by Daniel Hathaway
Whether you know her as Cendrillon, Aschenbrödel, La Cenerentola, La Cenicienta, Soluschka, or, most likely, Cinderella, the story of that downtrodden stepchild is an irresistible fairy tale. It’s been turned into many operas, but perhaps most magically by Jules Massenet in his Cendrillon, beautifully produced by Oberlin Opera Theater last Wednesday evening at its opening performance in Hall Auditorium. [Read more…]
by Julie Anna Gulenko
Reprinted with permission from the
Oberlin College & Conservatory News Center
Oberlin Opera Theater aims to please seasoned patrons and first-timers alike with its spring production of Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon, which will be performed four times March 8 through 12 at Oberlin College & Conservatory’s Hall Auditorium.
Capturing all the magic and whimsy of the original tale of Cinderella, Oberlin’s production provides opera director Jonathon Field with the opportunity to engage audiences young and not-so-young.
“This is the perfect show for young people who have not seen opera before, and we have made it accessible for families of all ages,” says Field (below), who is hailed for his sometimes fantastically untraditional approaches to traditional repertoire. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
Just before the lights dimmed in Hall Auditorium on Wednesday evening, March 9, a young couple in the row behind me commented on the plot synopsis for George Frideric Handel’s Alcina. “I read it before I auditioned for the opera,” one of them said, “and I never figured it out.” The other replied, “I just read it now, and I don’t have a clue!” [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“There’ve always been stories about the young soldier who leaves his native country to go fight in a distant land but then becomes immersed in that land’s culture, and for whatever reason loses himself and his purpose,” Oberlin Opera Theatre Director Jonathon Field said during an interview. “That’s exactly what happens in Alcina — you have Ruggiero, who flies on a griffin onto this island and becomes enchanted with the sorceress Queen Alcina.”
On Wednesday, March 9 at 8:00 pm in Hall Auditorium, and continuing on Friday and Saturday at 8:00 pm and Sunday at 2:00 pm, conductor Christopher Larkin will lead the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra and two all-star casts in Handel’s fantastical opera Alcina. [Read more…]
by Daniel Hathaway
German-American composer Kurt Weill called his Street Scene an opera, but there are enough influences from the other side of musical theater to make the piece an intriguing hybrid. Oberlin Opera Theater explored all the facets of Weill’s 1947 “Broadway opera” in its masterful production in Hall Auditorium on Wednesday evening. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
“I love Albert Herring because these are my people,” exclaimed Jonathon Field, director of Oberlin Opera Theater, in a recent telephone conversation. “I remember having tea with my grandfather in the little town of Leatherhead in Surrey, England. I know these people inside and out!” On Wednesday, March 12 at 8:00 pm at Hall Auditorium, Oberlin Opera Theater presents the opening night performance of Benjamin Britten’s acclaimed chamber opera Albert Herring.
The opera’s lively tale is filled with comic characters ranging from dully straitlaced to scandalously mischievous. Audience members will find themselves rooting for timid Albert, the most unlikely of heroes, whose secret longing for excitement turns the town upside down. “It’s about knowing you need to make a change in life, and getting that push to actually do it,” Field said, adding that “Britten’s operas always have an oppressed innocent. By the end, Albert sort of tells everybody off and breaks the chains that bind him.”
Composed in the winter of 1946 and the spring of 1947, Britten’s three-act comic opera is set in the English village of Loxford in 1947. [Read more…]