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Reflecting on the World Choir Games

    Posted: Jul 19, 2012 - 9:29:06 PM in: commentary_2012, reviews_2012
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Closing Ceremony, 2012 World Choir Games, U.S. Bank Arena, Cincinnati, Ohio (Peace Bell in foreground)
The 2012 World Choir Games, held in Cincinnati, Ohio July 4-14, ended with the ringing of the Peace Bell, a presentation by the 2014 World Choir Games host city, Riga, Latvia and a concert by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra led by Pops conductor John Morris Russell and guest conductor Gabor Hollerung.  Guest artists were Broadway star Idina Menzel, gospel great Marvin Winans and cast members from Cincinnati Opera's upcoming "La Traviata." The event was a kind of coming of age for Cincinnati, which showed itself eminently capable of hosting thousands of visitors speaking dozens of languages in an international competition known as the Olympics of choral music. There was even a Champion from Cincinnati, the Choraliers of Fairfield, Ohio, winners in the Show Choir event.
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Church Comes to Music Hall

    Posted: Jul 13, 2012 - 4:14:03 PM in: reviews_2012
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Voices of United, Fort Wayne, Indiana, performing in Music Hall in Cincinnati July 12, 2012
The Gospel and Spiritual Celebration Concert of the 2012 World Choir Games in Cincinnati, Ohio featured four American choirs July 12 at Music Hall.  It was a kind of crescendo, beginning with a capella spirituals and ending with full-bore, clapping, shouting gospel by the Voices of Unity of Fort Wayne, Indiana led, by conductor Marshall White.  The VII World Choir Games, the first time the event has been held in the United States, wraps up at U.S. Bank Arena with a festive closing ceremony at 7 p.m. July 14 at U.S. Bank Arena, with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, Cincinnati May Festival Chorus and guest artist Idina Menzel, led by Pops conductor John Morris Russell.

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Feinstein Channels Sinatra's Songs

    Posted: Jul 9, 2012 - 7:23:50 PM in: reviews_2012
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Michael Feinstein
Singer/pianist Michael Feinstein has a mission, to preserve and perpetuate the American popular song, specifically as it blossomed on Tin Pan Alley, Broadway and in films during the first half of the 20th century. One of his latest projects is Frank Sinatra and his legacy, much of which Feinstein has committed to disc through his Sinatro Project albums. He shared this legacy in "Sinatra under the Stars" with a Cincinnati Pops audience July 7 at Riverbend, the orchestra's summer home on the Ohio River.  On the podium was Pops conductor John Morris Russell.  (first published in The Cincinnati Enquirer July 9, 2012)  
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World Choir Games Celebrates America's Birthday

    Posted: Jul 7, 2012 - 8:23:29 AM in: reviews_2012
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Confetti drop World Choir Games opening ceremony July 4, Cincinnati, Ohio
It was pure coincidence that the opening ceremony of the 2012 World Choir Games in Cincinnati, Ohio took place on July 4. It was like having the world sing "happy birthday," with 362 choirs from 48 countries filling the the stands at U.S. Bank Arena on the banks of the Ohio River. Cincinnati Pops conductor John Morris Russell led the Pops, the Cincinnati May Festival Chorus, guest artists from Cincinnati Opera's current "Porgy and Bess," gospel star Kirk Franklin, the White Oak Singers, Comet Bluegrass Allstars and others in a chronological survey of American music that served as a "getting to know you" for the international visitors and a July 4 celebration. (first published at www.ConcertoNet.com)

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"Porgy and Bess" as Gershwin Intended

    Posted: Jun 29, 2012 - 5:22:14 PM in: reviews_2012
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Measha Brueggergosman (in red) as Bess and Jonathan Lemalu (on his knees) as Porgy in Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess," Cincinnati Opera, June 28, 2012 at Music Hall
It has been a long journey, but Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess" has finally come to Cincinnati Opera.  Cincinnati isn't the only company to take its time. Gershwin's masterpiece has been treated as a musical for so long that it is almost a shock to realize that he composed it as a full scale grand opera. The Cincinnati premiere, June 28 at Music Hall, recreates the composer's intentions as fully as possible by using the score he published in 1935 before its premiere on Broadway.  This, his last remaining word on the subject, incorporated cuts he had approved in the lengthy original. Starring as Porgy and Bess in this 1995 Houston Grand Opera production are bass-baritone Jonathan Lemalu and soprano Measha Brueggergosman.

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Double Your Fun with Cincinnati Opera Opener

    Posted: Jun 17, 2012 - 3:13:42 PM in: reviews_2012
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Soprano Kelly Kaduce as Nedda in "Pagliacci" (provided)
Cincinnati Opera opened its 2012 summer festival with a "two-fer," Ruggero Leoncavallo's "Pagliacci" and Giacomo Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi."  The production, a delightful one from Opéra de Montréal directed by Alain Gauthier, utilized a play-within-a-play concept, with "Pagliacci's" comedy troupe performing on a hillside overlooking Florence where the action of "Gianni Schicchi" takes place. Framing it similarly was the Prologue from "Pagliacci" and the Epilogue from "Gianni Schicchi," spoken by baritone Roberto de Candia, who sings Tonio in "Pagliacci" and the title role in "Schicchi."  The theatrical adage that tragedy is easy and comedy is difficult was turned on its head here, with "Schicchi" making the stronger impression and looking easy to boot.

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Projekt Wolfgang Auspicious in Chamber Opera Company Debut

    Posted: Jun 11, 2012 - 1:48:15 AM in: reviews_2012
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Scene from Mozart's "Bastien und Bastienne," Queen City Chamber Opera, Cincinnati, Ohio, June 9, 2012 (photo by Mary Ellyn Hutton)
Save for the occasional production at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and semi- or unstaged events around town, chamber opera is a raris avis in Cincinnati. Newly-formed Queen City Chamber Opera, an initiative by conductors Antoine-François López and Isaac Selya, both students at CCM, made its debut June 9 and 10 at Hoffner Lodge in Cincinnati's Northside. Mozart's "Der Schauspieldirektor" and "Bastien und Bastienne" made a congenial pairing for the event, which also drew upon the exceptional talent pool at CCM for its singers. The period-sized orchestra of 24 was drawn from Ensemble Vita, a chamber orchestra founded by López three years ago.

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Violinist Da Costa Wows, Jazz Band, Too, in CCO Finale

    Posted: Jun 4, 2012 - 4:41:33 PM in: reviews_2012
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Alexandre da Costa
It was a new departure for the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra June 3 in Corbett Theater at the School for Creative and Performing Arts.  The all-American program, finale to the orchestra's 2011-2012 "American Perspectives" season, featured Michael Daugherty's violin concerto "Fire and Blood" with a sensational performance by Canadian violinist Alexandre Da Costa, then wowed the crowd with jazz great Duke Ellington's suite "Such Sweet Thunder."  

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Documentary to Focus on Paavo Järvi

    Posted: May 28, 2012 - 12:37:21 AM in: reviews_2012
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David Donnelly of Endeavor Pictures shooting in Cincinnati for "Maestro"
The artistic process of making classical music is the subject of "Maestro," a feature length documentary in production by Endeavor Pictures.  The film focuses on conductor Paavo Järvi as he works with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Orchestre de Paris and Frankfurt Radio Orchestra, from rehearsal to live performance.  The film also will follow a young conductor trying to break into the profession. Endeavor Pictures' co-founder David Donnelly is directing the film, which will have limited theatrical release in early to mid-2013, and will be distributed to music education classes in high schools and universities across the country.
 
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May Festival Branches out with Tchaikovsky

    Posted: May 22, 2012 - 11:56:16 AM in: reviews_2012
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Flower girls presenting bouquets to performers at the conclusion of the Cincinnati May Festival, May 19, 2012
The 2012 Cincinnati May Festival, led by music director James Conlon, overflowed with tradition May 11-19 in Cincinnati's historic Music Hall.  There was pageantry (herald trumpeters, flower girls), community spirit, lots of singing, featuring the 139-voice, all-volunteer May Festival Chorus (directed by Robert Porco), an exceptional guest list and the bedrock Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  It began with a traditional blockbuster, Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" May 11, and ended May 19 with five May Festival premieres -- all by Tchaikovsky. (first published at www.ConcertoNet.com)

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Linton Closes with Danielpour Commission

    Posted: May 15, 2012 - 9:41:17 PM in: reviews_2012
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Jaime Laredo
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Sharon Robinson
Cincinnati's Linton Music Series closed its 2011-2012 season May 13 and 14 with the Cincinnati premiere of Richard Danielpour's "Inventions on a Marriage" for Violin and Cello, a work commissioned by Linton and Steven Monder as part of an eight-member consortium, and dedicated to violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson on their 35th wedding anniversary. Joining Laredo and Robinson (Linton co-artistic directors) in works by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky were violinist Benny Kim, violists Ida Kavafian and Steven Tenenbom and cellist Eric Kim. 

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Cassidy Mines Pianistic Gold from Hollywood's "Golden Age"

    Posted: May 15, 2012 - 1:38:34 AM in: reviews_2012
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The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra led by music director James R. Cassidy closed its 20th anniversary season May 12 at Florence Baptist Church at Mt. Zion with "Cinematic Piano," a painstakingly researched program of pieces composed for films during Hollywood's "golden age" (1940-60).  Four local pianists joined Cassidy and the KSO in music by Richard Addinsell, Franz Waxman, Miklós Rósza, Bernard Herrmann, Ernest Gold and others in a turn-back-the-clock exploration of vintage film music.

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May Festival Opener Fulfills Tradition

    Posted: May 14, 2012 - 12:35:34 PM in: reviews_2012
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The 91st edition of the 139-year-old Cincinnati May Festival (biennial until 1967) opened with a flourish May 11 in Music Hall, the imposing, neo-Gothic home built for it in 1877.  Fittingly, the curtain went up with a choral blockbuster, Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana," which filled the stage with singers and instrumentalists totaling 340.  Music director James Conlon, celebrating his 33rd year as leader of the May Festival, conducted the May Festival Chorus and Youth Chorus, Cincinnati Boychoir and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

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Stravinsky's "Rake" Renewed at CCM

    Posted: May 12, 2012 - 2:37:30 PM in: reviews_2012
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Reilly Nelson (left) and Dashiell Waterbury in "The Rake's Progress" at CCM
Cincinnati seems to like Stravinsky, especially his opera "The Rake's Progress," which has received two different presentations this spring, once in a semi-stage concert version by the Vocal Arts Ensemble and Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra (in March) and May 10-13, at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  The CCM production, designed by Paul Shortt and directed by Robin Guarino, was a highly innovative one, with digital projections by the school's E-Media division. CCM's Mark Gibson led the Philharmonia Orchestra with alternating students casts.

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Long Yu, Lang Lang Bring the Best to the CSO

    Posted: May 5, 2012 - 11:41:05 AM in: reviews_2012
***image1** Conductor Long Yu is one of the world's finest conductors.  He and pianist Lang Lang, one of the world's finest pianists, brought of the finest concerts of the season to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra May 4 at Music Hall. (first published at www.ConcertoNet.com May 5, 2012)
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