Librarian Takes the Stage, Plays Soldier in Opera

Butler bibliographic assistant and part-time student by day, Theo van Joolen is a Cossack soldier at the Metropolitan Opera by night. Van Joolen was cast as a non-singing, precision-marching soldier in the Met’s December production of War and Peace. He answered a cattle call audition for the part, encouraged by his classmates in Spectacle and Theatricality in Russian Culture.