PROGRAM: La bohème April 2022

PRESENTED BY

WITH SUPPORT FROM

FOR YOUR SAFETY AND COMFORT

Welcome to the Detroit Opera House! COVID-19 SAFETY MEASURES

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We are thrilled to welcome guests back to the Detroit Opera House.  The safety of our guests, artists, and staff is our greatest priority. In response to the current COVID-19 infection numbers, we have updated our safety protocols as outlined below. As always, we will follow guidelines and recommendations as set forth by the CDC and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. We will continue to monitor and adjust these policies as appropriate.

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A MESSAGE FROM Ethan Davidson & Wayne S. Brown

Welcome back to the Detroit Opera House after a two-year intermission for opera performances in our home. When the pandemic began, Michigan Opera Theatre was preparing for its 50th anniversary as an opera company founded in Detroit by David DiChiera. The unexpected cessation of what has often been referred to as normal routine became anything but normal. The conditions required an unexpected disruption from in-person presentation of opera, dance, and education programs within the David DiChiera Center for the Performing Arts for a two-year period. However, sustained by the generosity of thousands of supporters and a committed Board of Directors along with a dedicated staff our organization persevered. During the pause, Yuval Sharon, an internationally celebrated director, was appointed as our new Artistic Director for opera, followed by the appointment of Christine Goerke, one of the most significant voices on opera stages around the world, as our Associate Artistic Director.

Over the past two years, audiences have joined us on a journey filled with exploration and new adventures as we have presented performances in site-specific settings throughout the region, launched a visioning exercise, and appointed new team members. One of the outcomes along this journey has been a change in our name to Detroit Opera. Yes, our organization now identifies itself completely with the city and community of its location!

The challenging conditions that Detroit Opera has encountered over the past two years were faced with tremendous imagination, creativity, and determination

by countless stakeholders. Through it all, our company has been resolute in affirming our role and commitment as a community asset. The Detroit Opera House is emerging as a modified and updated venue with enhancements designed to expand accessibility for all patrons. We are near completion of the first phase of our work and welcome those who wish to assist us in this physical plant enhancement that is so necessary for our patrons going forward.

These presentations of La bohème are especially meaningful, as they mark the inauguration of a new production of the opera as imagined by Yuval Sharon also his first production in our Detroit Opera House! We are honored to be joined by celebrated set designer John Conklin and a stellar cast and look forward to these performances. We are also grateful to our partners at Boston Lyric Opera and Spoleto Festival USA for joining us as co-producers on this new production.

As we all continue to navigate our way through these unprecedented times, we extend special thanks to our Season Sponsor, The William Davidson Foundation; our La bohème sponsors Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation, Lafayette American, and Gary L. Wasserman and Charles H. Kashner; and our many donors. Likewise, we thank all of you for joining us and invite you to return for performances of our closing opera for the season: Anthony Davis and Thulani Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X, a new production that will originate in Detroit and then proceed with performances by our partnering opera companies in Omaha, Seattle, and Chicago, as well as The Metropolitan Opera.

A MESSAGE FROM Yuval Sharon

“How do you begin telling the story of a great love when you know it ended in disaster?”

Sandro Veronesi’s line from his book Il colibrì (The Hummingbird) accompanies a story that hops back and forth in time, narrating a tender romance that ended in heartbreak. Veronesi’s goal is to “demolish the tyranny of chronology” and to place more emphasis on how things happen, rather than what happens. Along the way, the reader is confronted with the unruly and indirect nature of memory, and she may come to understand what the philosopher Søren Kierkegaard summarized so perfectly: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”

Veronesi’s recent novel is a fitting point of departure for this production of La bohème, which begins at the end and works in reverse order, back to the first moment Mimì and Rodolfo met. The kind of narrative experiment undertaken in Veronesi’s novel seems hard to imagine in an art form like opera, where the “tyranny of chronology” seems fixed in the rigid architecture of the music. Most operas would not sustain this kind of approach, with arrow-like stories that move in only one direction.

But Bohème tells its story in a highly unconventional manner: Puccini described the work as a piece in quattro quadri, or “four pictures.” Henri Murger’s original work, Scenes from the Bohemian Life, was published in serial form from 1845 to 1848, resulting in an episodic, impressionistic snapshot of a revolutionary underbelly of society. Atmosphere and color are more important than the narrative arcs we find in great novels of the time, and the resulting work resembles the nascent art of photography more than classic literature. If Murger’s writing was photographic, Puccini’s opera—written as the “moving image” was born—is powerfully cinematic. Simultaneous action, interspersed scenes, overlapping events—all of this creates a new and very modern sense of time that is barely contained by the musical meter. There are few, if any, moments in opera that capture falling in love—with its anarchic rush of impressions and the psychedelic dissolution of time—as

effectively as Act II. Bohème may be the most popular opera in the repertoire, but its radical qualities are paradoxically undervalued. (Is the opera too popular to claim it for the avant-garde?)

One of the remarkable discoveries we’ve made in preparing this production is how lightning-fast the entire opera plays out. Performed without intermission and with one discrete cut in the first act, Bohème clocks in at just over 90 minutes. This comes as a shock to most opera patrons, who think of Bohème as nearly three-hour affairs. Cumbersome scene changes taking the notion of “four pictures” literally usually necessitate at least one, if not two, intermissions. The pressure to “over-do” Bohème also creates uneasy contradictions: the starving artists describe their garret as “squalid”, “drafty,” and “cramped,” but most productions have them living in what looks like the most enviable penthouse in Paris. I wanted to create a production that emphasized the swiftness of the music and the brevity of these lives; all the myriad details that make up a typical Bohème the stereotypes and clichés, as well as the pictorial expectations have been sifted away in search of the work’s true gold. We are after the essence of this work, which I think of as the perfectly preserved energy of being young, full of hope, and in love with life.

There are big questions invoked when we perform a classic like La bohème in a non-traditional way, such as: how and why do we perform masterpieces in the here and now? What is to be gained by disrupting conventional listening? Is it possible to treat operatic masterpieces with the same interpretive flexibility that, say, Shakespeare’s plays demand? While those provocations offer a background to the work we’ve done with this opera, they are also, fittingly, not our endgame, but our point of departure. Likewise, I hope it offers you a point of departure to listen and experience the opera as if it is a world premiere.

More importantly, I hope it invites you to explore a personal meditation on life and love. To return to Veronesi: how do you tell your great love story? Do you start from the beginning, or do you chart a meandering path? Disaster, death, and loss will inevitably befall even the happiest lives and loves—but is that really the end of the story?

Welcome to Detroit Opera.

Nestled in the center of Detroit’s downtown entertainment district are The Statler French-American Bistro and the Statler MKT, both within walking proximity to the Detroit Opera House. The Statler features modern French cuisine, while our incredible market offers gourmet to go and pantry items. Make The Statler your next destination before or after your visit to the opera house or any of the city’s other downtown entertainment venues!

IS GENEROUSLY PRESENTED BY

SEASON SPONSOR

William Davidson Foundation

WITH SUPPORT FROM Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

Lafayette American

Gary L. Wasserman and Charles H. Kashner

AN OPERA IN FOUR PICTURES

PERFORMED IN ITALIAN WITH ENGLISH SUPERTITLES PERFORMANCE RUNS 100 MINUTES WITH NO INTERMISSION

Music Giacomo Puccini

Libretto Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa

WORLD PREMIERE

Teatro Regio, Turin, Italy, February 1, 1896

Director Yuval Sharon

Set Designer John Conklin

Costume Designer Jessica Jahn

Lighting Designer John Torres

Wig & Makeup Designer Joanne Middleton Weaver

Stage Manager Kimberley Prescott

Chorus Master Suzanne Mallare Acton

Detroit Opera Chorus and Orchestra

Children’s Chorus

Cast

Mimì, a flowergirl

Rodolfo, a poet

Marcello, a painter

Musetta, a singer

Colline, a philosopher

Schaunard, a musician

Alcindoro, an admirer of Musetta

Parpignol, a toy vendor

Customhouse Officer

Marlen Nahhas

Matthew White

Edward Parks

Brandie Inez Sutton

Cory McGee

Benjamin Taylor

Jonathan Lasch

Cameron Johnson

Benton DeGroot

Sergeant Matthew Konopacki

Child Isabella Edmonds-Hogan

Prune Seller

Gregory Ashe

The Wanderer George Shirley

Actors

Jessica Annunziata

Biba Bell

X. Alexander Durden

Hank Felix

Peter Knox

Alexis Primus

Production Credits

A Co-Production of Detroit Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, and Spoleto Festival USA

This co-production has been made possible in part by a grant from the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Cover Conductor

Nathalie Doucet

Répétiteur

Keun-A Lee

Associate Director

James Blaszko

Assistant Director & Fight Choreographer

Christine Elliott

Assistant Lighting Designer

Heather DeFauw

Props Master

Moníka Essen

Assistant Stage Managers

Nan Luchini

Hailli Ridsdale

Supertitles Created By

Yuval Sharon

John Conklin

Supertitles Operator

Dee Dorsey

Scenery constructed at TTS Studios. Costumes constructed at Detroit Opera Costume Shop.

DETROIT OPERA CHORUS

Soprano

Brandy Adams

Carol Ambrogio Wood

Heidi Bowen Zook

Alaina Brown

Claire Chardon Kahl

Megan McCarthy

Jessie Neilson

Jennifer Noel

Allison Wamser

Maitri White

Alto

Lily Czartorski

Yvonne Friday

Hillary LaBonte

Madison Montambault

Leslie Naeve

Katya Powder

Kristina Riegle

Diane Rae Schoff

Hannah Wikaryasz

Antona Yost

Tenor

Gregory Ashe

Fred Buchalter

Richard Jackson, Jr.

Cameron Johnson

Seth Johnson

Adrian Leskiw

David Magumba

Zane Pergram

Jason Thomas

Brett Thompson

Bass

Benton DeGroot

Zachary Coates

Joseph Edmonds

Kurt Frank

Paul Leland Hill

Matthew Konopacki

Paolo Pacheco

Jinho Park

Terrence Stewart

Choristers are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists.

Children’s Chorus

Suzanne Mallare Acton DIRECTOR

Shanzay Ali

Paula Casillas-Lopez

Addison Danke

Oscar DeLuca

Isabella Edmonds-Hogan

Maria Espinosa Ventura

Lillian Fellows

Allan Grigsby

Caitlin Juip

Ella Kusina

Anika Lopes

Laila Morris

Riya Nambiar

Roxanne Norris

Violet Procunier

Madeline Quint

Anna Schultz*

Keara Schultz

Viraj Tathavadekar

Rosaleigh Wyman

* understudy for “Child”

DETROIT OPERA ORCHESTRA

Violin I

Eliot Heaton* CONCERTMASTER

Laura Roelofs*

Henrik Karapetyan*

Bryan Johnston*

Emily Barkakati*

Anna Bittar-Weller*

Velda Kelly*

David Ormai

Violin II

Daniel Stachyra*

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Molly Hughes*

Andrew Wu*

Mallory Tabb

Beth Kirton*

Yuri Popowycz

Viola

John Madison* PRINCIPAL

Scott Stefanko*

Jacqueline Hanson*

Julianne Zinn

Cello

Andrea Yun*

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Nancy Chaklos

David Huckaby

Irina Tikhonova

Bass

Derek Weller* PRINCIPAL

Clark Suttle*

Flute

Dennis Carter

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Laura Larson*

Piccolo

Scott Graddy

Oboe

Sally Heffelfinger-Pituch*

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Yuki Harding

English Horn

Kristin Reynolds

Clarinet

Brian Bowman*

PRINCIPAL

J. William King*

Bass Clarinet

Shannon Orme

Bassoon

Gregory Quick*

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Roger

Maki-Schramm*

Horn

Carrie Banfield-Taplin*

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Susan Mutter

David Denniston

Tamara Kosinski

Trumpet

David Ammer*

PRINCIPAL

Gordon Simmons*

Derek Lockhart

Trombone

Brittany Lasch*

PRINCIPAL

Robyn Smith*

Bass Trombone

John Rutherford

Bryan Pokorney

Timpani

Terence Farmer

ACTING PRINCIPAL

Percussion

John Dorsey* PRINCIPAL

David Taylor

Keith Claeys

Harp

Patricia Terry-Ross*

PRINCIPAL

Banda

Ross Turner

TRUMPET

Charles Saenz

TRUMPET

Dan Maslanka

SIDE DRUM

*Detroit Opera Core Orchestra

Members of the violin sections occasionally rotate.

Detroit Federation of Musicians, Local #5, of the American Federation of Musicians

SYNOPSIS

THE STORY OF LA BOHÈME AS RETOLD BY YUVAL SHARON

La bohème tells the story of three couples: the romantic poet Rodolfo and the serene, self-possessed flowergirl Mimì; the temperamental painter Marcello and the fiercely independent singer Musetta; the lovably pedantic musician Schaunard and the taciturn philosopher Colline.

DEATH ⁄ In their cramped, spare apartment, lovesickness blocks Rodolfo and Marcello from creating. Schaunard and Colline try making the best of their impoverishment by pretending their meager meal is a grand ball. Musetta bursts in with the gravely ill Mimì; Schaunard recognizes that she has little time left. Marcello and Musetta reconcile and search for a doctor and any last comfort they can offer Mimì; Colline offers to sell the beloved coat that Schaunard bought for him to pay for the doctor. Briefly alone, Mimì and Rodolfo recall the first time they met. The friends come back with medicine, money, and a muff for Mimì’s cold hands. They await the doctor’s arrival, but it’s too late: Mimì’s life slips through their fingers.

BARRIÈRE ⁄ Three months earlier. At a border crossing at dawn, Mimì desperately seeks out Marcello. He has been living with Musetta as boarders in a shabby tavern, where he paints and she offers singing lessons. Mimì confesses that Rodolfo has been erratic and cruel to her and wants to end their relationship. Rodolfo has slept at the tavern, and as he confides to Marcello, Mimì eavesdrops on the conversation. At first, Rodolfo lies about the reason for their break-up: he’s bored with her, and she’s a terrible flirt. But he lets down his guard and reveals the truth: he knows that Mimì is very sick and feels powerless to help her. With the secret of her sickness revealed, Mimì holds back her emotions and ends their relationship. But as the two of them recount all the many things they will miss and with Marcello and Musetta’s latest turbulent break-up unfolding in the background Rodolfo and Mimì decide to stay together only through the winter.

MOMUS ⁄ Two months earlier Christmas Eve. The streets of Paris are ablaze with life and a carnivalesque anarchy. Amid shouts of street hawkers, Rodolfo buys Mimì a bonnet near the Café Momus before introducing her to his friends. Musetta enters ostentatiously on the arm of the wealthy Alcindoro. Trying to regain the painter’s attention, she sings a waltz about her irresistible beauty. Marcello successfully ignores her, but when Musetta pretends to suffer from a pinched foot, he falls into a passionate frenzy. As the couple reunites, a rousing march fills the streets.

LOVE ⁄ Earlier that night. Marcello and Rodolfo try to keep warm by burning pages from Rodolfo’s drama. Colline enters in time to catch the last of the dying flames. Schaunard, newly employed as a music tutor, surprises them all with a bounty of food, wine, cigars, and wood for the stove. He urges the friends to save the provisions in case of a gloomy future and eat a celebratory meal at Café Momus instead. Rodolfo stays behind to write, but he’s not inspired until a knock at the door signals the arrival of Mimì, his new neighbor, whose candle has gone out on the drafty stairs. Out of breath, she faints to the floor, but a cool splash of water revives her. Rodolfo ignites her candle, but when the two search for Mimì’s dropped key, both candles are blown out. In the moonlight, the poet takes the girl’s cold hand and offers to warm it for her. He introduces himself as a poet who lives with hope in his heart. She tells him about her quiet life and the poems she reads in the flowers. Overwhelmed with love, they go out into the night, their cries of love echoing into eternity.

A Bohemian Approach: La bohème

in Reverse

Since its premiere at the Teatro Regio in Turin in 1896 under the baton of the young Arturo Toscanini, Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème has become one of the world’s most frequently performed operas.

It is the first of Puccini’s most celebrated works, which also include Tosca (1900), Madama Butterfly (1904), and Turandot (1924), and along with these helped secure his position as the leading Italian opera composer of the era and as Giuseppe Verdi’s presumed successor. In staging canonic operas like La bohème, a major challenge facing opera directors today is how to make these operas fresh, engaging, and relevant. One approach is that of Regietheater or director’s theater, in which an opera’s setting is updated by adding, removing, or altering non-musical elements—for example, situating La bohème in 21st-century rather than 19th-century Paris and transforming Marcello and Mimì from a painter and seamstress to graffiti and tattoo artists. Reactions to such approaches are typically mixed: some laud them as visionary

ways to reframe familiar works for contemporary audiences, while others criticize them as “Eurotrash,” mere window dressings that privilege a director’s vision over the composer’s. However, in his new production for Detroit Opera, Yuval Sharon has taken a different approach, one that will force us to hear and experience this canonic opera anew while lovingly retaining the traditional setting of Puccini’s beloved work. Rather than changing the setting, this new production changes how we progress through the staging: La bohème’s familiar narrative is presented in reverse order, beginning with Act IV and moving through Acts III and II before concluding with Act I.

By rearranging La bohème’s constituent parts, Sharon’s production offers the opportunity to reframe our experience of La bohème without any details being updated or altered (aside from the order of the acts). In a sense, this comparatively minimal directorial intervention is in line with the opera’s verismo—or “realist”—spirit. At the turn of the 20th century, Puccini was among a group of young Italian opera composers whose aesthetic outlook was shaped by this artistic movement. Influenced by French literary circles, verismo composers considered the real world worth representing, and in their operas they strove to provide an artistic interpretation of things that someone might actually experience. Puccini worked with librettists Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica—with whom he would also later collaborate on Tosca and Madama Butterfly—to create an opera that authentically represented the world it inhabited—including a relatively realistic portrayal of Mimì’s illness and the deleterious effects of the main characters’ poverty.

Beyond its verismo elements, La bohème lends itself particularly well to this reverse ordering for a variety of reasons. First, the source material on which the opera is based—Henri Murger’s 1851 Scènes de la vie de bohème—is less a traditional novel and more a collection of short stories romanticizing the bohemian life. This episodic construction carries over into Puccini’s opera, which has clear breaks between each

“ Rather than changing the setting, this new production changes how we progress...”

act—Act I is set in the Parisian garret on Christmas Eve; Act II, though taking place that same evening, creates a decisive break from the tender love duet at the end of the previous act by opening amidst the chaos of the crowded Quartier Latin; Act III opens several months later outside a tavern on the edge of the city; and Act IV returns to the Parisian garret a few months after that. Puccini even used the term quadri (pictures) rather than atti (acts) to imply a different, less continuous relationship between them.  Within each act, we experience particular, discrete moments of everyday life, reflecting the carpe diem attitude of the bohemians themselves.

The reverse-order concept also highlights Puccini’s compositional innovations, especially the musical and dramatic similarities between La bohème’s opening and closing acts. Set in the same Parisian garret, both begin in medias res, without prologue or prior scene setting, with Marcello and Rodolfo engaged in their respective artistic endeavors. Both acts opening to the same heavily accented, dotted-rhythm figure, establishing what musicologists Arthur Groos and Roger Parker have called an atmosphere of restless energy. (It is worth noting that this opening theme was drawn from one of Puccini’s student compositions and perhaps served as a reminiscence of his own youthful artistic struggles.)

In both acts, Schaunard and Colline’s later arrivals are marked in each act by identical musical themes, although the boisterous presentation in Act I becomes more appropriately somber in Act IV. Finally, Mimì’s arias—her Act I “Sì. Mi chiamano Mimì” and Act IV “Sono andati?”—serve almost as two sides of the same coin, the latter complete with an extended musical and verbal reprise of the first, culminating in the opening of Rodolfo’s Act I

“Che gelida manina,” sung in Act IV by Mimì until a sudden spasm cuts her short.

In a way, despite the novelty of the reverse-order production, today’s audiences have already experienced La bohème as disconnected from its own internal chronology. By listening to excerpted highlights such as the opera’s famous arias and duets (for example, Rodolfo and Mimì’s aforementioned arias, their duet “O soave fanciulla” from the end of Act I, or Musetta’s “Quando me’n vo’ ” from Act II),

we engage with specific dramatic moments, knowing their connection to the broader narrative but without the need to walk through the opera’s full narrative from start to finish. In fact, La bohème itself came to life at almost the precise moment when opera was first being mechanically reproduced via sound recording and cinema. Films were first projected in Italy in March 1896, roughly one month after La bohème’s premiere, with operas being adapted to the screen soon thereafter, and the ensuing years marking the emergence of commercial classical recordings, which became vehicles for popularizing operatic excerpts in particular. When these technologies were new, they were often understood as enabling us to see and hear those no longer with us. Think of this technological ability to recall lost moments or voices as you watch this production. By experiencing the last moments of Mimì’s life before moving back in time to watch the lovers’ immortal meeting and courtship, it is as if we are experiencing past moments quite literally brought back to life after the heroine’s death—much as La bohème’s first audiences would have experienced with the fascinating new technologies of sound recording and film.

In depicting the unconventional lives of 19th-century Parisian artists, La bohème in another way is perfectly suited to an unconventional, artistic, and—in a word—bohemian approach of rearranging the order of the acts. In the true spirit of bohemianism, this production focuses on the essence of the artistic and communal experience, without the expectation of replicating established norms. Yet at the same time, by progressing through the acts in reverse order, we nevertheless still experience the timelessness of Puccini’s opera, simply in a way that allows us to see and hear the beloved verismo opera and its characters from a new perspective.

“ The reverse-order concept also highlights Puccini’s compositional innovations, especially the musical and dramatic similarities between La bohème’s opening and closing acts.”

Costumes Inside the Production:

Costume designer Jessica Jahn has created a striking, periodinspired aesthetic foundation for this reimagined La bohème. Bright pastel blues and fanciful children’s costumes bring an exuberance and joy to complement the chronological reversal from tragedy to hope. In this article, Jahn takes us through her design process from idea to execution, and shares costume sketches from this production.

“La bohème is one of those stories that is about a human experience. What happens if we actually tell the story in reverse? Taking that step back, reimagining the characters, their story, what they did before they met each other, they might be reinvented as people that have more dimension than I think a traditional story of Bohème sort of makes them out to be.

Yuval, John [Conklin], John [Torres], and I have conversations about all these inherent conceptual ideas. And then the next step for me is my most favorite part, which is to really dig into the research of the who, what, where, when. I start digging up images that I

respond to, first, emotionally, and then slowly add into that going back and forth with the team and Yuval, especially things that then directly relate to the period and what we understand about who these characters were. Then, I start layering all of that together. That’s when the real design process starts, when I’m thinking, “Okay, what is it about all of these parts that I’m responding to and that I like?”

By this point I have something on the page. But then when I get into a shop and start talking with all these amazing technicians and artisans, they help me focus what it is going to look like on the body and how we can get it there. That’s really

when it actually takes more shape—I have this twodimensional image, but what does that look like when it’s a three-dimensional garment? How do we need to change it and alter it, so that it does what we want it to do visually on stage?

I try as hard as I can to understand that even if they’re fictional characters, that in my head, they’re real people that might have existed. And I want to do honor to those people and make sure that I represent them in a way that is respectful and honest.”

COSTUME DEPARTMENT

Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges the hard work and dedication of the costume shop, whose effort made Jessica Jahn’s costumes possible:

Suzanne Hanna COSTUME DIRECTOR

Patricia Sova Jr. COSTUME ASSISTANT

Amelia Rose Glenn WARDROBE SUPERVISOR

Susan A. Fox FIRSTHAND

Mary Ellen Shuffett

FITTING ASSISTANT

Costume sketches courtesy of Jessica Jahn

Maureen Abele, Stacey Elkin, Chyna Jones, Dylan McBride, Paul David Moran, Nancy Nelson, Rachael Parrott

STITCHERS

Mark Baiza, Alice Moxley, Eugenia Paul

ADDITIONAL STITCHERS

Jac Bladow INTERN

DETROIT, APRIL 15, 1996

“After the ribbon has been cut and Pavarotti has sung, Michigan Opera Theatre (MOT) will begin its first season of grand opera and ballet in its new home, the Detroit Opera House. MOT will commence its 25th season on Saturday, April 27 at 8:00 pm with Puccini’s masterpiece, La bohème.”

La bohème at the Detroit Opera House, 1996 – 2022

Twenty-five years after David DiChiera transformed the nascent Overture to Opera into Michigan Opera Theatre in 1971, the company welcomed audiences into a newly renovated Detroit Opera House. As we look ahead to our future as Detroit Opera we also consider our past, and where our company’s journey has taken us. These performances of La bohème mark the sixth run of Puccini’s opera to grace the Detroit Opera House stage over the past 25 years.

Sean Panikkar (Rodolfo)

Francesco Demuro (Rodolfo); Kimwana Doner (Musetta); Kelly Kaduce (Mimì); Lee Gregory (Schaunard)

Café Momus

Mariusz Kwiecień (Marcello); Francesco Grollo (Rodolfo); Steven Henrikson (Benoit); Kyle Ketelsen (Colline); Terry Murphy (Schaunard)

Helen Donath (Mimì); Marcello Giordani, (Rodolfo); Kevin Short (Colline); Elias Mokole (Schaunard)

ARTIST PROFILES

Roberto Kalb CONDUCTOR

Mexican American conductor Roberto Kalb is quickly establishing himself as an artist of great versatility and talent. The 2021–2022 season sees Kalb’s return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for the premiere of Tobias Picker’s Awakenings. He also makes his debut with Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier for a series of concerts featuring the music of Offenbach, Gluck, Grétry, and Clerambault. Announced performances for the 2022–2023 season include his house debut at San Francisco Opera in Gabriela Lena Frank’s El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego. Kalb also returns to San Diego Opera to conduct the world premiere of the same piece.

Highlights of previous seasons include Kalb’s debut at Wolf Trap Opera conducting Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd, Rigoletto with both Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and Kentucky Opera, Il barbiere di Siviglia and Carmen with Tulsa Opera, Die Zauberflöte with Opera Maine, Robert Xavier Rodríguez’s Frida with Florida Grand Opera, and his debut with Detroit Opera conducting Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27.

A native of Mexico City, Kalb holds degrees from the University of Michigan, New England Conservatory of Music, and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

ARTIST PROFILES

Marlen Nahhas MIMÌ

Mexican Lebanese soprano Marlen Nahhas began the 2021–2022 season with debuts at Opera Ithaca as Gretel in Hansel and Gretel and at Virginia Opera as Musetta in La bohème, a role she has performed with Opera Naples and Finger Lakes Opera, followed by appearances at Detroit Opera for Frida (Cristina Kahlo) and La bohème (Mimì), and Cincinnati Opera for The Pirates of Penzance (Edith).

She recently completed the Cafritz Young Artists program with Washington National Opera and was seen in Die Zauberflöte (Pamina), La traviata (Violetta) directed by Francesca Zambello, Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion , The Unicorn, and Me (Flamingo), The Consul (Foreign Woman), the world premiere of Kamala Sankaram’s Taking Up Serpents (Queer Kid), and a Concert of Comedic Masterpieces. Orchestral credits include the National Symphony Orchestra for excerpts from La bohème (Mimì) and Kansas City Symphony for excerpts from Le nozze di Figaro (Susanna).

Marlen was an Apprentice Artist at The Santa Fe Opera, and has been a member of the Merola Opera program at the San Francisco Opera Center and an Apprentice Artist with Central City Opera. A National Semi-Finalist in The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, Marlen is a graduate of Oklahoma City University and Indiana University.

Matthew White RODOLFO

American tenor Matthew White recently made critically acclaimed debuts as Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with Cincinnati Opera, the Duca in Rigoletto with Edmonton Opera, and Pinkerton in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Princeton Festival. During the 2021–2022 season, in addition to these Detroit Opera performances as Rodolfo in Yuval Sharon’s new production of La bohème, he also sings Don José in Carmen with Arizona Opera, Lancelot in Chausson’s Le roi Arthus with Bard SummerScape, and Frederic in The Pirates of Penzance with Cincinnati Opera.

Highlights of past seasons include performing the role of Pinkerton with Tulsa Opera, his role and house debuts as Rodolfo with Opera Naples, and with Florida Orchestra as the tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah. A recent graduate of Philadelphia’s prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts, Matthew made his debut with Opera Maine as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and has appeared with Palm Beach Opera and Vero Beach Opera. Among many honors and prizes, he was awarded the Grand Prize of the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition and is the recipient of the Alfonso Cavaliere Award.

A trained violinist, Matthew is also an avid surfer and runs his own surfboard business, which currently has clients around the world.

ARTIST PROFILES

Edward Parks

MARCELLO

Recipient of a 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Opera Recording (as Steve Jobs in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs), baritone Edward Parks made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the 2009 –2010 season as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia and has since appeared there as Figaro in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Schaunard in La bohème, and as Larkens in La fancuilla del West, which was broadcast in HD worldwide. Other notable upcoming engagements include Jack Torrence in The Shining with Opera Colorado, a return to Lyric Opera of Chicago for Proving Up, Songs of a Wayfarer with New York Youth Symphony, and Marcello in La bohème with Detroit Opera and Boston Lyric Opera.

Highlights from past seasons include Steve Jobs in The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with Santa Fe Opera; the Count in Le nozze di Figaro with Hawaii Opera Theatre; a return to Minnesota Opera as Audebert in Silent Night ; revivals of his Escamillo in Carmen with the Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Detroit Opera Festival in Japan and Atlanta Opera; Valentin in Faust with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Portland Opera, and Opera San Antonio; Inman in Cold Mountain with North Carolina Opera; and Belcore in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Oviedo in Spain.

Brandie Inez Sutton

MUSETTA

Brandie Inez Sutton has appeared in concert halls and on opera stages around the world. Most recently she performed La Fèe in Massenet’s Cendrillon at The Metropolitan Opera, Musetta from Puccini’s La bohème with Seattle Opera, and Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto with New York City Opera. House debuts for Sutton included Semperoper Dresden, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Opera Maine, Teatro Petruzzelli, and more. In addition to opera houses, she is no stranger to the concert stage and has been featured with many symphony orchestras, including Richmond Symphony Orchestra, South Florida Symphony Orchestra, Royal Danish Symphony Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra, among others. The versatile vocalist is also sought after in many genres, appearing as a guest soloist with Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. She excitedly makes several house debuts this season, including Detroit Opera, Spoleto Festival USA, Lakes Area Music Festival, Virginia Opera, and Opera Philadelphia. This season, she also returns to The Metropolitan Opera.

Brandie Sutton’s fervent interest in social justice has also engaged her on many concert stages—more than once has she participated in events for Equal Justice Initiative. She has also been immortalized as a hologram in The Legacy Museum: From Slavery to Mass Incarceration located in Montgomery, Alabama.

ARTIST PROFILES

Cory McGee COLLINE

Hailing from Stafford, Virginia, bass Cory McGee opened his 2021–2022 season performing the role of Theseus in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Santa Fe Opera. Further engagements this season include Basilio in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia with Opera on the James, and Billy in the world premiere of Joel Thompson’s The Snowy Day and Virgil in the world premiere of Nell Shaw Cohen’s Turn and Burn with Houston Grand Opera. Cory makes his debut with both Detroit Opera and The Florentine Opera, singing the role of Colline in Puccini’s La bohème.

Past highlights include performing in the Houston Grand Opera’s Studio Showcase and Rienzi Recital Series, producing a full recording of Schubert’s Schwanengesang. Recent operatic roles include the Sodbuster in Mizzy Mazzoli’s Proving Up, and Publio in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, both with Rice Opera Theatre. Most recently, McGee was a finalist in both the Pasadena Vocal Competition and the Houston Grand Opera’s 32nd annual Eleanor McCollum Competition.

McGee joined Santa Fe Opera as an Apprentice Artist for the 2019 season, portraying the role of the Gardener in Ruder’s The Thirteenth Child. In 2018, he was seen with Wolf Trap Opera as a Studio Artist, performing the role of La Voce in Mozart’s Idomeneo, and Ranger Nat in Wolf Trap’s commissioned children’s opera David Hanlon’s Listen, Wilhelmina!

Benjamin Taylor SCHAUNARD

Baritone Benjamin Taylor began the 2021–2022 season making his debut at The Metropolitan Opera in Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Chester) and makes debuts with Detroit Opera and Spoleto Festival USA in La bohème (Schaunard), Cincinnati Opera for the world premiere of Castor and Patience (West), North Carolina Opera for Sanctuary Road (William Still), Baltimore Concert Opera for Adriana Lecouvreur (Michonnet), and a return to Pittsburgh Opera for Die Zauberflöte (Papageno).

Recent engagements include a return to Opera Theatre of Saint Louis for Opera on the Go – Digital, and debuts with Fargo-Moorhead Opera for Il barbiere di Siviglia (Figaro), Opera Orlando for The Secret River (Augustus), and Des Moines Metro Opera for Pique Dame (Tomsky), Platée (Satyre), and Fellow Travelers (Tommy McIntyre). He also made a last-minute appearance with LA Opera in La bohème (Schaunard).

Benjamin is a graduate of the Pittsburgh Opera Resident Artist Program and has been an Apprentice Artist at The Santa Fe Opera as well as a Gerdine Young Artist and Richard Gaddes Festival Artist at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. He received his Master of Music from Boston University, his Performer’s Certificate with Boston University’s Opera Institute, and his Bachelor of the Arts from Morgan State University.

ARTIST PROFILES

Jonathan Lasch ALCINDORO

Jonathan Lasch has been described by critics as possessing a voice of “arresting color and heft,” that is “smooth and flexible,” “thrillingly resonant and firm-lined,” a performer who is a “master of the stage” and a “tour de force.” Upcoming performances include Alcindoro in La bohème with Detroit Opera, bass soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Michigan Philharmonic, and Vicar in Benjamin Britten’s Albert Herring with the Princeton Festival. Most recently, Lasch performed as Sam in Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti with Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival and Hannah Before in As One with Aepex Contemporary Performance at Kerrytown Concert Hall on the opera stage.

On the concert stage, Jonathan most recently sang the title role in Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Chorus America and the baritone soloist in Jocelyn Hagen’s amass with Eugene Rogers in Hill Auditorium. He also performed Schubert’s Schwanengesang several times on concert stages across Michigan.

Dr. Lasch is an Assistant Professor and Coordinator of Voice at Wayne State University in Detroit. Jonathan is excited to return to the Detroit Opera stage where he premiered as Leporello in Don Giovanni and performed Marco in View from the Bridge. He lives in Ferndale with his wife, Caitlin Lynch, and their three wonderful children.

George Shirley THE WANDERER

One of America’s most versatile tenors and enlightened musicians, George Shirley remains in demand nationally and internationally as performer, teacher, and lecturer. He has won international acclaim for his performances with The Metropolitan Opera, and with major opera houses and festivals in England, Germany, Austria, Argentina, the Netherlands, Monte Carlo, Scotland, Italy, Japan, Chicago, San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Santa Fe, and Detroit, among others. Shirley has recorded for the RCA, Columbia, Decca, Angel, Vanguard, CRI, Capriccio, Philips, and Albany labels; he received a GRAMMY Award in 1968 for his role (Ferrando) in the prize-winning RCA recording of Mozart’s Così fan tutte. He has performed more than 80 operatic roles over the span of his 57-year career, as well as oratorio and concert literature with some of the world’s most renowned orchestras.

Shirley was the first black tenor and second African American male to sing leading roles with The Metropolitan Opera, where he remained for 11 years as leading artist. He was the first black high school vocal music teacher in the Detroit Public Schools and the first black member of the United States Army Chorus in Washington, D.C. In 2015, he received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama.

George Shirley is The Joseph Edgar Maddy Distinguished University Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance.

ARTIST PROFILES

Jessica Annunziata ACTOR

Jessica Annunziata is a second-year MFA actor and creator at Wayne State University. She holds a BFA from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts and has also studied at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting and the Wits School of the Arts in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has created and performed with the Deconstructive Theatre Project at HERE Arts Center and the Public Theatre’s Under the Radar Festival, and served as a teaching artist working with people from students to entrepreneurs. She was most recently seen as Bets in Fairview and Love in Everybody at Wayne State University. She is incredibly honored to be part of this gorgeous production.

Biba Bell ACTOR

Biba Bell is a dancer, choreographer, and writer based in Detroit. Her choreographic work, often set in unconventional venues, focuses on domesticity, labor, and architecture, and has been presented at Roulette Intermedium, the Kitchen, Movement Research at Judson Church, Centre Pompidou Paris, Garage for Contemporary Culture, Jack Hanley Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, Insel Hombroich, amongst others. She has performed with Maria Hassabi and Walter Dundervill and was a founding member of Modern Garage Movement (2005–2011). She earned her PhD in Performance Studies from New York University and is an Assistant Professor in Dance at Wayne State University.

Hank Felix ACTOR

Hank Felix studied acting at Savannah College of Art & Design, Point Park University, and Interlochen, where he played Macduff in Macbeth and was awarded the Fine Arts Award for Repertory Theater. He attended the Putney School in Putney, Vermont. He will appear in the upcoming Netflix movie Pale Blue Eye. Hank grew up in New Jersey and London, England, and is currently living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

X. Alexander Durden ACTOR

X. Alexander Durden is a tenor, actor, and writer. He has previously been seen in the Detroit Opera productions of Twilight: Gods and BLISS. He has also appeared as a recitalist and concert soloist throughout the US, Canada, and Bermuda. Adding his name to the rosters of The Atlanta, Americolor, and Capitol City Opera Companies, he has also performed at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center and Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Favorite roles include Jones Morgan in the National Tour of Buffalo Soldier (Virginia Repertory Theatre), Il Cuoco in Madama Butterfly (The Atlanta Opera), Max in The Play That Goes Wrong (Tipping Point Theatre), and Belmonte in  The Abduction from the Seraglio (Capitol City Opera).

X. Alexander received undergraduate voice training at Morehouse College and graduate training in voice and acting at the Boston Conservatory and Wayne State University, respectively.

Peter Knox ACTOR

Downriver-born, Detroit-raised Peter Knox has played on local stages including The Detroit Repertory Theater and Shakespeare in Detroit as King Lear, as well as acting and directing for several years with The Performance Network of Ann Arbor. He has more recently been in films including Spencer King’s Time Now, Danny Villanueva’s I Dream of A Psychopomp, Jackson Jarvis’s Neptune, and August Leo’s soon-to-be-released UP film Attack Of The Flies. Peter is thrilled to be back on stage with Detroit Opera.

Alexis Primus ACTOR

Alexis Primus is thrilled to be a part of her first opera. They are currently a student at Wayne State University and was previously in A Christmas Carol with Tipping Point Theatre in Northville. Her favorite credits include Marie Antionette in Marie Antoinette and Sophie Washington in Flyin’ West.

ARTIST PROFILES

Yuval Sharon DIRECTOR

Yuval Sharon has amassed an unconventional body of work that expands the operatic form. He is founder and Artistic Director of The Industry in Los Angeles and the recently appointed Gary L. Wasserman Artistic Director of Detroit Opera.

With The Industry, Sharon has directed and produced new operas in moving vehicles, operating train stations, Hollywood sound stages, and various “non-spaces” such as warehouses, parking lots, and escalator corridors. From 2016 to 2019, Sharon was the first Artist-in-Residence at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, creating nine projects that included newly commissioned works, site-specific installations, and performances outside the hall. His residency culminated in a major revival of Meredith Monk’s opera ATLAS, making him the first director Monk entrusted with a new production of her work.

The first American ever invited to direct at Bayreuth, Sharon distinguished himself with a boldly progressive  Lohengrin in 2018, using subtle dramatic direction to completely overhaul the opera into a critique of entrenched power structures. He is the recipient of the 2014 Götz Friedrich Prize in Germany for his production of John Adams’s Doctor Atomic. He also directed a landmark production of Song Books at the San Francisco Symphony and Carnegie Hall. In 2017, Sharon was honored with a MacArthur Fellowship and a Foundation for Contemporary Art grant for theater.

John Conklin SET DESIGNER

John Conklin has designed for The Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Theater of St Louis, Glimmerglass Opera, and the opera companies of Houston, Seattle, Dallas, Washington and Minneapolis, among others. Abroad he has worked at the English National Opera, the Bayerische Staatsoper, and The Australian Opera. In addition, he served as Director of Production for New York City Opera, Associate Director of Glimmerglass Opera, and he is currently Artistic Advisor to Boston Lyric Opera. He recently retired from teaching at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

ARTIST PROFILES

Jessica Jahn COSTUME DESIGNER

A graduate of Rutgers University with degrees in both Dance and Psychology, Jessica Jahn danced professionally in New York City before beginning a career in design. She has had the opportunity to work with directors such as Tina Landau, Tommy Kail, Francesca Zambello, Charles Randolph Wright, Tazewell Thompson, Liesl Tommy, Diane Paulus, and Jessica Blank, as well as writers/composers Charles Fuller, Norah Ephron, Andrea Davis Pinkney, Kevin Puts, Jake Heggie, Steve Earle, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Campbell, and Charles Busch.

Known for her work in the traditional repertoire, she is also dedicated to innovative work within her field. Jessica collaborated on one of the earliest performances of Tarell Alvin McCraney’s In The Red and Brown Water, directed by Tina Landau. She designed Blue, written by Tazewell Thompson and composed by Jeanine Tesori, winner of the MCANA Award for Best New Opera, and worked with Jessica Blank, Eric Jensen, and Steve Earle on The Public’s world premiere of Coal Country. She was awarded both the Lucille Lortel and Drama Desk Awards for her design of Charles Busch’s The Confession of Lily Dare.

Dedicated to racial and social justice, Jessica is currently a member of the steering committees of Opera America’s Women’s Opera Network (WON) and Racial Justice Opera Network (RJON), as well as Opera America Board’s Membership Committee.

John Torres

LIGHTING DESIGNER

John Torres is a New York-based lighting designer working in theater, dance, motion, and print. Recent opera projects have included: Turandot (Opera Bastille, Paris), Tristan und Isolde (La Monnaie, Brussels), ATLAS, directed by Yuval Sharon (Disney Hall, LA Philharmonic), Eden with Joyce DiDonato (Bozar, Brussels), Der Messias with Robert Wilson (Salzburg Festival). Theater: Twelfth Night, A Bright Room Called Day (The Public, NYC), The Black Clown (A.R.T. Cambridge), Only an Octave Apart and Hamlet (St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn), Assembly (Park Avenue Armory). TV: Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga: Cheek to Cheek Live!, Joni 75 (PBS). Music: Taylor Mac: A 24 Decade... (St. Ann’s Warehouse), Solange Knowles, Florence and the Machine, and Usher: The Vegas Residency. Dance: Available Light, Lucinda Childs (Théâtre de La Ville, Paris), Lost Mountain, Bobbi Jene Smith (La Mama, NYC).

Joanne Middleton Weaver

WIG & MAKEUP DESIGNER

Born in England, Joanne Weaver came to the United States in the late 1980s. She began apprenticing with what was then Washington Opera, now Washington National Opera. She has since designed at many opera companies throughout the US, including Glimmerglass Opera, Central City Opera, Sarasota Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, and Des Moines Metro Opera. Her notable Michigan Opera Theatre (now Detroit Opera) credits include Die Zauberflöte, Macbeth , The Passenger, Frida, The Merry Widow, Faust, Margaret Garner, Cyrano, and The Pearl Fishers.

ARTIST PROFILES

Suzanne Mallare Acton CHORUS MASTER

From Handel’s Messiah to contemporary jazz, Suzanne Mallare Acton is recognized for her versatility and dynamic style. For Michigan Opera Theatre, her conducting credits include West Side Story, Il barbiere di Siviglia, The Music Man , The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, La bohème, Die Fledermaus, La traviata, A Little Night Music, La fille du régiment, Carmina Burana with members of Cirque du Soleil, The Medium , Frida, and Les pêcheurs de perles. Additional credits include Dayton Opera, Artpark, Augusta Opera, Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, Auditorium Theatre, and Verdi Opera Theatre. Symphonic concerts include Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Birmingham-Bloomfield Symphony Orchestra, Lexington Bach Festival, Dearborn Symphony, and Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra. For 25 years, Suzanne was artistic director of Rackham Choir (RC). Under her leadership, RC was awarded the 2008 Governor’s Award for Arts & Culture.

As long-term chorus master of Michigan Opera Theatre, now Detroit Opera, Suzanne has worked on over 160 productions in seven languages. She is also the founder and director of the Michigan Opera Theatre Children’s Chorus. She has been recognized by Corp! Magazine as one of Michigan’s 95 Most Powerful Women. In 2014, she was one of 12 women selected as WJR’s Women Who Lead.

What began as an idea by David DiChiera, founder of Detroit Opera (formerly known as Michigan Opera Theatre), the company who continues to own and operate today’s Detroit Opera House, blossomed into a magnificent performing arts center with its formal opening in 1996.

A new 128-page book celebrating the centenary of the theater that is now the Detroit Opera House.

Available at The Detroit Shoppe at The Somerset Collection and online at arcadiapublishing.com

100 Detroit Opera House AT

Located on the corners of Broadway Street and Madison Street at Grand Circus Park, the theater now known as the Detroit Opera House was originally opened January 12, 1922, as the Capitol Theater. At the time of its gala premiere, the 4,250-seat theater claimed to be the fifth largest in the world.

The theater was the first in a series of palatial vaudeville and moving picture houses built in the Grand Circus Park area in the 1920s. Designed by renowned Detroit architect C. Howard Crane, whose genius for theater design took him to cities around the nation, the building was constructed with superb acoustics and in the style of the grand European opera houses. Crane also designed such Detroit landmarks as the Fox Theater, State Theater, and the acoustically perfect Orchestra Hall.

In the fall of 1929, the Capitol Theater became the Paramount Theater and, in 1934, was renamed the Broadway Capitol Theater. Within the first few decades, the grand theater hosted the likes of Will Rogers, Louis Armstrong, Betty Hutton, Guy Lombardo, and Duke Ellington, and later, Gale Storm, Sal Mineo, and many of the rock and roll stars of the 1950s.

After several years of near decay, the theater underwent a minor restoration in 1960. The renamed and reconfigured 3,367-seat Grand Circus Theater became a movie house once again. The Grand Circus Theater closed its doors in 1978 and reopened under the same name in 1981. From 1981 to 1985 the theater ran intermittently, presenting a diversity of entertainment from mainstream artists Ray Charles and Roy Orbison to an alternative rock series entitled “Grand Circus Live.” The 1922 palace closed its doors for the last time in November of 1985, after a small fire. The theater would be neglected for three years until the nomadic Detroit Opera (then Michigan Opera Theatre) met its destiny.

7 One of many group tours, 1990s. David DiChiera leads a group of prospective donors through the restoration process of converting the Grand Circus Theatre into the new Detroit Opera House.

8 The haunted look of the Grand Lobby, 1990. The temporary shop lights provide a stark look to the grand lobby prior to the actual restoration phase of the theater.

9 The rare artform of wet plastering, 1995. This plasterer is working on a delicate design on the ceiling of the auditorium.

Overview of the expanded stage, 2000. The stage of the new Detroit Opera House is the largest in Michigan and one of the largest between New York and Chicago.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

JULY 1, 2021 – JUNE 30, 2022

Chair

Ethan Davidson

Vice Chair

Joanne Danto

Vice Chair

Peter Oleksiak

Vice Chair

Ankur Rungta

Secretary

Gene P. Bowen

Treasurer

Enrico Digirolamo

Immediate Past Chair

R. Jamison Williams

President/CEO

Wayne S. Brown

Naomi André

Lee Barthel

Richard A. Brodie

Elizabeth Brooks

Robert Brown

James Ciroli

Julia Donovan Darlow

Kevin Dennis

Shauna Ryder Diggs

Cameron B. Duncan

Michael Einheuser

Marianne Endicott

Fern R. Espino

Paul E. Ewing

Richard G. Goetz

John P. Hale

Devon Hoover

Danialle Karmanos

Mary Kramer

Barbara Kratchman

Thomas M. Krikorian

Denise Lewis

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Don Manvel

Dexter Mason

Ali Moiin

Donald Morelock

Sara Pozzi

Paul Ragheb

Ruth Rattner

Pam Rodgers

Terry Shea

Matthew Simoncini

Richard Sonenklar

Lorna Thomas

Jesse Venegas

Gary Wasserman

Ellen Hill Zeringue

Directors Emeritus

Margaret Allesee

Shelly Cooper

Marjorie M. Fisher

Barbara Frankel

Herman Frankel

Dean Friedman

Jennifer Nasser

Charlotte Podowski

Audrey Rose

William Sandy

C. Thomas Toppin

Richard Webb

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

JULY 1, 2021 – JUNE 30, 2022

Kenn and Liz Allen

Sarah Allison

Lourdes V. Andaya

Naomi André

Harold Mitchell Arrington

Beverly Avadenka

Lee and Floy Barthel

Mark and Caprice Baun

Joseph and Barbra Bloch

Gene P. Bowen

Betty J. Bright

Richard Brodie

Elizabeth Brooks

Robert Brown and Geraldine

Ford-Brown

Wayne S. Brown and Brenda Kee

Charles D. Bullock

Michael and Mary Chirco

James and Elizabeth Ciroli

Lois Cohn

Thomas Cohn

Françoise Colpron

Peter and Shelly Cooper

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Helen Daoud

Julia D. Darlow and John C. O’Meara

Maureen D’Avanzo

Lawrence and Dodie David

Ethan and Gretchen Davidson

Kevin Dennis and Jeremy Zeltzer

Cristina DiChiera

Lisa DiChiera

Shauna Ryder Diggs

Enrico and Kathleen Digirolamo

Debbie Dingell

Mary Jane Doerr

Cameron B. Duncan

Michael Einheuser

Kenneth and Frances Eisenberg

Marianne Endicott

Alex Erdeljan

Fern R. Espino and Thomas Short

Paul and Mary Sue Ewing

Margo Cohen Feinberg and Robert Feinberg

Oscar and Dede Feldman

Carl and Mary Ann Fontana

Elaine Fontana

Barbara Frankel and Ron Michalak

Barbara Garavaglia

Yousif and Mara Ghafari

John Gillooly and Ebony Duff

Richard and Aurora Goetz

Carolyn Gordon

Toby Haberman

John and Kristan Hale

Doreen Hermelin

Derek and Karen Hodgson

Devon Hoover

Alan and Eleanor Israel

Una Jackman

Don Jensen and Leo Dovelle

Kent and Amy Jidov

Gary and Gwenn Johnson

George Johnson

Jill Johnson

Ellen Kahn

Peter and Danialle Karmanos

Stephanie Germack Kerzic

Mary Kramer

Michael and Barbara Kratchman

Thomas and Deborah Krikorian

Linda Dresner and Ed Levy, Jr.

Denise J. Lewis

Arthur and Nancy Liebler

Stephan and Marian Loginsky

Mary Alice Lomason

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Don Manvel

Florine Mark

Ronald and Zvjezdana Martella

Jack Martin and Bettye Arrington-Martin

Dexter Mason

Benjamin Meeker and Meredith Korneffel

Phillip D. and Dawn Minch

Ali Moiin and William Kupsky

Donald and Antoinette Morelock

E. Michael and Dolores Mutchler

Allan and Joy Nachman

Juliette Okotie-Eboh

Peter Oleksiak

Linda Orlans

Richard and Debra Partrich

Spencer and Myrna Partrich

Daniel and Margaret Pehrson

Sara Pozzi

Waltraud Prechter

Paul and Amy Ragheb

John and Terry Rakolta

Ruth F. Rattner

Roy and Maureen Roberts

David and Jacqueline Roessler

Audrey Rose

Anthony and Sabrina Rugiero

Ankur Rungta and Mayssoun Bydon

Hershel and Dorothy Sandberg

Donald and Kim Schmidt

Arlene Shaler

Terry Shea

Matthew and Mona Simoncini

Sheila Sloan

Phyllis F. Snow

Richard A. Sonenklar and Gregory Haynes

Mary Anne Stella

Ronald F. Switzer and Jim F. McClure

Lorna Thomas

James G. Vella

Jesse and Yesenia Venegas

Marilyn Victor

Bradley Wakefield and Meghann Rutherford

Gary L. Wasserman

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

Mary Lou Zieve

Ellen Hill Zeringue

Trustees Emeriti

Marcia Applebaum

Agustin Arbulu

Dean and Aviva Friedman

Preston and Mary Happel

Pat Hartmann

Robert and Wally Klein

Charlotte and Charles Podowski

William and Marjorie Sandy

Roberta Starkweather

C. Thomas and Bernie Toppin

Founding Members

Lynn* and Ruth* Townsend

Avern* and Joyce* Cohn

John and Mardell De Carlo

David* and Karen V.* DiChiera

Aaron* and Bernice* Gershenson

Donald* and Josephine* Graves

John* and Gwendolyn* Griffin

Harry* and Jennie* Jones

Wade* and Dores* McCree

Harry J. Nederlander*

E. Harwood Rydholm*

Neil Snow

Phyllis F. Snow

Richard* and Beatrice* Strichartz

Robert* and Clara* “Tuttie”

VanderKloot

Sam* and Barbara* Williams

Theodore* and Virginia* Yntema

THANK YOU TO OUR DONORS

Detroit Opera Donor Honor Roll

Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges these generous donors for their cumulative lifetime giving. Their support has played a vital role in the establishment of Detroit Opera since its founding in 1971 and the building of the Detroit Opera House. Their leadership plays an integral part in the company’s viability, underwriting quality opera and dance performances, as well as award-winning community and educational programs.

$10,000,000 and above

Ford Motor Company Fund

The State of Michigan

William Davidson Foundation

$7,500,00 and above

General Motors

$5,000,000 and above

Community Foundation for

Southeast Michigan

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles US LLC

The Kresge Foundation

$2,000,000 and above

Mr.* & Mrs. Douglas Allison

Mr. & Mrs. Lee Barthel

Marvin, Betty and Joanne Danto

Dance Endowment & Marvin and Betty Danto Family Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Herman Frankel

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Lear Corporation

Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr.

Masco Corporation

McGregor Fund

The Skillman Foundation

R. Jamison & Karen Williams

$1,000,000 and above

Mr.* & Mrs. Robert Allesee

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Mr.* & Mrs. Eugene Applebaum

AT&T

Bank of America

Mr. & Mrs. John A. Boll Sr.

Compuware Corporation

Estate of Robert & Rose Ann Comstock

DTE Energy Foundation

Mrs. Margo Cohen Feinberg & Mr. Robert Feinberg

Mrs. Barbara Frankel & Mr. Ronald Michalak

Jean & Samuel Frankel*

Hudson-Webber Foundation

JPMorgan Chase

Mr. & Mrs. Peter Karmanos

Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation

Matilda R. Wilson Fund

Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

Richard Sonenklar & Gregory Haynes

United Jewish Foundation

Gary L. Wasserman

Dr. & Mrs. Sam B. Williams*

Contributors to Detroit Opera

Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges these generous corporate, foundation, government, and individual donors whose contributions were made between September 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021. Their generosity is vital to the company’s financial stability, which is necessary to sustain Detroit Opera’s position as a valued cultural resource.

Foundation, Corporate, & Government Support

$500,000+

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

The Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

National Endowment for the Humanities

Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation

William Davidson Foundation

$250,000+

Ford Motor Company Fund

The Nederlander Company

OPERA America

$100,000+

General Motors Corporation Lear Corporation

The State of Michigan

$50,000 - $99,999

Burton A. Zipser And Sandra D. Zipser Foundation Culture Source

The Fred A. & Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation

Marvin and Betty Danto Family Foundation

Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation

Milner Hotels Foundation

National Endowment for the Arts

$25,000 - $49,999

DTE Energy Foundation

Matilda R. Wilson Fund

Oliver Dewey Marcks Foundation

Rocket Community Fund

Worthington Family Foundation

$10,000 - $24,999

J. Addison Bartush and Marion M. Bartush Educational Fund

Ida and Conrad H. Smith Endowment for MOT

Masco Corporation

MGM Grand Detroit

Penske Corporation

Ralph L. and Winifred E. Polk Foundation

$5,000 - $9,999

Bank of America Charitable Gift Fund, MA 1-225-04-02

John A. & Marlene Boll Foundation

The Children’s Foundation

Geoinge Foundation

GlobalGiving

Honigman LLP

The Karen & Drew Peslar Foundation

Louis and Nellie Sieg Fund

Marjorie & Maxwell Jospey Foundation

The Samuel L. Westerman Foundation

$1,000 - $4,999

Arts Midwest

C&N Foundation

Elmira L. Rhein

Family Foundation

Italian American Cultural Society

James & Lynelle Holden Fund

Josephine Kleiner Foundation

Joyce Cohn Young Artist Fund

Lean & Green Michigan

Network For Good

Northern Trust Bank

Sigmund and Sophie Rohlik Foundation

Somerset Collection

Charitable Foundation

Individual Support

$100,000+

Mr. and Mrs. Lee Barthel

Richard and Joanne Brodie

Robert C. and RoseAnn B. Comstock*

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Ethan and Gretchen Davidson

Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr.

Paul and Mary Sue Ewing

Maxine and Stuart Frankel

The Dolores & Paul Lavins Foundation

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner

Matthew and Mona Simoncini

Richard Sonenklar and Gregory Haynes

Gary L. Wasserman & Charles A. Kashner

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

$50,000-$99,999

Richard and Mona Alonzo

James and Elizabeth Ciroli

Carl and Mary Ann Fontana

Mrs. Elaine Fontana

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Peter Oleksiak

Waltraud Prechter

$20,000-$49,999

Mr. Joseph A. Bartush

Kevin Dennis and Jeremy Zeltzer

Estate of Karen V. DiChiera*

Enrico and Kathleen

Digirolamo

Mrs. Barbara Frankel and Mr. Ronald Michalak

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Frankel

Dr. Devon Hoover

Eleanor & Alan Israel

Michael and Barbara Kratchman

Denise Lewis

Don Manvel

Susanne McMillan

Donald and Antoinette Morelock

William and Wendy Powers

Sidney and Annette Rose*

Heinz and Alice Schwarz*

William Smith

Mr. & Mrs. C. Thomas Toppin

Jesse and Yesenia Venegas

Mr. Richard D. Ventura

$10,000-$19,999

Mr.* and Mrs. Robert Allesee

Gene P. Bowen

Wayne Brown and Brenda Kee

Mr. Thomas Cohn

Ms. Julia Donovan Darlow & Hon. John C. O’Meara

Alex Erdeljan

Arthur and Nancy Ann Krolikowski*

Ms. Mary C. Mazure

Ali Moiin and William Kupsky

Mr. Cyril Moscow

James and Ann Nicholson

Sara A. Pozzi, Ph.D.

Paul and Amy Ragheb

Dr. & Mrs. Samir Ragheb

Ms. Patricia H. Rodzik

Ankur Rungta and Mayssoun Bydon

Yuval Sharon

Terry Shea & Seigo Nakao

Lorna Thomas, MD

Estate of Herman W. Weinreich

$5,000-$9,999

Dr. Harold M. Arrington

Richard and Susan Bingham

G. and Martha Blom

Mr. and Mrs. John A. Boll Sr.

Bob and Rosemary Brasie

Ilse Calcagno

Ms. Violet Dalla Vecchia

Cristina DiChiera and

Neal Walsh

Lisa DiChiera

Mrs. Carol E Domina

Dilip and Sonal Dubey

Mr. Cameron B. Duncan

Marianne T. Endicott

Allan Gilmour and Eric Jirgens

Gil Glassberg and Sandra Seligman

James and Nancy Grosfeld

Derek and Karen Hodgson

Mr. William Hulsker

Addison and Deborah Igleheart

Stephan and Marian Loginsky

Robert and Terri Lutz

Ms. Mary McGough

Stuart Meiklejohn

Phillip D. and Dawn Minch

Mrs. L. William Moll

Manuel and Nora Moroun

Ms. Maryanne Mott

Mr. Jonathan Orser

Brock and Katherine L. Plumb

Mrs. Carolyn L. Ross

Mrs. Rosalind B. Sell

Lois and Mark Shaevsky

Barbara Van Dusen

Prof. Michael Wellman

Beryl Winkelman

Philanthropic Fund

Ned and Joan Winkelman

Mary Lou Zieve

$3,000-$4,999

Gregory and Mary Barkley

Paul & Lee Blizman

Milena T. Brown*

Anonymous

Carolyn Demps and Guy Simons

Mr. Michael Einheuser

Michael & Virginia Geheb

Christine Goerke

Ellen Hill Zeringue

Ms. Mary Kramer

Mary B. Letts

John and Arlene Lewis

Benjamin Meeker & Meredith Korneffel, MD

George and Nancy Nicholson

Mr. George & Mrs. Jo Elyn Nyman

Rip and Gail Rapson

Mr. Michael Simmons

Dr. Gregory E. Stephens, D.O.

Anne Stricker

Norman Thorpe

John and Barbara Tierney

Dr. John Weber & Dr. Dana Zakalik

David and Kathleen Zmyslowski

$2,500-$2,999

Thomas and Gretchen Anderson

Mr. Charles D. Bullock

Dr. & Mrs.

Ronald T. Burkman

James and Carol Carter

Walter and Lillian Dean

Glendon M. Gardner and Leslie Landau

Samuel* and Toby Haberman

Ann Katz

The Hon. Jack & Dr. Bettye Arrington Martin

Eugene and Lois Miller

Van Momon and Pamela L. Berry

Graham* and Sally Orley

Mr. Laurence and Dr. Barbara Schiff

Susan Sills-Levey and Michael Levey

Frank and Susan Sonye

Ms. Mary Anne Stella

Dorothy Tomei

Jeffrey Tranchida and Noel Baril

Dr. Stanley H. Waldon

Margaret Winters and Geoffrey Nathan

$1,000-$2,499

Dr. Antonia Abbey

Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya

Mr. James Anderson

D.L. Anthony, Ph.D.

Robert and Catherine Anthony

Essel and Menakka Bailey

Mr. Steve Bellock

Cecilia Benner

Ms. Kanta Bhambhani

Mr. Stanislaw Bialoglowski

Eugene and Roselyn Blanchard

Elizabeth Brooks

Beverly Hall Burns

David and Marilyn Camp

Hon. Avern* Cohn & Ms. Lois Pincus

Patricia Cosgrove

Brandt and Vanessa Crutcher

Adam Crysler

Marjory Epstein

Dr. Raina Ernstoff & Mr. Sanford Hansell

Fern Espino and Tom Short

Sally and Michael Feder

Mr. John Fleming

Burke & Carol Fossee

Thomas M. Gervasi

Mrs. Louise Giddings

Barbara W Glauber

Mr. Lawrence Glowczewski

Ms. Carole Hardy

Ann Hart

Barbara Heller

Ms. Nancy B. Henk

Richard and Involut Jessup

Ellen Kahn

Marc Keshishian & Susanna Szelestey

Mr. & Mrs. Gerd H Keuffel

Ida King

Edward and Barbara Klarman

Justin and Joanne Klimko

Gregory Knas

Meria Larson

Max Lepler and Rex Dotson

Nancy and Bud Liebler

Mr. John Lovegren & Mr. Daniel Isenschmid

John and Kimi Lowe

Dr. William Lusk

Ms. Denise Lutz

Stephen and Paulette Mancuso

Mr. Loreto A. Manzo

Ms. Janet Groening Marsh

Ms. Patricia A. McKanna

Darin McKeever

Patrick and Patricia McKeever

Ms. Evelyn Micheletti

Dr. Anne Missavage & Mr. Robert Borcherding

Xavier and Maeva Mosquet

Harold Munson and Libby Berger

Brian Murphy and Toni Sanchez-Murphy

Joshua and Rachel Opperer

Mark and Kyle Peterson

George and Aphrodite Roumell

Adam D. Rubin, M.D, Lakeshore

Professional Voice Center

Hershel and Dorothy Sandberg

William and Marjorie Sandy

Mary Schlaff and Sanford Koltonow

Kingsley and Lurline Sears

Herbert* and Melody Shanbaum

James and Laura Sherman

Thomas and Sharon Shumaker

Mr. Zon Shumway

Ms. Charlotte Singewald

Joe Skoney and Luisa Di Lorenzo

Hugh and Andrea Smith

Susan A Smith

Frank and Rose Marie Sosnowski

Ms. Theresa Spear & Mr. Jeff Douma

Gabriel and Martha Stahl

Mrs. Susanne Radom Stroh

James G Tibbetts

Michele and Scott Toenniges

Alice & Paul Tomboulian

Joyce Urba & David Kinsella

Mat VanderKloot

Joseph and Rosalie Vicari

Gerrit and Beate Vreeken

William Waak

Arthur White

Ms. Leslie Wise

John and Susan Zaretti

$750-$999

Ms. Geraldine Atkinson

Paul Augustine

Gerald and Marceline Bright

Marsha Bruhn

Frank and Jenny Brzenk

Tonino and Sarah Corsetti

Ms. Joyce E. Delamarter

Lawrence and Irene Garcia

Sumer and Marilyn Katz-Pek

Mary Jane & Jeff Kupsky

Mrs. Marsha Lynn

Steven and Jennifer Marlette

Brian and Lisa Meer

Ms. Lynne M. Metty

Ms. Barbara Mitchell

Ms. Felicia

Eisenberg Molnar

Mr. Michael Parisi

Peter and Teresa Roddy

Drs. Franziska & Robert Schoenfeld

Daniel and Susan Stepek

Ms. Carol Ward

Ms. Janet Beth Weir

$500-$749

Dr. Goncalo Abecasis

Michael and Katherine Alioto

James and Catherine Allen

Ms. Naomi André

Ms. Allison Bach

Mr. & Mrs. Fred Baer

Dr. & Mrs. Jeffrey Band

Ms. Mary Anne Barczak

Leland Bassett

Walter and Bill Baughman

Nigel and Eloi Beaton

Ms. Susan Bennett

Henri and Anaruth Bernard

Jack and Jeanne Bourget

Mr. Donald M. Budny

Ms. Marilynn Burns

Ms. Susan Cameron

Philip and Carol Campbell

James and Christine Cortez

Mr. Timothoy R Damschroder

Ms. Mary J. Doerr

Eugene and Elaine Driker

Lawrence and Jacqueline Elkus

Mr. & Mrs. Robert E. Epstein

Daniel H Ferrier

Barbara Fisher and William Gould

Mrs. Shirley M. Flanagan

Dr. & Mrs. Saul Forman

Yvonne Friday and Stephen Black

Joseph and Lois Gilmore

Thea Glicksman

Mr. Robert Theodore Goldman

Paul and Barbara Goodman

William and Janet Goudie

Ms. Glynes Graham

Larry Gray

Giacinta Gualtieri

Ms. Joyce M. Hennessee

Beth Hoger & Lisa Swem

Joseph and Jean Hudson

Estate of Mary F. Hutchinson

Mario and Jane Iacobelli

David and Theresa Joswick

Ms. Agatha P. Kalkanis

Geraldine and Jacqueline Keller

Ms. Lee Khachaturian

Cynthia and D.M. Kratchman

William and Jean Kroger

Mr. Eric Krukonis

Ms. Rosemary Kurr

Robert and Mary Lou Labe

Mr. Norman Lewis

Ms. Margaret MacTavish

Ms. Vera C. Magee

Mr. Jeffrey D. Marraccini

Dr. & Mrs. Theodore G. Mayer

James and Rebecca McLennan

Ms. Josephine Mowinski

Ms. Lois Norman

Walter Opdycke

Ms. Haryani Permana

Miss Alma M. Petrini

Mrs. Janet Pounds

Prof. Martha Ratliff

Mr. Dennis C. Regan & Miss Ellen M. Strand

Benjamin and Florence Rhodes

Felix and Caroline Rogers

Leroy and Maria Y. Runk

Walter Shapero and Kathleen Straus

Michael Shaw

Mr. & Mrs. Anthony R. Skwiers

Ken and Nadine Sperry

Dr. Austin Stewart and Mr. Charlie Dill

Dr. Andrew James Stocking

Choichi Sugawa

John and Beth Ann Tesluk

Dr. Gretchen Thams

Barbara and Stuart Trager

Debra Van Elslander

Bruce and Kris Vande Vusse

Dennis and Jennifer Varian

Marvin Webb and Janice Paine-Webb

Marilyn Wheaton and Paul Duffy

Jon and Jennifer Wojtala

Mr. David D. Woodard

Every effort has been made to accurately reflect donor names and gift levels. Should you find an error or omission, please contact Samantha Scott at sscott@detroitopera.org or 313.237.3236.

KEY

* Deceased

Gifts In Tribute

We extend a heartfelt thank you to the families, friends, colleagues, businesses, and groups who generously made gifts to Detroit Opera In Honor or In Memory of the special people in their lives, who names are listed in bold below.

Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya

Thomas and Sharon Shumaker

Wayne S. Brown

Ryan Taylor

Mr. Wayne S. Brown & Dr. Brenda Kee

Hugh and Andrea Smith

Rev. William Danaher of Christ Church Cranbrook

Ms. Kathy Brooks

Joanne Danto

Dr. Eva Feldman

Julia Darlow

Essel and Menakka Bailey

Montague Foundation

Ethan Davidson

United Jewish Foundation

Joshua and Rachel Opperer

Nadim Ezzeddine

Jacqueline Wilson

Beth Kirton

PEO Chapter X

Chelsea Kotula

Bernard and Eleanor A. Robertson

Mary Kramer

Mrs. Carol E Domina

Barbara “Bunny” Kratchman

Rhonda and Morris Brown

Mrs. Judith Elson

Rick and Marilyn Gardner

Dr. William J. Kupsky & Dr. Ali Moiin

Jeffry Kupsky

William and Elizabeth S. Kupsky

Paul N. Lavins in Celebration of his 90th Birthday

Richard and Eileen C. Polk

Al Lucarelli

Adam Crysler

Carmen Miriam MacLean

Ms. Miriam MacLean

Ruth Rattner

Richard and Eleanore J. Gabrys

Yuval Sharon and Marsha Music

The Fernwood Fund

Rick Williams in Celebration of his 80th Birthday

Williams, Williams, Rattner & Plunkett P.C.

R. Jamison Williams

Brad and Sherri Bosart

In Memory of

Tikiya Allen*

Ms. Bonnie E Whittaker

Enola Dawkins Bell*

Ms. Naomi Edwards

Gloria Marie Clark*

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Mary Ann Van Elslander

Brenda and Jack Manning

Jerry D’Avanzo*

Joseph and Julie Beals

Nicole Davanzo

Larry and Dodie David

Mrs. Elyse Germack

Dr. David DiChiera*

Ann Hart

Elva Ebersole*

Ms. Brenda Shufelt

Dorothy Gerson*

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner

Joan Hill*

G. and Martha Blom

Karen L. Schneider

Marjorie Lee Johnson*

Arthurine Turner

Ronald Kohls*

Ms. Robin Renae Walker

Ricki Sara Bennett

Nancy Davis

Ms. Betty J Morris

Dennis and Judith Voketz

Cynthia Kozlowski*

James Haas

Karyn Lennon

Mr. and Mrs. Darwin Larson*

Ms. Laura Larson

Nancy Larson Ratajczak

Gloria L. Lowe*

Craig Erickson

Mary Munger-Brown*

Wayne Brown and Brenda Kee

James Chandler

Karen Chandler

Larry and Dodie David

Detroit Musicians Association

Cristina DiChiera and Neal Walsh

Ms. Suzanne M Erbes

Barbara Frankel and Ronald Michalak

Kathryn Bryant Harrison

Ellen Hill Zeringue

Shirley A Hinton

Ms. Chelsea Kotula

Michael and Barbara Kratchman

Ms. Laura Larson

Mado Lie

Maria Lisowsky

Marvin and Belinda Miller

Dr. Marvelene C. Moore

Donald and Antoinette Morelock

Delsenia Y. Murchinson

Angela Nelson-Heesch

Naomi Oliphant

Ms. Ethlyn Rollocks

Ms. Nina Ray Scott

Yuval Sharon

Ms. Sonya A. Thompson

Arnold Weingarden and Joanne Danto

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

Shih-Chen Peng*

Scott and Mary Bedson

Ms. Normayne Day

Ms. Catherine Gofrank

James M. Ryan*

Ms. Shelzy Ryan

Geraldine Barbara Sills*

Valerie Chodoroff

Dr. Richard D. Sills* and Mrs. Geraldine B. Sills* Jack Massaro

Roberta Jane Stimac*

Karen Nuckolls

Alice Tomboulian* Paul Tomboulian

John E. Tower*

Ms. Jennifer Marling

Karen VanderKloot

DiChiera*

Wayne S. Brown and Brenda Kee

Mr. Richard D. Cavaler

Avern Cohn and Lois Pincus

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Ethan and Gretchen Davidson

Nancy and Joseph Kimball

Landmarks Illinois Team

Ms. Maryanne Mott

Sarah Mumford

Mary and Chris Pardi

Austin Stewart

Barbara and Mat VanderKloot

William and Martha Walsh

Kevin and Andrea Webber

Tamara Lehew Whitty*

Sarah Bentley

Mark Freeman

John and Arlene Lewis

Robert and Jennifer Moll

Drs Adam and Rebecca Rubin

Anthony and Theresa Selvaggio

Jennifer Woodman

Every effort has been made to accurately reflect donor and honoree /memorial names. Should you find an error or omission, please contact Samantha Scott at sscott@detroitopera.org or 313.237.3236.

KEY

* Deceased

THE DAVID DiCHIERA ARTISTIC FUND

In remembrance of our founder and long-term general director, The David DiChiera Artistic Fund has been established to support and honor his artistic vision.

This fund enables Detroit Opera to produce compelling opera, present innovative dance, and engage with thousands of students and members of our community through our educational and outreach programs. Most importantly, it allows Detroit Opera to preserve David’s legacy and his dedication to the young people of Southeast Michigan and young emerging artists from all over the country.

Detroit Opera gratefully acknowledges the generous corporate, foundation, and individual donors whose gifts to The David DiChiera Artistic Fund were made before December 31, 2021.

INDIVIDUAL

Joe Alcorn (in honor of Joan Hill)

Richard and Mona Alonzo

Carl Angott and Tom Ball

Pamela Applebaum

Hon. Dennis W. Archer and Hon. Trudy Duncombe Archer

Gordon and Pauline Arndt

Timothy and Linda Arr

Mr. Jeffrey Atto

Kenan Bakirci

Landis Beard

Virginia Berberian (in memory of Joan Hill)

Jere and Carole Berkey

Henri and Anaruth Bernard

Mr. Robert Hunt Berry

Ms. Christine Jessica Berryman

Martha and Peter Blom (in memory of Joan Hill)

Douglas and Rhonda Bonett

Ms. Priscilla Bowen

Wayne Brown & Brenda Kee

Frank and Jenny Brzenk

Ms. Patricia Byrne

Jeff Cancelosi

James and Susan Catlette

Mr. Richard D. Cavaler

Carol Chadwick

Edward and Judith Christian

Howard and Judith Christie

Hon. Avern Cohn* and Ms. Lois Pincus

Mr. Martin Collica

Deborah L Connelly (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Holly Conroy (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Helen Constan

Telmer and Carmen Constan

James and Diana Cornell

Pat Cosgrove

Mr. John Craib-Cox

Geoffrey Craig (in memory of Joan Hill)

Mr. Stephen J. Cybulski

Gail Danto and Arthur Roffey

Dodie and Larry David

Walter and Lillian Dean (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Kevin Dennis and Jeremy Zeltzer

Cristina DiChiera and Neal Walsh

Lisa DiChiera

Nicholas Dorochoff and Joe Beason

Linda Dresner and Ed Levy, Jr.

Cameron B. Duncan

Mr. Keith Otis Edwards

Ms. Elaine K. Ellison

Marianne Endicott

Daniel Enright

Beth Erman (in honor of Ruth Rattner)

Paul and Mary Sue Ewing

Sandra Fabris

Mr. Andrew D Fisher

Barbara Fisher and William Gould

Carl and Mary Ann Fontana

Mrs. Barbara Frankel and Mr. Ronald Michalak

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Frankel

Peter and Nancy Gaess

Lawrence and Ann Garberding

Wika Gomez

Sylvia and Gary Graham

William Greene and Peter McGreevy

Kristina K. Gregg

John and Kristan Hale

Stephen Hartle

Erik Hill

Ms. Rhea Hill

Ms. Rita Hoffmeister

Anne and Bob Horner

Patricia Jeflyn

Dirk A Kabcenell (in memory of Joan Hill)

Mr. Martin Kagan

Ann Frank Katz and Family (in honor of Ruth Rattner)

Ms. Francine C Kearns-King

Mr. and Mrs. Gerd H Keuffel (in memory of Joan Virginia Hill)

Colin Knapp

Frank Kong

Michael and Barbara Kratchman

Mr. Jacob Krause (in memory of Manya Korkigian)

Arthur and Nancy Ann Krolikowski

James and Ellen Labes

Chak and Lizabeth Lai

Max Lepler & Rex L. Dotson

Mado Lie*

Bryan R. Lind

William and Jacqueline Lockwood

Stephan and Marian Loginsky

James LoPrete

Stephen Lord

Ms. Renee Lounsberry

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Evan R. Luskin

Mary Lynch

Paddy Lynch

Marford Charitable Gift Fund

Ms. Jennifer Marling

Diana Marro Salazar

Ms. Alex May

Ms. Mary C. Mazure (in honor of Nadine DeLeury and Gregory Near)

Nadine McKay

Dr. Lisa Meils

Ms. Lynne M. Metty

Ali Moiin and William Kupsky

Mary Rose and Bill Mueller

Sarah Mumford

Ms. Julia O’Brien

Jason O’Malley

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph A. Orlandi

Mrs. Sally Orley

Bonnie Padilla (in memory of Joan Hill)

Charles and Mary Parkhill

Nicole Patrick

Christopher Patten

Mr. Michael Poris

Mr. Wade Rakes, II

Rip and Gail Rapson

Ms. Deborah Remer

Ms. Marija D Rich

Pamela Rowland

Ankur Rungta and Mayssoun Bydon

Ms. Loretta W. Ryder

Barry and Deane Safir

Dmitriy and Svetlana Sakharov

William and Marjorie Sandy

Professor Alvin and Mrs. Harriet Saperstein

Dr. Mary J. Schlaff and Dr. Sanford Koltonow

Mr. David Schon

Yuval Sharon

Terry Shea and Seigo Nakao

Dorienne Sherrod

Peter and Mary Siciliano (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Ted and Mary Ann Simon

Matthew and Mona Simoncini

Joe Skoney and Luisa Di Lorenzo

Hugh Smith and Marsha Kindall-Smith

Kendall Smith

Lee and Bettye Smith

Richard Sonenklar and Gregory Haynes

Ms. Janet Stevens

Dr. Austin Stewart and Mr. Charlie Dill

Ronald Switzer and Jim McClure

Angela Theis

Mrs. Beverly A Thomas

Buzz Thomas and Daniel Vander Ley

Ms. Patricia A Thull

Mr. Jason P. Tranchida

Jeffrey Tranchida and Noel Baril

Elliott and Patti Trumbull

Mathew and Barbara Vanderkloot

Berwyn Lee Walker

William and Martha Walsh

Gary L. Wasserman and Charles Kashner

Kevin and Andrea Webber

Bradford J and Carol White

R. Jamison and Karen Williams

Peter Wilson (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Blaire R Windom

Mary Lou Zieve

CORPORATIONS & FOUNDATIONS

Aom, LLC

J. Addison Bartush & Marion M. Bartush Family Foundation

Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan

DeRoy Testamentary Foundation

MOT Orchestra Fund (in honor of Nadine DeLeury)

Northern Trust Bank

Pal Properties, LLC

CAPITAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE DETROIT OPERA HOUSE

The Detroit Opera Board of Directors began the first phase of fundraising for Detroit Opera House capital improvements in January 2020. This multi-phase capital campaign grew from recommendations identified in the facilities master plan completed by Albert Kahn Associates, Inc. Scheduled facility improvements and upgrades will shape the patron experience at the Opera House for years to come.

We look forward to sharing full details about the capital campaign in the coming months. Until then, we extend heartfelt thanks to the following donors who made contributions that enabled capital improvements to begin.

Leadership Gifts*

Ethan and Gretchen Davidson

Matthew and Mona Simoncini

Campaign Contributors*

Naomi André

Gene P. Bowen

Elizabeth Brooks

Wayne Brown & Brenda Kee

James and Elizabeth Ciroli

John and Doreen Cole

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Ms. Julia Donovan Darlow & Hon. John C. O’Meara

William Davidson Foundation

Kevin Dennis & Jeremy Zeltzer

Enrico & Kathleen Digirolamo

Mrs. Carol E. Domina

Mr. Cameron B. Duncan

Mr. Michael Einheuser

Marianne T. Endicott

Carl & Mary Ann Fontana

Mrs. Barbara Frankel & Mr. Ronald Michalak

Mr. & Mrs. Herman Frankel

Ellen Hill Zeringue

Dr. Devon Hoover

Eleanor & Alan Israel

The Karen & Drew Peslar Foundation

Ms. Mary Kramer

Michael & Barbara Kratchman

Denise J. Lewis

Alphonse S. Lucarelli

Don Manvel

Donald & Antoinette Morelock

Peter Oleksiak

Penske Corporation

Prof. Sara A. Pozzi Ph. D

Waltraud Prechter

Paul & Amy Ragheb

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner

Ankur Rungta & Mayssoun

Bydon

Terry Shea & Seigo Nakao

Estate of Laura B. Sias

The Skillman Foundation

Richard Sonenklar & Gregory Haynes

The State of Michigan

Lorna Thomas, MD

Mr. & Mrs. C. Thomas

Toppin

Jesse & Yesenia Venegas

R. Jamison & Karen Williams

* Listing reflects gifts and pledges as of December 31, 2021 in alphabetical order.

AVANTI SOCIETY MEMBERS ENSURING THE FUTURE

Imagine a gift that outlives you, allowing future generations to experience and enjoy the world of opera and dance. That’s the goal of the Avanti Society, Detroit Opera’s planned gift recognition program.

The Italian word avanti means “ahead,” or “forward.” Detroit Opera’s Avanti Society represents a designated group of friends who have made plans to include Detroit Opera in their estates—whether by will, trust, insurance, or life income arrangement. We are grateful for the generosity and foresight of those listed below, who have chosen to declare their intentions and join the Avanti Society. Thank You Avanti Society Members!

Mr.* and Mrs. Robert Allesee#

Sarah Allison

Dr. Lourdes V. Andaya§

Mr. and Mrs. Agustin Arbulu§

Mr.* & Mrs. Chester Arnold§

Dr. Leora Bar-Levav

Mr. and Mrs. Lee Barthel

Mr. and Mrs. J. Addison Bartush§#*

Mr. and Mrs. Brett Batterson§

Mr. W. Victor Benjamin

Mr.* and Mrs. Art Blair§

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Bowlby

Mrs. Doreen Bull

Mr.* and Mrs. Roy E. Calcagno§

The Gladys L. Caldroney Trust

Dr. and Mrs. Thomas E. Carson

Dr.* and Mrs. Victor J. Cervenak

Father Paul F. Chateau

Mary Christner

Mr. Gary L. Ciampa

Ms. Virginia M. Clementi

Hon. Avern Cohn* & Ms. Lois Pincus

Prof. Kenneth Collinson

Douglas and Minka Cornelsen

Dr. Robert A. Cornette§#

Joanne Danto and Arnold Weingarden

Mr.* and Mrs. Tarik Daoud§#

Mr. Randal Darby

Mr. Thomas J. Delaney

Walter and Adel Dissett

Ms. Mary J. Doerr#

Mrs. Helen Ophelia Dove-Jones

Mrs. Charles M. Endicott§#

Mr. Wayne C. Everly

David and Jennifer Fischer

Mr. and Mrs. Herb Fisher§

Mrs. Barbara Frankel and Mr. Ronald Michalak§#

Mr. and Mrs. Herman Frankel§#

Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Freeman

Mrs. Jane Shoemaker French

Dr. and Mrs. Byron P. Georgeson§

Albert and Barbara Glover

Robert Green

Mr. Ernest Gutierrez

Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Hagopian

Mr. Lawrence W. Hall§

Mr. and Mrs. Jerome Halperin§

Ms. Heather Hamilton

Charlene Handleman

Preston and Mary Happel

Mr. Kenneth E. Hart§

Mr. & Mrs. Eugene L. Hartwig§

Dr. & Mrs. Gerhardt A. Hein

Ms. Nancy B. Henk

Mrs. Fay Herman

Derek and Karen Hodgson

Andrew and Carol Howell

Dr. Cindy Hung§

Eleanor and Alan Israel

Ms. Kristin Jaramillo§

Mr. Donald Jensen§

Mr. John Jesser

Mr. John Jickling

Maxwell and Marjorie Jospey

Mr. Patrick J.* & Mrs. Stephanie Germack Kerzic

Josephine Kessler

Edward and Barbara Klarman

Mr. & Mrs. Robert Klein#

Mr. & Mrs. Erwin H. Klopfer§#

Misses Phyllis & Selma Korn§ *

The Kresge Foundation

Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Krolikowski§

Myron and Joyce LaBan

Mr. Max Lepler & Mr. Rex Dotson

Linda Dresner & Ed Levy, Jr.

Mr. Hannan Lis

Florence LoPatin

Mr. Stephen H. Lord

Ms. Denise Lutz

Laura and Mitchell Malicki

Dores and Wade McCree*

McGregor Fund

Ms. Jane McKee§

Bruce Miller

Drs. Orlando & Dorothy Miller§

Ms. Monica Moffat & Mr. Pat McGuire

Drs. Stephen & Barbara Munk

Miss Surayyah Muwwakkil

Mr. Jonathan F. Orser

Ms. Julie A. Owens

Mr. Dale J. Pangonis§

Mr. & Mrs. Charles A. Parkhill

Mr. Richard M. Raisin§

Mrs. Ruth F. Rattner§#

Ms. Deborah Remer

Dr. Joshua Rest

Mr. & Mrs. James Rigby§

Mr. Bryan L. Rives

Ms. Patricia Rodzik§

David and Beverly Rorabacher

Dulcie Rosenfeld

Concetta Ross

Professor Alvin and Mrs. Harriet Saperstein

Ms. Susan Schooner§

Mark and Sally Schwartz

Drs. Heinz & Alice Platt Schwarz§

Mrs. Frank C. Shaler§

Ms. Ellen Sharp

Ms. Edna J Pak Shin

Mr. & Mrs. Harold Siebert

Mrs. Loretta Skewes

Ms. Anne Sullivan Smith

Ms. Phyllis Funk Snow§

Mr.* & Mrs. Richard Starkweather§#+

Ms. Mary Anne Stella

Mr. Stanford C. Stoddard

Dr. Jonathan Swift* & Mr. Thomas A. St. Charles§

Mr. Ronald F. Switzer§

Lillie Tabor

Mary Ellen Tappan Charitable Remainder Trust

Peter and Ellen Thurber

Alice* & Paul Tomboulian

Mr. Edward D. Tusset§

Jonathan and Salome E. Walton

Susan Weidinger

Mrs. Amelia H. Wilhelm§#

Mrs. Ruth Wilkins

Mr. Andrew Wise

Mr. & Mrs. Larry Zangerle

We express profound thanks to these Avanti Society members whose planned gifts to Detroit Opera have been received.

Robert G. Abgarian Trust

Serena Ailes Stevens

Mr. and Mrs. Mandell Berman

Margaret and Douglas Borden

Charles M. Broh

Milena T. Brown

Charlotte Bush Failing Trust

Mary C. Caggegi

Allen B. Christman

Miss Halla F. Claffey

Robert C. and RoseAnn B. Comstock

Mary Rita Cuddohy

Marjorie E. DeVlieg

Nancy Dewar

James P. Diamond

Dr. David DiChiera

Mrs. Karen V. DiChiera

Dr. and Mrs. Charles H. Duncan§

Mrs. Anne E. Ford

Ms. Pamela R. Francis§

Mrs. Rema Frankel

The Edward P. Frohlich Trust

The Priscilla A.B. Goodell Trust

Freda K. Goodman Trust

Priscilla R. Greenberg, Ph.D.§#

Maliha Hamady

Patricia Hobar

Mary Adelaide Hester Trust

Gordon V. Hoialmen Trust

Carl J. Huss

H. Barbara Johnston

Mrs. Josephine Kleiner

Mr. Philip Leon

Lucie B. Meininger

Helen M. Miller

Mitchell Romanowski

Ella M. Montroy

Ronald K. Morrison

Ruth Mott

Elizabeth M. Pecsenye

Clarice Odgers Percox Trust

Thomas G. Porter

Ms. Joanne B. Rooney

Mr. & Mrs. Giles L. & Beverly Ross

Ms. Merle H. Scheibner

Ms. Laura Sias

Mrs. Marge Slezak

Edward L. Stahl

Dr. Mildred Ponder Stennis

Margaret D. Thurber

Mr. & Mrs. George & Inge

Vincent§#+

Herman W. Weinreich

J. Ernest Wilde Trust

Helen B. Wittenberg

Mr. & Mrs. Walter & Elizabeth Work§

Joseph J. Zafarana

Mr. & Mrs. George M. Zeltzer§

KEY

§ Founding Members

# Touch the Future donors

* Deceased members

Membership in the Avanti Society is open to all who wish to declare their intention for a planned gift to Detroit Opera. Call Angela Nelson-Heesch to learn more, 313-237-3416.

DETROIT OPERA ADMINISTRATION & STAFF

Wayne S. Brown PRESIDENT AND CEO

Yuval Sharon

GARY L. WASSERMAN ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

Christine Goerke

ASSOCIATE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS

Julie Kim, Chief Artistic Production Officer

Alexis Means, Director of Operations and Patron Experience

Rock Monroe, Director of Safety and Security, DOH and DOHPC

Angela Nelson-Heesch, Director of Development

Matthew Principe, Director of Innovation

Andrea Scobie, Director of Education

Ataul Usman, Director of Human Resources

Patricia Walker, Chief Administrative Officer

Arthur White, Director of External Affairs

ADMINISTRATION

William Austin, Executive Assistant

Kimberley Burgess, Rita Winters, Accountants

Timothy Lentz, Archivist & Director, Allesee Dance and Opera Resource Library

Bryce Rudder, Senior Librarian, Allesee Dance and Opera Resource Library

COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

Branden Hood, Program Coordinator

Mark Vondrak, Associate Director/Tour Manager Detroit Opera House

Juan Benavides, Building Engineer

Holly Clement, Events Manager

Jennifer George-Consiglio, Manager of Venue Operations

Tiiko Reese-Douglas, Events Assistant

Dennis Wells, Facilities Manager

HUMAN RESOURCES

Zach Suchanek, Human Resources Coordinator

PATRON SERVICES Development

Michelle Devine, Director of Major Gifts

Christy Gray, Development Administrator

Chelsea Kotula, Associate Director of Development, Institutional Giving

Samantha Scott, Manager of Annual Giving

Gwendolyn Sims, Database Operations Manager

Marketing/Public Relations

Michael Hauser, Marketing Manager

Laura Nealssohn, Board Liason

Jon Rosemond, Marketing Operations Coordinator

Box Office

Amy Brown, Senior Manager of Ticketingv and Box Office Operations

Evan Carr, Box Office Lead

Olivia Johnson, Box Office Associate

ARTISTIC DEPARTMENT

Nathalie Doucet, Head of Music

Dagny Hill, Artistic Assistant

DANCE

Jon Teeuwissen, Artistic Advisor for Dance

Kim Smith, Dance Coordinator

PRODUCTION

Administration

Elizabeth Anderson, Production Coordinator and Artistic Administrator

Kathleen Bennett, Production Administrator

Technical & Design Staff

Daniel T. Brinker, Technical Director

Moníka Essen, Property Master

Heather DeFauw, Assistant Lighting Designer/Assistant Technical Director

Billy Osos, Assistant Technical Director

Kaila Madison, Technical Assistant

Innovation

Austin Richey, Digital Media Manager and Storyteller

Music

Suzanne Mallare Acton, Assistant Music Director and Chorus Master

Molly Hughes, Orchestra Personnel Manager

Jean Posekany, Orchestra Librarian

Costumes

Suzanne Hanna, Costume Director

Amelia Glenn, Wardrobe Supervisor

Susan Fox, First Hand

Mary Ellen Shuffett, Fitting Assistant

Maureen Abele, Paul Moran, Patricia Sova Jr., Stitchers

Wigs & Makeup

Joanne Middleton Weaver, Designer

Erika Broderdorf, Crew Head

Giulia Bernardini, Kristine CliftonHiggins, Elizabeth Geck,

Louise Holoday, Shannon Schoenberg, Carol Taylor, Wig and Makeup Crew

Stage Crew

John Kinsora, Head Carpenter

Frederick Graham, Head Electrician

Gary Gilmore, Production Electrician

Pat McGee, Head Propertyman

Chris Baker, Head of Sound

Pat Tobin, Head Flyman

Gary Gilmore, Production Electrician

Mary Ellen Shuffett, Head of Wardrobe

CHILDREN’S CHORUS STAFF

Suzanne Mallare Acton, Director

Dianna Hochella, Assistant Director

Twannette Nash, Chorus Administrator

Joseph Jackson, Accompanist

Jane Panikkar, Preparatory Chorus Conductor

Maria Cimarelli, Preparatory Chorus Accompanist

SAFETY & SECURITY

Lt. Lorraine Monroe

Sgt. Demetrius Newbold

Officer Kenneth Blue

Officer Mike DeSantis

Officer Dasaian Dupree

Officer James Henry

Officer Andre Hightower

Officer Sullivan Hortonh