Tchaikovsky’s fairy tale opera Iolanta premiered in 1892 as a double bill alongside his famous Nutcracker.
It tells the story of a blind princess who is unaware of her blindness. Iolanta lives in a secluded garden, sheltered from the outside world, until the arrival of a young knight, Count Vaudémont, who stumbles upon her garden. He is smitten with her, and inadvertently reveals her condition to her when he asks her for a red rose, to which she replies, “What does ‘red’ mean?”
Vaudémont immediately grasps that she is blind, and proceeds to tell her about light and vision, concepts that she has never encountered. She is eager to learn more about the world and about these new concepts, but she decides that she does not actually need them in order to experience beauty or to survive, as she has developed her own ways of interacting with the world. The opera concludes with a hymn praising love and truth.
Presented in collaboration with the Cincinnati Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.
Stage Direction by Dashiel Waterbury.
Sung in Russian, with English supertitles. Accompanied by full orchestra, conducted by Isaac Selya.
Jarson-Kaplan Theater at the Aronoff Center for the Performing Arts
650 Walnut Street, Cincinnati, OH, 45202
Entrance on Walnut Street between Sixth and Seventh
Saturday, August 23, 2025: 7.30 pm
Sunday, August 24, 2025: 3.00 pm
Runtime is approximately 90 minutes, with no intermission.
The audience is invited to participate in a talk back immediately after the performance with cast members, and artistic staff.
https://www.cincinnatiarts.org/events/detail/tchaikovsky-iolanta
(513) 621-ARTS (2787)
Cast
Cristina Jones, known as The Blind Soprano, is a Japanese-Welsh soprano celebrated for the unique ways she blends advocacy with performance. Her performance credits include Sensorium Ex, Mozart’s Requiem, Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Die Zauberflöte (Queen of the Night), Amahl and the Night Visitors (Mother), Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Art in the Dark, and NPR’s From the Top.
Cristina is also active in disability representation, contributing to projects with the BBC, ABC, Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow, Netflix’s AJ and the Queen, and more. In 2022, she won San Francisco Classical Voice Audience Choice Awards for Best Opera Singer, Best New Discovery, and Best Opera Performance.
Learn more at www.theblindsoprano.com
Soprano, Erin Keesy is currently based in Cincinnati, OH. She has been praised for her musicality, artistry and sensitivity. She has a diverse performing resume including professional solo and choral engagements. Recent 2024-25 engagements include performing with Teddy Abrams, Composer and Conductor of MAMMOTH, a new work performed by the Louisville Orchestra and Louisville Chamber Choir at Mammoth Cave in a once in a lifetime performance with Yo-Yo Ma honoring our nations National Parks. She was also featured in the stage premiere of a new opera called The Knock with Cincinnati Opera.
More recently, she performed the title role in Tchaikovsky’s Undina with Queen City Opera, Zerlina in Cincinnati Opera’s season opener of Don Giovanni in 2024, Pamina in an exciting new production of The Magic Flute depicting Mozart’s beloved cast as characters from well known video games, and was the soprano soloist in Carmina Buranawith the Grammy Winning Louisville Orchestra. Upcoming engagements include 2025 appearances with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic, Cincinnati’s Vocal Arts Ensemble, and Cincinnati Song Initiative.
Hailed by the press as “a gifted performer” and “a treat to savor,” Kaylee Nichols, American Mezzo-Soprano, was recently seen as Flora in La traviata at The Santa Fe Opera where she was a recipient of the 2024 Award of Excellence. She also covered the role of Michele in The Righteous by Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith after workshopping the role with Opera Fusion: New Works. This season, Kaylee will debut with Cincinnati Opera as Giovanna in Rigoletto, Laura in Iolanta with Queen City Opera, and premiere the role of Hannah in Forward Into Light by Stephen Variames and Kathleen Stakenas.
In the 2023-2024 season, Kaylee debuted with rave reviews as the Kitchen Boy in Rusalka at The Santa Fe Opera. She also debuted with Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra as the Alto Soloist in Handel’s Messiah and with Kentucky Opera for a same day jump-in performance of the Mother in Amahl and the Night Visitors.
Cincinnati-based Mezzo-Soprano Lauren McAllister recently performed the role of Second Lady with Queen City Opera’s Super Flute and sang the mezzo solo in Corigliano’s Fern Hill with the Akron Symphony Orchestra. This season, Lauren appeared as the Alto Soloist in Beethoven Symphony No. 9 with the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Queen City Opera, and Alto Soloist in Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb with Vox Veritatis. With Conspirare, she premiered and recorded Mark Buller’s Requiem in the Light. Other notable performances this season include Alto Soloist in Mendelssohn’s Elijah and the role of Madame de Volanges in The Dangerous Liaisons with Vegas City Opera.
Lauren performs regularly with a variety of choral ensembles, including Conspirare, the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, the Bach Ensemble of Saint Thomas, and Heri et Hodie. Lauren is an artist on four Grammy®-nominated recordings for Best Choral Performance: Conspirare’s House of Belonging (soloist), The Singing Guitar (soloist), The Hope of Loving (soloist), and the PaTRAM Institute Singers’ Sander: The Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom.
Female Chorus “Beatrix”: Alea Louise Vernon
Cherokee Indian, and Italian American Soprano, Alea Louise Vernon obtained her Bachelor’s degree at The University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Elliot Madore and William McGraw. She has recently returned in pursuance of her Masters of Music, in Vocal Performance. Ms. Vernon is an alumna of The Juilliard School, Pre College Division; and The Ensign-Darling Fellowship at The Bushnell Theater in Hartford, Connecticut.
This past season, Ms. Vernon made her professional debut with Queen City Opera singing The Queen of The Night, in Josh Shaw’s reimagined video game production of Magic Flute.
Prior to beginning her studies at CCM, Alea spent her summers at The Casentino Voice Festival in Popi, Italy, New York Summer Music Festival, The Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and The Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria. In the summer of 2019, Ms. Vernon was a member of The Janiec Opera Company at Brevard Music Center. She became one of the youngest members to ever hold residency.
During her free time, Ms. Vernon enjoys being the “Dog Mom” to four year old Mini-Bernedoodle, Sophie Vernon. The two can be found going on runs and walks, and of course visiting the local puppy Patisserie.
Bertrand: Ben Flanders
Bass-baritone Ben Flanders is the founder and Artistic Director of the art song collective “Slavic Voices” which specializes in the song repertoire of Russia, Ukraine, Poland and the Czech Republic. An active performer in opera, oratorio and art song, Mr. Flanders performed at the Kharkiv City Day celebrations in 2018 and 2019, among other appearances in Ukraine. Recent appearances include the role of The Jailer in Dayton Opera’s production of Tosca, as well as appearances with Queen City Opera, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra and Vocal Arts Ensemble.
In demand as a recitalist, he performs regularly in the Cincinnati area, as well as bringing concerts of Slavic Voices to the University of Vermont, Idaho State University, the University of Saint Thomas in Minnesota and many other venues. Mr. Flanders is also committed to supporting and performing new American art song, most recently the Kentucky premiere of Kile Smith’s song cycle “Sometimes it happens so” at the Skald Festival of Northern Kentucky University.
Almeric: Travis Pearce
Tenor Travis Pearce is a Cincinnati-based artist who has been performing in the area for several years. He has performed with Cincinnati Opera for several years while also frequently performing with Queen City Opera. He has been heard in the roles of First Prisoner in Beethoven’s Fidelio and Max in Weber’s Der Frieschütz. Other roles in his repertoire include Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Sam Kaplan and Lippo Fiorentino in Kurt Weill’s Street Scene and Mr. EEE in the world premiere of Martian Chronicles.
Most recently, Travis was a participant in les Grandes Voix d’Opera d’Afrique. As well, while attending the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria, Travis was awarded the Harold Heiberg Liedersänger Preis for his extraordinary performances of Schubert lieder. As the winner, he was later invited to sing a recital of lieder and operetta for the Austrian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
King René: Michael Hyatt
Bass, Michael Hyatt, is thrilled to be returning to Queen City Opera after appearing as Sarastro Kong in last year’s production of Super Flute. Michael received his Bachelor’s in Voice at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and then continued on to receive his Master’s in Voice as well as an Artist’s Diploma at the College-Conservatory of Music at UC. Michael has also performed with Dayton Opera and Cincinnati Opera.
When not on the opera stage, Michael also performs as a guitarist and bassist. Michael is currently the professor of guitar at Thomas More University. He plays in several groups in the Cincinnati area including Pauly & the Fall From Grace and Mid-life Reverie.Michael recently embarked on a new career as an Associate Instrument Technician at the Baroque Violin Shop here in Cincinnati.
When not making music or working on instruments Michael enjoys going on hikes with his dog Moishe, and watching movies and playing video games with his friends.
A native of Detroit, Michigan, bass-baritone Andrew Hallam is committed to connecting with audiences through the multi-faceted possibilities of opera and song.
Recent performances include Nardo in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, Peter Quince in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Revírník (Forester) in Leoš Janáček’s Příhody lišky Bystroušky (The Cunning Little Vixen) with the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), Dr. Dulcamara in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with Opera in the Ozarks, Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the Vienna Summer Music Festival, and Papageno in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte with the University of Michigan Opera Theatre.
Andrew Hallam received a Bachelor of Music in Voice Performance from the University of Michigan and a Master of Music in Voice Performance at CCM and will soon engage in CCM’s Artist Diploma Program. There, he was the winner of the Seybold-Russell Award in the CCM 2023 Opera Scholarship Competition.
For more information, visit www.andrew-hallam.com
Robert: K. Michael Young
Mike Young, baritone, is an Ohio native based in Cincinnati. Mike performs a wide variety of repertoire, from Bach to Wagner, on the operatic and concert stages. Recent operatic performances include Alberich in Wagner’s Siegfried, Marcello in Puccini’s La Boheme, Scarpiain Puccini’s Tosca, George Milton in Floyd’s Of Mice and Men, Enrico in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Baron Douphol in Verdi’s La Traviata, and the titular roles in Verdi’s Macbeth and
Mozart’s Don Giovanni. Concert performances include the title role of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Baritone Soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, and Bach’s B Minor Mass, Magnificat, Christmas Oratorio, St. Matthew Passion, and St. John Passion. In addition to his solo work, Mike is a member of The Bach Ensemble at St. Thomas, Collegium Cincinnati, and Coro Volante.
Seemingly never content in a singular profession, Mike is a freelance graphic designer and social media marketer whose oeuvre can mainly be seen on beer cans throughout the Cincinnati metropolitan area.
Tenor M. Andrew Jones enchants audiences with his powerful vocal presence and unwavering passion. His artistry showcases the very essence of contemporary operatic excellence, earning accolades from critics and fellow artists alike.
Jones’ portrayal of Lenski in concert with Queen City Opera, mesmerized audiences with his “firm, heroic” sound full of depth and emotion. Much acclaim has followed his portrayals of Max in Der Freischütz and Mime in Siegfried at Valhalla Productions in San Francisco, solidifying his reputation as a versatile and technically adept artist. Notable performances include Gulbrand in Queen City Opera’s production of Undina by Tchaikovsky, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Pedrillo in Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Queen City Opera, The Messenger in Aida, and the Innkeeper in Der Rosenkavalier with Cincinnati Opera.
Furthering his commitment to the arts, Jones holds a Master’s of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati – College Conservatory of Music, under the tutelage of the distinguished Kenneth Shaw, and a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Luther College, guided by the esteemed Ed Andereck.