David Charles Abell: Storytelling

Robin Guarino: Directing as Activism

Birgit Nillson was a 20th-century Swedish dramatic soprano famous for her renditions of the works of Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Rudolph Bing was an Austrian opera impresario (producer) who worked around the world. He notably served as the General Manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

The first (old) Metropolitan Opera House in New York was located on Broadway but was demolished in 1967. The current (new) Metropolitan Opera House is located in Lincoln Center in the Upper West Side.

La fanciulla del West (1910) is an opera by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini.

Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (Hamburg College for Music and Theatre) is a large public university of music in Hamburg, Germany.

Rolf Liebermann was a Swiss composer and music administrator who served as the Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Paris Opera.

Judith Blegen is an American operatic soprano.

La voix humaine (1959) is a one-act opera by 20th-century French composer Francis Poulenc.

In July 1980, a 30-year-old violinist named Helen Mintiks was murdered during the intermission of a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. Read more here.

Guarino refers to “Jimmy,” or James Levine, a Cincinnati-born opera conductor who became the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera. He was notably terminated from this position in 2018 over sexual assault allegations that he denies.

John Dexter was an English theatre, opera, and film director. Guarino mentions his production of French composer Francis Poulenc’s opera Dialogues des Carmélites (1956).

Franco Zeffirelli was an Italian director and producer of opera, films, and television. Many of his opera productions are still in use today around the world.

Margarete Wallmann was a German ballerina, choreographer, set designer, and opera director.

Rhoda Levine is an American opera director, choreographer, and professor.

Francesca Zambello is an American opera and theatre director who currently serves as director of the Glimmerglass Festival and Washington National Opera.

Ricky Ian Gordon is a contemporary American composer.

Fiora Contino was an American opera conductor and teacher.

Jean-Pierre Ponnelle was a 20th-century French opera director and scenic designer.

Dawn Upshaw is an American operatic soprano.

Robert Wilson is an American experimental theatre director and playwright.

The 19th-century Viennese composer W.A. Mozart frequently collaborated with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte, such as for their opera The Marriage of Figaro (1786).

Blind Injustice was an opera by composer *** and librettist *** which premiered at Cincinnati Opera in 2019.

Patricia (“Patty”) K. Beggs was the General Director of Cincinnati Opera from 1997 to 2019.

Opera Fusion: New Works (OF:NW) is a partnership between Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music focused on fostering contemporary American opera.

In 2011, Doubt by composer Douglas J Cuomo and librettist John Patrick Shirley became the first project workshopped by OF:NW. The opera premiered at Minnesota Opera in 2013.

Fellow Travelers by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Gregory Pierce is another opera that participated in OF:NW in 2013. Cincinnati Opera premiered the work in 2015. Hear Fellow Travelers composer Gregory Spears talk about the work on a previous episode of Inside Opera.

Castor and Patience by composer Gregory Spears and librettist Tracy K. Smith participated in OF:NW in 2019. Cincinnati Opera will premiere the work as part of its 2021 Summer Festival. Hear Castor and Patience composer Gregory Spears talk about the work on a previous episode of Inside Opera.

Rachel Maddow is an American television program host and political commentator, known for the nightly Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC.

Joni Mitchell is a critically acclaimed Canadian singer-songwriter.

Bob Dylan is a Nobel Prize-winning American singer-songwriter.

Gregory Spears: Modern Masterpieces

The American Opera Project is an opera company in Brooklyn, New York dedicated to developing new operatic and musical theatre works.

Fugues are a musical composition technique in which a melody is blended with other melodies, usually in complex ways. German Baroque composer J.S. Bach is notable for having written many collections of fugues.

Early in his life, Spears studied music theory and composition with prolific American composer and educator Adolphus Hailstork.

Pietà (Pity) is a statue by Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti currently housed in St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City.

Anton Webern was an Austrian avant-garde composer of the early 20th century.

Tracy K. Smith is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American poet and former Poet Laureate of the U.S.

Charles Jarden was the former General Director of The American Opera Project.

Troubadours were composers and singers of lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (12th to 14th centuries).

The Requiem in D Minor is an unfinished work by W.A. Mozart who passed away before it was completed.

Plainchant (sometimes called “Gregorian chant”) is a liturgical musical style used historically in the Western Church (and now mainly in the Catholic Church) for singing texts to a congregation. In this style, the text is sung on one unaccompanied melody.

Hot yoga is a modern yoga-inspired exercise where typical yoga sequences are performed under hot and humid conditions.

Joan Panetti is a pianist, composer, and Professor of Music at the Yale School of Music.

Ta-Nehesi Coates is an American author and essayist who generally focuses on the subject of race relations in the United States. One of his best-known essays is The Case for Reparations.

Seeing the Body is a book by poet and photographer Rachel Eliza Griffiths.

Revolutions is a podcast which explores political revolutions throughout history.

The Criterion Collection is an American video distribution company focusing on “important classic and contemporary films.”

Stevie Wonder is a 25 Grammy Award-winning American singer, songwriter, musician, and record producer known for tracks such as his 1970 “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours” and his 1972 “Superstition.”

Brian Eno is an English musician and visual artist known for his ambient musical style and collaborations to rock, pop, and electronic music as well.

Arthur Russell was an American avant-garde cellist and composer.

Liz Wright is an American jazz and gospel singer.

Isabel Leonard: Constructing a Character

The Damnation of Faust (La damnation de Faust) is a work by 19th-century French composer Hector Berlioz for four solo voices, chorus, children’s chorus, and orchestra based on German Romantic poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust.

Santiago del Estero is a province and city in northern Argentina.

Lima is the capital and largest city of Peru.

Carlos Gardel was a French Argentine singer notable for his tango compositions and hundreds of recordings of tango pieces.

Loons are aquatic birds found in North America and northern Eurasia.

The Peruvian panpipe (Andean panpipe or siku) is a traditional flute-like instrument associated with music from the Qullasuyu region of the Andean Mountains of South America.

Ella Fitzgerald was one of the best-known American jazz singers of the 20th century.

Frank Sinatra was an American singer and actor who is one of the best-selling musicians of all time.

Fred Astaire was an American dancer, singer, actor, and choreographer most noted for work in film and television.

Gene Kelly was an American actor, dancer, and director known for his lead roles in Singin’ in the Rain and An American in Paris.

Located near Lincoln Center in New York City, LaGuardia High School is a public magnet high school focusing in the visual and performing arts.

Marilyn Horne is an American mezzo-soprano and music pedagogue.

Matthew Epstein is a prominent artistic advisor and artist manager within the opera community.

Der Rosenkavalier is a frequently performed comic opera by German composer Richard Strauss.

A pants role (or trouser role) is a character which is performed by a woman in traditionally masculine clothing. Some examples of these roles include Cherubino from W.A. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Count Ottavio from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier.

Dorabella is a principle soprano role from W.A. Mozart’s comic opera Così fan tutte.

Marnie is an opera by contemporary American composer Nico Muhly based on Winston Graham’s 1961 novel by the same name. Notably, Alfred Hitchcock directed a film adaptation of the same novel. Leonard performed the title role in the U.S. premiere of the operatic adaptation at the Metropolitan Opera in 2018.

Coal Mountain is an opera by contemporary American composer Jennifer Higdon surrounding the American Civil War.

The Fach system is a method of categorizing singers’ voices into specific “types.” Not all musicians agree with every aspect of the system, however it is a commonly used tool for understanding the range, weight, and color of a singer’s voice.

Rosina is a principle soprano role in Gioachino Rossini’s comic opera The Barber of Seville. Leonard will perform this role in Cincinnati Opera’s 2021 Summer Festival.

Edith Bers was a member of the voice faculty at The Julliard School.

White Fragility is a book by Robin DiAngelo about systemic racism in the United States.

Trevor Noah is a South African comedian and political commentator known for being the current host of the satirical The Daily Show.

The Hardy Boys is a series of mystery novels for children written under the name Franklin W. Dixon.

Schitt’s Creek is an acclaimed Canadian television sitcom.

Marie-France Lefebvre: Working with the Coach

Conductor Mark Gibson, the current Director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), invited Lefebvre to participate in a CCM summer program in Luca, Italy.

Gustav Meier was a Swiss conductor and professor of orchestral conducting at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Elisabeth Schwartzkopf was a German-born soprano and is considered one of the top singers of the 20th century. In her performing career, she specialized in German-language art song (lieder) and Viennese operetta; later in life, she became an international renowned voice teacher.

Nana Mouskouri is a popular Greek singer whose extensive discography includes over 200 albums in at least twelve different languages.

English-Italian conductor Annuzio Mantovani led his own orchestra (the Mantovani Orchestra) in the mid-20th century and became famous in the “light music” style.

Mario Bernardi was a Canadian conductor and pianist.

Dale Bartlett was a Canadian pianist, educator, and collaborative pianist.

Vladimir Horowitz was a renowned Russian-born classical pianist who spent most of his life in the U.S.

“Il mio tesoro” is a famous tenor aria from W.A. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.

Beverly Sills was one of the most notable sopranos of the 20th century and, after retiring from singing, became the General Manager of the New York City Opera and later the Metropolitan Opera.

Renée Fleming is an actively performing American operatic soprano and the current Creative Consultant at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Franco Zeffirelli was an Italian director and producer of opera, films, and television. Many of his opera productions are still in use today around the world.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin is a Canadian conductor and pianist. Currently, he is the Music Director of the Metropolitan Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, and Orchestre Métropolitain in Montréal.

Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt set three sonnets by Italian Renaissance poet Petrarch to music in the collection “Tre sonetti di Petrarch” (“Three Petrarch Sonnets”).

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) is a performing arts center based in Brooklyn, New York.

Françoise Frenkel’s memoir A Bookshop in Berlin follows her escape from the rise of fascism in Germany and, later, her evasion from Nazi occupation in war-torn France.

Grey’s Anatomy is an American medical drama television series.

Kanopy is an online film streaming service specializing in classic, independent, and foreign films.

Duolingo is a Google-owned mobile application and website for studying foreign languages.

WhatsApp is a Facebook-owned mobile application for messaging and calling over the Internet.

Lefebvre enjoys eating at restaurant Red Feather Kitchen in Cincinnati.

Nico Castel was a tenor and notable language and diction coach.

Oscar Peterson was a famous Canadian jazz pianist and composer.

Talise Trevigne: Baseball Mom and Opera Star

Marie Kondo, an organizing consultant and author most famous for her Netflix series Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, uses a methodical approach to help people clean and organize their spaces. She is most known for asking people if an item “sparks joy” in their life.

Martha Graham was a choreographer and American modern dancer whose technique is still taught around the world.

Soprano Adele Addison was an early voice teacher for Trevigne at the Manhattan School of Music.

Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer Ned Rorem occasionally observed Trevigne’s lessons with Adele Addison.

Tenor George Shirley and mezzo-soprano Hilda Harris were other early mentors for Trevigne.

Choral conductor Robert Shaw is notable for bringing black vocalists, like soprano Adele Addison and tenor Seth McCoy, to the spotlight from the 1940s through the 1970s.

During her senior year of high school, Trevigne sang the soprano solo in one of Gabriel Fauré’s most notable works Requiem.

James Gandre, the former Dean of Admissions at the Manhattan School of Music, is now the President of the School.

Early in her career, Trevigne sang under notable American conductor Julius Rudel.

Adele Addison gave Trevigne original manuscripts of the French composer, conductor, and pedagogue Nadia Boulanger.

George Szell, the former Music Director of the Cleveland Orchestra once famously noted: “The Cleveland Orchestra plays seven concerts a week, and admits the public to the final two. We do some of our best playing in rehearsals.”

Trevigne has worked closely with contemporary American composer Jake Heggie. She starred as Pip in Heggie’s operatic rendition of Herman Melville’s classic novel Moby-Dick.

A sitzprobe (German for “seated rehearsal”) is an opera or musical theatre rehearsal in which the vocalists sing with the orchestra—usually for the first time.

concert:nova is a contemporary music ensemble based in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Trevigne will perform the role of Patience in Cincinnati Opera’s world premiere production of Castor and Patience in the summer of 2021.

Trevigne frequently watches the English television dramas Grantchester and Father Brown.

Trevigne finds the following mobile applications useful: Gamechanger (for keeping tabs on her son’s baseball games), Beachbody (for exercising), and Stash (for investing).

Trevigne enjoys eating at Conscious Kitchen in Cincinnati because they accommodate her alkaline vegan diet—a diet which does not allow any animal products, processed foods, coffee, and most grains.

Outside of classical music, Trevigne listens to hip-hop (she mentions the artist Drake) and country music.