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The Cleveland Opera to present Mozart’s Don Giovanni April 7 & 8

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by Mike Telin

SobieskaBeginning with its production of Mozart’s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail in 1989, the company formerly known as Opera Circle Cleveland has presented eight of the composer’s musical dramas. This week, under the company’s new name, The Cleveland Opera will complete their survey of the Mozart-Da Ponte operas with two performances of Don Giovanni on April 7 and 8 at 7:30 pm at First Baptist Church.

“Knowing the challenges the opera presents, we’ve always said that we would produce Don Giovanni later, but now is the time,” executive artistic director Dorota Sobieska said during a telephone interview. “This is my favorite of the Da Ponte operas — the music is pure magic and it fits each character perfectly.” [Read more…]

A weekend of short(ened) operas from Opera Circle, Kent, and Baldwin Wallace

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by Daniel Hathaway

zanetto-st-stanNovember became Northeast Ohio’s unofficial Opera Month as a number of institutions unveiled productions during the first two weeks. Particularly dense was the weekend of November 4-6, when Opera Circle Cleveland, Kent State Opera, and Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater — in cooperation with Cleveland Opera Theater — all brought titles to the stage. [Read more…]

Six opera productions hit the boards this month, four clustering on the weekend of November 4-6

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by Daniel Hathaway

serseOpera fans in Northeast Ohio will enjoy a bumper crop of productions this harvest-time. Six shows, two of them double-bills, will open between November 2 and 11. We’ll be running separate previews for Oberlin Opera Theater’s Donizetti/Poulenc evenings (November 2,4, 5, and 6), for CIM Opera’s Puccini/Menotti performances (November 9-11) and for Opera Western Reserve’s single performance of Carmen (November 11).

But let’s take a look at the busiest opera weekend of the year. Baldwin Wallace’s Serse, Kent State Opera’s scenes from The Magic Flute, and the first pair of a dozen performances of Mascagni’s Zanetto by Opera Circle Cleveland, plus the remaining Oberlin Opera performances, all fall on the weekend of November 4-6. With some astute planning, you can catch a performance of each of them. Here’s a rundown of the BW/COT, Kent State, and Opera Circle productions. [Read more…]

Opera Circle Cleveland goes al fresco in the Italian Cultural Garden July 31

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by Neil McCalmont

OCCItalianGardens2015If you were to travel to Italy in the summer and jaunt through their Renaissance gardens, you would hear the Italian people speaking their lovely language, water rushing through fountains, and concerts of gorgeous music. That delightful atmosphere will waft through Cleveland’s Italian Cultural Garden during a special opera concert of operatic arias and ensemble numbers on Sunday, July 31 at 6 pm.

“Opera in the Italian Garden” will be presented by Opera Circle Cleveland and the Cleveland Ballet, carrying on the tradition that originally began in the 1930s, and was revived in 2008. “We thought that nobody was going to show up,” said Joyce Mariani, Executive Director of the Italian Cultural Garden Foundation, over a recent telephone call. “But over 200 people came. The next year it more than doubled to 500, and last year we had an audience of 2,000. The audience makes the event what it is. We just present it.” [Read more…]

Opera Circle Cleveland: Il trovatore at the Ohio Theatre (June 11)

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by Daniel Hathaway

TentOn Saturday, June 11, four years after Opera Circle Cleveland first took on Il trovatore at Bohemian National Hall, the company revisited the opera — one of Verdi’s most popular titles — at the Ohio Theatre in PlayHouse Square. A strong cast of singers and a fine professional orchestra led by Joel Smirnoff lifted the production well above some shortcomings of staging. [Read more…]

Opera Circle Cleveland: Jorge Pita Carreras and Christina Carr talk about their first plunges into opera

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by Mike Telin

CARR-CARRERAS“What do I enjoy about singing Verdi? Oh my gosh, everything about it,” tenor Jorge Pita Carreras exclaimed during a recent interview. On Saturday, June 11 at 7:30 pm at the Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Square, Carreras will perform the role of Manrico in Opera Circle Cleveland’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore. Mezzo-soprano Christina Carr, who will perform the role of Azucena, shares Carreras’s feelings about the composer’s music. “There’s just something about the way Verdi approaches the emotional side of his music that brings you along. It’s just wonderful,” she said during a separate interview.

Based on a Spanish play by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez adapted by Verdi’s librettist Salvatore Cammarano, the opera is the middle child in the trio of popular titles Verdi produced in the early 1850s, preceded by Rigoletto and followed by La traviata. Joel Smirnoff will conduct the Opera Circle Orchestra and a cast that will also include baritone Kevin Wetzel as Il Conte di Luna, soprano Dorota Sobieska as Leonora, bass Nathan Resika as Ferrando, tenor Brian Skoog as Ruiz, and soprano Lauren Wright as Inez. [Read more…]

Opera Circle Cleveland: a conversation With Il trovatore conductor Joel Smirnoff

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by Mike Telin

SMIRNOFF-JoelFor its season finale, Opera Circle Cleveland will present Giuseppe Verdi’s Il trovatore on Saturday, June 11 at 7:30 pm at the Ohio Theatre in Playhouse Square. Based on a Spanish play by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez adapted by Verdi’s librettist Salvatore Cammarano, the opera is the middle child in the trio of popular titles Verdi produced in the early 1850s, preceded by Rigoletto and followed by La traviata.

Joel Smirnoff will conduct the Opera Circle Orchestra and a cast including tenor Jorge Pita Carreras as Manrico, baritone  Kevin Wetzel as Il Conte di Luna, mezzo-soprano Christina Carr as Azucena, soprano Dorota Sobieska as Leonora, bass Nathan Resika as Ferrando, tenor Brian Skoog as Ruiz, and soprano Lauren Wright as Inez.   [Read more…]

Opera Circle Cleveland’s Il trovatore: insights from Christina Carr & Jorge Pita Carreras

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by Mike Telin

CARR-CARRERASOpera Circle Cleveland will revisit Giuseppi Verdi’s Il trovatore for its season finale at the Ohio Theatre in PlayHouse Square on Saturday, June 11 at 7:30 p.m. Last produced by the company in February of 2012, the opera is the middle child in the trio of popular titles Verdi produced in the early 1850s, preceded by Rigoletto and followed by La traviata.

Based on a Spanish play by Antonio Garcia Gutierrez adapted by Verdi’s librettist Salvatore Cammarano, the opera was an immense success at its premiere at Rome’s Teatro Apollo on January 19, 1853. Although the Tiber had flooded earlier that day and the audience had to slog through water and mud to reach the theater, nothing dampened their enthusiasm that evening. Il trovatore  proved immediately appealing to the crowd. As the Gazetta Musicale reported,

The public listened to every number with religious silence and broke out with applause at every interval, the end of the third act and the whole of the fourth arousing such enthusiasm that their repetition was demanded. — David Ewen, Encyclopedia of the Opera. [Read more…]

Opera Circle Cleveland: Mozart’s The Magic Flute at Westlake PAC (March 13)

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by Mike Telin

BrianandDorotaIs there a more fun-filled, accessible opera than Mozart’s The Magic Flute? Its classic fairy tale plot — good versus evil combined with a search for enlightenment and love — is timeless. Its characters are sympathetic, and it’s filled with beautiful arias and catchy tunes that are certain to cause earworms long after you have left the theater [Read more…]

Opera Circle Cleveland’s Magic Flute: perspectives from Tamino and Papageno

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by Mike Telin

zauberflote-compositeHere’s a story: a young prince named Tamino finds himself lost in a far-off land being pursued by a snake, and he faints. Three ladies, attendants of the Queen of the Night, appear and kill the snake. After arguing about which of them should stay with the handsome Tamino, they leave. Tamino wakes up just as Papageno, a birdcatcher who dresses like a bird, enters and complains that he has no wife — he also takes credit for killing the snake.

The three ladies reappear and put a padlock over his mouth to remind him that it is not good to tell lies. Before leaving they give Tamino a portrait of Pamina, the daughter of the Queen of the Night. In an instant, he falls in love. Thus the stage is set for one of the most beloved operas of all time: The Magic Flute. [Read more…]

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