Soprano Alisa Jordheim ("Gilda") and tenor Galeano Salas ("The Duke of Mantua") were able to squeeze in a podcast interview at the beginning of their tech week, a few days before opening night of RIGOLETTO at Hudson Gardens and Event Center in Littleton, Colorado. They set up on Alisa's porch in Central City so that the conversation wouldn't disturb Galeano's young son who was napping. It was a ton of fun with only a little bit of wind and cars driving by on Eureka Street. Early in the interview, we took a walk down memory lane, reminiscing about the performances Alisa and Galeano were in as Apprentice Artists with Central City Opera. Here are some photos from some of those productions (all photos by Mark Kiryluk): OUR TOWN, 2013. Galeano is part of the chorus and is seated in the second position of the second row. THE TURN OF THE SCREW, 2012. Alisa as "Flora." OKLAHOMA!, 2012. Galeano, part of the chorus, is on the far left holding his hand out - his face is partially blocked by a castmate. THE TURN OF THE SCREW, 2012. Alisa as "Flora" on the right. Galeano and I also talked about the unique concept for the character of "Parpignol" in Kevin Newbury's production of LA BOHEME in 2012. Here's a photo of tenor Nicholas Nesbitt in that role - Galeano was his cover (understudy). "Parpignol" is the clown dressed in white in the center of the photo. Alisa and Galeano also pointed out that one of their RIGOLETTO castmates, John Paul Huckle, the bass who plays "Sparafucile," was also a former young artist with Central City Opera. I investigated and found out that John was here in 2006 as a CCO Studio Artist. But alas - I could not find any production photos with him. In case you're curious, the 2006 Central City Opera Festival featured the productions The Ballad of Baby Doe, Don Giovanni, L'Incoronazione di Poppea, and The Face on the Barroom Floor. When asking Alisa and Galeano if they had any significant experience with singing outdoors, Alisa brought up On Site Opera's co-production of Mozart's LA FINTA GIARDINIERA with The Atlanta Opera in 2017. I found a promo video for that production! Look for Alisa at 0:37 seconds wearing clear-rimmed glasses and at 1:25 riding piggyback on a castmate. I mentioned that RIGOLETTO's conductor, CCO Music Director John Baril, was featured on one of our springtime Lunch & Learn virtual lectures, talking about what to listen for in RIGOLETTO. Here's a link to his lecture video on our Facebook page. I also shamelessly plugged Episode 2 of Season 6 of the podcast, which features RIGOLETTO's stage director Jose Maria Condemi as well as John Baril. If you haven't already, you can listen to that episode here. Thank you again to Alisa and Galeano for taking the time to be on the Central City Opera Podcast. This was such a fun interview! -Emily Murdock, Host & Producer

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