WELCOME TO la vie bohème!

Thank you for attending this one night only, one-of-a-kind opera/musical mashup performance! Below, you can explore information about tonight’s performers, our upcoming production of La bohème, and additional opportunities to support the arts in our local community.

Meet tonight's performers

Joseph Garnett
Kendall Parrett
Randy Ho
Bizhou Chang
Ben Haupt
Madison Dixon
Hayley Abramowitz soprano
Scott Lee baritone
Kayla Nanto mezzo-soprano

Tonight's Singers

Joseph Garnett is a Pensacola Native who graduated from UWF in 2011, having studied Psychology and Music Voice Performance. Joseph has performed in local productions for almost 20 years and a current company member of the Hearthstone Theatre Co, and a local karaoke DJ and bar industry employee. Joseph will be performing in two RENT duets including Light My Candle and What You Own.
Kendall Parrett is a Florida native and grew up performing in the Pensacola community! She is now a professional singer/performer and has worked for multiple professional theatres in the US. Kendall is thrilled to be back home for the holidays performing with some of her life long friends! Kendall will be singing in two famous RENT duets, Light My Candle & Take Me or Leave Me. For more about Kendall go to kendallpaigeparrett.com.
Randy Ho, born and raised in Denver, Colorado is our 2022-23 tenor Studio Artist.  Complemented on his “affectionate vibrato” (OperaWire), this season Mr. Ho will be singing as Parpignol and covering Rodolfo (La bohème), and singing Enoch Snow (Carousel). Randy is a recent graduate of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, holding a Bachelor of Music and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration concentrating in Marketing from the University of Denver. Previously, Mr. Ho has been featured as a studio artist at Carnegie Hall’s Song Studio led by world-renowned Soprano Renee Fleming. Other engagements include the Peabody Opera Theater, Lamont Opera Theater, The National Repertory Orchestra, Denver Opera Collective, and The Denver Spirituals Project. Randy will be performing Che gelida manina and in the duet O Mimì, tu più non torni – both from La bohème.
As a past Artist in Residence, soprano Bizhou Chang is thrilled to return to Pensacola Opera to perform Mimì in La bohème this January! This season, Ms. Chang will return to Guerilla Opera for the concert presentation and theatrical workshop of Emily Koh’s Her: Alive|un|dead, perform as a featured performer in Pensacola Opera’s 40th Year Anniversary Gala Concert Forty Forward with Pensacola Symphony Orchestra, and make her company debuts as Liù in Turandot with Opera Southwest and Countess Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Knoxville Opera. Bizhou will be singing Sì, mi chiamano Mimì, the aria where Mimì introduces herself to her soon-to-be lover.
Benjamin Haupt received his Bachelor of Arts in Theatre with a concentration in Musical Theatre from The University of Alabama, after which he moved to New York City and began working professionally. Regionally, Mr. Haupt was seen as a dancer and u/s King Triton in Disney’s The Little Mermaid (Red Mountain Theatre Company), Dean in All Shook Up (SummerTide Theatre), and was featured in the dance ensemble of Salgado Production’s Ragtime, which played a limited engagement at The Axelrod Performing Arts Center with Revolución Latina. In New York City, Mr. Haupt was a member of the Original Cast of the Off-Broadway Production of Frankenstein: The Musical and on Broadway, he performed at the 2018 Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS Easter Bonnet (Minskoff Theater). Following his NYC departure, Benjamin has been seen locally as Nick Arnstein in Funny Girl (Pensacola State College), Dr. Frederick Frankenstein in Young Frankenstein (Stagecrafters Community Theatre), and The Fox in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella (Pensacola Little Theatre); as well as Directing and Choreographing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer Jr. (Pensacola Little Theatre). 

Ben will be singing the heart-wrenching solo One Song Glory and duet What You Own from RENT.

Madison Bailey is a senior Musical Theatre Major at the University of West Florida. She has taken part in many musical theatre shows, both in college and professionally. She will be graduating this Spring and she plans to pursue her career in New York City. Madison will be performing in the fiery RENT duet Take Me Or Leave Me.

Hayley Abramowitz comes to us from Maryland as our 2022-23 soprano Studio Artist. They hold degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and from the University of Maryland School of Music. Hayley spent the 2021-22 season as a chorister with the Houston Grand Opera, performing in Carmen, Dialogues of the Carmelites, Die Zauberflöte, and Turandot. A third-place winner in the inaugural Cincinnati SongSLAM, Hayley is also a passionate advocate of new music, having presented numerous premieres in the past several years. Come see Hayley on Jan. 9th perform perhaps the most famous aria from La bohème, Quando m’en vo.

Scott Lee, a native of Statesville, North Carolina, has been praised for his “…substance and velvety bass voice” by the Winston-Salem Journal and is our baritone 2022-23 Studio Artist. In recent years, he has performed with Piedmont Opera, The Princeton Festival, Opera Theater of the Rockies and Magnolia Baroque. In 2020, Lee received the Ron Payne Encouragement Award at the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in Charlotte, NC. Lee received his Bachelor of Music degree and Master of Music degree from UNCSA. In addition to performing, Lee is a seasoned teaching artist, having served as a member of UNCSA’s ArtistCorps. He is a student of Dr. Marylin Taylor. Scott will be performing in the duet, O Mimì, tu più non torni from La bohème.
Kayla Nanto, originally from Texas, is our 2022-23 mezzo-soprano Studio Artist. Kayla holds degrees from University of North Texas (Master of Music) and University of Northern Colorado (Bachelor of Music). Previously, she was a Performing Artist with The Dallas Opera’s Outreach and Education Program and was a winner in the Colorado/Wyoming District of The Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition. Some of Kayla’s recent engagements include singing with American Baroque Opera Company, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, Fort Worth Opera, Opera Fort Collins, Orchestra of New Spain, and Loveland Opera Theatre. Kayla will be joining the other singers in the heart-warming RENT classic, Seasons of Love.

Tonight’s Program:

Light My Candle (Rent) – Joseph & Kendall
Che gelida manina (La bohème) – Randy
Sì, mi chiamano Mimì (La bohème) – Bizhou
One Song Glory (Rent) – Ben
Take Me Or Leave Me (Rent) – Madison (Joanne) & Kendall (Maureen)
Quando m’en vo (La bohème) – Hayley
What You Own (Rent) – Joseph (Mark) & Ben (Roger)
O Mimì, tu più non torni (La bohème) – Randy & Scott
Seasons of Love (Rent) – All

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Show your support for Pensacola Opera by making a donation tonight! Ticket sales account for just 30% of our total expenses. Your tax-deductible contribution helps to continue our mission of providing high quality opera performances, as well as a variety of other educational and arts-centric initiatives and programs for audiences of all ages. 

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Thank you to The Cabaret Pensacola for allowing us to use their space and donating $1 of every drink purchase back to Pensacola Opera.

Puccini's La bohème

One of opera’s most romantic stories makes a long-anticipated return to the Saenger stage. La bohème follows Mimì and Rodolfo from their first meeting to their final devastating moments, capturing their impassioned relationship through the lens of Giacomo Puccini’s masterful, lush orchestrations. From Musetta’s famous waltz, “Quando m’en vo,” to the rousing second act outside the Café Momus—featuring our wonderful Pensacola Opera Chorus—this beloved work features some of opera’s most hummable melodies. Newly appointed Artistic Director Corey McKern makes his Pensacola Opera mainstage directorial debut with this production, featuring Bizhou Chang and Adam Diegel as the ill-fated Mimì and her adoring Rodolfo, alongside Flora Hawk and Robert Mellon as on-again-off-again couple Musetta and Marcello. The Pensacola Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Jerome Shannon in his first production as Principal Guest Conductor.

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