Voice Assistant Professor Daveda Karanas recently performed the title role of The (Montana) Mikado with Intermountain Opera Bozeman in Bozeman, Montana. A brand-new and revolutionary adaptation of W.S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan’s 19th-century English comic opera. Avoiding the problematic negative stereotypes of its original Japanese setting, Intermountain Opera Bozeman doubled down on The Mikado’s satirical origins and re-conceived it in present-day Montana. They eliminated every reference to Japan, changed all the character and place names, and made fun of the region in Montana, taking out the Japanese lords and schoolgirls and replacing them with local Montanan hipsters, skiers, and ranchers. Adapting The Mikado in this way not only ‘fixed’ the problems of the original work, but offered a unique opportunity to laugh with each other at a time when all desperately needed that kind of levity.
Prof. Daveda Karanas also performed in a series of opera concerts with Festival de Musique de Saint-Barth in Saint Barthélemy, French West Indies under the baton of Maestro Steven Mercurio, frequent collaborator and principal conductor for famed tenor Andrea Bocelli and music director of The Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
Prof. Karanas curated and performed the Texas premiere of Dr. Michael Ippolito’s poignant song cycle, The Long Year (2021), Dutch-Jewish composer Rosy Wertheim’s Twee Liederen (1918), and the World Premiere of Czech-Jewish composer Ilse Weber’s Songs Written in Terezín (1943/44), arranged by Dr. Ippolito.