Presents

By Gioacchino Rossini

Music Director

Stephen Karr

Directed and Designed by

Josh Shaw

Stage Manager Kaitrin Kinnare Costumes by Maggie Green

Assistant Conductor Zach Neufeld Assistant Costumer Vanessa Stewart

Starring

Bernardo Bermudez as Figaro Meagan Martin as Rosina Sergio Gonzalez as Count Almaviva E. Scott Levin as Don Bartolo

Phil Meyer as Don Basilio Melinda Ehrlich as Berta Kevin Blickfeldt as Fiorello Chris Anderson-West as The Sergeant

Elizabeth Kerstein as Rosina Cover William Grundler, John-David Wiese, & Matthew Ian Welch Chorus

POP Board of Directors

Phil Meyer, Chairman Juliet Brown, Secretary Kelsey Shaw, Treasurer

Stephen Karr Bruce Merritt Josh Shaw Kathy Crandall

Judy Townsend William Kennedy

Hats Off to Our POP Family

$5000 Smoking Jacket Penny Donnelly & William Kennedy

$2500 Monocle Phil Meyer

$1000 Ascot Amanda Boesche, Stuart & Rebecca Bowne Anne Flett, Eric Fütterer, Paul R. Gurian, Scott Haller, Janet Lauprecht, Bruce & Valerie Merritt, Kyle Patterson, Robert Robinson, Adelaide Sinclair & Chloe Smart

$500 Wingtips Wendy Arano, Julie Boyd, Brian Carroll, Sharon & Rick Ellingsen, Deborah Gero, Judith Hopkins, William Ireland, Morency Maxwell, William Mosby, Anette Ostergaard, Myra Rosen, Mimi Rotter,

Barbara Schufreider, Laura Scott-Sellers, Daniel Shapiro, James Standish, Jeanne Waldman, Robert Webb, Ted Williams & Joann Zajac

$250 Bowler Hat Benjamin Barnes, Juliet Brown, Elizabeth Clark, Scott Cruit, Patricia DiStefano, W. Allan Edmiston, MD, Angie

Hougen, Robert P. Khoury, Kathryn Lane, Aiden Lawrence & Brigitta Troy, Candida League, Daniel Marjoros & Richard Reeves, Michael Melton, William Mosby, Carole Roback, Peter Rutenberg & Michael Weiss

$100 Tweed Vest Bruce Anderson, Jacoba Atlas, Robert & Jona Bailey, Colin Barnes, Susan Bienkowski, Fay Blair, Mary Bosak, Heidi Brantley, Linda

Bridges Karr, Jason Coleman, John Coudures, Frederick Dear, Michael Deck, Carol Donlan, John Elliot, Virginia Fawcett, Colin Gibson, Tom & Sarah Hensley, David Hurwitz, Janet Jack, Robert Kieft, Rosalie Kornblau, William & Mary Lewis, Judy Lieb,

Penelope Low, Marjana Mahnovski, Susan Malinowski, Fred Manaster, Myron Meisel, Barbara Merkle, Thomas Metzler, Britta Millard, Amy Miller, Penni Montalbano, Margaret Mostue, Michael Newman, Susan Phifer, Arthur Rieman, Roger Rindge, Marilyn Robertson, Kenneth Robins, Lawrence Rubinstein, Frank & Susan Ruch, Jain Sekular, Robert Shetland, Suzanne Siegel, Susanne

Spangler, Rhoads Stephenson, Kathryn Sturdevant, Clarissa Troop, Mary Irene Ujda, Marie Vester, Hannah Waldman, Jacquelyne Wallace, Jennifer Weiss, Monika Whitaker, Sally White, Ian White-Thomson, Robert Woods & Yoko Yamaguchi

$50 Handlebar Mustache Luvi Avendano, Danilo Bach, Alice Bennett, Rubino Bustamante, Mark Carlson, Eric Castro, Mona Cedar, Dana Chin, Ralph Ellis,

Jennifer & Michael Frain, Joseph & Danielle Gangestad, Louise Ghandhi, Joy Gilham, Amy Inouye, Elizabeth Jones, Yousif Kamal, Arnold Karr, Clare Kiklowicz, Gina Kim, Enid LaGesse, Jefferson Lanz, Heather Littell, Marguerite Marsh, Tani Mathias, Kelly

McCune, Sara McGah, Martha Jo Morehouse, Emily Murray, Thomas Ozanich, John G. Paton, Steven Popko, Ashley Postelwaite, Steven Sailer, Rich Silverman, Jane Szabo, Matthew Welch & Timothy Wright

Special Thanks David Kasunic and Occidental College | Martha Benedict Photography

Blüthner piano generously provided by Kasimoff-Blüthner Piano Co., Hollywood Housing for artists graciously provided by Colin Gibson and Mr. & Mrs. Reg & Maggie Green

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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.

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

The Barber of Seville is supported, in part, by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Bernardo Bermudez (Figaro) Venezuelan American lyric baritone Bernardo Bermudez, started his musical education at The Conservatory of Music Juan Manuel Olivares, in Caracas Venezuela. Currently living in the United States, his operatic roles performed include Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia), Stanley Kowalski (A Streetcar Named Desire), Silvio (I Pagliacci), Escamillo and El Dancairo (Carmen), Valentin (Faust), Belcore (L’elisir d’amore), the title role in Don Giovanni, Papageno (Die Zauberflöte), Count Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Vidal Hernando (Luisa Fernanda), Schaunard (La

bohème), Aeneas (Dido & Aeneas), Melchior (Amahl and The Night Visitors), Mercurio (L’incoronazione di Poppea), Teniente Cantalapiedra (Cecilia Valdes), Count Capulet (Romeo et Juliette), Marullo (Rigoletto), as well as Morald in the North America stage premier of Richard Wagner’s Die Feen, as part of Los Angeles Opera’s Ring Festival. He participated as a voice fellow at The Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara California under the direction of famous American Mezzo Soprano Marilyn Horne, as well as Opera North in New Hampshire under the direction of Louis Burkot. He received 1st place in NATS LA singing competition, 1st place winner in AEIOU, 39th Annual Opera Scholarship and Competition, finalist in the Burbank Philharmonic Hennings-Fischer Opera Competition, recipient of the Anne and Michael Towbes Scholarship in Voice, Opera Buffs Grant recipient, semifinalist in the Loren L. Zachary National Vocal Competition, recipient of the Doug Acker Memorial Vocal Scholarship, and 2nd place winner in the Virginia Hawk Vocal Competition.

Meagan Martin (Rosina) Praised for her “liquid mezzo,” Meagan Martin is rapidly gaining notice as an enthralling young artist in the world of classical singing. She is thrilled to return to POP as Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia after debuting with the company in the same role in an outreach presentation in 2013, shortly thereafter making her mainstage debut as Mercédès in Carmen. Additional roles performed include Dorabella and Despina (Così fan tutte), Carmen (The Tragedy of Carmen), Luisa Fernanda (Luisa

Fernanda), and Cherubino (I due Figaro).

Enthusiastic about new music, Meagan has sung for composers William Bolcom, Jake Heggie, Libby Larsen and John Musto. She recently appeared as Amadora in Musto's Bastianello and as the saucy title character in Bolcom's Lucrezia. In June she performed the world premiere of Marianne Dashwood: Songs of Love and Misery, a song cycle inspired by Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility with music by Aferdian Stephens and poetry by Marella Martin Koch.

An alumna of Houston Grand Opera's Young Artists Vocal Academy, Meagan has pursued advanced training in Europe and across the U.S. with Silvana Bazzoni Bartoli, Teresa Berganza, Vladimir Chernov, W. Stephen Smith, Renee Sousa and Olga Toporkova.

Her 2016-2017 season includes the title role in Massenet’s Cendrillon and Fanny Price in Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park, directed by Peter Kazaras at Opera UCLA, where she is continuing her studies with Vladimir Chernov. She completed her M.M. in Vocal Performance and B.A. in German at UCLA, graduating summa cum laude.

Sergio gonzalez (Count Almaviva) Sergio González, tenor, received his Master’s degree under the tutelage of César Ulloa at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he also earned his Bachelor’s degree. He recently was seen as Belmonte in Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with The Mendocino Music Festival. In 2015 he returned to Des Moines Metro Opera as an apprentice artist for his second season, covering the role of Giovanni in Catan's La hija de

Rappaccini. González was also recently a young artist with Opera Santa Barbara for two seasons where he covered Fenton in Verdi's Falstaff and Lindoro in Rossini's L'italiana in Algeri. In 2013, he performed the role of Ernesto with North Bay Opera in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, which role he also covered with Arizona Opera in 2014. He performed the title role in Britten’s Albert Herring and Ferrando in Mozart's Così fan tutte in 2011 with the Green Mountain Opera Festival. He returned to Kentucky Opera in 2014 to sing Benvolio and cover Tybalt in Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette under the baton of Maestro Emmanuel Plasson. Other roles include Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte with Maestro Giuseppe Finzi, Rinuccio in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Tamino in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. He will be reprising the role of Ernesto in Donizetti's Don Pasquale with Island City Opera in 2017.

E. Scott Levin (Don Bartolo) 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 fourteen 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. Last season he made his debut at Townsend/Fresno Opera as the Sacristan in Tosca and his Los Angeles Opera mainstage debut as Dr. Spinelloccio in Gianni Schicchi, starring Plácido Domingo, now available on DVD. 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, KoKo in The Mikado, Maestro Biscroma Strappaviscere in Viva la mamma!, and Baron Zeta in The Merry Widow (Widder).

Phil Meyer (Don Basilio) Having appeared in POP’s original production of The Barber of Seville, Phil Meyer is delighted to be squeezing once again into Basilio’s skin-tight leopard pants. Phil’s opera repertory consists of Bad Guys, Old Guys and Funny Guys. For Pacific Opera Project, Phil has played the alcoholic Impresario in Donizetti’s Viva la mamma! (Funny Guy); a narcoleptic Pistola in Falstaff (Funny Guy); the title role in Sweeney Todd (Bad Guy); Osmin in the Star Trek themed Abduction from the Seraglio (Old Guy/Funny Guy/Bad Guy); PooBah in The Mikado (Funny Guy); and Sam in

Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti (Bad 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); the title role in Don Pasquale (Funny, Old, Bad Guy) with the Angel City Opera; 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, teaches in the School of Social Work at USC, and is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist in private practice.

Melinda ehrlich (Berta) Described by the Long Beach Grunion Gazette as “astonishing, a large, gleaming soprano secure from top to bottom and thrilling to hear” in the role of Vitellia from Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito, Melinda Ehrlich is quickly establishing herself as a voice to hear in Southern California and beyond. In 2016, Melinda debuted with Angel City Opera as Norina in Don Pasquale and with the critically-acclaimed Monkey Town residency. She also appeared as a soloist with the Nova Vocal Ensemble and as a dancing grisette in POP's The Merry Widow (Widder).

Comfortable with both operatic and musical theatre repertoire, the 2014 LA International Liszt Competition winner appeared in the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival's nominee for best musical Annabella after appearing in the Stage RAW awarded 2015 Best Musical production of Sweeney Todd at the El Portal Theatre, where she also performed in POP's Star Trek-inspired Abduction from the Seraglio. Upcoming roles include Juliette in Gounod's Romeo et Juliette with Center Stage Opera in February 2017. Melinda has also appeared with Long Beach Opera, Pacific Symphony, and Repertory Opera, and her repertoire includes roles such as Micaela in Bizet's Carmen, Violetta in Verdi’s La traviata, and the title role in Suor Angelica.

Kevin Blickfeldt (Fiorello) Kevin Blickfeldt continues to make an indelible impression upon the operatic and crossover music scenes of North America. Following his successful debut as Maximilian in Candide with Pasadena Opera in January 2015, Kevin began his 2015-16 season with a return to the Pasadena Opera as Elder Ott in Carlisle Floyd’s Susannah. In February of 2016, Kevin debuted the role of Mother in the West Coast premiere of the piano and percussion version of Kurt Weill's Seven Deadly Sins. On the concert stage, he has given recitals in Buenos Aires and

Salto, Argentina, and this August, made his debut recital with the Orcas Island Chamber Music Festival. Last season Kevin also collaborated on an original cast recording of Windy City, to be released on the Operetta Archives Foundation label in 2017.

Kevin made his debut with the Los Angeles Opera in 2013 under the baton of Music Director James Conlon in performances of Prodigal Son. Additional recent engagements include El General in Xavier Rodríguez’s La Curandera, and as Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale at the Opera Park Festival in Austria.

Kevin was recently featured on America’s Got Talent as a member of the operatic quartet VOX. In the months since the show’s airing, the group has garnered over 3 million YouTube views and has presented performances across the United States and Canada. In December, VOX will headline the LA Dream Orchestra’s Holiday Concert, followed by an eight-city tour of the US and Canada in 2017.

ChrisTopher Anderson-West (The Sergeant) Christopher majored in Voice and studied Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He has had the great privilege of performing in England, France, Italy and China as well as around the United States. Christopher first performed in the Los Angeles area as a member of the Chorus with Los Angeles Opera for productions of Verdi’s Otello and Beethoven’s Fidelio.

Favorite roles performed to date are Canio in Leoncavallo’s I pagliacci, Don José in Bizet’s Carmen, Il duca di Mantova in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and Tsar Berendey in the United States premiere of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snegurochka at Harvard University. Over the past year and half, Christopher has performed the following roles: Turiddu in Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana, Ferrando in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Alfred in two separate productions of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, Palmer Pritschitsch in Pacific Opera Project’s The Merry Widow (Widder) by Lehar, again with Pacific Opera Project as Freddie Freecoin in The Impresario: half of their Mozart vs. Salieri battle royale, Don José in Carmen and lastly Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata.

Next on Christopher’s horizon is a debut in the title role of Hoffmann in “Les contes d’Hoffmann”, by Jacques Offenbach.

Elizabeth Kerstein (Rosina Cover) Mezzo-soprano Elizabeth Kerstein is rapidly gaining recognition for her riveting stage presence and a musical sophistication beyond her years. 2015-16 was an exciting season: After winning the Young Musicians Foundation Los Angeles scholarship competition in October, she began singing with Pacific Opera Project (The Merry Widow (Widder) & The Rake’s Progress). During summer 2016 she sang Hedwige in Rossini's Guillaume Tell at the Southern Illinois Music Festival, only the fourth full presentation of the opera in the USA in the past century.

Elizabeth's operatic repertoire ranges from classical to contemporary, her favorite past roles including Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Nancy (Albert Herring), and The Lady With A Hatbox (Postcard From Morocco). In 2013, she was a young artist at Lorin Maazel’s Castleton Festival. From 2012-2015, while still in graduate school, she was also a proud member of the Lyric Opera Baltimore and Baltimore Concert Opera choruses. A passionate proponent of art song, Elizabeth spent summers 2014 and 2015 on scholarship at SongFest, Los Angeles’s esteemed art song festival. There, she was privileged to work with renowned artists including Dawn Upshaw, John Musto and Sanford Sylvan. She is also devoted to researching and performing contemporary Jewish music; her last recital on this topic was presented by Johns Hopkins University.

Elizabeth studied at the Peabody Conservatory (MM) and St. Olaf College (BM) and is a recipient of the Charles M. Eaton Voice Award and two Peabody Career Grants. She studies with Susanne Mentzer.

Josh ShaW, Artistic Director Josh Shaw is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Pacific Opera Project. Since turning his attention to directing in 2011, he has directed nearly 50 operas, including all 22 POP productions, for which he also designed and built the sets. 2016 has been a particularly busy year with four revivals of his “Star Trek” Abduction from the Sergalio including POP’s sold out night at The Ford Amphitheater in Hollywood, and productions at Opera Piccola San Antonio, Festival Opera in Oakland, CA and Salt Marsh Opera in CT. 2016 began with POP’s wildly

successful Wild West reimagining of The Merry Widow, for which Mr. Shaw wrote a new book and libretto. In March he did another rewrite for Mozart’s The Impresario, which was paired with Salieri’s Prima la musica, e poi le parole. Over the summer he directed Rossini’s grand opera Guillaume Tell at The Southern Illinois Music Festival before returning to POP to direct last month’s critically acclaimed The Rake’s Progress.

Josh has been on staff at Opera Neo in San Diego for the past four seasons where he has directed multiple productions and events and has served as Principal Stage Director, Head of Production, and Director of Community Events. He is the resident director of The Southern Illinois Music Festival where he has directed productions of Carmen, Lucia di Lammermoor, Abduction from the Seraglio, and one of the few fully-staged productions of Rossini’s grand opera Guillaume Tell. For Chamber Opera Players of Los Angeles he has directed and designed productions of Il segretto 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).

Other recent directorial projects include Tosca: A moving production, La bohème AKA “The Hipsters”, La Calisto, The Turn of the Screw, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro, The Mikado, Così fan tutte, Trouble in Tahiti, Sweeney Todd, Ariadne auf Naxos, Falstaff, Viva la mamma! and Don Giovanni with POP; The Medium for Redlands Opera Theatre; Cavalleria rusticana and I pagliacci with the Celestial Opera Company; and Madama Butterfly with Salt Marsh Opera.

Upcoming projects outside of POP include directing and writing a new book and additional lyrics for the 1894 American operetta, “Tabasco, A Burlesque Opera” which will premiere at New Orleans Opera in 2018, directing Don Giovanni at the Southern Illinois Music Festival and Salt Marsh Opera, and directing Gianni Schicchi at Salt Marsh Opera.

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, Los Angeles Metropolitan Opera, Intimate Opera Company, The Celestial Opera Company, and Opera Pasadena. He has toured the United States with the Pasadena-based Gilbert & Sullivan troupe, Opera à 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. In conjunction with the Los Angeles Ring Festival in 2010, he sang the lead role of Arindal in Lyric Opera of Los Angeles’ U.S. staged premiere of Richard Wagner’s first opera, Die Feen, of which the LA Times said, “…tenor Josh Shaw revealed a grasp of the heroic potential and temporary madness of Arindal.”

Mr. Shaw is a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University and Southern Illinois University, with a master’s degree in Opera/Music Theater. More information at www.joshshaw.org or www.pacificoperaproject.com

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, Cosi ! fan tutte, Sweeney Todd, La bohe !me, Le nozze di Figaro, The Turn of the Screw, La Calisto (LA premiere), Tosca, Ariadne auf Naxos and The Rake's Progress. The LA Times hailed his leadership of the Stravinsky as keeping orchestra, cast and chorus on "well-articulated rhythmic track."

In addition to his work with POP, Stephen has been on the music staff of opera companies across the US, including Des Moines Metro

Opera’s OPERA Iowa tour, the Glimmerglass Festival, Opera New Jersey, Opera Santa Barbara and Palm Beach Opera 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 for performances and classes in Rotterdam.

Stephen’s repertoire includes some fifty operas, 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. 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 continues his work on the opera faculty this year. 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.

Kaitrin Kinnare is the company manager for Pacific Opera Project and has stage-managed their past twelve productions. As a free-lance stage manager, she has worked across the United States with companies such as Opera UCLA, Northern Lights Music Festival, Opera Neo, Festival Opera and Salt Marsh Opera. Kaitrin graduated with a BA in Film Production and a minor in Business Studies from Emerson College in 2010 and worked at NBC Universal Television Studios and Warner Bros. Pictures prior to pursuing a career in live theatrical production.

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 with their first big production, Sweeney Todd. She has costumed every show since, making The Barber of Seville her seventeenth show!

TROUBLE IN TAHITI JULY 2011 & MARCH 2012 POP opens with this little known Bernstein gem. 5 cast members and a piano. Four sold-out shows in Santa Monica and Studio City. The revival was at The Miles Memorial Playhouse. COSI FAN TUTTE MAY 2012 POP was gone with the wind in this antibellum take on Cosi. Two casts opened the brand new Porticoes Art Space for 4 packed (and un-airconditioned) performances. POP's first take on setting opera to classic film and television, a convention which has served us well since.

DON GIOVANNI OCTOBER 2011 POP's first show with orchestra. Two casts sang five performances total at The Miles Memorial Playhouse in Santa Monica. SWEENEY TODD OCTOBER 2012 In a move of genius stupidity POP, barely a year old, decided to produce one of the most complicated shows in all of music theater history. An unqualified success with two casts, a large chorus, orchestra and 7 sold-out performances, Sweeney proved to be a risk well worth taking. The production opened at Porticoes and moved to The Miles.

LA BOHEME AKA "THE HIPSTERS" NOVEMBER 2012 DECEMBER 2014 Likely the most important production in POP history, La boheme was almost an after-thought during Sweeney. The production was rehearsed for 4 days and opened the week after Sweeney with three sold out shows. Boheme gave us our brand (and mascot) and was the first show with table seating. This revival was nearly sold-out a month ahead of time. The hipsters returned to the Ebell Club for five performances with 43 tables. LE NOZZE DI FIGARO MAY 2013 POP concluded the DaPonte Trilogy and continued the Figaro story with this Scarface inspired production. Two casts, a large chorus, and small orchestra opened in Pasadena and moved to The Miles in Santa Monica. THE TURN OF THE SCREW JANUARY 2014 TTOTS was another risk that paid off for POP. The most expensive production to date, Screw proved that POP could do more than comedy. An all-star cast and an expanded orchestra frightened audiences right out of their seats for 5 performances at the Rosenthal Theatre at Inner-city Arts. This was the first to attract the LA Times and was part of LA Opera's Britten 100 Celebration. LA CALISTO MAY 2014 No one was more surprised than us when an opera from 1653 became POP's biggest success to date. Six performances sold-out with standing room only and added tables. A small period orchestral ensemble was added to the POP-Up format for the Ebell Club. A Los Angeles premiere, this bawdy show was a riot and captured the original Carnival atmosphere. The show included running water, special effects, a merry go round, slides, a see-saw, and many, many furry satyr penises. People liked it... ABDUCTION FROM THE SERAGLIO MARCH 2015 & SEPTEMBER 2016 POP went to a whole new level with this Sci-fi hit. The production sold out a week before opening at the beautiful 360 seat El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood. A full orchestra and cast of over 40 launched this production that swept the nation. The production made its return to a sold-out audience at the newly renovated Ford Amphitheater for one night only in September 2016. Quite simply, Abduction at the Ford was the biggest night in POP history with a cast of 40+ singing and dancing Klingons, Alien Slave Girls, and a full orchestra.

BARBER OF SEVILLE MARCH 2013 A perfect follow up for Boheme, Barber was back at the Ebell Club of Highland Park for 5 sold-out performances. Once again set in current day LA, this production expanded on the "POP-Up" model with more tables and a small chorus (that tripled in size for one scene when every guy was equipped with a dummy on each side). Barber also had our first "official" children's performance with 250 school kids cramming into the Club for a matinee. THE MIKADO SEPT 2013 The Mikado was an enormous hit with POP audiences selling out 9 performances between Pasadena and Santa Monica. Two casts, an amazing chorus, and an expanded orchestra wowed audiences in crazy harajuku inspired costumes designed by Maggie Green. The updated lyrics in several songs continued POP's idea of not taking ourselves too seriously. This is one production that will definitely be back before too long! CARMEN MARCH 2014 Everybody loves Carmen and it showed in this production. We pushed the limits of "POP-Up" Productions in this show with an enormous cast and chorus. The stage was built out on all sides at the Ebell Club and surrounded the audiences for five sold-out nights. Carmen was a party for sure! TOSCA: A Moving Production SEPTEMBER 2014 POP took over the entire campus of St. James Methodist for a month recreating the original locations of the story. A 22 piece orchestra, cast of 50, and the entire 200 person audience moved each act starting in the sanctuary of St. James, moving to Porticoes Theater, and finishing outside in the courtyard where the audience watched the action up on the roof. Tosca actually jumped off! All 6 shows sold-out and many were turned away. Tosca was a new level of production value for POP. ARIADNE AUF NAXOS MAY 2015 Back at the Ebell Club, Ariadne was another smashing success. The talented cast was a combination of POP regulars as well as some talented new-comers we hope to keep around for shows to come. Featuring beautiful handmade costumes a la the early 1900's, power-wielding gods, actual moving waves and magical mermaids this show was a new level of technical and artistic prowess for POP.

FALSTAFF SEPTEMBER 2015 POP presented our first fully-staged outdoor performance, complete with orchestra and a chorus of fairy adults and children, atop Forest Lawn Cemetary in Glendale. Just as Falstaff does in the show, the set survived a storm and went on to entertain four sold-out audiences. THE MERRY WIDDER MARCH 2016 A new English Book and libretto updated this beloved operetta to 1860s Gold Country, CA. The Ebell Club of Highland Park was flipped on end when a double decker set was built at the back of the house. An 18 piece orchestra was positioned behind the set, which led to a fantastic balance between singers and the orchestra. The Widder sold out seven per performances over three weekends!

VIVA LA MAMMA! NOVEMBER 2015 Viva la mamma! transported the Ebell Club to the 1980's, complete with a Moonwalk, teased hair, skateboarding, a Walkman, you name it! The story was much closer to present day POP as it focuses on a small opera company trying to put on a show and running into every hurdle possible. Also featuring a baritone in a dress as the nominal Mamma, this show was a hit for sure. THE IMPRESARIO & PRIMA LA MUSICA, E POI LE PAROLE APRIL 2016 POP hosted the ultimate duel: Mozart vs. Salieri at the South Pasadena Library THE RAKE'S PROGRESS SEPTEMBER 2016 POP joined forces with the Occidental College Glee Club for a massive production at Oxy’s Thorne Hall.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !The Golden Tone

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their contribution to the musical life of our community. Tonight's performance with the 6'10" Blüthner's "Golden Tone" will lift up our voices.