Miracles still occur.
In a time when nearly every arena of the performing arts has taken a painful blow to the solar plexus, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems nothing-short-of-miraculous to see a brand new performing arts venture not only spring into life, but score a triumphant success. That’s the story of the Kenosha Opera Festival, which just finished out its inaugural season with a brilliantly realized production of Donizetti’s comedy The Daughter of the Regiment. I attended both performances and I could not have been more thrilled to see the efforts of cast, crew and orchestra rewarded with two vociferous standing ovations.
But these two scintillating performances of Donizetti’s comic gem tell just part of the story of the Kenosha Opera Festival. The idea was conceived by a former voice student of mine named Nick Huff, who noticed how the rich artistic landscape of Kenosha and Racine did not include very much in the way of fully-staged opera, outside of Carthage and UW-Parkside. Nick and his fiance, Keely Futterer (whom he met at Eastman School of Music), joined forces with Kaila Bingen, one of Nick’s closest friends when they were studying at Carthage, and put together an exciting and ambitious plan for an opera festival in the summer of 2020. Sadly, the pandemic forced the postponement of the festival to the summer of 2021, but I think that postponement only heightened and deepened everyone’s appreciation for what ultimately transpired this summer.
At the heart of the idea was not only to bring fully-staged opera to southeastern Wisconsin – but also to offer up a young artist program for aspiring opera singers to learn more about the art form and nurture their gifts. Six opera fellows were chosen, and they turned out to be a marvelous group with which to inaugurate the festival- richly talented, deeply committed, and sincerely appreciative for this opportunity to explore opera on a whole new level.
My collaboration with the six fellows (five of whom were current or former Carthage students) came through the festival’s mounting of my one act opera Birds of a Feather: a Magic Flute Sequel. I wrote this for Carthage’s opera workshop a couple of years ago with no expectations that it would ever be seen or heard beyond the confines of the campus. Imagine my delight when Nick and Keely indicated to me that they wanted the six fellows of the KOF to perform my opera. It was nothing less than thrilling to see this work undertaken again with a completely different cast (two of the original cast members were part of this production, but singing different roles than they sang the first time around) and brought to life by a different director – Keely. It was so fun to be on hand for those rehearsals in the Kenosha Creative Space and witness the emergence of a different vision of the piece- one that helped frame the work more as an opera to entertain children.
The actual performance of Birds of a Feather happened in the open air, outside of the Kenosha Northside Public Library as part of a special summertime program. It was a great learning experience for these young singers to make the best of a challenging environment – and they responded with a heartfelt and entertaining performance that left me both deeply moved and tremendously grateful.
Beyond preparing this production of Birds of a Feather, the fellows also performed at a number of events and venues around the community (including Kenosha’s amazing farmer’s market) – and they were showcased in an evening program of arias and ensembles that gave them ample opportunity to show what they could do.
Just as significant as all of the performance opportunities were the many learning sessions in which the fellows were given insights into many aspects of the life and the craft of the opera singer. Nick and Keely shared from their own professional experience, but they also drew upon many professional connections so the fellows could hear from other experts. Finally, the fellows also participated as members of the cast of The Daughter of the Regiment, either in the chorus or in small roles. For most of the fellows, it was their very first opportunity to sing in a staged opera performance with orchestra – and they made the most of it. And after the second and final performance of Regiment, which was also the final culminating event of the festival, the six fellows surprised Nick and Keely with a picture album that chronicled much of what they had experienced together- a gift of appreciation for this potentially life-altering experience.
For all that was accomplished in this Festival in terms of bringing staged opera into the community in such an exciting way, this was so much about these six young artists and the way in which their love and understanding of opera was deepened …. as was also their understanding of their own gifts and potential as opera singers.
(left to right: Cory Pollard, Katiann Nelson, Katrina Seabright, London Roysden, Savannah Kroeger, and Nathaniel Melkow.)
As for Donizetti’s Daughter of the Regiment, it’s a rollicking comedy that in so many ways is an ideal ‘first opera’ for someone to attend. It’s funny, not too lengthy, not too complicated, with a story pretty easy to follow- and it’s filled to the brim with wonderful music, including some amazing vocal fireworks for the lead characters of Marie and Tonio. I lost count of how many people came up to me to say that this was the first opera that they had ever seen in person (a few had probably seen at least one opera on television or at the cinema) and how much they loved it. They would probably have loved it even more if they had any inkling of how challenging it was to bring this production to fruition. The first chorus rehearsals (for which I played piano) were done in a very warm room without air conditioning – each one a 3-hour session featuring unfailingly pleasant music sung in a relentlessly unpleasant environment. I really felt for the singers. A far more difficult challenge emerged when the production’s gifted stage director, Greg Eldridge, was unable to fly to the US from Britain because of COVID restrictions. This meant that the first staging rehearsals had to be done over Zoom- which required all kinds of patience from everybody concerned. There was also the matter of one major character having to be recast after staging rehearsals had begun. And beyond these significant bumps in the road were all of the normal, par-for-the-course complexities and challenges that are part of any fully-staged operatic production. Kaila Bingen, the managing director of the festival, was the main person entrusted with everything from the relatively small details of finding a French flag for the final scene to the huge, central matters of hiring the orchestra or finding singers for the chorus. She deserves tremendous credit for all that she did and for how well she did it.
This production took me back to my freshman year at Luther, which is when I really had my eyes fully opened to the wonders of opera – thanks to my roommate and best friend since first grade, Marshall Anderson. One of the recordings he had that I vividly remember him playing for me was the effervescent London recording with Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti of The Daughter of the Regiment, with both of these superstars shooting off some of the most amazing vocal fireworks I’d ever heard. It’s safe to say that this recording as much as any helped propel me into full-fledged operatic fanaticism … from which I have yet to recover.
That was 43 years ago – and to finally get to see this opera in person for the first time was a joyous and moving experience that I will never forget. And although it would have been mighty fun to see Sutherland and Pavarotti onstage in two of their finest roles, I don’t mind one bit that my Marie and Tonio were Keely Futterer and Nick Huff! They sang brilliantly – but also had all of the whimsical charm necessary to make the audience fall in love with these two characters.
For a while, it looked like I was going to be part of the orchestra (playing the string bass part on a keyboard), but when the music director, Ksenia Leletkina, decided that the part wasn’t needed, I ended up being nothing more than a happy, appreciative audience member, which was just fine with me. It allowed me to fully drink in all that made this production so exciting and entertaining.
And as if I needed one more reason to love this production, it also featured my wife Kathy in her operatic debut …. in the speaking role of the Duchess of Krakenthorp. It’s a cameo role that is often given to special guest stars- sometimes revered retired singers such as Montserrat Caballe, Kiri te Kanawa, or Ljube Welitsch …. and sometimes to well-known actresses such as Beatrice Arthur, Kathleen Turner, or Dawn French. Former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a devoted opera fan, even did the role in a production by the Washington Opera a few years before her death.
The title character, Marie, is an orphan who was raised by the men of a French army regiment – which explains why she is a bit of an earthy, good-hearted tomboy. Into the mix comes a woman from the upper crust of Parisian society who says that she is Marie’s aunt and insists that the men allow her to bring her niece back with her to Paris where she can live the life she was meant to live. Marie is heartbroken to leave her beloved regiment, but there is a document written by Marie’s late father which leaves her no choice but to go with her aunt. At this point, the story tilts towards George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, with Marie’s aunt anxious to help her niece become much more refined so she will be accepted by the crusty, formidable Duchess of Krakenthorp as a suitable wife for her nephew. It’s in the final scene of the opera that the Duchess takes the stage in all of her decrepit iciness to meet Marie and assess her worthiness. In the end, Marie’s aunt reveals to everyone that she is actually Marie’s mother- and that she wants her daughter to marry the man she actually loves – Tonio – rather than the Duchess’s nephew. The opera ends in general rejoicing, save for the Duchess, who is horrified by this final turn of events.
I think the last word that most people would use to describe Kathy is “Crusty” or “Icy” – and I think that’s probably one reason why those who know her were so delighted by her performance. She nailed it!
The final tableaux of happy choristers surrounding the happy couple was a delight to behold ….. and even more so for those of us who know that the two singers in the roles of Marie and Tonio are soon to be married in real life. That just underscored the joy of this “happily ever after” scene. Then there was the magnificent singing of both Keely and Nick – Keely tossing off Marie’s roulades with astonishing ease and musicality, and Nick firing off the 9 high C’s of his big aria, and even audaciously adding a high D for good measure – which just spurred on their talented cast mates to greatness of their own. But on top of that was the joy of the tremendous success of this first season of the Kenosha Opera Festival – beyond anybody’s expectations – and the tremendous pleasure of having singers performing for a live audience after more than a year in which such performances have been all but impossible. I’m not sure who was more grateful …. the singers onstage or those of us in the audience …. but it was joy upon joy upon joy for singers and audience members alike, and the kind of experience likely to live on in our hearts long after the echo of the final chords has faded away.
Just what is next for the Kenosha Opera Festival remains to be seen …. but this spectacular beginning certainly gives one every reason to hope for an even more spectacular future for K-Town’s new opera company!