In June of 1989, a colleague of mine at Millikin, Maria Klott (who again, small world, I had known when I was at U of IA), asked if I would fill in for one of the characters in the Opera Theatre of Springfield's production of The Merry Widow for which she was doing musical direction. Didn't I say it was who you know? They needed someone to sing Cascada, and fortunately for me, I had performed that same role at Illinois. I don't recall if I only did one performance or the second weekend.
The first show I did with Illinois Opera Theatre was Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow. Met some new people and made some great friends. Matt Eisenberg and I had an amazing time trying to steal the show away from each other as Hannah's two annoying suitors, St. Brioche and Cascada.
This show was also the last for the retiring Director David Lloyd. Was fun to get a chance to work with him. The new Director would be Mark Flint, a young and energetic working professional opera conductor. Usually he would bring in working professional directors to stage the shows.
