by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
Ohio Light Opera stages two shows today: Me and My Girl at 2 pm, and Guys and Dolls at 7:30 in Freedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster.
At 6 pm, the Canton Symphony’s Summer Serenades brings a string quartet to Beech Creek Botanical Garden in Alliance.
And at 7 pm The Cleveland Orchestra’s Summers at Severance series welcomes conductor Petr Popelka and violinist James Ehnes (pictured) for Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Violin Concerto, César Franck’s Le Chasseur maudit & Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6. Read our pre-concert interview with Ehnes here.
For details of upcoming concerts, visit our Concert Listings page.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Akron’s Tuesday Musical writes that all tickets for its 2024-2025 season will go on sale today. Read the announcement here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On this date in 1930, Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester (aka Kathleen Stewart) was born in Montreal. As a young singer in Canada, Forrester made strong impressions on CBC talent shows, and received her big break in New York when Bruno Walter chose her as one of the soloists for Mahler’s Second Symphony. She also sang in the conductor’s farewell performances with the New York Philharmonic in 1957.
A true contralto, Forrester’s vocal gifts come to the fore in this 1957 performance of Johannes Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody with the Orchestra de Radio-Canada led by Igor Markevich. But her singing could also be light and lively, as in this duet from J.S. Bach’s Cantata BWV 78 with soprano Lois Marshall and pianist Yehudi Wyner from a 1974 recital at Mt. Orford, Québec. “Wir eilen mit Schwachen doch emsigen Schritten” translates as “We run with eager but faltering footsteps,” an image that the composer captures brilliantly.
