Diamond DeShaun Shaw makes his operatic debut singing the role of Casey Willis, a young fan of the illustrious Aaron James. Diamond is an eighth grade student at Treadwell Middle School in Memphis.
Roberta Gumbel sings the role of Casey's mother, Jenny Willis. This Kansas City native has performed the role of Zerlina in Don Giovanni with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City where she has also performed a variety of other roles including, Oscar in A Masked Ball and Despina in Cosí fan tutte. Recently, Ms. Gumbel joined the Broadway production of Showboat where it had an extensive run in Toronto last summer. She has also sung Clara in Progy and Bess with the Houston Grand Opera. She makes her Opera Memphis debut with this production.
Patti Jo Stevens plays the role of Doris Donovan . She is making her debut with Opera Memphis. She has performed with the Cleveland, Orlando, Dayton, Lake George and Syracuse Operas. Ms. Stevens will return to Memphis next year to sing the comic role of Zita in Gianni Schicchi/Buoso's Ghost
Like Joseph Mahowald, Steven Goldstein first created his character, Cal Farber, in the New York production of Different Fields. Initially trained as an actor, Mr. Goldstein brings his remarkable acting skills to this character tenor role. He has sung many premieres including Orpheus In Love at the Circle Repertory Theatre, The World Is Round and El Greco both by James Sellars, and The Bundleman by Marshall Coid. With the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, he sang in L'Incoronazione di Poppea and Diaglogues des Carmelites. Mr Goldstein has also appeared in film.
Kenneth Shaw will play Bowen. No stranger to Opera Memphis, Mr. Shaw has appeared in recent productions of The Barber of Seville, The Mikado, Carmen, La Boheme and the 40th Anniversary Concert with Sherrill Milnes. He has performed frequently with the New York City Opera, as well as with the Florida Grand, the New Orleans, Chautauqua and Anchorage Operas. His upcoming engagements include Sarastro in Opera Memphis' Tennessee Bicentennial production of The Magic Flute and Sharpless in Madame Butterfly in MIchigan.