50 years of opera

Opera Idaho’s First Decade (1973 – 1982)
By Ellie McKinnon
Boise Opera Guild President
Lumir A. Gerner, 1971-1972
Boise Civic Opera Presidents
Esther Simplot, 1973-1974
James E. Simmerman, 1972-1976
Unknown, 1977-1978
Catherine Elliot, 1979
Eidth Miller Klein, 1980
Bruce Moberly, 1981
June Fitzgerald, 1982
The first operas in Boise weren’t
produced by Opera Idaho or its
predecessor organizations. In the early
1900’s, travelling opera companies
stopped in Boise with full productions
of popular operas; and, in the early
years of Boise Music Week, operas
Hazel Weston & C. Griffith Bratt
with piano accompaniment were
occasionally performed. In fact, in the
1960’s it was the Boise Philharmonic
along with a few other groups that
produced an occasional opera. But in the
late 60’s, local opera enthusiast Hazel
Weston organized about 100 similarly
minded individuals with the intent of
incorporating opera regularly into Boise’s
music scene. In 1971 this group formed
the Boise Opera Workshop intending
to educate and raise awareness and
enthusiasm for this art form.
To start, they began a monthly lecture
series for the community inviting
interested individuals to learn what
is involved in staging an opera, and
how the art form incorporates music,
theater, dance, and the visual arts.
And with the support of the Boise
Arts and Humanities Council they
presented Pietro Mascagni’s one-act
opera Cavalleria Rusticana. Pleased
with the audience response to that
production, they took on an ambitious
challenge the following year when
they presented the world premiere of
Rachel, created by local composer, C.
Griffith Bratt. The opera’s story centers
on the life of Andrew Jackson’s wife.
Built on a 12-tone scale, it presented
a musical challenge for the vocalists.
Weston herself wrote the libretto for
the production. The company borrowed
Richard Krueger from the state of
Washington to provide stage direction,
and that production garnered the Boise
Allied Arts Council’s award for high
artistic achievement.
With aspirations for a complete opera
company, the Boise Opera Workshop
renamed itself as Boise Civic Opera.
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Members wrote an impressive set
of bylaws and became a 501(c)(3)
company. On November 30, 1973 they
kicked off their new company’s season
with another contemporary American
opera, Street Scene by Langston Hughes,
Elmer Rice, and Kurt Weill. As the house
lights dimmed on performance night,
the audience quieted while 40 local
singers took their positions behind the
curtains, eager to step into their roles
in the opening scene which depicts life
in a New York apartment building. Boise
responded with enthusiasm and Boise
Civic Opera was off and running.
Grand Opera comes with a grand price
tag, but this new company had an able
fiscal manager in Esther Simplot, a
musician herself, who also performed
in numerous productions. Under
her (fiscal) watch, the new company
managed to strike a balance between
production costs and the income from
ticket sales, donations and grants,
including one from the Boise Arts
Commission. The first season finished
without going into debt. In fact, by the
season’s end, they had $21 dollars and
some change to spare in the bank.
The company had not forgotten its
mission to educate and inform. It
continued to present regular lectures
focused on the upcoming production,
but which also included operatic history
and discussions of the composers. That
was not all the company did to extend
understanding. They also placed young
promising student musicians beside
experienced musicians so that the
youngsters could learn from those who
had mastered their musical craft.
The company wanted the community
to become familiar with the music
and stories of numerous operas. In
the spring 1974 season, they chose to
present a program they called Bits and
Pieces featuring an evening of scenes
from five different operas. Bits and
Pieces was so successful that similar
Bits’N’Pieces productions became the
offering of subsequent spring seasons.
Selecting the right opera requires the
magic of anticipating the audience
response before the work is produced
and finding an appropriate venue. The
Boise Civic Opera chose well in fall of ’74
when they selected a perennial favorite,
Bizet’s beloved, highly emotional
tragedy Carmen for the season opener.
This is an opera which has been
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Carmen, 1975
produced seven times in the company’s
history, the most of any opera.
Well-known local and regionally known
musicians filled the main roles with local
members of the community providing
the adult chorus and also a children’s
chorus when needed. The production
would be staged at Capitol High School’s
auditorium. John Eichmann provided
theatrical direction with the Maestro
Dan Stern at the podium. Stern was
also conducting Boise’s Philharmonic
Symphony Orchestra at the time. In
the future he would conduct numerous
operas with Boise Civic Opera.
Long before opening night, a veritable
storm of activity took place in
preparation for Carmen. Everyone in
the company pitched in doing whatever
was needed, literally working in concert
building sets, creating lighting schemes
and engaging in rehearsal sessions.
Needles flew as costumes were fitted,
and props assembled. Finally, when
music began to fill the theater, the
audience was transported to another
century in a distant country and the tale
of romance and treachery began. The
house was filled to capacity on both
nights of performance and rave reviews
followed.
Sponsorships were increasing. That was
important, as the budget for the next
season’s opener, The Marriage of Figaro,
was not small. Within the production
budget of $12,500, funds were allocated
for sharing parts of the opera with
students at area schools. Cast members
visited schools prior to the opening
performance and presented scenes from
Figaro for the kids.
Hard work is required in the world of
opera, but there should always be time
and opportunity for fun. With Shannon
Fish’s leadership, a Guild for members
took shape. They christened their
organization La Scala in honor of the
famed Italian opera house. The Guild
provided both support for the Opera
and added that extra element—fun. La
Scala members traveled to enjoy operas
presented in other cities, returning to
Boise with new ideas and delightful
shared memories. They also created
a vocal scholarship offered via annual
auditions to one fortunate aspiring
vocal musician intending to study

music in a Treasure Valley college or
university.
By 1977 the company was connecting
with other local arts groups like the
Idaho Civic Ballet Company. From
its beginnings, musicians borrowed
from Boise Philharmonic Symphony
filled many of the seats in the opera’s
orchestra pit. Boise Civic Opera
collaborated with Boise’s theatrical
company Theater in a Trunk, and the two
groups produced Gian-Carlo Menotti’s
The Medium and The Telephone.
Most productions were staged in the
auditoriums of the city’s high schools.
After the failure of an initial bond
dedicated to the building of a Performing
Arts Complex, the Boise School Board
promised use of a stage every year
during one week in September for the
Opera’s performances. Some of the
operas were produced at Boise State’s
Special Events Center.
With high aspirations, the company
produced one production after another
as the years passed. As production
costs rose, more and more businesses
including Hewlett Packard and others
became sponsors. Ticket prices
climbed a little to offset some of the
costs incurred. But still prices were
reasonable; one could purchase a seat
for between $3.50 and $6.00.
The company expanded their repertoire
with enthusiasm. The impressive list of
productions includes works of European
masters like Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini
and more performances by American
composers, including Douglas Moore
and Italian–American Menotti. The
ambitious list of operas presented from
1976 to 1982 included Mozart’s Don
Giovanni, Gounod’s Faust, Moore’s The
Ballad of Baby Doe, Verdi’s Rigoletto
and three Puccini favorites: Gianni
Schicchi, La bohème and Tosca.
It is nearly impossible to acknowledge
all the individuals who shared their
talents, energy, time, and funds to help
the fledgling company move through
its first decade. So many contributed
so much in so many different ways.
Because of this, Boise Civic Opera
Company thrived. And at the ten-year
mark, the company decided it was time,
once again, to rename itself, becoming
Boise Opera.
Esther Simplot, Susanna
The Marriage of Figaro
Finale, Act II, 1976
Ina Lou Cheney
Countess Almaviva
William Taylor
Figaro
Wayne Tarter
Antonio, the gardner
James E. Simmerman
Count Almaviva
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Opera Idaho’s Second Decade (1983 – 1992)
By Ellie McKinnon
Boise Civic Opera Presidents
June Fitzgerald, 1983
Dr. Charles B. Supplee, 1984-1985
Karma Echols, 1986
Robert C. Huntley, Jr., 1987-1989
John P. Borgwardt, 1990
Michael C. Winter, 1991
Unknown, 1992
By 1983, Boise Civic Opera was 10 years
old. Professionalism was increasing
within its talented ranks and audiences
were happily responding. That year, the
company decided it was time to leave
the name Boise Civic Opera behind and
retitled itself as the Boise Opera.
The eighties provided a roller coaster
ride in the financial sector that affected
philanthropic funding for the arts.
Despite waning financial support,
however, there was a big sun in the
sky for the arts: the long anticipated
performing arts center. The Morrison
Center was nearing completion. In the
spring doors opened to the spectacular
new center. Within it were two theaters,
a recital hall, and considerable rehearsal
and practice space. The gorgeous 2037
seat auditorium was equipped with the
latest in theatrical technology. Boise
Opera chose two operas for
their debut, Donizetti’s Lucia di
Lammermoor and the everpopular
Carmen.
But, performing in the Morrison
Center came with a stiff price
tag. In 1984 the company made
a series of decisions as they
mulled over options for bringing
down production costs. They
From left to right:
A.J. Balukoff, Mike Wetherall, Wetherell, and Laura R. Nielsen
considered operas with smaller sets that
could allow use of alternative smaller
venues like Boise State’s Special Events
Center. The Morrison Center’s Governing
Board, aware of the financial issues
facing local performing groups, created
a fund that would defer a considerable
amount of the costs for local cultural
groups that hoped to perform in the
exquisite hall in the future.
The opera company decided to mix
things up a bit by offering grand opera
alternately with operatic concert
performances featuring internationally
known opera stars. In 1985, Boise
audiences heard mezzo-soprano
Marilyn Horne in concert, and later
were treated to the beautiful opera
Madama Butterfly. Productions of
Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci took the stage
followed in March by Donizetti’s Don
Pasquale. In the spring, famed operatic
baritone Sherrill Milnes performed in
concert.
In the succeeding season the Boise
Opera audience responded favorably
to Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata and
Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy tale
opera Hansel and Gretel. The company’s
repertoire was expanding as its positive
reputation grew. In 1987, Idaho
Governor Dirk Kempthorne identified
the Boise Opera as an important
element in the city’s cultural life – so
important in fact that he declared the
week of February 8th as “Boise Opera
Week.” In March audiences heard
Operatic Highlights in concert.
The 1988-1989 season marked the
company’s 15th anniversary. That year
the company celebrated with two
locally produced classics, Puccini’s tragic
opera Tosca and Mozart’s captivating
The Magic Flute. Two visiting companies
completed the 1988-1989 season -- the
acrobatic Peking Opera and the San
Francisco Opera Center Singers. The
latter’s performance was a mix of grand
opera and Broadway classics.
Opera Idaho celebrated the state’s
Centennial year with Franz Lehar’s
lilting The Merry Widow and a revival
of the opera A Season for Sorrow
composed by local musician C. Griffith
Bratt. The 1989-90 season also
included two special events. The first
event kicking off the season was a
trio of performances by the Ash Lawn
Highland Opera theater from Virginia.
This performance of light-hearted
dramas was performed outdoors and
included a 45-minute intermission
during which opera goers could enjoy a
picnic dinner in a nearby
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rose garden. The other special was
the Russtavi Singers and Dancers from
Russia, then on their first American tour
sharing the rich heritage of Russia’s
Georgia region. Their performances
included choreographed sword fights
and music generally unfamiliar to
the western ear with its polyphonic
melody lines. A Night at the Opera,
done in collaboration with the Boise
Master Chorale, the Boise Philharmonic
Orchestra, and local soloists including
Lynn Berg, Julia Holland, and Keith
Tackman, rounded out the season.
Summer brought lighter fare with
one-act operas – The Daughter of the
Regiment (Donizetti), The Telephone
(Menotti), The Face on the Barroom
Floor (Mollicone) and the intermezzo La
Serva Pedrona (Pergolesi).
La bohème by Puccini stepped into
the spotlight in the fall of 1990. Then,
in the summer of 1991 the opera
company borrowed the outdoor
Shakespeare Festival Theater stage
in its then-location of The Ore-Ida lot
off Parkcenter Blvd. and transported
audiences to an island in the Pacific.
The beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein
musical South Pacific was performed
under the stars.
Also, in the 90’s Timothy Lindberg
from New York City became part of
the company’s staff and was credited
with enhancing the quality of the
productions. He began his association
with the company as its Music Director,
but he soon advanced to the position of
Artistic Director.
In 1992, the Boise Opera took the hand
of the fiery Carmen once again and led
her back to the Morrison Center for a
successful reprise.
During this, the second official decade
of the renamed Boise Opera, the
company did not forget its intent
to educate. In fact, it expanded its
outreach, and students as young
as second grade were treated to
introductions to various operas with
mini-performances during visits to area
schools. An additional introduction to
the art form was created by Boisean
Joanne Hoyt. She produced a puppet
play with marionettes performing
vignettes from operas. The marionettes
were designed, made, and their strings
pulled by Hoyt. She wanted children to
experience opera in this form so that
when they became adults they would
recognize the stories; what a beautiful
way to experience opera for the very
first time!
Opera Idaho’s Third Decade (1993 – 2002)
By Ellie McKinnon
Boise Civic Opera/Opera Idaho Presidents
Joni J. Sullivan, 1993
Lanse Richardson, 1994-1995
Charles Bauer, 1996-1997
Vicki Kreimeyer, 1998-1999
Jeff Worley, 2000-2002
By its third decade, Boise Opera
Company had come a long way from the
determined dreams of a circle of local
artists and opera enthusiasts wanting
to bring opera to Boise. No longer a
dream, it had become a full-fledged
company boasting season upon season
of grand opera with many performances
taking place on the magnificent stage of
the glimmering Morrison Center. Local
artists were joined by visiting luminaries
from New York to San Francisco to
present before growing audiences. And
the company introduced hundreds of
school-aged kids to opera, a crown
jewel of art forms.
But along with accolades and high
peaks come valleys with deep concerns.
The Morrison Center, appropriately
heralded by many as one of the West’s
premier performing arts venues, lost
some of its glitter for local performing
arts companies who struggled to meet
the Center’s rental fees. A grand stage
beautifully suited for grand opera comes
with a grand price tag. To keep the lights
on in the Center, operating expenses
had to be paid, equipment maintained,
and regular revenues received. Boise
Opera, like many arts companies, could
afford only one rehearsal ahead of a
performance in the Center—a whiteknuckle
situation for all concerned. As
the Morrison Center focused on ways
to reduce costs to local companies,
Boise Opera looked for ways to trim its
expenses and managed to persevere,
even while teetering on the edge of a
delicate financial fence.
To draw large audiences, the company
selected two grand opera favorites–
Verdi’s Rigoletto and Puccini’s Madama
Butterfly for its 1993-94 season.
Under the strong leadership and
encouragement of then-Board President
Joni Sullivan, the company also produced
the first in a planned three-year series
of Gilbert and Sullivan musicals. H.M.
S. Pinafore sailed into Boise State’s
Special Events Center, and its small
but affordable auditorium suited the
production admirably. In succeeding
years, The Pirates of Penzance and,
finally, The Mikado would grace that
5

The Pirates of Penzance, 1995
La Traviata, 1996
Madama Butterfly, 2003
stage, transforming the theater into the
witty, wonderfully wacky world of English
fantasy.
Again, using BSU’s Special Events
Center, the 1994-95 season began
with an opera popular with adults
and children alike, Hansel and Gretel.
David Noland played the role of the
wicked witch and, with the help of a
special winch, flew through the air in
great witchy fashion. It was the perfect
production for the continuing effort
to introduce Treasure Valley kids to
opera. The company dubbed the plan
to bring children to dress rehearsals,
“Operatunity.” Tamara Cameron was
backstage as stage manager for an
Operatunity performance. In the opera
company’s newsletter, she noted that
she worried the show would not hold
the attention of the youngsters. Peaking
from backstage she recalls that “…as it
turned out they were the best audience
we had! They clapped along with the
music when Hansel and Gretel danced
and cheered when the witch went on
stage and cheered again when he fell
into the oven!” That wicked witch, along
with Hansel and Gretel, had the support
of a lot of others as well. The Opera’s
own 70-voice Children’s Chorus sang
as a troupe of young dance students
darted about as woodland sprites.
As the decade moved forward, the
financial picture grew brighter. Debt
was reduced by half and theatrical
successes mounted. Two remarkably
talented men, Tim Lindberg, and David
Warner took the reins as Music Director
and Artistic Director, respectively. They
invited fine guest artists, captured the
voices of some notable Idaho-born
performers like Julie Holland, Ryan
Olsen, and Pamela South, and generally
infused the opera with enthusiasm and
excitement as well as artistic merit.
In succeeding years, the company
produced Verdi’s La Traviata, Donizetti’s
L’elisir d’amore, and Rossini’s The Barber
of Seville. Once again Carmen was dusted
off and presented with flare and fire. Then
Puccini’s achingly beautiful La bohème,
and his tragic Tosca, played on the
heartstrings of Boise’s opera aficionados.
Boise Opera was gaining a reputation in
the regional. It was time to change the
name to better reflect the company’s
evolving profile. The only company of its
kind in the state, the company wanted to
reach out to audiences beyond Boise and,
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in 1997, chose the name Opera Idaho.
Opera Idaho decided it was also
time to branch out and include
different types of performances. The
company presented The Words and
the Music: The Barber of Seville in
collaboration with Idaho Shakespeare
Festival actors. The actors and singers
performed scenes from the play
by Beaumarchais juxtaposed with
scenes from Rossini’s opera in the
200-seat Esther Simplot Performing
Arts Academy Auditorium, giving the
audience a close-up view!
In 1998, Opera Under the Stars,
featuring an evening of opera highlights,
was launched. Performances were to
be presented under the very real stars
of a pleasant summer night. However,
inclement weather took the stage,
scuttling one show and forcing the
company to perform inside Timberline
High School’s Auditorium. In May of
2000, Opera Idaho presented another
non-traditional opera, La Casa Verdi, a
bittersweet drama set in a rest home for
aging opera singers.
These new performance approaches
were coupled with grand operas each
season. Strauss’s Die Fledermaus,
Mozart’s The Magic Flute, and George
Gershwin’s uniquely American opera
Porgy and Bess were among those
selected in the first three years of the
new century.
Though financial stability was elusive
throughout this roller coaster decade,
the company not only managed to
survive but also to thrive, reaching
new heights of musical and theatrical
excellence. And it ended this third
decade as it had begun it, with a
highly successful 2003 performance of
Madama Butterfly.
Nosferatu, 2004
Carmen, 2005
Opera Idaho’s Fourth Decade (2003-2012)
By Ellie McKinnon
La traviata, 2005
Opera Idaho Presidents
Alan R. Gardner, 2003
Caroline Young, 2004
Nancy Boespflug, 2005-2007
Marshall Garrett, 2008-2011
Christopher Huntley, 2012
In this decade-by-decade account of the
history of Opera Idaho, we left 2003 on
the wings of Madama Butterfly. That
spring, people were reading Bel Canto,
a book choice of the Library’s Everyone
Reads the Same Book Program, in which
Ann Patchett spins a story around the
kidnapping of an American soprano.
Seeing an opportunity, Opera Idaho
collaborated with the Idaho Shakespeare
Festival to present a performance
featuring readings of selections from Bel
Canto and arias from operas mentioned
in the book.
To show off the depth and talent of its
Resident Company, Opera Idaho staged
a festival consisting of three one-act
operas, Gianni Schicchi, Sister Angelica,
and Roman Fever. The company then
took aim and staged a murder in the
production of Puccini’s thriller, Tosca. In
the spring of 2004, a party took place
when a famed widow came to town;
the company produced the ever popular
The Merry Widow. At the opening night
of Franz Lehar’s light and lively work,
a few lucky patrons participated in a
pre-performance supper event at the
Cottonwood Grill, then were whisked to
the theater on a Boise trolley.
Kids got a taste of opera during the
2003-2004 season when a touring
performance of Hansel and Gretel sang
for over 6000 children and then was
presented in a shortened version twice
in the Annex Auditorium of the Esther
Simplot Performing Arts Academy.
Patrons themselves went on tour in
August – all the way to Santa Fe, New
Mexico to enjoy a backstage tour of
Santa Fe Opera’s magnificent outdoor
theater and two performances on that
famous stage. Doubtless the travelers
chatted about the upcoming Opera
Idaho 2004-2005 season which was to
include a world premiere production
of Nosferatu and the return of Carmen.
The stage was going to sizzle!
And sizzle it did when Nosferatu opened.
The story of Count Dracula has intrigued
readers and audiences alike for years,
but this operatic version is based on a
silent film from the 20’s. The leading
role in this production was played by
Opera Idaho’s artistic director, Douglas
Nagle. Then in the spring came Carmen.
This would be her fifth visit to an Opera
Idaho stage. Bizet’s work is a darling of
opera companies, but Carmen herself is
nobody’s darling for long. The Spanish
gypsy is a seductress, and the music of
the production easily seduces audiences.
The Mikado, 2006
Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well, and Living in Paris, 2007
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La bohème, 2007
The Resident Company of Opera Idaho
headed to The Winery at Eagle Knoll
during the summer of 2005 for the first
of the summer’s two performances of
Opera Under the Stars. The performance
featured previews of the upcoming
season with excerpts from La Traviata,
and Gilbert and Sullivan’s light opera
The Mikado. The company showed is
versatility by also performing hits from
Broadway. The second performance was
at the Idaho Botanical Garden.
Lucia di Lammermoor, 2008
In September the Resident Company
headed back to Eagle to Rembrandt’s
and Drop Leaf Gallery to present an Aria
Auction where a delectable selection
of arias mingled with fine dining and a
silent auction. In total over a thousand
people heard the Opera Resident
Company perform in these pre-season
events. But it was time step onto the
main stage with a cornerstone of Italian
Opera, Verdi’s poignant love story of
the courtesan Violetta and her lover,
South Pacific in Concert, 2010
8
Alfredo. Students from area schools were
invited to attend the dress rehearsal of
La Traviata and music teachers provided
study guides to help their students grasp
the story. Appreciation of opera was
spreading across the valley and across
age groups—all in accordance with
the Opera’s mission, to create wider
acceptance, appreciation and enjoyment
of this art form.
On opening night of La Traviata, cast
members were taking their position
on stage behind the curtain, while in
front, a special presentation was in
progress. The first Morrison Center Gold
Award was presented to Esther Simplot
because of her lifetime commitment
and contributions to the Arts. Opera
is a special love for Mrs. Simplot, who
formerly had been an opera singer and
who played a critical role during the
conception and development of Opera
Idaho.
The 2005-2006 season also included a
special event that featured the Resident
Company and the company’s children’s
chorus in the first of what would in
succeeding years would become a
popular holiday event called Opera Idaho
Sings Christmas. Then it was time to
switch gears and welcome spring with
a Gilbert and Sullivan confection, The
Mikado, written during the period when
the world was going crazy over all things
Japanese. Timeless yet specific, this
work pokes fun at British social mores
and culture using a Japanese lens. The
lead characters’ names give a clue to the
flippant nature of the show—Yum-Yum is
the soprano lead and her counterpart is
NankiPoo.
With Mardi Gras approaching, Opera
Idaho decided a celebration was in
order. It hosted a Mardi Gras Masked
Ball. Guests brought out the beads, the
masks and the costumes, and they did
the dancing. Then David Malis and Leslie
Mauldin, stars from La Traviata, provided
the entertainment. Proceeds from this
extravagant event went to support Opera
Idaho. And support would be needed
since ticket sales traditionally cover less
than 40% of the price of producing a
performance and the 2006-2007 season
would include two major presentations.
In November of ’06 Rossini’s The Barber
of Seville would grace the stage. Then
in early spring an unusual production,
Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living
in Paris went into production. Not a
typical opera, this was a review featuring
the music of French songwriter and
musician, Jacques Brel.
Later in the spring and summer the
Opera held two special events, the
opera’s Most Romantic and, once again,
Opera Under the Stars. Fall brought
Puccini back to Idaho with a production
of his work, La bohème. This lyrically
beautiful and tragic opera has a story line
that tugs at the heart and brings people
back. It was the 4th time Boise Opera
Elixir of Love, 2008
had produced the work and it would not
be the last. Spring’s production was the
lighthearted and fanciful Elixir of Love by
Donizetti.
Donizetti, also capable of writing weighty
operas, penned Lucia di Lammermoor
with its story of politics, and revenge,
and the Boise audience was swept to the
hills of Scotland as the curtain opened
revealing a set borrowed from the Utah
Symphony and Opera. The company
La Cenerentola, 2010
could only present the opera once due to
the expense, but something was coming
that would resolve that problem.
In spring, in the beautifully restored
Egyptian Theatre, the company
presented Mozart’s comic opera Cosi fan
tutte. That title is often translated into
English as “women are like that” and it is
no surprise that the words were sung in
act two by a trio of men. Mark Junkert,
the company’s Executive Director who
arrived in May 2008, was less concerned

about women being “like that” than he
was delighted with the opportunities
the ‘new’ venue offered. Less expensive
but dazzlingly lovely, the theater made it
possible to produce more presentations
in a season, more performances of
each presentation, and closer access for
audiences – The Egyptian Theatre was
named the company’s home theatre.
Along with all of that, Junkert envisioned
opportunities to collaborate with other
arts programs in Boise.
The 2009-2010 season included not
two operas and several events but four
main presentations in addition to special
events. Faust was the first up in the
season’s line up. Faust may have made a
pact with the devil, but he intrigued the
Boise audience that heard his story. At
Christmas, the company staged Menotti’s
hauntingly beautiful Amahl and the Night
Visitors to herald the holiday season.
In the spring, the lady with the foot
that fit a glass slipper—La Cenerentola
(Cinderella) took center stage. And in
July, the Company took audiences to
the South Pacific with Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s musical of that name – a
timeless story of love, loss, challenge and
change during the Second World War.
The 2010-2011 season brought another
familiar story to the stage: Our Town,
based on the play by Thornton Wilder
and adapted for opera by Ned Rorem.
Then at Christmas, the Egyptian Theatre
once more housed three kings, a
shepherd boy and his mother with a
reprise of Amahl and the Night Visitors.
That performance was followed later
by an performance by guest stars Sarah
Jane McMahon and Matt Morgan in
Concert. In late spring, a light opera by
Donizetti featuring a young woman and
a whole regiment of soldiers took to the
stage. Following La Fille du Regiment,
Carousel was presented in concert at the
Idaho Botanical Garden.
A zany Gilbert and Sullivan operetta,
The Pirates of Penzance, ushered in the
new season, followed by a third year of
Amahl and the Night Visitors. Then Mimi
once again took center stage in Puccini’s
La bohème. British wit and Italian
Opera gave way, in the spring, to a very
American production of The Ballad of
Baby Doe by composer Douglas Moore.
The original performance of The Ballad
of Baby Doe was staged in the opera
house of Central City, Colorado, where
the famous face of Baby Doe is painted
on a barroom floor in a saloon adjacent
to the theater. Next came in Oklahoma!
In Concert.
Looking forward, the 2012-2013 season
was on the horizon and would include
Falstaff, Hansel and Gretel, and a
performance in collaboration with Ballet
Idaho. Clearly, looking back, Opera
Idaho could claim 40 lively years spent
enhancing cultural development in the
Treasure Valley with four decades of
operatic productions.
Our Town, 2010
Amahl and the Night Visitors, 2010
Madama Butterfly, 2011
Opera Idaho’s Fifth Decade (2013-2022)
By Ellie McKinnon
La Fille du Régiment, 2011
Opera Idaho Presidents
Christopher Huntley, 2013
Marshall Garrett, 2014
Andrew J. Owczarek, 2015-2018
Vicki Kreimeyer & Janny Wing, 2019
Leslie Garrett, 2020-2023
Opera Idaho turned 40 with its 2013-
14 season. The birthday season, which
marked the beginning of a decade of
remarkable achievement, started with
an opera favorite —The Marriage of
Figaro. After the final curtain call,
the company hit the road and headed
to Pocatello to perform again in the
Stephens Performing Arts Center at
Idaho State University. Then came
Carmen—the opera with one of the
world’s most famous seductresses
heated the stage in February. Carmen
was followed by two one-act operas,
Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti and
Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi.
Opera Idaho rolled into the 2014-15
season with a focus on baritones. In
fact, the season was dubbed “The
Season of the Baritones.” It included
Verdi’s Rigoletto and Tchaikovsky’s
Evgeny Onegin (performed in Russian!),
both of course with baritone leads
and both with plots that found those
baritones caught in the grip of fate and
rejected love. But it was not all anger
and angst. The season finished with
an Opera Buffa, The Barber of Seville,
which also featured … a baritone.
Opera Idaho honored another birthday
–the 80th of one of the Opera Idaho’s
finest benefactors. Most people enjoy
receiving gifts, but Esther Simplot, an
The Pirates of Penzance, 2011
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Pagliacci, 2013
Rigoletto, 2014
outstanding arts leader, chooses instead
to generously give gifts. With regard
to Opera Idaho, she was there in the
beginning as a leader, a performer and
sustainer, and her support continues.
Without her vision and generosity, such
cultural gems as Opera Idaho, Ballet
Idaho, and the Boise Philharmonic might
not exist.
The 2014-15 season also saw Opera
Idaho’s Resident Company presenting an
abridged version of The Barber of Seville
to elementary schools in the Treasure
Valley.
During the 2015-2016 season Opera
Idaho’s Operatini series found a home
in the Sapphire Room of the Riverside
Hotel. There, patrons gathered to dine
and to enjoy a program presented by
cast members of upcoming mainstage
productions, and a martini created to
honor the current show.
Papageno and Tamino set off on their
journey with magic bells and a magic
Gianni Schicchi, 2014
flute in the fall of 2015. In December,
Amahl and his mother hosted
unexpected guests in Menotti’s Amahl
and the Night Visitors. The performance
was so popular it became a holiday
staple for several seasons. In January
of 2016, the company produced Verdi’s
La traviata in Boise’s Egyptian Theatre
and in a semi-staged version in Ketchum,
Idaho. Pirates stalked the stage that
spring in Gilbert and Sullivan’s The
Pirates of Penzance, presented by The
New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players.
And who could have imagined an opera
performed in an airplane hangar? That
is exactly where Tom Cipullo’s Glory
Denied took place. It is the true story of
the longest held prisoner of the Vietnam
War.
The season also saw innovations of
another sort. An educational program
called Rising Stars was designed to assist
aspiring high school vocalists as they
prepared for college auditions. Students
received solo coaching, auditions
preparation, and training in stage
movement. Engaged students were
able to mingle and learn from opera
professionals and perform opera scenes.
By fall of 2016 board president Andrew
Owczarek stated that the company
had achieved 40,000 exposures across
the length and breadth of Idaho.
The repertoire of Opera Idaho now
included a range of both classic and
contemporary operas. The 2016-17
selections included Schubert’s The
Winterreise Project that featured only
a soloist and a pianist. Next came an
opera with a full chorus -- Puccini’s
Tosca. Before the Boise performances,
the opera was performed in Ketchum.
The season also included J. Strauss’s Die
Fledermaus and Massenet’s Werther.
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Evgeny Onegin, 2015
Love is a major plot element in many
operas; the 2017-18 season was devoted
to love and its many forms. The company
led out with Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore
featuring a merry chase for love. Next
came a reprise of The Winterreise Project,
with its study of unfulfilled love, followed
by the beautiful Madama Butterfly
focused so melodically on love and loss.
The rugged A Streetcar Named Desire,
dealing with the pain of not being loved
at all, closed the performance season.
The Young Artists Program (which
would be renamed Emerging Artists in
2020) was established. Over 200 early
professionals auditioned for the four
positions. In residence for the season,
its members introduced opera to school
children across the state, understudied
lead roles in mainstage productions
and performed smaller roles in the
mainstage Opera Idaho productions. The
program continues today.
Glory Denied, 2016
2018-2019 saw West Side Story in
concert, followed by Mozart’s Don
La traviata, 2016
Giovanni. The company, vital and strong
in its 45th year, was ready to celebrate
the past as well as take on challenges
of the present. The season included
As One, a contemporary production by
Laura Kaminsky, that tells the story of
transition, in this case, of a transgender
woman. Then by invitation, The New
York Gilbert and Sullivan Players
returned to present an imaginative
version of the comic operetta The
Mikado, which pokes at stereotyping.
It was also a time to think big, and
Opera Idaho’s small company pulled
off a remarkable theatrical feat. It took
on Verdi’s Aïda. While no elephants
weighted the stage, the Egyptian was
the perfect setting as the theater itself
provided most of the set elements.
Board member Vicki Kreimeyer was in
the Aïda production and many others.
Of her experience she said, “When
I stepped onto the stage in a Boise
Opera production of South Pacific, little
did I know that opera would become
my new musical passion, and that I
would have the challenge and honor
of performing in opera choruses for
the next 20+ years! I discovered that
the joy in being part of the performing
ensemble, the teamwork, mutual
support and just plain hard work shared
by all simply enriched my whole life. I
never imagined that I would perform
in Aïda. What growth Opera Idaho has
experienced as an artistic performing
company of which Idaho can be proud!“
The 2019-20 season opened with Cecilia
Violetta López singing the title role in
Manon, followed by Handel’s pastoral
opera Acis and Galatea, performed in
collaboration with the Boise Baroque
Orchestra. Later in the season, the
company produced the ever popular
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La bohème. And for his remarkable
work, Mark Junkert, Opera Idaho
General Director, was presented the
Governor’s Award for Excellence in Arts
Administration.
Then everything stopped. COVID stalked
the streets. Many arts programs ceased
operations or folded. Opera Idaho did
not. Small concerts and recitals for
masked audiences seated in carefully
spaced chairs gave local, loyal opera
goers hope. The joy and beauty of the
performances would return; COVID
would eventually be banished. In the
meantime, some Christmas caroling
and a few fundraisers took place, but
the mainstage theater doors remained
closed.
Then, eighteen months after it began,
the world emerged from isolation.
Theater doors were flung open, and the
2021-2022 Opera Idaho season began
with Cecilia Violetta López performing in
a recital followed by a lilting and lovely
production of The Merry Widow. An
elite choral ensemble, Critical Mass Vocal
Artists, which incorporated into the
Opera Idaho fold back in 2018, reached
new audiences, and the company’s
Operatinis now included vocalists from
the Emerging Artists program.
Opera Idaho and the Boise
Contemporary Theater collaborated to
produce All is Calm: The Christmas Truce
of 1914. This non-traditional production,
based on a true story, focused on a
twenty-four-hour truce that began with
a soldier’s rendition of “Silent Night.”
Then in January, Carmen returned to the
stage. The last show of the season, Dead
Man Walking, took place in the beautiful
Egyptian Theatre, but took the audience
all the way to death row.
It has now been fifty years since
Opera Idaho’s first notes were sung.
Through the years of its fifth decade,
the company clearly matured, grew
polished, and remained vibrant. Its
educational program has reached
thousands of children, and audiences
have expanded. Summer programs
like Opera in the Park and musicals
performed in concert have added
spice and zest to city summers. Boise
has enjoyed fifty years of gorgeous
voices, remarkable performances,
and educational successes. Fifty years
of growth and progress. Change is
inevitable. General Director Mark
Junkert has retired, and another
will take his place. There will be
other new faces, new voices, new
directions, new collaborations, and
new innovations. And the music will
continue as Opera Idaho steps into its
next half century.
Tosca, 2017
L’elisir d’amore, 2017
The Winterreise Project, 2018
A Streetcar Named Desire, 2018
Aïda, 2019
La bohème, 2020
Opera in The Park, 2021
All Is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914, 2022
Rusalka, 2023
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