by Daniel Hathaway
IN THIS EDITION:
. Final performances of operas
. Other concerts of note
. Remembering the end of the “Great War”
HAPPENING THIS WEEKEND:
This weekend sees the final performances of three shows: Apollo’s Fire’s Storms and Tempests, Oberlin Opera Theater’s Offenbach and Rossini double bill, and CIM Opera Theater’s Cendrillon, and the only performance of Opera Western Reserve’s La Bohème.
Among orchestras and instrumental ensembles, on Friday, CityMusic Cleveland plays at Praxis Fiber Workshop and Christopher Wilkins leads the Akron Symphony, and Lahav Shani directs the touring Israel Philharmonic Orchestra on Saturday evening.
On Saturday, the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society International Series presents Australian classical guitarist Rupert Boyd with American cellist Laura Metcalf, and the Cleveland Chamber Choir Octet highlights singers who are also choral conductors. On Sunday, the vocal ensemble Good Company pays tribute to composer Sarah Quartet.
For details of these and many other weekend performances, visit our Concert Listings page.
IN THE NEWS
Cuyahoga Arts & Culture has announced $11.7 million in grants to 273 Cuyahoga County nonprofits, including 27 first-time recipients. The funds include General Operating Support grants, Project Support grants, and Cultural Heritage grants. More details here.
The Cleveland Orchestra has announced details of its inaugural Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: The American Dream. Three concert performances of Puccini’s opera La Fanciulla del West (The Girl of the Golden West) are the centerpiece of the festival. Additional concerts at Severance Music Center feature music of Scott Joplin, Julia Perry, Julius Eastman, William Grant Still, Raven Chacon, and Edgar Varèse. Festival themes will be explored with humanities and cultural partner organizations including Case Western Reserve University, Chautauqua Institution, Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Public Library, City Club of Cleveland, and Karamu House. Details and other events are to be announced in the coming months.
THIS WEEKEND’S ALMANAC:
Never to be forgotten, “The Great War” (to end all wars) ended rather messily with the signing of an armistice at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month in 1918, having “claimed the lives of 116,000 Americans, through combat, disease and other causes, and killed millions more people around the world.” Read an article in The Washington Post here. The U.S. began marking Veterans Day in 1954, now called Memorial Day.
Never a better opportunity to hear (or re-hear) Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, built around WW I war poetry by Wilfrid Owen. Britten himself conducted this live television performance in August, 1964. The work was written for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral (the old building had been destroyed during German bombing in WW II), and received its first performance on May 30, 1962. Let’s leave it at that.
”