THE  BALTIMORE  PLOT:  SIC  SEMPER  TYRANNIS

Chamber Opera in One Act - Music by Kyle Krause - Libretto by Roger Brunyate

​                 Prior to his inauguration in 1861, President-Elect Abraham Lincoln made a whistle-stop tour by train through the Northeast, requiring him to pass through Baltimore on his way to Washington. The famous detective Allan Pinkerton, hired by Lincoln to provide security, was concerned that Maryland, as a slave state teetering on the brink of secession, would be dangerous to the President Elect. Pinkerton claimed he had uncovered evidence that a group, known as the Golden Circle, was plotting to kill Lincoln on his route between the Calvert Street and Camden Street train stations in Baltimore. Acting on Pinkerton’s advice, Lincoln instead traveled through the city in a closed carriage, thus laying himself open to accusations of cowardice that his opponents would use against him for years to come. Fatally, he never took security precautions as seriously again. Pinkerton was innovative in hiring female detectives who were capable of uncovering evidence that his male agents could not. He hired two such women to investigate the rumors in Baltimore. Their names were Kate Warne, the first female private eye in the country, and her younger associate Hattie Lawton. There is evidence that one of the members of the Golden Circle was the locally-born actor, John Wilkes Booth. Although Booth was most likely out of town on the actual date of Lincoln’s visit, our scenario imagines what might have happened if Booth had not been away, and if one of the women had come directly under the spell of his magnetic charm… 

Conductor and Music Director - JoAnn Kulesza

Staging and Lighting - Roger Brunyate

Katherine Warne - played by Lauren Anderson (mezzo)
Hattie Lawton - played by Elizabeth Sarian (mezzo) 
John Wilkes Booth - played by Joshua Hughes (baritone) 

Piano Primo - Juyoung Lee 
Piano Secondo - Johanna Kvam
Percussionist - Christopher Salvito