|
Where Have All The Artists Gone? Thursday, August 30, 2012 By Fort Worth Opera
We've been missing our young artists this summer while they've all been away on gigs and vacation. Turns out they've traveled far and wide…and even gotten married! Here's a short travelogue from our pals Meaghan Deiter, Jonathan Blalock, Corrie Donovan, Wes Mason, and Amanda Robie.
| Meaghan Deiter | | Mezzo-soprano Meaghan Deiter, a brand-new alumna of the Fort Worth Opera Studio, was unforgettable as the indomitable Katisha in the 2011 FWOpera production of The Mikado, and she returned this past year in Lysistrata, singing Kleonike, the spirited leader of the Athenian women.
The day after Lysistrata closed, Meaghan and fellow cast member Hailey Clark took a 5 a.m. flight to New York and started rehearsals that very night on three different productions for Opera Saratoga. After six weeks amidst the beauty of upstate NY, Meaghan spent some well-deserved downtime with her family in her hometown of Sabetha, Kansas. | 
Meaghan Deiter (right) and fellow singer Hailey Clark (left) pose with a furry friend.
| | Jonathon Blalock | | You might remember tenor Jonathan Blalock, also a recent FWOpera Studio alumnus, from his Festival performances—Howard Boucher in Dead Man Walking, Remandado in Carmen, Lázaro in the world premiere of Before Night Falls, and in Philip Glass' Hydrogren Jukebox.
Jonathan and his brother David (also a tenor) logged a lot of miles this summer, driving from NYC to visit family in North Carolina and then to Charleston, SC, to see baritone Dan Kempson (a fellow Hydrogen Jukebox cast member) perform in Philip Glass' Kepler at the Spoleto USA Festival. Then they came south, enjoying a fun-fill weekend back in Fort Worth attending all four productions of the 2012 Festival, then headed west to New Mexico for summer apprenticeships with Santa Fe Opera. David will be back in Fort Worth this spring, to sing Young Thompson in the 2013 Festival production of Glory Denied. | 
Jonathan Blalock (right) and his brother David Blalock in costume backstage at Santa Fe Opera. | | Corrie Donovan | |
Fort Worth native soprano Corrie Donovan served triple duty during the 2012 Festival, singing Charito and Tisiphone in Lysistrata and Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro. She was also recently named one of Fort Worth's Top Ten Beautiful Women, as selected by Fort Worth, Texas Magazine. But Corrie's biggest news of the year was definitely getting married this summer in Estes Park, Colorado. The lucky man? Fort Worth firefighter Kasey Gandy.
This summer, Corrie performed Bea in Three Decembers at the International Vocal Arts Institute in Blacksberg, Virginia, while preparing for her September 20 performance with the Contemporary Music Foundation and members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra back home in North Texas. This fall, she'll be a second-year member of the FWOpera Studio, and this spring, you'll see her onstage as Echo in the 2013 Festival production of Ariadne auf Naxos, and offstage, she'll cover the roles of Musetta in La Bohème and Young Alice in Glory Denied. ("Covering" a role is the opera equivalent of being an understudy.) | Corrie (right) with her new hubby Kasey Gandy. |
Wes Mason | |
When baritone Wes Mason debuted at FWOpera, he made quite a splash in the starring role of Reinaldo Arenas in the world premiere of Before Night Falls, and this summer marked the first time in seven years that he had an extended amount of free time on his hands. To quote him, "some folks would call this ‘unemployed', but since I'm technically still a student, I'll call it summer vacation." Far from being idle during his "vacation", Wes won the Encouragement Award at the Lorin L. Zachary Competition for Singers in Los Angeles, then headed East and caught up with friends and family in Philadelphia, D.C., Norfolk, and Ocean City, NJ.
This fall, Wes heads into his final year at the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, and after graduation, he'll return to Fort Worth to sing Marcello in the 2013 production of La Bohème. | 
Wes Mason (far left) and friends take on the White House.
|
Amanda Robie | |
Mezzo Amanda Robie got to flex her comedic chops as Arete and Megaera in the 2012 Festival production of Lysistrata. She also sang Pitti-Sing in the 2011 Festival's The Mikado and was the mezzo soloist in Hydrogen Jukebox. She'll be back this fall as a second-year Studio artist.
After the 2012 Festival, Amanda traveled to Evanston, Illinois to visit family, then took a road trip with her mom to New Hampshire. She intended to spent the rest of her summer cooling her heels with friends and family in Maine, New Hampshire, and Boston, but opportunity came a'knocking and she stepped up to the plate to serve as Interim Registrar at her alma mater, the Boston Conservatory of Music. Big shoes to fill, but she also managed to fit in some long-overdue R&R! | 
Vacation house in Maine.
|
|
|
Post comments
