Associate music professor, Stephen Lusmann, began his career as an opera singer in a young artist program in Cincinnati. He played the role of Gregario, a Capulet servant in the Gounod's famed French operatic tribute to William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Later in his career, Lusmann sang the role of Mercutio, traveling through Europe, enacting epic battle scenes paired with his character's violent passion. The esteemed professor will perform his third operatic Shakespearean role - Lord Capulet in the Michigan Opera Theatre's production of "Romeo and Juliet."

Performing the opera with Lusmann is recently graduated student, Brandon Snook, as Benvolio, a cousin and friend to Romeo.

Upon Snook's return to the Seagle Music Colony - a highly selective, six-week summer program for students from around the world where Snook began studying under Lusmann - in 2005, he knew that he would be attending the University to complete his masters degree in voice, studying again under Lusmann.

Lusmann, as Snook's teacher takes pride in observing Snook's promising career take off post-graduation.

"It's wonderful working with Brandon and I can see how he works as a professional. He brings to rehearsal all of the craft he has learned and so far I've seen him sing beautifully," Lusmann said. "It's a lot of fun teaching a student and then seeing them perform."

Snook enjoys performing with Lusmann and observing their teacher-student relationship evolve as they work together on the production.

"We have a good professional and personal relationship, so it's fascinating to watch him take direction from someone else," Snook said.

Lusmann performs about two or three operas a year while regularly singing in oratorios or concerts. He believes that as a professor active in the opera community he gains the respect of his students as a classically trained singer. At the same time, teaching is his first priority.

Both performers, although at completely different stages in their careers have many of the same concerns about their performances. Such a classic story requires absolute attention to detail and understanding of the story, character intention and the French language.

The beautiful yet tragic story features four love duets. Although very close to Shakespeare's original, the opera, first performed in Paris in 1867, deviates slightly in order to condense the story and make it more conducive to the opera format. Director Bernard Uzan stays true to the original Gounod tradition in terms of time, place and content while making a few cuts in order to shorten the piece.

He encourages his multi-cultural cast to focus on the relationships between their characters. The play is led by Dina Kuznetsova and Evelyn Pollock, who perform alternately as Juliet alongside Jonathan Boyd and Arturo Chac