Opera Carolina has announced the cast and creative team for Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium, coming to Halton Theater on Saturday, November 14, 2026. The production brings together a celebrated American opera star with a direct artistic connection to Menotti, an internationally active conductor, and a distinguished director and educator dedicated to developing the next generation of opera artists.

At the center of the production is Grammy Award-winning contralto and Metropolitan Opera veteran Victoria Livengood as Madame Flora, or Baba, one of the roles most closely associated with her career.

Livengood’s relationship with The Medium is exceptional: she knew Menotti personally, worked with him and developed her interpretation of Madame Flora under his direct guidance. Their artistic collaboration also brought the role to television when Livengood starred as Baba in a production of The Medium recorded in Italy for RAI, Italy’s national public broadcaster, and directed by Menotti himself. The composer later described Livengood as his “ideal Baba.”

Their connection continued until the final days of Menotti’s life. Livengood was performing in Monte Carlo when Menotti died in 2007. Shortly before his death, he had visited her and continued to share his thoughts about The Medium and his vision for Madame Flora — giving Livengood a rare firsthand understanding of the character from the composer himself.

Menotti’s legacy also has a special connection to the Carolinas. In 1958, he founded the Festival dei Due Mondi in Spoleto, Italy, creating an artistic bridge between Europe and America. In 1977, that vision expanded to the United States with the creation of Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, South Carolina, establishing an enduring cultural connection between Menotti and the region.

Nearly two decades after his death, Opera Carolina now brings The Medium to Charlotte with an artist who carries not only the role, but the memory of Menotti’s own theatrical direction.

Joining Livengood is Kristin Sampson as Monica, Baba’s daughter and the emotional center of the opera. Tim Bostwick appears as Mr. Gobineau and Aubrey Cole as Mrs. Gobineau. The role of Toby will be announced shortly.

The production will be conducted by Stefano Vignati, General Director and Music Director of Opera Carolina. An internationally active conductor, Vignati continues to bring Opera Carolina’s name beyond Charlotte through his work abroad while developing new artistic connections between the company and the international opera community.

Steven LaCosse will direct the production. LaCosse is the A.J. Fletcher Distinguished Professor of Opera Artistic Director A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute UNC School of the Arts. His career combines professional stage direction with the education and mentorship of emerging singers, making his participation particularly meaningful to a production designed to connect opera’s artistic heritage with its future.

The decision to present The Medium was championed by Opera Carolina Artistic Director Claudio Ferri as part of a broader vision to return important but less frequently performed works to the stage while expanding the traditional audience for opera.

Written in English and unfolding with the immediacy of a stage thriller, The Medium was selected in particular for its ability to speak to younger audiences, theatergoers and those who may be experiencing opera for the first time, as well as longtime opera lovers.

Menotti’s compact psychological drama explores grief, deception, manipulation, fear and the increasingly fragile boundary between reality and what the mind believes to be real — themes that remain strikingly contemporary.
At the center of the story is Madame Flora, a fraudulent medium who stages séances for grieving clients with the assistance of her daughter Monica and the mute servant Toby. But during one of her carefully orchestrated deceptions, Baba suddenly experiences something she cannot explain.

Was it part of the illusion — or did something actually reach out from the darkness?
That single moment begins her psychological unraveling. The woman who has made a living manipulating the fears of others gradually becomes consumed by her own, as Menotti transforms an intimate chamber opera into a gripping exploration of paranoia, guilt and the supernatural.

With Livengood’s direct connection to the composer, Vignati’s international perspective, LaCosse’s work shaping future generations of opera artists, and Ferri’s focus on rediscovering compelling works for contemporary audiences, Opera Carolina’s The Medium brings together opera, theater, history and psychological drama in one intensely theatrical evening.

CAST & CREATIVE TEAM
Madame Flora (Baba) — Victoria Livengood
Grammy Award winner and Metropolitan Opera veteran
Monica — Kristin Sampson
Mr. Gobineau — Tim Bostwick
Mrs. Gobineau — Aubrey Cole
Toby — To Be Announced
Conductor — Stefano Vignati
General Director & Music Director, Opera Carolina
Director — Steven LaCosse
A.J. Fletcher Distinguished Professor of Opera & Artistic Director, A.J. Fletcher Opera Institute, UNCSA

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Gian Carlo Menotti’s The Medium
Saturday, November 14, 2026
Halton Theater — Charlotte, North Carolina
Presented by Opera Carolina

Tickets:
https://www.etix.com/ticket/p/61626698/the-medium-charlotte-dale-fhalton-theater