ON STAGE

Elmer Gantry

Lobero Theatre | Friday, May 1 at 7:30 PM & Sunday, May 3 at 2:30 PM

By Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein

Genre: Satirical drama, set in the Midwestern United States in the early 20th century
Running time: 2 hours and 30 minutes including intermission
Language: English with English supertitles
Venue: Lobero Theatre

Greed, lust, and old-time religion burst into flames in Aldridge and Garfein’s gospel-infused opera, based on Sinclair Lewis’ satirical novel and the movie that won Burt Lancaster his first Oscar.

‘A marvelous amalgam of toe-tapping accessibility’ –Opera News

STARRING:

Evan Bravos as Elmer Gantry

Christina Pezzarossi as Sharon Falconer

Tickets

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Location

Lobero Theatre
33 E Canon Perdido St
Santa Barbara, CA 93101

Cast & Credits

DIRECTION

Director:
Tara Faircloth

Conductor:
Kostis Protopapas

ARTISTS

Elmer Gantry:
Evan Bravos

Sharon Falconer:
Christina Pezzarossi

direction

Director

Stage director Tara Faircloth’s work has been seen in opera houses around the nation. Critics hailed her Nozze di Figaro, claiming, “Faircloth made her Atlanta Opera debut this night with distinction, creating an unstoppable momentum of manipulation and misunderstandings. This production was so fresh that it had the ability to bridge yet another gap, entertaining the amateur and the opera aficionado alike” (Opera News). She directed two world premieres with the Houston Grand Opera's East+West series (The Bricklayer and Her Name Means The Sea) and has a thriving career in regional houses such as Wolf Trap Opera, Utah Opera, Arizona Opera, Tulsa Opera and Atlanta Opera (Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Rigoletto, Die Zauberflöte, Hänsel & Gretel, etc.). The baroque repertoire is of special interest to Ms. Faircloth, who made her directorial debut with Ars Lyrica Houston’s production of Cain: Il primo omicidio in 2003, and has since designed and directed a number of shows for the company, including Charpentier's Actéon and La Descente d’Orphée aux Enfers. She created productions of Dido & Aeneas for Ars Lyrica at the Festival di Musica Barroca in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and for Mercury Baroque in collaboration with the Dominic Walsh Dance Theater. The 2018-19 season finds Ms. Faircloth working on several new productions (Il Re Pastore with Merola Opera, Agrippina with Ars Lyrica Houston, The Little Prince with Utah Opera, The Coronation of Poppea with Boston Baroque), and returning to some familiar favorites: Le Nozze di Figaro and Rigoletto (for Arizona Opera and Austin Opera, respectively). Following last year’s season, which included new productions of Gianni Schicchi, Pagliacci, and Loving Clara, a mixed media collaboration exploring the life and loves of Clara Schumann with Mercury Orchestra, Ms. Faircloth is clearly in demand as an interpreter for familiar works and those that are more obscure. Ms. Faircloth has worked extensively on the directing staff of such companies as Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, Central City Opera, and Dallas Opera, and as such, has worked on some of the most complicated operas in the repertoire, assisting international directors and preparing cover casts of some of the best performers in our industry. Passionate about dramatic training for young singers, she is the Drama Instructor for the Houston Grand Opera Studio, and has served as a guest coach at HGO's Young Artists’ Vocal Academy, Wolf Trap Opera Studio, Des Moines Metro Opera, University of Michigan, and Rice University. Her home is in Houston, Texas, where she enjoys restoring her 1935 Craftsman Bungalow.

Director / La rondine

April 2017 (debut)

Conductor

Kostis Protopapas was named General Director of Opera Santa Barbara in December 2017, after two-and-a-half seasons as Artistic Director. During his time as Artistic Director and principal conductor, Kostis brought a unified vision to OSB’s musical and production values, strengthening the orchestra and chorus, engaging some of the country’s most promising young directors and singers, building a high-performing production team, and increasing focus on contemporary American opera. As General Director Kostis assembled Team OSB, a group of enthusiastic overachievers with a passion for innovation and the desire to strengthen the company’s bond with the community, who consistently exceed patrons’ expectations for programs, experiences and communications. Performance highlights from Kostis’ tenure include grand opera classics like Madama Butterfly, Manon, and Eugene Onegin as well as contemporary works like Daniel Catan’s Il Postino, the mariachi opera Cruzar la cara de la luna, and Laura Kaminsky’s As One. In the fall of 2022 the Santa Barbara Independent wrote: “From contemporary work to obscurities from the early 19th century, from staple repertoire to surprise elements, OSB continues to raise the bar on what an opera company can and should be, even in Santa Barbara.”

Between March 2020 and June 2021, under Kostis’ leadership Opera Santa Barbara remained active and fully staffed. It was the first performing arts organization in Santa Barbara to offer streaming programming, and one of only two opera companies in California to present three live operas in the 2020-21 season. Additionally, Opera Santa Barbara became an advocacy leader for the reopening of the performing arts, and funded live performances by local musicians through “Operation Eurydice”. For his work during the pandemic, Kostis was listed among the Santa Barbara Independent’s 2021 Local Heroes.

Before coming to Santa Barbara Kostis was the Artistic Director of Tulsa Opera since 2008. He previously was an Assistant Conductor with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, LA Opera and Santa Fe Opera. At the Lyric Opera of Chicago, he also served as Assistant Chorus Master under Donald Palumbo for two seasons.

Born in Athens, Greece, Kostis Protopapas studied Archaeology and History of Art at the University of Athens before coming to the United States in 1993, on an Onassis Foundation scholarship, to study piano at The Boston Conservatory and conducting at Boston University. He became an American citizen in 2011. He loves living in Santa Barbara, sits on the Board of the Santa Barbara University Club, and enjoys sailing on the Santa Barbara Channel.

artists

Elmer Gantry

Marked as a “talent to watch” (Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune), baritone Evan Bravos has received critical acclaim for his “lovely lyric baritone” (Opera News).

In the 2024-25 season, Bravos has several featured performances, including the premiere of a song cycle The Pure and Impure by composer Elizabeth Doyle at Piano-Forte Studios in Chicago. He reprises his role as Kenny Kincaid in The Cook-Off with New Orleans Opera, sings Vaughan Williams: Sea Symphony with the Helena Symphony, and enjoys several perormances of Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem including with the Apollo Chorus (Chicago), The Grace Chorale (Brooklyn NY) and the Evanston Symphony.

Highlights for the 2023-24 season included revisiting the role of Count Almaviva, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro in Columbia, South Carolina (Christopher James Ray); Countess’ Lackey/Ivan Ivanovich, Shostakovich: The Nose with Chicago Opera Theater (Lidiya Yankovskaya and Francesca Zambello); a featured performance of Schubert: Der Winterreise for Opera Up Close; a debut with Helena Symphony on Rachmaninoff: The Bells of Ecstasy (Allan R. Scott) and Vaughn Williams: Five Mystical Songs (Joseph Welch) and two premieres with Jake Heggie for the Chicago Opera Theater premiere of his and Gene Scherer’s new opera, Before It All Goes Dark.

In the 2022-23 season, saw Bravos in Boston for Let’s Celebrate! at WGBH studios (White Snake Projects), Silvio, I Pagliacci, (Opera Tampa) and Kenny Kincaid in Okpebholo & Campbell The Cook-Off (Chicago Opera Theater). In the 2021-22 season, he sang in Kaminsky, Reed and Campbell’s, As One (Opera Santa Barbara) as Hannah Before, El Dancaïro in Carmen alongside Jamie Barton and Stephanie Blythe, and “sang winningly” (Opera News) as Clay in the world premiere of Matthew Recio and Royce Vavrek’s opera The Puppy Episode (COT). Other favorites include Riff, West Side Story (New Philharmonic Opera); Maximilian, Candide (Ravinia Festival); George Jones, Weill's Street Scene, and Masetto, Don Giovanni (Virginia Opera); Inman, Higdon's Cold Mountain (Music Academy of the West); and Tom Joad, Gordon's The Grapes of Wrath.

House credits include Sarasota Opera, San Diego Opera, Central City Opera, Aspen Music Festival, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. In concert, he has sung with the symphonies of Santa Fe, Milwaukee, Madison, Hawaii, and Colorado. As a recitalist, Bravos has sung as a Vocal Fellow at Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute, the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago, and Horto Music Festival in Pelion, Greece. Bravos recently completed the Doctorate of Musical Arts at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. He is an Artist Faculty and Associate Program Director of Opera at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts.

Sharon Falconer

Reverend Baines

Praised by the Washington Post as having a voice of “unearthly power,” The Houston
Press as being a “blow away singer,” and the San Jose Mercury News as a “natural
comic actor,” award winning bass-baritone, Nathan Stark, has performed on opera,
concert and recital stages throughout United States, Europe and China.
Hailing from Hughson, California, Mr. Stark has performed over 60 professional roles
with opera houses throughout North America, including the Metropolitan Opera,
Cincinnati Opera, Arizona Opera, Atlanta Opera, Detroit Virginia Opera and Opera
Santa Barbara, among many others. Some of his noted roles have included Mustafà in
L’Italiana in Algeri, both Don Basilio and Don Bartolo in il Barbiere di Siviglia, both
Leporello and il Commendatore in Don Giovanni, both Monterone and Sparafucile in
Rigoletto, Colline in La Boheme, Fernando in Il Trovatore, Banco in Macbeth and
Bottom in A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Equally comfortable on the concert stage, he
has performed as a soloist with leading ensembles including Boston Symphony
Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Philharmonic, the Atlanta
Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra,
Long Beach Symphony, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, and the Holland Symphony
Orchestra.

For the 2025/2026 season, Nathan makes company returns to Opera Modesto as
Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’Amore, Opera Orlando as The French General in Silent Night
and Opera Santa Barbara as Reverend Baines in Elmer Gantry. He makes company
debuts with Opera Steamboat as Actor #2 in All is Calm: The Christmas Truce of 1914
and Seattle Opera as The Sargent of Police in Pirates of Penzance.
Mr. Stark has given recitals throughout the United States and Germany, concerts at The
Great Wall of China, the U.S. Colombian Embassy, U.S. French Embassy, the U.S.
Austrian Embassy and the Washington National Cathedral. In 2005 he was chosen to
be the featured soloist for the nationally televised opening ceremonies of the Air Force
One exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Library for former First Ladies, Laura Bush and
Nancy Reagan, members of the United States Senate and Congress, and then,
President of the United States, George W. Bush.
Mr. Stark has been a recipient of several vocal awards including the 2010 Fort Worth
Opera Marguerite McCammon Competition, the Opera Columbus Vocal Competition,
the Brentwood Artist of Tomorrow Competition, the Sun Valley Opera Competition,
Westwood Vocal Competition, Burbank Aria Competition, first place winner of Cincinnati
Conservatory of Music’s Corbett Scholarship Opera Competition, the Palm Springs
Opera Guild Vocal Competition, the Pasadena Opera Guild Competition, the Opera
Buffs Competition, first place winner of the Classical Singers Association Vocal
Competition in Los Angeles, and San Diego district winner of the Metropolitan Opera
Vocal Competition.

He holds degrees in vocal & opera performance from California State University, Long
Beach (B.M. & M.M.) and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music
(A.D.) His voice teachers have included Dr. Lewis Woodward, Dr. Cherrie Llewellyn, Ms.
Shigemi Matsumoto, Ms. Marilyn Horne and Mr. Kenneth Shaw.

Lulu Baines

ON STAGE

Elmer Gantry

Lobero Theatre | Friday, May 1 at 7:30 PM & Sunday, May 3 at 2:30 PM

Tickets

Location

Cast & Credits

direction

Tara Faircloth

Tara Faircloth

Director / La rondine

Kostis Protopapas

Kostis Protopapas

artists

Evan Bravos

Evan Bravos

Christina Pezzarossi

Christina Pezzarossi

Nathan Stark

Nathan Stark

Brooklyn Snow

Brooklyn Snow