GORHAM — It’s been fun watching PORTopera grow up.

Back in the day, Maine’s professional opera company hosted one mainstage production each summer featuring professional singers from New York, and a series of smaller shows with young singers from the University of Southern Maine School of Music.

Additional Photos

Robert Mellon of Long Island rehearses a scene for the PORTopera show “Cafe Vienna” at Corthell Concert Hall at the University of Southern Maine School of Music in Gorham. Photos by Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

PORTopera players Robert Mellon of Long Island and Claire Coolen of Halifax, Nova Scotia, rehearse for “Cafe Vienna.”

Mary Duncan, the production’s director, shares a laugh with actors Stephanie Sadownik, Jesse Wakeman and Coolen.

Each summer, the college singers would present a mini-opera at venues across southern Maine.

That template is still intact, but instead of college singers, the company’s Young Artist Program now features performers selected through national auditions. In many instances, these are young singers out of college and standing on the cusp of a career in opera, said Dona D. Vaughn, PORTopera’s New York-based artistic director.

This year’s tour began Friday night at the Portland Public Library. It continues with a performance this afternoon in Augusta, and with additional performances through mid-July in Fryeburg, Old Orchard Beach and Farmington.

These performances lead into the mainstage production of “The Daughter of the Regiment” July 28 and 30 at Merrill Auditorium in Portland. The combination falls short of PORTopera’s goal of creating an opera festival in Portland, but it leads in that direction.

This year’s touring production is “Cafe Vienna” by contemporary American composer Richard Pearson Thomas. It tells the story of four coffee-shop patrons and the intricacies of their relationships. The opera is sung in English, and lasts about an hour. Steven Morris, a lecturer at Tufts University, provides accompaniment and musical direction.

If you’ve never heard of “Cafe Vienna,” you’re excused. The PORTopera production marks its world premiere.

“This is the debut of the piece in this configuration,” said director Mary Duncan. “Thomas workshopped it before at the Eugene O’Neill (Theater) Center with Dona Vaughn, but we are doing a more operatic version.”

Duncan spent three seasons with the National Symphony Orchestra’s Mozart Festival at the Kennedy Center, and has directed at the Sarasota Opera, Berkshire Opera and the Aspen Music Festival. She studied at the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard University and at the Juilliard School, where she also served on the faculty.

A longtime friend of Vaughn’s, Duncan’s specialty is working with young singers, preparing them for the next stage of their careers. These past few weeks, she has put her young charges through their paces on the upper reaches of Corthell Hall at USM in Gorham.

Her cast includes soprano Claire Coolen, who just completed her master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music in New York. She is from Nova Scotia and last summer performed the role of the governess in “Turn of the Screw” at the Banff Arts Center in Alberta.

Stephanie Sadownik, a mezzo-soprano, holds a master’s degree from the Maryland Opera Studio. She sang Samira in “The Ghosts of Versailles” and Bertha in “Il Barbiere di Siviglia,” both with the Aspen Music Festival in 2010, and Olga in “Eugene Onegin” with the Maryland Opera Studio. She has also sung with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.

Tenor Jesse Wakeman is the Mainer in the bunch, and the only current undergrad. He is pursuing his bachelor’s degree at USM, and is studying voice with USM’s Bruce Fithian.

Robert E. Mellon, a baritone, is a second-year master’s candidate at Manhattan School of Music. Mellon has won two prestigious Manhattan School of Music awards: first prize in the Ades Vocal Competition, and first prize in the Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition.

The cast also includes Jazmin DeRice, a recent graduate of USM, in a non-singing role.

If these youngsters need any incentive to treat this opportunity seriously, they need look only as far as the star of this year’s mainstage production.

Ashley Emerson grew up in Bangor and graduated from the University of Southern Maine in 2006. Her career is on the fast track. She has sung at the Met in New York and around the country. She just wrapped up a production of “The Daughter of the Regiment” with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

In 2006, she was part of PORT- opera’s program for emerging artists.

Emerson stands as a perfect role model for these singers. Do your work, pay your dues, and good things will come your way. Who knows? A few years from now, we may well hear them at Merrill.

In fact, that opportunity could come their way this year.

Three of the four will serve as understudies for mainstage roles in “The Daughter of the Regiment.” In that capacity, they will be responsible for learning the roles, rehearsing them and preparing to go on. It probably won’t happen.

Follow Bob Keyes on Twitter at: twitter.com/pphbkeyes

Related Stories