New Opera Celebrates Legendary Vassar Professor Who Reached for the Stars
A very special performance deeply tied to Vassar is taking place on campus January 23–25 at the Martel Theater as part of MODfest, Vassar’s annual celebration of the arts. Computing Venus is a new, one-act opera by the award-winning team of composer Timothy C. Takach and librettist Caitlin Vincent that explores the triumphs and struggles of legendary astronomer Maria Mitchell, one of Vassar’s first professors.
Credit: Vassar Archives & Special Collections
As a pioneering scientist of the 19th century, Mitchell is known far beyond the gates of Vassar. She became a national celebrity in 1847 when, at age 29, she discovered a comet from the rooftop of her house in Nantucket. Soon after, she was hired by the U.S. government to calculate the orbit of Venus to aid celestial navigation, thereby becoming the only professional woman astronomer in the country.
Arriving at Vassar in 1865, Mitchell was as dedicated to her students as she was to her profession. She kept them up past their curfew watching the night sky and brought them across the country to observe solar eclipses in Iowa in 1869 and in Colorado in 1878. Unfortunately, Mitchell came up against a backlash against women in science led by a Harvard Medical School professor, Edward Clarke, who claimed that “brain work” wrecked female fertility and therefore young women should not pursue science. Clarke is the villain of Computing Venus.
“It’s about one woman who really swam upstream and achieved great things, and inspired so many women and continues to inspire so many women,” said Vassar Trustee Kathy Zillweger Putnam ’75, who first brought Computing Venus to the attention of Music Department faculty and is a major benefactor of the production. “She literally reached for the stars.”
Generous support for this production, which will also be livestreamed on January 24 at 2:00 p.m., comes from Putnam and her spouse, George Putnam III, as well as the Dickinson-Kayden Fund, the Joan Kostick Andrews Fund, and the departments of Music and Drama. The two departments are collaborating on the production, which will feature 15 current students and 3 accomplished alums in lead roles: sopranos Eden Bartholomew ’23 and Beatrix Postley ’24, and baritone Michael Hofmann ’13.
Credit: Courtesy of the subjects.
“All three are excellent musicians, and all of them have acting chops,” said Professor of Music Christine Howlett, who is conducting the performance. “They know how to be on stage, and in opera, you have to have all of that. So it’s pretty exciting and it’s really fun!”
Senior Lecturer in Music Drew Minter, who is co-directing the performance along with Professor and Chair of Drama Christopher Grabowski, agreed that the audience is in for a treat. “I think it’s going to be very inspiring for the students presently in our vocal program to hear the alums doing such wonderful singing, and in terrifically written vocal music,” he said.
Composer Timothy C. Takach said those who normally shy away from opera should know that his style of writing music is more accessible than what is typically found in this particular art form. “I work really hard at that in my craft—to make sure that anybody who walks in, whether you’re a musician or not, is able to be drawn right into the story, and even if you don’t understand what’s happening musically, your brain and your heart understand it right away,” he said. “I think musically, it will affect people emotionally in a way that they might not be expecting.”
That was certainly the case with Howlett, who saw the opera twice last year when it premiered as the 2024 winner of the prestigious Pellicciotti Opera Composition Prize at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY. “I was really moved by it—I cried at the end both times,” she said, adding that what got to her was Mitchell’s calm resilience in the face of overwhelming injustice. “Watching this guy just spout lie after lie about women and tamping them down, insisting they really shouldn’t have a voice and couching it in this idea that he’s protecting them—even just thinking about it makes me tear up every time because we’re still fighting this battle. There’s something about this story that should be old and it’s not—it’s current.”
Credit: Chancelor Barbaree
Eden Bartholomew ’23, who is portraying Mitchell, agrees. “I think this opera tells a story of perseverance and progress in the face of deeply unsettling bigotry and doubt,” they said. “Sadly, a lot of this resonates with today. Computing Venus tells us to persist, resist, and keep looking for hope.” Now pursuing a master’s degree at the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, Bartholomew noted an even more personal way in which the opera resonates with them: the way in which Mitchell’s teaching style echoes the devotion and encouragement of Minter and Howlett, their own Vassar mentors. “They absolutely shaped how I approach music, and it has been one of the best gifts I’ve ever received,” they said. “This is another reason I am so touched to be playing Maria Mitchell in Computing Venus. [She] believes in her students even when no one else does. I’m honored to portray the incredible, fierce mentorship I was lucky enough to have at Vassar.”
Order free tickets to Computing Venus performances January 23–25 or watch the livestream on January 24 at 2:00 p.m.