Upcoming Productions:
Alice Tierney – Composed by Melissa Dunphy (Runtime: 60 minutes). October 3 and 4, 7:30 p.m. in Ingram Hall.
A murder unsolved. A woman reimagined.
Step into a mystery where past and present collide and identity is up for debate. As four modern-day archaeology students excavate the site of a 19th-century brothel, they uncover not just artifacts, but competing ideas of the woman who once lived there and died under mysterious circumstances. Featuring a genre-blending score of opera, musical theatre, and pop, Alice Tierney invites you to question how stories are told, who gets to tell them, and how we shape the past through the lens of the present.
Tickets free but required.
The Beautiful Bridegroom – Composed by Dan Shore (Runtime: 30 minutes)
Date/Time: [February 2026]
Location: [Off-campus venue, TBD]
A comedy of love, lust, and late-life matchmaking.
When a wealthy widow decides it’s time to remarry, her search for a young and handsome husband stirs up a storm of hilarity, especially since her daughters assumed she was matchmaking for them.
The Beautiful Bridegroom is a fast-paced, laugh-out-loud chamber opera featuring an all-female cast. Based on an 18th-century play by Ludvig Holberg, this witty and charming piece was dubbed “a little masterpiece” by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici.
Der Schauspieldirektor (The Impresario) – Composed by W. A. Mozart (Runtime: 60 minutes)
Date/Time: [February 2026]
Location: [Off-campus venue, TBD]
Performed in German with English dialogue
Curtain up on chaos.
Der Schauspieldirektor pulls back the curtain on the behind-the-scenes drama of launching a new theater company. When the impresario Frank and his assistant Buff try to cast their show, they’re quickly caught in the crossfire of egos and rivalries.
Featuring a clever blend of spoken English dialogue and Mozart’s sparkling arias in German, this one-act opera pokes fun at the theatrical world with timeless humor.
Mooch the Magnificent – Composed by Lauren Bernofsky (Runtime: 40 minutes)
Date/Time: [Spring 2026]
Location: [TBD]
When the wildest thing in the zoo… is the girl who runs it.
Set in a futuristic zoo where the animals are robots, Mooch the Magnificent follows an orphan named Mooch who convinces the zookeeper to hire her as a mechanic. But Mooch has a mischievous plan to reprogram the robotic animals to behave more like the wild versions they were modeled after.
Packed with humor, this family-friendly opera explores what it means to think for yourself. With a libretto by Scott Russell Sanders and a score by Lauren Bernofsky, Mooch the Magnificent is an experience for audiences of all ages.
About Vanderbilt Opera Theatre
Vanderbilt Opera Theatre | Gayle Shay, director
Vanderbilt University Orchestra | Jennifer McGuire, conductor
Vanderbilt Opera Theatre (VOT) is open by audition to all Vanderbilt students. Under the direction of Gayle Shay and Jennifer McGuire, VOT presents three to four productions each year, including:
- One fully-produced show with orchestra in Ingram.
- One smaller production in a language other than English performed away from Blair.
- One children’s opera produced in the Nashville community. (We have been to W. O. Smith and the Nashville Zoo, among other locations.)
- On an every three years rotation, we have developed VOTLab in which we work with a professional composer and librettist to grow and develop a new piece of lyric theatre. The first round is a workshop. The second round is a fully produced performance.
Repertoire for the fall production is drawn from both the operatic and musical theater canon. All members of the cast participate in backstage production work as assigned by the faculty.
Auditions are held at varying times throughout the year. Please contact Gayle Shay with any questions.