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Cleveland Opera Theater: Amahl and the Night Visitors 

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by Mike Telin

What’s on your list of favorite holiday classics? The ones you remember from childhood and — as an adult — still look forward to seeing. My list begins with Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, followed by Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. And I still enjoy How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Charlie Brown Christmas — especially Vince Guaraldi’s musical score.

Another I remember fondly is Gian Carlo Menotti’s Amahl and the Night Visitors.  Commissioned by NBC, the one act, made-for-television opera, premiered on December 24, 1951, at the network’s studios in New York’s Rockefeller Center. And now, through the wonders of technology, Cleveland Opera Theater has created a magical new production of the work which is available on demand through January 6, 2021 (Three Kings Day). [Read more…]

Opera Western Reserve: Macbeth at Stambaugh (Nov. 15)

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by Robert Rollin

On Friday evening, November 15, Opera Western Reserve delivered an excellent performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth at Stambaugh Auditorium. The lead singers were exceptional, as was conductor Susan Davenny Wyner’s splendid orchestra. Barbara Luce’s costumes were lively and added color to the darkly sad subject. Blocking and stage presence were outstanding, but constrained by the presence of a single set that never really changed. This limited the production, despite imaginative lighting effects.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater moves to Playhouse Square with La Bohème (Sept. 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Puccini’s La Bohème was produced 598 times worldwide during the 2017-2018 season, making it the fourth most-performed title in the repertoire (trailing La traviata, Carmen, and The Magic Flute). It’s also the show that Cleveland Opera Theater chose for its move from venues like the Masonic Auditorium and the Maltz Performing Arts Center to the Ohio Theater, a more traditionally-outfitted house. On Friday, September 13, Scott Skiba’s clever production surrounded a fine cast with memorable scenic design by Matthew D. McCarren and projections by Brittany Merenda that brought a Parisian garret, the Café Momus, and a toll gate outside the city vividly to life in Playhouse Square.

[Read more…]

The Cleveland Opera’s Porgy and Bess: a conversation with conductor Darwin Aquino

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by Daniel Hathaway

The Cleveland Opera (formerly Opera Circle) will conclude its season with a single performance of George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess at the Ohio Theater in Playhouse Square on Saturday, June 1 at 7:30 pm.

Adapted from Dorothy and DuBose Heyward’s 1925 novel and later play, Porgy, the piece debuted in Boston in September of 1935, then moved on to Broadway. The character of subsequent productions veered back and forth between opera and musical theater until a 1976 Houston Grand Opera version solidly re-established the work as what the composer himself called a “folk opera.”

The Cleveland performance, featuring Jonathan Stuckey as Porgy, and Karen Clark Green as Bess, will be led by Dominican-born conductor Darwin Aquino. He’s now based in St. Louis, where he works with several opera companies, a symphony orchestra, and two university orchestras. I reached him by telephone in Cleveland to chat about the Gershwins’ famous opera, which he’ll be conducting for the first time. [Read more…]

Opera Western Reserve presents Porgy and Bess at Stambaugh (March 9)

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by Robert Rollin

PorgyandBess1Last Friday evening, March 9, Opera Western Reserve joined The Warren Philharmonic for an outstanding performance of George & Ira Gershwin’s iconic Porgy and Bess at Stambaugh Auditorium. Karen Clark Green and David Vosburgh, collaborating as stage directors, successfully propelled the action along. [Read more…]

Opera Western Reserve: Lucia at Stambaugh (Nov. 10)

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by Robert Rollin

music-directorLast Friday night Opera Western Reserve presented Gaetano Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor at Stambaugh Auditorium, sung in Italian with production director David Vosburgh’s fine supertitles. The excellent cast, coupled with Susan Davenny Wyner’s adroit conducting, a terrific orchestra, and Austin Pendleton’s well-paced staging, made for a very successful single performance. [Read more…]

Nightingale Opera Theatre: Donizetti’s The Elixir of Love in Hudson (June 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Adina-reading-TristanThe Elixir of Love, one of Donizetti’s most-performed operas, makes use of a time-honored device: a magic potion that causes people to fall in love. This time, the concoction is peddled by a quack doctor to a gullible gardener who is hopelessly in love with his employer. A manufactured love triangle involving a soldier and a series of misunderstandings complicate the plot, but after more than two hours of delightful, bel canto singing, everything gets sorted out and the right people get married. Nightingale Opera Theatre’s beautiful production of Elixir was presented one night only, on Saturday, June 13, in Knight Fine Arts Center at Western Reserve Academy in Hudson. [Read more…]

Nightingale Opera Theatre to produce Donizetti’s Elixir in Hudson June 13

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by Daniel Hathaway

Elixir-PosterHudson’s Nightingale Opera Theatre will mark its move into a new venue at Western Reserve Academy on Saturday, June 13 at 7:30 pm with a production of Gaetano Donizetti’s “melodramma giocoso,” The Elixir of Love.

One of the top comic operas of all time, Elixir was the most-performed opera in Europe during the decade following its premiere in 1832, and unlike many titles, has never fallen off the charts.

In a telephone conversation, we asked Melissa Davis, Nightingale’s artistic director, why she chose the piece for the company’s summer production. “We wanted to do a show with a smaller principal cast this year,” she said. “Tim Culver, the tenor who will be singing the role of Nemorino, told me, ‘I just really love Elixir. Have you thought about doing that?’ I’ve performed the opera three times in my career and remember it so fondly. It has such great music and such a fun plot. We decided to go with it.” [Read more…]

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