LOVE SONGS: MARRIED COUPLE ENJOYS TIME ON THE UTAH FESTIVAL OPERA STAGE
By Kevin Opsahl,
The Herald Journal
Published: Thursday, August 4, 2016
As post-graduate students at Boston University, Saundra DeAthos and Harold Meers were trying to get “on the ground floor” of the theater arts business, looking for small parts to play in various operas nationwide.
They got to know Michael Ballam, the founding general director of Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre, during their student days, but the right opportunity did not come for the Bloomington, Illinois, couple to work with him at that time.
Until, that is, the 2016 season of the UFOMT, when the long-time Cache Valley performance company put on a summer-long performance of “Il Trittico.” Also known as “Puccini’s Trilogy” — a collection of three one-act operas, “Il Tabarro,” “Suor Agelica” and “Gianni Schicchi” by Italy’s Giacomo Puccini — UFOMT’s production ends Saturday, Aug. 6, at the Ellen Eccles Theatre.