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CIM Opera Theater: Don Giovanni (Apr. 23)

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by Peter Feher

It’s hard not to be enamored with Don Giovanni, Mozart’s supreme realization of passion, danger, and desire in music. And CIM Opera Theater made falling in love with this 1787 masterpiece the most natural thing thanks to a splendid production at Playhouse Square last week.

Taking the stage of the Mimi Ohio Theatre on Wednesday, April 23, for the first of two performances, the largely student cast seemed to be discovering the drama afresh. The story of the cad and lecher Don Juan has been told countless times, but the Italianate version that Mozart crafted with librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte remains the most viscerally immediate, even centuries later.

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CIM Opera Theater presents Don Giovanni (Part 2)

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by Mike Telin

On April 23 and 25 at 7:00 pm in Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre, CIM Opera Theatre will present Mozart’s masterpiece Don Giovanni. The show is directed by JJ Hudson and conducted by Harry Davidson. Tickets are available online.

In this article, Hudson introduces CIM alum Brian Myer, who will sing the title role, and Andrew Hiers, who plays the Commendatore. We also hear from cast members Kiana Lilly (Donna Anna) and Caroline Friend (Zerlina).

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CIM Opera Theater presents Don Giovanni

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by Mike Telin

“He is like the great seducer — Don Juan — and there is cosmic revenge taken on him. But he does his best to ruin many lives in the process.” This is how JJ Hudson, interim artistic director of CIM Opera Theater, described the title character of Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni.

On April 23 and 25 at 7:00 pm in Playhouse Square’s Mimi Ohio Theatre, CIM Opera Theatre will present Mozart’s masterpiece. The show is directed by Hudson and conducted by Harry Davidson. Tickets are available online.

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CIM Opera Theater: Direct from the Headlines — Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters

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by Mike Telin

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the CIM Opera Theater’s performances of  Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters on February 1 and 2, 2025, at the Cleveland Museum of Art have been canceled. Refunds are being issued to all ticket holders.

“As an artistic and stage director who enjoys telling stories, this is a very compelling work and something that our students can sink their dramatic teeth into. It’s also a piece that audiences can get lost in, and ask questions about as the story goes along.”

That’s how CIM Opera Theater’s interim artistic director JJ Hudson characterized Nico Muhly’s Dark Sisters in a telephone interview. In his synopsis, the composer notes that the 2009 work — his first opera — follows one woman’s dangerous attempt to escape her life as a member of the FLDS Church (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints), a sect that split from mainstream Mormonism in the early 20th Century, largely because of the LDS Church’s renunciation of polygamy. [Read more…]

CIM Opera: all smiles in L’Étoile (Nov. 17)

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by Stephanie Manning

A black box theater might not be the first-choice location for an opera — but with a clever creative team, a smaller production can still get big results. Audiences at the Westfield Studio Theater on November 17 know this firsthand thanks to the Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater’s scaled-down L’Étoile, which came wrapped in a bundle of laughs and topped with a ribbon of genuine heart.

It’s true that the Playhouse Square venue — the CIM company’s temporary home while their primary hall is under construction — wasn’t ideal. Interrupted sightlines, occasional volume disparities, and the lack of a proper curtain simply had to be par for the course. But artistic director JJ Hudson’s choice of a comedic opera, especially one that relies on spoken dialogue and physical comedy as heavily as this one by Emmanuel Chabrier, was the perfect decision. [Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater to stage Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’étoile

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by Mike Telin

“It’s an incredibly charming work and unabashedly silly,” stage director JJ Hudson said about CIM’s forthcoming production of Emmanuel Chabrier’s L’étoile. “There’s so much vitality and it’s full of great, catchy melodies.”

On Saturday, November 16 at 7:00 pm, CIM Opera Theater will present Chabrier’s comic opera at Westfield Studio Theatre in Playhouse Square, sung in French with English dialogue. Harry Davidson conducts the CIM Orchestra. The production will be repeated on Sunday at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Unabashedly silly? Here’s what happens. [Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater: Glory Denied at the Cleveland Museum of Art (Jan. 27)

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by Sicily Xiao

Based on the book by Tom Philpott, Tom Cipullo’s  two-act, 80-minute chamber opera Glory Denied tells the true story of Jim Thompson, the longest-held prisoner of war in U.S. military history, as he tries to re-assimilate into American life after spending nine years behind enemy lines in Vietnam.

What keeps Jim going is his loyalty to his country and the memory of his beloved wife, Alyce, and their children. At the same time, without any message from her husband, Alyce needs to find a new life for herself and her children, eventually moving to Massachusetts with another man.

After Colonel Thompson was released, his status as the longest-held POW was ignored, costing him the acclaim he deserved. When he finally returns to the United States, he is faced with the reality that the country has changed during his years of imprisonment in ways that are too much for him to adapt to.

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CIM Opera Theater to present Glory Denied: a conversation with director Kathryn Frady

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by Mike Telin

After serving their country, many veterans are faced with multiple challenges as they re-adjust to civilian life. At the top of that list is reconnecting with and re-establishing a role in the family and in society. These issues will be addressed this weekend when the Cleveland Institute of Music presents Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied on Saturday, January 27 at 3:00 pm at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Gartner Auditorium. The production will be repeated on Sunday, also at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

Based on the book by Tom Philpott, the two-act, 80-minute chamber opera tells the true story of Jim Thompson, the longest-held prisoner of war in U.S. military history, as he tries to re-assimilate into American life after spending nine years behind enemy lines in Vietnam.

“Glory Denied is undeniably one of the most performed American operas of our time,” guest stage director Kathryn Frady said by telephone. “Companies everywhere are doing it.”

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CIM Opera Theater explores a Baroque fantasy world of love and magic with student production of Handel’s Alcina

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by Mike Telin
This article was originally published in the Plain Dealer/Cleveland.com

“Fantasy and opera go hand-in-hand really well,” CIM Opera Theater interim director JJ Hudson said during a telephone call. And when it comes to fantasy, the Cleveland Institute of Music’s upcoming production of George Frederick Handel’s Alcina is all about fantasy. “We’re not downplaying the various reversals of fortune via magic — that’s part of the fun, and we want this show to be fun,” says Hudson.

Still, Hudson does think the opera’s plot is a little bizarre. The story takes place on a magical island belonging to the sorceress Alcina, who seduces every man who comes along, only to turn them into rocks or wild animals once she’s grown tired of their company.

Her most recent victim is the knight Ruggiero, which causes his fiancée Bradamante and her guardian Melisso to follow him to the island. Disguised as a man named Ricciardo, she attempts to free Ruggiero with the help of a magic ring. The plan goes astray when Alcina’s sister Morgana becomes smitten with Ricciardo and dumps her lover Oronte. [Read more…]

CIM Opera Theater: Dialogues des Carmélites (Mar. 5) 

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by Daniel Hathaway

CIM opera theater presented Francis Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music twice earlier this month in a production directed by JJ Hudson with Harry Davidson and the CIM Orchestra in the pit. I attended the matinee performance on Sunday, March 5.

A theater piece based on such a true story — the mass execution of a convent of Carmelite Nuns at Compiègne during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution — may seem an odd choice for a student production, but in practice, the piece is a gift for opera departments like CIM’s that are long on female voices.

The dark and serious subject matter may also seem an odd choice for the composer, whose musical style frequently leans toward the popular and theatrical (think of the ending of the “Laudamus te” from his Gloria, where the music seems about to morph into a Cha-Cha!).

[Read more…]

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