by Jarrett Hoffman
IN THIS EDITION:
•Today: OLO’s Camelot
•Announcements: CIPC for Young Artists winners (pictured), R.I.P. Yuzo Toyama and Irene Sharp
•Almanac: Kurt Masur and Nkeiru Okoye
HAPPENING TODAY:
Catch Ohio Light Opera‘s production of Camelot at 2:00 at Freelander Theatre in Wooster. Read Daniel Hathaway’s review here, and get tickets here.
by Mike Telin
The presentation of new and recently composed operas has been part of Cleveland Opera Theater’s mission since it was founded in 2006. Beginning on Friday, January 20, the company will launch its first festival dedicated to new opera works.
Scott Skiba, executive artistic director of COT, said that this year’s {New Opera Works} Festival features works that are in the beginning, middle, and ending stages of development. “Federico García Lorca’s final play, The House of Bernarda Alba, is in the initial stages of being adapted into an opera, and there will be a reading of the English translation by Lorca scholar Caridad Svich,” Skiba said during a recent interview.
Representing the middle period of development will be a preview of Scene Three from composer Nkeiru Okoye’s and librettist David Cote’s new opera We’ve Got Our Eye on You. “This will be a teaser of the complete opera, which will be presented during next year’s {NOW} Festival,” Skiba said. A recently completed work at the Festival will be Amelia Lost, a new opera by Larry Delinger and Brad Carroll which had its world premiere in Knoxville back in 2014 (pictured above). [Read more…]
by Nicholas Jones
Opera is a great medium for exploring the courage of acting for freedom and the personal cost of heroic resistance. There is something built into the art form that deepens our view of even the most resolute of actions, showing us the often tragic consequences of taking the courageous path. We can hardly hear Vissi d’arte without understanding both Tosca’s heroism and the pain that comes with it. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
When composer Nkeiru Okoye first began thinking about setting the life of Harriet Tubman to music she was certain it would take the form of an oratorio. “When I first had the idea to tell her story in music, I thought I would link spirituals together with some dialogue, and I would have this amazing piece,” Okoye told us during a telephone conversation from New Paltz, N.Y., where she is Director of Music Theory and Composition at SUNY New Paltz. “But I found out that that piece had been written already, so I needed to find a different angle.”
Over the next two weekends, Northeast Ohio audiences can experience the story of Harriet Tubman when Cleveland Opera Theater’s New Opera Works, in collaboration with Oberlin Opera Theater, presents the Midwest premiere of Nkeiru Okoye’s Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom. The opera is presented as part of Oberlin College’s Africana Unity and Celebration Month. Harriet Tubman, which premiered in New York City in February 2014, tells the story of the influential former slave and her rise to a pivotal role in the Underground Railroad. [Read more…]
by Mike Telin
Over the next two weekends Northeast Ohio audiences are in for an operatic treat when Cleveland Opera Theater’s New Opera Works, in collaboration with Oberlin Opera Theater, presents the Midwest premiere of Nkeiru Okoye’s Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed that Line to Freedom. The opera is presented as part of Oberlin College’s Africana Unity and Celebration Month.
“What grabbed me about the opera is its accessibility, and the fact that it is a genuine opera that was meant to be sung by operatic voices. It’s the kind of opera that an audience can really get caught up in. Everybody is going to enjoy it,” stage director Jonathon Field said during a recent conversation. [Read more…]