Home | Synopsis | Biographies | Program Notes | Cast List | Chorus | Orchestra | Photos BIOGRAPHIES ARTISTIC STAFF BIOGRAPHIES (see Cast Biographies below) DAVID EFFRON, Conductor Originally from Cincinnati, OH, distinguished symphony and opera conductor David Effron grew up in a musical family. His father was concertmaster of the Cincinnati Symphony for 28 years, and his mother was the pianist for that orchestra. After earning Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in piano at the University of Michigan and Indiana University, respectively, Effron received a Fulbright grant for study in Germany and began his professional career as an assistant to General Music Director Wolfgang Sawallisch at the Cologne Opera. Returning to the United States in 1964, he joined the conducting staff of the New York City Opera, a position he held for 18 years. In his early career as a pianist, he accompanied such artists as George London, Placido Domingo, and Sherrill Milnes in recital and collaborated with soprano Benita Valente as her accompanist for a decade. As a prominent educator, Effron taught at the Curtis Institute of Music from 1970 to 1977. As the head of the orchestral program at the Eastman School of Music from 1977 to 1998, he trained hundreds of instrumentalists who are now in professional orchestras worldwide. His conducting students presently hold positions ranging from the assistant conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra to music director positions in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and South America. Since 1998, he has served as professor of conducting at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he was appointed chairman of the Conducting Department in the fall of 2005. A highly-sought-after guest conductor with a repertoire of all the standard symphonic works, as well as 105 operas, Effron’s 40-year career has included appearances with major symphony orchestras and opera companies in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, and the Far East. The summer of 2007 marked his eleventh and final season as artistic director and principal conductor of the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina, during which time the board of the Brevard Music Center established a Principal Artistic Director/ Principal Conductor Chair in his honor. Effron was also honored with the title of Conductor Laureate. In 1984, Effron was the conductor for the Grammy Award-winning recording of Copland’s Lincoln Portrait. His discography also includes a 1987 Pantheon recording with Benita Valente, which won the German Critics Prize. He joined forces with flutist James Galway for an RCA recording of John Corigliano’s Pied Piper Fantasy, winning a top prize from Ovation Magazine. In 2003, Effron received the Musicians of the Year Award from the National Foundation of Music Clubs. In recognition and acknowledgement of his pedagogical contributions, he was honored in the spring of 2004 with the unveiling of a portrait to be displayed at the University of Rochester’s prestigious Eastman School of Music. In the spring of 2006, Effron was awarded an honorary doctorate from North Carolina State University. TITO CAPOBIANCO, Stage Director Tito Capobianco is acclaimed for his ingenious and versatile treatment of repertory classics, from Baroque to Romantic, verismo, and contemporary operatic repertoire. Capobianco has staged over 250 productions in Europe, Australia, and the American continent for major opera houses such as Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Paris, and Barcelona, along with the festivals of Spoleto, Caramoor, Las Palmas, Buenos Aires, and Mexico City. His staging of American and world premieres, plus numerous new productions which have been hailed as landmarks in opera history, have had a strong influence in the development of opera in the United States, beginning with the inauguration of the Lincoln and Kennedy Centers. His productions continue to form part of the repertoire of these centers after more than 25 years. During the 1960s, his collaboration with soprano Beverly Sills became legendary and led to the first opera production televised from Lincoln Center with Le coq d’or. Throughout his career, Capobianco has demonstrated his commitment to the educational needs of young artists. In 1968, he founded and became general director of the Opera Center at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He created the Opera Department at the College of Performing Arts in Philadelphia in 1972, the San Diego Opera Center in 1977, and the Pittsburgh Opera Center in 1986. The latter evolved into the Pittsburgh Opera Center at Duquesne in 1990. In the late 1970s, he established the world’s first Verdi Festival. In recognition of his creative work in Italian and French opera and culture, he has been awarded the equivalent of the title of “Sir” by the Italian and French governments, as well as numerous honorary degrees for his extensive community involvement. C. DAVID HIGGINS, Set and Costume Designer C. David Higgins has been designing scenery since 1972 when he began working at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as a master scenic artist. Now a faculty member, he has been designing opera and ballet scenery and costumes across the globe for theaters in the United States, England, Italy, Iceland, and Korea. With over 150 productions to his credit, he has been described as one of America’s finest scenic painters by Opera News magazine and is best known for his detailed, Italianate painting style. CAST BIOGRAPHIES (see Cast Biographies below) Rodolfo, a poet Brian Arreola (Tenor) is a graduate of St. Olaf College, where he studied voice and cello. Arreola received his Master of Music in Vocal Performance from IU this May, while studying with Brian Horne, and he is currently pursuing a doctorate at IU, now studying with Andreas Poulimenos. Recent roles at IU include Nelson Deadly (Too Many Sopranos), Des Grieux (Manon), and Roméo (Roméo et Juliette). This summer he was an Apprentice Artist at The Des Moines Metro Opera, and he will sing the role of Tybalt in Minnesota Opera’s production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in January 2008. Arreola was most recently seen as the Duke in Rigoletto. Jason Wickson (Tenor) has performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. Recent engagements have been with the Windsor Symphony Orchestra (W. A. Mozart’s Requiem), Detroit Concert Choir (Carmina burana), Michigan Opera Theatre, and the Amadeus Opern Ensemble of Salzburg, Austria, where he performed the roles of Tamino in Die Zauberflöte and Contino Belfiore in La Finta Giardiniera. In addition, Wickson recently performed in the World Premiere Oratorio, The Passion of St. John by David Briggs in Detroit, MI, and was a featured soloist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Previous performances at IU Opera Theater include Goro in Madama Butterfly and Elder Gleaton in Susannah. He is currently pursuing his Master of Music in Voice at the Jacobs School of Music, where he studies with Andreas Poulimenos. Marcello, a painter Baritone Justin Moore, a student of Andreas Poulimenos, is working toward a Master of Music in Vocal Performance. During the summer of 2006, Justin completed a Bachelor of Arts in Slavic Languages with an emphasis in Russian as well as a Bachelor of Music in Voice. Moore recently won the second place prize at the Indianapolis Matinee Musicale competition. He made his operatic debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte in 2000 at Mercyhurst College.  He was also involved in musical theater there, performing Guiteau in Sondheim’s Assassins and Adam in Sheldon Harnack’s The Apple Tree. In 2003, he covered the role of Papageno at the University of Washington. Here at IU, he has sung the role of the Jailor in Dialogues of the Carmélites by Poulenc, Morales in Carmen and the title role in W. A. Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Last summer, he was seen as Belcore in Donizetti’s Elixir of Love. Kenneth J. Pereira, baritone, is a doctoral voice student in the IU Jacobs School of Music, where he completed a Master of Music in Voice this past August. Pereira made his debut with the IU Opera Theater last April as Sharpless in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly. Later this season, he will sing the roles of Spalanzani and Schlemil in Offenbach’s Les Contes D’Hoffmann. Prior to his studies at IU, Pereira was heard frequently in opera, oratorio, recital and musical theater performances throughout northern California and the bay area. He graduated Magna cum Laude from California State University, Stanislaus, where he completed a Bachelor of Music Degree in Voice. Last fall, he performed the baritone solos in the Duruflé Requiem and the Charpentier Te Deum with the Lafayette Bach Chorale (IN) and various scenes with the Indiana University Graduate Opera Workshop. He is a student of Andreas Poulimenos. Colline, a philosopher Texan Bass Max Wier is a first-year Master of Music student, studying with Costanza Cuccaro. While doing his undergraduate work at Rice University, he performed the roles of Superintendent Budd in Albert Herring and Le Bailli in Werther, along with scenes studies of Figaro and Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro, Masetto in Don Giovanni, and Mephistopheles in Faust. Since finishing at Rice, Wier sang with the Houston Grand Opera Chorus the past two seasons and was an Apprentice Artist at Sarasota Opera in 2006, where he covered Antonio in Le nozze di Figaro. In summer 2004, he was a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and performed the role of Snug in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For the past three summers, Wier was a member of the Janiec Opera Company at the Brevard Music Center, where he sang Sparafucile in Rigoletto, Don Alfonso in Cosí fan tutte, Colline in La bohème, and W. A. Mozart’s Per questa bella mano, concert aria for bass and double bass, with the BMC Orchestra, all under the baton of David Effron. In Houston, he was also a frequent soloist, singing repertoire ranging from Jesus in J. S. Bach’s Johannes-Passion to contemporary composer H.K. Gruber’s Frankenstein. This fall, Wier performed Sparafucile in Verdi’s Rigoletto. Miroslaw Witkowski, bass, is a Barbara and David Jacobs Fellowship scholar from Nowy Sacz, Poland. He received his master’s degree from Music Academy in Łódz, Poland. Witkowski has won numerous awards and competitions throughout Europe, including the International Festival of Young Laureates of Music Competitions and the International Vocal Competition in Katowice (Poland), Hariclea Darclee International Voice Competition in Braila (Romania), International Antonín Dvořák Voice Competition in Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), National Song Competition in Cracow, and recently was the winner of the 41st Annual National Society of Arts and Letters Voice Competition. He has sung the bass roles in J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor and W. A. Mozart’s Sollenes de Confessore. Before coming to study at IU, he sang in Schubert’s Conspirator and Eugene Onegin in Aix-en Provence Opera Festival in France, as well as sang the roles of Don Basilio in Barbiere di Siviglia and Ariodate in Handel’s Xerxes in The Grand Theatre in Lodz. With the IU Opera Theater, he has performed the roles of Commendatore in Don Giovanni, The Bonze in Madama Butterfly, and in February 2008, he will sing the role of Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro. In 2003, he was the Young Artist  with the  Oper-Oder-Spree Festiwal in Beeskow Germany. This summer he was a Resident Artist with Cincinnati Opera, where he performed the role of Wagner in Faust. Witkowski is pursuing his Performer Diploma under the tutelage of Timothy Noble. Schaunard, a musician Adonis Duque Abuyen, baritone, a native of Bakersfield, CA, has recently begun coursework towards his doctoral degree. Abuyen completed his Bachelor of Music degree at Chapman University, under the tutelage of Peter Atherton. At Chapman, he was seen in many opera productions, including Die Zauberflöte as Papageno and Gianni Schicchi as Simone. Other roles performed in Southern California include Figaro in W. A. Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro and Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors. A former student of Giorgio Tozzi, Abuyen made his IU Opera Theater debut as a master’s student in 2005, performing Javelinot in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites. Later that year, he traveled to Italy, where he was seen as Bartolo in Operafestival di Roma’s production of Le nozze di Figaro. A student of Patricia Stiles, he was recently seen with IU Opera Theater as Peter, the father, in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and as Abbate Cospicuo in Busoni’s Arlecchino. Mark Davies, baritone, is a first-year master’s student, pursuing a degree in vocal performance. This marks his debut with IU Opera Theater. He received a Bachelor of Music in piano performance from Michigan State University in the spring of 2007. With the Michigan State Opera Theatre, Davies performed Luther in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Bobby in Kurt Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel. He is a student of Timothy Noble. Benoit, their landlord / Alcindoro, a state councilor Joseph “Bill” Kloppenburg, bass-baritone, is a first-year master’s student studying with Dale Moore. He recently received his undergraduate degree in music education at the IU Jacobs School of Music. Kloppenburg made his operatic debut with the IU Opera Theater as the Sergeant in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia and was most recently seen as Elder McLean in Susannah. He has been involved in several choirs in and around Bloomington and recently helped create the role of Friar Laurence in Don Freund’s musical adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. Texas native Chaz Nailor is currently pursuing a Doctor of Music degree in Voice Performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His artistic versatility has allowed him to portray roles in such operatic genres ranging from the Baroque to the 20th Century. In addition, Nailor has been featured in principal roles of the musical theater genre, including Mr. Bumble of Oliver and Uncle Vince of The Token, which had its world premiere in the fall of 2005. With over a decade of operatic stage experience, he has worked with The University of Texas Opera Theater, Lyric Opera San Antonio, and most recently, IU Opera Theater. His roles range from Argante of Handel’s Rinaldo to Belcore of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, extending to Junius of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. Chaz’s most recent performance with this theater was his role as Count Lamoral in Strauss’s Arabella. He has performed, with equal adeptness, for the concert stage as baritone soloist in Handel’s Messiah, W. A. Mozart’s Requiem, J. S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor, Beethoven’s Mass in C Minor, Vaughan Williams’ Mass in G Minor, Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, and Faure’s Requiem. Nailor is under the tutelage of Andreas Poulimenos, and he is sponsored as a recipient of the T.I.S. Tichenor Foundation Scholarship through the Society of the Friends of Music. He will perform again with the IU Opera Theater in its spring 2008 production of W. A. Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro. Mimi, a seamstress Joanna Ruszała graduated from the Academy of Music in Katowice, Poland, where she studied with H. Januszewska’s class and received a Master of Music later becoming a member of the voice faculty. Ruszała’s awards include the VIII International Ada Sari Competition of Vocal Art in Nowy Sącz (Poland), where she won the Second Prize and a Special Prize for Outstanding Soprano. She was also a laureate of Polish Vocal Competitions in Duszniki Zdrój and in Katowice, where she received a Special Prize from the artistic director of Silesian Philharmonics. Ruszała has given recitals and opera performances in Italy, Czech Republic, Lithuania, and Bulgaria, where she made her operatic debut as Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, which was held in Varna State Opera. Among her roles are W. A. Mozart’s Der Schauspiel Direktor and concert versions of Verdi’s La traviata, Donizetti’s L’elisir d’Amore and Don Pasquale, Delibes’ Lakme, Gounod’s Faust, and Moniuszko’s Flis. In the fall of 2006, she sang the role of Donna Anna in IU's Don Giovanni. In addition, Ruszała has performed oratorios and masses with the National Orchestra of Polish Radio and with many other Polish Philharmonics. Currently, she is pursuing her Performer Diploma and studying with Teresa Kubiak. Soprano Jung Nan Yoon was born in South Korea and received her Bachelor of Arts at Korea National University. Her operatic debut was at the Seoul Art Center Opera Theater as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. She has also performed the roles of La Contessa in Le nozze di Figaro at Seoul Art Center and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at Opera Gala. Yoon has been a soloist in Handel’s Messiah and has won numerous awards, including the Bain Scholarship Competition in 2007, the National Society of Arts and Letters “Donald Felton Memorial Award” in 2007, the Granprix in the Um Jung Haeng Voice Competition, first prize in the Nan pa Music Competition, and first prize in the Ho nam Art Competition. Most recently seen at IU in the title role of Madama Butterfly, Yoon is in the second year of her Performer Diploma and studies with Costanza Cuccaro. Musetta, friend of Marcello Rebecca Fay is a three-time award recipient in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, including a District win in 2005. In addition to numerous awards and scholarships, Rebecca was recently chosen to be a Seattle Opera Guild artist and has received a generous grant to further her musical studies. Originally a French horn player, she has gladly transitioned to her place in the musical world as a vocalist. She has performed extensively throughout the Northwest including engagements with the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Olympia Symphony, the Tacoma Concert Band, and the Lake Union Civic Orchestra. She began her graduate studies at the University of Washington and is finishing her master’s degree here at Indiana. At the UW, she sang the roles of Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Marianne in Tartuffe, and was a frequent soloist with the University orchestra. During her undergraduate studies at the University of Puget Sound, she won the Concerto/Aria Competition with Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Her operatic roles at UPS included Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus and Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. Here at IU, Rebecca participated in a Schubert recital under the direction of Roger Vignoles and was asked to sing in another Schubert recital in collaboration with revered conductor, Raymond Leppard. Last spring, she prepared the role of Musetta from La bohéme with Martina Arroyo. Most recently, she appeared as Mrs. Hayes in Susannah. Rebecca is a student of Carol Vaness. A native of Chicago, Laura Waters is currently a junior pursuing a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance. The soprano has appeared in IU Opera Theater’s productions of Manon and Arabella as a member of the chorus. This is her début role with IU Opera Theater. Waters is a student of Teresa Kubiak.