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Cleveland Opera Theater: La bohème (first of three articles)

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by Mike Telin

COT-Orchestra-&-Set“La bohème is just a winner,” Cleveland Opera Theatre founder Andrea Anelli said during a rehearsal break at Masonic Auditorium. “It was the first opera the company ever put on. We did it at the Beachwood Middle School Auditorium — semi-staged, no chorus, and just with a piano,” Anelli recalled. “It’s really exciting to see the growth of the past ten years in circling back to that opera, but now doing it with full chorus and full orchestra. It’s a fantastic feeling.”

On Friday, April 29 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, May 1 at 3:00 pm at Masonic Auditorium Performing Arts Center, Cleveland Opera Theater will present Giacomo Puccini’s beloved La bohème, directed by Scott Skiba and conducted by Domenico Boyagian. Lisa Yanofsky is the assistant director. The opera will be sung in Italian with English subtitles. [Read more…]

Opera Western Reserve: Elixir at Stambaugh Auditorium (Nov. 13)

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by Robert Rollin

ElixirLast Friday evening, November 13, Opera Western Reserve presented as its 12th annual production Gaetano Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love (L’elisir d’amore), an opera buffa in two acts. For a dozen years the company has mounted excellent operas, shrewdly limiting itself to a single annual performance and consistently playing to full houses while maintaining high artistic standards. Friday night’s performance was no exception. First-rate lead singers, fine preparation of choral numbers and ensembles, excellent blocking onstage, and a wonderful orchestra all contributed to another resounding success. [Read more…]

Review: Homilius-C.P.E. Bach St. Luke Passion receives its modern premiere in Youngstown

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by Robert Rollin

YSU-PassionOn Monday evening March 31, the audience at Trinity Methodist Church in downtown Youngstown witnessed the first modern performance of Carl Philip Emanuel Bach’s Passion According to St. Luke. The piece is actually attributed to Gottfried August Homilius, a student of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Bach’s contribution was to greatly shorten and rearrange the piece by giving Homilius a list of order and key changes, moving some of the vocal parts to different ranges and eliminating the boy soprano part. It was first performed for Easter, 1775, but the manuscript was forgotten for about two hundred years thereafter.

Prior to the performance Youngstown State University Professor Randall Goldberg, who had partnered in editing the new full score with his former professor, David Melamed of Indiana University, presented a pre-concert talk about the piece. [Read more…]

Review: Opera Western Reserve — La Bohème at Stambaugh Auditorium (November 15)

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by Robert Rollin

Boheme-PosterLast Friday night Opera Western Reserve presented Puccini’s La Bohème in a beautiful Stambaugh Auditorium production, replete with excellent singing, fine dramatic pacing and superlative orchestral accompaniment. Music director Susan Davenny Wyner’s effective conducting, and director/scenic designer David Vosbergh’s attractive sets and lively staging contributed greatly. Now in its tenth year, the company continued to wisely schedule only one performance annually, ensuring houses bursting at the seams. The Friday performance was no different.

Soprano Marian Vogel, who sang the title role in OWR’s 2011 production of Tosca, was terrific as the tragic seamstress Mimi. Tenor Alex Richardson, who sang Cavaradossi in the aforementioned production, returned as the intense poet Rodolfo, expertly tossing off the difficult role.

Soprano Lauren Frey, as Musetta, the sophisticated woman of the world, paired with baritone Michael Young, as Marcello, the painter. Both sang brilliantly, with Frey negotiating the intricacies of her bel canto role with sparkling ease, while Young enlivened the performance with his lovely vocal color. [Read more…]

Review: Opera Circle’s Rigoletto at the Ohio Theater (June 15)

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by J.D. Goddard

OCRigolettoRigolettoBefore performing at a major theater in downtown Cleveland last Saturday for the first time in its 17-year history, Opera Circle logged an impressive record of 47 opera performances in churches and other venues throughout Northeast Ohio. On June 15, Opera Circle brought to the Ohio Theater stage in PlayhouseSquare an adventuresome production of one of the most venerated operas of all time, Giuseppe Verdi’s Rigoletto. In the works for over two years and previously performed on a smaller scale in 2007, Opera Circle’s Rigoletto bravely broke away from the company’s past operational and financial constraints.

The production’s frugal yet effective sets and upstage projections, somewhat restrained lighting and straightforward staging allowed its strong cast of singers to keenly concentrate on the dramatic flow of this most tragic of stories, free from the distraction of flamboyant and opulent sets. [Read more…]

Review: Opera Circle & Cleveland Women’s Orchestra: Barber of Seville at Bohemian National Hall (February 24)

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by Robert Rollin

Thishere past Sunday, Opera Circle in conjunction with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra presented a fine production of Rossini’s Barber of Seville, one of the great comic operas of the Italian repertoire. As with all comic opera, pacing is critical to a successful production, and the Opera Circle Company moved deftly through the four scenes, never bogging down in detail — this despite the extra intermission required by the Bohemian National Hall’s scene-change space limitations. Notwithstanding, the building, with its pre-turn of the century high ceilings, magnificent staircase, and wonderful gallery space, made for a lovely setting. The carefully planned blocking and staging helped the flow, and enhanced the comically-motivated scenario.

Three talented singers led the male dominated cast: baritone John Grey Watson, a Cleveland Institute of Music-trained Northeast Ohio native, was excellent as Figaro. His light baritone range was appropriate to the shrewd, politically savvy barber, who helps thwart the aging Dr. Bartolo’s plans to marry young Rosina, his ward. His experience on an Oberlin-sponsored Italian opera tour no doubt helped his impressive fluidity. He displayed great poise and comfort throughout the opera, from his very opening first-scene aria. The show hinges on his ability to make the canny barber seem real, and he did this with great success. [Read more…]

Opera Circle: Il trovatore at Bohemian National Hall (February 17)

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by Robert Rollin

OCTrovatoreLast Friday night, February 17, Opera Circle joined forces with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra to present Guiseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore at the Bohemian National Hall. Opera Circle is headed by executive director Dorota Sobieska, one of Northeast Ohio’s most talented sopranos, and music director and chorus master Jacek Sobieski, a former music director of Warsaw’s Polish National Theater. Robert Croquist, the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra’s longtime music director, served as conductor. [Read more…]

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