New Jersey Lyric Opera will present “Il Trovatore,” “The Pearl Fishers,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “The Barber of Seville” at The Kelsey Theatre in West Windsor, Aug. 28-30.
John Calkins started with a key question while planning this year’s Summer Opera Festival at Kelsey Theatre: How could he make this edition different while building upon what he had already created?
The result will be New Jersey Lyric Opera’s most ambitious summer festival to date. “We’re embarking on something completely different by taking on four different staged productions, including two company premieres,” Calkins says.
The Aug. 28-30 festival will feature French and Italian operas from the 19th Century of varied dramatic styles that emphasizes vocal beauty and lyrical expression. Company premieres will include Giuseppe Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” and Georges Bizet’s “The Pearl Fishers.” Rounding out the program will be two productions from the company’s archive — Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville” and Charles Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet” — that will make their first appearances at the festival.
JOHN CALKINS
Calkins is the founder of NJLO, a touring opera repertory company that produces fully staged, mostly traditional productions that target the broad appetites of operagoers. They have partnered with The Kelsey Theatre at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor every year since the Summer Opera Festival was founded in 2023.
Calkins says there were some practical reasons for this year’s selections as well. Singers often book their schedules years in advance, so pulling together the right voices at the right time can be the deciding factor in what gets programmed. Since this year’s festival falls later in August than previous editions, the runway was longer.
It has to do with “the availability of a cast, and especially the key players of the major roles, plus the desire of those artists,” says Calkins. “With ‘Pearl Fishers,’ there is a smaller main cast and a decent-sized chorus, and for ‘Trovatore,’ there is a larger cast. This year it felt like we had more resources to support each production, plus the window of time to prepare, because of the later dates we were given.”
Last year’s festival, which took place Aug. 7-10, featured a gala concert, Giacomo Puccini’s “La Bohème,” and a production of Bizet’s “Carmen” that was created specifically for the festival. “The ‘Carmen’ was important because we realized we could mount a new production that was tailored to a new cast and the technical space of the Kelsey Theatre, and that we could survive and successfully repeat the process in the future,” Calkins says.
The festival will open with Verdi’s “Il Trovatore,” a tragic melodrama of love, revenge and mistaken identity set in medieval Spain that includes the lively “Anvil Chorus.” “It’s a thriller that is electrifying to the end,” Calkins says. “There is a shocking twist ending that is foreshadowed, but it still chills me to the bone every single time.”
The opera is known for being hard to cast and large to stage. As in many of Verdi’s other operas, the vocal writing is both grueling and rewarding. Tenor Enrico Caruso once joked that for a successful production, all you need are the four greatest singers in the world.
It demands a true dramatic soprano for the role of Leonora, which will be sung by Holly Gash. She has sung diva roles in past NJLO productions including Violetta in “La Traviata” and the title role in “Tosca.”
REBECCA SACKS
Mezzo Rebecca Sacks will sing Azucena in both a company and role debut. “She is a very authentic performer and someone who is going to draw the audience’s attention,” says Calkins.
Azucena is arguably the opera’s central character, requiring huge vocal and dramatic range. “I think Azucena is very much the star of the show,” Calkins says. “I was reading up on the creation of this opera, and Verdi was very specific about having two female leads. He actually expanded the role of Leonora to make her more substantial in comparison.”
Driven by a vow to avenge her mother’s execution (as told in the stirring “Stride La Vampa” aria), Azucena raises Manrico after, years earlier, accidentally throwing her own infant into a fire instead of the Count di Luna’s baby. By the end of the opera, her decades-old vengeance is fulfilled.
Carl Hengen — who came aboard last season as Rodolfo in “La bohème” — will sing Manrico, the nobleman who has the famous “Di quella pira” aria.
Baritone Chaka Allen will sing the Count and Timothy Kjer will sing Ferrando, the captain of the Count’s guard. Both have sung multiple roles in past festivals, and will do so again in this edition: Allen will sing Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet” and Figaro in “The Barber of Seville;” Kjer will sing Frere Laurence in “Romeo and Juliet” and Don Basilio in “The Barber of Seville.”
Both “Trovatore” and “The Pearl Fishers” will use scenery created by video projections on a 44-foot-wide screen. “It’s a very immersive experience with stunning imagery that brings a gorgeous landscape both visually and dramatically,” says Calkins. They have used a similar technique for their gala concerts, but this will be the first time in an opera.
While Bizet’s romantic tragedy “The Pearl Fishers” is performed with some regularity, it sits at the rarer end of the standard repertoire, giving local audiences the opportunity to catch the lesser-visited work.
The story, set among ancient Ceylonese pearl fishers, is about a jealous village leader, Zurga, who sacrifices himself so that his former rival, Nadir, and Leïla, the woman they both love, can escape together. The famous tenor-baritone duet “Au fond du temple saint” recalls the moment that nearly destroyed Zurga and Nadir’s friendship.
Calkins, a lyric tenor with experience in spinto and leggiero fachs, says “The Pearl Fishers” was one of the first operas he performed as a young music student, and that this created a path toward opera in his life. After graduating from Ohio State University, he began his professional career at Opera Columbus, and he continues to make regular appearances with regional opera companies across the country.
Soprano Eve Edwards will sing the priestess Leïla. “She is an opera veteran and very versatile in her repertoire and portrayals, and is thrilling to see onstage,” Calkins says. The two recently sang together in Strauss’ “Arabella” — Calkins as Matteo and Edwards in the title role — at Amici Opera Company in Philadelphia.
As the company’s artistic director, Calkins produces and directs each show, and occasionally sings in them, too. This year, he will join some of the vocal ensembles and take on the role of Count Almaviva in “The Barber of Seville,” Rossini’s sparkling opera buffa that is a staple of the operatic repertoire. The story, based on Pierre Beaumarchais’ French comedy of the same name, revolves around the clever barber Figaro, who helps the Count outwit the possessive Dr. Bartolo and marry the high-spirited Rosina.
“This will be the long-awaited return of one of our classics, and we are so excited to bring this hilarious and colorful show from our vault to Kelsey,” he says. They have staged it twice since its 2023 company premiere.
BRITTANY MORGAN
Many of the original cast members will return, including lyric mezzo-soprano Brittany Morgan — who sang the title role of “Carmen” at last year’s festival — as Rosina. She and Calkins recently shared the stage as lead characters in another Rossini comedy, “L’italiana in Algeri,” in Brigantine and Lansdale, Pennsylvania.
The staging is designed to capture Rossini’s wit and exquisite comic timing, with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Calkins added a creative plot point that comes full circle during Almaviva’s bravura aria “Cessa di più resistere,” and will involve an appearance by Calkins’ young daughter, who has performed in the NJLO children’s ensemble and played the role of Dolore/Gioia in Puccini’s “Madama Butterfly.”
NJLO first presented Gounod’s “Romeo and Juliet,” based on Shakespeare’s famous tale, in April in Atlantic City, with Samual Keeler as Roméo and Natasha Scheuble as Juliette. Both will return. “Sam and Natasha are sensational singers, and part of a phenomenal cast,” Calkins says. “After the show at Dante Hall, we had audience members approach us because they were so emotionally moved by the experience.”
It is the third French title NJLO has performed in one year, following “Carmen” last summer and Leos Delibes’ “Lakmé” in the fall. “We inadvertently moved into our French opera era, and I promise you it was not planned!” Calkins jokes. “It happened spontaneously and it feels like a breath of fresh air. The spectacle and the music-writing is magical. It adds depth to our company, for sure.”
John Calkins, second from right, in a 2023 New Jersey Lyric Opera production of “The Barber of Seville.”
Calkins first connected to the repertoire in college while studying French, and then one of his first professional roles was the tenor lead in Gounod’s “Faust.” He founded NJLO in 2019 with the mission of providing performing opportunities to singers — either to learn a new role, or to gain additional professional experience as a stepping stone.
In addition to running the company, he has been the director of music at Ogden Memorial Presbyterian Church in Chatham since 2021. He also works in the New Jersey school system, and gives private lessons in voice and piano.
He is always looking for innovative ways to support his artists, and this year NJLO launched an online gift shop at njopera.printful.me. Merchandise includes clothing, accessories, stickers and home goods embossed with original production designs. “We mostly took a lot of artwork that we had created for shows or stills from productions that I found might resonate with audience members and fans of the opera company,” Calkins says. (Prices range from $2.50 for a “La bohème” sticker to $44 for a “Romeo and Juliet” backpack. Proceeds go to NJLO’s general fund to support artists.)
New Jersey Lyric Opera continues to grow in many ways — slowly but steadily. Calkins is particularly proud that the Kelsey partnership has evolved into something so popular.
“It is a relationship that has been very fruitful for us, and the Kelsey staff has been very supportive and welcoming,” he says. “I think it has created this wonderful relationship of, ‘We have an audience for this and people are looking forward to this every year.’ ”
New Jersey Lyric Opera will present the following works at The Kelsey Theatre at Mercer County Community College in West Windsor: “Il Trovatore,” Aug. 28 at 7:30 p.m.; “The Pearl Fishers,” Aug. 29 at 2 p.m.; “Romeo and Juliet,” Aug. 29 at 7:30 p.m.; and “The Barber of Seville,” Aug. 30 at 2 p.m. Visit njlyricopera.com or kelsey.mccc.edu.
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