Turandot: A Night at the Opera with Christopher Browner ’12
Turandot: A Night at the Opera with Christopher Browner ’12

Taft’s popular “A Night at the Opera” program returns to campus April 12 with Christopher Browner ’12, senior editor at New York’s Metropolitan Opera.

Taft’s popular “A Night at the Opera” program returns to campus this week with Christopher Browner ’12, senior editor at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. Browner will take the audience on a journey through Giacamo Puccini's final opera, Turandot; he will be joined by performers from the Met’s young artist program. The event takes place in Taft’s Choral Room on the main campus Friday, April 12 at 7 pm. The program is free and open to the public; tickets are not required.

Turandot is a three-act opera set in China. It tells the story of Prince Calaf, who falls in love with Princess Turandot. To win her hand, suitors must solve three riddles; execution awaits those who answer who do not answer correctly. Despite passing the test, the princess refuses to marry Calaf. As the tale unfolds, Calaf presents the princess with a challenge of her own.

Turandot remained unfinished at the time of Puccini’s death in 1924. The music was completed posthumously by Franco Alfano, allowing for a 1926 debut. Browner’s talk at Taft, along with pieces from the show performed by young Met artists, will serve as an insightful and enthusiastic introduction to Turndot, on stage at The Met through June 7. The show features Franco Zeffirelli’s “dazzling vision of mythic China with soprano Elena Pankratova making her Met debut as the legendary—and lethal—title princess, opposite tenor SeokJong Baek as the valiant prince who puts his life on the line to win her love.”

A lifelong opera fan, Browner still remembers the first show he saw at The Met as a child; he also remembers the seat he sat in.

“As the orchestra was tuning and the chandeliers were rising up to the ceiling, I grabbed my dad’s hand—my heart was beating out of my chest because I was so excited.”

As a Taft student, Christopher went to The Met a dozen or so times each year—even more as a student and opera critic for his campus newspaper at Columbia University. Browner was a music major, and directed operas with student groups. He apprenticed with the Santa Fe Opera, studied Italian, and visited the great opera houses across Europe. His work as a senior editor at The Met is the culmination of a lifetime spent pursuing his passion—one he is thrilled to share each year with audiences at Taft.

Performance photo and show notes courtesy metopera.org

Alumni Elect Margaret Fitzgerald Wagner '93 to Board of Trustees
Alumni Elect Margaret Fitzgerald Wagner '93 to Board of Trustees

Margaret Fitzgerald Wagner '93Taft alumni have elected Margaret "Mar" Fitzgerald Wagner '93 to serve her alma mater as the newest member of the Board of Trustees.

Wagner is a graduate of Taft, Yale (B.A. 1997) and MIT (M.S. R.E.D. 2005). She has worked in the affordable housing industry since 2000, first with a consulting firm and since 2005 as a developer and investor. Wagner is currently a managing partner of First Atlantic Capital, LLC, a real estate investment company located in Boston that focuses on the acquisition, ownership, and redevelopment of affordable multifamily housing communities throughout the United States. Her interest in housing was sparked by her first "real" job after college, as an analyst of housing and health care bonds with Standard & Poor's in San Francisco.

Wagner is involved with a number of industry groups that work to shape public policy around affordable housing, including the Institute for Responsible Housing Preservation, of which she became president in January 2017. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker recently appointed her to the board of directors of the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC), a quasi-public corporation that provides funding and other support for community-based non-profit affordable and supportive housing developments in Massachusetts.

At Taft, Wagner served on her Class Committee for three years and was then a member of one of the great groups of monitors in Taft history, who instilled good citizenship through fun. After a sports injury ended her effectiveness as a participant, she devoted herself to managing teams, including Patsy Odden's New England champion girls' hockey teams. She treasures her Taft classroom experiences and is grateful that they made her both literate and numerate. At graduation, she was Class Speaker and was awarded the Aurelian Award.

Wagner's interest in Taft was awakened early in life, as her family lived next to the headmaster's house. Many of her family are Taft graduates, and her mother was on the faculty for several years. She has been active in Taft affairs since graduation, working at the summer school, serving as head class agent, reunion chair, and a capital campaign fundraiser.

Wagner and her husband, Rod, are the parents of two smart and humorous children, Jack (10) and Annie (8). They live in a repurposed industrial loft in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood.