Nina Evelyn Anderson grew up singing in her church, honoring God with her soulful soprano.
Her choir teacher at Howard High School told the poised young woman she was talented. But Anderson didn’t catch a glimpse of the full range of the music she was capable of creating until she enrolled in Maryland Opera’s free summer opera camp as a high school senior.
“I had never heard anything like it before,” she said. “No one in my school was into music like this. But I was hooked from that moment.”
Ten years and a musical conservatory degree later, Anderson — now known professionally as “Nina Evelyn” — will take part in her first fully staged opera production this weekend, when she performs the role of the gypsy fortune-teller Frasquita in Maryland Opera’s production of “Carmen.”
Hers is just one of the many success stories that make company artistic director James Harp look forward to going to work each day.
“Providing an opportunity and outlet for these wonderful young singers is what I live for,” Harp said. “Up-and-coming singers face more of an uphill battle today than they ever have. They are true heroes because they do this out of a complete love for the art form.”
Like the young singers he champions, the company that Harp founded has persevered through more than one uphill battle of its own.
Maryland Opera was formed from the ashes of the former Baltimore Opera Company, which abruptly liquidated its assets and shut down during the 2008 recession.
Before filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Baltimore Opera had performed in Maryland for 58 years; its first artistic director was the legendary soprano Rosa Ponselle.
But when the city lost its large opera company, it gained two smaller ones: the troupe that is now Opera Baltimore, which performs at the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion in Mount Vernon, and the company that eventually became Maryland Opera.
From its earliest days, Harp’s company has been committed to operating in the black.
Maryland Opera has turned a profit for five of the past six years since it was formed, according to its non-profit tax forms. The company ran a small deficit only in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It has been a challenge getting an opera company back up and operating,” Harp said.
“When Baltimore Opera filed for bankruptcy and canceled its remaining productions, a lot of people weren’t reimbursed for tickets they had bought in advance. That caused bad feelings, which I can understand. I want people to know that what happened to them before will not happen to them again.”
If fiscal responsibility means that Maryland Opera can produce just one fully-staged opera each season with full costumes, sets and nationally-known performers, that is what Harp and his team will do. He will supplement that production with four smaller-scale “concert operas.”
Rehearsal time has been slashed in half, from two weeks to one; performers and the creative team are expected to prepare in advance.
In addition, the company has a bare-bones staff (Harp and general director Jason Buckwalter). Instead of a permanent performing home, Maryland Opera has opted for a nomadic — and far less costly — existence.
“We decided that if we were going to perform in smaller venues of 400 to 500 seats, we would have a wider geographic scope,” Harp said.
Maryland Opera produces five concerts during its Baltimore season, performs an additional summertime series over five weekends at Boordy’s Vineyard in Baltimore County and is about to embark on a mini-tour of Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
“For ‘Carmen’ I put together a set that is very beautiful but also very movable,” Harp said. “It can fit in the trunk of a car.”
The company also has expanded its educational offerings, which provide it with access to funding sources that don’t typically support the arts.
Maryland Opera offers 70 programs a year, from a puppet show of opera tunes that is presented in preschools to performances in senior centers featuring everything from church spirituals to Broadway show tunes — programs that Buckwalter estimates reach more than 6,000 state residents annually.
Roughly 71% of the troupe’s $378,000 budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year came from private donations; 10% came from government grants and the remaining 19% was derived from ticket sales and other forms of earned income, Buckwalter said.
But one area in which the company never compromises is production quality.
Maryland Opera’s repertoire tends to be the familiar operas that audiences have loved for centuries, particularly by Italian composers such as Giuseppe Verdi and Giacomo Puccini.
”I have always thought of Baltimore as a Pasta Opera town,” Harp said.
Technically, of course, “Carmen” was composed by a French composer, Georges Bizet. But the opera is set in Spain and features a passionate and deadly love triangle involving a bullfighter — characteristics that practically qualify it as Italian.
Maryland Opera auditions singers nationwide for principal roles, while using local performers to portray the chorus.
The role of the sultry seductress “Carmen” will be performed by the Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano Chrystal E. Williams, while the lovesick Don Jose will be depicted by the tenor Victor Starsky, an opera world rising star.
Both performers are juggling busy, demanding careers. But Williams, who has performed twice previously with Maryland Opera, said she has been looking forward to working again with Harp.
“This company reminds me of the old school world of opera,” she said. “Maestro Harp still holds opera in high regard, and he expects his performers to do so as well.”
Some opera companies, Williams said, tend to view singers as though they were moving parts on an immensely complicated assembly line.
”But that is never the way opera is treated here,” she said. “This company pays attention to the details.”
If You Go
“Carmen” will be performed at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St., Baltimore. Tickets cost $55-$96; student tickets cost $29. For details, visit marylandopera.org.
Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.