PEABODY OPERA THEATRE and PEABODY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

present

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s

D ON
G IOVANNI
Mary Duncan Steidl Laurie Rogers
director conductor

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,

March 16 at 7:30 pm March 17 at 7:30 pm March 18 at 7:30 pm March 19 at 3:00 pm

Miriam A. Friedberg Concert Hall

Sponsored by Claire and Allan Jensen
 PEABODY OPERA THEATRE AND PEABODY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Laurie Rogers, conductor
Mary Duncan Steidl, director
present

DON GIOVANNI
Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte

Mary Duncan Steidl, interim managing artistic director Ben Young, production manager
Laurie Rogers, music director of opera Molly Prunty, stage manager
Edward T. Morris, set designer Melissa Freilich, fight director
Lynly Saunders, costume designer M&G designs, props
David Jones, lighting designer Diesel, technical director
Alana Hill, hair and makeup designer

Peabody Opera Theatre gratefully recognizes Claire and Allan Jensen for their extraordinary support of opera at Peabody.
Runtime is approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes with a 20 minute intermission.
This opera will be performed in Italian with English supertitles.

CAST
Don Giovanni �������������������������������������������John Arlievsky * Don Ottavio ���������������������������������������������Daniel Sanchez *
Jacob Heacock ‡ Jason Gonzalez ‡
Leporello �������������������������������������������������� HyunWoo Song * Zerlina . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Katelynn Cherry *
Ben Ross ‡ Tara Dougherty ‡
Donna Elvira������������������������������������������������ Olivia Heaner * Masetto ������������������������������������������������������ Lachlan Miller *
Katie Heit ‡ Donato Celentano ‡
Donna Anna ��������������������������������������������� Jenna Grissom * The Commendatore ��������������������������Kevin Paton-Cole *
Hee Jin Chang ‡ Joshua Coleman ‡
* Thursday, Saturday cast
‡ Friday, Sunday cast

ENSEMBLE
Soprano Tenor
Erica D’Ancona Ryan Alexander
Valerie Dzielski Will Martin
Rebecca Regan Jacob Plaisted
Zoe Zdrojewski Bass
Mezzo Champion Arias
Leisha Casimiro Alessio Farina
Sophie Clarke Jonathan King
Grace Hebeisen Jaiden Wettstein
Marjorie Sheiman
PROGRAM NOTE

No one knows where the story of Don Juan began, but a character who relentlessly pursues every woman
that he meets, promises marriage, and then disappears has long been a part of oral traditions. The first known
written version of the Don Juan story is from the Spanish playwright and Roman Catholic monk Tirso de
Molina, who published El Burlador de Sevilla in 1630. The story has subsequently taken many other forms,
including plays, ballets, operas, and other interpretations by the likes of Molière, Goldoni, and Gluck. So,
when the opera Don Giovanni, with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and a libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte,
premiered in Prague in 1787, audiences would have already been familiar with the story and its protagonist.
In fact, just the year before, in Venice, another Don Giovanni opera (by composer Giuseppe Gazzaniga and
librettist Giovanni Bertati) had premiered, which Da Ponte mined for material for his own.
What was so compelling about the story of Don Juan for Mozart and Da Ponte’s audiences? And why is it still
compelling today? Don Giovanni is more than just a mythical figure. For better or for worse, aspects of his
character and his story are present in real life. Da Ponte was friends with the famous womanizer Giacomo
Casanova, who recounted his exploits in memoir Histoire de ma vie, which shares some similarities with the
famous catalog that Don Giovanni’s servant Leporello keeps of Don Giovanni’s sexual partners.
Like Casanova and Da Ponte, Don Giovanni pursues personal pleasure. But Don Giovanni does so to the
extreme, and he is ultimately destroyed by the specters of his past deeds. If this sounds familiar, it should. Don
Giovanni has been frequently brought up in recent years in reference to the #MeToo movement. Activists
have asked whether this work should continue to be performed today given its focus on violence against
women, complications surrounding sexual consent, and a powerful but charismatic man who goes for too
long without receiving the punishment that is his due. The three women at the core of Don Giovanni are
different from one another. Donna Anna is upper-class, with the privileges that money and power afford;
Donna Elvira is new to Seville, and although she has some degree of money and power as well, she is away
from her support system; Zerlina is lower-class, but she has a fiancé and a community excited to celebrate
her wedding. Despite their differences, they are united in their status as women in a patriarchal society and
their desire to wield what power they have to effect change. Mary Duncan Steidl, Interim Managing Director
of Peabody Opera, shares that her goal for this production is to “emphasize the women as strong and
dynamic actors in the story, not just victims.”
Don Giovanni’s continued popularity is based on its ripped-from-the-headlines feeling centuries after its
premiere and its ability to be effectively re-interpreted by creative teams and audiences. Careful study of
the music and the text to Don Giovanni yields more questions than answers. Mozart and Da Ponte left many
aspects of the work ambiguous. Many important actions take place offstage. Don Giovanni’s mode of musical
expression changes depending on the surrounding circumstances (compare the out-of-control “Champagne
aria” to his sweetly restrained serenade “Deh, vieni alla finestra”), a convincing portrayal of a manipulative
personality, but one that can leave audience members feeling conned as well, and as if they never have
a chance to find out who Don Giovanni truly is. Each production of Don Giovanni can therefore make the
characters its own, subtly changing the work’s impact by answering some questions and asking others. Don
Giovanni is effective because its characters’ actions are not too far outside the norm in a society based in
hierarchies of class, gender, title, and race. Don Giovanni and its characters still have a lot to tell us about love
and sexuality, power and its abuses, and how to live in our imperfect world.
— Lily Kass
ARTISTIC TEAM BIOGRAPHIES

Mary Duncan Steidl, director and choreographer

Mary Duncan Steidl recently directed the premieres of Time and Chance by Tony Award winning playwright
Mark Medoff, and a new interpretation of The Soldier’s Tale by Wordsmith with the BSO. She has directed over
50 operas at venues across the country. At the Kennedy Center, with the National Symphony Orchestra, she
directed Der Schauspieldirektor, Bastien und Bastienne, and La Clemenza di Tito.
Duncan Steidl was associate artistic director of the Berkshire Opera Company for nine seasons where she
directed 15 operas. Highlights include the world premiere of Stephen Paulus’ Summer; The Rake’s Progress;
Turn of the Screw; Susannah; and The Consul released by Newport Classic. Other notable collaborations
include the Rape of Lucretia with iconic designer Massimo Vignelli at BAM, and The Magic Flute with designs
by acclaimed illustrator Eric Carle.
During a long association with The Aspen Music Festival, she directed and choreographed numerous operas
including Proving Up by Missy Mazzoli, the American premiere of Luke Bedford’s Seven Angels, Victory Over
the Sun, Comedy on the Bridge, Renard, The Marriage of Figaro, Seven Deadly Sins, and Trouble in Tahiti. She
is a graduate of The Juilliard School and studied at A.R.T. at Harvard assisting Robert Brustein.

Laurie Rogers, conductor

Laurie Rogers has been director of the Young Artist Program and Head of Music Staff for Opera Saratoga
since 2011, and currently also holds the position of music director of Opera at the Peabody Institute. Recently
she conducted Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle at Opera Saratoga, Adriana Lecouvreur and Menotti’s
The Consul at Opera Baltimore, and La scala di seta at Peabody. In 2023 she will conduct Don Giovanni at
Peabody and Le nozze di Figaro at Knoxville Opera. She has served as associate conductor at LA Opera,
and prepared productions for San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Dallas Opera, the Canadian
Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, American Lyric Theater, Wolf Trap Opera, Utah Opera, Arizona Opera,
and Washington National Opera, among many others, and served as assistant conductor and in artistic
administration for the Opera Company of Philadelphia for thirteen seasons. She was integrally involved in
the creation of numerous world premieres, including Jake Heggie’s Moby-Dick, Ricky Ian Gordon’s A Coffin
in Egypt and Ellen West, Richard Danielpour’s Margaret Garner, Dominick Argento’s Dream of Valentino,
David Carlson’s Midnight Angel and Dreamkeepers, and David DiChiera’s Cyrano. Rogers gives master classes
throughout the country, judges for the Met National Council Auditions, and has been published in Classical
Singer magazine. She holds degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music and Tufts University.
PRODUCTION STAFF

Director. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mary Duncan Steidl Production Services Assistant,

Music Director of Opera . . . . . . . Laurie Rogers Audio and Visual Coordinator . . . Adam Scalici
Scenic Designer . . . . . . . . . . Edward T. Morris Production Services Assistant. . . . .Rachel Hurtt
Production Services. . . . . . . . . Natalie Colony
Costume Designer. . . . . . . . . . Lynly Saunders
Assistant Stage Managers . . . . . Jaqueline Botz
Lighting Designer . . . . . . . . . . . . David Jones Hannah Noyes
Hair and Makeup Designer. . . . . . . . .Alana Hill Syrena Torres
Production Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . Ben Young Assistant Conductors. . . . . . . . . .Chi-Yuan Lin
Stage Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . Molly Prunty Jee Won Yang
Assistant Director . . . . . . . . . . Hannah Noyes Supertitles Operator. . . . . . . . . . . .Katie Hahn
Assistant Hair and Musical Preparation. . . . . . . . . Jonathan King
Makeup Designer. . . . . . . . . McKey Monroe Chi-Yuan Lin
Elizabeth Lentz Joy Schreier
Richarlita You
Assistant Production Manager
Kim Zhang
for Opera. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Gabby Colwell
Program Design . . . . . . . . . . Amelia Stinnette
Cover Design and Art . . . . . . . . . Ben Johnson

PEABODY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Joseph Young, Ruth Blaustein Rosenberg Artistic Director of Ensembles

Laurie Rogers, conductor
Chi-Yuan Lin and Jee Won Yang, assistant conductors
Violin Viola Flute Trumpet
Olivia Chen Asha Baylor Jack King ‡ Samantha Obara
Heeyun Cho Sarah Cummings Kelly Li Tyrone Williamson ‡
Sang-Ah Choi † Margaret Klucznik ‡
Stephanie Fang Justin Williams Oboe Trombone
Hanyu Feng ‡ Rui Yang Ju Yeon Shin ‡ Taylor Esbenshade
Sophia Freed Hailey Unger Christian Kercy
Elaina Gable Cello Matthew Moran ‡
Tim Beccue ‡ Clarinet
Yu Yu Hsiao Ashley Pratz Timpani
Dayoung Hyun Pia Carrasco-Isachsen
Gloria Lee Chunghuei Wong ‡ Benjamin Giroux
Josephine Kim
Sumin Lee Double bass Bassoon Mandolin
Eashwar Mahadevan Katelynn Baker Logan Jawgiel ‡ Gwenyth Aggeler
Anna Pavlou Arwyn Ivey Edric Vivoni
Cembalo
Maia Schmidt Fernando Serrano-Navarro ‡ Horn Laurie Rogers
Lyu Song Tseng Destin Beaumont ‡
KaiLai Zhang Maria Scotto di Uccio

† Concertmaster
‡ Principal