Organization

Spoleto Festival USA

Conductor

Timothy Myers

Stage director

Rodula Gaitanou

Set designer

Cordelia Chisholm

Costume designer

Singer

Soprano

Nicole Heaston

Vanessa

Mezzo-soprano

Zoie Reams

Erica

Tenor

Edward Graves

Anatol

Contralto

Rosalind Plowright

Baroness

Baritone

Malcolm MacKenzie

Old Doctor

English

Charleston

United States

Charleston Gaillard Center

Public

Private

Approved

Rising operatic superstar Nicole Heaston takes on the titular role in this powerful existential drama, set to one of the most beautiful scores of the 20th century. Tucked away in a countryside mansion, Vanessa has waited 20 years for the return of her lover, Anatol. When his deadringer son arrives instead, a love triangle ensues between the conniving young suitor, Vanessa, and her impressionable niece.

American composer Samuel Barber won the Pulitzer Prize for Vanessa’s sweepingly lyrical score, which explores the full depths of the characters’ psyches in what librettist and Spoleto’s founder Gian Carlo Menotti characterized as a universal human dilemma.

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Crew