Celebrate the beauty of fall with Park City Opera’s In the Company of Animals — a whimsical, family-friendly concert featuring art songs all about animals. From slinky cats and soaring birds to frogs, fish, and fantastical creatures, this heartwarming program brings the animal kingdom to life through playful melodies and vivid poetry.

Set at the Hailstone Center within the colorful October landscape of Jordanelle State Park, this concert is perfect for all ages — whether you're an opera enthusiast, a curious kid, or just love animals — come enjoy a cozy autumn evening of song, storytelling, and scenic views.

For all ages!

Tickets start at just $20 and kids under 10 years of age attend for free! A $3 fee covers the cost of entry to the Jordanelle State Park.

Program (subject to change): In the Company of Animals

Songs on Household Pets
Out Then In (Barlow Bradford)     
Mausefallen–Sprüchtlein [Mousetrap Incantation] (Hugo Wolf)

Bird Songs (Liza Lehmann)
I. The Woodpidgeon
II. The Starling
III. The Yellowhammer
IV. The Wren
V. The Owl

Le Bestiare (Francis Poulenc)
I. Le dromadaire [The Camel]
II. Le chèvre du Thibet [The Tibetan Goat]
III. La sauterelle [The Grasshoper]
IV. Le dauphin [The Dolphin]
V. L’écrevisse [The Crawfish]
VI. La carpe [The Carp]

Selections by Claude Debussy
Chevaux de bois [Wooden Horses]     
L’ombre des arbres [The Shadow of the Trees]

Selections by Ernest Chausson
Le colibri [The Hummingbird]
Les papillons [The Butterflies]
     
Swan Songs
     Schwanenlied [Swansong] (Fanny Mendelssohn)
     Le cygne [The Swan] (Samuel Barber)
     The silver swan (Ned Rorem)

Hartley Songs (Benjamin Beckman)
I. Confidence
II. Salutations to a Mouse
III. Fishmonger

Nightingale Songs
     The Nightingale (Ned Rorem)
An die nachtigall [On the Nightingale] (Franz Schubert)
     Nightingale (Andrew Maxfield)
Le rossignol des lilas [The Nightingale of the Lilacs] (Reynaldo Hahn)

Performer Biographies:

Winner of the 2021 Louis Sudler Prize in the Performing and Creative Arts from Yale University, Lisl Wangermann (Development Director, Park City Opera) is a director and soprano from Dallas, Texas. She has performed with the CIM Opera Theater, Opera Western Reserve, the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Opera Theatre of Yale College, and the Yale Baroque Opera Project. Her previous directing projects include Menotti’s The Telephone and Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience, both with the Opera Theatre of Yale College. In 2023, Lisl was a semifinalist for the Dallas Opera’s Lone Star Vocal Competition, and in 2024, Lisl was a finalist for the Gerda Lissner Art Song and Lieder Competition and received an encouragement award. Lisl graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in Music in 2021 and completed her Master of Music in 2023 and Artist Diploma in 2025 at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Lena Goldstein (Executive Director, Park City Opera) is an American soprano who has made recent appearances with Vox Opera, San Francisco Conservatory, Songfest, Chicago Summer Opera, Opera Theatre of Yale, Yale Baroque Opera, Yale Symphony Orchestra, and Yale Chamber Orchestra. Her recent roles include Berta (Park City Opera’s The Barber of Seville), The Governess (The Turn of the Screw), Zerlina (Don Giovanni), La Fée (Cendrillon), Eurinda (Doriclea), Nora (Riders to the Sea), Maggie (The Gift of the Magi), Serpina (La serva padrona), and Lady Angela (Patience). Her concert performances include Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, Mozart’s Requiem, Ravel’s Trois poèmes de Mallarmé, Muhly’s The Beauty of the Day, and premieres of Carlson’s The Disguise and Beckman’s Hartley Songs. Lena works off-stage to enhance the artistic landscape for emerging professionals through entrepreneurial initiatives. She is Executive Director of Park City Opera, directed the Hot Air New Music Festival, and managed the Opera Theatre of Yale College. She is pursuing her master’s degree at the San Francisco Conservatory as the recipient of the Samuel Clark Scholarship, and recently graduated cum laude from Yale University with a Bachelor’s in molecular biology. www.lenagoldstein.com

Lily Graham, soprano, has performed a variety of repertoire across the opera, operetta, and musical theatre cannons. She has sung with Wichita Grand Opera, Ohio Light Opera, Wichita State University Opera and the University of Utah Lyric Opera. Some of her favorite roles include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Diana in Orpheus in the Underworld, Galatea in Acis and Galatea, Joanna in Sweeney Todd, and Princess Margaret in The Student Prince. Additionally, Lily has enjoyed performing solo concert works including John Rutter’s Requiem, Consider the Lilies: An Appalachian Requiem by Timothy Michael Powell and Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Lily currently performs regularly at the Cathedral of the Madeleine as a section leader, and as the soprano in the Sound of Ages Consort. Lily received her MM from Wichita State University studying with Alan Held, and her BM from the University of Utah studying with Carol Ann Allred.

Sam Plumb is a tenor at the transition point between conservatory training and professional artistry. In 2025, he received his Master’s of Music Diploma in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Utah. He was the Grand Prize winner of the 2024-25 Concerto Competition (Graduate Level), performing Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis. He is fresh off of his first professional contract as a Resident Artist at Teatro Nuovo, a Young Artist Program in New Jersey that focuses heavily on mastering the Italian language and immersion into 19th-century vocal technique. In addition to performing, Sam is building a thriving private studio for voice and piano students, based in Downtown Salt Lake City. When he’s not making music, Sam enjoys the outdoors, cooking, reading, and video games.

Benjamin Beckman (Artistic Director, Park City Opera) is a composer, conductor, and pianist based in Los Angeles. Compositional career highlights include performances on the BBC Proms, Tanglewood Music Festival, and Royal Concertgebouw Summer Concerts, and by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, and Yale Symphony Orchestra. His 70-minute chamber opera Passage won the Beekman Cannon Friends Prize for the best-submitted thesis in the music major at Yale. As a pianist, assistant conductor, and vocal coach, Benjamin has worked for the Sarasota Opera, Pacific Opera Project, Opera Company of Middlebury, Chicago Summer Opera, and Classic Lyric Arts France and Italy. While a student at Yale, Beckman was the Artistic Director of both the Opera Theater of Yale College and the Yale Undergraduate Chamber Orchestra, through which he facilitated the premieres of 21 student compositions. He is currently pursuing graduate studies in composition at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he manages the conservatory’s new music ensemble, the Thornton Edge. www.benjaminbeckmanmusic.com