Vienna, Late Nineteenth Century

Gabriel von Eisenstein has played a practical joke on his friend Dr. Falke. After a costume ball, Eisenstein left Dr. Falke drunk and asleep on a park bench wearing not much more than a bat mask. The next morning, Dr. Falke awoke to find himself being laughed at by a crowd of onlookers. He was soon to be known as Dr. Fledermaus (Dr. Bat). Now, the moment has come for “die Rache der Fledermaus,” the Revenge of the Bat.

Act I

A drawing room in Gabriel von Eisenstein’s house

Alfred is serenading Rosalinda in front of her house. Long before Rosalinda got married to Eisenstein, she and Alfred had an affair while attending music conservatory. Adele, chambermaid in Eisenstein’s house, receives a letter from her sister, Ida, who invites her to come to a party at Prince Orlovsky’s garden that night. To get out of work, she pretends her old aunt is sick. Rosalinda doesn’t believe her story and insists that she stay and work. Rosalinda is having a hard time resisting Alfred’s advances and his beautiful tenor voice. He suddenly needs to hide when Eisenstein comes home accompanied by his lawyer, Dr. Blind. Eisenstein has been sentenced to eight days in jail for insulting a police officer. After they blame each other for the unfortunate jail sentence, Eisenstein kicks out Dr. Blind. Dr. Falke arrives and encourages Eisenstein to postpone the start of his prison sentence in order to secretly come to Prince Orlovsky’s party. Falke convinces him to bring his “lady-bait” (a charming little watch) to seduce the women and party like the good old days. Rosalinda gives Adele the night off, and Eisenstein says goodbye to his wife. In a heart-wrenching farewell, all three have a hard time hiding their excitement for the upcoming events. After Eisenstein and Adele have left, Alfred comes back for a romantic tête-à-tête with Rosalinda. They are interrupted when the prison warden, Frank, comes to escort Mr. Eisenstein to jail. To uphold Rosalinda’s reputation, Alfred pretends to be her husband and is taken to prison in Eisenstein’s place.

Act II

Garden party at Prince Orlovsky’s

Dr. Falke is greeting guests at Prince Orlovsky’s party. He has been in charge of planning the event and entertaining the notoriously bored Russian prince. Adele shows up in one of Rosalinda’s dresses. She soon finds out that her sister, Ida, is not the one who invited her but that somebody must be playing a joke on them. Dr. Falke interrupts and suggests that Adele be introduced as a young actress, “Miss Olga.” Eisenstein arrives and is announced as “Marquis Renard.” Prince Orlovsky encourages him to partake in some Russian national customs. When Eisenstein begins to recognize Adele, she convincingly proves that she could never be a chambermaid. Prison warden Frank arrives and is announced as “Chevalier Chagrin.” He is introduced to “Marquis Renard” and the two “Frenchmen” quickly become friends. Dr. Falke now asks the guests for their discretion as a “Hungarian countess” will join the party but wishes to stay incognito. Eisenstein can’t wait to use his “lady-bait” to seduce the mysterious stranger, who is none other than his own wife, Rosalinda. He not only fails to convince her to remove her mask but also loses his “lady-bait” watch while trying. Adele and Eisenstein question if the “countess” is truly Hungarian. Rosalinda dissolves all doubts by singing “music from her fatherland.” After a grand champagne toast, Dr. Falke suggests that all guests pledge eternal brotherhood. When the clock strikes six in the morning, Eisenstein must leave in order to start his jail sentence. Dancing out arm in arm, neither “Marquis Renard” (Eisenstein) nor “Chevalier Chagrin” (prison warden Frank) realizes they will soon meet again at the jailhouse.

Eventually, all subterfuge is revealed, and Dr. Falke enjoys “the Revenge of the Bat.”

by John Matthew Cowan

Ph.D. Student and Fellow in Musicology

Johann Strauss II (1825–1899) was a leading figure on the dynamic scene of late nineteenth-century operetta. In 1874, Strauss produced his greatest success: Die Fledermaus (The Bat, literally “flutter mouse”). The seeds of Die Fledermaus began to germinate in 1851 with Julius Roderich Benedix’s farce Das Gefängnis (The Prison). This text later became a loose model for the 1872 French vaudeville Le Réveillon (The Midnight Supper) by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, best known as librettists to Jacques Offenbach (1819–1880). Meilhac and Halévy also collaborated with Georges Bizet (1838–1875) on the work that will close IU Opera and Ballet Theater’s 2024–25 season, Carmen (1875). Shortly before, in 1874, Karl Haffner reworked Le Réveillon back into German, Richard Genée refined the verse, and Strauss set their words to music, turning these efforts into Die Fledermaus—his third and most popular operetta.

The success of Die Fledermaus at its Theater an der Wien premiere, and its continued popularity in the international repertoire, is due in no small part to the infectiousness of its waltz and polka tunes. By 1874, Strauss’s orchestra had toured Europe for three decades, and Vienna had crowned him “The Waltz King.” Appointed to the newly created position of “Royal and Imperial Court Ball Music Director” in 1863, Strauss—and his music—had the court’s seal of approval. Competition for public favor, however, remained fierce. Carl Ziehrer (1843–1922) and Franz von Suppé (1819–1895) were Strauss’s most worthy adversaries in dance music and operetta, respectively, but neither overthrew the potentate of polka. The Viennese have since canonized Strauss with a golden statue in the Stadtpark, and for over eight decades, the Vienna Philharmonic has welcomed each new year with a nostalgic program built around music of the Strauss family (his father, Johann I’s, “Radetzky March” is a staple, and music of his brothers, Josef and Eduard, is often included).

The tone of an operetta in the late nineteenth century could range from somewhat serious with elements of pathos and tension, as in Strauss’s later Der Zigeunerbaron (1885), to entirely frivolous and delightful, like Die Fledermaus. Some scholars argue that Die Fledermaus provided needed diversion for a Viennese public reeling from the market crash that catalyzed the global Panic of 1873. Die Fledermaus’s fire-hazard libretto (as it is soaked in alcohol) brims with the conventional trappings of comic opera: drunken fools, intersecting subplots, disguises galore, self-referential humor, national/ethnic stereotypes, and topsy-turviness of social station. These plot devices tend to delight audiences but seldom please critics: all but one of Die Fledermaus’s contemporary critics wrote negatively of its libretto. Many predicted that its tunes would endure, but not the operetta. In fact, Strauss ended up with the best of both as the potpourri overture remains a staple alongside its opera. Hermann Broch, an early-twentieth-century Austrian writer, dismissed Strauss’s operas as “pure idiocy” and the culmination of “the gay [carefree] apocalypse” that swept Vienna in the 1870–80s.

Such judgments notwithstanding, one of the most compelling qualities of Die Fledermaus comes from the way Strauss and his librettists play with diegetic elements (those experienced by both the characters within a piece and the audience) and non-diegetic elements (those experienced only by the audience). In through-composed serious opera, singing is typically non-diegetic: we, the audience, suspend our disbelief to accept that singing characters may as well be speaking. Operas that include both musical numbers and dialogue, however, provide space for self-referential humor to emerge. The character of Alfred embodies this device. We take at face value his opening serenade to Rosalinda (a reference to Alfredo’s serenade to Violetta in La Traviata): shouldn’t an opera begin with a beguiling tenor? When Rosalinda acknowledges Alfred’s singing (wasn’t she just singing?), this unsettles our initial impression as his song is rendered diegetic. The fourth wall separating stage and audience cracks further as Rosalinda goes on about the power of a tenor’s high A. (This joke is recycled at the start of Act III as Alfred’s singing annoys Frosch, the jailer.) Rosalinda herself performs a diegetic csárdás (Act II, No. 10) to prove that she is Hungarian, and Adele’s “audition song” (Act III, No. 14) is just as much heard by Frank as by us.

Strauss attunes our ears to two more diegetic sounds: the chiming pocket watch (glockenspiel) and the tolling clock (tubular bells). Strauss and his librettists draw our attention to the pocket watch as a crucial plot device by employing it as a challenge to the threshold of verisimilitude. Heard tinkling throughout the operetta, the pocket watch features in Act II, No. 9, “Dieser Anstand, so manierlich,” as Eisenstein and Rosalinda sing and count along with its chiming, transforming a non-diegetic duet into a quagmire of theatrical boundaries. Similarly, as Count Orlofsky’s grandfather clock peals six times to mark the end of Act II, we hear the tolling diegetically as Eisenstein and Frank respond to it with alarm. Simultaneously, we hear the bells non-diegetically as part of the orchestral accompaniment, and we recall having heard them toll in the overture. Die Fledermaus showcases one of comic opera’s greatest strengths by playfully and frequently blurring the line between the characters’ reality and the audience’s experience.

In its standard form, Die Fledermaus includes a diegetic ballet during the Act II party. Our “Pop-Up” production instead expands this party scene with a pastiche of numbers from other operas and musicals. The inclusion of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Three Little Maids” from The Mikado (1885) is particularly fitting, as Gilbert adapted Le Réveillon into the comedy On Bail (1877). The Mikado holds a similar place in Gilbert and Sullivan’s oeuvre as Die Fledermaus does in Strauss’s, yet Percy M. Young, in his 1971 biography of Sullivan, jokingly cautioned against comparing the two operettas too closely “at the risk of starting the Third World War.” Despite the potential for international conflict, this intertextual spirit is at the heart of Die Fledermaus. These additional crowd-pleasing numbers in our “Pop-Up” production heighten its whimsy and complement the operetta’s raison d’être, to deliver an utterly entertaining evening. I’ll drink to that!

Pianist Kevin Murphy is professor of music in collaborative piano and director of coaching and music administration for IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater. A leading figure in the world of classical vocal music, he has served as Jacobs faculty since 2011. He recently joined Anne Epperson at the Jacobs School in creating a new collaborative piano program. In 2011, he was appointed director of the program for singers at Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and 2013-14 marked his first season as artistic consultant for the Tucson Desert Song Festival. Previously, he was director of music administration and casting advisor at New York City Opera (2008-12) and director of musical studies at the Opéra National de Paris (2006-08). Murphy was the first pianist and vocal coach invited by Maestro James Levine to join the prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Program at the Metropolitan Opera, and from 1993 to 2006, Murphy was an assistant conductor at the Met. In addition to his on- and off-stage partnership with his wife, soprano Heidi Grant Murphy, Murphy has collaborated in concert and recital with numerous world-renowned artists. He is sought after and respected for his work as a private vocal coach and teacher and has guest taught at San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, the International Vocal Arts Institute in Israel and Italy, Glimmerglass Opera, Tanglewood, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and The Juilliard School. In addition to playing and teaching, Murphy has added conducting to his musical activities and is a frequent adjudicator for competitions, including the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, where he has also served as official accompanist on stage at the Met. A native of Syracuse, New York, Murphy earned a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance degree from Indiana University and a Master of Music in Piano Accompanying degree from the Curtis Institute of Music. He resides in Bloomington, Indiana, with his wife, Heidi, and their four children.

Michael Shell is associate professor of voice at the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he teaches acting and opera workshops, and directs mainstage productions. His philosophy is to inform, excite, and empower his students to be the most authentic singing actors possible. His productions have been praised by critics across the nation. A Broadway World reviewer recently commented on Shell’s new production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide: “This production was one I could watch over and over again.” Shell has directed productions for Atlanta Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Omaha, Opera San José, Opera Tampa, Opera North, Virginia Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Houston Grand Opera. He made his international directing debut at the Wexford Festival Opera in 2010 with a production of Winners by American composer Richard Wargo and returned the following fall to direct Double Trouble–Trouble in Tahiti and The Telephone. He has written and directed three cabarets, including All About Love and The Glamorous Life—A group therapy session for Opera Singers, both for Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Shell earned a B.M. and an M.M. in Music/Vocal Performance from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. He was a Corbett Scholar at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and studied acting and scene study at H. B. Studios on an H. B. Studios merit scholarship. Shell has been guest faculty and director at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, Florida State University, Oklahoma University, A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute, and Webster University–St. Louis, teaching opera workshops and directing full productions and workshop performances.

Lydia Spellman is a costume designer for film, opera, dance, and theater. Her most recent costume design credits include Roméo et Juliette for The Jacobs School of Music, Madeleines with the Jewish Theater of Bloomington, and the world premiere of Decolonizing Your Mind with Walter Mercado by Jayne Deely. She has also created scenic designs for the 2022 TEDx Indiana University Conference and serves as resident wardrobe supervisor for IU Jacobs School of Music Opera and Ballet Theater. Originally from Central Illinois, Spellman earned a B.A. in Theatre and Linguistics from IU and has worked for several other performing arts organizations throughout the Midwest.

Russell Long returns for his second season at the MAC, where he designed lights for Eugene Onegin, An American Dream, Autumnsong, Roméo et Juliette, La Finta Giardiniera, and The Merry Widow. Long’s most recent regional design credits include Dial M for Murder, Forever Plaid (IUST), Newsies, The Music Man (QCT), Lunch bunch (Clubbed Thumb), 45 Seconds from Broadway (Hudson Guild), and Aladdin Jr. (SYP). 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 has also toured nationally as a lighting director and production manager. He earned an M.F.A in Lighting Design from the IU Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance.

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.

Music and diction coach Paulette Berman Fagen is a former coloratura soprano. Musical America praised her “brilliant virtuosity” for the title role in the opera Marilyn by Lorenzo Ferrero, which debuted in Germany, as part of Kassel’s international modern art festival, Documenta. Ferrero also composed the song cycle Canzoni d’Amore, which Berman sang in its world première at the Biennale of Venice. She has sung with Teatro Massimo, Palermo; the Koninklijke Opera van Vlaanderen, Antwerp and Ghent; Opera Forum of the Netherlands; Staatstheater Kassel, and many others. Among more than 35 leading roles performed, favorites include Adele in Die Fledermaus; Gilda in Rigoletto; Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann; the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte; Philine in Mignon; Susanne in Le Nozze di Figaro; Norina in Don Pasquale; Rosina in The  Barber of Seville; Adina in The Elixir of Love; Blondchen in The Abduction from the Seraglio; and Marzelline in Fidelio. Her notable radio and television appearances were with the BRT and RTBF Brussels, as Oscar in The Masked Ball; Radio Hilversum, Netherlands, as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana; BBC TV in a two-part special, Tito Gobbi’s Tuscan Summer; SFB and RIAS Berlin, excerpts from Bernstein’s West Side Story (Maria); WNBC Chicago in The New Performers variety special; and RAI Torino singing the world premiere of Ferrero’s Marilyn Suite. On the musical theater stage, she sang a year-long run as Maria in West Side Story at Berlin’s famed Theater des Westens. As a concert singer, Berman has been featured with the Belgian National Orchestra; L’Orchestra Siciliana di Palermo; Kasseler Symphoniker; Haifa Symphony; Asko Ensemble, Netherlands; Monadnock Music Festival Orchestra; Dortmunder Philharmoniker; and New Mexico Philharmonic, among others. She is also a retired attorney, a mother, a grandmother, and the wife of Maestro Arthur Fagen.

The performing arts career of J T. Forbes features a number of unmemorable high school backstage and mainstage roles in productions of The Sound of Music, The Importance of Being Earnest, and The Odd Couple, as well as spirited conducting as drum major of the Terre Haute South Vigo High School Big Band of Braves. With a professional career that has gone way better than his family expected, Forbes has served in a variety of roles, including the fortieth student body president of Indiana University, founding president of IU’s All University Student Assembly, tenth student trustee, first policy director of the senate of the State of Indiana, a founding gubernatorial appointee of the Indiana Commission on Community Service, first state government relations director for Cummins, second private sector staff member of the U.S.–Brazil CEO Forum, eleventh chief alumni officer of the IU Alumni Association, and now, ninth president of the Indiana University Foundation. He is an undisputed champion of the IU Student Foundation Little 500, having never lost a pace lap in his decade serving as the pace car driver for both the men’s and women’s race prior to his appointment as IU Foundation president. With clear instruction from the dean of the Jacobs School of Music that his operatic debut on the stage of the Musical Arts Center will be in a speaking role, Forbes will draw on all his vocal performance experiences singing in the IU Men’s Chorus as an undergraduate, leading the IU alma mater at countless IU events as IU’s chief alumni officer, and belting out tunes in the shower throughout his life. According to his critics and playwright Oscar Wilde, Forbes doesn’t sing well, but he does sing with marvelous expression.

Michael McRobbie served as the eighteenth president of Indiana University from July 1, 2007, to June 30, 2021. Prior to stepping down, he was among the country’s longest-serving presidents of a public research university. He was appointed university chancellor on July 1, 2021, the position first held by Herman B Wells from 1962 to 2000. McRobbie is only the third person to be appointed to this position in IU’s 200-year history. His appointment recognized his extensive past achievements and contributions to Indiana University and anticipates his continued support of IU’s core missions. He also holds the titles of president emeritus and university professor. Among the most important achievements of McRobbie’s 14-year tenure as IU president were major new facilities, renovations, and programmatic support for the performing arts, visual arts, and scholarly collections; the largest academic restructuring in IU’s history, during which 10 new schools were established; a reinvigoration of IU’s global engagement and academic programs; the completion or initiation of more than 200 major construction, renovation, or maintenance projects across all campuses, with a total value of around $2.7 billion; and the completion of the IU Bicentennial Campaign, the largest fundraising campaign in IU’s history, which raised nearly $4 billion from more than 320,000 donors. McRobbie joined IU in 1997 as the university’s first vice president for information technology and chief information officer. He was appointed vice president for research in 2003. In 2006, he was named interim provost and vice president for academic affairs for IU’s Bloomington campus. He is a computer scientist and philosopher and has been an active researcher and publisher in these fields. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Australian Academy of Humanities, and an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He has been awarded seven honorary doctorates and received many other honors and awards.

Originally from Spartanburg, South Carolina, soprano Carson Hardigree is a second-year master’s student studying with Michelle DeYoung while pursuing a Master of Music in Voice. She is a graduate from Furman University (2023), where she received her Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance and Choral Music Education. Hardigree’s previous roles include Edith in The Pirates of Penzance, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Romilda in Xerxes, Jack’s Mother in Into the Woods, and Meg March in Little Women. She was also slated to sing as a Spirit in Massenet’s Cendrillon in the spring of 2020. In the summer of 2023, she attended Chicago Summer Opera, where she played the role of Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo. In the summer of 2024, she returned to Chicago Summer Opera, where she reprised the role of Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, soprano Lillie Judge is pursuing a Doctor of Music degree under the tutelage of Brian Gill. Most recently, she performed the role of Despina in John Davies’ The Three Little Pigs and premiered the title role in Zach Redler’s The Red Songbird at the inaugural Children’s Opera Festival in Columbia, South Carolina. Previously at IU, she premiered the role of Mrs. Edith Frank in Anne Frank and sang in the choruses of Roméo et Juliette and Eugene Onegin. Judge holds a Master of Music in Voice Performance and Certificate of Vocology from IU as well as a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance and Sacred Music from Westminster Choir College. At Westminster, she sang with Westminster Choir and performed Bach’s B-Minor Mass under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin with Westminster Symphonic Choir and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Other previous roles include Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Gretel (Hänsel und Gretel), and Laetitia (The Old Maid and The Thief).

Hailed as an “intense, blossoming tenor,” Jonathan Elmore is excelling in opera, oratorio, and recital across the world. In the 2024-25 season, he also appears as Governor and Vanderdendur in Candide with the Northern Lights Music Festival, tenor soloist in Haydn’s Creation with Fresno Community Chorus Inc., and a vocal fellow with the Ravinia Steans Music Institute. He has previously appeared with Indianapolis Opera, Music Academy of the West, Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Philharmonic Orchestra, Tel Aviv Summer Opera, and Berkeley Community Chorus and Orchestra. Elmore is currently a Doctor of Music degree candidate at the Jacobs School, where he also earned his Master of Music in Voice Performance degree and is currently studying with Heidi Grant Murphy. A Southwest Virginia native, he received his Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance degree from Virginia Tech in 2020 under the tutelage of Brian Thorsett.

Zidong Zhou, a native of China, is a first-year master’s student studying with Brian Gill. He holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Soochow University School of Music and received further training from the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg Summer School and Tianjin Juilliard Vocal Institute, studying under teachers such as Mario Diaz and Katherine Chu. Recently, Zhou performed the role of Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas and scenes from Die Zauberflöte at Soochow University. He interned as a music teacher at Suzhou Zhenhua Middle School, where he led music ensembles and directed student performances.

From Pensacola, Florida, soprano Laura Looper is a first-year master’s student of Heidi Grant Murphy. Looper recently earned a bachelor’s degree in voice from Jacobs, where she performed Johanna in Sweeney Todd and sang in the choruses of Highway 1, USA; Candide; and Roméo et Juliette. Last summer, she was a young artist at Brevard Music Center, where she performed Tina in Flight and sang in the choruses for La Bohème and The Threepenny Opera. Past roles include Atalanta in Xerxes with Chicago Summer Opera and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Utah Vocal Arts Academy as well as covering the role of Despina in Così fan tutte at the Tel Aviv Summer Opera. She was the first-place winner in the 2023 Indiana Matinee Musicale Collegiate Competition, a semifinalist in the 2022 National Orpheus Vocal Competition, and a recipient of the 2021 Pock and Blumberg Merit Award from the National Society of Arts and Letters. Looper also completed a minor in Italian.

Soprano Gabriela Martinez, raised in Anchorage, Alaska, and Tucson, Arizona, is currently pursuing a master’s degree in voice performance with Carol Vaness. Additional roles include Virtú and Valletto in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea as well as in scenes including Suzel in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz and Marie in Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment. She has been a featured soloist in choral masterworks including Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Mahler’s Second Symphony. Martinez has collaborated with ensembles such as the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Helios Ensemble, and Tucson Masterworks Chorale and currently sings with NOTUS, IU’s contemporary vocal ensemble. She completed her undergraduate studies in vocal performance at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where she studied under Susanne Mentzer.

Rudolph Altenbach is a third-year undergraduate baritone from Chicago studying with Zachary Coates. He is pursuing a B.S.O.F. degree in health science and vocal performance. At Jacobs, he has performed the role of Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin and as a chorus member in Don Giovanni, Candide, Roméo et Juliette, and Sweeney Todd.

Evan Tiapula is pursuing a Master of Music degree under the instruction of Brian Horne. Originally from Brisbane, California, Tiapula received a Bachelor of Music from Oberlin Conservatory. Previous roles with Oberlin Opera Theater include Count Robinson in Il matrimonio segreto, Superintendent Budd in Albert Herring, and Voltaire/Pangloss/Cacambo/Martin in Candide.

Baritone Andreas C. Psillos is a master’s student from Toms River, New Jersey, currently studying with Zachary Coates. His previous roles include Peter in Hansel and Gretel at the Trentino Summer Music Festival, Benoit in La Bohème, and Maximillian in Candide with Opera Theatre Rutgers.

Nashville, Tennessee, native Evan Schelton is a second-year master’s student currently studying vocal performance with Michelle DeYoung. He earned a bachelor’s degree in vocal performance from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. As a young artist with the Wichita Grand Opera, he sang the role of Flora’s Servant in La Traviata and shared the stage with the acclaimed Sam Ramey during multiple performances with the Wichita Grand Opera.

Tenor Joshua DeGroot hails from Columbus, Indiana, and is in his first year of pursuing a Master of Music in Voice Performance at the Jacobs School. He graduated from Jacobs in 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in voice performance and continues to study with Timothy Noble. DeGroot made his principal debut at IU in 2023 as Baron Mirko Zeta in The Merry Widow. He has been a member of several IU Jacobs Opera Theater choruses, including the ensembles of Don Giovanni, Sweeney Todd, and Candide, in which he also sang the role of the Baron. While at IU, DeGroot has also participated in various performances with the Indiana University Gilbert & Sullivan Society and sung with choirs including the University Chorale and the Singing Hoosiers.

Nate Paul was born and raised in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, earning a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from Middle Tennessee State University before completing a Master of Music and vocology certificate at Indiana University this past spring. Studying with Brian Gill, Paul is a first-year doctoral student in voice performance. His voice has been described as “show stopping and nothing less than thrilling” and as having “the presence of a stage-struck powerhouse.” (BroadwayWorld: Nashville). His most recent theatrical performances include Beadle Bamford and Adolfo Pirelli in Sweeney Todd, Njegus in TheMerry Widow, Prologue/Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, Lord Tolloler in Iolanthe, Major-General Stanley in The Pirates of Penzance, Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, and Sir Robin in Spamalot. He is a frequent concert soloist as well, having sung as the tenor soloist in Telemann’s Die Donner-Ode, Beethoven’s Mass in C, and Handel’s Messiah. Paul is an award-winning music director and conductor, with past works including La Cage aux Folles, Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Wiz, Newsies, The Addams Family, Heathers, and The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He also currently serves as assistant professor of music in voice at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, where he teaches private voice lessons and voice pedagogy.

Tenor Scott Boggs is a first-year master’s student from Odenton, Maryland, studying under the tutelage of Brian Horne and making his role debut with IU Jacobs Opera Theater. Boggs made his professional debut singing the role of Monostatos (Die Zauberflöte) with Loudoun Lyric Opera Company and has sung in the Annapolis Opera chorus. He has performed with the Victorian Lyric Opera Company as Ralph Rackstraw (H.M.S. Pinafore) and Alexis (The Sorcerer). Because of his performances in H.M.S. Pinafore, he was honored with a nomination for Best Performer in a Musical in the BroadwayWorld Washington, D.C. Awards. This past summer, he sang as Tamino, Erste geharnischter Mann, and Zweiter Priester (Die Zauberflöte) with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar. Boggs graduated with a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Maryland (UMD), studying under the instruction of Gran Wilson. While there, he sang the role of Brack Weaver (Down in the Valley) with UMD’s OperaTerps, portrayed Vincent Jones (Street Scene), and sang in the opera chorus for Maryland Opera Studio.

From Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, Simon Brea is a second-year master’s student at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Russell Thomas. He graduated from the SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Music with a bachelor’s degree in voice and opera studies under the tutelage of Jacque Trussel. At Purchase, Brea performed roles such as Don Basilio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Le Prince Charmant in Cendrillon, and Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at both Purchase and the Queens Summer Vocal Institute. Scene work at Purchase includes Jacquino in Fidelio and Paolino in Il Matrimonio Segreto. Past roles at the Jacobs School of Music include his debut as Camille de Rosillon in Lehár’s The Merry Widow and the Harvester Solo in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, while also participating in opera choruses for Roméo et Juliette and Eugene Onegin. Partial roles at Jacobs include the title role in The Rake’s Progress, Martin in The Tender Land, Alfredo in La Traviata, and Tonio in The Daughter of the Regiment. This past summer, Brea made his professional debut as a resident artist in Opera North’s Young Artist Program in New Hampshire, conducted by Louis Burkot, playing the roles of Mercury in Orphée aux enfers; Borsa, while also covering the Duke of Mantua, in Rigoletto; and Jack in Into the Woods. He is also a comedic content creator with one million subscribers on YouTube and uses his social-media influence to bring attention to his operatic journey and opera in general.