Tryon Festival Theatre February 23-27, 2017​
Donald Schleicher, conductor
Kyle A. Thomas, stage director
UI Symphony Orchestra and the UI Oratorio Society

"Giuseppe Verdi stands as one of the greatest opera composers of any age- a singular figure that reflected the shifting sentiments of an Italian public in love with its opera and proud of its homeland. His operas burst onto the Italian stage at a time when Italy itself was still an idea in the heads of its fervent patriots and a song in the hearts of a people united by their culture. Following a period dominated by Bellini, Donizetti, and Rossini- three of the most famous composers of Italian opera to have ever lived- Verdi stood on the shoulders of giants to bring a greater unification to the operatic form. His works bring complexity and interplay to all aspects of the performance, providing musical integration between soloists, the chorus, and the orchestra so that all serve to elevate the music in service to a lingering dramatic affect that audiences took with them into their everyday lives. Quite simply, Giuseppe Verdi remains a giant of Italian opera with consistent performances of many of his works all over the world and a legacy that was born intertwined with the Italian nation.

As such, Verdi endures in three personas: the man, the composer, and the symbol. Our task in Viva Verdi! is aimed at capturing each picture of Verdi. Opening with "Va, Pensiero" from his opera Nabucco calls to Verdi as a symbol of the Italian people, who saw themselves in the chorus of Hebrew slaves. But Verdi was also a very personal individual, choosing to write his sentiments into letters and music rather than champion the cause of the Risorgimento as a singular voice. Without explicitly taking on the lexicon or the aims of the nationalist movement, Verdi wove themes of struggle, passion, identity, and duty into his operas alongside stagings that not only take the voices of the principals to new heights, but also emphasized the same within the chorus as an important collective voice implicated in the same issues. Today, we might consider works like Macbeth, Il Trovatore, Lucia di Lammermoor, Don Carlo, or Rigoletto to be melodramatic and over-the-top, but Verdi understood that high theatricality coupled with complex yet harmonious musical scores touched the hearts of the Italian public and pulled at the strings of their nationalist sentiments. In fact, Il Trovatore was such a popular success that it received almost 300 productions in only three years after its premiere. Altogether, the symbol of Verdi throughout Italian culture is cemented to his brilliance as a composer- a figure that represented excellence in the operatic form at a transitional moment in the history of Italian music and Italian nationalism.

Verdi's compositional genius is apparent in his ability to weave together the temperament of his day with the growing interest in rich musicality and heightened theatricality. This new aesthetic for opera signaled the opening salvo of the "verismo" (meaning realistic, or realism) movement that would take hold in the latter part of the 19th century, beginning most notably with Cavalleria Rusticana by Pietro Mascagni, and defined by the works of composers such as Giacomo Puccini (Tosca) and Ruggero Leoncavallo (I Pagliacci). Our production of Viva Verdi!
 builds upon the spirit of the verismo movement through an aesthetic re-interpretation of "real" that focuses on exposure of the musical and theatrical abilities necessary to master the excellence of Verdi and his contemporaries.

From the work of our design team, to the technical skill of the performers, and the virtuosity of the orchestra, Viva Verdi! is not just about Verdi's operas but also about the extension of Verdi into the lives of those that encounter him in all his various forms. We seek to feature Verdi as one of the greatest opera composers to have ever lived, a figure of the Italian Risorgimento, and a cultural force whose influence continues to this day; but we also foreground the efforts of staging his works as a means to expose the conventions of operatic practice today that continue to carry the legacy of Verdi. In other words, our production of Viva Verdi! is an exploration and celebration of the many persistent ways in which all of us- from singer, to violinist, to audience- comes face-to-face with the many iterations of the timeless Giuseppe Verdi."

​-Kyle A. Thomas, Stage Director

CAST
SHAYLYSSA BREON ALEXANDER- Satuzza (Cavalleria Rusticana)
KATHERINE BOKENKAMP- Neapolitan Songs
TIMOTHY K. BOSTWICK- Enrico (Lucia di Lamermoor)/Rodrigo (Don Carlo)/Rigoletto (Rigoletto)
STEPHEN CONDON- Raimondo (Lucia di Lamermoor)/Neapolitan Songs
MATTIE CRISP- Alisa (Lucia di Lamermoor)/Lucia (Cavalleria Rusticana)/Neapolitan Songs
WILLIAM DUKE- Edgardo (Lucia di Lamermoor)/Neapolitan Songs
ELIZABETH GARTMAN- Neapolitan Songs
AARON J. GODWIN- Arturo (Lucia di Lammermoor)
JAMES HEVEL- Neapolitan Songs
NOLE F. JONES- Neapolitan Songs
RUTH KENNY- Lucia (Lucia di Lamermoor)
JACKSON KERR- Alfio (Cavalleria Rusticana)/Neapolitan Songs
ALEXIS KORBE- Maddalena (Rigoletto)
ADELINE MCKINLEY- Tosca (Tosca)
ERIC JOSE MENDOZA- Neapolitan Songs
EMILYANN O'BRIEN- Neapolitan Songs
STEVEN MICHAEL PATRICK- Don Carlo (Don Carlo)/Duke (Rigoletto)
ANNA KRISTINE PHILLIPS- Violetta (La Traviata)
LAURA SCHACHNER- Gilda (Rigoletto)
YUNJI SHIM- Requiem Soloist (Messa da Requiem)
DELANEY STERLING- Neapolitan Songs
JOHN BRENTON STRAUSS- Alfredo (La Traviata)/Canio (I Pagliacci)
JOSEPH TRUMBO- Friar (Don Carlo)/Sparafucile (Rigoletto)
JENNIFER ELAINE WIGGINS- Azucena (Il Trovatore)/Neapolitan Songs

PRODUCTION TEAM
CONDUCTOR- Donald Schleicher
STAGE DIRECTOR- Kyle A. Thomas
MUSIC DIRECTOR- Julie Jordan Gunn
HEAD OF MUSIC STAFF- Michael Tilley
CHORUS MASTER- Andrew Megill
DRAMATURG- Susan Bywaters
SCENIC DESIGNER- Corey Campbell
COSTUME DESIGNER- Aimee Beach
LIGHTING DESIGNER- Naomie S. Winch
SOUND DESIGNER- Luke Parker
MEDIA DESIGNER- Anja Hose
ENSEMBLE MASTER- Michael Bagby
MUSICAL PREPARATION- Jamie Cohen, Alex Munger
STAGE MANAGER- Matthew Brooks
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR- Ryan Schultz
OPERA TECHNICAL DIRECTOR- Roy H. Howington
SUPERTITLES- Susan Bywaters, Alex Munger
ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR- Pierre Tang
ASSISTANT CHORUS MASTER- Geoffrey Williams
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGERS- Maddy Paez, Hannah Schumacher
ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER- Rae Melnik
ASSISTANT LIGHTING DESIGNER- Tony Rajewski
PROPERTIES MASTER- Corey Campbell
ASSISTANT PROPERTIES MASTER- Makayla Perkins
SCENIC ARTIST- Christina Rainwater
COSTUME TECHNICIAN- Caitlin Leyden
MASTER ELECTRICIAN- Tony Rajewski
AUDIO TECHNICIAN- Luke Parker
COMPANY MANAGER- Cathy Fazio
HAIR AND MAKEUP ASSISTANT- Sharne Van Ryneveld
​DECK/RAIL RUNNING CREW- Raye Fields, Ilise Rosen, Casey Skorski
PROPERTIES RUNNING CREW- Abigail Griffith
COSTUME RUNNING CREW HEAD- Rae Melnik
COSTUME RUNNING CREW- Ilana weiner
HAIR/MAKEUP RUNNING CREW- Jiyoung Jeon, Anika Vogen
LIGHT BOARD OPERATOR- Jacob Sons
FOLLOW SPOT OPERATOR- Yaqi Lin
SOUND BOARD OPERATOR/MIXER- Lorna Chavez