ClevelandClassical.com Header
Ad
Ad

The cast of Blind Injustice discuss portraying real people and the power of hope (2nd of 4 articles)

by

by Stephanie Manning

 While the team at Chagrin Arts was in talks to bring Blind Injustice to Northeast Ohio, the question of location became increasingly important. “We talked about doing it in different cities, but it became clear that this needs to happen in Cleveland,” tenor Tim Culver said.

Composed by Scott Davenport Richards with a libretto by David Cote, the 90-minute opera follows the stories of six people who had their convictions overturned with help from the Ohio Innocence Project. Four of them lived in Cleveland or East Cleveland, while the other two lived in neighboring Lorain and Summit counties.

[Read more…]

Opera tailgating at Dunham Tavern Museum

by

by Mike Telin

Whether you’re an opera aficionado, a casual listener, or opera-curious, Cleveland Opera Theater’s Free Summer Concert Series is the way to experience all that the art form has to offer. On Sunday, August 26, gather your friends and family, pack up your blankets and lawn chairs, and head to Cleveland’s MidTown area for an evening of opera favorites at the Dunham Tavern Museum.

The grounds will open at 5:00 pm, and while picnics are welcome, Scott’s Fire and Ice Food Truck will be on hand with wood-fired pizzas and gelato available for purchase. Cleveland Opera Theater will be selling wine, the proceeds of which will benefit the free summer concerts. “It’s opera tailgating at its best,” Scott Skiba, the company’s executive artistic director (no relation to the food truck), said during a recent telephone conversation. “These concerts provide a family-friendly gateway to discover and experience opera. We see that people who have come will often return for a main stage production or our Opera UpClose series.”

At 6:30 pm you can settle in for a program of arias and duets performed by soprano Marian Vogel, tenor Benjamin Werley, baritone Young Kwang Yoo, and pianist Tatiana Loisha. [Read more…]

Master Singers honor the retirement of founder J.D. Goddard (Aug. 12)

by

by Robert Rollin

Last Sunday, August 12, an all-Brahms concert by the Master Singers Chorale and Orchestra at SS. Cosmas and Damian Church in Twinsburg honored the retirement of founding artistic director J.D. Goddard. The afternoon’s high point was the performance of the Fourth Symphony.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and Chorus at Severance Hall (Feb. 25)

by

by Timothy Robson

COYO-Vinay-SideThose who have never heard a concert by the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra and their sibling organization, the Cleveland Orchestra Youth Chorus, have been deprived of a very fine musical experience. Their recent concert at Severance Hall on Sunday, February 25, under their youthful new music director, Vinay Parameswaran, was again proof of the fine training that these young musicians receive from their own teachers as well as from their Cleveland Orchestra coaches. If anything, this concert improved upon past performances. [Read more…]

Overnight review —
Cleveland Opera Theater:
The Marriage of Figaro (April 28)

by

by Mike Telin

COT-FIgaroLast night, Friday, April 28 at Masonic Auditorium, Cleveland Opera Theater scored a win with its latest mainstage production, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. Directed by Scott Skiba, the exceptionally strong cast performed with solid vocal prowess and comedic flair, making for an enjoyable musical as well as theatrical experience. [Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater: a conversation with The Marriage of Figaro’s title character

by

by Mike Telin

Holmes-Christopher“The challenge of performing the role of Figaro is holding onto all of the words, but the character is so much fun,” Christopher Holmes said. “As a baritone, I’m used to playing the bad guy, which is a lot of fun too, but this role is written so well that I’m really looking forward to it.” This week the Oberlin graduate will make his Cleveland Opera Theater debut, singing the title role of Mozart’s popular opera buffa Le nozze di Figaro.

Directed by Scott Skiba, performances will take place at the Cleveland Masonic Auditorium in MidTown on Friday, April 28 at 7:30 pm and Sunday, April 30 at 3:00 pm. Domenico Boyagian will conduct the Cleveland Opera Theater Orchestra and cast, which includes Christopher Holmes as Figaro, Marian Vogel as Susanna, Brian Keith Johnson as Count Almaviva, and Rachel Copeland as Countess Rosina. The opera will be sung in Italian with English supertitles. [Read more…]

BlueWater Chamber Orchestra at Plymouth Church (May 14)

by

by Robert Rollin

VOGEL-MarianLast Saturday evening, May 14, as its final subscription concert of the season, the BlueWater Chamber Orchestra presented a lively and interesting program at the beautiful Plymouth Church in Shaker Heights. Guest conductor Raphael Jiménez replaced artistic director Carlton R. Woods, who was indisposed. [Read more…]

Bohemian Rhapsody: Cleveland Opera Theater’s La bohème at Masonic PAC (April 29)

by

by Nicholas Jones

COT-Boheme-CafePuccini’s La bohème, probably one of the world’s most performed operas, packs a wallop pretty much every time you hear it. This weekend at Cleveland Opera Theater, that was again the case for me. But the emotional ending isn’t the whole of the opera. In its first three acts (and even in the opening of the fourth), La bohème often seems more comic than tragic, more boisterous than tender. Perhaps its mix of contraries, not just its sentiment, is what makes it so powerful. [Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theatre: La bohème — soprano Marian Vogel talks about Musetta

by

by Mike Telin

VOGEL-MarianOn 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  La bohème, directed by Scott Skiba. Conducted by Domenico Boyagian, the opera will be sung in Italian with English subtitles.

Puccini’s opera centers around the writer Rodolfo, the painter Marcello, the musician Schaunard, and the philosopher Colline, who are roommates in an attic apartment in Paris’s Latin Quarter. On Christmas Eve, Schaunard decides to treat his three friends to a night out at Café Momus.

Rodolfo stays behind, and is surprised a few minutes later by a knock at the door. It is the charming seamstress Mimì who lives in a neighboring apartment. Rodolfo later joins his friends with Mimì in tow, but things heat up when Marcello’s on-again, off-again flame Musetta arrives to cause a scene. [Read more…]

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

by

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…]

Follow ClevelandClassical.com

Contact us