Opera on Tap will host “A Night of Irish Vaudeville,” bringing together Irish and American music and culture for an evening of classic nineteenth century fun.
Vaudeville was a form of variety theater that was extremely widespread in the United States in the late 19th century, remaining one of the most popular forms of entertainment until it was overtaken by film in the 1930s. Vaudeville shows included many types of performances, such as singing, dancing, comedy acts, and short plays. Comedy acts often utilized ethnic stereotypes, with Irish people frequently targeted and characterized as disorderly drunks and defiant maids. With the movement of Irish immigrants from the lower to middle and upper classes, as well as into the vaudeville industry, resistance to these stereotypes grew and the narrative began to shift. Shows were protested, such as the Russell Brothers’ act “The Irish Servant Girls,” which originated in the 1870s and featured the brothers in red wigs and dresses, flashing their underwear to the audience. The “Irish Colleen” emerged as a counternarrative to the “Bridget” maid stereotype, characterizing Irish women as demure, beautiful, and self-sacrificing rather than masculine, ape-like, and disobedient. Irish-Americans turned their hostile immigrant experience into comedy, and through vaudeville theater achieved social mobility.
Opera on Tap hopes to promote opera as a viable, living and progressive art form and to support the developing artists who continue to keep the art form alive.
The performers are: Katherine Doe Morse, Blake Austin Brooks, Sarah Baumgarten, Heather Jones, Samantha Nahra, and Caitlin McKechney.
Katherine Doe Morse is an mezzo soprano, pianist, and conductor. Favorite roles that she has performed include Cherubino, Dame Carruthers, Mercedes, Dritte Dame and Knabe, Sesto (La clemenza di Tito), and the Secretary (The Consul). Katy conducts and sings with the C4 Collective, which specializes in experimental choral music and new works. She is on the roster of the New York Philharmonic Chorus and Bard Festival Chorale, and regularly sings as a liturgical cantor in and around New York City. In addition to classical singing, Katy is on the teaching artist rosters for Playground Opera with Opera on Tap, New York City Children's Theater, Little Orchestra Society, and Highbridge Voices. She is a former teaching artist with the Metropolitan Opera Guild. She maintains a private piano and voice teaching studio and also teaches with Eskay's Music Lessons. Katy is training as a piano tuner with the Butler School of Piano Technology.
Blake Austin Brooks, Bass-Baritone, has been active in the sacred and operatic music
scene of NYC and the Hudson Valley for the past ten years. During the 2023-2024 season he has appeared with the Bard Summerscape opera chorus in the first major American production of Saint-Saens’ Henri VIII, Opera On Tap/Kinesis Project’s Capacity, or: The Work of Crackling (reprised from the premiere performances in 2022), as well as OoT’s Friday the 13 th Halloween show, Broken Chord at Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Dvořák’s Requiem with the American Symphony Orchestra. He also sang on the Deutsche Grammaphon recording of Aaron Zigman’s Émigré with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, as well as the work’s U.S. premiere with the NY Philharmonic. Last season Blake sang the role of Fourth Shepherd in Strauss’ Daphne, presented by the ASO at Carnegie Hall, joined the Brooklyn Conservatory Chorale as the bass soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, was baritone soloist in Faure’s Requiem at Grace Church NYC, and bass soloist in Bach’s Cantata 115 with Cornerstone Chorale. Other 2022-23 season highlights included making his debut with the NY Philharmonic Chorus at the gala reopening of David Geffen Hall, joining Maestro Joe Hisaishi at Radio City Music Hall for a 5-performance run of “Symphonic Concert: Music from the Studio Ghibli Films of Hayao Miyazaki”, performing in concert with Downtown Voices at Trinity Church Wall Street. Over the past decade since moving from Iowa, Blake has performed with many of New York’s most esteemed companies, including the Center for Contemporary Opera, The American Symphony Orchestra, the American Lyric Theater, MasterVoices, PROTOTYPE Festival, Vertical Player Repertory, New York Opera Exchange, as well as singing at many NYC churches and synagogues with historied music ministries.
Sarah Baumgarten is a NYC-based operatic and musical theatre performer. She holds a Musical Theatre certificate from the Circle in the Square Theatre School, an M.M. from the Peabody Institute, and a B.M. from the Pennsylvania State University! She is a member of the New York Philharmonic Chorus, Opera on Tap, The Opera Collective, and the resident Soprano at St. Agnes Catholic Church. You may catch her as a singing tour guide on the Tea Around Town tour buses throughout the city! Sarah has performed at many prestigious venues including the Kimmel Center, World Café Live, The Triad, Urban Stages, Dixon Place, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, and the new David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center! She maintains a private voice and piano studio in person and on Zoom. Favorite roles include: Madame Armfeldt (A Little Night Music); Annunziata (La Giara),
Musetta (La Boheme), Gretel (Hansel & Gretel) and Monica (The Medium). As a concert
performer Sarah has produced and performed her solo and collaborative concerts: No One is Alone, Jews to my Ears, and Finding Home to many appreciative audiences. She is excited to be collaborating on another Opera on Tap program!
Heather Jones is a mezzo and performance artist gaining a reputation for amplifying queer and trans stories in opera, most recently in As One with Kentucky Opera, in the world premiere of Bryce McClendon’s new play The Smallest Sound in the Smallest Space at the Clark Theatre in Lincoln Center, and in a chamber opera titled Expostulation(s) of Mary produced by the Grammy nominated Wild Up Ensemble. In recent seasons, Heather sang the roles of Nerone in L'incoronazione di Poppea, Dido in Dido and Aeneas, and Paquette in Candide, as well as solos in Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Mozart’s Requiem, and Britten’s Canticles II and IV. As an ensemble singer, Heather regularly collaborates with 4th Wall Ensemble, Musica Sacra, Beth Morrison Projects, ChamberQUEER, Bard Music Festival, and Spoleto Festival USA. Heather was a 2021 finalist in the American Traditions Vocal Competition and winner of the Sherrill Milnes American Opera Award.
Zwischenfach, Samantha Nahra, has sung the roles of Miceala in La tragedies de Carmen, Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, Laetitia in The Old Maid and the Thief, Suor Dolcina in Suor Angelica and Bianca in La Rondine. She has covered the role of Arinyae in the premiere of A Metamorphosis with the Christman Opera Company and she has sang scenes from Tosca, Der Fliegende Hollander, and Die Walküre with the New York Dramatic Voices. She has sung with Oberlin in Italy, CoOPERAtive, Operaworks, Sherrill Milnes VOICE Studio, Le Chiavi di Bel Canto, International Vocal Arts Institute, and Utah Lyric Opera program UVAA. She has received an honorable mention in NJS International Vocal Competition, was a finalist in the Elaine Malbin competition and a semi-finalist for the SAS Vocal Competition. She is the librettist and premiere singer of “A Dramatic Soprano Tries Cooking...The Opera” and “A Dramatic Soprano Tries Cooking…The Sequel” composed by Philip Wharton. Samantha is also Buoy of Bubbles and Buoy, the operatic mermaid duo, who have been singing their siren songs since 2022. In 2023 they started performing their educational, family friendly show “Mermaid Melodies” with Opera on Tap NYC, Redivivus Opera and Cunningham Piano. They are current NYC DOT Public Realm Programming Partners for 2024-2026.
Caitlin McKechney is thrilled to be combining two of her great loves… Opera and Irish Music! Recent performances include Bradamante in Alcina with St. Petersburg Opera; the title role in Carmen with Painted Sky Opera, Opera Memphis and Tacoma Opera; Virginia Woolf in the staged production of Argento’s From the Diary of Virginia Woolf; and Woman 4 in the world premiere of Letters That You Will Not Get with The American Opera Project, for which she also served as Associate Producer. Upcoming performances include the title role in Carmen, The Traveler, and actor-musician performance of the beloved opera with Pensacola Opera for which she also serves as creative producer, as well numerous performances with her two all-female bands, The Opera Cowgirls and The Galway Girls.
