by J.D. Goddard
Since 1997, with its first production of I Pagliacci, Opera Circle has produced an impressive record of more than 50 opera productions in churches and other venues throughout Northeast Ohio. On June 13, Opera Circle brought to the Ohio Theater stage in PlayhouseSquare a somewhat subtle production of one of the most revered titles of all time, Giacomo Puccini’s three act opera, Madama Butterfly, with libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa. Like other works staged in the past two years, Opera Circle’s Butterfly courageously moved the company forward, enhancing its presence as an operatic staple in Cleveland’s classical music scene. This marked the company’s third performance in the Ohio Theater. [Read more…]
“This is my first time singing Don Pasquale,” Polish-born bass Pawel Izdebski said in a recent phone conversation, “although I have done concert performances of the famous duet with Norina and the Act II Finale, so I already knew about a third of the role.
In just over an hour, betrayal and jealousy in a Sicilian village spill over into tragedy in Pietro Mascagni’s one-act classic opera, Cavalleria rusticana — all the while accompanied by some gorgeous music. Opera Circle staged two performances of “Cav” last weekend at First Baptist Church in Shaker Heights. I saw the opening performance on Friday evening, November 21. 
Opera Circle staged an enticing production of Erich Korngold’s Die tote Stadt (“The Dead City”) on Saturday, June 14 at the Ohio Theatre in PlayHouseSquare. The opera is something of a rarity, probably because of the challenges of dealing with the eerie subtleties of its plot, its demand for a Heldentenor to sing the role of Paul, and its opulent 1920s orchestration. Die tote Stadt is a major undertaking for any small company, but Opera Circle admirably rose to the task.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold isn’t exactly a household name, but you’ve probably heard music by him or imitating him. Korngold, an Austrian composer active in the first half of the twentieth century, is best known in the US for his scores of such Hollywood films as The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Prince and the Pauper in the ‘30s and ‘40s. As the distinguished music journalist Donald Rosenberg said in a phone interview, “He really changed the whole trajectory of film scores by writing very lushly for the orchestra, using it almost as a character in the drama, and by writing scores that were essentially operatic, with themes for different characters.”