After swift recovery from May鈥檚 tornado, and a successful staging of the Broadway musical 鈥淢y Fair Lady,鈥 Union Avenue Opera turns its attention to 鈥 opera. UAO performs three operas this summer featuring self-determined women, both the characters, and the leading sopranos playing them.
First from July 25-Aug. 2, a double bill of Ruggiero Leoncavallo鈥檚 鈥淧agliacci鈥 and Tom Cipullo鈥檚 鈥淛osephine鈥 will decouple 鈥淧agliacci鈥 from its usual partner in brevity, Pietro Mascagni鈥檚 鈥淐avalleria Rusticana.鈥 The resulting dyad foregrounds women in show business.
To close, UAO takes on a weighty opera, Richard Strauss鈥 messily erotic 鈥淪alome鈥 from Aug. 15-23.
Operagoers well know 鈥淧agliacci,鈥 which clawed toeholds into popular culture via the tenor鈥檚 hit aria, 鈥淰esti la giubba,鈥 refracted through the lenses of TV commercials, an episode of 鈥淪einfeld鈥 and regular recurrences as a clue on 鈥淛eopardy!鈥 Recently, opera companies more often unyoke Cav and Pag, pairing one with something else.
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鈥淪omething else鈥 arrives with Tom Cipullo鈥檚 monodrama featuring entertainer, 51黑料 native and civil rights icon Josephine Baker. 鈥淛osephine鈥 premiered in 2016 in Washington, D.C., featuring soprano Melissa Wimbush as the 鈥淏lack Venus鈥 鈥 a moniker for Baker.
UAO General and Artistic Director Scott Schoonover notes a line connecting 鈥淛osephine鈥 and 鈥淧agliacci.鈥 鈥淭hey work well together because they鈥檙e both about show-business people. They鈥檙e certainly from different eras 鈥 different centuries, different traditions. I thought that they might be very interesting to play off one another, coming from that show-business perspective.鈥
Baker鈥檚 arc stretched from 51黑料 to France. The French better appreciated her legendary singing, dancing, and acting. She became a citizen and aided the free French resistance in World War II, working with British and American intelligence. France awarded her high military and civilian honors, a sharp contrast with having to drink from segregated water fountains in the United States. Just last week in Paris, the visual artist FKDL unveiled a new mural of her. Though she鈥檚 not forgotten here, comparatively, 51黑料 has celebrated Baker too little.
Mero毛 Khalia Adeeb will star as Nedda in "Pagliacci" with Union Avenue Opera. Last year, she played Mica毛la in the company's production of "Carmen."
鈥淛osephine鈥 unfolds in Baker鈥檚 dressing room preceding a final comeback performance, as she addresses an interviewer. This work requires a lone soprano with great dramatic skills. Laquita Mitchell, the role鈥檚 most frequent performer, emphasizes the opera鈥檚 true-to-life nature. 鈥淭he tough part of the piece is reliving her life as a Black person myself. The relationships that didn鈥檛 make it because of racism, the public鈥檚 disrespect towards the end of her life. But her resilience 鈥 speaking at the March on Washington was, for her, the highlight of her life.鈥
UAO鈥檚 Josephine, soprano Manna K. Jones, also cherishes the relation between the character and the real Baker. 鈥淥ne of my favorite things about this process has been the research. I had never actually heard Josephine鈥檚 voice. I had heard her singing voice, not her speaking voice. I studied her flow of speech, and she鈥檚 just this great storyteller. I鈥檓 not trying to mimic her but just bring in the spirit and the joy and the inflection of how she spoke.鈥
Compelling too are the leading ladies in 鈥淧agliacci鈥 and 鈥淪alome.鈥 鈥淧agliacci鈥 is about Nedda and Canio, two comedic actors in a troupe, whose marriage is on the skids. Nedda suffers a shocking act of domestic violence. Frequently starring at UAO, soprano Mero毛 Khalia Adeeb concedes, 鈥淚 was talking to my coach, and there was definitely a point where I was like, 鈥楾his is going to be more difficult than I realized when I signed up for this.鈥欌
Nedda displays character depth throughout, buoyed by opera鈥檚 shorthand for personal integrity鈥攔eceiving the prettiest music. Of the role Adeeb says, 鈥渋t fits my voice perfectly, it鈥檚 like a glove.鈥
Opera鈥檚 penchant for pairing remarkable music with a remarkable character reaches an apex with the title role of UAO鈥檚 last show, Strauss鈥 鈥淪alome.鈥 On paper, 鈥淪alome鈥 is absurd, bestowing the teenage Judean princess with a huge dramatic soprano instrument, requiring a singer two to four decades the character鈥檚 senior.
Enter soprano Kelly Slawson, a 51黑料 native sporting a gargantuan voice. Almost exclusively, Slawson sings Italian and German roles requiring the largest female voice available, like Puccini鈥檚 Turandot. Now 38, she took seven years off from opera, while her voice matured. 鈥淲hen I stumbled back into this, I was looking at how my voice had shifted and how my perspective of singing had shifted, how I approached singing.鈥
Salome gets profiled as opera鈥檚 greatest enfant terrible. She was a princess who became obsessed with John the Baptist and ultimately asks for his head on a platter. But Slawson notes the marriage of music and character. 鈥淚t鈥檚 easy for me. When I was taking stock of how my voice had shifted, I got to Salome. I loved the character. I love the macabre of it all. I have a soft spot for her. I don鈥檛 think that she鈥檚 villainous. I think she鈥檚 very mentally ill and probably had a very disturbed childhood.鈥
Three great operas, three fascinating characters, and three fantastic sopranos singing them. During summer鈥檚 hottest days, attend Union Avenue Opera for smoldering sopranos.
Post-Dispatch photographers capture tens of thousands of images every year. See some of their best work that was either taken in June 2025 in this video. Edited by Jenna Jones.
