The Medium
Gian Carlo Menotti
October 25, 2024
October 26, 2024
Cohen Hall
Keene Public Library
Adult $40
Student $10
In the spirit of Halloween, Raylynmor presents a spooky original production of Menotti's eerie opera, The Medium. Madame Flora, and her two accomplices, Monica (her daughter) and Toby (her mute servant), stage phony seances to con her clients out of their money. During one of the sessions, she feels the touch of a hand and cannot explain it. She accuses Toby but suspects darker forces may be in play. As she continues to obsess about the touch her mind unravels, culminating in an unforgettable act of madness and despair.
Meet the Artists
Serafina Belletini (Madame Flora/Baba)
​Mezzo-soprano Serafina Bellentini recently received her Master of Music degree from Temple University. Recent performances include Gertrude, Roméo et Juliette; Sor Rosa, With Blood, With Ink, Seagle 2023; The Witch, Hänsel und Gretel, Ruth, Dark Sisters, Marcellina, Le nozze di Figaro, Geneviève, Impressions de Pelléas, Temple University Opera Theatre; Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd, Red River Lyric Opera; Sister Mathilde, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Opera MODO and Olivia, Cold Mountain and Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney Todd with Seagle.​
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Kristin Ditlow (Conductor/Pianist)
Pianist, conductor and coach Kristin Ditlow is enjoying a performance and teaching career throughout the United States and abroad. She has appeared in concert throughout North America, mainland China, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic.
Her solo debut piano CD, Passages, has received national accolades. Harry Musselwhite of the Rome News-Tribune wrote that “the recording … is sonically breathtaking and her playing ranges from intimate pianistic thoughts to thundering room-shaking outbursts. She is a consummate interpreter.” In a review by musicologist Ralph Locke, Boston’s The Arts Fuse remarks, “I have played this album repeatedly for weeks … [the performances] are deeply affectionate: I sometimes felt I could hear Ditlow thinking about the (silent) words, noticing a surprising modulation, or responding to the tension-and-release within a musical phrase.”
Travel, wonder and exploration are greatly important to this artist – and her playing reflects it. Critics have hailed her performances as “fiery, with great thrusts of energy” (Bethlehem Morning Call), and containing a “burnished color and sense of passion” (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Her foundational training has been as a classical pianist. Yet, she has branched out into conducting, artist teaching, arranging, improvising and composing. Her love of musical collaborations dovetails into her solo performances, and her virtuoso technique and musicianship inform her presence at the keyboard and on the podium.
Ditlow holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Westminster Choir College, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the Eastman School of Music, with further training at the Tanglewood Music Center, San Francisco Opera Center (Merola), and the Franz Schubert Institut. She holds the titles of Associate Professor of Vocal Coaching at the University of New Mexico and Music Director of the University of New Mexico Opera Theatre.
Gabriel Feldt (Toby)
Gabriel Feldt, tenor, is originally from Osceola, WI. Gabriel has performed as Pelléas in Impressions de Pelléas, Gabriel von Eisenstein in Die Fledermaus, and Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw with Temple University Opera Theater. Currently based in Philadelphia, PA, Gabriel is a frequent member of the Opera Philadelphia Chorus appearing in their productions of Carmina Burana, Rigoletto, and Oedipus Rex. Other notable roles include Anthony Hope in Sweeney Todd.
Gabriel is also a champion of recital and cabaret performances helping to develop NotSoOpera, a concert series stemmed from the NotSoLatin series based in Philadelphia. He has also been featured in Gemini Voices Co. cabaret series performing songs from the musical theater canon.
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Gabriel sang Frederic in the May 2024 Raylynmor production of The Pirates of Penzance.
Ben Robinson (Director)
Ben Robinson is the Artistic Director of Raylynmor Opera, the General Director of Anchorage Opera and the Managing Director of Lyric Fest (Philadelphia). He works as a director, librettist, educator, and arts administrator. As a stage and film director, he is best known for his “inspired” and “engaging storytelling” in diverse works ranging from the Baroque to modern.
He directed a film production of Gianni Schicchi for Opera Ithaca in 2020, which Opera Magazine heralded as the "deftest use... of Covid-era technology as part of modern operatic reality" and received widespread international acclaim. He was announced as a 2021 recipient of the Ewing Arts Award, which celebrates the diversity and excellence of artists in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire. In February 2023, his 2022 "moving, visually daring" (Opera News) Julia Child-inspired Hansel and Gretel film joined the Opera Philadelphia Channel and was subsequently streamed at a series of outdoor events for the company in September 2023.
Directing highlights include Nabucco for the inaugural Opera Ithaca Festival, L’elisir d’amore for Anchorage Opera, a cruise ship setting of L'Italiana in Algeri for St. Petersburg Opera (nomination for Best Director, Theatre Tampa Bay), The Pirates of Penzance for Ithaca College, a soap-opera inspired conceptual production of Così fan tutte for Cedar Rapids Opera, Ariodante and Hänsel und Gretel for Temple University, Orpheus in the Underworld for Opera Ithaca and Raylynmor Opera, a suburban American Le nozze di Figaro (Opera Ithaca), a reimagined double blind production of The Medium (Amarillo Opera), a fashion-world inspired La Cenerentola (Raylynmor Opera), a new chamber production of Suor Angelica (West Texas A&M University), and the world premiere of Sally Lamb McCune's We Wear the Sea Like a Coat (Opera Ithaca/Ithaca College).
Projects for the 2024-2025 season include directing Così fan tutte for Opera Ithaca, Mozart in the Museum (his newly developed adaptation of The Impresario) and Madama Butterfly for Anchorage Opera, Cendrillon (Massenet) for Cedar Rapids Opera, and L'Italiana in Algeri for Opera in the Heights.
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Michael Scarcelle (Mr. Gobineau)
Garnering praise for his combination of vocal beauty, musicality and charisma, bass-baritone Michael Scarcelle has proven his versatility in concert, recital, opera and theatre. Recent performances include Duglas LA DONNA DEL LAGO and Vodnik RUSALKA with ResonanceWorks, Figaro THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO with Opera Theatre of Pittsburgh, Pangloss CANDIDE with Opera in the Heights, Papageno THE MAGIC FLUTE and The Pirate King THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE with Anchorage Opera, Herrmann Augustus CANDIDE with London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Theatre, Poo-Bah MIKADO with Mobile Opera, HYDROGEN JUKEBOX with Skylight Music Theatre, Poo-Bah MIKADO with Shreveport Opera, Basilio IL BARBIERE DI SIVIGLIA and Banco MACBETH with Raylynmor Opera and Marco GIANNI SCHICCHI with Opera Ithaca. Other opera highlights include Demetrius A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM with Opera Naples, King Melchior AMAHL AND THE NIGHT VISITORS, Beaupertuis in Nino Rota's THE ITALIAN STRAW HAT and Don Pedro LA PÉRICHOLE with Amarillo Opera, Alidoro LA CENERENTOLA and Ceprano RIGOLETTO with Salt Marsh Opera, and the role of Death in Holst’s SAVITRI with Little Opera Theater of New York, for which The New York Times praised his “forbidding, resonant bass-baritone.”
Member: Actors’ Equity, AGMA, NATS.
Kaitlyn Beth Tierney (Madame Flora/Baba)
​Recently finishing a production in the ensemble of Puccini’s Tosca with Opera Philadelphia, Mezzo-Soprano Kaitlyn Tierney particularly enjoys working on new and challenging repertoire. Her performance credits include Dinah in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti, Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Jo in Adamo’s Little Women, Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Ursule in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict, Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther, and Elizabeth Proctor in Ward’s The Crucible.
Dr. Tierney has performed with companies such as Opera Philadelphia, the Opera Project, Asheville Lyric Opera and the Savoy Opera Company. She has won awards from the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) and Opera Libera. As a voice teacher both at Temple University and the University of Delaware, Dr. Tierney has consistently been a staunch advocate for my students, encouraging them to approach every endeavor with an open mind while instilling the passion and hard work ethic they need to pursue a career in the musical field.
Dr. Tierney received her bachelor’s degree from the New England Conservatory of Music in Vocal Performance and Music Theory, her master’s degree at the University of Delaware, and her D.M.A. at Temple University. Upcoming credits include Mistress of the Novices in Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Bradamante in Handel’s Alcina.​
Megnot Toggia (Monica)
Soprano Megnot Toggia recently graduated with her M.M. in Voice Performance from Temple University's Boyer College of Music and Dance. She has been seen in Opera Ithaca's production of Gianni Schicchi as "La Ciesca", Temple University Opera Theater's production of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore as "Adina", and ENA Ensemble's Fringe Festival production of Ganymede 5 as "Rita". Megnot seeks to nurture her students' passion for music as well as their confidence in singing.
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Megnot sang Mabel in the May 2024 Raylynmor production of The Pirates of Penzance.
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Marta Zaliznyak (Mrs. Gobineau)