The Daughter of the Regiment

Librettist John de los Santos’ first collaboration with composer Clint Borzoni, When Adonis Calls, was selected for inclusion in both Opera America’s New Works Forum and Fort Worth Opera's Frontiers showcase, then premiered under John’s direction at Asheville Lyric Opera. His latest libretto with Borzoni, The Christmas Spider, will premiere with The American Opera Project in New York City. He was commissioned by Washington National Opera's American Opera Initiative to create an original work with composer Christopher Weiss. The resulting piece, Service Provider, premiered at The Kennedy Center, and has since had over a dozen productions across the United States. Over the summer of 2020, John and composer Marc Migó were commissioned by UrbanArias to write an operatic film as part of Decameron Opera Project. The film, The Roost, was directed by John and was recently included in the archives of the Library of Congress. John has also collaborated with composers Robert Paterson, Tony Solitro, and Lingbo Ma.

As director/choreographer, John has staged the world premieres of Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun (Santa Fe Opera), Stardust (Helios Opera), Pure Country (Lyric Stage), and The Astronaut Love Show (Kraine Theater, NYC). Other productions include The Rose & the Knife, Le Comte Ory, and Otello for LoftOpera (NYC), La Cage Aux Folles for Skylight Music Theatre, La Fille du Regiment for Arizona Opera, Carousel for Ashlawn Opera, Trouble in Tahiti for Lexington Philharmonic, and Maria de Buenos Aires for San Diego and Arizona Opera. In 2015, he choreographed the world premiere of Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally's Great Scott for the Dallas Opera. His choreography has also been seen at the Washington National, Florida Grand, Philadelphia, Des Moines Metro, Utah Festival, and Austin Lyric Opera Companies.

John was the resident choreographer at Fort Worth Opera for Rigoletto, Salome, La Traviata, Amahl and the Night Visitors, and the world premieres of Frau Margot and Before Night Falls. John then made his directing debut with the company with a 2009 production of Carmen, followed by The Mikado and The Pearl Fishers. John has served on the directing faculty of the Seagle Music Colony in Schroon Lake, NY, where his productions have included Anything Goes, Crazy for You, The Medium, The Fantasticks, The Mikado, La Boheme, Guys & Dolls, Brigadoon and L'Italiana in Algeri.

Other productions include Italienisches Liederbuch for Voces Intimae, The Golden Apple for Lyric Stage, Spring Awakening and Dogfight for WaterTower Theatre. For the Dallas-based theatre company Uptown Players, choreographed the American premiere of the Pet Shop Boys musical Closer to Heaven, the regional premiere of Altar Boyz (for which John was awarded the DFW Critics Forum Award for Best Choreography), and directed and choreographed the regional premiere of Hello Again and the American premiere of Soho Cinders.

Andrea Shokery is a dynamic young performer quickly garnering attention for her “magnetic stage presence” and “tangy soprano… [that is] simply delicious” (The Arts Louisville, The Arizona Republic). In the 2015-2016 season, Ms. Shokery makes her role and company debut as Violetta (La traviata) with Opera Columbus, returns to Arizona Opera for a debut as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), and performs as the
Soprano Soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Phoenix Symphony. In the 2014-2015 season, she returned to Phoenix for her last year of residency in the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio. She made exciting debuts as Gilda (Rigoletto), First Lady (Die Zauberflöte), and Marie (La fille du régiment). She also returned as the Featured Soloist on the Phoenix Symphony’s New Year’s Eve Celebration Concert. Beginning her tenure with the Studio in 2013, she made company debuts that season as Musetta (La bohème) and Norina (Don Pasquale). She also sang the role of Bess in Craig Bohmler’s Rider’s of the Purple Sage in workshop performances and made her debut with the Phoenix Symphony. Ms. Shokery completed two seasons as an Apprentice Artist with Des Moines Metro Opera in 2011 and 2012. Her scene concert performances included Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), Semiramide (Semiramide), Alma Winemiller (Summer and Smoke), La Comtesse Adèle (Le comte Ory), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), Adina (L'elisir d'amore), and Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor).

In the 2010-2011 season, she was a member of the Studio at Kentucky Opera, covering Adina in L'elisir d'amore and making her mainstage debut as Giannetta. While in Louisville, Ms. Shokery performed in a Composer Workshop with Daron Hagen, singing Pamela in Broken Pieces, one of three one-act operas entitled New York Stories. She then made a return to Wolf Trap, creating the role of Bobachina in the World Premiere of Musto's The Inspector with the Wolf Trap Foundation.

The 2008-2009 season saw Ms. Shokery in the title role of Pasatieri’s La Divina with the Wolf Trap Opera Studio and making her European debut as Musetta in La bohème with The Opera Theatre and Music Festival of Lucca, Italy. Ms. Shokery has received prizes from multiple competitions, including the Opera Birmingham Competition, Palm Beach Opera Vocal Competition, Tri-State Vocal Competition, Irma Cooper/Opera Columbus Vocal Competition. She is also a threetime District Winner in The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Originally from Gahanna, Ohio, she received both her Master's and Bachelor's Degrees from The University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music.

Stefano de Peppo is one of opera’s busiest singing actors sought after for the Italian character bass parts in operas by Donizetti, Rossini, and Mozart such as the title role in Don Pasquale, Dulcamara in Elixer of Love, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Mustafa in L’Italiana in Algeri, Bartolo in The Barber of Seville, Leporello in Don Giovanni, title role in The Marriage of Figaro, and Alphonso in Così fan tutte​. Other notable roles include the Sacristan in Tosca, Schaunard in La bohème, and Geronte in Manon Lescaut.

Notable theaters in which he has appeared include the Finnish National Opera, Estates Theater in Prague, Teatro Argentina in Rome, Italy, Jerez de la Frontiera and Gran Teatro de Cordoba in Spain, and Tenerife, Spain (all as Leporello), Teatro Colon in Bogota, Colombia (Bartolo), Teatro Bellas Artes in Mexico City (Leporello, Don Magnifico, Dulcamara, Publio, Bartolo, the King in Aïda and Schaunard), Teatro Aquascalientes in Mexico (Dulcamara), New Israeli Opera (Alphonso), Opera Hamilton in Canada (Mustafa), and Sarasota Opera (Kelbar in Un Giorno di Regno).

Notable engagements include The Atlanta Opera as Bartolo in The Barbe of Seville, Inter Mountain Opera as Don Magnifico, Monterrey, Mexico in the title role of Don Pasquale, and Royal Albert Hall (London) as Schaunard in La bohème.

In the U.S.A., he has appeared with Opera Memphis (Don Pasquale), Connecticut Grand Opera (Don Pasquale and Leporello), Los Angeles Opera (Betto in Gianni Schicchi), Lyric Opera of Kansas City (Leporello, Sacristan, and Alcindoro & Benoit in La bohème), Minnesota Opera (Bartolo), Opera Company of North Carolina (Don Pasquale, Don Magnifico), Palm Beach Opera (Bartolo, Dulcamara, Geronte), Portland (Maine) Opera Repertory Theater (Figaro), Sarasota Opera (Bartolo and Magnifico), Washington National Opera (Betto in Gianni Schicchi), and Wichita Grand Opera (Leporello, Papageno, and Bartolo). In addition, he has toured the U.S.A. with the Mozart Festival Opera as Don Giovanni, Figaro, and Leporello.

On the concert stage, Mr. de Peppo has appeared as Tio Salvador with the BBC Orchestra in a concert version of La Vida Breve at Royal Festival Hall in London, in Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico and of Mexico City, in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mozart’s Requiem with the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico.

A native Italian, Mr. de Peppo began his musical career as a member of the Children’s Chorus of Teatro alla Scala of Milan for seven years, after which he undertook vocal studies at Civic School of Music in Milan.

Margaret Gawrysiak, mezzo-soprano, recently performed Baba the Turk and Mother Goose inThe Rake’s Progress; Mrs. Lovett in Sweeney Todd; and La Mère d’Antonia in Les contes d’Hoffmann with Wolf Trap Opera; Gertrude/Witch in Hansel and Gretel,Eunice in A Streetcar Named Desire, and Marzelline in Le nozze di Figaro with Virginia Opera; and Frugola in Il tabarro, and Zita in Gianni Schicchi with Maestro Lorin Maazel at the Castleton Festival.

Recent engagements for Margaret have included Frugola in Il tabarro with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; and a return to Wolf Trap Opera for Dame Quickly in Falstaff. Future engagements include a return to Seattle Opera for Vera Boronel in The Consul; Ježibaba in Rusalka with North Carolina Opera; and Mistress Hibbons in the world premiere of Lori Laitman’s The Scarlet Letter with Opera Colorado.

Margaret’s engagements have also included Giovanna in Rigoletto with Florida Grand Opera; and a workshop of Nico Muhly’s Two Boys with the Metropolitan Opera. As a graduate of Seattle Opera’s Young Artist Program she was featured as Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Zita in Gianni Schicchi, Olga in Eugene Onegin, and Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. As a member of San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program she covered Beppe in L’amico Fritz, and performed Isabella in scenes from L’italiana in Algeri on the Schwabacher Concert Program. Margaret was twice a member of the Young American Artists Program at Glimmerglass Opera where she performed as Juno in Orpheus in the Underworld,and covered the roles of the Grandmother and Aunt in Jenůfa. Other performances have included Madame de la Haultiere in Cendrillon with Aspen Opera Theatre; a double bill of Gianni Schicchi and L’enfant et les Sortileges with the Opera Company of Philadelphia; Marcellina in Le nozze di Figaro with Eugene Opera; the Witch inHansel and Gretel with the Buffalo Philharmonic; Berta in Il barbiere di Sivigliawith Cedar Rapids Opera Theatre; Mother Marie in the Dialogues of the Carmelites at the Eastman School of Music; and Little Buttercup in HMS Pinafore with Opera Illinois.

In concert, she has performed Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood under Lorin Maazel, and the Saginaw Bay Symphony; Mozart’s Requiem and Verdi’s Requiem with the Springfield Symphony; Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra; Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel with the Seattle Symphony; and Dessau’s Haggadah shel Pesach with the American Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall.

In 2009 Margaret was a winner of the Sullivan Foundation Award and received second place in the Lotte Lenya Competition. She has received awards from the Jensen Foundation, Portland Opera’s Lieber Awards, the Gerda Lissner Foundation, and Fort Worth Opera’s McCammon Awards. Geneseo, IL is her hometown.

Raised in the small town of Quasqueton, IA, Mr. Carr has performed roles with Arizona Opera, Merola Opera Program, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Central City Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera and Cedar Rapids Opera Theater. He made his company debut with Arizona Opera last season as a Studio Artist singing several roles including Schaunard in La bohème and Dr. Malatesta in Don Pasquale, as well as John Lassiter in the workshop of The Riders of the Purple Sage, a new opera by composer Craig Bohmler. This season, Mr. Carr returns as a Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio Artist to sing Marullo in Rigoletto, Eugene Onegin in Eugene Onegin, the Corporal in The Daughter of the Regiment, and cover Papageno in The Magic Flute.

Mr. Carr spent his summer at the Glimmerglass Festival where he made his debut as Billy Bigelow in Carousel. In December of this year, he will also make his Kennedy Center debut with Washington National Opera as The Pilot in their production of  The Little Prince. Mr. Carr won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Arizona District in October and in February Mr. Carr was announced the recipient of the 2014 Igor Gorin Memorial Award in February.

Mr. Carr was featured in San Francisco’s Merola Opera Program as Tarquinius in The Rape of Lucretia in the summer of 2013. The opening of the 2012/13 season marked Mr. Carr’s mainstage debut with The Lyric Opera of Kansas City where he performed Yamadori in Madama Butterfly and later Pish-Tush in The Mikado. Mr. Carr spent two seasons with The Lyric Opera of Kansas City as a Resident Artist beginning in 2011, while he was also at the University of Missouri Kansas City. During this time, he sang the title role in Don Giovanni and Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro at the University of Missouri Kansas City. In the summer of 2012, Mr. Carr made his debut as Schaunard in La bohème at Central City Opera where he also received the John Moriarty Award. Also that year, Mr. Carr was a District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and received a Career Development Award from The Sullivan Foundation.

Mr. Carr participated in the Des Moines Metro Opera Apprentice Artist Program in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, he made his debut with The Cedar Rapids Opera Theater as the Sacristan in Tosca. Mr. Carr was also a District Winner in Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the winner of the Vocal Division of the NAFTZGER competition.

Mr. Carr’s concert performances include Orff’s Carmina Burana, Monteverdi’s Vespers, Faure’s Requiem, and Handel’s Messiah. This year, he will sing The Narrator in The Polar Express with the Phoenix Symphony. He has also sung recitals with Cedar Rapids Opera Theater and Kansas City’s Bach Aria Soloists. Mr. Carr graduated with a Master of Music degree from the University of Missouri Kansas City and a Bachelor of Music degree from Simpson College in Indianola, IA.

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