La Traviata, and Le Nozze di Figaro. This past summer, he attended the Houston Grand Opera’s Young Artist Learning Academy, where he studied with renowned faculty member Stephen King. Josep also attended the Trentino Music Festival in Primiero, Italy, where he studied and sang for internationally recognized faculty and managers, as well as the role of Count Almaviva in its production of Le Nozze di Figaro. He has attended programs such as the Schmidt Vocal Institute, where he studied with Nathan Gunn, Sylvia McNair, and Brian Zeger. Being described as having a sound “with velvet in it, and with a natural gift for expressiveness,” Josep actively competes and has been successful in vocal competitions such as the National YoungArts Foundation Competition, where he was named a finalist. Recently, he competed and received first place in the Classical Singer International Competition College Division. He was also given an encouragement award in the Schmidt Vocal Undergraduate Awards Voice Competition. In addition to solo voice, Josep is also an active pianist and composer, often collaborating with organizations and singers at the Jacobs School in an effort to push new works into the modern opera repertoire. He currently participates as artistic director of the New Voices Opera program at IU. He studies in the studio of Jane Dutton.

Baritone David Le hails from Boise, Idaho, and is a graduate of Boise State University (B.A. Music). During his undergraduate studies, he was involved with Opera Idaho and vocal jazz as well as playing violin in the symphony orchestra. With Opera Idaho, Le performed the roles of the Page in Amahl and the Night Visitors and Innkeeper in Manon, and was a chorus member for Don Giovanni, Aida, and Tosca. He participated in the Sun Valley Music Festival’s summer opera program for three years, where he performed the roles of Papageno, Belcore, Dulcamara, Figaro, and Count Danilo. At the Jacobs School of Music, Le has performed the role of Littore in The Coronation of Poppea and Rambaldo in La Rondine. This season, he will perform as the bass soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the Lima Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Crust. He is a second-year student pursuing a Master of Music degree in voice under the tutelage of Timothy Noble and Peter Volpe.