In addition to some great opera singers this production starred several popular television personalities, including “Colonel Klink” (Werner Klemperer), Paul Sorvino, Buddy Hackett, and 1981’s Miss America.
Susan Powell, who had risen to fame earlier that year as Miss America, sang Adele. © Des Gates
Adele (Susan Powell) with Prince Orlofsky (Werner Klemperer), who becomes her ‘patron’ at the end of the opera. © Des Gates
Las Vegas legend and “saloon comic” Buddy Hackett played Frosch, the drunken jailer. © Chris Bennion
Eisenstein (Emile Belcourt) and Dr. Falke (John Reardon). Both these distinguished singers were familiar voices at Seattle Opera. Reardon sang Boris in our production of Pasatieri’s “The Seagull,” and Belcourt was a popular Loge in Wagner’s Ring. © Des Gates
Rosalinda (Pamela Porter-Arnold) and Alfred (Paul Sorvino). Sorvino, best known today for his roles in “Goodfellas” and “Law and Order,” had originally aspired to a life as an opera singer. © Des Gates
Werner Klemperer, forever known as the blustering but inept Colonel Klink on “Hogan’s Heroes,” played Orlofsky, singing the famous mezzo aria “Chacun à son goût” an octave down. His father was the noted conductor Otto Klemperer, and Werner himself was involved with classical music throughout his career. © Des Gates
