The Book Club Party
5/14/26
​​We are excited to announce the premiere debut of this new opera! It is scheduled for August 7th and 9th, 2026 at Grass Valley Cultural Center, (formerly St. Joseph's Cultural Center) Grass Valley, CA.
Nora's Blog
The Book Club Party
7/22/25
​​Have you ever found yourself in the midst of a book club gathering, navigating the diverse personalities and unspoken dynamics? Set that experience to music, and add some humor and heartfelt emotion. That’s precisely what Mark Vance is creating with his new opera, The Book Club Party.
5/14/26
The Book Club Party: Mark Vance and John Deaderick Bring a Very Relatable Anxiety to the Opera Stage
by Nora Rubinoff
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You know the feeling. The guests are coming at seven. It is now six-fifteen, the flowers you forgot to order aren’t on the table, you can’t remember whether you already salted the pasta water or just thought about salting the pasta water, and somewhere in the back of your mind a small but insistent voice is asking:
Why can’t you just be more like Susan? Susan, of course, always has flowers. Susan serves Veuve Clicquot.
Susan arrives with drama.
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If you have ever hosted a dinner party, or a book club, or really any gathering where you care too much about what other people think, then you are already halfway to understanding what The Book Club Party is about. Nevada City composer Mark Vance and his new collaborator, theater artist John Deaderick, are making an opera out of exactly this kind of ordinary, intimate, achingly recognizable anxiety. I think they’re onto something that will delight and connect with audiences.
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I had the pleasure of speaking at length with both Mark and John about where this project stands today, and I came away from those conversations with the same feeling I get when I read a really good short story: the sense that someone has been watching human beings very carefully and decided to tell the truth about what they saw.
THE CREATIVE VISION BEHIND
The Book Club Party is a new opera in progress by composer, Mark Vance and librettist, John Deaderick. Written for mezzo-soprano, Sarah Saturnino and baritone, Matt Cossack. It's a loving and whimsical look at a young couple planning a book club party. See synopsis below...​
Matthew Cossack, Baritone
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Hailed as “a master of his touching, yet bold baritone” (Berkshire Fine Arts), Matthew Cossack is an emerging force in the opera world, captivating audiences across the United States and Europe. A Brooklyn native, he trained at SUNY Purchase, Mannes College, and the Yale School of Music, building a career defined by versatility and expressive depth.
A 2019 Opera Foundation Scholarship winner, Matthew made his European debut with the Stipendiat Ensemble at Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he appeared as Dancairo (Carmen), Fiorello (Il barbiere di Siviglia), and the Imperial Commissioner (Madama Butterfly), and sang in the world premiere of Once To Be Realised, touring Berlin, Munich, and Athens. He returned to Europe in 2024 for his French debut at Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier as Bassidji in Keyvan Chemirani’s Négar.
An accomplished competitor, he has received the 2022 Sullivan Award and a 2023 Sullivan Foundation Role Preparation Grant, and earned top honors from Opera Birmingham, Premiere Opera, Opera Index, and the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. In 2025, he was a finalist in both the Opera Tampa Competition and the Luciano Pavarotti Competition. His recent roles include Dr. Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Marcello (La Bohème), Ko-Ko (The Mikado), and Figaro (Il barbiere di Siviglia).
This season, he appears as Count Almaviva with Central City Opera. With a voice that blends power and poignancy, Matthew Cossack continues to make a strong impression on today’s operatic stage.
Sarah Saturnino, Mezzo-Soprano
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Mexican-American mezzo-soprano Sarah Saturnino, praised for her “big, smooth mezzo and regal presence” continues to cement her place as one of the finest young dramatic voices singing on the major stages of the world today (Parterre Box). A 2023 winner of the Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, she was quickly engaged by the Metropolitan Opera for Rigoletto, and also recently performed as Maddalena in Rigoletto at the Los Angeles Opera. Last summer, she made her “formidable” debut as Fricka in Die Walküre at the Santa Fe Opera, a role she will reprise in the current season with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (Wall Street Journal). She will also appear with the LA Phil for Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, and return to the Los Angeles Opera to debut the role of Meg Page in Falstaff. Next season, she will make her Metropolitan Opera debut as Wowkle in La fanciulla del West.
Saturnino is a recent graduate of the Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program at LA Opera, where she made her mainstage debut in the role of Emilia in Otello and sang Jocabed in Mollicone’s Moses. In the 2023-24 season, she performed the title role of Carmen with Opera Santa Barbara, Alice Ford in Sir John in Love at the Bard Music Festival, Fricka with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City in Michael Christie’s Journey to Valhalla, and Flora in La traviata with Los Angeles Opera.
Miss Saturnino graduated cum laude from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelor of Arts in Vocal Performance and a Music Industry Minor in 2016. She graduated with honors from the Yale University School of Music with a Masters of Music in 2018.​​​
Lynn Schugren, Pianist
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Nevada County pianist Lynn Schugren has been playing the piano since she was old enough to hoist herself up on the bench. She has had an active career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. A champion of new music, she has commissioned and performed works by various California composers, most recently being guest soloist with the InConcert Sierra orchestra last September in a performance of Alexis Alrich’s Sierra Rhapsody, a work Ms. Schugren commissioned. She has had a long standing friendship and professional collaboration with Mark Vance, performing his solo piano and chamber works often.
THE BOOK CLUB PARTY SYNOPSIS
Kathryn and Robert are a happily married, middle-class. professional couple living in suburbia. Like most of us, they work hard, save little, and rely on one another for their emotional and financial needs. They don't have much, but they do have each other. Their social life revolves around their Book Club; well, Kathryn's book club, as Robert never quite reads beyond the dust jacket. Robert, content with their lot, cares little for the high-brow stuff, but Kathryn seems to want more. Her aspirations get triggered whenever The Book Club meets.
Alas, everyone else in The Club has what Kathryn thinks she wants. Susan's table seats twenty and she serves the finest wines--small matter that she and her husband George fight constantly. Then there are Terry and LaMonte with all their photos of their exciting travels and Doug and Patty with photos of their kids. Lots and lots of photos of the kids. Really a lot. Someone always gets drunk, Eleanor always arrives too early, but everyone, I mean everyone, has more than what Kathryn and Robert have. But do they really? And who is this newest addition arriving tonight? What might this surprise guest add to the turbulence?
It's now an hour or so before they all start arriving. Kathryn and Robert have never played host before; it must all be perfect, just like when Susan hosts. Will what they serve measure up? Will their simple fare and simple furnishings provoke disdain? Will Robert and Kathryn's marriage weather the strain? Our story begins and ends with a doorbell. Let's see what Kathryn and Robert do in between.
Mark Vance, Composer
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Mark Vance is a composer and music educator living in Nevada City, California. He has played an extensive role composing, teaching, coaching, arranging, conducting and promoting music throughout his community in the rural California Foothills. He is published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing and C. Alan Publications. His CDs It’s About Time! and God, I Love Chamber Music! are available on CD Baby and iTunes. He serves as Executive Director of the Nevada County Composers Cooperative since 2003. Here, he oversees a wildly talented group of composers planning and producing concerts of new music. He also created and teaches the award-winning education program Young Composers Project, a music composition program for teens.
Vance and his wife, Estelle, live with their two goldfish.
John Deaderick, Librettist
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John Deaderick has taught acting for 40+ years and has been a SAG / AFTRA member for just about as long. He has served as a Classical music announcer and opera and theatre critic. He has been privileged to work with Terry Riley, Lou Harrison, Alan Arkin, and Gary Snyder among others. The Book Club Party is the third libretto he has had a hand in and has performed in France, Switzerland, Scotland, LA, and well, around. A happy recipient of grant awards for scholarly research in music and drama, John says "The creative act is my religion; teaching allowed me to share that passion with others, and I'm still writing and producing as much as I can."
Stay tuned for more updates from Nora's The Book Club Party Blog...
Nora Miller Rubinoff
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Nora Miller Rubinoff is VP of Business Development and Operations for IPA Source. She focuses on streamlining processes, improving user experiences, and identifying new pathways for partnerships and innovation, helping IPA Source deliver the best possible resource to our customers worldwide. Nora enjoys biking, hiking, and camping. She resides in West Chester with her husband and dachshunds.