Five College Opera
The Five College Opera Production of Le Nozze di Figaro will take place in Bowker Auditorium on the UMass campus. Performances will be February 6 and 8, 2026.
Performance of The Scarlet Professor at Smith College, 2017, photo by Jon Crispin
What is the Five College Opera?
About the Opera
The Five College Opera is a collaborative production in which faculty from across the campuses join together to plan an opera and students in music and theater from all of the campuses have the opportunity to study and perform. Students learn operatic techniques from experts and perform in a production which is open to the public.
Steering Committee
Klara Moricz
Professor of Music
kmoricz@amherst.edu
Eric Sawyer
Professor in Dramatic Arts (Music)
ewsawyer@amherst.edu
Junko Oba
Associate Professor of Music
joha@hampshire.edu
Tianhui Ng
Professor of Music
tng@mtholyoke.edu
Sherezade Panthaki
Lecturer in Music
spanthaki@mtholyoke.edu
Katherine Saik DeLugan
Senior Lecturer in Music
ksaik@smith.edu
William Hite
Professor of Music
williamhite@music.umass.edu
Jamie-Rose Guarrine
Professor of Voice
jguarrine@music.umass.edu
Upcoming Production
Le Nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro) by Lorenzo Da Ponte and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Will be performed at UMass Amherst in 2026
Past Productions
The Scarlett Professor by Eric Sawyer
Performed at Smith College in 2017
Street Scene by Kurt Weill
Performed at UMass Amherst in 2014
Kurt Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas
Performed at Mount Holyoke College in 2009
Be a Part of the Opera
Audition Requirements:
Cast:
Casting for the Five College Opera’s 2026 Production of Marriage of Figaro (Principals or chorus roles) is by audition only. See below for audition information.
Principal Roles:
Count Almaviva - baritone
Countess Almaviva - soprano
Susanna - her maid, betrothed to Figaro, soprano
Figaro - valet to Count Almaviva, bass
Cherubino - The Count’s page, mezzo-soprano or soprano
Marcellina - housekeeper to Bartolo mezzo-soprano or soprano
Bartolo - a doctor from Seville, baritone or bass
Basilio - music master, tenor
Don Curzio - magistrate, tenor
Barbarina - daughter of Antonio, soprano
Antonio - gardener, Susanna’s uncle, bass
Chorus of peasants, villagers, and servants (SATB)
The plot is set in the castle of Count Almaviva
To audition, candidates must fill out the following application form, and audition.
Click here for Opera Audition Intake Form
Note: The opera will be performed with the arias in Italian and recitatives in English.
All Singers: You may sing an aria or art song in any language. Please keep the musical style of Le Nozze di Figaro in mind when choosing your audition repertoire.
If Auditioning for a Principal Role: Please prepare both a recitative and an aria, at least one of which should be in Italian. Memorization strongly encouraged.
Auditions will be held at:
Mount Holyoke College (Hampshire College students, please attend the audition at Mount Holyoke)
Friday September 5, 3:30 to 6:00pm, McCulloch Auditorium
Contact: Prof. Sherry Panthaki: spanthaki@mtholyoke.edu
Click here to sign up for the audition at Mount Holyoke.
Smith College
Sunday September 7, 4:00 to 6:00pm, Earle Recital Hall
Contact: Katherine Saik DeLugan: ksaik@smith.edu
Click here to sign up for the audition at Smith.
UMass Amherst (Amherst College students, please attend the audition at UMass)
Thursday September 4, 4:00 to 7:00pm, Bezanson Recital Hall, UMass Department of Music and Dance
Contact: Marjorie Melnick: melnick@music.umass.edu
Orchestra:
Participation in the orchestra for the Five College Opera’s 2026 Production of Marriage of Figaro is by audition only. Audition information will be available soon.
Learn about Opera
Summer 2025:
Students, please reach out to your voice professor on your home campus for guidance about how to prepare this summer.
Fall 2025:
For information about registering for a course on another campus, visit this link.
Students cast as principals should register for MUS 580 for 1 or 2 credits (consult course instructor for registration)
Music 580 - Opera Studio, UMass Amherst
2.00 Marjorie Melnick
Course Description:
Performance course, solo and ensemble. Satisfies ensemble requirement for vocal applied music. Use of opera ensemble literature to achieve ease, confidence, and some command of the stage as actors as well as singers. Class and public performance.
TU TH 3:30PM 6:00PM
melnick@music.umass.edu
Students interested in the opera may also take part in academic courses that are inspired by this academic year’s production of the opera on the various campuses. Here are a selection of courses available:
Music 334MF - Music Analysis: 'Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro', Mount Holyoke College
4.00 Adeline Mueller
Description: In conjunction with the Five College Opera's Spring 2026 production of Mozart's 1786 opera Le Nozze di Figaro, this course will give students a thorough grounding in the adaptation of plays into operas, and the analysis of opera. We will undertake a close reading of Beaumarchais' play (in translation), da Ponte's libretto, Mozart's settings, and a number of historic and contemporary productions, in order to explore how operas work with and against their source texts, and also how opera analysis and dramaturgy can inform creative choices about music and staging. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to decode text and music in opera, to critically engage with the analyses of other scholars, and to comprehend some of the challenges and drawbacks of opera analysis.
Prereq: one of the following: MUSIC-231, MUSIC-281, MUSIC-282, MUSIC-283, MUSIC-284.
MW 03:15PM-04:30PM
amueller@mtholyoke.edu
Five College Early Music:
Description: Students who are interested in studying Historically Informed Performance Practices from the 18th century, around the time of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro, should contact Allison Monroe, Director of the Five College Early Music Program to play more in small ensembles and ensemble settings. Find out more at the Five College Early Music Program’s website. Email Allison Monroe at amonroe@mtholyoke.edu if you are interested in joining an ensemble.
Five College Dance:
Interested in dance in the time of Mozart? Students can take Mount Holyoke Dance 127 - Renaissance and Baroque Dance I to learn about and participate in 16th-18th c. European social dances contemporary with the eras of Elizabeth I and Shakespeare in England, the Medicis in Italy, Louis XIV in France, and colonial America. The focus will be on learning the dances, supplemented by historical and social background, discussion of the original dance sources, and reconstruction techniques. Contact Nona Monahin and Meg Pash for more information.