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Cleveland Chamber Symphony features works by Margaret Brouwer (Apr. 19)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

Margaret Brouwer’s music has become a fixture in Northeast Ohio — distinctive, unmistakable, and not easily pinned down. She goes her own way, with stylistic diplomacy: borrowing freely, but never pledging allegiance to any one camp.

On Sunday, April 19, Steven Smith led the Cleveland Chamber Symphony in three works by Brouwer as part of NEOSonicFest, its annual spring exposition of new sounds, at Disciples Christian Church in Cleveland Heights.

First up was Donald Erb’s Harold’s Trip to the Sky (1974). Scored for viola, piano, and percussion, Erb treats the ensemble less as a traditional trio than as three independent voices. The title makes a nod to Lord Byron’s Harold but Erb’s piece doesn’t tell a story. It unfolds in episodes: the viola climbing and exploring, the piano holding its ground, the percussion commenting, like Puck, with wry asides. [Read more…]

Music gives voice to the unspoken in Two Remain (Sept. 26)

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by Stephanie Manning

“For some melodies, there are no words.”

More than just an inner monologue, this lyric from Jake Heggie’s Two Remain is really the thesis of the entire opera.

Telling the stories of two Auschwitz survivors through music is no easy task. But Heggie’s work approaches the subject with sensitivity and lyricism — as did the cast and crew of the Nightingale Opera Theatre on September 28.

After performances in Australia this summer, the production came to Cleveland for a one-night-only performance at Congregation Mishkan Or in Beachwood. [Read more…]

She Scores: a dazzling display from composers & performers (June 2)

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by Kevin McLaughlin

You might have gone to the Sunday, June 2 She Scores concert to hear exemplary works by female and nonbinary composers, or simply to enjoy some fresh new sounds. But once there, you would have stayed for the dazzling expertise on display, from both composers and performers alike.

Credit the Local 4 Music Fund and executive director Amber Rogers for organizing the fourth annual iteration of this splendid concert series, which ran from May 30-June 2 in CIM’s lovely Mixon Hall. Genre or gender aside, this was an afternoon of superb music.

Margi Griebling-Haigh’s Triskaidekaphilia (“love of the number thirteen”) for three violins made for an arresting and mathematical start. Violinists Ken Johnston, Leah Goor-Burtnett, and Emily Cornelius drew out the composer’s introspective and playful sides in this well-crafted three-movement work. [Read more…]

Nightingale Opera Theatre: Menotti’s The Consul in Hudson (July 21)

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by Timothy Robson

WaitingRoomGian Carlo Menotti’s 1950 cold-war era opera The Consul received a strong performance on July 21 by the Nightingale Opera Theatre at the intimate Barlow Community Center theater in Hudson. [Read more…]

Nightingale Opera Theatre: Mark Adamo’s Little Women at Hudson’s Barlow Center (July 16)

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by Daniel Hathaway

FourSistersA strong cast of singer-actors and superb production values made Nightingale Opera Theatre’s recent production of Mark Adamo’s Little Women a beautiful experience. I saw the second of two performances in the intimate theater of the Barlow Community Center in Hudson on Sunday afternoon, July 16. [Read more…]

Nightingale Opera to stage Little Women: thoughts from executive director Melissa Davis

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by Daniel Hathaway

Little-Women-SetMark Adamo’s Little Women, his first attempt at an opera, turned out to be a composer’s dream project. It is based on Adamo’s own adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s story of four New England sisters coming of age during the American Civil War. The piece was workshopped at Houston Grand Opera in 1998, then given a full production there in 2000. With more than 70 productions to date, including a version filmed for national television, Little Women has gone on to become one of the most-produced new operas of our time. Nine productions will have taken place in 2015-2016 alone.

Nightingale Opera Theatre will bring Little Women to the stage of Hudson’s Barlow Community Center on Friday, July 15 at 7:30 pm and on Sunday, July 17 at 2:30 pm. [Read more…]

Review: La Cambiale di Matrimonio at Kent/Blossom Festival (July 18)

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by Mike Telin

Rossini-CambialeAfter a nearly thirty-year absence, vocal music returned to the Kent/Blossom Festival on Saturday, July 18 in Ludwig Recital Hall, and what an enjoyable afternoon it was. In fact, there are so many good things to say it’s difficult to know where to begin. Let’s start with the delightful musical selection — Rossini’s first professional opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio or The Marriage Contract, performed in a costumed concert version sung in Italian with English supertitles (Sarah Harvey). [Read more…]

Kent/Blossom Festival to perform Rossini’s first opera (July 18)

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by Mike Telin

Culver-Johnson-ElixirWhat do you do if you’re running a summer music festival and you discover that for one week, the majority of your teachers will be unavailable to coach ensembles and give private lessons? The obvious answer is to present an opera! On Saturday, July 18 at 3:00 pm in Ludwig Recital Hall, vocal music returns to the Kent/Blossom Music Festival when festival director Charles Latshaw will lead the Kent/Blossom Chamber Orchestra and soloists in a concert version of Giaochino Rossini’s first opera, La Cambiale di Matrimonio.

“It is an exciting undertaking, but there were a lot of things that came together in order for it to happen,” Charles Latshaw said during a telephone conversation. “This year we had a unique challenge and opportunity in that The Cleveland Orchestra is in New York this week as part of the Lincoln Center Festival, which left us with fewer coaches for that period of time. We talked about different options, and in the end we decided to bring opera back to the festival, and I think the audience is going to be receptive to the idea.” [Read more…]

Review: Nightingale Opera Theatre: Hansel and Gretel at the Barlow Center, Hudson (June 29)

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by Daniel Hathaway

WitchIntoOvenWarning to all witches: you’re courting danger if you try to turn children into gingerbread in Northeast Ohio. You’ve been punished for that many times recently — at the Cleveland Institute of Music (March 2012), at Youngstown State University (April 2013), at the Oberlin Conservatory (November 2013) and at Baldwin Wallace University (February 2014). The children rebelled once again last weekend at the Barlow Center in Hudson, as Nightingale Opera Theatre staged three performances of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel. And once again, the witch didn’t survive the trip through her own oven. I saw the show, which was sung in English, on Sunday, June 29.

It was talented student casts who turned the tables on the sorceress in those previous performances. Nightingale, a company of professional singers, brought an especially high level of vocal prowess and acting experience to Humperdinck’s retelling of the famous fairy tale, while retaining the feel of a community production by casting young human beings as children and angels. [Read more…]

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