Everything comes to a head

Commissioned by Lyric Opera of the North
Music by Rachel J. Peters 
Libretto by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek

Where is Basil, Rosemary’s boyfriend? He made like a tree and leaved. He made like a banana and peeled. He made like a bush and burned. He made like a pandemic committee meeting and Zoomed. Rosemary is worried their love has gone dormant (was it the lack of spice in their relationship?) but she’s staying planted in her tiny apartment. Her roommates, on the other hand, think Rosemary doesn’t need to cultivate that kind of baggage. Basil was deadwood! Everything Comes to a Head gives us some sage advice: if the roots of love are deep enough, it doesn’t matter if you’re in mint condition.

 
Ep1 Everything Comes to a Head 2.jpg

Episode 1: both gladsome and grievous

Tales from a Safe Distance

Streaming In THE IDAGIO Global Concert Hall

 

Cast

Rosemary: Marjorie Maltais 
Trish: Raven McMillon 
Sage: Georgia Jacobson
Basil: Jorell Williams

Creative Team

Music by Rachel J. Peters 
Libretto by Margi Preus and Jean Sramek
Piano & Film Editor: Bill Munson 
Violin: Erin Aldridge 
Director: Christina Baldwin
Scenic Designer & Painter: Ann Gumpper

Rachel J. Peters

She/Her

Composer/librettist Rachel J. Peters’s operas include Rootabaga Country (Sarasota Opera), Companionship (Fort Worth Opera), The Wild Beast of the Bungalow (Oberlin Conservatory), Steve (Boston Opera Collaborative), No Ladies in the Lady’s Book (Utah Opera). Musicals: Only Children (NYU), Tiny Feats of Cowardice (NYC Fringe Festival), Write Left (Playwrights Horizons Theatre School), Tomato Red (UC Irvine), Octopus Heart (NYU). Scores for plays: Stretch (a fantasia) (New Georges) and Tania in the Getaway Van (Flea Theater), Transatlantic (Arkansas Rep). Concert works: Ethel Smyth Plays Golf in Limbo (Semperoper Dresden), If You Can Prove That I Should Set You Free (Albany Symphony) I Live Here (Galapagos Art Space), Canon I (Two Sides Sounding), Fronds: The Wisdom of Fanny Fern (Walt Whitman Project). Songs performed at Lincoln Center, Second Stage, National Opera Center, Symphony Space, Joe's Pub; contributor to The AIDS Quilt Songbook. Upcoming premieres with Opera Kansas and Opera Steamboat. racheljpeters.com.

margi preus

She/Her

Margi Preus (librettist) is a Newbery Honor-winning and New York Times bestselling author of books for young readers. Her books have appeared on “best of” lists, been honored as ALA/ALSC Notables, selected as an NPR Backseat Book Club pick, chosen for community reads, and translated into several languages. New titles in 2020 include The Littlest Voyageur, Village of Scoundrels, and The Silver Box, the last in the Enchantment Lake Mystery Series.

 Before writing for young people she directed Colder by the Lake Comedy Theater. Along with co-writer Jean Sramek and ensemble members, the company produced myriad comic revues, a live radio series, two comic operas, and some reimagined Shakespeare.

Back when such things were done, Margi enjoyed traveling, speaking, and visiting schools all over the world. Now more permanently at home in Duluth, Minnesota, she likes to hike, ski, canoe, or sit quietly with a book in her lap

Jean Sramek.jpg

Christina Baldwin

She/Her

Christina Baldwin (director) is the Interim Artistic Director of the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, MN, and frequent collaborator with Lyric Opera of the North. Christina’s collaborations range from Shakespeare and contemporary plays, to musical theater and opera. An advocate of new work, she develops new musical theater and opera with Nautilus Music-Theater and serves as Artistic Associate, music director, creator and performer with The Moving Company. A collaborator with the French-American Theatre de la Jeune Lune for nearly 10 years, Christina co-adapted and performed the title role in their critically-acclaimed touring production of Carmen. She adapts and directs operas, has been a recording artist and vocalist with the Minnesota Orchestra, a writer/actor on NPR’s “Wits” and "A Prairie Home Companion,” and has lent her voice to animated short films by the Dutch filmmaker Rosto A.D. (Cannes Film Festival award-winner).

Marjorie Maltais

She/Her

Mezzo-soprano Marjorie Maltais is rapidly earning an excellent reputation on both concert and operatic stages in Canada and beyond. Recent highlights for this engaging artist include a brilliant debut with Boston Early Music Festival in performances of “Versailles:Portrait of a Royal Domain”, (Charpentier and Lalande), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro) with Southern Ontario Lyric Opera, Mrs. Gobineau (The Medium) with Victory Hall Opera, Cherubino (I due Figaro) and Costanza (L’Isola disabitata) with Opera in Concert. Marjorie has appeared as a guest soloist with Les Boréades de Montréal, Windsor Symphony, Boise Philharmonic, Montréal’s Orchestre Métropolitain, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, and Edinburgh International Festival.

Marjorie is also a member of French Squeeze, a duo with tenor Jacques Arsenault, presenting original accordion arrangements of their favourite French songs from Canada and France.

Ann Gumpper

She/Her

Ann Gumpper has spent the past decade creating scenery with LOON, in a wide variety of styles and venues. Based in Duluth, Minnesota, she designs for a variety of local companies, including Duluth Playhouse NorShor Theatre, Minnesota Ballet, Wise Fool Theatre, U of MN Duluth Theatre and Opera programs, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra, Zeitgeist Theatre, and school and community organizations. Her designs have also been featured at Skylark Opera, Minnesota Orchestra, Twin Cities Ballet, Rochester Civic Theatre, Extreme Home Makeover, Summer Repertory Theatre in Santa Rosa, CA, New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Theatre-by-the-Sea, RI, among others. Ann holds an MFA in Set Design from Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts.

More at anngumpperdesign.com

Jorell Williams

He/Him

Jorell Williams is an American operatic baritone with a wide variety of experience from standard repertoire to premiere pieces. Praised for his “magnificent, rich-toned” Baritone (The New York Times), Mr. Williams begins the 2020-2021 season with the world premiere of In Real Life written by Robert Paterson and David Cote with the American Modern Ensemble, the title role in Don Giovanni with Opera Columbus, and in concert with Seattle Opera and the Brooklyn Art Song Society. Previous seasons include Seattle Opera, New York City Opera, On-Site Opera, Finger Lakes Opera, and Urban Arias, and performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra at the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater on the occasion of the first Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama, as well as the U.S. tour and European premiere of Marsalis' Abyssinian Mass at the Barbican during the 2012 Olympics in London.

Georgia Jacobson

She/Her

A native of Duluth, mezzo-soprano Georgia Jacobson’s 2019/2020 season included her debut with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as Maman/La libellue/La tasse chinoise in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortileges conducted by Louis Langrée, Zweite Dame in CCM Opera’s Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and the alto soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the Galion Chorale. Jacobson graduated in May with a Master of Music in Vocal Performance degree from the University of Cincinnati – College Conservatory of Music (CCM), where she studied with Amy Johnson. Recent performances include Endimione (La Calisto) with CCM Opera, Leona (La belle Hélène) with Lakes Area Music Festival, and Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro) with CCM Opera Bootcamp. In November of 2019, Jacobson joined the Opera Fusion: New Works program in collaboration with Cincinnati Opera and CCM Opera to sing the role of Ruth in a workshop of Tobias Picker’s new opera Awakenings.

Ora Jewell-Busche

She/Her

Ora Jewell-Busche is a Minnesota based wig, make-up and costume designer working in opera, theater, and film. She has worked extensively with companies ranging from The Lyric Opera of Chicago, Lookingglass Theater, Chicago Shakespeare, The Steppenwolf, The Goodman Theater, Pacific Symphony, Shattered Globe, Sans Culottes, Lyric Opera of the North and many more. Recent projects include: Magic Flute, Aida, Turandot, Carmen, La Traviata (Pacific Symphony), Eugene Onegin, La Fille du Regiment, The Tales of Hoffman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Il Trovatore (Hawaii Opera Theater). Film and television credits include Were the World Mine, Chicago Overcoat, Prison Break and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Ora received a BFA in Costume Design from DePaul University, and apprenticed under Melissa Veal (originally of the Stratford Festival of Canada) as a wigmaker. As well as maintaining a busy design schedule, Ora also teaches Theatrical Make-up at Make-up First School in Chicago.