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Ohio Light Opera: Lehár’s The Mock Marriage (July 14)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Before Austrian composer Franz Lehár hit the Viennese operetta bull’s eye with The Merry Widow, he composed a less well-known show, The Mock Marriage (Die Juxheirat), whose complicated plot, set in America in 1904, gives a nod to such contemporary societal issues as gender identity and the empowerment of women.

After running for 39 performances, Die Juxheirat was sidelined and forgotten until the show was revived for an Austrian music festival in 2016. And in February 2019, OLO director Steven Daigle staged the English version for the University of Southern California Opera Theatre. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: 
The Fantasticks (July 19)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Fantasticks travels lightly, but it’s traveled a great distance since Harvey Schmidt and Tom Jones adapted Les Romanesques, an 1894 play by Edmond Rostand, into a 1960 hit. The show opened in May of that year and ran off-Broadway for 42 years and over 17,000 performances.

It’s a boy-meets-girl tale simply and poignantly told along the lines of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (or e.e. cummings’ anyone lived in a pretty how town) by a troupe of traveling actors who begin by unpacking everything they need to tell the story from a trunk.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, July 20, 2022 

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by Daniel Hathaway

 TODAY’S ENTRIES:

. The Fantasticks at Ohio Light Opera

. Do these three teasers make you want to click through and read the articles?

. Almanac: three avant-garde composers celebrate birthdays — know them?

ON TODAY:

At 2:00 pm the Ohio Light Opera continues its outdoor run of The Fantasticks on the lawn of the Wayne Center for the Arts in Wooster. In case of rain, the performance will be moved to Freedlander Theatre. Tickets available online. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, July 18, 2022 

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ENTRIES:

. Locals Gabriella Haigh, Randall Fusco, and Joela Jones featured on Charnofksy’s radio show

. Girls join John’s choir at Cambridge U., new comic opera at Glimmerglass, Rhiannon Giddens “reweaves” Silk Road Ensemble, update on Afghanistan Music School

. Almanac honors Canadian composer & environmentalist R. Murray Shafer [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend of July 15-17, 2022  

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. String Quartets, Orchestra concerts, Light Opera, and a trio of Carillons

. Concert updates and news bits from Ohio Light Opera, Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Cleveland Classical Guitar Society and Cuyahoga Arts & Culture

. From Van: Two young musicians survive their orchestral trial years in Germany

. Almanac: birth anniversaries of Linda Ronstad, James MacMillan, and Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach)

THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS:

On Friday July 15 at 7:00 pm the Callisto Quartet (pictured, Cameron Daly & Gregory Lewis, violins, Eva Kennedy, viola, Hannah Moses, cello) performs Haydn’s Quartet op.76, no. 4, Debussy’s. Quartet and Mendelssohn’s Quartet, op. 13 at the Solon Center for the Arts. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Pirates of Penzance (July 7)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Ohio Light Opera has expanded its repertoire beyond the Savoy operas that originally defined the company, but it still finds room to produce one or two shows every season by the brilliant team of William Schwenck Gilbert and Arthur Seymour Sullivan, who found so many ways to poke fun at the cozy conventions of Victorian England.

This season’s G&S show, Pirates of Penzance, subtitled “The Slave of Duty,” spins its plot around young Frederick, sung by the clear-voiced tenor Spencer Reese, who does double duty as choreographer of the show’s athletic ensemble numbers.

[Read more…]

DIARY: Wednesday, July 13, 2022 

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ENTRIES:

. Pirates in Wooster, McGill/McHale Trio in Kent

. Nagy receives EMA award for SalonEra, Littler hangs up his notebook in Toronto

. Schoenberg and Maazel exit, Ben Franklin creates new instrument

ON TODAY:

At 2:00 pm Ohio Light Opera continues its run of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance with a special Kids Day performance in Wooster’s Freedlander Theatre. You can purchase tickets here.

At 7:30 pm this week’s Kent/Blossom Faculty Concert features Kulas Visiting Artist, the McGill/McHale Trio —  Anthony McGill, clarinet, Demarre McGill, flute and Michael McHale, piano. [Read more…]

DIARY: Monday, July 11, 2022 

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by Daniel Hathaway

TODAY’S ENTRIES:

. Charnofsky plays music your grandma wouldn’t know about from 2 to 4 on  WRUW, ChamberFest encores on WCLV at 8

. Cooper violin competition announces contestants for August in Oberlin, a new job for CMA’s Tom Welsh in Knoxville

. Anniversaries of outdoor concert series on both coasts

ON TODAY:

From 2 pm to 4 pm Eric Charnofsky’s “Not Your Grandmother’s Classical Music” features Paul Creston’s Choreografic Suite, Johanna Beyer’s Clusters for piano, Daniel Kessner Dances for Clarinet and Guitar, and music by Arvo Pärt, Felipe Perez Santiago, and Thomas Tomkins. Click here to listen to the internet feed from WRUW at Case Western Reserve University. [Read more…]

DIARY: Weekend of July 8-10, 2022 

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by Daniel Hathaway

IN THIS EDITION:

. A checklist of weekend events (and a cancellation)

. Les Délices and Cleveland Pops announce seasons, news briefs from Chicago, Atlanta, and the opera-loving English countryside, and unearthing Ukraine’s cultural heritage

. Almanac: George Antheil enters the world

THIS WEEKEND’S EVENTS:

On Friday at 12:15 pm McGaffin carillonneur George Leggiero will strike the University Circle bells with music by Peter Paul Olejar celebrating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, the designer of such American outdoor attractions as New York’s Central Park and the Wade Lagoon at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Music by Handel and a pair of 20th-century sarabandes too. Can’t make it in person? There’s also a live stream. [Read more…]

ChamberFest Cleveland:
“Timeless Explorations” (June 25)

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by Daniel Hathaway

The first piece of business at ChamberFest Cleveland’s June 25 concert in Mixon Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music was rearranging the order of the program. “Timeless Explorations” was to have begun with a new piece, but probably for practical reasons involving a prepared piano, Yevgeniy Sharlat’s Dumka-22 and Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 2 traded places.

Violinist Diana Cohen, cellist Jonathan Swensen, and pianist Andrius Žlabys launched the sixth concert of ChamberFest’s tenth anniversary season with an effervescent performance of Beethoven’s least-performed trio. Bedecked with sparkling runs and ensemble flourishes and set in the gemütlich key of E-flat, the piece made an attractive opener and served as a lovely vehicle for the musicians to express their unassuming virtuosity.

[Read more…]

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