Performances 

Thursday, August 15th & Friday, August 16th
6pm @ Hammond Hall  

Saturday, August 17th & Sunday, August 18th
​2pm @ Hammond Hall

Synopsis

Act 1:
Two young officers, Ferrando and Guglielmo, boast about the faithfulness of their fiancées, the sisters Dorabella and Fiordiligi. The cynical old philosopher Don Alfonso, who doubts the constancy of all women, proposes a wager: he claims that
given the opportunity, the sisters would be unfaithful within a day. The officers accept the bet and agree to follow Don Alfonso's instructions to test their lovers' fidelity.

The officers pretend to be called away to war and bid a tearful farewell to their fiancées. Soon after, they return disguised as Albanian noblemen, intent on wooing each other's partner. With the help of the sisters' maid, Despina, who is bribed by Don Alfonso and unaware of the true identity of the suitors, the men set about seducing the women.

Act 2:
Despina encourages the sisters to enjoy their new potential romances. Dorabella is the first to succumb, exchanging a locket with a portrait of Ferrando for one offered by Guglielmo. Fiordiligi, though tormented by guilt and indecision, eventually follows suit and falls for Ferrando. The disguised officers, meanwhile, are shocked and hurt by the apparent fickleness of their fiancées but continue the charade under Don Alfonso's guidance.

The plot thickens as the sisters agree to a wedding with the Albanian suitors. Just as the marriage ceremony is about to be completed, the scene is interrupted by the sound of a military march. The officers rush off and return in their true identities, pretending to have just come back from the war.

Confusion and chaos ensue as the sisters realize the true identity of the Albanians. The officers confront their fiancées with their unfaithfulness, and the women ask for forgiveness. Don Alfonso reveals the lesson behind the wager: reason, not emotion should be one’s guide.

The Cast

Fiordiligi

Julia Moman graduated with a Master of Music in Performance degree from Missouri State University as a Graduate Voice Assistant in 2021. She performed the leading roles of Zelda ‘24 in The Ghosts of Gatsby by Evan Mack and Lauretta in Buoso’s Ghost by Michael Ching while studying at MSU, in addition to teaching vocal students. Recent roles she has additionally performed include Kitty Hart in Dead Man Walking at the Miami Music Festival, Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance at Heartland Opera Theatre, and Diana in Orpheus in the Underworld at the Utah Vocal Arts Academy Summer Opera Festival. In previous years, Moman trained as a Young Artist at SongFest and a Vocal Artist at Up North Vocal Institute, while also acquiring her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance degree from Wheaton College’s Conservatory of Music. She currently teaches Class Voice and Applied Voice as an Adjunct Voice Professor at College of the Ozarks in Branson, MO, and she is excited to co- direct an Opera Scenes Program in the Fall 2024 Semester. She wants to thank her husband, Craig Moman, for always believing in her.

Soprano Celine Mogielnicki has been hailed for her "stunning" performances, "perfect in diction and phrasing, with powerful gradations of emotions" (Milbridge Independant). In the 2023/2024 season Ms. Mogielnicki makes two role debuts; as Milica in Ana Sokolovič’s Svadba at Baltimore Theater Project in February 2024 and as Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte with Winter Harbor Music Festival in August 2024. She returns to the Long Island Choral Society as soprano soloist in Handel’s Messiah, makes her DC recital debut with Little City Concerts in January 2024. and also returns to the Bar Harbor Music Festival as a featured soloist in concerts of Italian operatic classics and the music of Stephen Sondheim. A graduate of the Juilliard School and Dawn Upshaw’s graduate vocal arts program at Bard College, Ms. Mogielnicki has performed with LA Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Bard Summerscape, Caramoor, Juilliard Opera, Charlottesville Opera (formerly Ash Lawn Opera) and DC Public Opera in both standard and contemporary works. Roles include Countess, Rosalinde, Mimì, Governess, Micaela, Pamina, Marzelline and Musetta. Particularly devoted to 20th/21st century works and collaborations with living composers, she has given world premieres of works by David T. Little (Sir Elton John’s Trainer in Vinkensport), Missy Mazzoli (Song from the Uproar), Noa Ain (Song of the Turtledove), Brian Hulse (Questa rosa novella) and Stephen Gorbos (Whitman Fragments). Oratorio and concert credits include Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Mass in C Major, Handel’s Messiah and the world premiere of Judd Greenstein’s Vayomer Schlomo in Zankel Hall. She made her Carnegie Hall Debut in Vaughn William’s Serenade to Music under conductor Benjamin Zander and has appeared in concert with the National Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, National Music Festival, Southwest Florida Symphony, Friends of Mozart Society, Bel Canto at Caramoor, and the Transfiguration Choirs of New York City, Washington National Cathedral, Hudson Valley Chamber Music, the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society, 23Arts Initiative, Z1 Konzerte Berlin, Orania Berlin concert series, Winter Harbor Music Festival and Schoodic Arts in Downeast Maine. Recordings include Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots (Leonard/Premiere Bohemienne) with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein and Missy Mazzoli’s Song from the Uproar with NOW ensemble under New Amsterdam label. 

Dorabella

​Cassandra Petrie, Mezzo Soprano, is thrilled to be returning to Winter Harbor Music Festival. In the past year, Cassandra performed Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro and Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus at Winter Harbor. She has just come from the Miami Music Festival, where she performed the role of Mrs. Patrick De Rocher in Jake Heagy’s Dead Man Walking. Cassandra has traveled to young artist programs around the world, such as Opera in the Ozarks, Vienna Summer Music Festival and Berlin Opera Academy to sing roles, and travels to Lakeland Opera each year to cover roles. Cassandra also enjoys singing musical theatre and often performs in regional theaters in the Midwest. Cassandra is currently the alto section leader at Fort Wayne First Presbyterian Church and an Associate Member of the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Cassandra holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Vocal Performance and Music Education from Olivet Nazarene University and Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois.

Newly minted soprano Gabriela Fagen is a multi-faceted vocal artist well versed in baroque, classical and bel canto styles. This year marks her return to the Winter Harbor Music Festival after appearing in last year’s production of Le nozzle di Figaro as Cherubino. Ms. Fagen was contracted as a studio artist with Teatro Nuovo for two seasons, covering Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia in 2021, and was slated to cover Alceo in Il vero omaggio, which was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This past season, Ms. Fagen performed in the chorus of Cambridge Chamber Ensemble’s staged production of Handel’s Samson, and as the alto soloist in Mendelssohn’s Magnificat and in Haydn’s Mass in c minor with the Marblehead Festival Chorus. Additional recent roles include Sesto in Giulio Cesare, Dryade in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Unulfo in Rodelinda with Indiana University Opera Theatre, Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus with Lyric Opera Studio Weimar, and Dritte Dame in Die Zauberflöte with the Prague Summer Nights Festival. Ms. Fagen holds both a Master and Bachelor of Music from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, and currently resides in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Guglielmo

Marcus Klassen is a bass-baritone completing a double degree in voice and piano performance at the University of South Dakota. His most recent solo role was “Figaro” in USD opera’s production of Le nozze di Figaro. Marcus also studies organ through a scholarship from the Americian Guild of Organists, and serves as part-time pianist/ organist for Trinity Lutheran Church in Vermillion, SD, and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Sioux City, IA, as well as teaching elementary music at St. Paul’s parish school. Also an avid choral scholar, Marcus sings with the USD Chamber Singers, the Oasis Chorale, and the Missouri River Choral Society.

​Deiran Manning has given performances across the United States, Ireland, England, France and Italy at notable venues such as Merkin Concert Hall, Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie, the National Concert Hall in Dublin and the New York City Mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion. A Maine native, Mr. Manning spent his formative years in New York City attending LaGuardia High School and eventually earning his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. His notable teachers include pianists Edmund Battersby, Edward Auer, Karen Shaw, Jeffrey Swann and baritone Wolfgang Brendel. As a collaborative player, Mr. Manning has performed with notable musicians including flutist Carol Wincenc, violinist Anatole Wieck, and baritones Stephen Bryant and Wolfgang Brendel. As a singer, Mr. Manning has performed with various companies including IU Opera Theater, Bronx Opera, and WHMF Opera. Notable roles have included Papageno in Die Zauberflote and Sir Joseph Porter in HMS Pinafore. He regularly works as a vocal coach due to his experience as both a pianist and singer. In 2017, Mr. Manning founded the WHMF Community Opera program which serves to give musicians of all levels and community members the chance to perform, while providing opera to a region which lacks classical performance. Since then, he has produced, directed and coached 5 operas in the region, including a fully socially distanced outdoor production of La Serva Padrona in August of 2020. Mr. Manning has also been on faculty at New York University and Brooklyn Conservatory where he taught group keyboard, performance classes, theory and private lessons. Notable awards include; Stanza Governor’s Prize in Composition, LISSMA International Piano Competition, Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition and the Ira Gershwin award. In 2020, Mr. Manning received grants from the Maine Arts Council to record iconic keyboard works. His recordings of the Diabelli and Goldberg Variations are available digitally on iTunes, Spotify, Apple Music and other streaming platforms. Mr. Manning is currently on the faculty at Husson University and the University of Maine. In addition to his performing and teaching, Mr. Manning serves as Executive Director of the Winter Harbor Music Festival.

Ferrando

Max Alexander Cook is a tenor from Ashland, Virginia. His passion for singing led him to pursue a Bachelor of Music at Oberlin Conservatory, where he performed as Don Curzio in Le nozze di figaro, Flute in Midsummer Night’s Dream, L’amante in Amelia al ballo, and various roles in Oberlin Opera Theater’s tribute to Leonard Bernstein. Cook graduated from Oberiln in 2021 with a Bachelor of Music in Voice and a Bachelor of Arts double major in Politics and Law & Society. Cook also participated in summer programs like SongFest LA, where he was a studio artist, Opera NEO, where he sang the role of St. Brioche in The Merry Widow, Miami Music Festival, where he performed both Don Basilio and Don Curzio in Nozze. After Graduating, Cook performed as Nero in Capitol Opera Company’s Production of L’incoronazione di Poppea and Don Ottavio in Aquilon Music Festival’s production of Don Giovanni. Cook also participated in workshop performances of Virginia Opera’s newly commissioned Loving v. Virginia, by Damien Geter and Jessica Murphy Moo. Cook has performed as a soloist with Central Virginia Masterworks Choral, Virginia Consort, the Oratorio Society of Virginia, and the University of Virginia’s University Singers. As an ensemble singer, Cook has sung with the Richmond Symphony Chorus, Westminster Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, the Oratorio Society of Virginia, and Rockbridge Choral Society. Cook will join Maryland Opera Studio this coming fall, where he will begin a Master of Music.

Based in Albany, NY, Joshua Gurwitz is a lyric tenor who has performed a wide variety of operatic and music theater roles. In addition, Mr. Gurwitz has been a featured soloist in an eclectic range of concert repertoire from J. S. Bach’s Christ Lag in Todesbanden to Reena Esmail’s pioneering new work, This Love Between Us. In 2018, Mr. Gurwitz was awarded first prize in the Advanced Division of the Joel Dolven Vocal Awards, a competition run by the Mendelssohn Club of Albany, NY. He has also won honors in 2011, 2012, and 2014 at the Art Song Festival held by the Eastern New York chapter of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS). Most recently, Mr. Gurwitz sang the Count in Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Don Basilio in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and was tenor soloist in Handel’s Messiah. For the 2024 season, Mr. Gurwitz will be making role debuts as Ernesto in Donizetti’s Don Pasquale and Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte at the Winter Harbor Music Festival. Mr. Gurwitz is a graduate of the vocal performance programs at the University at Albany, SUNY and the Aaron Copland School of Music, CUNY.

Despina

​Megan Ortman is a soprano and scholar based in Washington, DC specializing art song, opera, and sacred music. A native of Dallas, TX, Megan has sung in venues around the world, from Alexandria to Vienna to Stratford-Upon-Avon. In June of 2023, Megan sang the roles of First Spirit and Chorus in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at Alexandria Summer Nights Young Artists Festival in Alexandria, Virginia, which featured one performance at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial. Summer 2022 brought Megan to Vienna, Austria with the Vienna Summer Music Festival where she covered the role of Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and studied the roles of Frances and The Bird Woman for the European debut of Paul Richards’ Mondo Novo. In Vienna, Megan also performed in a recital and Liederabend at the historic Palais Ehrbar. Megan graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in Music and History from the George Washington University in May of 2023. Megan studied with Canadian soprano Millicent Scarlett and built a repertoire spanning from the 14th to 20th Centuries. In the spring, Megan performed her Capstone voice recital titled Voicing Femininity, in which she researched and demonstrated an interconnectedness of feminine expression across 19th-century aria and art song. As a historian, Megan has researched music of all kinds across the Atlantic World. In 2021, she received the prestigious “Sons of the Revolution Award” from the DC chapter of The Sons of the Revolution for excellent writing on a topic of American Art and History. Past research topics include Scott Joplin and his opera, Treemonisha, Theodor Adorno’s commentary on jazz, the political ramifications of Early Modern American song sheets, and the songs of Troubador women in 12th-Century Occitania. 

​Isabel Silva is an American-Brazilian soprano based in New York City. She is very excited to be debuting two roles this August, Despina in Così fan tutte with Winter Harbor Music Festival and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro with Canto Virginia. Isabel previously performed the role of Papagena in Die Zauberflöte with Trentino Music Festival in Italy and L'Eternità in La Calisto with Mannes Opera. Other engagements include soloist in recital with Mannes Sounds Festival and American Institute of Musical Studies (AIMS) in Graz, Austria. In addition to her operatic credits, Isabel won 3rd place in the 2022 Music International Grand Prix semifinals. She is currently a working soprano in the Archdiocesan Cathedral Choir in New York City. Isabel is a graduate from the Mannes School of Music where she received her Master of Music degree in 2023.

Don Alfonso

Bass-baritone Chris Jurak sang in the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus from 1977-82, appearing in Carmen, La Boheme, Cavellaria Rustincana, Tosca, Werther, Hansel and Gretel, La Giaconda, La Forza del Destino, Die Frau Ohne Schatten and L’Enfant et Les Sortileges. He attended the Manhattan School of Music Pre-College program from 1985-87, studying voice with Ilse Sasse and diction/interpretation with Lynne Vardaman.After a “brief” hiatus, Chris joined the Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Company of Long Island in 2016, and has since appeared as the Pirate King (The Pirates of Penzance), Colonel Calverly (Patience), Don Alhambra (The Gondoliers), The Mikado (The Mikado), King Gama (Princess Ida), and the Lord Chancellor (Iolanthe). He has also performed the roles of Captain Corcoran (HMS Pinafore) and Pish Tush (The Mikado) at the NY Gilbert & Sullivan Society and Dick Deadeye (HMS Pinafore) with Utopia Opera. Since 2022, he has sung at the Winter Harbor Music Festival as Fiorello / The Officer (Il Barbiere Di Siviglia), Bartolo (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Don Alfonso (Cosi Fan Tutte). Chris has sung as a chorister and soloist with several ensembles, including the Waldorf Choral Society, the Stony Brook Episcopal Church Choral Ensemble and the Long Island Choral Society. He currently studies privately in the voice studio of Frank Lopardo.Chris works professionally as a Physical Therapist and Osteopath, specializing in the treatment of infants and children as well as adults with chronic pain syndromes, utilizing an integrated approach of manual and movement therapies.

Hailing from northwestern China, Fengyue Zhang acquired his bachelor's in music at Gonzaga University (WA). He currently attends LSU, pursuing his master's in vocal performance. His opera roles include Betto in Gianni Schicchi, Leporello in Don Giovanni, and Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro. His musical theatre roles include George in The Drowsy Chaperone, Dr. Craven in The Secret Garden, Agwe in Once on this Island, and Mushnik in Little shop of Horrors.

Cover (Fiordiligi + Despina)

Lauryn Boyle, a Jersey Shore native, is known for her clear, strong lyric soprano voice. She was raised in a large family filled with music that fostered her performing and musical passion. She is a graduate of James Madison University with a Bachelor of Music degree in vocal performance. While at JMU, she performed in the operas Don Giovanni, Dead Man Walking (Paralegal), Faust, and the operettas The Pirates of Penzance and Iolanthe. Additionally, Lauryn was featured as Rose (Ruddigore) and Yum-Yum (The Mikado) in a Gilbert and Sullivan scenes evening,

“The Best of Gilbert and Sullivan”. She has also performed the role of the Seconda Sorella Cercatrice in Suor Angelica with Varna International and most recently the roles of Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), Cendrillon (Cendrillon), Ännchen (Der Freischütz), Giulietta (Les contes d’Hoffmann), and Zerlina (Don Giovanni) in the scenes concert, “A Night at the Opera” with Atlantic Music Festival. Lauryn’s vocal versatility allows her to thrive in not only opera, but also music theatre and sacred music. Lauryn expresses her love for music theatre by being actively involved in local theatre productions and was recently seen as Snow White in the premiere of the original musical, A Snow White Christmas, based on the book by the same name written by Gary Charwin and illustrated by Noel Kinney, with Cranbury Arts Council. Other favorite roles include the Spirit of Christmas Past in Scrooge! and Madame de la Grande Bouche in Beauty and the Beast.

Lauryn is a passionate, involved church musician, singing as a cantor and soloist for Masses, services, weddings, funerals, and special events. She enjoys inspiring people through sacred music at frequent church Masses and services in her community and
enjoys feeling that she is creating an impactful experience when singing at funeral Masses and wedding ceremonies. Lauryn loves singing at charity events in her area and recently made an appearance at the Rami’s Heart COVID Memorial annual international event. Lauryn enjoys planning and presenting recitals of classical and music theatre repertoire for her community and for the Suburban Music Study Club of New Jersey in Chatham, New Jersey. Her most recent recital raised scholarship money for the National Federation of the Blind of New Jersey. Lauryn is also a dedicated teacher and enjoys encouraging and educating musicians through teaching private voice lessons in her studio. She is excited to continue to discover new, innovative ways to share her voice and artistry to influence and inspire others.