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Ohio Light Opera: The Devil’s Rider (July 17)

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

If, like me, you think there can never be too many Viennese-style operettas, you should be pleased with The Devil’s Rider, the latest presentation at Ohio Light Opera. You will also be happy that artistic director Steven Daigle is adept at translating German librettos into English (the original German libretto was by Rudolph Schanzer and Ernst Welisch), so it all makes sense as it proceeds. He has waved his magic wand once again, presenting the 13th OLO premiere of a work by Emmerich Kálmán. This one is also an American premiere. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Pirates of Penzance enchants (July 3)

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Quick — name the only Gilbert & Sullivan operetta to have been written in the United States. Why, it’s The Pirates of Penzance, a delightful tribute to the absent-minded composer Arthur Sullivan. In the late 1870s, Sullivan and Gilbert and other artists, presumably, came to America to premiere their new musical here, after one performance in England, to protect their copyright.  Except that, in rushing around to get on the boat, Sullivan forgot to bring the music. So he simply wrote it all over again. Once that little hangup was out of the way, the show was a triumph all around, and the copyrights (U.K. and U.S.) were indeed protected. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Offenbach’s La Périchole (July 18)

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by Kelly Ferjutz

You’ve heard of “screwball comedies,” right? Well, here’s your chance to see a screwball comedy disguised as an operetta. The sumptuous music is by the German-French master, Jacques Offenbach, and features a sparkling new English translation by OLO’s Jacob Allen. The original French libretto from 1868 is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Offenbach wrote nearly 100 operettas from the 1850s–1870s, on more than a dozen of which Meilhac collaborated, while Halévy assisted on more than twenty. Today, only half a dozen or so are still in the active repertoire. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Fifty Million Frenchmen

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

If you blink during the momentary lights-out between the end of the overture and the curtain going up, you might think you’ve somehow been transported to Paris in 1929. Time-travel, perhaps? Ohio Light Opera’s production of Fifty Million Frenchmen in Freedlander Theater at the College of Wooster is very realistic, to be sure, and totally enjoyable, but then, what’s not to like in a Cole Porter creation?  His insouciant music and beguiling lyrics can support just about any plot imaginable. But this one, by Herbert Fields, is downright perfect. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera launches 2017 season with The Music Man

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

SteveSteven Daigle is the mixmaster-in-chief at Ohio Light Opera, which takes up residence each summer at the College of Wooster. Running a residential repertory company makes things both easier and, at times, more difficult for the Artistic Director, now in his 18th season in that position. He’s an expert at picking one show from column A, and maybe two from B, or three from C, and then building on those choices. Still, no matter how astutely he picks performance possibilities, in the end, the success of a season all comes down to the performers onstage — and in the orchestra pit.

For the vocal part of that process, Daigle primarily relies on associate artistic director Julie Wright Costa, who, in her other life is head of the voice area at the University of Utah School of Music. After winnowing through the myriad applications and videotapes, Julie travels the country holding auditions. This year she visited seven different regions in her ever-elusive search for that perfect candidate. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Yeoman of the Guard or The Merryman and His Maid (July 22)

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by Kelly Ferjutz, special to ClevelandClassical

Yeoman-1897Before opening night, director Julie Wright Costa freely admitted that Yeoman of the Guard was her “very fave of all of Gilbert & Sullivan’s creations.” Having appeared in several productions of it through the years, she was eagerly looking forward to putting her own vision onstage at Ohio Light Opera. And what a splendid vision it is! With a bit of help from conductor J. Lynn Thompson, the production zipped right along, while still allowing everyone time to breathe. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Oh, Kay, a madcap comedy with a bit of everything, set to music by Gershwin

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by Kelly Ferjutz, special to clevelandclassical

OLO-Oh-KayGet your laughter on, as you’ll surely need it in this marvelous recreation of the 1926 Broadway musical that the super-talented Gershwin brothers wrote for the great Gertrude Lawrence. With a book by Guy Bolton and P. G. Wodehouse and a little help from Howard Dietz, Oh, Kay! is, in the words of director Ted Christopher, “a madcap romp — a drawing room comedy, with a  Busby Berkley dance routine in the middle of it.” [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Can-Can (June 20)

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by Kelly Ferjutz, Special to ClevelandClassical

Can-Can1If you’re among the millions who love Paris, whether it drizzles or sizzles — or even if you’re not — you’re bound to love the new production of Can-Can at the Ohio Light Opera. It’s bright and colorful, and, with the witty lyrics of Cole Porter, it’s totally sassy as well. It’s also a huge show, technically, as nearly everyone other than the principals plays double and triple roles, complete with numerous costume changes. This energetic production, helmed by artistic director Steven Daigle, never missed a beat. Act One has ten scenes, while Act Two has seven — daunting indeed. The colorful, bright costumes were designed by Charlene Gross, and the multi-purpose set and picturesque scrim by Cassie King. Lighting design is by Erich Keil. [Read more…]

Review: Ohio Light Opera’s Pirates of Penzance (July 1)

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By J.D. Goddard

Pirates-PosterOn Tuesday, July 1, the house was full and the audience bustled with excitement for Ohio Light Opera’s opening performance of Pirates of Penzance in Freedlander Hall on the campus of Wooster college. The customary standing and singing of “God save the Queen” set the tone for the afternoon’s English fare.  As the curtain raised we were immediately swept into the action, a rocky seashore on the coast of Cornwall, town of Penzance.

The Pirates of Penzance tells the story of Frederic, a young apprentice who was mistakenly indentured to a band of pirates in his youth. At the end of his servitude, Frederic decides to leave the pirates and devote his life to their extermination.  He meets a bevy of beautiful maidens, instantly falling in love with one of them, Mabel. Unfortunately, the pirates reappear and take the maidens captive, leading to a series of increasingly ridiculous plot twists. [Read more…]

Review: Ohio Light Opera’s Die Fledermaus (June 26)

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by Nicholas Jones

FledermausOn a beautiful summer day last week, we drove to Wooster to spend the afternoon in Shangri-La – or, more specifically, to watch Ohio Light Opera’s opening performance of Johann Strauss, Jr.’s comic masterpiece, Die Fledermaus (“The Bat”).

In this blissful concatenation of dance and melody, a marital comedy is played out in a fantasy world of masquerade.  A chambermaid becomes an actress for the evening; a transvestite Russian prince staves off boredom by throwing a lavish ball; a prison is transformed into a party; a squabbling bourgeois couple seems to learn how to fall in love again. [Read more…]

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