Opera Idaho’s 2009/10 season will conclude with a concert performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s classic musical South Pacific on July 9th and 11th at the Idaho Botanical Gardens. Capitalizing on the success of recent years’ Opera under the Stars, performances of South Pacific will mark the beginning of annual summer musical performances “under the stars.” Boise soprano Leslie Mauldin will sing the lead role of Nellie Forbush.  Brett Hamilton will star as Emile de Becque. Stuart Weiser will serve as music director.

Synopsis

Act I. On a South Pacific island during World War II, two Polynesian children, Ngana and Jerome, sing “Dites-Moi”, a charming French song. A naive U.S. Navy nurse from Arkansas, Ensign Nellie Forbush, falls in love with middle-aged French plantation owner Emile de Becque. Even though everyone else is worried about the outcome of the war, Nellie explains to Emile that she’s still “A Cockeyed Optimist.” She and Emile are in love, but each wonders if the other reciprocates their feelings (“Twin Soliloquies”). Emile recalls how they met at a dinner held at the officers’ club (“Some Enchanted Evening”) and were immediately drawn to each other. Nellie returns to the hospital for work and Emile calls Ngana and Jerome to him, revealing to the audience that they are his children, unbeknownst to Nellie.

Meanwhile, the restless American sailors, led by entrepreneurial Seabee Luther Billis, lament the absence of women or combat to relieve their boredom. There is one non-naval woman on the island, a middle-aged Tonkinese grass skirt seller, nicknamed “Bloody Mary”—and as there are no other women, the sailors make overtures to her. Billis wants to go to a nearby island, Bali Ha’i, off-limits to all but officers. The French plantation owners have hidden their women there, and riches may be had by trading for goods with the locals. Billis and the sailors lament the lack of female company (“There is Nothin’ Like a Dame”). Lieutenant Joe Cable, of the U.S. Marine Corps, arrives on the island to take part in a dangerous spy mission that might help turn the tide of the war against Japan. Bloody Mary is immediately drawn to him and tries to persuade him to come to “Bali H’ai”, where she herself lives.

After thinking a bit more about Emile and the life they would have on the island, Nellie tells the other nurses that she intends to break up with him, (“I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair”). But she meets Emile unexpectedly and realizes that she loves him. He invites her to a party he has set up for the purpose of introducing her to all of his friends. Nellie eagerly accepts and after Emile leaves, she declares her love for him (“I’m In Love With A Wonderful Guy”).

Cable’s mission involves reconnaissance on a Japanese-held island. The only candidate to be his guide is Emile, who refuses due to his love for Nellie and feelings of alienation from others. Cable is told to go on leave until an opportunity arises. Billis convinces Lt. Cable to take him to Bali Ha’i. There, Bloody Mary introduces Cable to a beautiful young Tonkinese girl, Liat- she is her daughter, but we do not know this yet. Cable becomes infatuated and sleeps with Liat, seemingly thinking she is a prostitute. Cable sings her a love song, (“Younger Than Springtime”). But as he is leaving the island, Bloody Mary informs him that Liat is her daughter—the reason Bloody Mary so quickly showed interest in Cable is that she thought he would make a good husband for Liat. Her plan shows promise, as Cable and Liat have quickly fallen in love. The two couples, Nellie and Emile, along with Liat and Joe, deepen their affection, and Emile and Nellie become engaged. But Nellie breaks off the engagement when Emile reveals that the dark-skinned Ngana and Jerome are Emile’s children by a Polynesian woman—she has deep-seated racial prejudices and is particularly upset to think of Emile married to a dark-skinned woman.

Act II. Liat and Joe spend more time together. Bloody Mary is delighted (“Happy Talk”). She urges them to get married—but Cable has similar prejudices, fearing what his friends and family would say back home in Philadelphia. He definitively says he cannot marry a Tonkinese girl. Bloody Mary is furious, and drags her distraught daughter away, saying she must marry another man. Cable no longer finds Liat so charming (“Younger Than Springtime (reprise)”). Though aware of and ashamed of their bigotry, Nellie and Joe are prisoners of their upbringings; they think they have no options.

Meanwhile, Nellie is occupied with planning the Thanksgiving Show for all of the sailors, and she does a vaudevillian turn dressed as a sailor singing the praises of “his” sweetheart (“Honey Bun”). Billis plays Honey Bun, dressed in a grass skirt and coconut shell bra. Backstage, Emile’d had flowers for Nellie, but Luther Billis tells him that Nellie has been so upset that she shouldn’t see him. Luther takes the flowers and later gives them to Nellie. She kisses him, which he had been longing for, but reluctantly has to tell her that Emile du Becque had intended them for Nellie.

Emile, who still loves Nellie in spite of everything, asks Joe why he and Nellie have such prejudices. Joe replies that it’s not something you’re born with, it’s the way you’re brought up (“Carefully Taught”). Emile imagines what could have been, lamenting his doomed marriage proposal (“This Nearly Was Mine”). Dejected and with nothing to lose, Emile agrees to join Joe on his dangerous mission behind Japanese lines. The two send back reports on enemy forces, which the Americans use to intercept and destroy Japanese convoys. A major offensive, “Operation Alligator”, gets underway and the previously idle sailors, including the reluctant Luther Billis, go off to battle. Joe is killed and Emile narrowly escapes a similar fate. Meanwhile, Nellie, realizing what’s important when she sees Liat’s grief at Joe’s death, and realizing that Emile is likely dead too, throws off her prejudices and resolves to spend time with Ngana and Jerome. Emile returns home, to the now-understanding Nellie and his—soon to be their—children and they join together to sing “Dites-Moi” (reprise).

–from wikipedia

Cast & Gallery

Ensign Nellie Forbush - Leslie Mauldin

Emile de Becque – Brett Hamilton

Ngana (Emile’s daughter) – Miranda Soelberg

Jérome (Emile’s son) – Nick Cravens

Luther Billis – Jim Poston

Bloody Mary – Michele Detwiler

Lieutenant Joseph Cable - Scott Noland

Capt George Brackett – Walt Lee

Cmdr William Harbison -TBA

Music Director – Stuart Weiser

Leslie Mauldin (Nellie Forbush) has performed dynamically and to critical acclaim in many venues, from touring as soprano soloist with the Israeli Philharmonic to a one woman show in Spain, where she attended conservatory. Her work comprises many diverse leading opera roles, including the title role in Tosca, Violetta (La traviata) with Opera Idaho and Skagit Opera, Musetta (La bohème), Micaela (Carmen), Hanna Glavari (The Merry Widow), The Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), and Donna Anna (Don Giovanni). She will appear as Nellie Forbush in Opera Idaho’s upcoming South Pacific in concert.Leslie’s credits also include stage direction for operas and shows including Suor Angelica, Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, and an outreach production of La bohème.  Her concert/oratorio work as a soprano soloist comprises over a dozen varied works, including  Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream performed with the Ventura, CA “New West Symphony” at its premiere performance at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, under the direction of Boris Brott, and with Claire Bloom narrating. A native of Los Angeles, she has also worked in film and television, and is a member in good standing of Screen Actor’s Guild, Hollywood division. 

Brett Hamilton (Emile de Becque) received his theater training at the University of Arizona at Tucson and the University of California at Los Angeles where he won the Gladys-Turk Foundation Fellowship in Opera. He was part of the original group selected for the American Opera Center at the Juilliard School of Music at Lincoln Center, New York City (directed by Tito Capobianco).  He performed with the Texas Opera Theater of the Houston Grand Opera before joining the Houston Grand Opera in La Perichole. In New York City he undertook acting studies with Kenneth McMillan and Herbert Berghof at the HB Studios, and scene studies with Frank Corsaro, stage director of the New York City Opera and Director of the Actor’s Studio in New York. 

His opera appearances include engagements with the New York City Opera, Houston Grand Opera, San Diego Opera, Hollywood Bowl, and the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera. He has performed leading roles in traditional and modern productions both in the USA and in Europe, including voice-overs for Paramount Pictures (Paint Your Wagon … with the Roger Wagner Master Chorale), commercials (Texaco), regional dinner theaters (Chateau de Ville, The Most Happy Fella, Boston, Massachusetts, Corral Theater-in-the-Round, Tucson, Arizona) and Off-Broadway in New York City (Madam Bovary … role of Charles Bovary). 

In Europe he was engaged for the Hamburg production of Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera (Firmin), and for the Opera de Monte Carlo, Monaco–world premiere of Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray  (Basil the Painter). For the Frankfurt Opera he created the principal role of Bam in Samuel Beckett’s What, Where? by composer Heinz Holliger, and for the Janacek Opera, Brno, Czech Republic he sang the title role in Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman. 

Mr. Hamilton is currently full professor with the University of Maryland, European Division, but he also offers private and group coaching in voice and acting to those who are preparing for careers in musical theater and opera.  Although both he and his wife, the soprano Sue Patchell, are originally from ranch life in Montana (just 30 miles apart) … they met one another for the first time on stage in Europe during a Wagnerian opera!  Both feel especially at home in the Northwest and they are looking forward to a complete return to this area. For now, he shares his time between Meridian, Idaho and Wiesbaden, Germany, but as his family has already moved to Meridian, he intends to make his full transition back to Idaho soon. Mr. Hamilton will return to the Opera Idaho stage in October 2010 as Doc Gibbs in Ned Rorem’s Our Town.

Jim Poston (Luther Billis) caught the singing bug early in life when in High School, he performed the lead musical theatre role of Emile in Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s South Pacific. While embarking on a musical academic career at Simpson College he sang many leading roles including Billy Bigelow from Carousel, Schaunard from La Bohème and Gulielmo from Cosi fan tutte. Later, while pursuing a Master’s degree from the Boston Conservatory, he sang the role of the Count from La nozze di Figaro to rave reviews and sold out performance halls.  He participated in three prestigious apprentice programs in Des Moines, Central City, Colorado and in Lake George, NY. While there he performed numerous scenes and experts from a wide variety of operas written by composers such as Mozart, Puccini, Verdi and Britten. 

His experience spans from the opera stage to the concert hall where he’s performed excerpts from Rigoletto and Porgy and Bess with the Laredo Philharmonic Orchestra and sung the baritone solo’s in Handel’s Messiah with the Boise Chorale. 

Mr. Poston began his collaboration with Opera Idaho when he sang the role of Sharpless from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in that company’s 2003 production. Since then he’s performed in several smaller roles in La Traviata, The Merry Widow and Il barbiere di Siviglia.  He also sang opera and musical theatre excerpts to a sold out audience in Sun Valley and has sung many times with Opera Idaho at Boise’s Botanical Garden summer series.

For the past few years Mr. Poston has toured the Treasure Valley singing the baritone character in Opera Idaho’s Opera in a Box performances for thousands of school children. He’s an award winning news anchor and reporter having worked in cityies from Boston to Laredo to Des Moines. He came to Boise with his wife and began working for KBCI-TV, Channel 2 and later for KIVI-TV Channel 6 in Nampa. He is currently working towards his Master’s degree, researching as a graduate assistant in the Communication dept. at Boise State University while also teaching Theatre Appreciation at the College of Western Idaho.  Mr. Poston also has his own home business as a professional voice over actor.  Mr. Poston loves to sing and looks forward to entertaining Treasure Valley audiences in the future.

Since 2000, Michele Detwiler (Bloody Mary) has sung nearly two dozen roles with regional companies on the West Coast, favoring Mahler, Strauss, Bel Canto and French repertoire. Critics have described her instrument as “amber-voiced”, “a velvety mezzo soprano voice with excellent range”, with performances being cited as “riveting” and holding “center stage commandingly”.

The 2009-2010 season finds Michele debuting with Opera Idaho as Siébel in Faust and Tisbe in La cenerentola, and returning to the Boise Philharmonic as a soloist in Bernstein’s Candide Suite. Opera Idaho is delighted to welcome her back to our stage as Bloody Mary for South Pacific in Concert, and we look forward to her performance as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly in February 2011.

From 2001-2007, she was a Principal Artist and Guest Artist with Opera San Jose, where she sang in eighteen productions ranging from lyric to dramatic repertoire. While there she garnered much praise for her portrayal of Elizabeth Proctor (The Crucible), and took on the roles of Carmen, Suzuki (Madama Butterfly), Rosina (Il Barbiere di Siviglia), the title role of La Cenerentola, Dorabella (Cosí fan tutte), Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), Stephano (Romeo et Juliette), Siébel (Faust), Prince Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus), and Flora (La Traviata) among others. In addition, the young mezzo has sung with Sacramento Opera, West Bay Opera, Trinity Lyric Opera, San Francisco Lyric Opera, Mission City Opera, Apollo Sierra Opera, the Boise Philharmonic, Auburn Symphony, and Symphony Silicon Valley. Her concert credits include soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Mozart’s Requiem, Saint-Säens’ Christmas Oratorio, Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, Herzogenberg’s Die Geburt Christi, and Einhorn’s Voices of Light.