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Ohio Light Opera: Pirates of Penzance enchants (July 3)

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Quick — name the only Gilbert & Sullivan operetta to have been written in the United States. Why, it’s The Pirates of Penzance, a delightful tribute to the absent-minded composer Arthur Sullivan. In the late 1870s, Sullivan and Gilbert and other artists, presumably, came to America to premiere their new musical here, after one performance in England, to protect their copyright.  Except that, in rushing around to get on the boat, Sullivan forgot to bring the music. So he simply wrote it all over again. Once that little hangup was out of the way, the show was a triumph all around, and the copyrights (U.K. and U.S.) were indeed protected. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Into the Woods (June 27)

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

There’s a wise old saying: be careful what you wish for — you might just get it. And if that happens, then what do you do? That could well be the theme of Into the Woods, now in rep at Ohio Light Opera through August 9. Once upon a time, Stephen Sondheim wrote lyrics for music that had been composed by others: among them were the classics West Side Story and Gypsy. At some point, he must have realized that writing the music might be more fun. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera premiere: the Gershwins’ Girl Crazy (June 20)

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Has your smile gone on vacation? It might very well regenerate itself at Ohio Light Opera’s zany, colorful, and happy production of Girl Crazy by the Gershwins — George for the music, Ira for the lyrics. If you like dance, in particular tap dancing, then this is the show for you. Don’t spend too much time worrying about the plot — as usual for that era (1930) it doesn’t always make a lot of sense. It’s totally unnecessary, anyway, with all those hit songs and splendiferous dancing. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera season preview: part two

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Unless you’re an aficionado of lyric theater, chances are that the only title you’ll recognize from Ohio Light Opera’s last four productions this summer is the first: Pirates of Penzance, the English import from Gilbert & Sullivan. Not that the other three are exactly chopped liver, or in any way inferior. They’ve just been tucked away in someone’s archives waiting to be re-discovered. All three are Ohio Light Opera premieres.

We’ll get back to Pirates, but the three premieres are truly intriguing. Music in the Air opens July 11. The music is by Jerome Kern (everyone has heard of him) and the lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II, the same Hammerstein who was responsible for South Pacific, which opens the season. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: a look ahead — part one of two previews

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

en·sem·ble /änˈsämbəl/
noun
1. a group of musicians, actors, or dancers who perform together.

That definition perfectly describes the company of magicians who form Ohio Light Opera, a summer organization housed on the campus of The College of Wooster that provides a colorful look at musical theater of the past. Mostly — the past is always encroaching on the present.

Those who follow the company can’t help but be continually impressed by the camaraderie and inclusiveness of the 150 or so musicians, actors, and dancers, as well as the designers who build the sets and costumes, and the technicians who enhance the whole with light and sound and present magic to the audience at every single performance. In fact, there are 56 performances of 7 productions between June 15 and August 10 of imaginary examples of time and space not our own. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera Costume Retrospective showcases four decades of design

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

The importance of costumes in theater or opera is easy to determine. Just think of how often a brief glimpse of a costume can not only tell you when the action is taking place, but frequently where as well. Think of The Mikado, for instance, or more recently, Brigadoon or My Fair Lady. But those costumes don’t just appear like magic.

Oh, no. There are numerous meetings with the other technical staff of the production in addition to Costume Design. Among these are Set and sometimes Prop Design, Lighting Design, more rarely Sound Design, plus the Stage Director, Choreographer, Stage Manager and Conductor. All of these people have an interest in how the production will both look and sound to an audience. Depending on the size of the show, these meetings may begin as much as a year in advance of opening night.

Obviously, I Do! I Do! (the famous two-person, one-set musical of 1966) isn’t nearly as demanding or complex as Phantom of the Opera, but either of them could easily have been ruined by a lack of proper attention to the necessities. For the former, that meant two nightgowns and a huge bed. For the latter, it seemed like half the population of Paris was onstage at times. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera Premiere: Franz Lehár’s Cloclo (July 25)

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical.com

Ohio Light Opera is no stranger to the works of Franz Lehár: prior to this year, seven of his operettas had been performed by the company, the most frequent being his luscious The Merry Widow. Number eight, having opened at Freedlander Theatre on July 25, is Cloclo, which is not in the usual Viennese operetta mode. First off, it takes place in Paris, as well as the French countryside near Perpignan. And written a few years after the end of WWI, its musical sensibility sensibility is a good bit different: it includes jazz, a tango, blues, and even a take-off on the final scene from Fledermaus — not originally written by Lehár. You know the one, when the inmates and jailor are happily mixed with champagne. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Offenbach’s La Périchole (July 18)

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by Kelly Ferjutz

You’ve heard of “screwball comedies,” right? Well, here’s your chance to see a screwball comedy disguised as an operetta. The sumptuous music is by the German-French master, Jacques Offenbach, and features a sparkling new English translation by OLO’s Jacob Allen. The original French libretto from 1868 is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy. Offenbach wrote nearly 100 operettas from the 1850s–1870s, on more than a dozen of which Meilhac collaborated, while Halévy assisted on more than twenty. Today, only half a dozen or so are still in the active repertoire. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera: Bernstein’s Candide (July 11)

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by Timothy Robson

Ohio Light Opera’s production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide is in the midst of a repertory run through early August in the Friedlander Theatre at the College of Wooster. It is a splendid affair in every regard, and I can recommend it without reservation. The principal roles are double-cast — I saw it with the July 11 ensemble. [Read more…]

Ohio Light Opera continues season
with Iolanthe, La Périchole & Cloclo

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by Kelly Ferjutz
Special to ClevelandClassical

Once the glitter and glitz of opening night and getting the season up on its feet is in the past, Ohio Light Opera settles into the imported, more traditional, part of the season. As it happened, the first four productions were all from the American Lyric Theater.  Now we’ll be treated to Iolanthe, a not-so-well-known Gilbert & Sullivan; La Périchole by the French master, Offenbach, and closing the season will be a Viennese confection by Franz Lehár. Cloclo (an OLO premiere) is a sort of step-sister to The Merry Widow.

Any operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan is full of confusion, disguises, mistaken identities, and so forth, and all set to wonderful music, of course. But Iolanthe seems to go a bit over the top.  In this one, the women are all fairies, or ‘peri’, while the men are all Peers of the Realm, always in full regalia, no matter the setting or purpose. It’s really a dandy battle of the sexes – in disguise. First there was Iolanthe, herself, falling in love with a peer, who turns out to be the Lord High Chancellor.  They have a son, Strephon, who is a fairy above the waist but his legs are mortal.  [Read more…]

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