Act 1
The Podestà, or Mayor, of Lagonero persistently (and unsuccessfully) pursues his new gardener Sandrina. Sandrina, however, is actually the disguised Marchioness Violante Onesti, who has concealed her identity to search for her beloved Count Belfiore, who some time ago had fled in a panic thinking he had somehow killed her when she had fainted during a passionate altercation. Violante’s manservant, Roberto, is also disguised as the gardener Nardo and is smitten with the mayor’s maid, Serpetta (who is jealous of the mayor’s new lust for Sandrina). Meanwhile, the mayor’s niece Arminda has rejected her own lover, Ramiro, in favor of the wealthy suitor who has asked to marry her. Later, when Sandrina learns that Arminda’s new bridegroom is, in fact, her own beloved Count Belfiore, she faints. Belfiore realizes Sandrina is actually his beloved Violante but is utterly baffled when she refuses to admit to it. With everyone now properly confused, jealousy ensues. Arminda senses she may lose Belfiore to Sandrina. Ramiro vows to win back Arminda.

Act 2
The confused Belfiore is confronted by Arminda about Sandrina. Belfiore longs to uncover the truth about Sandrina, hoping she is in fact Violante. Ramiro brings the Podestà shocking news and a warrant for the arrest of Count Belfiore for the murder of the Marchioness Violante Onesi. When the mayor confronts the Count, Sandrina comes to Belfiore’s defense as the Marchioness herself, clearly not dead. All are astonished! When Belfiore thanks Violante, she privately tells him she only pretended to be the Marchioness, but she really is the garden maid Sandrina. In a swirl of turbulent emotions and confusion, the Count’s sanity unravels.
Jealous and unconvinced, Arminda exiles Sandrina to a nearby forest. Upon learning this, the Podestà and others set out to search for Sandrina. As night sets in, a terrified Sandrina takes shelter in a cave. As the searchers traipse through the dark woods, a storm brews, identities are mistaken, love tangles redouble, and chaos ensue. The pandemonium comes to a screeching halt when Belfiore and Sandrina show signs of total madness—or is it? Everyone else is dumbstruck and more confused than ever.

Act 3
Violante and Belfiore “awaken” and resolve to rekindle their love. Everyone else then decides they had better snag their true love, too! So, all is forgiven, and Serpetta will marry Nardo/Roberto, and Arminda will marry Ramiro. The Podestà gathers the three couples and vows himself to marry once he finds a new “gardener.”

“Young Mozart: Commander of Opera Genres”
by Nicole Cowan
(M.A. Student in Musicology and Library Science)

Commissioned by the elector of the Bavarian Court for Munich’s 1774–75 Carnival season, La Finta Giardiniera premiered on January 13, 1775, and showcases the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as he comes into his own. The commission sent the Mozarts to Munich in December 1774 and likely served as a welcome source of income and artistic support after a relative dry spell in Salzburg, a city that was growing increasingly stifling and tiresome.

Written when Mozart was 18 years old, La Finta Giardiniera is his second opera buffa and demonstrates his mastery of both the prevailing Italian opera styles: opera seria and opera buffa. While authorship of the libretto is uncertain, the plot can be traced back to Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded and its operatic adaptation, La buona figliuola by Niccolò Piccinni. In Pamela, a lower-class maid rises in station by marrying her employer after suffering through and rebuking his advances. Piccinni deviates slightly in La buona figliuola, revealing the maid to be a long-lost German baroness, an origin that would not disturb the rigid class barriers of the time. Both works were huge successes and took eighteenth-century society by storm, spawning many other stories that echo similar themes.

La Finta Giardiniera concerns itself with the drama of ordinary characters whose lives converge in a tangle of love, madness, and attempted murder. But this is more than just a complicated, emotionally charged, and at times absurd opera buffa plot. The story is elevated by Mozart’s compositional skills as he masterfully expresses and blends the musical traits and tropes of opera buffa with those of opera seria. Stock characters typical of opera buffa populate the stage and are given specific musical treatments to illustrate their character motivations and their expected genre tropes. Lightly scored, quick-witted, and flirtatious Serpetta, a maid in the Podestà’s service who is in love with him, is a stock parte buffa character. Bumbling and often confused Don Anchise/The Podestà is another well-known character type, the tenor buffo, who, in his purported love for Sandrina, becomes the comic foil for the true male lead, Count Belfiore. Contrasting with these buffa characters are Arminda, an almost entirely seria soprano, and Ramiro (her spurned lover), who would originally have been played by a castrato singer, also typical of the seria tradition. Accordingly, Arminda’s arias are more powerful and cast her as a prima donna—especially her Act II rage aria, “Vorrei punirti indegno,” which uses the orchestration of strings and oboe along with emotional breaks in singing for motivic lines in the orchestra—typical for this seria aria type.

Violante/Sandrina, however, is a parte di mezzo carattere, a character type that falls between these buffa and seria categories, with aria styles from both genres. This likely stems from her role as a sentimental heroine. Like the eighteenth-century opera derivations of Pamela, Violante/Sandrina is of the upper class but appears to be of the lower—in this case, a gardener. Stuck in a love triangle between her true love, Count Belfiore, and the amorous Podestà, she is the plot’s main subject, whose suffering is considered virtuous—both the conflicted love and the suffering are hallmarks of the sentimental Pamela type. Her aria “Noi donne poverine” is buffa in style, with an exposed syllabic melody and simple string accompaniment. This song connects to her self-identification in the second scene of the opera as “una povera villanella” (a poor country girl), a play on La buona figliuola’s “Una povera ragazza” (a poor girl). In another string-accompanied buffa aria, “Una voce sento al core,” Violante/Sandrina purposefully evokes a seria style when she sinks into a minor key and adds vocal flourishes to evoke pity in the Podestà. Yet the most compelling example is Violante/Sandrina’s scene at the end of Act II; “Crudeli, Oh Dio!” falls almost exactly in the middle of buffa and seria. It takes after the “virtue in distress” trope of opera buffa, which is often set in an agitata texture. Mozart, however, employs sentimentality and enlists several stylistic elements that would fit just as well in a seria aria. Chromatic string figures, large leaps as she cries out for help, and multiple repeated and related motives to highlight her inner turmoil further heighten the drama and push Violante/Sandrina to the extreme.

Mozart does not only blend genres for Violante/Sandria. Even in stock characters, Mozart colors their musical characterizations to point to both types of opera. The typical buffa bass role is Roberto/Nardo but has a more sentimental treatment with a high range and more noble, forceful passions as well as moments of true pathos when attempting to woo Serpetta. Even the seria Arminda, in the aria where she flirts with Belfiore (“Si promette facilmente”), falls into musical buffa tropes, such as singular repeating notes and a lack of vocal flourishes in her whiny complaints about Ramiro. Count Belfiore has more depth than the conventional buffa tenor—his tendency to extreme emotions with dramatic, vocally expressive moments of distress (culminating in a mad scene) are uncommon in buffa plots. Finally, rather than the heroine submitting to him, as in many other buffa stories, Belfiore must go through similar, more serious suffering, just like Violante/Sandrina has, to be with her and earn his happy ending.

La Finta Giardiniera is, at its core, an opera buffa, but through Mozart’s use of seria elements, it becomes a story not just of ordinary people, but of serious feeling, turmoil, and passion. Each character’s specific musical treatment reinforces their position in their respective tropes and in the mansion of the Podestà. Even in Mozart’s day, the musical depth and complexity that Mozart exhibits through weaving seria elements into a buffa framework was praised; after the first rehearsal, the musicians agreed to push the premiere from late December to mid-January, as they believed the music was worthy of more time and careful preparation. Seemingly, audiences agreed: countless voices, including the elector himself, lauded the composer’s musical prowess. At just 18 years old, Mozart demonstrated in La Finta Giardiniera his strong command of opera styles and of composition.

Marzio Conti began his career as a flutist, making his debut at the Salzburg Festival at the age of 20 with I Solisti Veneti. He has been considered internationally as one of the exponents of the flute of his generation, playing, recording, and teaching classes for the most important international institutions. He decided to leave his concert activity 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 in theaters around the world, varying from symphonic repertoire to opera, also collaborating with renowned ballet companies. He has numerous recordings with international record labels. Conti has frequently appeared on television and radio programs, promoting, in addition to traditional symphonic repertoire and opera, contemporary music. Since the beginning of his directing career, he has held positions as principal and artistic director in several Italian and foreign orchestras. His last position was as titular director in Spain of Oviedo Filarmonia from 2011 to 2017, receiving prizes including the Gold Medal Auditorium of Oviedo, considered the highest artistic recognition of the city. Among other recent awards, he has been several times 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 of the international scene. He has collaborated as guest conductor and visiting professor with the Jacob School of Music since 2014 and has been principal guest conductor of AIMS Festival in Graz since 2017.

Director Amy Hutchison stages “wildly imaginative” opera and theater productions throughout the U.S. and worldwide, including William Bolcom’s A View from the Bridge at Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Washington National Opera, and Portland Opera; Hansel and Gretel at Opernhaus Zürich, Canadian Opera Company, The Juilliard School, televised Live from Lincoln Center, and San Diego Opera; Porgy and Bess at Teatro alla Scala Milan, L’Opera Nationale de Paris, Bunkamura Theatre Tokyo, and German Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf; and Carmen for Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Florentine Opera, and Opera Columbus. From Verdi’s swashbuckling Il Corsaro for Opera Festival of Chicago to her “brilliantly mounted double bill” of Donizetti’s Il Pigmaglione & Rita for Chicago Opera Theater, her work has been hailed as “an opera lover’s dreams on a golden platter.” Hutchison’s historic production of William Grant Still’s epic masterwork Troubled Island for South Shore Opera Company of Chicago was named the number one classical music event of 2013 by the Chicago Sun-Times. She is a longtime champion of new American opera, collaborating with composers William Bolcom, Laura Kaminsky, Missy Mazzoli, Ricky Ian Gordon, Stacy Garrop, Wang Lu, Jonathan Stinson, and Steven M. Allen. She has directed Kaminsky’s As One in cities across the U.S. She is dramaturg and director for Pittsburgh Opera’s new commission, Time to Act, by Kaminsky and librettist Crystal Manich, exploring the long-term emotional impact of gun violence on American students. Hutchison has served on the directing staffs of Lyric Opera of Chicago and Houston Grand Opera. Her work in academia includes The Juilliard School, Boston University, Northwestern University, DePaul University, Roosevelt University, and Rider University/Westminster Choir College. Based in Chicago, she serves on the board of directors for About Face Theatre and on the advisory board of South Chicago Dance Theatre.

A Bloomington-based designer and scenic artist, Mark Frederic Smith is director of scenic painting and properties for IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater, where he has worked on more than 150 productions during the past 27 years. Design work for Jacobs School projects includes The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, The Coronation of Poppea, Hansel and Gretel, Bernstein’s Mass, and last season’s world premiere of Anne Frank. His design for Florencia en el Amazonas was featured in San Diego Opera’s 2017-18 season. In addition to work for Indianapolis Civic Theater, Butler Ballet, Indianapolis Ballet, and Chicago’s Greenhouse Theater, area theatergoers will recognize his designs for more than a dozen Cardinal Stage Company shows, including Les Misérables, A Streetcar Named Desire, My Fair Lady, Oliver!, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Smith earned a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic Design degree from the IU Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance and was a student of C. David Higgins and Robert O’Hearn at Jacobs. Upcoming productions include An American Dream and Sweeney Todd.

Elizabeth Licata is an award-winning costume artist and the head of costumes at IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater. Previously, she worked for the Santa Fe Opera, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Constellation Stage & Screen, and Chicago Shakespeare Theater. She was an M.F.A. student under Heather Milam, head of the Costume Technology program at IU. Additionally, Licata has studied haute couture at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and embroidery from the London School of Embroidery and at Chanel’s École Lesage in Paris. She has a B.A. from Dartmouth and an M.A. from Stanford. She once worked with Dolly Parton.

Russell Long’s most recent design credits include Lunch bunch, 45 Seconds from Broadway, The Music Man, Carrie: The Musical, Pippin, and the national tour of We Outside. He has also worked as the lighting supervisor/resident lighting designer for Aspen Music Festival and School, where he designed lights for Uncommon Ritual, ¡De Colores!, and Mathew Whitaker. Originally from Southern Arizona, Long studied at Northern Arizona University and has worked with Arizona Theatre Company, Peaks Productions, University of Arizona Opera, Aspen Opera, and Vail Ballet Festival. He is also a founding member of Spotlight Youth Productions in Oro Valley, Arizona. He earned an M.F.A in lighting design from the IU Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance. Locally, he has worked with the African American Arts Institute and local music and performing group Ben & Winnie.

Andrew Elliot is a makeup artist, wig designer, stylist, and cellist. His design and music work can be seen and heard with IU Jacobs 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 work as a makeup artist and stylist 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.

Cori Ellison, a leading creative figure in the opera world, returns to the Jacobs School after serving as dramaturg for IU’s Anne Frank. She has been staff dramaturg at Santa Fe Opera, the Glyndebourne Festival, and New York City Opera (NYCO). Active in developing contemporary opera, she is a founding faculty member of American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program and has developed new works for companies including Glyndebourne, Icelandic Opera, Canadian Opera, Norwegian Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Arizona Opera, Opera Birmingham, Pittsburgh Opera, and Beth Morrison Projects. She has been 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 and Philharmonia Baroque; Washington National Opera’s Ring cycle; Opera Boston’s The Nose; and Offenbach!!! at Bard Summerscape. At The Juilliard School, she serves on the Vocal Arts faculty and is also a faculty member at the Ravinia Steans Music Institute Program for Singers. She has coached and taught master classes for singers at schools including the Jacobs School of Music, Cincinnati College-Conservatory, Mannes College, University of Toronto, University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, Michigan State University, DePaul University, University of Illinois, Montclair State University, and University of Nebraska at Lincoln. She serves as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Concurso San Miguel in Mexico, and other vocal competitions. She creates supertitles for opera companies worldwide and helped launch Met Titles, the Met’s simultaneous translation system. Her English singing translations include Hansel and Gretel (NYCO, twice performed at IU), La vestale (English National Opera), and Shostakovich’s Cherry Tree Towers (Bard Summerscape). She has written for The New York Times and has contributed to books including The New Grove Dictionary of Opera and The Compleat Mozart.

Julian Garvue is a pianist from Seattle, Washington, currently pursuing a Performer Diploma in Collaborative Piano from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the guidance of Kevin Murphy and Anne Epperson. Last summer, Garvue attended Music Academy in Santa Barbara, California, as a fellow of the Lehrer Vocal Institute, where he worked as a pianist and coach on the Academy’s production of Puccini’s La Bohème. While at Music Academy, he coached regularly with Martin Katz, Margo Garrett, John Churchwell, and Tamar Sanikidze, among many other luminaries of the vocal/piano world. Garvue is thrilled to be playing continuo for La Finta Giardiniera, his second Mozart opera with IU Jacobs Opera Theater. He is also looking forward to working as a répétiteur and coach for the Jacobs production of Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd next spring.

Tenor Elijah Bowen is a first-year master’s student at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Heidi Grant Murphy. He has also studied with Brian Horne and Steven Rickards. A native of Logansport, Indiana, Bowen graduated last year from Indiana University with degrees in vocal performance and choral music education. In 2019, he marked his IU Jacobs Opera Theater debut as Don Curzio in Le Nozze di Figaro by W. A. Mozart. He has also played Luiz in the University Gilbert & Sullivan Society’s production of The Gondoliers and Corebo in Cavalli’s La Didone with the Haymarket Opera Company of Chicago, Illinois. He was also featured as a Guard in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea. A first-place winner in the Indiana National Association of Teachers of Singing competition, Bowen has been featured with the IU Contemporary Vocal Ensemble: NOTUS (winner of The American Prize in Choral Performance) and with the Grammy-nominated Singing Hoosiers. Along with his frequent recital and small ensemble work, he currently sings tenor for the Choir of Men and Choristers at the historic Christ Church Cathedral in Indianapolis.

Gavin Hughes is a native of Jackson, Mississippi, who began his classical journey in 2015. In 2017, he debuted his first role, as Cephus, at the Thalia Mara Hall with the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra in Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha. In 2021, Hughes graduated from Jackson State University with a Bachelor of Music Education and began the pursuit of his master’s degree under Russell Thomas at Jacobs, where he debuted his first lead opera role, as Tamino in Mozart’s The Magic Flute. In February 2023, he sang his first flamenco role with IU Jacobs Opera Theater, as Ruiz Alonso in Ainadamar. The following May, Hughes made his professional title role debut, as Emmett Till in Charles Lloyd, Jr.’s Emmett Till with Opera Southern Company. In spring 2024, he will serve as tenor resident artist with Indianapolis Opera for its forty-eighth season.

Bradley Lieto hails from Monroe, Michigan, where he was born and raised. He is a second-year candidate in the doctoral program studying with Brian Gill. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree (voice/choral) from Central Michigan University, where he was a choral scholar, as well as a Master of Vocal Performance degree from the University of Toledo, where he was a graduate assistant and taught theory, piano, and choir. He recently sang Tamino in a production of The Magic Flute in Philadelphia. Last year at IU, he sang the role of Dr. Dussel in Shulamit Ran’s Anne Frank. He was a soloist last year many times and premiered multiple new works at Jacobs last season. An avid teacher, clinician, pianist and pedagogue, Lieto teaches across the greater Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio Valley areas.

Inside Magazine describes tenor Andrew Lunsford, M.M. Voice, as having “a take-your- breath-away high C,” and Fox News described him as “quickly rising to the top due to his jaw-dropping voice.” He has been profiled by NBC, ABC, and FOX News, and was the subject of the prime-time CNN feature The Accidental Tenor. After discovering his vocal abilities later in life, Lunsford attended the Jacobs School of Music, where he trained with Carol Vaness. He has since gone on to perform on many of the world’s most distinguished stages, such as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, and Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Some of his most notable performances have been in the title role of Faust, Calaf in Turandot, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, and Tamino in The Magic Flute. Lunsford is also frequently seen on the concert stage, performing works such as the tenor soloist in the Verdi and Mozart Requiems as well as various works by Dan Forest. Lunsford has previously been seen on the MAC stage in the title role of Faust and as the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier. Lunsford was most recently seen as Le Journaliste and Le Fils in Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tirésias and will be making his debut at David Geffen Hall (formerly Avery Fisher Hall) at Lincoln Center in spring 2024.

Wonkyung Chung, a soprano from Seoul, South Korea, is pursuing a Performer Diploma at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Carol Vaness. Chung earned her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees at Yonsei University in Seoul. In her native Korea, she has performed the role of Adina in The Elixir of Love, Gilda in Rigoletto, and Papagena in The Magic Flute. In 2017, she participated in the 8th Mask Fest Summer International Festival in Italy and the Pyeongchang Special Music & Art Festival in Korea. In 2019, after being chosen as one of the representatives from Yonsei University, Chung participated in a four-week training program at Germany’s Hannover State Opera. She won the bronze prize in two significant Korean competitions: the 21st Korea National Opera Competition, in 2022, and the 28th KBS∙KEPCO Music Competition, in 2021. She has sung in master classes by Kwangchul Youn, Helmut Deutsch, Céline Dutilly, and Nicole Chevalier. This is her debut with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater.

Soprano Kate Johnson will debut at Opera Roanoke as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro this March. She recently performed the title role in the world premiere of Anne Frank by composer Shulamit Ran and librettist Charles Kondek at IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater, where she previously played Atalanta in Handel’s Xerxes and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. An avid champion of new opera, she recently created the role of Elaine in a workshop of Zheng, a new opera by composer Shinji Eshima and librettist Tony Asaro, at Opera San José. Johnson spent summer 2023 as a studio artist with Central City Opera and was a 2021 apprentice artist with Des Moines Metro Opera. Passionate about opera outreach, she has performed enthusiastically for Indiana school groups with Reimagining Opera for Kids. As recipient of a 2021-22 Fulbright Austria grant, Johnson was based in Vienna, where her work focused on the lieder of Walter Bricht in partnership with the Exilarte Center for Banned Music at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and included recital work. Under the tutelage of Heidi Grant Murphy, she is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma in Voice Performance at Jacobs, where she has earned a Performer Diploma and a Master of Music degree. A native of Omaha, Nebraska, Johnson has twice received the Opera Omaha Guild Award as well as a 2020 Encouragement Award in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Jamaican soprano Sashekia Brown is a dynamic artist who regularly performs throughout the Caribbean and North America, giving solo recitals and on the operatic stage. She made her professional operatic debut with Toledo Opera as Girlfriend1/Nurse in Jeanine Tesori’s opera Blue and has recently sung the roles of Cunégonde (Candide) and Sandmännchen (Hansel and Gretel) IU Jacobs Opera Theater; Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) LandLocked Opera and Treemonisha (Treemonisha) Bloomington Chamber Opera. Other highlights include scenes from Der Rosenkavalier, as Sophie, in Carol Vaness’s Opera Workshop along with Zerlina (Don Giovanni) and Laetitia (The Old Maid and the Thief) University of Nevada, Reno Chamber Opera. Brown has studied with Carline Waugh and Keastner Robertson and is a current student of Vaness. She is also a grateful recipient of career grants from the Government of Jamaica through the Culture, Health, Arts, Sports, and Education Fund.

From Wilmette, Illinois, Colombian American soprano Ella Torres is a master’s student in the studio of Carol Vaness. Previously at the Jacobs School of Music, she has performed as Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi for Opera Workshop and as Second Woman in Dido and Aeneas with Summer Chorus, in the opera choruses of Ainadamar and L’Étoile, and in choral projects with Voices of Concentus and the Early Music Student Society. Recent performances elsewhere include Princess Dora in Lori Laitman’s The Three Feathers (Opera Steamboat), Erste Dame in The Magic Flute (Chicago Summer Opera), and Polyxo in Kate Soper’s Here Be Sirens Suite (Eastman Opera Theatre). Torres has been a national finalist for several competitions, including the CS Music Vocal Competition in the Classical University division and the Music Teachers National Association Competition in the Young Artist Voice division. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Voice from the Eastman School of Music and is a collegiate initiate of the music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda. In addition to singing, she is passionate about arts leadership and non-profit administration. She is an alumna of Sigma Alpha Iota.

Sunghoon Han is a bass-baritone from Seoul, South Korea, with a broad range of repertoire that includes opera, art songs, and oratorio. After graduating with honors from Yonsei University with a Bachelor of Music, he is pursuing a Performer Diploma (P.D.S.P.) at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Carol Vaness. In his native Korea, Han has performed in the role of Colline in La Bohème, Leporello in Don Giovanni, Don Pasquale in Don Pasquale, and Don Alfonso in Cosi fan tutte. He also garnered much acclaim for Haydn’s Missa in Tempore Belli as a bass soloist. He was awarded in the Music Association of Korea Competition, Classic Music Magazine Competition, and the Journal of Music Competition, solidifying his reputation as a rising talent. Notably, he was selected as a Kumho Young Artist, culminating in a successful solo recital. He was also chosen as a Korea National Opera Studio Artist and has participated in master classes by Helmut Deutsch and baritone Thomas Hampson.

From Munster, Indiana, Robert Wente is a first-year M.M. student in voice performance studying with Wolfgang Brendel at the Jacobs School of Music. He previously earned a Bachelor of Science in Physics degree from IU. With IU Jacobs Opera Theater, he has performed as Masetto in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Bob Becket in H.M.S. Pinafore as well as in the choruses of Bernstein’s Mass, Parsifal, La Traviata, The Barber of Seville, and The Magic Flute. He was featured as the soloist for the University Chorale’s performance of Beethoven’s Mass in C.

From Haddonfield, New Jersey, mezzo-soprano Shannon Lally holds degrees from Westminster Choir College (B.M. ‘21) and Indiana University (M.M. ‘23). She has previously performed on the MAC stage in the roles of Little Buttercup (H.M.S. Pinafore) and Niña (Ainadamar). Other role highlights include Zita (Gianni Schicchi), Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro), Third Lady (The Magic Flute), Dorabella (Così fan tutte), and Olga (Eugene Onegin). In 2022, Lally made her debut as the alto soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Philharmonic Orchestra and Oratorio Chorus at the Jacobs School of Music, conducted by Thomas Wilkins. Most recently, she premiered the role of Stefanie Schmid in a workshop performance of a new opera by Lauren Bernofsky, The Mensch. She is currently completing a Graduate Certificate in Vocology with Peter Volpe.

Mezzo-soprano Dajeong Song, originally from Goyang, South Korea, is a graduate assistant and third-year doctoral student at the Jacobs School of Music studying with Jane Dutton. She earned an M.M. and a Professional Studies Diploma in Vocal Performance from San Francisco Conservatory of Music and a Bachelor of Music Education from Konkuk University, Seoul. Song has been on stage at the summer program Opera in the Ozarks in several opera performances, including Die Fledermaus (Prince Orlofsky) and The Ballad of Baby Doe (Mama McCourt and Effie). She has also been on opera stages 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 several master classes, with Frederica Von Stade, Barbara Reed-Honn, and Martin Katz. Before she started her doctoral program, she was a high school music teacher and a choral conductor in South Korea. She debuted at IU Jacobs Opera Theater as Aunt Lou in Highway 1, USA. Last fall, she performed the role of Lazuli in L’Étoile with Opera Theater. Recently, Song debuted in Bolivia, South America, with Orquesta Filarmónica de Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

Hailed for her “great stage presence” and “a soaring soprano voice,” Madeleine Gotschlich is a versatile performer with a love for everything from Mozart to Strauss. Originally from Gorham, Maine, she is pursuing a master’s degree at the Jacobs School of Music as a student of Carol Vaness. Recently, she debuted the role of Mrs. Van Daan in the world-premiere production of Shulamit Ran’s Anne Frank. Other roles performed include Ciesca (Gianni Schicchi) and Grimgerde (Die Walküre). She has also performed scenes from a variety of roles, including Vanessa (Vanessa), Eboli (Don Carlo), Agathe (Der Freschütz), Alice Ford (Falstaff), Norma (Norma), and Mother (Hansel and Gretel). This past summer, Gotschlich was a fellow artist at Sewanee Summer Music Festival’s OperaFest, where she was featured in several concerts, including a performance with a quartet of players from the Chattanooga Symphony. She made her professional debut in 2019 with Opera MODO, as Diana in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld. In 2018, Gotschlich earned a bachelor’s degree in voice performance from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, where she studied with Stephen West. During her time in Ann Arbor, she was also a featured soloist in an independent production of Einstein on the Beach, which was recognized by Philip Glass. Recipient of the 2017 Bel Canto Institute Performance Award, she has planned and performed in many recitals, her most recent with a program featuring Strauss’s Vier Letzte Lieder.

From Noblesville, Indiana, Gwenyth Sell is pursuing a Performer Diploma under the tutelage of Jane Dutton. She graduated with a Master of Music degree from the Jacobs School of Music in the spring and was honored to be awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate. During her time at Jacobs, Sell performed the roles of Nella in Carol Vaness’s Opera Workshop production of Gianni Schicchi by Giacomo Puccini, Le Prince in Jane Dutton’s production of Cendrillon by Pauline Viardot, and Georgette in IU Jacobs Opera Theater’s production of La Rondine by Puccini. Other recent roles include Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi and Nannetta in Falstaff by Giuseppe Verdi at the Musica e Musica Festival in Italy and Laetita in The Old Maid and the Thief by Gian Carlo Menotti.