!!

Presents

by Gaetano Donizetti

Conducted by

Stephen Karr

Directed and Designed by

Josh Shaw

Orchestral Arrangement by Stephen Karr

Supertitles Interpreted by

Josh Shaw

Stage Manager Kaitrin Kinnare Costumes by Maggie Green

Production Assistant Kyleene Johnson Rehearsal Pianist Jonathan Keplinger

Starring

Ryan Thorn as Mamma Agata

Katherine Giaquinto as Daria Garbinati

Scott Levin as Biscroma Strappaviscere Carl King as Don Procolo

Amy Lawrence as Luiga Castragatti

Phil Meyer as The Impresario

Matthew Welch as Cesare Salzapariglia

Kyle Patterson as Guglielmo Hollerachevogelfangermeinherrmarquis-Lopez

Eleen Hsu-Wentlandt as Pippetto

Orchestra

Violin

Boryana Popova Leila Nassar-Fredell

Clarinet

Virginia Figueiredo

Flute

Eve Bañuelos

Viola

Alison Spieth

Cello

Hillary Smith

Bass

Ben Pendergrass

POP Board of Directors

Phil Meyer, Chairman Stacey Oziel, Secretary Kelsey Shaw, Treasurer

Stephen Karr Hannah Waldman Josh Shaw Paul R. Gurian

Judy Townsend Kathy Crandall William T. Kennedy

Hats Off to Our POP Family

$5000 smoking jacket Penny Donnelly & William Kennedy

$1000 ascot Robert Robinson & Mike Tomasulo

$500 wingtips Wendy Arano, Julie Boyd, & Laura Scott Sellers

$250 bowler hat Michael Melton, Jeanne Waldman, & Joanne C. Zajac

$100 tweed vest William Ireland, Robert Khoury, & Robert Shetland

$50 handlebar mustache Eric Castro, Brandon Crispo, Eric Futterer, Frieda Gockel, Youssif Kamal,

Ashley Postlewaite, & Sally White

Special Thanks David Kasunic and Occidental College

The Ebell Club of Highland Park Kasimoff-Blüthner Piano Company

Martha Benedict Photography Viva la mamma! is supported, in part, by the Los

Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.!

This project is supported, in part, by a grant from the Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.!

Become a member of our POP family. Donate today! $50 handlebar mustache Get insider POP updates ad invitations to special events in our donor e-newsletter, Access to tickets before the general public, Name recognition in production and special event programs $100 tweed vest All benefits listed above plus—A gift of “Glasses & Glasses” (two glasses of wine and two trademark POP sunglasses) at a POP performance, and an Invitation to a POP rehearsal $250 bowler hat All benefits listed above plus— Invitation to one POP Salon, featuring POP Main Stage Artists $500 wingtips All benefits listed above plus— Invitation to one POP Cast Party $1000 ascot All benefits listed above plus— Invitation to two POP Salons, featuring POP Main Stage artists $2500 monocle All benefits listed above plus— Lunch with Artistic Director $5000 smoking jacket All benefits listed above plus— POP Main Stage artists perform for you at an event of your choice.

Ryan Thorn (Mamma Agata) Baritone Ryan Thorn will join Portland Opera’s resident artist program for their 2016 festival season, performing Taddeo in L’italiana in Algeri, 1st Priest/Papageno (cover) in The Magic Flute, and Jonas Fogg in Sweeney Todd. He attended the Music Academy of the West in 2015, where he sang the baritone solo in the festival’s inaugural performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Roles include the title characters in Don Giovanni, Le nozze di Figaro, and Sweeney Todd as well as Marcello (La bohème),

Angelotti/Scarpia cover (Tosca), the Musiklehrer (Ariadne auf Naxos), and Giove/Giove in Diana (La Calisto) with Pacific Opera Project, and Morales/El Dancaïre (Carmen) with Madison Opera. In January 2016, he will participate in “The Song Continues,” a week of art song masterclasses led by Marilyn Horne, Stephanie Blythe, and Sir Thomas Allen at Carnegie Hall. He received his MM from UCLA, and he is a student of Vladimir Chernov.

Katherine Giaquinto (Daria Garbinati)

Lauded as a “smart singer” with a “gorgeous, clear lyric soprano voice” (Operaworld.com), Canadian-American soprano Katherine Giaquinto is a graduate of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and began her performing career as a professional actress in Canadian film and television.

Katherine recently made a splash with LA Opera when she stepped in with two weeks notice for the role of Rosina in Paisiello’s Il barbiere di Siviglia under the baton of Maestro James Conlon. She made her LA Opera debut earlier in

2015 in their raved production of The Ghosts of Versailles. In 2014, Katherine sang Stella in a critically-acclaimed production of Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire with Union Avenue Opera. Previous roles with POP include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Musetta in La bohème and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. In addition to standard operatic repertoire, Katherine continues to cultivate relationships with living composers. In early 2016 she will sing the west coast premier of Circular 14, a new oratorio on the life of Aristides de Sousa Mendes, the Portuguese consul whose actions during WWII saved thousands of Jewish refugees.

Katherine received her Master of Music degree from CCM, and her Bachelor of Arts in Music from UCLA.

Scott Levin (Biscroma Strappaviscere)

Bass-Baritone, E. Scott Levin, described as having a “smooth, buttery voice,” “incredibly sharp timing,” and “a gifted comic actor,” has been making audiences laugh for the past thirteen years. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis and Graduate Certificate in Vocal Performance from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. Since 2002, Scott has sung in over twenty productions with Union Avenue Opera in Saint Louis. He has also sung with many companies in the Los Angeles area including Long Beach Opera, Opera Santa Barbara, Redlands

Opera Theater, Center Stage Opera, OperaWorks, Definiens Project, Orange County Opera, and

Celestial Opera. This season he made his debut at Townsend/Fresno Opera as the Sacristan in Tosca, his Los Angeles Opera “Off-Grand” debut as Babayan (Bartolo) in Figaro 90210!, and most recently, his LA Opera mainstage debut as Dr. Spinelloccio in Gianni Schicchi, starring Placido Domingo. Scott is thrilled to return to POP after previously appearing as Leporello in Don Giovanni, Schaunard in La bohème, Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, Pane in La Calisto, Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, the Sacristan in Tosca, and Ko-Ko in The Mikado.

Carl King (Don Procolo)

American baritone Carl King has become recognized for his stylized interpretations of the basso-buffo repertoire. This season he debuts with West Edge Opera as Bartolo in a rare performance of Paisiello’s Il barbiere de Siviglia. He returns to Opera San Jose as Sagristano in Tosca where his previous appearances include Mustafa in L’Italiana in Algeri, Don Geronio in Il Turco in Italia, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’Amore, and Leporello in Don Giovanni.

Mr. King’s recent performances include Beto di Signa in Gianni Schicchi (Sacramento Opera), Fra Melitone in La forza del destino (West Bay Opera), Benoit/Alcindoro in La bohème (Livermore Valley Opera), Don Magnifico in La cenerentola, Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia, and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro (Center Stage Opera, LA)

Mr. King joined the roster of The San Francisco Camerata where he created the role of The Doctor in the world premiere of Carlos Franzetti’s Corpus Evita. He went on to reprise the role in the 2005 Grammy nominated recording for Amapola Records.

Amy Lawrence (Luiga Castragatti) Amy has previously appeared at POP as Eternita in La Calisto and as Frasquita (cover)/Chorus/Choreographer for Carmen. Amy just returned from Italy where she performed Despina in Cosi fan tutte and Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica with the Tuscia Opera Festival. Her first professional performance was at age 13 singing with Susanna Guzmá in LA Opera’s production of Fantastic Mr. Fox. She is a Presidential Scholar in the Arts finalist, a Music Center Spotlight Awards semi-finalist, and a YoungArts participant and scholarship awardee. Notable roles include Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Amore

in L’incoronazione di Poppea, and Queen Tye in Phillip Glass’s Akhnaten. Amy attended the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2014 where she was the principal dancer/chorus in Eugene Onegin and sang in several scenes, performances, and concerts. Amy is a graduate of USC (GC/Vocal Arts) and the Boston Conservatory (BM/Vocal Performance with Opera Emphasis). Amy is also a professional ballroom, salsa, and lindy hop dancer/choreographer and a concert flautist. www.sopranoamylawrence.com

Phil Meyer (The Impresario)

Phil Meyer’s opera repertory consists of Bad Guys, Old Guys and Funny Guys. Earlier this Fall, Phil played a narcoleptic Pistola in Falstaff (Funny Guy). Also with POP he has sung the title role in Sweeney Todd (Bad Guy); Osmin in the Star Trek themed The Abduction from the Seraglio (Funny Guy/Bad Guy); Poo-Bah in The Mikado (Funny Guy); Sam in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, (Bad Guy) and Basilio in The Barber of Seville (Pathetic Old Guy). Other leading roles in Los

Angeles include King Filippo in Don Carlo with the LA Met (Old Guy); Mephistopheles, in Center Stage Opera’s Faust (the Baddest Guy); Kecal in The Bartered Bride (Old Guy) and Achilla in Giulio Cesare (Bad Guy) with the Celestial Opera; and Leporello in Don Giovanni (Funny Guy), Olin Blitch in Susannah (Bad Guy) and the title role in Verdi’s Falstaff with the Repertory Opera Company (Old Guy/Funny Guy/Kinda Bad Guy).

In his spare time, Phil directs an HIV education program for medical professionals at Charles Drew University, runs a small non-profit that implements HIV prevention and services in the Rwandan and Angolan militaries, and is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist in private practice.

Matthew Welch (Cesare Salzapariglia) Matthew is bursting with pride, oozing with joy, and reeking of sweat to be joining POP for the third time as Cesare Salzapariglia in Viva la Mamma. In addition to regular live performances as an improv comedian, Matthew’s recent credits include several opera and musical theater roles—Morales in Carmen (POP), the title role in The Mikado (POP), Ko-Ko in The Mikado (POP), Jack Point in The Yeomen of the Guard (Opera a la Carte), Sawtooth Bob in The Threepenny Opera (Opera San Luis Obispo), Derrick/Dr. Hillier in Love Again (A Noise Within), and Kay Cole/Shelly Markham. Additionally, Matthew

has several film, theater, television, and voice acting credits including: Korsakov in The Date Escape, Scott in The Virgin, Duane in Player of the Game, Lucius/ Soothsayer in Julius Caesar, Young Ralph in The Last Romance (A Noise Within), Curtis in The Taming of the Shrew (The Torrance Theater Company), Lovers and Madmen, Radio cohost on Monday Night Live, a Charles Dickens Caroler on PBS, Cash Fitzwarter in Badass Security Handbook. Additionally, he has been featured on the Arlington, Healers, and Project Courvoisier soundtracks. For an even more jumbled mess of information, feel free to check out Matthew's website, at:www.matthewianwelch.com.

Kyle Patterson (Guglielmo Hollerachevogelfanger……-Lopez) Tenor Kyle Patterson is thrilled to be returning to Pacific Opera Project for his seventh production with the company. He debuted with POP in 2012 as Ferrando (Cosi fan tutte) and has also performed the roles of Bardolfo (Falstaff), Nanki-Poo (The Mikado), and Tobias Ragg (Sweeney Todd) and covered the roles of Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and El Remendado (Carmen). Kyle is also a regular performer on Repertory Opera Company’s roster, where he has performed Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Tamino (Die Zauberflöte), and Count Almaviva (Il barbiere di Siviglia).

In addition to expanding his opera repertoire, Kyle has performed several concert engagements in his young career, most recently appearing as Tobias Ragg in a concert of Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd in collaboration with the Golden State Pops Orchestra. In 2013, Kyle was a finalist in the Coeur d’Alene Symphony Young Artist Vocal Competition and he is also an alumnus of the prestigious OperaWorks Emerging Artist Program. Kyle has two degrees in Civil Engineering from the University of Southern California (USC) and is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of California. His professional track record was just highlighted by OC Metro Magazine’s "40 under 40" series, profiling the success of 40 influential professionals under the age of 40 in Orange County.

Eleen Hsu-Wentlandt (Pippetto) Ms. Hsu-Wentlandt is ever-delighted to join another POP production, having last been seen in Carmen (chorus, and Mercedes cover). Theatrically, her roles include Amahl and the Night Visitors (Mother), The King and I (Lady Thiang), Lucia di Lammermoor (Alisa) with Celestial Opera, and The Music Man (Marian).

Later this fall, she will be a soloist for Handel’s Messiah this fall with Los Robles Master Chorale. She has been a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem,

Rutter’s Gloria, and Mendelssohn’s A Mid-Summer Night’s Dream. Most recently, she completed a play, Ghost in the House, in which she also played violin. Her inner jazz-, pop-, and opera-lover have elatedly shared the stage with Bill Cunliffe; vocal jazz quintet Down For the Count; and Reba McEntire and Andrea Bocelli, both at the Hollywood Bowl. She has also has sung for Jackie Chan.

Choral recordings include critically-acclaimed American Voices, Jake Heggie’s “choral opera” The Radio Hour, both with John Alexander Singers, and Frank Ticheli’s new choral symphony, The Shore, with Pacific Chorale. She has sung Mahler’s Symphony No. 8twice – in her childhood with Cleveland Orchestra/Joel Levy and in 2012 with Los Angeles Philharmonic/Gustavo Dudamel.

Ms. Hsu-Wentlandt hails from Cleveland, OH, and Sacramento, CA, and graduated from Pomona and El Camino Colleges. Please visit www.yilinsings.com.

Josh Shaw, Artistic Director

Josh Shaw is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Project. Since turning his attentions to directing in 2011, he has directed and designed over 40 operas and musicals. Highlights include sold-out and critically acclaimed productions of Tosca: A moving production, La bohème AKA “TheHipsters”, La Calisto, The Turn of the Screw, and Ariadne auf Naxos. Mr. Shaw’s Star Trek-themed Abduction from the Seraglio, for which he wrote a new English book and libretto, is gaining national attention,

following successful runs in Los Angeles, Tennessee, and Illinois this season.

Mr. Shaw is the Resident Director for Chamber Opera Players of Los Angeles and has directed productions of Il Segreto di Susanna, A Hand of Bridge, Gallantry, A Sunday Excursion, The Man on the Bearskin Rug, Three Sisters who are not Sisters, and The Last Silent Voice (World Premiere) for the up and coming company. Other recent directorial projects include Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro, The Mikado, Così fan tutte, Trouble in Tahiti, Sweeney Todd, and Don Giovanni with POP; Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Abduction from the Seraglio at the Southern Illinois Music Festival; The Medium for Redlands Opera Theatre; Into the Woods and Annie at Burbank Community Theater; Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci with the Celestial Opera Company; and Madama Butterfly with Salt Marsh Opera. Upcoming projects include Guilluame Tell with The Southern Illinois Music Festival, and productions of Abduction from the Seraglio at Opera Piccola in San Antonio, Festival Opera in Walnut Creek, CA, and Salt Marsh Opera in CT.

In his former life as a tenor, Mr. Shaw sang leading roles with Opera Fairbanks, Capital Opera of Sacramento, High Desert Opera, Opera Las Vegas, Center Stage Opera, Lyric Opera of Los Angeles, The Celestial Opera Company, and Opera Pasadena. He has toured the United States with the Pasadena-based Gilbert & Sullivan troupe, Opera a la Carte for multiple seasons. He has also worked and recorded albums with LA Operetta Project, a foundation dedicated to recording lost early American operetta and music theatre. Mr. Shaw’s most celebrated roles include Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly, Cavaradossi in Tosca, Rodolfo in La bohème, Alfredo in La traviata, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Don José in Carmen, and the title role in Faust.

Mr. Shaw is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University and Southern Illinois University, with a master’s degree in Opera/Music Theater.

Stephen Karr, Music Director

Born in Greenville, South Carolina, Stephen Karr is a young conductor and keyboardist establishing himself as a compelling interpreter of a wide variety of orchestral and operatic works. In 2011, Stephen co-founded Pacific Opera Project, for which he serves as music director and has led highly successful productions of Trouble in Tahiti, Don Giovanni, Così fan tutte, Sweeney Todd, La bohème, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro, The Mikado, The Turn of the Screw, Carmen, La Calisto (LA premiere), Tosca,

Abduction from the Seraglio, and Ariadne auf Naxos as either conductor or from the keyboard. In his review of the Britten, Mark Swed of the LA Times made special note of the orchestra, "expertly conducted by Stephen Karr."

In addition to his work with POP, Stephen has been on the music staff of opera companies and universities across the US, including Des Moines Metro Opera’s OPERA Iowa tour, the Glimmerglass Festival, Michigan State University, Opera New Jersey, Opera Santa Barbara, Palm Beach Opera and UCLA as a pianist/coach and assistant conductor. His international appearances include the Royal Opera House in Muscat, Oman as assistant conductor and principal keyboardist with the Glimmerglass Festival’s production of The Music Man and an appointment as Cultural Envoy from the United States Department of State leading the Rotterdam Youth Symphony and the brass ensemble from Rotterdam's Codarts Conservatory of Music in a concert for the annual World Harbor Days festival.

Stephen’s operatic repertoire includes over thirty separate productions, spanning nearly the entire history of the art form, from Cavalli’s Il Giasone and Lully’s Armide to world or regional premieres of recent works, notably Kenneth Wells’s The First Lady in 2010 in a co-production between the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuropsychology and need theater. He has served as a guest artist or faculty member at Chapman University, California State University Northridge, Michigan State University, USC, Westminster Choir College and UCLA, where he will serve as principal pianist for the Spring 2016 production of Così fan tutte. Stephen's schooling includes degrees in organ performance from Westminster Choir College and Mercer University, as well as a master's degree in orchestral conducting from UCLA, where he studied with Neal Stulberg and led a wide variety of repertoire. He is also a co-founder of the school's resident new music ensemble, contempo flux.

Maggie Green came late to professional costume design, though she has been making costumes for family and friends since she was a teenager. It was only after coming to Los Angeles a decade ago that she realized it could be a career. Maggie has a certificate in costume design from Los Angeles City College Theatre Academy, but finds that motherhood was also great training for dressing performers. By far her favorite work has been with Pacific Opera Project, for whom she's been doing costumes since 2012 when they

did their first big production with a chorus, Sweeney Todd. She has costumed every show since, making Viva la Mamma! her thirteenth show with POP!

Kaitrin Kinnare graduated with a degree in Film Production from Emerson College in 2010 and has worked at NBC Universal Television Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures. She is the Company Manager for Pacific Opera Project and has been stage manager for several of their productions, including Ariadne auf Naxos, Abduction from the Seraglio, La bohème and Tosca. She has also managed productions for the Celestial Opera Company, Opera Neo and Opera UCLA, including their recent West Coast premiere of I due Figaro. She is recently returning from serving as stage manager for

Madama Butterfly at Salt Marsh Opera in Connecticut.