Bon Appétit!A MUSICAL MONOLOGUEMUSIC BY LEE HOIBY

TEXT BY JULIA CHILD, ADAPTED BY MARK SHULGASSER

Performed in English

7:30 P.M. CT |NOVEMBER 27Available on demand through December 26

BackgroundLee Hoiby’s one-woman, one-act opera Bon Appétit! premiered in 1989 at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, with Jean Stapleton performing the role of Julia Child. It was presented as a curtain raiser for Hoiby’s The Italian Lesson, also a musical monodrama.

The StoryBon Appétit is a conflation of two episodes of Julia Child’s cooking show, The French Chef, in which she narrates—with all her wit, antics, and charisma—the baking of the perfect chocolate cake, Le gâteau au chocolat l’éminence brune.

Fun FactHouston favorite, HGO Studio alumna, and beloved mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton portrays Child in a role she has made her own, performing in venues including New York’s Carnegie Hall.

CastJulia Child

‡ Former Houston Grand Opera Studio artist

Creative TeamPianist Co-Directors

* Houston Grand Opera debut ‡ Former Houston Grand Opera Studio artist

The entire staff of HGO contributed to the success of this production. For a full listing of the company’s staff, please visit HGO.org/about-us/people.

Performing artists, stage directors, and choreog-raphers are represented by the American Guild of Musical Artists, the union for opera professionals in the United States.

Jonathan Easter* Ryan McKinny ‡ and Tonya McKinny *

Video and Audio Production Keep the Music Going Productions

Underwriters Jennifer and Benjamin Fink

Streaming Partner Produced in association with Austin Opera

Jamie Barton ‡

Bon Appétit!

Bon Appétit!

RYAN MCKINNY (United States)CO-DIRECTOR

HGO Studio alumnus Ryan McKinny also co-directed and appeared in the HGO Digital production Vinkensport. His past performances

for HGO include his role debut as Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni (2019); Gunther in Götterdämmerung (2017); and Donner in Das Rheingold, Escamillo in Carmen, and the title role in Rigoletto (all in 2014). The 2019–20 season saw McKinny make his role and house debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago as Joseph De Rocher in Jake Heggie and Terrence McNally’s Dead Man Walking, featuring a new production by Leonard Foglia, before performing at Washington National Opera and returning to the Lyric Opera of Chicago as the title role in Don Giovanni. He has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera (Biterolf in Tannhäuser, Speaker in The Magic Flute, Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, and Lieutenant Ratcliffe in Billy Budd); Dutch National Opera (debut in Pierre Audi’s production of Parsifal); Los Angeles Opera (Count Almaviva in The Marriage of Figaro, Stanley Kowalski to Renée Fleming’s Blanche DuBois in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, Leone in Handel’s Tamerlano with Plácido Domingo, and Don Basilio in The Barber of Seville); Santa Fe Opera (Oppenheimer in Doctor Atomic and Jokanaan in Salome); Washington National Opera; Staatstheater Wiesbaden; English National Opera; Semperoper Dresden; Hamburg State Opera; Deutsche Oper Berlin; Deutsche Oper am Rhein; Teatro Colón; and many other companies.

TONYA MCKINNY(United States)CO-DIRECTOR

Co-founder of Keep the Music Going Productions, Tonya McKinny served as co-director, co-writer, and director of photog-

raphy for the recent short film Glimmerglass Lieder, produced by the Glimmerglass Festival and starring Ryan McKinny. This season she is co-producer of a new opera experience with On Site Opera in New York City, scheduled to debut in the spring of 2021. McKinny has acted in several Off-Off-Broadway productions, taught masterclasses for the University of Hawaii, and served as personal acting coach for numerous singers.

JAMIE BARTON (United States) MEZZO-SOPRANO—JULIA CHILD

HGO Studio alumna Jamie Barton is the winner of the Beverly Sills Artist Award and

Richard Tucker Award, both Main and Song Prizes at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, and a Grammy nominee. In recognition of her iconic performance at the Last Night of the Proms, Barton was named 2020 Personality of the Year at the BBC Music Magazine Awards. She appears regularly at HGO, most recently in Donizetti’s La favorite as Léonor (2020), Bellini’s Norma as Adalgisa (2018), Wagner’s Ring cycle as Waltraute/Second Norn in Götterdämmerung (2017), and as Fricka in Das Rheingold (2014) and Die Walküre (2015). This season, Barton is slated to appear with Dallas Opera as Eboli in Don Carlo, Dallas Symphony Orchestra in a program of Verdi favorites, Orchestre de Paris in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra for that same composer’s Resurrection Symphony. Following a duo recital with soprano Angela Meade at Seattle Opera, Barton embarks on a recital tour with composer Jake Heggie, with appearances with Cal Performances in Berkeley, Schubert Club in St. Paul, and Tucson’s Desert Song Festival. Barton’s debut solo album, All Who Wander, featuring songs by Mahler, Dvorak, and Sibelius, earned the 2018 BBC Music Magazine Vocal Award. Unexpected Shadows, her new album of music by Jake Heggie, has just been released on the Pentatone label.

JONATHAN EASTER (United States)PIANO

Known for his musicality and expressivity across multiple instruments, Jonathan Easter is increasingly sought after as a collaborative

organist and pianist. As a collaborative artist, Easter has performed at the American Choral Directors Association and American Guild of Organist conventions at the Regional and National levels. He also performs regularly with the Atlanta Master Chorale and Emory University’s Concert Choir as their Accompanist and Assistant Conductor. As an organist, Easter has performed solo and collabo-rative recitals at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church; Jacoby Symphony Hall in Jacksonville, Florida; the Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Augustine; and Spivey Hall. He can be heard on multiple CDs with the Atlanta Master Chorale, University of North Florida Chamber Singers, and an upcoming album with trumpet players from around the country. Easter has had the pleasure of collaborating with Jamie Barton on several occasions, including a collaborative recital to help Barton prepare for the 2013 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, the 2020 Metropolitan Opera Gala, and a recital with Seattle Opera. Easter currently serves as Director of Fine Arts and Organist at Saint Mark United Methodist Church in Atlanta.