by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPENING TODAY:
Tonight at 7:30, the Canton Symphony’s Divergent Sounds series presents Soleo. “Experience the mesmerizing fusion of Middle Eastern influences and progressive rock energy” at The Auricle. Tickets available online.
CANCELLATION:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the CIM Opera Theater’s performances of Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters on February 1 and 2, at the Cleveland Museum of Art have been canceled. Refunds are being issued to all ticket holders.
For details of upcoming events, visit our Concert Listings.
NEWS BRIEFS:
New York’s OnSite Opera Shuts Down
From The New York Times; “For more than a decade, On Site Opera, a small but nimble performing arts group, brought opera to unexpected places: the Bronx Zoo, Madame Tussauds, cafes and soup kitchens. The company won acclaim for its innovative approach, including a Beethoven song cycle performed by phone during the pandemic.
“But on Tuesday, On Site Opera announced that it was shutting down, saying it could no longer keep up with rising costs. The company’s three full-time employees will lose their jobs; no further performances are planned.” The company was formed in 2012 by Oberlin alum Eric Einhorn (pictured above), who stepped down in 2023.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
by Mike Telin
January 30 marks the death of French composer Francis Poulenc in Paris in 1963. His Gloria exemplifies his compositional style, aptly described by a YouTube commentator: “His ingenious ability to join the secular and the sacred, in this case, French cabaret and High liturgy is unmatched, except maybe for Mozart.”
That comment was in response to a live performance by soprano Else Benoit, the Netherlands Radio Choir and Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Peter Cijksatra, that took place in Utrecht in November of 2019.
An earlier work that captures Poulenc’s urbane wit is the 1928 Concert Champêtre for harpsichord and orchestra — quite a large ensemble to pit against the soloist, but Poulenc was writing for the heavy Pleyel instruments championed by the dedicatee, Wanda Landowska, during the 20th century harpsichord revival.
Jory Vinikour was featured in the Concerto at Severance Music Center with Stéphane Denève and The Cleveland Orchestra in March, 2018. Watch for that to come around on a WCLV rebroadcast, but in the meanwhile, here’s a performance by Ewa Mrowca on Landowska’s Pleyel harpsichord Grand Modele, with the Symphony Orchestra of the Music Academy in Kraków, Rafał Jacek Delekta, conducting
No doubt many of our readers tuned in to the Live in HD broadcast of Poulenc’s moving Dialogues of the Carmelites from the Metropolitan Opera. Click here to watch the chilling final scene as performed by The Met during its 2018-2019 season. Conductor: Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Blanche de la Force: Isabel Leonard. Madame Lidoine: Adrianne Pieczonka. Soeur Constance: Erin Morley.
