Dispatches from the Company Artists – Dane Suarez

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Dane Suarez (Manrico) + Renata Vari (Leonora) – Opera română Craiova

Bună! Bună! – I'm writing this from Romania, where I've spent the last two weeks singing Manrico in Il trovatore and Cavaradossi in Tosca at Opera Română Craiova. Today, we leave on a tour of Germany for 2 opera galas, 3 more Toscas, and 2 more Trovatores. It's been a grueling two weeks, and I've many hours on a bus ahead of me with performances in 7 German cities! All the while, I'm writing this. It's a strange and wonderful thing to sing Verdi and Puccini thousands of miles from Wilmington while my inbox fills up with edits for the playbill, box office reports, and photos from the final room run of Don Giovanni. This is the life of an OperaDelaware Company Artist.

This season I'm looking forward to more than a dozen house, role, and orchestra debuts all while holding the post as the newly minted Marketing Manager of OperaDelaware. This week, I thought I'd use Unamplified to amplify what current and recent Company Artists have been up to... because it's been a pretty excellent few weeks.

toni marie palmertree (Amelia) accepting her ovation at san francisco opera

Former Company Artist Toni Marie Palmertree, our Maddalena from this past spring's Andrea Chénier, returned to San Francisco Opera to debut Amelia/Maria in Verdi's Simon Boccanegra.

The cast of die fledermaus at knoxville opera

Company Artist Emily Margevich has just begun rehearsals as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus with Knoxville Opera. She's joined by many OD guest artists including Brian James Myer (The Barber of Seville, Andrea Chénier, Tosca), Rachel Blaustein (Rigoletto), Marcus DeLoach (Andrea Chénier), Dean Anthony (The Marriage of Figaro), and Julius Ahn (who sings Kaspar in Amahl and the Night Visitors this December). Emily is also OD's new Education and Community Engagement Manager.

Company Artist Gerard Moon is certainly keeping busy this week! He's singing Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni Portraits at the OperaDelaware Studios this Thursday and Saturday, and in between those performances he sings Masetto as Opera Baltimore opens our co-production of Don Giovanni on Friday and Sunday. That's a lot of Giovanni! Next weekend, he brings Masetto home to The Grand.

Julian Grabarek, our newest Company Artist and OD's Resident Coach and Conductor, is serving as assistant conductor on Don Giovanni, while preparing to music direct Fernanda this November.

Which brings me to…

Gerard moon (masetto) + Robin steitz (zerlina) in rehearsal for don giovanni at operadelaware

What's next at OD?

Don Giovanni arrives at The Grand Opera House on October 16 and 18. After that, the Chamber Series continues with Fernanda, an intimate chamber version of the beloved Luisa Fernanda and our first Spanish-language zarzuela. Emily, Gerard, and I will be back together on stage for it, joined by mezzo-soprano Gina Perregrino.

See you soon, Wilmington! - Dane

Our Choices Have Consequences: Notes on Don Giovanni

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Ahead of our production of Don Giovanni opening October 16 at The Grand Opera House, stage director Haley Stamats and conductor Joshua Horsch share their perspectives on Mozart and Da Ponte's enduring "dramedy" — and why, nearly 240 years after its Prague premiere, it continues to implicate its audience in ways they don't always see coming.

Haley Stamats, Stage Director:

“If you do bad things, you will have consequences.”

It’s a simple lesson, and it’s the one Mozart and Da Ponte leave us with in the epilogue of Don Giovanni. At its core, Giovanni is a morality play with traditional themes of temptation, a fall from grace, repentance, and salvation or damnation of the human soul — but this morality play is told through the blended genre of opera buffa and opera seria known as a dramma giocoso, or, for us, a “dramedy.”

Yet there is real tragedy at the heart of our dramedy: the issue of consent. Giovanni moves through the world taking what he wants with little regard to the people he harms, and if anything, he seems addicted to the power trip of getting away with it, always searching for his next conquest. Eventually, the human world can’t hold Giovanni accountable, and the supernatural world has to intervene.

If Giovanni is our villain, then the rest of our characters are their own anti-heroes, all of them living in the moral gray area of humanity. Leporello condemns his master’s libertine ways yet enables him, Donna Elvira knows what Giovanni did to Donna Anna and yet still loves him and believes him capable of redemption, and Donna Anna’s grief drives her toward vengeance for her father’s death, raising the question of whether an “eye for an eye” is ever truly right. But their complexity and flaws do not diminish the harm Giovanni has inflicted.

What makes this show so menacing is how funny it truly is — we delight in disguises, crude jokes, clever manipulation, and “suspension of disbelief” circumstances, but by the end we are confronted with the reality that these circumstances are no laughing matter, and we realize, even as voyeurs into this world, that we have been participating in its moral ambiguity by laughing all night long.

Giovanni isn’t damned because everyone else is “good” — he is damned because he repeatedly chooses to harm others and refuses to repent for it. And so, after an evening spent laughing, desiring, grieving, and scheming alongside these deeply imperfect people, Mozart and Da Ponte remind us of a very simple lesson:

Our choices have consequences.

Joshua Horsch, Conductor:

When Mozart and his brilliant librettist Da Ponte premiered Don Giovanni in Prague in 1787, they created a work that defies easy categorization — while it may lack the neat, symmetrical poise of The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni replaces that classical balance with an overwhelming emotional thrust and electrifying dynamic energy, representing a massive leap forward in Mozart’s continuing development of operatic technique by unifying the entire score into a single, relentless forward momentum where every note advances the drama.

Mozart also ties specific musical personalities directly to his characters, with the notable exception of Giovanni himself, who chameleon-like mirrors the music of whoever he is trying to seduce or outsmart — a device that makes him both impossible to pin down dramatically and irresistible to watch.

The most striking example of Mozart’s thematic unity starts right from the Overture, where two thunderous D-minor chords pull us into the shadows of fate, the very same motif that reappears in the opera’s climax when the Stone Guest comes to drag Giovanni to hell. A less obvious but equally fascinating detail occurs at the end of Donna Anna and Don Ottavio’s early Act I duet, where the striking, repeated unison notes that close their duet are quoted almost verbatim at the exact moment Giovanni is swallowed by darkness in Act II, musically sealing the vow of vengeance taken at the start of the opera.

As you listen, keep an ear tuned to how these musical structures elevate the narrative — from the iconic seduction duet “Là ci darem la mano,” where Giovanni and Zerlina’s vocal lines slowly intertwine as she succumbs to his charm, to the Act I ball scene featuring three separate bands playing in different time signatures simultaneously, Mozart’s score reflects the chaotic human spirit and refuses to give us easy answers. Lean in, enjoy the drama, and let the music pull you into Giovanni’s irresistible, perilous world.

Don Giovanni (Mozart/Da Ponte)
October 16 + 18 | The Grand Opera House
Get your tickets!
Produced in collaboration with Opera Baltimore

Nothing Between You and the Voice – Dane Suarez

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A field guide to OperaDelaware’s Chamber Series

The best moments in the OperaDelaware Studios are the ones right after the first big phrase, when somebody in the front row turns to their friend in awe after experiencing opera up close: with no proscenium.

As a performer, I know that look from the stage. It means the sound did not arrive so much as go through them. Voices at that proximity move the air in the room, and you can feel it in the floor and in your chest and it changes you. The phrase ends, the room rings, and nobody moves. This is the intimacy of the Chamber Series.

The Grand gives you grandeur, and we all love a mainstage night. The Studios give you proximity, and proximity is a thrill of an entirely different order.

Here is what OperaDelaware has planned for this season (arguably our most adventurous slate we have put in that room.) A Spanish zarzuela that almost nobody in this country stages. Puccini's very first opera, a ghost story he wrote at twenty-five. A world premiere performance written for one of our company artists. Janáček. Three composers retelling the story of Orpheus across a single evening. And an intimate look at Mozart, eight days before the same opera opens at The Grand.

Most clock in at sixty minutes, which is opera at full concentration: the arias, the confrontations, and all the drama. Five happen in the Studios. One is a site-specific performance in December inside the Sunday Breakfast Mission.

One more thing before the deep-dive: our Company Artists are prominently featured across the chamber series. Gerard Moon sings in five of the six. Emily Margevich sings in four and Dane Suarez sings in three. Half the pleasure of a season like this is watching the same handful of people turn into six different sets of characters.

English supertitles (captions ON, please!) for everything.

Here is the 26/27 Chamber Series season.

Don Giovanni Portraits

October 8 at 7:30 PM and October 10 at 2:00 PM, OperaDelaware Studios

Mozart and Da Ponte, arranged for chamber forces by Husan Chun-Novak, who also plays and conducts. Sung in Italian with English supertitles.

The concept is Don Giovanni stripped to its essentials: no grand sets, no distance between you and the voices telling the story. Live performance woven together with storytelling and historical background, which means you do not need to have done homework to follow it.

The cast for this one is different than what you'll see on the mainstage! Gerard Moon as Giovanni, Esther Tonea as Donna Anna, Caitlin Crabill as Donna Elvira, Norman Shankle as Don Ottavio, Timothy Mix as Leporello, Amanda Sheriff as Zerlina, and Steven M. Warnock as Masetto.

And the scheduling is deliberate. This runs eight days before our mainstage Don Giovanni opens at The Grand on October 16. See the Portraits first, then see the full canvas. If you have ever wanted to understand what a director and a conductor actually do to a score, watching the same opera twice in nine days at two scales is the clearest lesson available.

Produced with support from Brad Clark and in collaboration with Opera Baltimore and the Mohican Hills Concert Series.

Fernanda

November 13 at 7:30 PM and November 15 at 2:00 PM, OperaDelaware Studios

OperaDelaware is staging our first Spanish-language zarzuela. Zarzuela is Spanish music theater with its own tradition, its own repertoire, and its own devoted audience. In Spain it fills houses. In the United States it is performed so rarely that most opera regulars have never seen one!

Luisa Fernanda, by Federico Moreno Torroba, is frequently described as the last great romantic zarzuela. Jorge Parodi has adapted it into a one-hour chamber version. Spain, 1868. Revolution in the streets. An innkeeper's daughter caught between two men who want very different futures. Love, loyalty, revolution.

Sung in Spanish with English supertitles. Gina Perregrino sings Luisa Fernanda, Gerard Moon sings Vidal, Emily Margevich sings Carolina, and I sing Javier. Malena Dayen (Fearless) directs, Julian Grabarek is music director.

If you know people in Wilmington who have never had a reason to walk into an opera house because nothing on the stage was in their language or their tradition, this is the invitation. I would genuinely welcome your help getting it to them!

In collaboration with Opera Hispánica.

Amahl and the Night Visitors

December 5 at 1:00 PM and 5:00 PM, and December 6 at 1:00 PM, Sunday Breakfast Mission

Menotti, in English, one hour, directed by OperaDelaware's new General Director: Eric Einhorn. A modern retelling staged as an immersive, site-specific production, in partnership with the Sunday Breakfast Mission, which serves the unhoused community in Wilmington.

Aundi Marie Moore sings the Mother, Musa Ngqungwana sings King Balthazar, Gerard Moon sings King Melchior, and Dante Doganiero sings the Page.

An opera about a poor family who has nothing left to give, performed in a building whose daily work is to help families like Amahl's.

Produced in partnership with the Sunday Breakfast Mission.

Written in Secret

January 22, 2027 at 7:30 PM and January 24 at 2:00 PM, OperaDelaware Studios

Janáček's The Diary of One Who Vanished paired with Daron Hagen's Songs of Madness and Sorrow. Forbidden love on one side, obsession and paranoia on the other, the second one a fractured chorus all carried by a single performer. Czech and English with English supertitles. Katherine M. Carter directs. One hour.

Full disclosure: I am the single performer. I have been looking for a platform to program Janáček's stirring and deeply personal work. It shows the composer at his most overtly sensual, in a timeless tale of illicit love and hot-headed seduction that shatter boundaries between cultures. Additionally, I love to communicate with audiences in English. This set from Daron Hagen is also a nod to my Midwestern upbringing as all of the texts he assembled are from various public domain sources from Wisconsin. Among many major debuts, this is the most exposed hour I will sing all season.

Le Villi

March 19 at 7:30 PM and March 21 at 2:00 PM, OperaDelaware Studios

Before Tosca, before Butterfly, before La bohème, there was Le Villi. Puccini wrote it at twenty-five. It is based on the same ghost story as the famous ballet Giselle. A young woman dies of heartbreak after her fiancé abandons her, and the forest spirits (the Wilis) summon him back to dance until he dies of it.

Emily Margevich sings Anna, Gerard Moon sings Guglielmo, and I sing Roberto. Katherine M. Carter directs. Italian with English supertitles.

If you love Puccini, this is where he found his voice, already fully-formed.

Orpheus Retold

April 9 at 7:30 PM and April 11 at 2:00 PM, OperaDelaware Studios

Three one-act operas on the oldest love story we have, from the point-of-view of three different living composers. Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer's To Hell and Back. Jodi Goble's Eurydice, after the H.D. poem. Jonathan Dove's L'altra Euridice, after Calvino. Ninety minutes with one intermission.

The Goble is a world premiere of a new version written specifically for Emily Margevich. She sings alongside Chelsea Laggan and Gerard Moon. Sable Strout directs, Cris Frisco is music director.

Together the three ask who actually suffers in that story, who is to blame, and who has ever been allowed to speak.

One more thing

Look at the list again. Giovanni dragged down at the end of his hour. The Villi dancing a man to his death. Orpheus walking into the underworld three separate times in one evening. Janáček's diarist vanishing.

The Chamber Series this season is a season about descent. That was not an accident, and it is the thread that links these six performances to Don Giovanni and Orpheus and Eurydice on the mainstage.

My challenge to you: pick one and try it out.

However... if you pick three or pick five, you can save 15% and 20% respectively: check out our subscription options!

Tickets and full details at operade.org. Box office at 302-442-7807.

Get to know the cast of Don Giovanni

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Mozart’s Don Giovanni opens OperaDelaware’s 2026/27 season this October at The Grand Opera House. It is a co-production with Opera Baltimore, directed by Haley Stamats and conducted by Joshua Horsch in his OperaDelaware debut. This week, we wanted to introduce you to our marvelous cast – take a listen, and learn more!

Jonathan Bryan — Don Giovanni

Jonathan Bryan is a Dallas-born baritone praised for his “beautifully resonant baritone” and “substantial sound.” An alumnus of Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artist Program, Wolf Trap Opera, and The Glimmerglass Festival, he has performed leading roles on stages throughout the United States and abroad. Recent seasons have included Baron Douphol in La traviata with Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Captain von Trapp in The Sound of Music with Arizona Opera, and Beaumarchais in The Ghosts of Versailles at Glimmerglass. He holds degrees from Louisiana State University and the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where he studied with baritone Wolfgang Brendel.

Katerina Burton — Donna Anna

Katerina Burton is a soprano acclaimed for her “vocal fire and dramatic conviction” (Isthmus) and a 2024 winner of the George and Nora London Competition. A graduate of Washington National Opera’s Cafritz Young Artist Program and The Juilliard School, she has performed Mimì in La bohème with Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Alice Ford in Verdi’s Falstaff opposite Bryn Terfel at the Aspen Music Festival, and appeared as soprano soloist for the Kennedy Center premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s JFK: The Last Speech alongside the National Symphony Orchestra. She is a recipient of the prestigious Sara Tucker Study Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation.

Sarah Coit — Donna Elvira

Sarah Coit is a mezzo-soprano making her role and company debut as Donna Elvira with OperaDelaware and Opera Baltimore this season. A native of Spring Hill, Florida, and a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of South Florida, she has performed at San Francisco Opera, Seattle Opera, Utah Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and Opera Tampa, among many others. She created the role of Polly Thompson in the world premiere of Touch with Opera Birmingham and has appeared in several world premieres throughout her career.

Hayden Smith — Don Ottavio

Hayden Smith is an American tenor praised for his “burnished tenor blessed with technique and glorious phrasing” (Houston Press). A native of Quakertown, Pennsylvania and a graduate of Temple University and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studied with Grammy Award-winning soprano Ana María Martínez, he has trained at Wolf Trap Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Des Moines Metro Opera, and the Music Academy of the West. Recent seasons have included company debuts with Annapolis Opera and Indianapolis Opera as Count Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia, his Glimmerglass Festival debut as Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette, and an appearance with Des Moines Metro Opera in the world premiere of Damien Geter and Lila Palmer’s American Apollo.

Dylan Gregg — Leporello

Dylan Gregg is a bass-baritone from Salisbury, Maryland earning acclaim for his “booming young voice of effortless projection and smooth tone quality” (Palm Beach Daily News). Delaware audiences will remember him as Roucher in OperaDelaware’s company premiere of Andrea Chénier this past spring; Opera News called his performance “an unusually strong vocal and dramatic profile.” He has trained at The Academy of Vocal Arts, Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Des Moines Metro Opera, and holds degrees from Boston University and Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music.

Robin Steitz — Zerlina

Robin Steitz is a Burmese-American soprano based in the Berkshires, Massachusetts, described as “a versatile and sensitive performing artist.” A Tanglewood Voice Fellow and former Young Artist with OperaDelaware, she has performed Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro with OperaDelaware, Cunegonde in Candide with Northern Lights Music Festival, and has collaborated closely with living composers throughout her career, including the American premiere of Richard Ayres’ The Cricket Recovers at Tanglewood under the baton of Thomas Adès. She holds degrees from Reed College and the Eastman School of Music.

Gerard Moon — Masetto

Gerard Moon is a South Korean-born baritone and OperaDelaware Company Artist praised by OperaWire for “authority and command and incredible stage presence” and by the Lexington Herald-Leader for “a strong voice, impeccable diction, and a huge sense of fun.” Delaware audiences know him well -- he has sung Tonio in Pagliacci, Gérard in Andrea Chénier, and many other roles for OperaDelaware over the past four seasons. He holds his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music from the University of Kentucky.

Matthew Anchel — Commendatore

Matthew Anchel is a bass hailed by The Wall Street Journal as “a voice to watch” who is now in his tenth season with The Metropolitan Opera, where he has appeared in productions including Tannhäuser, Dialogues des Carmélites, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Cendrillon, and Andrea Chénier. He has performed with Oper Stuttgart, Oper Leipzig, Glyndebourne Festival, Santa Fe Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Houston Symphony, among others. He appears on the Grammy-nominated recording of Jeanine Tesori’s Grounded.

Don Giovanni opens October 16 and 18 at The Grand Opera House in Wilmington. Season tickets are on sale now!