The Secret Marriage
With his eyes on the sizeable dowry that it would bring him, Count Robinson engages Paolino (secretary to Geronimo, a wealthy citizen of Bologna) to arrange a marriage between Robinson and Geronimo’s eldest daughter Elisetta. Geronimo is of course, thrilled at the idea that his daughter Elisetta would become a Countess.   On a trip to the home in a later scene however, Robinson becomes smitten with Carolina and tells Paolino he’d like to marry her instead of Elisetta, even if it means a smaller dowry. What Robinson does not realize is that Paolino is secretly already married to Carolina.

But none of that is important right now!

In this scene, the daughters along with their aunt Fidalma (who is also in love with Paolino) have just learned from their father, the exciting news that a Count is offering marriage to Elisetta.  Elisetta is quick to put on airs, prompting a bickering match over which aunt Fidalma presides.

“I am the oldest and it would behoove you to show me favor!” to which Carolina replies with a series of petulant, ironic curtsies.

L’enfant et les sortilèges
A child is sent to his room, to which he promptly lays waste. Knocking things over, tearing the room’s pastoral wallpaper, and destroying his favorite storybook about a princess and knight.  Just as he begins to realize the destruction he has wrought, it gets worse. Fire bounds out of the chimney to scold him (“I warm the good but burn the wicked!”), followed by the shepherd couple featured on the torn wallpaper (“The wicked child has torn apart our tender story!” We have lost our blue dog and red goat!”). As the shepherds leave, he is heartened by the appearance of his Princess.  Alas, too much damage has been done.

Don Pasquale
Don Pasquale is not pleased with his nephew Ernesto’s choice in the vivacious Norina as his future wife.  In an act of spite with a dash of mid-life crisis, Pasquale decides he himself will marry, writing off Ernesto as his beneficiary.  Pasquale’s doctor, Malatesta tells him he has found the perfect woman in his own sister.  However, Dr. Malatesta is loyal to Ernesto and decides to have some fun at Pasquale’s expense by enlisting Norina to pose as his sister - Pasquale’s potential bride-to-be.

In this scene, Norina has just received a farewell letter from the distraught, disinherited Ernesto, but not to worry…Malatesta comes to the rescue and the two hatch a plan to humiliate Pasquale and ensure that Ernesto and Norina remain together.

Iolanthe
The fairy Iolanthe, banished for life for marrying a mortal, is reinstated to the fairy world through popular fairy outcry.  They believe she has been punished long enough – 25 years in fact.  She proceeds to gather assistance from other fairies to help her half-mortal son Strephon, who is in love with the mortal, Phyllis.

Phyllis, the Lord Chancellor’s ward of court faces penal servitude for life if she marries without the Lord Chancellor’s consent, but Strephon advises against delay.  As it is, five and twenty Conservatives and five and twenty Liberal peers have already visited to “shoot over her grass plot” and “fish in her pond.”  Strephon insists they must act now.

Carousel
Carnival barker Billy Bigelow has just been fired by his jealous employer over his flirtation with local mill worker Julie Jordan.  Julie’s fascination with Billy and her decision to stay out with him past curfew ensures that she will lose her job as well.

Stephen Sondheim referred to this scene as “probably the singular most important moment in the evolution of contemporary musicals.” Up until Carousel’s premiere in 1945, musical theatre audiences were accustomed to the proverbial “love at first sight.” In Carousel however, put simply by Laurence Malson, “Julie and Billy couldn’t just proclaim some sort of adolescent unbridled affection for each other simply to move the plot forward; they were longing to tell each other their deepest feelings, but they were also, as Hammerstein eventually put it, “afraid and shy.”

Carmen
Don José has been quickly unraveling in his obsession with the defiantly unfettered Carmen.  A spat with Carmen concludes with a chilling glance from José, prompting an ominous feeling.  As Frasquita and Mercedes begin to read their tarot cards, Carmen reluctantly joins in and confirms her worst fear.  Each crucial turn of the tarot cards reveals her fate: “La mort.”

Annie Get Your Gun
Poor Frank.  He’s in love with Annie.  Annie is in love with him, but he just can’t accept the fact that the supernaturally gifted and skilled Annie is better at pretty much, well,… anything. In the leadup to the Governors Island shooting match, we see Frank’s last explosion of pride before he, at long last, is touched by the better angels of his nature.  Of course, it helps that Annie loses the match deliberately.

Rosenkavalier
In the poignant finale to Richard Strauss’s romantic comedy, Princess Marie Thérèse von Werdenberg surrenders to her young lover Octavian’s affection for a woman his own age, Sophie.  In this trio, each character sings an aside reflecting on their conflicting feelings on what is transpiring.  Sophie sings: “I want to kneel before her, but I also want to do her harm for I feel she gives him to me and takes him away at the same time.”  Octavian, seemingly unable to get a handle on anything other than his love for Sophie wants to ask Marie Thérèse simply, “Why am I shaking?” Marie Thérèse reflects on her vow that she would love Octavian enough to love his love for another woman. “He stands there with that new girl, and he will be happy in the way that any man could understand happiness.”

Stage Director - Keith Phares
Musical Director - Kevin Bylsma
Lighting Design - Keith W Hofacker
Assistant Stage Director - Katherine Pracht Phares
Stage Manager - Katherine Pracht Phares
BGSU Opera Theatre Coordinator - Kevin Bylsma
Technical Director - Keith W Hofacker
Opera Technical Staff - Alex Vickers, Bonnibel Walker, Hannah Merkel, Zach Ortega
Master Electrician - Jim Finkelmeier
Light Board Operator - Hannah Merkel
Costume coordinator - Keith Phares
Property Master - Keith Phares
Recording Engineers - Michael Laurello, Marco Mendoza, Janice Shieh
Box Office Manager - Story Moosa
Assistant Box Office Manager - Ore Ayoola
House Manager - Michael Berchert
House Staff - Students of MUS 099
Coordinator of Public Events - Theresa Clickner
Promotions/Publicity Staff - Jonathan Kroeger, Lindsay Uhrich
Poster Design - Lindsay Uhrich

Acknowledgments

BGSU Department of Theatre and Film
Kelly Mangan
Seung-A “Liz” Lee