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| Event Detail |
Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci |
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Friday, March
13, 8:00 PM; Sunday, March 15, 3:00 PM
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Affectionately
known as “Cav and Pag”, this beloved pair of short operas
is always an audience favorite. Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria
Rusticana tells the story of a Sicilian love triangle gone bad. Ruggero
Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband
in a traveling comedy troupe. Both are sung in Italian with English
surtitles. Maestro Ron Gretz conducts the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra
in this fully staged production. Enjoy two operas for the price of
one!
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Cavaleria Rusticana
| Detail
from an illustration in an early edition of
Giovanni Verga's short story Cavalleria rusticana,
circa 1880 (artist unknown) |
| Composers: Pietro Mascagni, Ruggero Leoncavallo |
| Singer |
Role |
Voice |
| Alison Meuth |
Santuzza, a peasant girl |
Soprano |
| Richard Novak |
Turiddu, a young soldier |
Tenor |
| Daniel Lickteig |
Alfio, the village teamster |
Baritone |
| Michelle Rice |
Lola, his wife |
Mezzo-soprano |
| Patrizia Conte |
Mamma Lucia, mother of Turiddu |
Contralto |
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 Richard Novak is quickly
establishing a national reputation as a professional
tenor. Novak’s operatic credits include Rodolfo,
Alfredo, Don José, Nemorino, Tamino, Ernesto,
Eisenstein, Lippo, and Romèo. Novak has performed
with Opera Carolina, Chautauqua Opera, Des Moines Metro
Opera, Wichita Grand Opera, The Living Opera, Wichita
Symphony, Chautauqua Symphony, Dallas Chamber Orchestra,
San Antonio Symphony, Prince William Symphony, and
the Monroe Symphony. Training programs include the
Chautauqua Opera Apprentice Artist Program, the Des
Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Program, the Wichita
Grand Opera Resident Artist Program, and the Wesley
Balk Singing/Acting Institute. Mr. Novak was the tenor
soloist in Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle
at the prestigious Gilmore International Keyboard Festival
(recorded for NPR) under the baton of Joe Miller. Novak’s
awards include a Chautauqua Opera Apprentice Artist
Award, first place at the 2005 & 2006 Metropolitan
Opera National Council Auditions (Tulsa District),
winner of the University of North Texas Concerto Competition,
and Singer of the Year (Texoma Region NATS). Upcoming
performances include Tamino (The Magic Flute) with
the Prince William Symphony, Christus by Franz Liszt
with the New Dominion Chorale, Hoffmann (Les Contes
D’Hoffmann) with the International Opera Alliance,
an Evening of Opera with the Amadeus Concert Series,
a GMU faculty recital, and a lecture-recital at the
University of North Texas. Novak received his B.M.
and M.M. in Vocal Performance from Stephen F. Austin
State University, and will receive his D.M.A. in Vocal
Performance from the University of North Texas in the
spring of 2009. Novak is an Assistant Professor of
Voice at George Mason University and resides with his
wife and children in Manassas.
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Alison Meuth, Soprano -- This is Ms. Meuth’s debut with Annapolis Opera in the role of Santuzza. Her other roles include Suor Angelica with Opera Illinois, the Liu cover in Turandot with Utah Festival Opera, as well as the Tosca cover for Opera Illinois.
Alison has been a young artist for Utah Festival and Sarasota Opera. She was also part of the Opera Illinois Young Artist’s Ensemble, where she performed outreach for the company for three years. Ms. Meuth makes her home in New York, where she studies with Elizabeth Blancke-Biggs and coaches with Eric Malson and Tyson Deaton.
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 Baritone Daniel Lickteig is garnering praise throughout American opera houses for his powerful, soaring voice. He has appeared with Cleveland Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Sarasota Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera Iowa, Utah Festival Opera Company, Natchez Opera, Opera Theater of Philadelphia, and the Intermountain Opera Company. He has worked with conductors including Timothy Myers, Robert Lyall, Alfred Calabrese, Imre Paolo, Lucy Arner, Giampaolo Brachali, David Briskin, Dr. Robert Larson, Dr. David Blackburn, John Douglas and Alan Harler. Highlights of his large operatic repertoire include Mozart's Don Giovanni, Rossini's Figaro, Verdi's Rigoletto, Scarpia in Puccini's Tosca and Marcello in La Bohème, Alfio in Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, Tonio in Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci. His concert repertoire includes works by Bach, Fauré, Bruckner, Orff, and Bernstein. In 2009, Mr. Lickteig will make his debut with Opera Delaware as Frank in Die Fledermaus.
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 American mezzo-soprano Michelle Rice brings to her work a rich lyric mezzo voice and
notable performance intensity. Her portrayal of Mrs. Grose in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at
the Kennedy Center, conducted by Maestro Lorin Maazel, was described as “nuanced and
sensitive” (Washington Post), “dramatically charged and vocally superlative” (dcist.com), and
having a “firm, warm vocalism [that] made every phrase speak” (Baltimore Sun).
Other recent performances include the roles of Mercedes in Carmen with the Summer Opera
Theatre Company; Savitri in Holst’s Savitri with The In Series; Gertrude in Cleveland Opera’s
Romeo et Juliette; Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, Flora in La Traviata, and Mrs. Segstrom
in A Little Night Music with Opera Cleveland; Berta in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Zweite Dame in
Die Zauberflöte, and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with Annapolis Opera; Anna in the American
premiere of Jonathan Dove's Tobias and the Angel, Mrs. Grose in The Turn of the Screw, and
Irene in Tamburlaine with Opera Vivente; the Witch and the Mother in Hänsel and Gretel and
the Gypsy Woman in Rachmaninoff's Aleko with Bel Cantanti Opera; Carmen in the Olney
Theatre Center’s production of Peter Brook’s adaptation, Le tragédie de Carmen; and the opera
pastiche Fatal Song, or The Great Opera Murders with the Opera Theatre of Northern Virginia.
Ms. Rice’s concert performances include the mezzo solo in a lauded performance of Verdi’s
Requiem with James Morris, Sharon Sweet, and Benjamin Warschawski, about which the
Washington Post remarked, “Rice [sang] credibly and fervently, in true Verdian style, as though
she'd just stepped out of ‘Aida.’” She sang the role of Carmen in Carmen, the role of Albina in
Rossini's La donna del lago, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen, the alto solo in Mozart's
Krönungs-Messe, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Vivaldi’s Gloria, and several recitals, with
groups including MidAmerica Productions at Carnegie Hall, the Washington Concert Opera,
Janiec Opera Company, Ovation Artists, Masterworks Chorale and Orchestra, the Cathedral of
St. Matthew Concert Series, Friends of the Arts, Annapolis Opera, the University of Maryland
and University of Washington Symphonies, the Seattle Early Music Guild, and the Seattle
Symphony Summer Sings program. She has also performed in works such as The In Series' Of
Love and War, featuring spoken word, and Noel & Cole: Songs of Noel Coward and Cole Porter
with the UM Cabaret Today series.
Ms. Rice created the title role in Clara, a new work by Robert Convery based on the life of Clara
Schumann, commissioned for the Maryland Opera Studio. Of that performance,
culturevulture.net heralded Ms. Rice as a "standout performer", and the Washington Post
declared, "Rice was…reflective and confident in both her singing and acting…excelled at
dramatic subtleties and pierced scenes with her presence and clarity of voice -- especially
compelling during revelatory biographical moments."
Ms. Rice studied voice at the University of Washington (Bachelors Degree in Vocal
Performance) and the University of Maryland (Masters Degree in Opera Performance with the
Maryland Opera Studio), where she studied with Delores Ziegler and Leon Major. Ms. Rice
placed first in the 2006 Bell T. Ritchie Awards and won prizes from the American Bach Society,
the Mary Levine Scholarship Fund, the Seattle Musical Art Society, and Annapolis Opera Vocal
Competition. Upcoming engagements include Fallen Angels, a cabaret-style art song
performance created by The In Series in collaboration with The Washington Ballet, the role of
Filipyevna in Eugene Onegin with the Maryland Opera Studio, and the role of Lola in Annapolis
Opera's Cavalleria Rusticana.
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Mezzo-contralto Patrizia Conte has
come to international attention for her vocal beauty,
superb musicianship and powerful characterizations. A
native of Long Island, New York, she received her Bachelor
and Master of Music degrees from Southern Methodist
University in Dallas, and also studied at the Academy
of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia. Her major debut
came in Cavalleria Rusticana in Miami
to great acclaim: “A beautiful and powerful
dramatic voice and a superb actress.
Her Town Hall debut was described: “A voice
of velvet.” She was finalist in the
San Francisco and the Chicago Lyric Opera Auditions,
the Concorso per Le Voci Verdiane in Busseto, Italy,
and the Concorso Lirico in Parma, Italy. Ms. Conte
was a protégé of the late Metropolitan
Opera soprano Beverly Bower. The late Jerome Hines
acclaimed hers as a “Stignani “ voice. Critics
have described her “glorious, cello-like
tones…we have not heard (Messiah role)
sung with more beauty, warmth and joyousness.”
Her comic flair delighted audiences in New York as
the Marquise in La Fille du Regiment,
while her remarkable characterizations of the contrasting
Countess di Coigny and Madelon in Andrea Chenier at
the New Jersey State Opera earned her more acclaim: “Patrizia
Conte established her flexibility…by creating
two superb personifications. Her tones are queen-sized
in vitality or dark and velvety as suggested by the
text. The mezzo’s compass is rich
and entirely even from top to bottom.”
She debuted with L’Opera de Montreal in April,
1999 in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah (where
Floyd himself praised her “Great!” powerful
interpretation of Mrs. McLean). She then sang
the role of the Mother in Menotti’s The
Consul in May, with Montreal’s La
Presse hailing her “rich, profound, remarkably
placed mezzo”.
She was engaged by the Florida Grand Opera and L’Opera
de Montreal to appear in the 2000 season as Kabanicha
in Janacek’s Katya Kabanova with
Stewart Robinson conducting. She was also engaged for
that season as Marta in Boito’s Mefistofele.
She has been featured Alto soloist in the Bach
Mass in B Minor, Handel Messiah and Israel
in Egypt, Mendelssohn Elijah, Verdi Messa
da Requiem, Michael Haydn Requiem and
Mozart Requiem, as well as the Rossini Petite
Messe Solennelle, the Saint-Saens Christmas
Oratorio and the Bernstein Chichester
Psalms.
Her combination of vocal amplitude, musicianship (she
has absolute pitch) and commanding stage presence has
made Patrizia Conte a much sought-after opera, concert
and oratorio artist: “The most compelling
voice of the evening was Patrizia Conte’s-- a
rich mezzo-contralto.”
She served as Professor of Voice at Montclair State
University and Professor of Music History at
Kean University from 2003 - 2008. A full member of
the National Association of Teachers of Singing, she
is also a member of the Professional Teachers’ Guild
of New Jersey. She most recently served as Adjudicator
in the 2008 NJNATS Artist Award Competition. Hailed
as “a master teacher and skilled clinician”,
her voice students have appeared in all venues from
opera to concert to Broadway.
Recent appearances have earned her critical acclaim: “Patrizia’s
voice is powerful and expressive and seamless from top
to bottom.” (Classical New Jersey). She
debuted in August 2008 with the Baroque Orchestra of
New Jersey as Juno/ Ino in Handel’s Semele. Newly
relocated to Annapolis from the New York/ New Jersey
area, she makes her area debut with the Annapolis Opera
in Cavalleria Rusticana
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Pagliacci
Pagliacci
| Cover of the first edition of Pagliacci published by E. Sonzogno, Milan, 1892 |
| Composer: Ruggero
Leoncavallo |
| Singer |
Role |
Voice |
| Richard Crawley |
Canio, head of the troupe |
Tenor |
| Veronica Mitina |
Nedda, Canio's wife, in love with Silvio |
Soprano |
| Thomas Beard |
Tonio, the fool |
Baritone |
| Jesse Blumberg |
Silvio |
Baritone |
| Joseph Haughton |
Beppe, actor |
Tenor |
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 Baritone JESSE BLUMBERG is an artist equally at home on opera, concert, and
recital stages. He recently created the role of Connie
Rivers in Ricky Ian Gordon’s world premiere opera
The Grapes of Wrath at The Minnesota Opera and The
Utah Symphony and Opera and will reprise the role at
Pittsburgh Opera and Opera Pacific during the 2008-2009
season. This past season he debuted with Opera Delaware
as John Brooke in Little Women, and will appear as
Silvio in Annapolis Opera’s upcoming production
of I Pagliacci. For his 2007 performance in the title
role of Monteverdi’s Return of Ulysses with Opera
Vivente, the Baltimore Sun raved, “Jesse Blumberg
commanded the stage, physically and vocally…lighting
up the hall with his every appearance.” His
other operatic roles performed include Figaro in Il
Barbiere di Siviglia, Papageno in The Magic Flute,
Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, Paquillo in La Perichole,
and Pish-Tush in The Mikado.
On the concert stage, Mr. Blumberg has been a featured
soloist with American Bach Soloists in the San Francisco
Bay Area, with the Los Angeles Master Chorale at Walt
Disney Concert Hall, and at the Berkshire Choral Festival.
He has given the world premiere of two important chamber
works, Ricky Ian Gordon’s Green Sneakers and
Lisa Bielawa’s The Lay of the Love and Death,
the former at the Vail Valley Music Festival and the
latter at Alice Tully Hall. He has also toured with
the Waverly Consort and the Mark Morris Dance Group,
and has been a guest artist with the Jupiter Symphony
Chamber Players. As a member of the roster of the Marilyn
Horne Foundation, Mr. Blumberg performed an On Wings
of Song recital with pianist Martin Katz, which has
since been heard around the nation on various radio
broadcasts. He performed Die schöne Müllerin
at the Austrian Embassy, as well as a recital of songs
by Hugo Wolf, described by the Washington Post as “no
less than revelatory.” In addition to his operatic
engagements, this coming season he will return to American
Bach Soloists for Messiah and make his Paris debut
in a program of American song with the Mirror Visions
Ensemble.
Mr. Blumberg has participated in young artist programs
at The Santa Fe Opera, Glimmerglass Opera, the Ravinia
Festival, and Chicago Opera Theater. He has been recognized
in several competitions, and most recently was awarded
Third Prize at the 2008 International Robert Schumann
Competition in Zwickau, becoming its first American
prizewinner in over thirty years. In 2007 he took first
prizes in the International Hilde Zadek Singing Competition
in Vienna and the National Federation of Music Clubs
Young Artist Competition.
Mr. Blumberg received a Master of Music degree from
the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of
Music and received undergraduate degrees in History
and Music from the University of Michigan. He is also
the founder and artistic director of the Five Boroughs
Music Festival, a new concert series in New York City.
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 Recently, Veronica Mitina triumphed in her French operatic début as
Tosca with the Lyrique-en-Mer Festival in Belle Ile
en Mer and in her role and house début as
Tatiana in Virginia Opera’s new production
of Eugene Onegin. Other recent performances have
included her first Minnie in La Fanciulla del West
with New England Opera, Cio-Cio San in a concert
performance of Madama Butterfly with Center City
Opera Theatre in Philadelphia, as Tosca with Opera
North, Mimì in La Bohème with Opera
Theater North of Chicago, Violetta in Intimate Opera
Chicago's summer production of La Traviata, and in
recital at the Nineteenth Century Club of Oak Park,
Virginia.
She reprises her touching Mimì (La Bohème)
when she returns to Virginia Opera in October 2009,
and débuts as Leonora in Beethoven’s
Fidelio with the Duluth Opera Festival in May 2009.
She was heard as the Lady-in-Waiting in Verdi's
Macbeth with Sarasota Opera and First Collecting
Sister in Suor Angelica with Opera Theatre of Saint
Louis. Ms. Mitina’s ever –growing operatic
repertoire also includes Nedda, Lisa, Suor Angelica,
Fiordiligi,
Marcellina, and Lady Blemmley in Martin's Tobermory.
Ms. Mitina has been a member of the Opera Theatre
of Saint Louis, Des Moines Metro Opera, Opera North
(NH) and Sarasota Opera apprentice and resident artists
programs, where she performed in Norma, Les Pêcheurs
de Perles, Nixon in China, Orpheus in the Underworld
and Die Fledermaus.
She made her American concert début as soloist
in the Verdi Requiem with Boston ProMusica and and
was featured guest soloist in Princeton Pro Musica’s
gala The Grandeur of Opera. She actively performs
in recital as soloist and is a specialist in Russian
song and chamber music repertoire.
Ms. Mitina studied voice at Herzen University in
her native St. Petersburg, Russia, before coming
to the United States to complete a Masters degree
at the University of Northern Iowa. An accomplished
pianist, she also holds degrees from the Mussorgsky
College and Herzen University in St. Petersburg.
Among her many awards and honors Ms. Mitina holds
top prizes from the Metropolitan Opera National Council
Regional Auditions, the Bel Canto Foundation of Chicago,
the International Czech and Slovak Voice, and the
Greek Women's University Club competitions. She is
the recipient of a Metropolitan Opera National Council
Career Development Award, a MacAllister Foundation
Grant, and Sarasota Opera Guild's Leo Rogers Scholarship
She has been a finalist in the Liederkranz and Connecticut
Opera competitions, as well as Lyric Opera of Chicago’s
Ryan Opera Center.
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 Baritone Thomas
Beard was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina and recently
completed three years as artist-in-residence with
Washington National Opera’s Placido Domingo-Cafritz
Young Artist Program. He was the first, and thus
far the only, African-American male singer to be
personally chosen by Maestro Domingo working directly
under the Maestro’s tutelage. Mr. Beard received
his Bachelor of Science Degree from Winston-Salem
State University where he began his formal vocal
studies with D’Walla Simmons-Burke.
Mr. Beard was recently heard as guest soloist in
By George! By Ira! By Gershwin! with the Annapolis
Symphony . He débuted with the Acadiana Symphony
Orchestra (Louisiana) as Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen
and as Escamillo with DC’s Summer Opera Theatre,
and on tour in Spain with the American Spiritual
Ensemble. He returns to Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh
as Gianni Schicchi this season.
He has performed as soloist in Händel’s
Messiah, Verdi’s Missa da Requiem, the Fauré Requiem,
the Ordering of Moses by Detts, Pergolesi’s
Magnificat, and The Seven Last Words of Christ by
Dubois.
Mr. Beard made is his operatic début as the
Bonze in the Municipal Opera Company of Baltimore’s
production of Madama Butterfly. Subsequently, he
has appeared as Marcello in La Bohème, Papageno
in The Magic Flute, Escamillo in Carmen, in the title
role in Gianni Schicchi, as the Conte di Luna in
Il Trovatore, and as Porgy in Porgy & Bess. As
a member of The Washington Opera, he performed over
90 times, including in their recent tour of Japan.
He made his début with Pittsburgh Opera Theatre
in the world premier of the Jazz-opera Just above
my head. He also débuted with the International
Opera of Rome as Colline (La Bohème) and Il
Commendatore (Don Giovanni). In November of 2002,
Mr. Beard made his John F. Kennedy Center début
as Corporal Morrel in Carmen Jones staring Vanessa
Williams and conducted by Placido Domingo. He recently
sang his first Giorgio Germont in WNO’s La
Traviata directed by Marta Domingo.
In June of 2005 Mr. Beard débuted in the
title role of Verdi’s Rigoletto. In 2006 he
toured Australia and New Zealand as Porgy in Porgy & Bess.
In the summer of 2007, he toured throughout Italy,
Spain and Germany where he again performed the tile
role of Porgy.
Most recently he performed a Patriot Day Celebration
with the VA Medical Chorale & Symphony Orchestra
where he performed with Gospel Great & Grammy
winner Larnelle Harris and Metropolitan opera star
Harolyn Blackwell.
While with the Washington National Opera, Mr. Beard
has understudied the roles of Gerard and Mathieu
in Giordano’s Andrea Chenier, and the Count
di Luna in Il Trovatore. In January 2005, he covered
the roles of Senator Raitcliffe in the world premier
of Democracy by Scott Wheeler and Scarpia in Puccini’s
Tosca.
Mr. Beard has performed for numerous dignitaries,
including U.S. Senators and Governors, in many concerts
at Embassies and concert halls across the country.
He has also performed as special guest soloist at
the White House.
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Joseph Haughton has performed with the Pittsburgh Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Mobile Opera, Pensacola Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, Quantum Theatre, and Washington Concert Opera, as well as a number of recitals in Pennsylvania and Michigan. A native of Philadelphia, Mr. Haughton studied at Carnegie Mellon University and currently studies with Claudia Catania. Mr. Haughton placed in the Metropolitan Opera Competition for the Mid Atlantic Region in 2008 and was the 2nd place winner for the Gulf Coast Region in 2004 and a regional winner for the Great Lakes Region in 2005. For the past three years, Joe Haughton has served in the Air Force as a member of the United States Air Force Singing Sergeants, singing a number of shows around the country and for high-ranking government and military leadership, including the funeral for president Gerald Ford.
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Tenor Richard Crawley has distinguished himself as an exciting and innovative singing actor, delivering both declamatory power and elegant phrasing. His triumphs include singing Don José in Carmen opposite Denyce Graves with the Greek National Opera; a debut with the San Francisco Opera singing Cavaradossi in Tosca opposite Carol Vaness, which immediately led to return engagements in San Francisco; the Verdi Requiem with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Don José in Carmen with Annapolis Opera; Turiddu in Cavalleria Rusticana with Toledo Opera; Cavaradossi in Tosca Hawaii Opera Theatre; Riccardo in Un Ballo in Maschera with Opera Santa Barbara; Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly with the Chautauqua Opera and the Dayton Opera, and the Title Role in Faust with Portland Opera. Future engagements include a concert of Italian favorites with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, and a return to Hawaii Opera Theatre for Des Grieux in Puccini's Manon Lescaut.
Career highlights include performances with Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Atlanta Opera, Florida Grand Opera, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Tulsa Opera, Opera Colorado, Lake George Opera, Greek National Opera, Syracuse Opera and Augusta Opera; in such roles as Don José in Carmen, Luigi in Il Tabarro, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Sam Polk in Susannah, the Steuermann in Der Fliegende Holländer, the title role in Faust, Rodolfo in La Bohème, Narraboth in Salome, Alfredo in La Traviata, Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi, Alfred in Die Fledermaus and the Marquis in Lortzing's Zar und Zimmermann.
Also an accomplished orchestral soloist, Mr. Crawley has performed Handel's Messiah with the New Japan Philharmonic and the Tokyo Oratorio Society, as well as at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. He has sung Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony and the Greater Bridgeport Symphony; Mendelssohn's Paulus with the New Japan Philharmonic; the Evangelist/Tenor in Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica; Haydn's Harmonie Messe with the Syracuse Symphony; Haydn's The Creation with Baltimore Choral Arts Society; Bach's B minor Mass with Handel Choir of Baltimore; the Evangelist in Bach's St. Matthew Passion with Concert Artists of Baltimore; and the Mozart Requiem with the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, and also at Carnegie Hall.
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