Opera Company of Middlebury Reveals 2024–2025 Season

Opera Company of Middlebury’s 2024–2025 Youth Opera Season will involve over 170 teen singers and instrumentalists in 2024–2025 season productions. The season schedule features the ironic wit of operetta greats Gilbert and Sullivan, the tragic Aeneid-inspired story of Queen Dido, and well-loved melodies of Mozart. For most of these young musicians, this will be their first experience with the magic and variety of live opera. 

November 8–12, 2024: YOC’s after-school opera workshop program weaves scenes from Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas Iolanthe, Patience and The Mikado into an original script about podcast hosts debating the age-old question: “is it the music, or the text, that is most important?” The production, written and directed by bass Erik Kroncke, is led from the piano by YOC Music Director Mary Jane Austin. Experts in their field, the duo has led many Gilbert and Sullivan productions at Unadilla Theatre. “The political satire inherent in Gilbert and Sullivan’s works felt like a particularly appropriate companion to the Opera Company of Middlebury’s fall offerings of Derrick Wang’s Scalia/Ginsburg and Jorge Martin-Bujan’s ‘The Interlopers’,” says Sarah Cullins, YOC’s founder and OCM’s Director of Education and Outreach. 

December 13 & 14, 2024: This year marks the third annual “Dido and Aeneas Project,” a semester-long school residency program that uses the rehearsing and performing of Purcell’s iconic work to introduce opera to high school choral programs. The project was inaugurated two years ago at Burlington High School and then visited Colchester High School. This year’s project culminates in performances featuring soloists and the full choral programs of three Addison County high schools: Middlebury, Mt. Abraham and Vergennes Union High Schools. Under the leadership of choral directors Elizabeth LeBeau, Megan LaRose, and Cailin O’Hara respectively, each school is focused on an assigned portion of the opera. Weekly visits with director Sarah Cullins include discussions about the opera, the source works, vocal technique, character development, musical style and staging. “Out of the 140 participants, only 15 have seen live opera before,” remarks Cullins about this semester’s program. “When these 125 students step onto the stage at Mt. Abraham, it will be their first experience with live opera. To me, that is THE most powerful way to experience a ‘new’ artform!” Funding from Vermont Humanities, the Vermont Arts Council and the Morris and Bessie Altman Foundation have made

this unprecedented program possible, including the addition of teaching artists Ronnie Romano, pianist, and Jeffrey Buettner, conductor. 

April 11 –14, 2025: For their spring 2025 opera workshop, Youth Opera Company teams up with the Vermont Youth Orchestra, a long-time beacon of youth musical excellence in Vermont. Talented instrumentalists from the youth orchestra will join teen singers in a combined program featuring scenes from Mozart operas, including The Magic Flute, Cosi fan tutte and The Marriage of Figaro. Conducted by VYO Music Director Mark Alpizar and coached and accompanied at the piano by YOC Music Director Mary Jane Austin, the scenes will be staged by director Sarah Cullins. Final performances with the VYO will take place in selected local schools and at VYO's home at the Elley-Long Music Center in Colchester. Two additional performances with piano accompaniment will take place at the Waterbury Congregational Church and the CVUUS Church in Middlebury. 

Summer 2025: Youth Opera Company’s season will end with the Project Serenade concert series, a tour of senior residences and community centers. Cast members from throughout the season’s activities will be joined by program alumni to present 10 concerts of operatic and music theater repertoire for senior citizens and neighbors throughout the state. 

To post a comment, you must register and login.