Singer

Actress/director Tonya McKinny (co-director of productions at the Glimmerglass Festival and Houston Grand Opera) and acclaimed bass-baritone and director Ryan McKinny (“one of the finest singers of his generation” —Opera News) share their remarkable and multi-faceted talents as the 2024-25 Aleko Endowed Master Class artists.

EPSG:4326

Aleko Endowed Artists

Brockman Hall For Opera

This recital is given in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Music. Sophia Grace Donelan is a student of Nova Thomas. 

Sophia Grace Donelan, Soprano

Alice Pratt Brown Hall

Voice Students coached by Tom Jaber

Long before Gounod’s famous Faust, a 26-year-old French composer named Louise Bertin took on Goethe’s epic drama and created something entirely her own. Fausto, receiving its American premiere with Opera Neo, is an astonishingly rare work, seen only at its 1831 Paris premiere, its modern revival in Essen, Germany, and now here in San Diego. Bertin’s score is raw, visceral, and unfiltered, blending Mozartian classicism, Italian opera, German magic opera, and emerging French Romanticism into a strikingly eclectic yet deeply personal musical voice. The opera follows an aging and disillusioned scientist’s desperate bargain with the Devil to reclaim youth and pleasure, posing eternal questions about the value of knowledge and the price of love. Both bold and deeply human, Fausto invites audiences to rediscover a forgotten masterpiece and encounter a uniquely youthful female perspective on one of Western culture’s most enduring stories.

Soprano

Sophia Grace Donelan

Events

Upcoming events

26 - 27 Jun, 2026

Fausto · Opera Neo

Past events

Mar 7, 2025

Aleko Endowed Artists · The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University

Feb 21, 2025

Sophia Grace Donelan, Soprano · The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University

Future and recently performed repertoire

Singer in Klänge der Heimat (Csárdás) from Die Fledermaus by Strauss

The Shepherd School of Music at Rice University

Margarita (cover) Ensemble in Fausto by Bertin

Opera Neo

About

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