by Daniel Hathaway
HAPPY CINCO DE MAYO!
NOT HAPPENING TODAY, BUT…
The final event in this season’s Cleveland Chamber Music Society series would have taken place this evening at the Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center at Case Western Reserve University. Absent the music, it’s a good time to revisit the origins of the Maltz, originally completed in 1924 as the second home of The Temple-Tifereth Israel congregation. The Maltz staff has put together a “blast from the past” with photos of the original construction, followed by a second retrospective featuring images of the building’s recent transformation into a performing arts center.
OBERLIN ANNOUNCES NEW OPERA COMPOSER & LIBRETTIST:
Oberlin’s Opera Commissioning Program has named the creative team for a world premiere production scheduled for January 2023. Australian-born Melissa Dunphy, winner of a 2020 grant from Opera America, will be composer in residence, working with librettist Jacqueline Goldfinger. The opera, Alice Tierney, will tell the story of four amateur archeologists who discover clues about the mysterious death of the title character. The opera will be directed by Christopher Mirto. Read an article by Erich Burnett here.
ONLINE & ON THE AIRWAVES TODAY:
Today’s calendar includes Lunchtime with the Cleveland Orchestra, pianist Igor Levit playing Beethoven live from Berlin, the latest Oberlin Stage Left with composer Osvaldo Golijov, and Ambrose Thomas’ Hamlet from the MET Opera’s HD Archives. See our Concert Listings for details. And if you missed Kent State University’s official commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the May 4 shootings, the video from Monday is still available here.
TODAY’S ALMANAC:
On May 5 of 1891, New York’s Carnegie Hall opened its doors with a gala concert featuring guest conductor Pytor Ilych Tchaikovsky. Watch a video with archivist Gino Francesconi talking about the opening exercises, and a second video where Francesconi delves into the connections between the Russian composer and the iconic New York concert venue.
TODAY’S FEATURED VIDEOS:
Tired of Netflix and Amazon Prime? Leonard Bernstein’s 1973 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard will keep you occupied for more than eleven hours. Watch here.
