The Pirates of Penzance

Jason Edelstein is a baritone from Paramus, NJ. This summer, Edelstein joins The Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a 2026 Gerdine Young Artist covering roles in both Roméo & Juliette and The Pirates of Penzance. After OTSL he returns to the Aspen Music Festival and School as a Renée Fleming Artist singing Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and covering Papageno in The Magic Flute. Edelstein spent summer 2025 in Aspen as a Renée Fleming Artist singing Schaunard in La Bohème and covering Abinaswar in the World Premiere of Siddhartha, She. He spent the 2025/26 Season as a Jan Miller Studio Artist with Pensacola Opera singing the roles of Charlie in Three Decembers, Barone Douphol (Germont cover) in La Traviata, and Ike Skidmore (Curly cover) in Oklahoma!.

He is a recent Encouragement Award recipient from the Florida District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Edelstein completed his graduate studies at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and his undergraduate studies at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. Recent credits include Barone Douphol (Germont cover) in Verdi’ s La Traviata, Charlie in Heggie’s Three Decembers, Schaunard in Puccini’s La Bohème, Guglielmo in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, John Buchanan in Hoiby’s Summer and Smoke, Demetrius in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Steward in Dove’s Flight.

José Olivares previously served as the 2025/26 Bass-Baritone Young Artist with Fort Worth Opera this past Fall/Spring where he sang the roles of Ludovic in Belle et la bete and Yakuside in Puccini’s Madam Butterfly. Olivares also performed roles with Finger Lakes Opera as Simone in Gianni Schicchi and Count Ceprano in Rigoletto. During his time as a resident artist with Lyric Opera of Kansas City during the 2023/24 Season, he covered the role of Alfio in Cavalleria rusticana and performed Duke in Roméo & Juliette. Other past roles have included Horace in Hello, Dolly!, Pandolfe in Cinderella, and Holborn in The Manchurian Candidate at Seagle Festival, Dulcamara in The Elixir of Love, Colline in La Bohème at Opera Magnífico, Farfarello in The Love for Three Oranges at Des Moines Metro Opera and Theseus in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Olivares holds a Masters from the University of Oklahoma and Bachelors from East Texas A&M University. This summer, Olivares will be performing as Senator Potter’s Assistant/French Priest in Fellow Travelers at Glimmerglass Festival.

Soprano Francesca Herrera is a Marion Roose Pullin Opera Studio Artist with Arizona Opera. At the start of the 2025/26 Season, she made her house debut as Luisa in Héctor Armienta’s Zorro. In spring 2026, she returned as Clorinda in La Cenerentola. This summer Herrera joins Central City Opera as an Apprentice Artist covering with a performance of Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro.

Herrera was a 2025 Studio Artist with Wolf Trap Opera, where she covered the roles of Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro and Frasquita in Carmen. She won the 2025 Tommy Trotter Memorial Scholarship in the Opera Guild for Atlanta Scholarship Competition and placed first in the Great Lakes Region of the National Association of Teachers of Singing Student Auditions.

During the 2024/25 Season, Herrera received an Encouragement Award in the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition (North Carolina District) and performed Flora in The Turn of the Screw with University of Michigan’s Department of Voice & Opera. She also performed Cathy/Shamana 1 and covered Lucy in the first orchestral workshop of The House on Mango Street, a new opera by Derek Bermel and Sandra Cisneros.

As an Emerging Artist with Seagle Festival for two summers, Herrera performed roles including Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Johanna in Sweeney Todd. An accomplished dancer, she choreographed Seagle’s productions of Brigadoon and With Blood, with Ink by Peter M. Krask. Herrera graduated cum laude from Duke University and pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan under the tutelage of Amanda Majeski.

Praised for her “lush” voice by The Wall Street Journal, mezzo-soprano Jenni Bank has a “deep, dark, penetrating tone…that can extract Verdian richness ” (The Baltimore Sun). Jenni was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, grew up in Binghamton, New York, and studied voice and opera at The Peabody Conservatory of Music at Johns Hopkins University. She has worked with numerous prestigious opera companies and orchestras including Seattle Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Lyric Opera of Chicago, New York City Opera, Opera Delaware, Des Moines Metro Opera, Florentine Opera, Wolf T rap Opera, Anchorage Opera, Tri-Cities Opera, Knoxville Opera, Hawaii Opera Theatre, Wexford Festival Opera, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Bard Summer Music Festival, Ash Lawn Opera, Amarillo Opera, Opera Baltimore, Annapolis Opera, Opera in the Heights, Alabama Symphony Orchestra, Mid-America Productions at Carnegie Hall, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester, Seoul Philharmonic, LA Phil, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Center. “Bank is her own force of nature…with masterful command of her stupendous voice. Thrilling to behold, it's like hearing the waves of the sea. " (Houston Press)

Specializing in comedy and character roles, Jenni’s performances have been described as “comic performances of a lifetime—one scene after another was hilariously funny. Bank has a wonderfully supple voice and she is a first-class comedienne.” (Ion Arts Review) Roles include Mrs. Lovett (Sweeney Todd), Marcellina (The Marriage of Figaro), Samira (The Ghosts of Versailles), Mrs. De Rocher (Dead Man Walking), The Mother (The Consul), 3rd Lady (The Magic Flute), Ruth (The Pirates of Penzance), Buttercup (H.M.S. Pinafore), Mrs. Twist (Brokeback Mountain), Emilia (Otello), Mary (Flying Dutchman), Old Lady (Candide), Mrs. Peachum (Threepenny Opera), Golde (Fiddler on the Roof), Azucena (Il Trovatore), Witch (Hänsel und Gretel), Quickly (Falstaff), Baba (The Medium), Dryad (Ariadne auf Naxos), Frugola (Il Tabarro), Principessa (Suor Angelica), Zita (Gianni Schicchi), Martha (Faust), Giulietta (Hoffmann), Marquise (The Daughter of the Regiment), Petra (A Little Night Music), Fairy Queen (Iolanthe), Katisha (The Mikado), Filipyevna (Eugene Onegin), and mezzo solos in Verdi’s Requiem, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Mozart’s Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Hayes’ Gloria, Argento’s Casa Guidi, Brahms' Zigeunerlieder, Beethoven’ s Symphony No. 9.

Bank is the leading interpreter of The Duchess in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland, created the role of Firdaus Noman in Shalimar The Clown and is featured on the Original Cast Recording. She is a winner of the prestigious Sullivan Foundation Award, winner of The Harold Haugh Competition, and was semi-finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. Bank lives in New York with her husband and the two cutest dogs in the world.

Kyle Lang’s critically acclaimed work “keeps the action spinning, giving nods to classic bits, without slighting the opera’s disarming heart, its genuine sentiment” – Opera News. His more recent directing credits include Pagliacci with Virginia Opera, The Barber of Seville with Charlottesville Opera, The Turn of the Screw with CMU Opera, Rising Stars in Concert with Ryan Center Lyric Opera Chicago, Intelligence with Virginia Opera, La Traviata with San Diego Opera, Carmen with Opera Florentine, Hansel and Gretel with Utah Opera, Carmen with Virginia Opera, Don Giovanni with San Diego Opera and Virginia Opera, Turandot with Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, La Bohéme with Hawaii Opera Theatre, The Pirates of Penzance with Charlottesville Opera and Central City Opera, The Puccini Duo, Carmen, and As One with San Diego Opera, Becoming Santa Claus with Chicago Opera Theater, The Magic Flute with The Dallas Opera, The Marriage of Figaro, The Pirates of Penzance and La Cenerentola with Virginia Opera, Die Fledermaus with Utah Opera, and The Bear with Wexford Festival Opera. His recent choreographic credits include La Traviata with Arena di Verona, Carmen with Virginia Opera, The Pirates of Penzance with Virginia Opera, Turandot with Teatro Petruzzelli di Bari, Becoming Santa Claus with Chicago Opera Theater, The Pirates of Penzance with Virginia Opera, Utah Opera, and Central City Opera, My Fair Lady with Teatro Massimo di Palermo and Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Ariadne auf Naxos with Santa Fe Opera, Vanessa with Wexford Festival Opera, and Turandot with Virginia Opera. Upcoming projects include Turandot with Virginia Opera and Santa Fe Opera and The Magic Flute with Opera Florentine.