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Central City Opera Podcast


The Central City Opera Podcast introduces you to the movers and shakers of the Central City Opera Festival. Episodes feature interviews with principal and young artists, designers, directors, conductors, and other production staff.  The podcast is hosted and edited by Emily Murdock, Director of Education & Community Engagement at Central City Opera.

Season 7 features the productions of the 2022 Summer Festival: Guettel's THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA, Strauss' DIE FLEDERMAUS, and Heggie's TWO REMAIN. Make sure you're subscribed on your podcast app of choice to get the latest episodes delivered directly to your device.

To find out more about Central City Opera, visit centralcityopera.org.

SHOW NOTES: Cody Austin and Troy Cook, Principals in MADAMA BUTTERFLY

Jul 16, 2019

Hi folks, 

Welcome to the Show Notes page for Episode 5 of Season 4 of the Central City Opera Podcast. I actually sat down TWICE with tenor Cody Austin and baritone Troy Cook to complete this episode, because the power went out in the middle of our first interview, which erased the whole thing, and we had to start over! Thankfully Cody and Troy are super cool and happy to come back on another day, and our Festival Scheduler Eric Nathan Brady was able to work his magic and find some time. And I now travel with a dozen extra AA batteries for my recorder. #liveandlearn 

Cody Austin is performing the role of Lt. Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton and Troy Cook is playing the role of the American consul Sharpless in our production of Madama Butterfly this summer. Both these guys are just fantastic, and you should definitely visit their websites to find out where they are performing next. Click here for Cody’s website and here for Troy’s website. 

We mentioned in the episode all the different shows that Troy has performed in for Central City Opera, and I managed to find some great production photos from some of those performances. Here’s Troy as Germont in La Traviata in 2015, the Captain in The Sound of Music in 2014, and as Marcello in La boheme in 2012, his first summer at Central City.

Troy Cook as Germont in La Traviata with Ellie Dehn as Violetta, 2015. Photo by Amanda Tipton.

 

Troy Cook as the Captain in Rodgers and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music with Lucy Schaufer as Elsa Schraeder and Robert Orth as Max Detweiler, 2014. Photo by Mark Kiryluk.

 

Troy Cook as Marcello in La boheme, with Eric Margiore as Rodolfo (far left), Elizabeth Caballero as Mimi (left) and Deborah Selig as Musetta (right), 2012. Photo by Mark Kiryluk.

 

Cody told us how he was in a performance of The Face On The Barroom Floor in 2006 that took place IN the Face Bar in Central City's Teller House, just down the street from the Opera House. I searched high and low for a photo of this performance, but unfortunately wasn't able to find one. So instead, here's a photo of the Face Bar without any patrons in it, taken some years ago. It looks pretty much the same now, and there is now a restaurant that operates in the Face Bar year-round, JKQ BBQ. The "Face" of the Face Bar is on the floor in the middle of the room, protected by a brass barrier. Read all about how the story became an opera by clicking here

Thanks for reading and listening to Cody and Troy's episode! Get thee up to Central City and watch them and the rest of the stellar cast (and orchestra) of Madama Butterfly. Tickets are selling quickly and the final performance is on August 4, 2019. Don't miss it!

-Emily Murdock, host & producer