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BW’s Dido and Aeneas at RED Space (Oct. 24)

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by David Kulma

We live in an age where opera, no longer restricted to theaters and concert halls, is happening in every place imaginable. This was the case when Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater presented two performances of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at RED Space in downtown Cleveland. I attended on Thursday, October 24. Lasting about an hour and with roles that you can divide up between seven women and two men, Dido is perfect for female-dominated college voice programs. But how do you make it work in a cement box? [Read more…]

Frady to guest direct BW’s
Dido and Aeneas at Red Space

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by Daniel Hathaway

Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater will stage Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas at Red Space in downtown Cleveland on Wednesday and Thursday, October 23 and 24 at 7:00 pm, in a production directed by Kathryn Frady of Knoxville’s Marble City Opera.

Frady returns to BW at the invitation of opera studies director Scott Skiba, after having directed scenes and sung in a premiere during Cleveland Opera Theater’s {New Opera Works} Festival two years ago. “I love contemporary opera,” she said in a recent telephone conversation. “This season, Marble City Opera is producing the world premiere of Shadowlight by Larry Delinger and Emily Anderson. It’s about Beauford Delaney, a famous artist who grew up in Knoxville. We’re building a whole festival around the opera from January through May.

Dido and Aeneas, on the other hand, is a very old theater piece, perhaps having been first performed in London at a dancing school in the late 1680s. “Dido was Scott’s idea,” Frady said. “Originally, we were to have staged Menotti’s The Medium, but casting issues made a switch necessary. But Dido is a great piece.” [Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater moves to Playhouse Square with La Bohème (Sept. 13)

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by Daniel Hathaway

Puccini’s La Bohème was produced 598 times worldwide during the 2017-2018 season, making it the fourth most-performed title in the repertoire (trailing La traviata, Carmen, and The Magic Flute). It’s also the show that Cleveland Opera Theater chose for its move from venues like the Masonic Auditorium and the Maltz Performing Arts Center to the Ohio Theater, a more traditionally-outfitted house. On Friday, September 13, Scott Skiba’s clever production surrounded a fine cast with memorable scenic design by Matthew D. McCarren and projections by Brittany Merenda that brought a Parisian garret, the Café Momus, and a toll gate outside the city vividly to life in Playhouse Square.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater: La traviata at the Maltz (April 28)

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by Daniel Hathaway

While opera often treats its audiences to spectacle on a grand scale, what really makes the art form take flight is the melding of distinguished singing with excellent acting and staging. Those elements came together beautifully in Cleveland Opera Theater’s production of Verdi’s La traviata on Sunday afternoon, April 28 at the Maltz Performing Arts Center. A strong cast and a fine chamber orchestra joined director Scott Skiba and conductor Domenico Boyagian in bringing the story of Violetta Valéry to vibrant life on an engagingly human scale. [Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater to present La traviata at the Maltz

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by Mike Telin

Violetta Valéry is among the most popular of the many sopranos who die in the last acts of operas. You can relive the story of that “fallen woman” this weekend when Cleveland Opera Theater turns the Maltz Performing Arts Center into an opera house for Verdi’s La traviata.

Scott Skiba directs, Domenico Boyagian conducts, and the cast features Angela Mortellaro as Violetta, Benjamin Werley as Alfredo, and Grant Youngblood as Germont. The Act II party scene is always a highlight, but this one, featuring Cleveland Burlesque, promises to be a show-stopper. The lights go up on Friday, April 26 at 7:00 pm and on Sunday, April 28 at 3:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

“Cleveland Burlesque performs all around Cleveland,” Skiba said during a telephone conversation, “and I reached out to them because we are setting the production in contemporary times. I was thinking, who would Flora hire to perform at her party, and I thought she would hire burlesque dancers.”

[Read more…]

CIM/CWRU, Oberlin, and Baldwin Wallace produce impressive operas during March

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by Daniel Hathaway

CIM/CWRU: Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie

If you were able to shut down your peripheral vision in Kulas Hall at the Cleveland Institute of Music on March 1 and focus only on the stage, you could imagine yourself sitting in the stalls at the Paris Opéra in 1757, watching the revival of Jean-Philippe Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie. [Read more…]

Baldwin Wallace Opera presents Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress

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by Daniel Hathaway and Mike Telin

Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress is based on a series of 18th-century engravings of the same name by William Hogarth and boasts a libretto by W.H. Auden and Chester Kallman. The opera chronicles the moral and physical demise of Tom Rakewell, who deserts Anne Trulove for London’s decadent delights. After many adventures initiated by Nick Shadow, a.k.a. the Devil, Tom ends up in a hospital for the insane. The moral of the story: the Devil will find work for idle hands. Click here to read a short synopsis.

On Thursday, March 21 at 7:30 pm at the Klais Drama Center, Baldwin Wallace Opera Theater takes on this entertaining tale of Tom and his pact with the Devil. The double cast includes Ethan Burck and Benjamin Krumreig as Tom Rakewell, faculty members Benjamin Czarnota and Marc Weagraff as Nick Shadow, DeLaine Crutchfield and Giuliana Bozza as Anne Trulove, and Nan Golz and Sarah Antell as Baba the Turk. Scott Skiba directs and Domenico Boyagian conducts the Baldwin Wallace Orchestra. Performances continue on March 22 and 23 at 7:30 pm and March 24 at 2:00 pm. Tickets are available online.

We spoke with Marc Weagraff by telephone and began by asking him how it feels to play the Devil?

[Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater {NOW} Festival: Griffin Candey’s The House of Bernarda Alba

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by Mike Telin  

When Griffin Candey first read an English translation of Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca’s La Casa de Bernarda Alba, he knew the play had the makings for an opera. “My wife suggested that I read it,” the composer said by telephone from his home in Marquette, Michigan. “She went to school for musical theater as did I, and in one of her classes they read the play and thought it was fantastic. I’m always scouring material for things to do in the future, so when I read it, I immediately leapt on it.”

On Friday, February 8 at 8:00 pm in Baldwin Wallace’s Gamble Auditorium, Cleveland Opera Theater’s {NOW} Festival will present a workshop reading of scenes with piano accompaniment from Acts I and II of Candey’s The House of Bernarda Alba with libretto by Obie Award-winner Caridad Svich. The opera is a co-commission between Cleveland Opera Theater and the BW Conservatory.

[Read more…]

Cleveland Opera Theater {NOW} Festival: a celebration of new opera

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by Daniel Hathaway

The creation of new operas is a passion of Scott Skiba, Cleveland Opera Theater’s executive artistic director. The company will host the third annual {NOW} Festival at Baldwin Wallace Conservatory beginning on Monday, February 4 and running through Sunday, February 9. All Festival activities are free and open to the public.

This year’s Festival will include partnerships between Baldwin Wallace, Bowling Green State University, the Cleveland Composers Guild, Hiram College, and Oberlin. “Every year we try to make the institutional collaborations and student engagement more rich,” Skiba said during a telephone conversation. “And this year we’ve got great energy around everything that’s happening.”

The Festival will also include an American Futures Residency by composers Jake Heggie and Griffin Candey, and soprano Ann Moss. “We started putting the plans for this together during the first {NOW} Festival,” Skiba noted. “The residency will allow us to bring these three exceptional artists to the BW campus to work and collaborate with Conservatory students.” [Read more…]

Baldwin Wallace Opera presents Midwest premiere of Glory Denied

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by Mike Telin

After serving their country, many veterans are faced with multiple challenges as they re-adjust to civilian life. At the top of that list is reconnecting with and re-establishing a role in the family. These issues will be addressed this weekend as Baldwin Wallace Opera presents the Midwest premiere of Tom Cipullo’s Glory Denied.

Based on the book by Tom Philpott, the two-act, 77-minute chamber opera tells the true story of Jim Thompson, the longest-held prisoner of war in U.S. military history, as he tries to re-assimilate into American life after spending nine years behind enemy lines in Vietnam.

Guest baritone Gregory Gerbrandt (above) sings the title role and Brian Onderdonk conducts a nine-piece chamber orchestra on Friday, October 19 at 7:00 pm at Red Space in Cleveland, and on Sunday, October 21 at 3:00 pm in BW’s Gamble Auditorium in Berea. A talk-back will follow each performance. Tickets are available online. [Read more…]

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