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Mozart’s La finta giardiniera at Baldwin Wallace (Feb. 26)

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by Daniel Hathaway

BW-Finta-1Last Thursday evening, Laura Carlson Tarantowski’s bright set design, beautiful in its classical symmetry, served as a perfect foil to the messy romantic tangles of Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, when Baldwin Wallace Opera’s engaging production opened for four performances in John Patrick Theater. “Welcome to a world of love, lust, disguise, joy, grief, and madness,” director Benjamin Wayne Smith wrote in his program note. “The plot can be confusing,” he added. No kidding! [Read more…]

Baldwin Wallace’s Spring Opera to open this Thursday evening

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by Daniel Hathaway

Smith-Benjamin-WayneThis weekend when Baldwin Wallace presents its Spring Opera, two casts of students will be singing in a work written by a composer younger than themselves. Wolfgang Amadè Mozart finished La finta giardiniera in Munich in 1775 at the age of 18 and saw it performed in January of that year.

“It’s a crazy story, a funny piece with something for everyone — mad scenes, lust, joy, sorrow,” stage director Benjamin Wayne Smith said when I spoke to him recently in his studio. [Read more…]

Review: Baldwin Wallace Opera — Hansel and Gretel (February 20)

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by Daniel Hathaway

BW-H&G3There are paradoxes aplenty in Engelbert Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel — beyond the idea of an edible house. It’s a folk tale with roots in the dark days of the Plague years in medieval Europe collected by the Brothers Grimm but sanitized into a children’s story by the composer’s sister, Adelheid Wette, who wrote the libretto.

It’s a simple tale, but one that was set to complex and sophisticated music by a disciple of Wagner who adopted the technique of Leitmotiv to subliminally suggest characters and themes. The score interested Richard Strauss to the point that he agreed to conduct its premiere in 1893.

It’s a vocally demanding work that calls for experienced singers, but it’s frequently mounted by university and conservatory opera departments who have a bumper crop of women’s voices to cast (Hansel is routinely performed as a trouser role). It calls for a large orchestra — which can cause balance problems against younger singers. [Read more…]

Preview: Baldwin Wallace Opera: Hansel and Gretel — a conversation with director Benjamin Wayne Smith

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by Daniel Hathaway

BW-H&G-Costumes“We started out knowing the story,” said stage director Benjamin Wayne Smith, but then we realized that there’s more there than we all thought — layers and layers. It functions on so many levels. You can bring your six-year-old and they’ll be enchanted with what they see from the naturalistic colors of the first two acts to the garish, bright candy colors of the third act. Plus there’s so much nuance in the music that it appeals both to the seasoned musician and the casual listener. It’s so tuneful you fall in love with it right away.”

Englebert Humperdinck’s operatic version of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel can be played in many different ways, but Smith took his cue from the music in conceptualizing Baldwin Wallace’s production of the show, which opens in the John Patrick Theatre at the Kleist Center in Berea on Thursday evening, February 20 and runs through four performances, ending with a matinee on Sunday, February 23.

“The opera is just not as dark as the original story, especially in its portrayal of Hansel and Gretel’s parents. [Read more…]

Review: An Atmospheric Turn of the Screw at Baldwin Wallace (February 14)

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by Timothy Robson

VenuesSMITH-WILLIAMSON around the world are this year preparing works by Benjamin Britten in honor of his centenary, so it is appropriate that the Opera Department at Baldwin Wallace University is presenting an atmospheric student production of Britten’s The Turn of the Screw for its Spring opera this weekend at the Kleist Center for Art and Drama on the BW campus. The production is directed by Benjamin Wayne Smith and guest conducted by Dean Williamson. The production is double cast; this review is based on Thursday evening’s opening performance. The show runs through Sunday and is reported to be mostly sold out.

The Turn of the Screw (1954) is based on Henry James’s novella of the same name, and relates a series of episodes in the career of a young governess supervising two children, a boy and a girl, in a remote English house, with the assistance of a housekeeper. The Governess comes to believe that the house is haunted by two former servants, Peter Quint, a valet, and Miss Jessel, the previous governess, both of whom died in mysterious circumstances. The ghosts may be preying upon the innocent children, Miles and Flora. [Read more…]

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