Postcard from Morocco

by Dominick Argento

sung in English with projected text

Friday, February 5 at 7:30pm
Sunday, February 7 at 2:30pm
Capitol Theater

Fantasy awaits on platform seven.

A Moroccan train station in 1914 becomes a crossroad of dreams in this witty and touching entertainment about strangers, secrets, and stories. Argento’s sparkling score is by turns romantic, mysterious, dramatic, and delightfully unhinged in a 90-minute work that is richly human and thoroughly theatrical.

Kanopy Dance joins Madison Opera in a world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary – and every suitcase holds a story.

Postcard from Morocco

by Dominick Argento
Libretto by John Donahue
Premiered 14 October 1971, Center Opera Company, Minneapolis
Madison Opera premiere

Approximate run time: 90 minutes, with no intermission.

Flora Hawk

A Lady with a Cake Box

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Hometown: Houston, TX
Madison Opera Debut

Recently: Florence Beatrice Price, My Name is Florence (Minnesota Opera); Mildred Jeter Loving, Loving V. Virginia (Virginia Opera); Peter, The Snowy Day (Portland Opera, Houston Grand Opera); Poppea, Agrippina (Florida Grand Opera)

Upcoming: Susanna, The Marriage of Figaro (Nashville Opera); Soloist, A Tribute to Coretta Scott King (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra); Peter, The Snowy Day (Colorado Opera); Florence Beatrice Price, My Name is Florence (Minnesota Opera)

Alexandra Burch

A Lady with a Hand Mirror

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Hometown: La Crosse, WI
Madison Opera Debut: Lucy Tritt Shue, Everlasting Faint (2026)
Madison Opera Studio Artist

Recently: Mimì (cover), La Bohème (Opera Festival of Chicago); The Governess, The Turn of the Screw; Lucinda, Dark Sisters (DePaul University Opera); Chorus, Carmina Burana (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Daughter, The Pirates of Penzance (Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company of Chicago); Lucia, Lucia di Lammermoor; Fiorilla, Il turco in Italia (Musica nelle Marche Opera Scenes)

Upcoming: Frasquita, Carmen (Madison Opera)

Madison Barrett

A Lady with a Hat Box

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Hometown: Oviedo, FL
Madison Opera Debut: Allie Cutlip Shue, Everlasting Faint (2026)
Madison Opera Studio Artist

Recently: Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder (Middleton Community Orchestra); Suzanne, Hello Girls (Four Seasons Theatre); Desiree, A Little Night Music; Songbird, Songbird; Margaret, The Light in the Piazza (UW-Madison); Lady Jacqueline, Me and My Girl; Ilene Cavanaugh, The Arcadians; Smitty, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying; Flora, No, No, Nanette (Ohio Light Opera); Soloist, Sondheim on Sondheim (Middleton Player’s Theatre)

Upcoming: Mercédès, Carmen (Madison Opera)

David Blalock

A Man with a Paint Box

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Hometown: Chapel Hill, NC
Madison Opera Debut: Jaquino, Fidelio (2014)
Recently at MO: Valcour, The Anonymous Lover; 2nd Jew, Salome; Opera in the Park 2021

Recently: Frederic, The Pirates of Penzance (Charlottesville Opera); Pong, Turandot (Pacific Symphony); Nemorino, The Elixir of Love (Opera Grand Rapids); Gastone, La Traviata; Pong, Turandot (Metropolitan Opera); Ferrando, Così fan tutte (Newport Music Festival); Duke, Rigoletto (Opera Columbus); Macduff, Working for the Macbeths (American Lyric Theatre)

Upcoming: Second Priest, The Magic Flute (Metropolitan Opera); Pong, Turandot (Virginia Opera); Don Basilio, The Marriage of Figaro (San Diego Opera)

Ryan Nash

A Man with Old Luggage

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Hometown: Longmeadow, MA
Madison Opera Debut: Sergeant, The Barber of Seville (2024)
Recently at MO: David Gassaway, Everlasting Faint; Parpignol, La Bohème
Former Madison Opera Studio Artist

Recently: Sam, The Ballad of Baby Doe; 1st Knight, Once Upon a Mattress (Central City Opera); Tamino, The Magic Flute (Opera for the Young); Gherardo, Gianni Schicchi (American Gothic Performing Arts Festival); Frederic, The Pirates of Penzance (Madison Savoyards); Albert Herring, Albert Herring (UW-Madison)

Benjamin Taylor

A Man with a Shoe Sample Kit

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Hometown: Waldorf, MD
Madison Opera Debut: Silvio, Pagliacci (2018)
Recently at MO: Opera in the Park 2025; Figaro, The Barber of Seville

Recently: Mercutio, Romeo and Juliet (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis): Escamillo, Carmen (Seattle Opera); Figaro, The Barber of Seville (Charleston Opera Theater); Moralès, Carmen; Jake, Porgy and Bess; Papageno, The Magic Flute (Metropolitan Opera); Bello, La Fanciulla del West (Bayerische Staatsoper); Guglielmo, Così fan tutte (Princeton Symphony); Jan Nyman, Breaking Waves (Detroit Opera); Silvio, Pagliacci (Austin Opera)

Upcoming: Balstrode, Peter Grimes (Fondazione Teatro la Fenice); Sciarrone, Tosca (New York Philharmonic)

Matt Boehler

A Man with a Cornet Case

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Hometown: Minneapolis, MN
Madison Opera Debut: Opera in the Park 2012
Recently at MO: Figaro, The Marriage of Figaro; Osmin, The Abduction from the Seraglio; Rocco, Fidelio; Leporello, Don Giovanni

Recently: Guy Cotter / Mike Groom, Everest (Portland Opera); Father Trulove, The Rake’s Progress; Arkel, Pelléas and Mélisande (Des Moines Metro Opera); George Moscone, Harvey Milk (Opera Parallèle); Polyphemus, Acis and Galatea (Florentine Opera); Antonio, The Marriage of Figaro (Lyric Opera of Chicago); Sparafucile, Rigoletto (Florida Grand Opera)

Upcoming: Frère Laurent, Romeo and Juliet (Pittsburgh Opera)

Kanopy Dance

Kyle Naig

Conductor

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Hometown: Des Moines, IA
Madison Opera Debut

Recently: La Bohème (El Paso Opera); Fra Diavolo; La Scuola de’ Gelosi; Don Bucefalo (Pacific Opera Project); Cendrillon (Opera Montana); Tartuffe (Pocket Opera); Amahl and the Night Visitors; Four Lost Santas (Opera Orlando); Into the Woods (Opera Montana)

Upcoming: cover conductor, Salome (Seattle Opera)

Kristine McIntyre

Stage Director

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Madison Opera Debut: Così fan tutte (2009)
Recently at MO: Trouble in Tahiti / The Seven Deadly Sins; Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci; Florencia en el Amazonas; The Tales of Hoffmann; Dead Man Walking; A Masked Ball

Recently: Of Mice and Men (Lyric Opera or Kansas City); La Bohème; Woman with Eyes Closed; La Traviata (Pittsburgh Opera); The Elixir of Love; Enchanted Woods (Portland Opera); Lucrezia / Four Dialogues (Music Academy of the West); The Cunning Little Vixen (Des Moines Metro Opera); (Pittsburgh Opera); La Bohème (Opera Colorado); Don Giovanni (Opera Omaha)

Lisa Thurrell

Choreographer

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Hometown: Madison, WI / New York, NY
Madison Opera Debut: Florencia en el Amazonas (2018)
Recently at MO: María de Buenos Aires, The Anonymous Lover, Trouble in Tahiti / The Seven Deadly Sins
Co-Artistic Director of Kanopy Dance

Recently: Director and Choreographer, Divin Mythologies; The Next Generation; Without Borders: Celebrating the Legacy of José Limón; Winter Fantasia: Reimagined (Kanopy Dance); Choreographer, The Cunning Little Vixen; Bluebeard’s Castle (Des Moines Metro Opera)

Upcoming: Radiance (Kanopy Dance)