Uploaded August 2022 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The year is 1861 and Italy is now a unified country. The new government’s representative Chevalley di Monterzuolo has come to Sicily to offer the Prince a lifetime seat in the Senate. The Prince turns him down, and in this aria explains why. Sleep is what Sicilians want, and they will hate anyone who tries to wake them. And he is too old anyway, from a generation “caught between the old world and the new, and ill-at-ease in both.” The Prince suggests that Chevalley ask the younger, ambitious Calogero Sedara instead, a man who has no illusions but “knows how to create them when needed.”
THE LEOPARD: Music by Michael Dellaira
Libretto by J. D. McClatchy
Commissioned and developed by American Opera Projects, with funds provided by The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and The Paul Underwood Charitable Trust.
Adapted from “The Leopard” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Courtesy of The Wylie Agency.
This performance is from the world premiere which took place March 5-6, 2022 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, Cutler Bay, Florida by the University of Miami’s Frost Opera Theater, Frost School of Music (Shelton Berg, Dean)
Conductor - Gerard Schwarz
Music Director/Vocal Coach - Alan Johnson
Stage Director - Jeffrey Buchman
Don Fabrizio (the Prince) - Kim Josephson
Chevalley di Monterzuolo – Kevin Short
Set Designer - Cameron Anderson
Costume Supervisor - Camilla Haith
Lighting Designer - John Cuff
Choreographer - Rosa Mercedes
Hair/Wig/Make-up - Emily Malin
Production Stage Manager - Dustin Z. West
Assistant Stage Managers - Nicole Plummer, Beatriz Menendez
Assistants to the Director - Christina Smiley, Lauren Richards
Costume Coordinator - Courtnay Rigdon
Chorus Master - Scott Aucoin
Rehearsal Pianist - Rina Kharrosova
Costumes provided by - Florida Opera Association, Inc.
Scenic Build by - Infinity Productions
Props provided by - Movie Props Rental
Audio Recording – Soundmirror, Inc.
Producer - Blanton Alspaugh; Balance Engineer - Mark Donahue;
Wireless engineer – Brandon Johnson
Videographer - Gonzalo Mejia
Production made possible by the generous support of Frayda B. Lindemann, Phillip and Patricia Frost, Alan Benaroya, and the Martin Messinger Symphony Orchestra Fund
Music Copyright 2018 Michael Dellaira
Published by American Composers Alliance (BMI) and Music of Virtual North America and for the Rest of the World by BMG Rights Mgt.
Score and parts: composers.com
The year is 1861 and Italy is now a unified country. The new government’s representative Chevalley di Monterzuolo has come to Sicily to offer the Prince a lifetime seat in the Senate. The Prince turns him down, and in this aria explains why. Sleep is what Sicilians want, and they will hate anyone who tries to wake them. And he is too old anyway, from a generation “caught between the old world and the new, and ill-at-ease in both.” The Prince suggests that Chevalley ask the younger, ambitious Calogero Sedara instead, a man who has no illusions but “knows how to create them when needed.”
THE LEOPARD: Music by Michael Dellaira
Libretto by J. D. McClatchy
Commissioned and developed by American Opera Projects, with funds provided by The Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation and The Paul Underwood Charitable Trust.
Adapted from “The Leopard” by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. Courtesy of The Wylie Agency.
This performance is from the world premiere which took place March 5-6, 2022 at the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, Cutler Bay, Florida by the University of Miami’s Frost Opera Theater, Frost School of Music (Shelton Berg, Dean)
Conductor - Gerard Schwarz
Music Director/Vocal Coach - Alan Johnson
Stage Director - Jeffrey Buchman
Don Fabrizio (the Prince) - Kim Josephson
Chevalley di Monterzuolo – Kevin Short
Set Designer - Cameron Anderson
Costume Supervisor - Camilla Haith
Lighting Designer - John Cuff
Choreographer - Rosa Mercedes
Hair/Wig/Make-up - Emily Malin
Production Stage Manager - Dustin Z. West
Assistant Stage Managers - Nicole Plummer, Beatriz Menendez
Assistants to the Director - Christina Smiley, Lauren Richards
Costume Coordinator - Courtnay Rigdon
Chorus Master - Scott Aucoin
Rehearsal Pianist - Rina Kharrosova
Costumes provided by - Florida Opera Association, Inc.
Scenic Build by - Infinity Productions
Props provided by - Movie Props Rental
Audio Recording – Soundmirror, Inc.
Producer - Blanton Alspaugh; Balance Engineer - Mark Donahue;
Wireless engineer – Brandon Johnson
Videographer - Gonzalo Mejia
Production made possible by the generous support of Frayda B. Lindemann, Phillip and Patricia Frost, Alan Benaroya, and the Martin Messinger Symphony Orchestra Fund
Music Copyright 2018 Michael Dellaira
Published by American Composers Alliance (BMI) and Music of Virtual North America and for the Rest of the World by BMG Rights Mgt.
Score and parts: composers.com
