October 2, 2022
MRP presents the world-premiere full production of an opera by Sunny Knable for children and families about a curious cow who goes to the Marché at the Opera Festival in southern France and falls in love with the lights and sounds of the concert stage. Based on an award-winning children's book by Amber Spradlin.
Composer and Music Director:
Sunny Knable
Librettist and Director:
Michael MacKenzie Wills
Performers:
Darren Anderson, tenor
Stefanie Izzo, soprano
Claire Myers-McCormick, soprano
Tony Ramos, Baritone
Melinda Faylor, piano
California-born and New York-based, SUNNY KNABLE (b. 1983) is a multi-faceted composer with numerous awards to his credit, including three Best Composition Awards from the Festival of New American Music and the ANALOG ARTS Iron Composers Award, for which he wrote a four-minute piece in five hours. Knable’s music has been described as "great!" (TheWholeNote), "genius" (Anchorage Press), "entertaining" (Audiophile Audition), "witty, romantic and lilting" (TheaterScene.net), offering up "sparks of color and inventiveness" (Sacramento Bee), and possessing a "wealth of thematic invention" (feastofmusic.com). Dr. Knable serves as Music Director of The Church-in-the-Gardens; composer for The Garden Players, a theatrical group for children; and as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Queens College and LaGuardia Community College. He holds a PhD in Music Composition from Stony Brook University, a Master of Arts degree in Composition from Queens College (CUNY) and a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition, Piano Performance and Jazz Studies from CSU Sacramento. Other professional credits include his debut album "American Variations" on Centaur Records and his composition album with bassoonist Scott Pool and pianist Natsuki Fukasawa, "Song of the Redwood Tree" on MSR Classics. His bassoon works, Song of the Redwood-Tree and The Busking Bassoonist are published by TrevCo-Varner Music. All other works are published by Trouvère Publishing.
MICHAEL MACKENZIE WILLS (Librettist & Director) He has worked with several cutting-edge icons such as Penn & Teller, Blue Man Group, MTV Networks, and FUSE TV. His award-winning show Operation Opera has played in various venues in New York City such as Lincoln Center, Symphony Space, The National Opera Center, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. Premiere productions in New York include developing and directing James Gandolfini in Tarantulas Dancing, Liev Schreiber in G-Force, Jamy Ian Swiss in The Honest Liar, Fixing Frank by Ken Hanes, and the original NYC production of The Last Session. He has written the book and lyrics to 9 published children’s musicals including the entire Adventures of Superbunny series, the musical farce A Cow Named Cow, and POE: An Introduction to Edgar Allan. He is also an illustrator of children's books.
DARREN T. ANDERSON (Tenor) is delighted to be joining Musica Reginae for Cow Goes to the Opera. His performance credits include the title role in Handel’s Samson with New York City’s Canterbury Choral Society after having made his debut with the choir in Berlioz’ Te Deum. Additional concert credits include Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with Pro Arte Chorale, Mozart Requiem with New York Choral Society, Puccini’s Messa di Gloria with Westfield Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem and Handel’s Messiah with the Fort Myers Symphonic Mastersingers. Additionally, Darren made his Carnegie Hall debut with the American Symphony in Paul Dessau’s oratorio Haggada Shel Passach. Darren has also spent time with the Connecticut Concert Opera as Almaviva in Il barbiere di Siviglia and has sung with Sinfonia da Camera as the Italian singer in Der Rosenkavalier. Traveling throughout the country, Darren has made appearances with Boston Midsummer Opera, and made his off-Broadway debut as Don José in La tragedie de Carmen with The InCite Festival sponsored by Boston Univesity. American debuts include Syracuse Opera, Connecticut Concert Opera, the Chicago Cultural Center, Glimmerglass Opera as the Duke of Dunstable in their production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience; the Boston Lyric Opera as the Lamplighter in America’s East Coast premiere of Rachel Portman’s The Little Prince, and Boston Midsummer Opera as Don Jose in La Tragedie de Carmen. As a leading tenor, he has appeared in the title roles of Les contes d’Hoffmann and Roméo et Juliette, as Arrigo in Verdi’s I Vespri Siciliani with Opera In Concert in Toronto, and Ferrando in Così fan tutte. In his time at the Boston Opera Institute, Darren sang the role of Don José in La tragedie de Carmen, Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale, reprised the title role in Roméo et Juliette, and concluded as Belfiore in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera. Recently, Darren joined the Opera Company of Brooklyn in presentations of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, Don Giovanni, Le Nozze di Figaro, and Les Contes d’Hoffmann. Mr. Anderson holds degrees in voice performance from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and the Opera Institute at Boston University. Darren has been a Queens resident since 2005, and lives in Astoria with his daughter.
Soprano STEFANIE IZZO has been hailed as possessing a “gorgeously rich and full sound” for her work in opera and musical theatre. Her recent performance of Maria in West Side Story with St. Petersburg Opera was deemed “ideal in every way,” and garnered a Theatre Tampa Bay Award nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Musical. Stefanie made her off-Broadway debut in 2012 as Monica in Menotti’s The Medium, and her international debut in 2011 as Adina in L’Elisir d’Amore with Musica Viva Hong Kong. She was chosen as the inaugural recipient of the National Italian American Foundation’s Andrea Bocelli Music Scholarship and holds a B.M. from NYU and an M.A. and Advanced Performance Certificate from CUNY Queens College. In addition to operatic repertoire, Stefanie devotes a significant amount of her time to art song, particularly that of female composers, and maintains an active concert schedule in the NYC area. She is a co-founder of the chamber ensemble The Astoria Music Project. www.stefanieizzo.com
CLAIRE MYERS McCORMICK (Soprano) has performed as a soloist in operatic and concert settings across the country. Claire was most recently seen as Peitho in Pulitzer Prize nominated Kate Soper’s self-accompanied three-woman opera Here Be Sirens. Other roles include Micaëla (Carmen), Sally Mae in the New York City premiere of Baby Shower, the title roles of Susannah and Suor Angelica, Erste Dame (Die Zauberflöte), and Contessa (Le Nozze di Figaro). A member of the Metropolitan Opera Extra Chorus, Claire participated in the Caramoor Music Festival as an Apprentice Artist, and has performed as a soloist with the Ars Musica Chorale, the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church Chamber Choir, the Boulder Youth Symphony and the Emerald City Opera Orchestra, among others. At home in recital settings, Claire performs a wide range of art song. As a board member of The Fresh Squeezed Opera, Claire promotes the creation and performance of new vocal music. A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy, she received her B.M. from the University of Colorado, and her M.M. at the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. Claire lives in Queens with her husband and two delightful sons.
If there's one thing you should know about TONY RAMOS, it's that he loves tacos, 90s R&B, & empowering creative artists. Actually, that's three things. He also finds writing in the third person really awkward. You may remember him in Sunny Knable's "Beethoven in Love" opera (as Beethoven) at the National Opera Center. He's starting to lose track of the number of times he's played Papageno in the Magic Flute. The same can be said for his Lincoln Center concert appearances. He spends time on both musical theatre & opera stages. If he's telling great stories through song and doing creative work, he's generally a happy guy.... just don't forget the tacos. When he's not on stage, he's a startup tech founder who has built companies in foodtech, adtech, & healthtech, and he's currently looking to help creative artists find their way into the startup world.
www.tonyleeramos.com