Sweet Mystery

Sweet Mystery
songs by Victor Herbert and Women Wordsmiths of the 1910s and 1920s

featuring contralto Vira Slywotzky, tenor Todd Wilander and pianist David Sytkowski

*with a pre-show talk at 6:45pm by Victor Herbert scholar and producer Alyce Mott*

songs from Naughty Marietta, Sweethearts, The Enchantress and more...

presented by Vira + Friends and sponsored by the Victor Herbert Foundation

questions? email [email protected]

use code "senior" for senior tickets, use code "student" for student tickets

About the artists...
CONTRALTO VIRA SLYWOTZKY
Vira Slywotzky has performed principal roles with Seattle Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Chelsea Opera, Center for Contemporary Opera, Sarasota Opera and Boston Midsummer Opera. She has sung concerts, recitals and cabarets in New York City venues from The Duplex to Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall and on tour all over the United States. Internationally Slywotzky has been heard in Canada, France, Hungary, Sweden and Wales.

A founding company member of the Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE!, Slywotzky has performed eight complete Herbert roles and countless songs in concert.

A champion of new music, Slywotzky has workshopped and premiered more than 30 works including songs, full scale opera and narration with orchestra.

Slywotzky has always been committed to keeping Ukrainian song alive and thriving; since February 2022 she has been serving as a cultural ambassador and fundraising for organizations providing aid to Ukraine. Slywotzky’s performances have served to collect over $250,000 to help soldiers and civilians in her ancestral homeland in their fierce fight to survive the ongoing attacks from the east and to ensure a peaceful and democratic future for Ukraine.

Participant in numerous competitions and winner of awards, most significantly Slywotzky was the sole representative of the USA at the 2009 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition.

www.viraslywotzky.com
“Vira Slywotzky is an immensely talented, charismatic performer who transforms herself, and captivates her audience with her songs and tales.” - The Village View

TENOR TODD WILANDER
California (Pasadena) native, tenor Todd Wilander, has sung over 80 opera roles
throughout the USA and in 16 countries. American music is a passion and he is quite excited to sing from repertoire from this wonderful composer, Victor Herbert.

Praised by Opera News for his “clear and sweet lyrical tone” and “brave, vocally assured portrayals” (New York Times), he is one of America’s most sought-after leading tenors. Since winning The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, he has appeared with the company as Arturo LUCIA, Harry FANCIULLA DEL WEST and Ensemble 15 THE NOSE (HD Movie), and covered lead roles of Don Alvaro LA FORZA DEL DESTINO, Riccardo UN BALLO, Erik DER FLIEGENDE HOLLÄNDER, Almavia in BARBIERE, WOZZECK, HAMLET, GAMBLER, MACBETH and FROM THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD. He was recently at Royal Opera House Covent Garden London covering the title role of SAMSON, Canio PAGLIACCI, and the Prince RUSALKA. For New York City Opera he sang Charles in Stephen Schwartz’s SÉANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON, Harry LA FANCIULLA DEL WEST and Uberto LA DONNA DEL LAGO.

Other memorable opportunities include Cavaradossi TOSCA with the Angeles Vocal Arts Festival; Lecister MARIA STUARDA, Pollione NORMA and Edgardo LUCIA with Opera Hong Kong; Frère Massée SAINT FRANÇOIS D’ASSISE and Junger Mann MOSES UND ARON at Deutsche Oper Berlin; Belmonte DIE ENTFÜHRUNG, Kudrjasch KÁT’A KABANOVÁ, Tamino DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE at San Francisco Opera; title role of ROBERTO DEVEREUX and Renaud in Gluck’s ARMIDE for Buxton Opera Festival (UK); Nanki-Poo MIKADO at Teatro La Fenice di Venezia; Percy ANNA BOLENA for English Touring Opera (UK); Alfredo LA TRAVIATA for Longborough Festival (UK); Leicester MARIA STUARDA for Opera North (UK); Brooklyn Academy of Music as Molqi DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER; Portland Opera as Rodolpho VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE; Brooklyn Academy of Music as Molqi DEATH OF KLINGHOFFER;Don José CARMEN for Central Florida Lyric Opera, Calaf TURANDOT at Mississippi Opera, Edgardo LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR with Opera Memphis; the title-role of TITO for West Bay Opera; Sam SUSANNAH for Opera Bilbao, Spain; Italian Singer DER ROSENKAVALIER for New Israeli Opera; Belmonte DIE ENTFÜHRUNG for Teatro Colon, Argentina; FAUST with New Zealand Opera; title role of HOFFMANN with Opera North (NH); Rodolfo LA BOHÈME with Opera Tampa; Radamès AIDA at Bohème Opera New Jersey; Calaf TURANDOT at Mississippi Opera; Tonio LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT for Opera Zuid, Netherlands; Nadir LES PÊCHEURS D’PERLES at Dublin Opera; Des Grieux MANON LESCAUST with Dorset Opera Festival (UK); and Duke RIGOLETTO in Kazan, Russia.

He received his undergraduate in Music and Speech Communications from California State University, Los Angeles, Master of Music in opera performance and literature from Northwestern University and an Artist Diploma from the University of Missouri, Kansas City Conservatory.

www.toddwilander.com

PIANIST DAVID SYTKOWSKI
David Sytkowski is a sought-after pianist, vocal coach, and music director in opera, art song, cabaret and musical theater. He has appeared at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Joe’s Pub, Feinstein’s San Francisco, among others.

He often collaborates with legendary cabaret artist and MacAruthur Genius Justin Vivian Bond, among others. VOWEL MOVEMENTS, a subversive classical/cabaret/drag collaboration with Pretty Lamé, premiered at Hudson Hall in June 2023, made possible by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts, and was remounted at ICA Miami in February 2024

As a Visiting Artist in Residence at Bard College, he is Music Director for Opera Workshop, leads the Musical Theater Performance Workshop, coaches singers, teaches private piano and aural skills.

Upcoming projects in early 2025 include Woo Girl Miracles! with Justin Vivian Bond at Joe’s Pub (February 5-9); recitals with contralto Vira Slywotzky at St. John’s in The Village (NYC February 22), Williams Hall (Key West March 1), OPERA America (NYC April 4); Handel’s Giulio Cesare with director RB Schlather at Hudson Hall (Hudson, NY April 19-May 2); and leading a Bard student production of Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman’s Assassins at Fisher Center at Bard (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY April 25-27).

SPEAKER ALYCE MOTT
Alyce Mott (Librettist, Stage Director, Producer) A world wide Herbert scholar, Alyce Mott is the founder/Artistic Director of the Victor Herbert Renaissance Project LIVE! (VHRP LIVE!), a NYC based theatrical company dedicated solely to the works of Irish American composer Victor Herbert (1859-1924). In July 2014, Mott and the New Victor Herbert Orchestra (NVHO) produced the first complete reading of Herbert’s 1911 grand opera NATOMA in 100 years. She became a Herbert librettist in 1993 for the Little Orchestra Society of New York (LOS) with a new Babes in Toyland (1903). She became a Herbert director with the LOS production of the Fortune Teller in 1998 and a Herbert music publisher (on-line digital original performance materials) in 2009 with the founding of VHSource, LLC.

She enjoyed a 29 year working relationship, including a fifteen year Herbert collaboration, with the brilliant LOS conductor, the late Dino Anagnost. With the 2014 VHRP LIVE! production of Cyrano de Bergerac, she officially moved into the realm of theatrical producer. Prior to the above, Mott spent 19 years as stage director of the Lincoln Center opera Amahl and the Night Visitors by Gian Carol Menotti, produced by LOS; served as Artistic Administrator for LOS for 7 seasons (154 events produced); and enjoyed 30 years in NYC developmental theatre. To date, Mott has written and/or reworked 24 Herbert librettos, 6 themed concerts; directed 28 VHRP LIVE! Productions and 31 productions for LOS at Lincoln Center’s Avery Fisher and Alice Tully Halls. AEA, DGA, SAG/AFTRA, SDC.

VIRA + FRIENDS
Vira Slywotzky founded Vira + Friends in May 2018 with the intent of bringing people together to enjoy the live performance of music written for voice and piano. Since that time Vira + Friends has become a mobile musical variety show with an expanded mission of developing audiences for classical music and providing a platform for composers traditionally neglected by the Western canon. Vira + Friends thrives on partnering with organizations such as the Billion Oyster Project and Razom for Ukraine, promoting their work and fundraising for them through themed concerts. A long term international project presenting the works of women composers is underway - the launching performance took place in Paris in June 2024. Ukrainian Music Initiative operates under the umbrella of Vira + Friends. Vira + Friends is a nonprofit corporation under the auspices of the Ukrainian American Educational Center of Boston, a 501(c)(3).

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

OPERA America's National Opera Center, 330 7th Avenue, New York, United States