A Chamber OperaMusic by David T. Little

Libretto by Royce Vavrek

Sung in English with English Titles

7:30 P.M. CT | OCTOBER 23, 2020Available on demand through November 22

Vinkensportor The Finch Opera

HOUSTON GRAND OPERA PRESENTS

Vinkensportor The Finch Operaor The Finch Opera

Vinkensport

“Vinkensport, or The Finch Opera is a bitter-sweet comedy in one act, which explores obsession, desire, and the need to win, through the frame of an obscure Flemish folk sport, ‘finch-sitting.’” —Composer David T. Little

BackgroundVinkensport, or The Finch Opera, a one-act comic opera by David T. Little and Royce Vavrek, premiered in 2010 at the Bard College Conservatory of Music. Vinkensport, or “finch-sitting,” pits contestants—called “chaffinches”—against one another to see who has the most melodious bird. When a bird makes a proper call (a “susk-e-wiet”), its owner receives a tally mark. The competitor with the most points wins. The sport can be traced back to as early as the 1500s.

The StorySix chaffinches introduce the sport of finch-sitting. Hans Sachs’s Trainer, we learn, is high on cocaine. St. Francis’s Trainer and Atticus Finch’s Trainer live next door to one another: she (the former) is enamored with him (the latter), though she is married to a man named Wulf who unabashedly cheats on her. Atticus Finch’s Trainer is thoroughly annoyed by his neighbor, however, and can’t wait to install blinds in his windows to retain his privacy.

We learn that Prince Gabriel III’s Trainer died, so his son has taken over as chaffinch for the bird—even though he seems to hate both the sport and his father. Elton John’s Trainer is an alco-holic and nymphomaniac who habitually cheats on her husband.

Farinelli’s Trainer reveals to the audience that Farinelli actually died years ago: she competes with a CD player in her box so that she always wins. This time, however, the win goes to Hans Sachs’s Trainer. Atticus Finch’s Trainer ends the opera with a beautifully poignant aria, promising to let his finch fly free—right before Elton John’s Trainer returns for a final bit of drunken misbehavior.

Fun FactThe Flemish people still compete at vinkensport, as they have done for centuries. Allegations of cheating are common and include testosterone use. There was a real-life instance of a competitor installing a CD player in his box—he aroused suspicion after his finch sang 725 susk-e-wiets in three matches in a row.

CastHoly St. Francis’s Trainer Alicia Gianni ‡ Prince Gabriel III of Belgium’s Trainer’s Son Kelly Markgraf * Farinelli’s Trainer Elena Villalón † Hans Sachs’s Trainer Ricardo Garcia *† Sir Elton John’s Trainer Nicole Heaston ‡ Atticus Finch’s Trainer Ryan McKinny ‡ Butler Richard Bado ‡

* Houston Grand Opera debut † Houston Grand Opera Studio artist ‡ Former Houston Grand Opera Studio artist

Creative TeamConductor Timothy Myers Co-Directors E. Loren Meeker and Ryan McKinny ‡ Musical Preparation Peter Pasztor ‡ and Alex Munger, Dr. Saúl and Ursula Balagura and Trey Yates Fellow † Stage Managers Annie Wheeler and Brian August

† Houston Grand Opera Studio artist ‡ Former Houston Grand Opera Studio artist

CreditsMolly Dill Producing Director Daniel James Producer Tonya McKinny Producer David T. Little Producer Royce Vavrek Producer Dale Edwards Producer Ben Doyle Director of Photography & Editing Kristen Burke Production Manager Jeremy Johnson English Subtitles Dotti Staker Hair & Makeup Clair Hummel Costume Realizer

The entire staff of HGO contributed to the success of this production. For a full listing of the company’s staff, please visit HGO.org/about-us/people.

Performing artists, stage directors, and choreographers are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, the union for opera professionals in the United States.

Orchestral musicians are represented by the Houston Professional Musicians Association, Local #65-699, American Federation of Musicians.

Wardrobe personnel provided by Theatrical Wardrobe Union, Local #896.

Video Production Streaming Partner

Produced in association with Austin Opera and Keep the Music Going Productions

Vinkensportor The Finch Opera

Audio Production Ryan Edwards and Shannon Smith

By arrangement with Hendon Music, Inc., a Boosey & Hawkes company, publisher and copyright owner.

Vinkensportor The Finch Opera

HGO Orchestra Patrick Summers Artistic and Music Director Margaret Alkek Williams Chair

VIOLIN Denise Tarrant*, Concertmaster Chloe Kim†, Assistant Concertmaster Natalie Gaynor†, Principal, Second Violin Carrie Kauk†, Assistant Principal Second Violin Hae-a Lee-Barnes† Miriam Belyatsky† Anabel Detrick† Rasa Kalesnykaite† Chavdar Parashkevov† Mary Reed*, Acting Principal Second Violin Erica Robinson† Linda Sanders† Oleg Sulyga† Sylvia VerMeulen† Melissa Williams†

VIOLA Eliseo Rene Salazar*, Principal Lorento Golofeev†, Assistant Principal Gayle Garcia-Shepard† Erika Lawson† Suzanne LeFevre† Dawson White†

CELLO Barrett Sills*, Principal Erika Johnson†, Assistant Principal Ariana Nelson† Wendy Smith-Butler† Steven Wiggs†

DOUBLE BASS Dennis Whittaker†, Principal Erik Gronfor*, Acting Principal Carla Clark†

FLUTE Vacant, Principal Henry Williford*, Acting Principal

OBOE Elizabeth Priestly Siffert†, Principal Mayu Isom†

CLARINET Sean Krissman*, Principal Eric Chi†

BASSOON Amanda Swain†, Principal Michael Allard†

FRENCH HORN Sarah Cranston†, Principal Kimberly Penrod Minson†, Second Horn Spencer Park†

TRUMPET Tetsuya Lawson†, Principal Randal Adams†

TROMBONE Thomas Hulten†, Principal Mark Holley†

BASS TROMBONE Vacant

TUBA Mark Barton†, Principal

HARP Joan Eidman†, Principal

TIMPANI Alison Chang†, Principal

PERCUSSION Richard Brown†, Principal

PIANO Peter Pasztor

ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL MANAGER Richard Brown

* = Core Member † = Core Member on leave for this production

Vinkensportor The Finch Opera

both for Beth Morrison Projects and Trinity Wall Street; and a tour of the world premiere ballet Crypto, created with choreographer Guillaume Côté and composer Mikael Karlsson. Vavrek is co-ar-tistic director of The Coterie, an opera-theater company founded with Tony-nominated soprano Lauren Worsham, and is an alum of Concordia University (Montreal), NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program, and American Lyric Theater’s Composer/Librettist Development Program.

TIMOTHY MYERS (United States)CONDUCTOR

Internationally acclaimed for his eloquence, energy and command on the podium, Timothy Myers is driven by a wide breadth of reper-

toire and projects. Myers has a long relationship with HGO, where he has most recently conducted West Side Story (2018), and the world premieres of O Columbia (2015) and A Coffin in Egypt (2014). He opened his 2019–20 season to rave reviews at Ireland’s Wexford Festival, conducting a new production of Massenet’s Don Quichotte. Artistic Advisor to Austin Opera since 2018, Myers recently also assumed the title of the Sarah and Ernest Butler Principal Conductor and in spring of 2021 will lead two concerts and a production of Tosca. Other upcoming engagements include debuts at Pittsburgh Opera, Opera Theatre of St Louis, and returns to the North Carolina Symphony and Atlanta Opera. Highlights of Myers’s 2018–19 season included his debut with Santa Fe Opera conducting Bizet’s The Pearl Fishers, the world premiere of The Fix (Joel Puckett/Eric Simonson) for his debut at Minnesota Opera, and Silent Night (Kevin Puts/Mark Campbell) for his debut at Austin Opera. A protégé of Lorin Maazel, Myers was the first associate conductor of the Castleton Festival, where he led multiple symphonic and opera performances over his tenure. His concert work has led him to work with orchestras internationally, including the American, Jerusalem, Beijing NCPA, North Carolina, Portland (ME), Toledo, and Chautauqua Symphonies, as well as the Malaysian, Johannesburg, and Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestras. In 2017, Myers concluded his tenure as the Artistic and Music Director of North Carolina Opera where his repertoire highlights included Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Act II of Tristan und Isolde and Act I of Die Walküre, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, and Dvorak’s Rusalka; most recently, he returned to conduct Act III of Wagner’s Siegfried in November 2019.

Who’s Who

DAVID T. LITTLE(United States)COMPOSER

David T. Little is “one of the most imaginative young composers” on the scene (The New Yorker), with “a knack for overturning musical

conventions” (The New York Times). His operas Dog Days, JFK, and Vinkensport (librettos by Royce Vavrek), and Soldier Songs have been widely acclaimed, “prov[ing] beyond any doubt that opera has both a relevant present and a bright future” (The New York Times). Little’s music has been presented by the LA Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, LA Opera, Park Avenue Armory, Lincoln Center Festival, Kennedy Center, Holland Festival, Opera de Montréal, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Little is currently composing a new monodrama for Grammy Award–winning tenor Karim Sulayman and Alarm Will Sound, based on Garth Greenwell’s celebrated novel What Belongs to You, as well as a new solo cello work for virtuoso Matt Haimovitz; he is also developing a new work commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera / Lincoln Center Theater new work program. He is published by Boosey & Hawkes.

ROYCE VAVREK (Canada)LIBRETTIST

Royce Vavrek is a librettist and lyricist whose opera Angel’s Bone with composer Du Yun was awarded the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

He made his HGO debut in 2015 with HGOco’s world premiere of O Columbia (composer Gregory Spears), followed by HGO world premiere The House Without a Christmas Tree in 2017 (composer Ricky Ian Gordon). He is known for his diverse collaborations with composers David T. Little (Dog Days, Am I Born, JFK, Vinkensport); Ricky Ian Gordon (27); Missy Mazzoli (Song from the Uproar, Breaking the Waves, Proving Up); Joshua Schmidt (Midwestern Gothic); Paola Prestini (The Hubble Cantata, Silent Light); Matt Marks (A Song for Wade [This is Not That Song], Strip Mall); Ellen Reid (Knoxville: Summer of 2015); and Luna Pearl Woolf (Jacqueline). Upcoming projects include The Listeners for the Norwegian National Opera and Opera Philadelphia and Lincoln in the Bardo for The Metropolitan Opera, both with Missy Mazzoli; Melancholia for the Royal Swedish Opera, So We Will Vanish for Anne Sofie von Otter and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and Fanny and Alexander for La Monnaie, all with Mikael Karlsson; Agnes with Daníel Bjarnason for the Icelandic Opera; a soon-to-be-announced project with composer David T. Little for the Met/LCT development program; Broadview Christ with Julian Wachner and Adoration with Mary Kouyoumdjian,

Vinkensportor The Finch Opera

E. LOREN MEEKER(United States)CO-DIRECTOR

For the HGO Digital 2020–21 season, E. Loren Meeker also will direct The Impresario. Meeker is a well-established stage director,

having received critical acclaim for recent productions of Don Giovanni (Washington National Opera), Madama Butterfly (Florida Grand Opera and Portland Opera), Show Boat (Co-Director, The Glimmerglass Festival), The Cunning Little Vixen (The Glimmerglass Festival), Daughter of the Regiment (The Atlanta Opera), Rigoletto and Die Fledermaus (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Carmen (Washington National Opera and Madison Opera), Die Fledermaus (San Francisco Opera), La Pietra del Paragone (Wolf Trap Opera), La bohème (The Glimmerglass Festival), Manon Lescaut (Singapore Lyric Opera), and Manon (Teatro Colon). In addition to her career as a stage director, Meeker is also the newly appointed General & Artistic Director of OPERA San Antonio. Her history with HGO includes directing The Pearl Fishers, associate directing Show Boat and Florencia en el Amazonas, choreographing Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, directing a site-specific Trial by Jury, and four world premieres with HGOco: A Way Home, From My Mother’s Mother, Past the Checkpoints, and River of Light.

RYAN MCKINNY (United States)CO-DIRECTOR

HGO Studio alumnus Ryan McKinny also performs the role of Atticus Finch’s Trainer in Vinkensport and will co-direct the HGO

Digital production Bon Appétit! this season. His past performances for HGO include his role debut as Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni (2019); Gunther in Götterdämmerung (2017); and Donner in Das Rheingold, Escamillo in Carmen, and the title role in Rigoletto (all in 2014). The 2019–20 season saw McKinny make his role and house debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking, featuring a new production by Leonard Foglia, before performing at Washington National Opera and returning to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as the title role in Don Giovanni. He has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera (Biterolf in Tannhäuser, Speaker in The Magic Flute, Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Billy Budd); Dutch National Opera (debut in Pierre Audi’s production of Parsifal); Los Angeles Opera (Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Stanley Kowalski to Renée Fleming’s Blanche DuBois in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Leone in Handel’s Tamerlano

with Plácido Domingo, and Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville); Santa Fe Opera (Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic and Jokanaan in Salome); Washington National Opera; Staatstheater Wiesbaden; English National Opera; Semperoper Dresden; Hamburg State Opera; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Deutsche Oper am Rhein; Teatro Colón; and many other companies.

NICOLE HEASTON(United States)SOPRANO—SIR ELTON JOHN’S TRAINER

HGO Studio alumna Nicole Heaston also will appear in HGO Digital productions The Impresario and Giving Voice. Heaston has

performed with opera companies throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Opera, San Francisco Opera, Dallas Opera, Washington National Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Deutsche Oper am Rhein in Dusseldorf, and the Glyndebourne Festival in England. Praised for her “warm supple soprano” (Houston Chronicle) and for her “radiant” and “handsomely resonant voice” (The New York Times), Heaston regularly appears in her hometown, Houston. She was most recently seen at HGO singing in the first Giving Voice (2020) recital, making her role debut as Mimì in La bohème (2018), and performing Adina in The Elixir of Love (2016). Other HGO roles include Pamina in The Magic Flute (2015, 1997); Gilda in perfor-mances of Rigoletto (2001); Zerlina in Don Giovanni (1999); Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro (1998); the title role in the world premiere of Jackie O (1997); Mrs. Hayes in Susannah and St. Settlement in Four Saints in Three Acts (1996); and performances of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (1995). Equally active as a concert and recital soloist, Heaston has performed with orchestras throughout the United States, including the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra for the Kennedy Center’s 11th annual gala.

ALICIA GIANNI (United States)SOPRANO—HOLY ST. FRANCIS’S TRAINER

HGO Studio alumna Alicia Gianni, whose performances have been described as “charming, impressive,” and “powerfully real,”

has enjoyed success on both the operatic and concert stages. Recent engagements include the role of Rosalba in Florencia en el Amazonas and Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore with HGO, and Adina in L’elisir d’amore with Opera Birmingham. Other roles with HGO have included include Beryl in the world premiere of André Previn’s Brief

Vinkensportor The Finch Opera

Encounter, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Rooster/Jay in The Cunning Little Vixen, Papagena in The Magic Flute, Musetta in La bohème, and Petra in A Little Night Music, among other roles. Her operatic engagements include Despina in Così fan tutte and Fortuna and Giunone in Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in patria with Wolf Trap Opera and the title role in Suor Angelica at the summer festival in Torre del Lago. Gianni’s appearances on the concert platform have included special performances of HGO’s The Passenger Series, performing as the soprano soloist in Jake Heggie’s Farewell Auschwitz, and songs by Viktor Ullmann in From Terezín. Other concerts include Brahms’s Requiem and Mozart’s C Minor Mass with the Hickory, North Carolina Choral Society and Orchestra, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Palm Beach Symphony, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, and Florida West Coast Symphony.

ELENA VILLALÓN(United States) Dian and Harlan Stai Fellow

SOPRANO—FARINELLI’S TRAINER

A second-year HGO Studio artist, Elena Villalón also will perform the roles of Amy in

The Snowy Day Project and Dew Fairy and Sandman in Hansel and Gretel during the HGO Digital 2020–21 season. Last season, she performed the roles of Page in Rigoletto; Woman in selected perfor-mances of the world premiere of El Milagro del Recuerdo/The Miracle of Remembering; and Inez in La favorite. Villalón was the Audience Choice Award winner in HGO’s 2019 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias and a Grand Finals winner of the 2019 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati College - Conservatory of Music (CCM), has been a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, and is an alumna of HGO’s 2018 Young Artist Vocal Academy. In summer 2019, she performed the role of Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist and returned to the Tanglewood Music Center as a soprano fellow. In the summer of 2020, she was set to make her Santa Fe Opera debut as First Wood Sprite in Rusalka, but this was canceled due to COVID-19.

RICARDO GARCIA(United States) Michelle Beale and Dick Anderson/ Dr. Ellen R. Gritz and Mr. Milton D. Rosenau Jr. Fellow

TENOR—HANS SACHS’S TRAINER

A first-year HGO Studio artist, Ricardo Garcia also will appear in The Snowy Day Project and Suite Española during

the HGO Digital 2020–21 season. He recently completed his master’s degree in voice at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of the Pacific. He was a studio artist at Wolf Trap Opera, where he covered Roméo in Roméo et Juliette and Giocondo in La pietra del paragone, and a voice fellow with Music Academy of the West, where he sang Jenik in The Bartered Bride. Recent roles include Lamplighter/Drunkard in The Little Prince and Fenton in Falstaff. As a first-year apprentice at Santa Fe Opera, he covered Parpignol in La bohème and sang Fenton/Normanno in the Apprentice Scenes Night. Recently, Garcia won the San Francisco District of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and advanced to the region finals in Los Angeles.

KELLY MARKGRAF (United States) BASS-BARITONE—PRINCE GABRIEL III OF

BELGIUM’S TRAINER’S SON

Kelly Markgraf has been hailed by the New York Times for his “heart-stirring” singing and

“charismatic” stage presence. In the summer of 2017 he created the role of Paul Jobs in Mason Bates’s The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs at the Santa Fe Opera. He also created the role of Hannah-Before in Laura Kaminsky’s transgender opera As One, one of the most frequently performed new operas in the United States today. Markgraf was engaged to sing Dancaire in HGO’s production of Carmen (canceled) and make his South American debut with the Saõ Paulo Symphony in Mozart’s Requiem (canceled); he is engaged to join the Tucson Symphony as the bass soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Markgraf has enjoyed collaboration with some of the world’s most esteemed conductors, including Gustavo Dudamel, Giancarlo Guerrero, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Edo de Waart, and has performed with the nation’s leading symphony orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He made his San Francisco Symphony debut as Bernardo in a live concert recording of West Side Story, which was later nominated for a Grammy Award.

RYAN MCKINNY(United States)BASS-BARITONE—ATTICUS FINCH’S TRAINER

For information about Ryan McKinny, see above.