by Allan Armstrong

Setting: In and around Bly, a country house in the East of England

Time: The mid-1800s

Act I

Prologue

The Prologue introduces a curious account of a Governess. She goes to London and meets with a man who is the only surviving relative (uncle) to two children. He hires her to replace a governess who had gone away and charges her to be responsible for everything. Under no circumstances is she to contact him. Dazzled by the handsome young man, the young woman accepts, despite being full of doubts.

The Journey

In a brief interlude, we are introduced to the “screw theme” in the orchestra. This is the musical foundation that will permeate the rest of the opera. The theme is a 12-tone row but treated in a tonal fashion. We experience the Governess traveling by coach to the country house of Bly, where the two children live with an old housekeeper. She expresses trepidation about the isolated nature of the job she is undertaking. The Governess steels herself, saying, “Be brave. We’re nearly there. Very soon I shall know . . . .”

The Welcome

The scene opens in the country house of Bly. The two children, Miles and Flora, excitedly pepper the housekeeper, Mrs. Grose, with questions about the new Governess as they await her imminent arrival. Mrs. Grose tries to coach the children on how to bow and curtsey. Upon first meeting her charges, the Governess is entranced by how charming they seem. Mrs. Grose expresses relief that she will have some assistance with the children, and the scene ends with the Governess singing, “For Bly is now my home.”

The Letter

The happiness of the Governess is short lived, as a letter arrives revealing that Miles has been dismissed from boarding school over some unspecified injury to his friends. The Governess and Mrs. Grose discuss this information and decide not to contact the uncle in London. Throughout the scene, Flora and Miles can be heard singing a nursery song.

The Tower

The Governess is enjoying a summer evening stroll outside the house. She talks about her “first fluttering fears” dissipating as she feels now at home. Her reverie is interrupted by the appearance of an unknown man on the tower of the house. She is thrown into agitation, wondering who this stranger could be and what malign motives he might have.

The Window

Flora and Miles play a game and sing a children’s song. After they depart, the Governess again spots the strange man, this time looking through a window. Mrs. Grose enters and notices the frightened state of the Governess. The Governess tells of seeing this stranger and minutely describes his appearance. Mrs. Grose, with great emotion, identifies him as Peter Quint, the former valet. At the prompting of the Governess, Mrs. Grose explains that Quint was “free” with everyone, including the children and the lovely previous governess, Miss Jessel. Both Miss Jessel and Peter Quint have died, by an unspecified cause for Miss Jessel and by a fall on an icy road for Quint. The Governess immediately thinks that Quint has returned in search of Miles. She vows to protect the children and, once again, not to contact the uncle in London.

The Lesson

The children are reciting Latin and British history. The Governess praises Miles’ Latin and asks what else he remembers. He sings an unsettling aria involving the triple meaning of the word “Malo”: to prefer, a type of apple, and bad.

The Lake

Flora and the Governess are walking by a lake outside the house. Flora sings a lullaby to her doll as the Governess spots the ghostly figure of Miss Jessel across the lake. The Governess is terrified and runs to find Miles. She laments that she is powerless to protect the children, “They are lost!” At night, Quint calls Miles’ name in the darkness. He entices him with fanciful nocturnal images of a magical hidden life. Miss Jessel calls to Flora, and both children are entranced. The Governess and Mrs. Grose arrive to find the children outside in the night. Miles closes the act by saying, “You see, I am bad.”

Act II

Colloquy and Soliloquy

As the Governess sleeps, Quint and Miss Jessel describe a plan to possess the children. The climax of their conversation is a line from a poem by W. B. Yeats, “The ceremony of innocence is drowned.” The Governess awakes in a panic, feeling isolated and without a course of action.

The Bells

Flora and Miles sing increasingly distressing parodies of church music as they walk to Sunday service. Mrs. Grose happily prattles on about the weather and the sound of the bells while the Governess becomes increasingly terrified of the children. The Governess feels challenged by Miles and flees from the church.

Miss Jessel

The Governess finds Miss Jessel sitting in the schoolroom. Miss Jessel explains that here is where her tragedy began, and here is where revenge begins. She is implacable about her efforts to possess Flora. The Governess drives her away and becomes convinced that she must finally write to the far-off uncle. She composes a letter and begs his forgiveness.

The Bedroom

The Governess confronts Miles in his bedroom by candlelight. She tells him about the letter, and their conversation is interrupted by the distant calls of Quint. In a terror, Miles shrieks, and the candle is extinguished.

Quint

Peter Quint convinces Miles to steal the letter from the desk.

The Piano

Miles practices the piano while Flora plays at “cat’s cradle.” The Governess and Mrs. Grose outwardly marvel at the children while in a hushed aside, the Governess reveals that she has written a letter to the uncle. Mrs. Grose dozes off, and while the Governess is distracted by Miles at the piano, Flora sneaks out of the house. The scene ends in a panicked search for the young girl.

Flora

Flora is discovered outside and is questioned by the Governess about Miss Jessel. Flora explains that she now hates the Governess, and Miss Jessel appears in the distance calling for Flora.

Miles

Mrs. Grose explains that she must take the severely disturbed Flora away from Bly. The Governess expresses relief that her letter to the uncle must have arrived by now. Mrs. Grose quietly relates that the letter was never sent because it couldn’t be found. The Governess goes to confront Miles, who she now knows has taken the letter. The Governess forces Miles to confess to the theft as Quint appears to Miles and tries to warn him about the Governess. Quint bids Miles to be silent while the Governess demands that Miles say the name of the ghostly character. Miles finally says the name of Peter Quint and falls lifeless to the ground. Quint vanishes, and the Governess repeats “Malo, malo” in a state of shock.

by Michael Shell

When I directed The Turn of the Screw for the Jacobs School of Music 2020-21 season, the fear of the unknown was highly palpable. The thought of what could be lurking around the corner, a sudden dry cough, runny nose, loss of taste or smell, and other symptoms of COVID-19 was a constant threat. At the beginning of that academic year, Jacobs, like other schools worldwide, was venturing into the unknown. Thanks to a large tent in a parking lot, the glorious stage at the Musical Arts Center, an adventurous lighting and projection designer, and a determined and creative scenic designer, we jumped into the unknown to create five productions that year.

The fear of what those productions could look like due to the COVID-19 protocols of singers wearing masks and maintaining 10 feet of distance from each other at all times kept us from streaming the first two. However, after the first production that year, Mark Adamo’s Little Women, opened, it was clear to the tiny audience that these productions should and needed to be seen by audiences hungry for performances. In this case, the fear of lack of artistic quality up to Jacobs’ standards was unfounded.

Fear can bring the strongest of humans to their knees. Fear can be debilitating, causing one to stand still and be uncertain about where to turn next. Fear can also spur someone to jump into action, as it does to the Governess in our story. She boldly chooses to be the shero and save the children from an unknown evil. She is confident that this evil has manifested in the sightings of two ghosts: the former governess, Miss Jessel, and the former valet, Peter Quint. And to her, it is confirmed by Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, who, through a vague recollection of events, excites the Governess’s fear of what may have happened in the past and could be happening now to her current charges, the 10-year-old Miles and the young Flora.

But what did happen to the children? Was their “innocence drowned,” as we hear Miss Jessel and Peter Quint exclaim in Act II? Is something wicked happening at the house called Bly, or is it just a manifestation of the fear of a very innocent woman trying to take charge of a situation that challenges her beyond her experience? The brilliance of the opera lies in these unanswered questions. The fear of what you don’t know and what isn’t spoken is sometimes the most horrifying of all.

We are so happy to share this production with a live audience this season. I would be remiss if I didn’t take this opportunity to thank my theater partners Mark Smith and Ken Phillips for being so willing to mine as much as we could out of the very little we had to work with during that first year. I will always be grateful to you both for being a bright light during a very dark and fearful time.

by Sarah Sabol

Ph.D. Student in Musicology

In a review of Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, a reporter from The Independent wrote in January 1899 that “The Turn of the Screw is the most hopelessly evil story that we could have ever read in any literature, ancient or modern. How Mr. James could, or how any man or woman could, choose to make such a study of infernal human debauchery, for it is nothing else, is unaccountable.” Other reviews of James’ novella, which was first published episodically in the American magazine Collier’s Weekly in 1898, emphasized the story’s power and divergence from the conventional ghost story. One reviewer proposed the possible insanity of the governess, who acts as the primary narrator, and drew connections between this character and an unreliable narrator from James’ In the Cage, also published in 1898.

James’ The Turn of the Screw merges elements from Freudian psychology, clinical accounts of spirits, and the Victorian ghost story. His immediate family could have provided inspiration, as his sister, Alice, suffered from psychosis, and his brother William James, a psychologist and philosopher, was undoubtedly familiar with the works of Freud, who, in Studien über Hysterie (1895), had recounted an episode of a troubled governess who fell in love with her employer. A secondary interest of William’s was ghosts, and he was a member of the Society for Psychical Research. Henry James sometimes attended meetings, allowing him familiarity with scientific reports of apparitions.

The varied sources of potential inspiration signal two possible interpretations of James’ short story: 1) the ghosts of Peter Quint and Miss Jessel are real, or 2) the ghosts are a product of the governess’s deluded imagination. These readings change the face of evil. Either Quint and Miss Jessel terrorize the children as specters after corrupting them during their lives, or the hallucinating governess torments Flora and Miles, eventually driving one mad and smothering the other.

Benjamin Britten and his librettist, Myfanwy Piper, adapted this ambiguous short story after receiving a commission from the International Festival of Contemporary Music in 1952 in preparation for the 1954 season at the Teatro la Fenice in Venice. Britten, troubled by shoulder issues, delayed composing this work until March 1954, finishing at the beginning of August, a mere four months later. This chamber opera, a reflection of post-war economic constraints, calls for six singers and 13 instrumentalists. The work was premiered by the English Opera Group, an ensemble for which Britten frequently composed, with the composer conducting. Britten’s longtime romantic partner, Peter Pears, sang the role of the narrator in the Prologue and also that of Peter Quint.

James’ short story begins with a party scene, in which Douglas, a guest, describes his connections with his sister’s former governess and titillates his audience with the promise of a ghost story, finally reading her written account of these chilling events. Douglas repeats to his companions three times that they will “easily judge” the governess’s narrative, imbuing the ghost story with a clinical feel in which evidence is presented by a witness and evaluated by judges. Britten’s reduced ensemble did not have enough singers to enact the party scene that opens James’ work, so Douglas’s role is given to the Prologue’s narrator, who briefly sets the scene, omitting the lines about judgment. However, the party scene is retained; the audience members become the party guests, the judges, charged with weighing evidence and choosing an interpretation.

Britten’s music assists in elucidating his understanding of the tale. Britten undergirds the work with a 12-tone “Screw” theme, first heard at the end of the Prologue, from which nearly all musical motives are derived. This theme saturates the scenes, which are separated by 15 variations on the “Screw” theme. The variations contribute to the sense of timelessness between episodes; many of these reuse material from the previous scene and prepare the audience for the ensuing one. Britten uses themes derived from the “Screw” theme to musically link together characters. For example, Quint and the governess frequently use similar musical material, intimating that perhaps they are not so different. They share a battleground—Miles—and, depending on the interpretation, both could be viewed as corrupting him.

Quint and the governess struggle over who will possess the children and provide knowledge of the adult world. In Act 2, Scene 1, Quint and Miss Jessel describe their longing for the children, closing their petitions with “The ceremony of innocence is drowned,” a line borrowed from William Butler Yeats’s “The Second Coming,” which was written in 1919. The first stanza reads:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Yeats’s lines depict a fallen world in which the worst players exert the most influence, and this “passionate intensity” accurately describes the exertions of the governess and Quint as they fight for control of the children. The “Screw” theme provides the material for Quint’s inflamed, seductive melismas on Miles’ name as he summons him in Act 1, Scene 8, and for the final scene, in which the governess sings “O Miles, I cannot bear to lose you. You shall be mine, and I shall save you,” before terrifying and suffocating him in a fit of passion.

Both James and Britten ask their readers and listeners to participate, acting as party guests and judges. James forces us to engage even more deeply; in his 1908 Preface to The Turn of the Screw, he wrote, “Only make the reader’s general vision of evil intense enough . . . and his own experience, his own imagination, his own sympathy (with the children) and horror (of their false friends) will supply him quite sufficiently with all the particulars. Make him think the evil, make him think it for himself, and you are released from weak specifications.” In this eerie tale, the past actions of Quint and Miss Jessel are never made explicit, which not only allows the possibility of two interpretations, but also pushes the reader to furnish a plausible scenario of past events at Bly. In Britten’s unsettling adaptation, Mrs. Grose, the housekeeper, only claims that “Quint was free with everyone,” and the governess leaps to conclusions about Peter Quint, condemning him as “spoiled, impudent, depraved.” We, the audience, also must form our own speculations after imagining the omitted evil or innocent acts, thus engaging with our deepest horrors.

Arthur Fagen has been professor of orchestral conducting at the Jacobs School of Music since 2008. Additionally, he was music director of the Atlanta Opera from 2010 to 2024, where he recently conducted highly successful productions of Das Rheingold and Die Walküre; he is now music director emeritus. He has conducted opera productions at the world’s most prestigious opera houses and music festivals. From 1998 to 2001, he was invited regularly as guest conductor to the Vienna State Opera, in addition to performances at the Metropolitan Opera, Staatsoper Berlin Deutsche Oper Berlin, Munich State Opera, and many more. On the concert podium, he has appeared with numerous internationally known orchestras. Fagen has an opera repertory of more than 100 works. He has served as principal conductor in Kassel and Brunswick, as chief conductor of the Flanders Opera of Antwerp and Ghent, as music director of the Queens Symphony Orchestra, and as a member of the conducting staff of Lyric Opera of Chicago. From 2002 to 2007, he was music director of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra and the Dortmund Opera. He and the Dortmund Philharmonic were invited to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Palais de Beaux Arts in Brussels, and to Salzburg, Beijing, and Shanghai. Fagen conducted a new production of Turandot at the Atlanta Opera in 2007, opening the season and inaugurating the new opera house, the Cobb Energy Performing Arts Center. He was a regular guest conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra and guest conducted the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, and many others. He was first-prize winner of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Conductors Competition as well as a prizewinner of the Gino Marinuzzi International Conductors’ Competition in Italy. Fagen has recorded for BMG, Bayerischer Rundfunk, SFB, and WDR Cologne. He records regularly for Naxos, for which he has completed the six symphonies of Bohuslav Martinů. His Naxos recording of Martinů’s piano concertos was awarded an Editor’s Choice award in the March 2010 issue of Gramophone magazine. His recording of the Negro Folk Symphony by William Dawson Levi was nominated as one of the best classical CDs of 2020 by NPR.

Michael Shell is associate professor of voice at the 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 BroadwayWorld reviewer commented on Shell’s production of 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. He 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.

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 200 productions during the past 28 years. Design work for Jacobs School productions includes Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, The Coronation of Poppea, Hansel and Gretel, Bernstein’s Mass, An American Dream, Sweeney Todd, Trouble in Tahiti, the world premiere of Shulamit Ran’s Anne Frank, and last season’s premiere of A Star on the Rise: La Bayadere . . . Reimagined. His design for Florencia en el Amazonas was featured in San Diego Opera’s 2017-18 season. Smith earned a Master of Fine Arts in Scenic Design from the IU Department of Theatre, Drama, and Contemporary Dance, and was a student of former Jacobs professors C. David Higgins and Robert O’Hearn. Upcoming productions include Swan Lake with Indianapolis Ballet.

Elizabeth Licata is an award-winning costume artist and 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 the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. She was an M.F.A. student under Heather Milam, head of the Costume Technology program at IU. Additionally, she 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. Licata earned a B.A. from Dartmouth and an M.A. from Stanford.

Ken Phillips served as the lighting specialist for the Jacobs School of Music from 2019 to 2021, where he designed the lighting and helped engineer the projections for close to a dozen productions, including The Turn of the Screw, which won the National Opera Association’s Division VIII Production Competition Award for 2020. He has been honored to come back for numerous productions since. Phillips earned an M.F.A. in Lighting Design and a B.F.A. in Stage Management from the University of Arizona and has worked on productions around the country, mostly in opera and musical theater.

Andrew Elliot is a makeup artist, wig designer, and stylist. His work can also be seen with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, Indiana Repertory Theatre, Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre, Booth Tarkington Civic Theatre, Actors Theatre of Indiana, Phoenix Theatre, Zach & Zack Productions, Summer Stock Stage, and others. His work as a makeup artist and stylist can be seen locally and nationally in various publications, commercials, and editorials. The facade of the Palladium in Carmel, Indiana, showcases his work as a part of the Blockhouse Studios productions of Eos and Frost. 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, has served as 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 and mentor at American Lyric Theater’s Composer Librettist Development Program and has developed new operatic works for companies including Glyndebourne, Icelandic Opera, Canadian Opera, Norwegian Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Chicago Opera Theater, Arizona Opera, Opera Birmingham, Pittsburgh Opera, Beth Morrison Projects, On-Site Opera, the Miller Theater, IU Jacobs Opera Theater, and Crane School of Music. She has served as production dramaturg for projects including Das Rheingold at Los Angeles Philharmonic; 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, Offenbach!!! at Bard Summerscape, and La Finta Giardiniera at Indiana University. 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 Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Cincinnati College–Conservatory, University of Toronto, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Texas at Austin, Boston University, Boston Conservatory, Mannes College, DePaul University, University of Illinois, Loyola University, Montclair State University, University of Utah, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Florida International University, and Oklahoma State University, as well as the Crested Butte Opera Studio and Martina Arroyo’s Prelude to Performance program. Ellison regularly serves as a judge for the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, Concurso San Miguel in Mexico, and many 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), 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.

Tenor Carson Breon, from Oskaloosa, Iowa, is in his fourth year of undergraduate studies under the tutelage of Brian Horne, pursuing a Bachelor of Music in voice performance. This is his role debut at IU. At Jacobs, he has performed in the opera choruses for Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea, Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S Pinafore, Shulamit Ran’s Anne Frank, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Mason Bates’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay. In the fall of 2023, Breon studied in Vienna through the Institute of European Studies, which provided him with a multitude of musical opportunities. He was also part of the University Singers as they performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Mozart’s Requiem.

Nate Paul was born and raised in Strawberry Plains, Tennessee, earning a B.M. from Middle Tennessee State University before completing an M.M. and Vocology Certificate at IU. Studying with Brian Gill, Paul is a second-year doctoral student in voice performance. His voice has been described as “showstopping and nothing less than thrilling” and as having “the presence of a stage-struck powerhouse.” (BroadwayWorld: Nashville). His most recent theatrical performances include Dr. Blind in Die Fledermaus, Njegus in The Merry Widow, Prologue/Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw, and Adolfo Pirelli and Beadle Bamford in multiple productions of Sweeney Todd. 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 but not limited to La Cage aux Folles, Sweeney Todd, Les Misérables, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Wiz, Newsies, The Addams Family, and Heathers. He also currently serves as assistant professor of music in voice at DePauw University and as an associate instructor at IU. Between these two institutions, he teaches private voice lessons, voice pedagogy, and is the assistant to Jacobs’ Certificate in Vocology program.

Hailing from Holt, Michigan, Abigail McKay Cherry is a second-year master’s student pursuing a voice performance degree and a Certificate in Vocology at the Jacobs School of Music, where she studies under the tutelage of Brian Gill. She earned her Bachelor of Music in 2019 from Oakland University, where she studied under Alta Boover. Last season, McKay Cherry made her IU Jacobs Opera Theater debut, performing the role of Eva Crowley in Jack Perla’s An American Dream. In the fall semester, she sang the role of Prima Cercatrice in Jacobs’ production of Suor Angelica and Estelle Kavalier in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a world premiere and coproduction between IU Jacobs Opera Theater and the Metropolitan Opera. Next, she will participate in a workshop of Swimming in the Dark in a collaboration between IU Jacobs Opera Theater and the Studios of Key West. Past roles include Lady Billows (Albert Herring) with Chicago Summer Opera, and Rose Maurrant (Street Scene) and Lady Harriet (Martha) with Oakland University Opera.

Greek American soprano Pelagia Pamel has sung roles in over a dozen opera productions at the young artist and professional levels with companies such as Detroit Opera and Czech National Opera. In 2023, she was hired by Detroit Opera for her first coproduction with the Metropolitan Opera, Ainadamar, performing as a singer and dancer in the production’s U.S. premiere. This season, she debuted with IU Jacobs Opera Theater in the world premiere of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, her second coproduction with the Met. In addition to her work in the United States, Pamel has performed internationally in Vienna, Berlin, London, and Prague. Her most notable performance was singing Zerlina (Don Giovanni) at the historic Estates Theatre with the Prague Summer Nights Festival and Czech National Opera. Other highlights include her 2024 Opera Fellowship with the Manetti Shrem Opera Program at Festival Napa Valley, Diana (Orphée aux enfers), Soprano Soloist (Ein deutsches Requiem, Brahms), Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and numerous roles at the University of Michigan. She is a first-year M.M. voice student at the Jacobs School of Music, studying with Heidi Grant Murphy. This is her second mainstage opera at IU. Originally from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, Pamel graduated with highest honors from the University of Michigan with a B.M. in Voice Performance and a B.A. in International Studies.

Margaret Raupp is an American mezzo-soprano hailing from Ann Arbor, Michigan, starting her M.M studies with Jane Dutton. In her undergraduate studies at Baldwin Wallace University, she performed as Cornelia in Handel’s Giulio Cesare in the fall of 2023 and as Marcellina (Le Nozze di Figaro) in the spring of 2022. In the fall of 2022, she played Empress Ottavia in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea and Ruth in The Pirates of Penzance. In the fall, Raupp made her IU Jacobs Opera debut, performing the role of Esther Klayman in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, a coproduction with the Metropolitan Opera.

Soprano and musicologist Kristin Shaffer is a third-year master’s student from Tampa, Florida. pursuing both an M.M. in Voice Performance and an M.A. in Musicology at the Jacobs School of Music. While her research centers primarily on the Parisian salons of Pauline Viardot, Shaffer’s broader scholarly interests include nineteenth- and twentieth-century art song cycles, music and literature, friendship albums, women and music, and music in domestic space. Last season, she penned the program notes for IU Jacobs Opera Theater’s production of Jack Perla’s An American Dream, and she is currently vice president of the Graduate Musicology Association at Jacobs. Shaffer holds a B.M. in Performance (Voice) and a B.A. in English (Composition) from Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, where she received numerous awards, including the School of Music Academic Discipline and Performance Distinction, Young Musician Scholarship, and Lee Symphony Orchestra Scholarship. In 2022, she performed the role of Die Hexe in Engelbert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and Ariadne in Richard Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos (scene) with the Lee University Opera Theater. Shaffer was also the vocal winner of Lee University’s Concerto Competition. Most recently, she was the soprano soloist in a complete performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Messa di Gloria at Second Presbyterian, Indianapolis, where she also serves as the Sanctuary Choir’s Soprano II section leader. Shaffer is a member of Zachary Coates’s voice studio and a frequent recitalist in both Bloomington and Indianapolis.

Charlotte Seltzer Green, a soprano from Los Angeles, California, is a senior voice performance major under the tutelage of Michelle DeYoung, previously studying with Wolfgang Brendel. She has been seen as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro with Saluzzo Opera Academy, Papagena and Dritte Knabe in Die Zauberflöte with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. Green has performed in several IU Jacobs Opera choruses, including featured soloist in The Merry Widow and Sweeney Todd. As an assistant stage manager for IU Jacobs Opera and Ballet Theater, she has worked on over 10 productions. Additionally, with a strong background in musical theater, she has portrayed Eliza in My Fair Lady, Cinderella in Into the Woods, and Inga in Young Frankenstein, among many others.

Hailing from Sacramento, California, soprano Tiara Thankam Abraham earned a Master of Music at the Jacobs School of Music in May 2024, at 18 years old, studying with Patricia Stiles. She continues her graduate musical training at Jacobs, where she is pursuing a Doctor of Music, now studying with Michelle DeYoung. Praised for her bell-like clarity, agile coloratura, and expressive acting skills, Abraham has performed as a soloist globally, including at Carnegie Hall, the Vatican, and Musikverein in Austria, as well as on national TV and NPR-affiliate radio stations. She has performed as Zerlina in Don Giovanni with Greve Opera Academy, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas at the Chicago Summer Opera, and premiered the role of Siren #2 in contemporary chamber opera Legit Secrets with Four Corners Ensemble. She has also performed scenes as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Hero in Beatrice et Benedict at IU Opera Workshop and performed in the opera chorus of IU’s production of Eugene Onegin. As a concert soloist, Abraham has performed with the Camellia Symphony Orchestra and UC Davis Symphony Orchestra and recently performed as the soprano soloist in Bach’s Magnificat. In Bloomington, she is a choral scholar at First Christian Church and serves as the social media manager for IU’s chapter of the Student National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Talinaiya Bao, Mongolian soprano born in Beijing, is a senior at the Jacobs School of Music pursuing a Bachelor of Voice Performance under the tutelage of Heidi Grant Murphy and a Bachelor of Piano Performance with Spencer Myer, with a minor in French. In the 2023-24 season, she made her role debuts as Setsuko in An American Dream with IU Jacobs Opera Theater and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro at the Thessaloniki Concert Hall in Greece. She has attended Opera Lucca and the Schubert Institute in Baden and performed in master classes for artists such as Elly Ameling, Helmut Deutsch, and Julius Drake. Bao has performed in the choruses for many productions at Jacobs, including Ainadamar, Roméo et Juliette, L’Étoile, and H.M.S. Pinafore. Recently, she portrayed Typist in the Met coproduction and world premiere of TheAmazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay at IU Jacobs Opera Theater.

Ruby Miller is a soprano hailing from Floyds Knobs, Indiana. She is a second-year voice performance undergraduate under the tutelage of Michelle DeYoung at the Jacobs School of Music. Miller has been seen on musical theater stages in roles ranging from Rosa Bud in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (Floyd Central Theatre Arts) to Trina in Falsettos (Indiana University Players). She has also been seen on opera stages as the Third Spirit in Die Zauberflöte (Kentucky Opera), and in the choruses of Suor Angelica (IU Jacobs Opera Theater) and Carmen (Kentucky Opera). In 2020, Miller was slated to play the title role in Kentucky Opera’s youth opera Robin Hood.

Tenor Andy Boggs is a first-year master’s student originally from Odenton, Maryland, studying under the tutelage of Brian Horne. 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 made his international debut singing as Tamino, Erste geharnischter Mann, and Zweiter Priester (Die Zauberflöte) with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar. This past fall, he played Alfred (Die Fledermaus) in IU Jacobs Opera Theater’s Pop-Up Opera production. He has performed with the Victorian Lyric Opera Company, singing the roles of 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, DC Awards. As a concert soloist, Boggs has performed as the tenor soloist in works such as Ives’ The Celestial Country, Handel’s Messiah, Purcell’s Welcome to All the Pleasures, and Bach’s Es reißet euch ein schrecklich Ende, among others. He graduated with a B.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Maryland (UMD), studying under Gran Wilson. Throughout his time at UMD, Boggs 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 Kennett Square Pennsylvania, tenor Jeremy Do is pursuing a Performer Diploma in Solo Performance at the Jacobs School of Music in the studio of Jane Dutton. Last Spring, Do performed the role of Anthony in Stephen Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd. In fall 2023, he performed the role of Tybalt in Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with IU Jacobs School of Music Opera Theater. Last October, he performed the “Swan Aria” in the IU Oratorio and IU Concert Orchestra’s performance of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana conducted by Betsy Burleigh. In the summer of 2023, he was the featured tenor soloist in Handel’s Dixit Dominus with the Spoleto Festival USA Chorus. Last spring, he performed the role of Peter in the world premiere of Anne Frank by Shulamit Ran with Jacobs Opera Theater. He also recently performed the role of Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten with Chicago Summer Opera. Do completed a master’s degree at IU in spring 2024 in the studio of Brian Horne. In 2022, he earned a bachelor’s degree in music under the tutelage of Blake Smith at the University of Delaware (UD), where he was seen as Barigoule in Pauline Viardot’s Cendrillon with the UD Lyric Theatre.

Born and raised in Antlers, Oklahoma, soprano Lauren Manon is pursuing a Master of Music degree under the tutelage of Carol Vaness. This is her role debut with IU Jacobs Opera Theater. In October 2024, she was featured as a soloist with the Jacobs New Music Ensemble in the performance of David O’Brien’s In the Country of Last Things. Manon’s operatic roles include Madame Flora (The Medium), Suor Angelica (Suor Angelica), and Petronilla (Petronilla). In addition to opera, she has performed in musical theater, including roles such as Judy Bernly (9 to 5), Ado Annie (Oklahoma!), and Scuttle (The Little Mermaid) at Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance in 2023. In June 2024, she placed first in Category 7 Upper Classical Treble Voice at the NATS National Competition in Knoxville, Tennessee.

Soprano Tatiana Mills, from New York City, is a master’s student at the Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of Michelle DeYoung. She earned her undergraduate degree from the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, where she covered the role of Énone (La descente d’Orphée aux enfers) and made her stage debut as Barbarina in Opera UCLA’s production of Le Nozze di Figaro. Mills continued her studies in France at L’École Normale de Musique de Paris, where she earned a Diplôme d’Exécution Supérieur. In concert, she has performed the partial roles of Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro) and the soprano solo of Mozart’s Requiem with L’École Normale de Musique de Paris, Gilda (Rigoletto) with the International Vocal Artists Academy of Payerbach, and appeared as Pitti-Sing in Jacobs Opera Theater’s Pop-Up Opera last October. Her most recent role was that of the Dew Fairy in Chicago Summer Opera’s production of Hansel and Gretel. Mills has been featured as a recording artist on the 2018 Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin Honorary Mention Film Dressage as well as the soundtrack for the short film When There Was a Tree.