Don Giovanni: The Cast

Volume 14Fall 2014Newsletter

LUIS ALEJANDRO OROZCO as Don Giovanni Baritone, Mexican American baritone, Luis Alejandro Orozco was born in El Paso Texas, but raised in Juarez Chihuahua Mexico for most of his life. Orozco is as graduate of the artist diploma program at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. He has performed with such companies as Lake George Opera (Saratoga Opera), Opera Santa Barbara, Des Moines Metro Opera, and El Paso Opera, Cincinnati Opera, Lexington Philharmonic, Syracuse Opera, and Florida Grand Opera and Opera Theater of St Louis. In 2010 he was the winner of the Metropolitan Opera Tri State district, and obtained an encouragement award in 2011 in the Metropolitan Opera Four City District. He obtained a Bachelor of Music degree at The University of Texas at El Paso, and Master of Music degree from Cincinnati Conserva-tory of music, where he studied under the vocal instruction of William McGraw. For his full biography, please visit: http://www.luisalejandroorozco.com/

LUKE SCOTT as Leporello Luke Scott, a graduate of The Hartt School and Bel Canto Scholarship Foundation grant winner, was described by the Hartford Courant as a baritone with an attractive voice filled with rich and powerful resonances. Opera credits include Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, Opera on the Avalon, Malatesta in Don Pasquale, Salt Marsh Opera, Peter in Hansel und Gretel, Opera Theater of CT, Escamillo in Carmen, One World Symphony, Taddeo in L’Italiana in Algeri Taconic Opera, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Martina Arroyo foundation, the title roles in Gianni Schicchi and Don Giovanni, and as Bar-on Scarpia in Tosca, Connecticut Lyric Opera. Luke began this season as an artist in the Caramoor Bel Canto festival followed by opera engagements of Sharpless in Madame Butterfly, Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro, Basilio in Il Barbiere di siviglia, Leporello in Don Giovanni, and Marcello La Boheme. Mr. Scott has received awards from the Martina Arroyo Foundation, the American Prize in opera, Bel Canto Scholarship Foundation, Chautauqua Inst., Amici Foundation, Shreveport Opera Singer of the Year, Violetta Dupont Foundation, and Gerda Lissner Foundation.

LARA LYNN COTTRILL as Donna Anna Soprano, Lara Lynn Cottrill has been described as “a voice of size, clarity and wide coloristic range… a three-dimensional figure who combined vulnerability with strength and tugged at the heartstrings in her every breath and movement.” (Pittsburgh Post Gazette 2013) Ms. Cottrill recently performed Pamina with Undercroft Opera. During Opera Theater of Pittsburgh’s 2013 season, she portrayed Antonia in Tales of Hoffmann and Mamah in Shining Brow. She covered Frasquita in Carmen as an Apprentice Artist with Sarasota Opera and performed The Foreign Women in Menotti’s The Consul with Opera New Jersey. Other operatic roles include: Susannah in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah, her Pittsburgh Opera debut as Barbarina, Sandrina, Lauretta, Papagena, and Adina. Upcoming engagements include Alice Front in A New Kind of Fallout with Opera Theater of Pittsburgh. Awards include: 1st Place Winner of the 2014 Coeur d’Alene Symphony Competition, 2014 Finalist of JTVA Competition, 2013 2nd Prize Winner of the NOA Competition, 2011 Finalist for Opera Columbus, 2009 Winner of the Pittsburgh Concert Society, and 2005 First Place of Friends of Eastman Opera. Lara graduated with her master’s from Eastman School of Music and her bachelor’s from University of Miami. Her recital appearances include the eastern United States, Idaho, Italy, Austria, and South Africa.

TIMOTHY CULVER as Don Ottavio Tenor, Timothy Culver, has become a staple in the Great Lakes music scene. He has been described as being a “rich but penetrating tenor” and that he “faces florid tenor writing with a fearless vivacity.” Equally at home in both operatic and musical theatre works, Mr. Culver has performed with the Cleveland Opera, Lyric Opera Cleveland, Lansing Lyric Opera, Porthouse Theatre, Huron Playhouse and the Cleveland Orchestra. Some recent roles include Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Il duca di Mantua in Rigoletto, Alfredo in La Traviata, and Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore. During the inaugural season of the Opera Theatre of Lucca in Lucca, Italy, Mr. Culver performed and studied under the direction of internationally renowned baritone, Lorenzo Malfatti. A frequent recitalist, oratorio and concert soloist, Mr. Culver sang in the U.S. premiere of Erwin Schulhoff’s H.M.S. Royal Oak with the Cleveland Chamber Symphony. In 2002, Mr. Culver began as an Assistant Professor of Voice at the Hugh A. Blauser School of Music at Kent State University, where he earned both his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees. Currently, he resides in Stow, Ohio with his wife and three children.

DANIELLE MESSINA as Zerlina Soprano, Danielle Messina received her M.M in Voice Performance from CCM in the spring of 2011, where she performed as Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues of the Carmelites and Testo in Il Combattiemento di Tancredi e Clorinda. A native of Poughkeepsie, New York, Ms. Messi-na brings a wealth of experience and drama to her performances. This past spring, she was a Resident Artist with Toledo Opera, singing in the “Opera on Wheels” outreach program. Ms. Messina has also been an Apprentice Artist at Opera Saratoga in Saratoga Springs, NY. There, she was featured in many concerts, premiered the role of Little Red in Curt Tucker and Nelson Sheeley’s The Trial of B.B. Wolf, and sang the role of Lucy in Menotti’s one-act opera The Telephone. Recently, Ms. Messina performed the role of Musetta in Opera Columbus’ production of La Bohème. Ms. Messina joins the 2013/14 Kentucky Opera Studio Artist Program performing the role of Mary in The King’s Man (world premiere) and Musetta in La Bohème for the run-out performances in Owensboro, KY and Lafayette, IN. In January of 2014, Ms. Messina will make her main-stage debut with Opera Carolina in Charlotte, NC, as Nella in Gianni Schicchi.

We invite you to tune into WYSU-FM 88.5 on Monday evenings at 8PM for the NPR WORLD OF OPERA sponsored

in part by Opera Western Reserve.

Tickets for our upcoming production of Don Giovanni, Friday, November 14, 2014 are on sale now! Order your tickets by calling the Stambaugh Auditorium Box Office at (330)259-0555 or online at: www.stambaughauditorium.com

Remember! Individual Underwriters are entitled to complimentary tickets:

Supporter $250 2 tickets Orchestra Level Contributor $500 4 tickets Orchestra LevelDonor (and up) $1,000+ 8 tickets Orchestra Level

Don Giovanni: The Cast (Continued)MARIAN VOGEL as Donna Elvira Hailed as, “thrilling” ,“surprisingly powerful”, and “bursting with dramatic intensity” , lyric soprano, Marian Vogel has been recognized as a gifted performer both on the concert and on the operatic stage. She has debuted in Carnegie Hall under the baton of composer/conductor John Rutter performing both the Mozart Requiem and Rutter’s Magnificat. Ms. Vogel has performed on several occasions with the Cleveland Orchestra at Severance Hall, most recently in their groundbreaking production of “The Cunning Little Vixen”. Other notable concert appearances include: the Requiems of Verdi, Brahms, Mozart, Faure, and Rutter, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, La Petite Solenelle (Rossini), Re-gina Coeli (Mozart), Mozart’s Grand Mass in C Minor, the Poulenc Gloria, Exsultate Jubilate (Mozart), Les Nuits d’Ete (Berlioz), Knoxville Summer of 1915 (Barber), Four Last Songs (Strauss), Concert Suite from Porgy and Bess (Gershwin), and Carmina Burana (Orff). Described as “exquisite”, “vocally alluring”, and “irresistible“, Marian has toured extensively as a soloist, both in the United States and in Europe. Ms. Vogel is a two-time first prize winner of the Metropolitan Opera National Council District Auditions and the winner of the Belle O. Morse Young Artist Award given by Cleveland Opera and is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. Upcoming engagements include Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, Micaela in Carmen, and the soprano soloist in The Peacemakers.

MICHAEL YOUNG as Masetto and Commendatore Baritone,Michael Young, is a Cortland, OH native. He sang the role of Marcello in OWR’s production of La Boheme last year and Scarpia in their 2011 production of Tosca. He has performed with Central Ohio Symphony as the Baritone Soloist in Carmina Burana and the Corporal in Daughter of the Regiment with Dayton Opera. He graduated with his Bachelors and Masters of Music degree at the University of Cincinnati College Conser-vatory of Music. Mr. Young was awarded First Prize in the Junior Division at the 2010 Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition. Other roles that Mr. Young has performed include George Milton in Of Mice and Men, Herald in Otello, Musiklehrer in Ariadne aufNaxos, Papageno in Die Zauberflote,

L’Arbre in L’enfant et les sortligeges, and Apollo in L’Egisto.

Young Artists

ARTISTIC DIRECTION: Opera Western Reserve will present Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” as its 10th annual production at 7:30 PM in Stambaugh Auditorium on Friday, November 14th, 2014. The production will be conducted by OWR’s Music Director, Susan Davenny Wyner, with sets and stage direction by OWR Production Director, David Vosburgh. Ballet Western Reserve, under its Artistic Director, Stas Kmiek, will create the dances.

Opera Western Reserve’s Young Artists have had a wonderful summer. In June, they performed at a Summer Arts Academy for children in Lisbon. In July, the Young Artists entertained at Youngstown State University’s Summer Festival of the Arts followed by an outstanding performance at the Butler Art Museum, Howland branch. They wrapped up their summer with a performance at the Dana Vocal Clinic. As we enter this new school year, we would like to wish our Accompanist, Jan Crews, who is embarking on a new career, and our Young Artist, Emily Alcorn, who has been accepted into Grad School, the very best of luck! We welcome our new Music Director, Kathy Miller.

Introducing the Young Artists of 2014-2015

Robert Pierce, Baritone- Educational Outreach DirectorKathy Miller, Accompanist- Music DirectorKathleen Bacthel, SopranoVictor S. Cardamone, Tenor

Lauren Corcoran, SopranoRebecca Enlow, Soprano Patrick Niess, TenorKathie Steeb, Soprano

Get your tickets now!

Stambaugh Auditorium www.stambaughauditorium.com (330)259-0555

Ballet Western Reserve (330)744-1934

Stambaugh Chorus www.stambaughchorus.org

Youngstown State University Theater- (330)941-3105

Dana School of Music- (330)941-3105

The Rustbelt Theater Company www.facebook.com/rustbelttheater (330)507-2358

The Oakland Center for the Arts

www.oaklandcenter.com (330)746-0404

The Warren Philharmonic-(330)399-3606

The Victorian Players- (330)746-5455

The DeYor Performing Arts Center- (330)744-0264

The Youngstown Playhouse- (330)788-8739

Support Local Arts!

Opera Western Reserve is announcing a collaboration with other area organizations to present a ‘Don Juan Festival’ over a six week period from October 11 to November 14, culminating with the OWR performance of the opera Don Giovanni. Don Juan, as a character, is earthy and appealing. Don Juan appears in film, po-etry, plays, musical scores and operas. The Don Juan Festival events tell the Don Juan story in different artistic forms and will show audiences that a good story can be explored in different ways. The primary artistic goal is to eliminate cultural barriers and to stimulate arts audiences to think about how artists’ creative work reflects their times. The Don Juan Festival gives audiences an accessible story interpreted through different artistic media and creative viewpoints from the 1700s to the 1900s. Our secondary goal is to have fun. The Festival is supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council.

The event schedule is as follows. All venues are ADA accessible. • Youngstown State University’s McDonough Museum of Art will host two 40-minute dramatic readings of George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell (from ‘Man and Superman’) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 11 and on Sunday, October 12, 2014 in its 50-seat auditorium. This event is free and open to the public. Dramatic readers will be David Vosburgh, Dr. George McCloud, Matthew Mazuroski, and Elsa Higby. The readings will be recorded for later broadcast. Mr. Vosburgh and Dr. McCloud performed this reading in the past to much acclaim.

• WYSU-FM 88.5, public radio, will broadcast the dramatic reading of ‘Don Juan in Hell.’ Tenta-tive dates for the broadcast are Friday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m. or Sunday, October 19 at 6:00 p.m.

• The Warren Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Susan Davenny Wyner will per-form The Stone Guest’s Banquet by Christophe Gluck in its concert November 9 at 3:00 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, Reeves Road in Warren. Ticket prices are $27.00; $25 for seniors; $12 for students; and children under age 12 attend for free. Call 330-399-3606 to purchase tickets.

• Don Juan, the 1926 silent movie with John Barrymore and Mary Astor, will be shown at the Butler Institute of American Art on Sunday, October 19th at 1:00 p.m. The screening will occur in the Butler’s 100-seat auditorium. This event is free of charge.

• Stambaugh Auditorium will present aria highlights from Don Giovanni as part of its ‘Sundays at Stambaugh’ brunch performance series on Sunday, October 26 at 12:30 p.m. The cost is $25.00 for brunch and entertainment. Call the Stambaugh Auditorium box office at 330-259-0555 or order tickets online at Stambaughauditorium.com by October 23rd.

•Opera Western Reserve will present a fully staged production of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni with a live orchestra under the baton of Susan Davenny Wyner in the 2,552-seat Stambaugh Auditorium on November 14, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20-75. Tickets are available on line at Operawesternreserve. org or by calling the Stambaugh Auditorium box office at 330-259-0555.

Don Juan Festival

Become an Underwriter!

First Name Last Name

Address City/State/Zip Phone Number Email

Yes, I would like to become an Underwriter of Opera Western Reserve at the following Level:_____ Benefactor ($5,000+) _____ Sustainer ($2,500+) _____ Donor ($1,000+)_____ Contributor ($500+) _____ Supporter ($250+) _____ Friend ($100+)

Method of Payment_____ Check (Make Payable to: Opera Western Reserve) _____ Visa _____ Mastercard

Credit Card Number Expiration Date

Cardholder’s Name Signature

I am unable to become and Underwriter at this time, but have enclosed the following amount as a donation: Thank you for your gift! Please detach and return this form to: Opera Western Reserve, 1000 Fifth Avenue, Youngstown, OH 44504-1673 For gifts of $100 and up, make check payable to Youngstown Foundation Support Fund.

Don Giovanni: The Cast (Continued)

Young Artists

Robert Pierce, Baritone- Educational Outreach DirectorKathy Miller, Accompanist- Music DirectorKathleen Bacthel, SopranoVictor S. Cardamone, Tenor

Lauren Corcoran, SopranoRebecca Enlow, Soprano Patrick Niess, TenorKathie Steeb, Soprano

Stambaugh Auditorium www.stambaughauditorium.com (330)259-0555

Ballet Western Reserve (330)744-1934

Stambaugh Chorus www.stambaughchorus.org

Youngstown State University Theater- (330)941-3105

Dana School of Music- (330)941-3105

The Rustbelt Theater Company www.facebook.com/rustbelttheater (330)507-2358

The Oakland Center for the Arts

www.oaklandcenter.com (330)746-0404

The Warren Philharmonic-(330)399-3606

The Victorian Players- (330)746-5455

The DeYor Performing Arts Center- (330)744-0264

The Youngstown Playhouse- (330)788-8739

Support Local Arts!

Opera Western Reserve is announcing a collaboration with other area organizations to present a ‘Don Juan Festival’ over a six week period from October 11 to November 14, culminating with the OWR performance of the opera Don Giovanni. Don Juan, as a character, is earthy and appealing. Don Juan appears in film, po-etry, plays, musical scores and operas. The Don Juan Festival events tell the Don Juan story in different artistic forms and will show audiences that a good story can be explored in different ways. The primary artistic goal is to eliminate cultural barriers and to stimulate arts audiences to think about how artists’ creative work reflects their times. The Don Juan Festival gives audiences an accessible story interpreted through different artistic media and creative viewpoints from the 1700s to the 1900s. Our secondary goal is to have fun. The Festival is supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council.

The event schedule is as follows. All venues are ADA accessible. • Youngstown State University’s McDonough Museum of Art will host two 40-minute dramatic readings of George Bernard Shaw’s Don Juan in Hell (from ‘Man and Superman’) at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 11 and on Sunday, October 12, 2014 in its 50-seat auditorium. This event is free and open to the public. Dramatic readers will be David Vosburgh, Dr. George McCloud, Matthew Mazuroski, and Elsa Higby. The readings will be recorded for later broadcast. Mr. Vosburgh and Dr. McCloud performed this reading in the past to much acclaim.

• WYSU-FM 88.5, public radio, will broadcast the dramatic reading of ‘Don Juan in Hell.’ Tenta-tive dates for the broadcast are Friday, October 17 at 7:00 p.m. or Sunday, October 19 at 6:00 p.m.

• The Warren Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Susan Davenny Wyner will per-form The Stone Guest’s Banquet by Christophe Gluck in its concert November 9 at 3:00 p.m. at Christ Episcopal Church, Reeves Road in Warren. Ticket prices are $27.00; $25 for seniors; $12 for students; and children under age 12 attend for free. Call 330-399-3606 to purchase tickets.

• Don Juan, the 1926 silent movie with John Barrymore and Mary Astor, will be shown at the Butler Institute of American Art on Sunday, October 19th at 1:00 p.m. The screening will occur in the Butler’s 100-seat auditorium. This event is free of charge.

• Stambaugh Auditorium will present aria highlights from Don Giovanni as part of its ‘Sundays at Stambaugh’ brunch performance series on Sunday, October 26 at 12:30 p.m. The cost is $25.00 for brunch and entertainment. Call the Stambaugh Auditorium box office at 330-259-0555 or order tickets online at Stambaughauditorium.com by October 23rd.

•Opera Western Reserve will present a fully staged production of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni with a live orchestra under the baton of Susan Davenny Wyner in the 2,552-seat Stambaugh Auditorium on November 14, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20-75. Tickets are available on line at Operawesternreserve. org or by calling the Stambaugh Auditorium box office at 330-259-0555.

Don Juan Festival

Become an Underwriter!

1000 Fifth Avenue, Youngstown, OH 44504

Opera Western ReserveElliot Legow, Chairman

Susan Davenny Wyner, Music DirectorDavid L. Vosburgh, Production Director

Thank you to our Major Donors!Dr. Dominic & Helen Bitonte Family Foundation

Nancy Beeghly

Barbara Tinkham

Jonathan & Ayse Brown

Thomas Family Endowment of the Youngstown Area Jewish Foundation

Frances Schermer Charitable Trust

Frank & Pearl E. Gelbman Foundation

Walter & Caroline Watson Foundation

Dr. Michael and Mrs. Patricia Kavic

Dr. & Mrs. Albert Cinelli

Dr. Bruce Wilner

Dominion Foundation

Home Savings Charitable Foundation

Denise DeBartolo York