Cincinnati Opera Lands "Idol" Host

Ryan Seacrest

Cincinnati Opera’s 2010, 90^th anniversary season has undergone a surprising metamorphosis since last fall.

Its centerpiece, a new production of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger” updated to 19^th-century Over-the-Rhine, was canceled in September for budgetary reasons.  It has been replaced by a period production (16^th-century Nuremberg) by Günther Schneider-Siemssen, acquired at a bargain price from Germany’s Düsseldorf Opera.

Metropolitan Opera music director/Cincinnati native James Levine, who was to have conducted “Meistersinger,” dropped out in April to undergo back surgery.  He was followed by no less than seven leading singers, including bass-baritone James Morris (Hans Sachs), soprano Hei-Kyung Hong (Eva), tenor Richard Margison (Walther) and bass Sir Thomas Allen (Beckmesser), all for one expressed reason or another.  Levine, who was to have conducted the Opera's 90^th-anniversary Gala Concert June 19 at Music Hall, left that spot open as well.

John Keenan, Levine’s assistant at the Met, has stepped in to conduct “Meistersinger” (he also conducts “La Boheme” in July).   Frequent Cincinnati Opera guest conductor Edoardo Müller, along with New York Pops conductor/Cincinnati Pops associate conductor Steven Reineke and Cincinnati Opera Chorus Master Henri Venanzi, will conduct the Gala.  “Die Meistersinger” has been re-cast just in time for the June 23 opening at Music Hall.  The new cast includes James Johnson as Hans Sachs, Twyla Robinson as Eva, John Horton Murray as Walther and Hans-Joachim Ketelsen as Beckmesser.  All come well qualified for their roles.  Perhaps a butterfly will yet emerge from this cocoon.

Things changed still further June 7, when the Opera announced that TV/radio personality Ryan Seacrest will host the Gala.   Seacrest, 35, hosts TV’s wildly popular “American Idol,” which may have given Cincinnati Opera the idea, since the company launched its own “Opera Idol” competition last season.  Auditions for this year’s contest were held June 5 in Memorial Hall in Over-the-Rhine.  Ten semi-finalists, selected by judges at the auditions, will perform at 7 p.m. July 8 in Jarson-Kaplan Theater at the Aronoff Center, where the field will be narrowed to ten finalists by audience vote.  Videos of their performances will be posted online for a final vote.  The top winner, who will receive a $3,500 contract with Cincinnati Opera, will be announced at the end of the Opera season in July. 

Seacrest, an Emmy Award nominee (as host of “American Idol”), is a gamble that at least presents the possibility that more -- and younger people – will attend the Gala.  There is the equal and opposite risk that some will pass it up.  Cincinnati Opera is a bottom-line, market-driven company, and at worst, it is likely to be a draw.

The fact that Seacrest also hosts “American Top 40” on national radio creates another interesting parallel, since Cincinnati Opera tends to be a top 40 opera company, presenting a safe mix of three familiar and one less familiar opera each season.  Indicative of that -- as well as the opera’s dominant marketing strategy -- are the posters and billboards cropping up all over town.  Interestingly, they do not herald the season-opener, “Die Meistersinger,” or even Verdi’s “Otello,” to be presented July 7 and 10 at Music Hall, but audience favorite “La Boheme,” which closes the summer festival July 21, 23 and 25 at Music Hall.

The Gala Concert will be a mostly top 40 event, too, with lots of good old-fashioned singing and popular  opera excerpts, including “Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot,” “Sempre libera” from Verdi’s “La Traviata,” “Va pensiero” from Verdi’s  “Nabucco,” Triumphal Scene from Verdi’s “Aida” and Intermezzo from Mascagni’s “Cavalleria Rusticana.”  Guest stars include sopranos Christine Brewer and Angela Brown, mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves and tenor Richard Leech, with the Cincinnati Opera Chorus, May Festival Chorus, Allen Temple A.M.E. Choir and Cincinnati Ballet.  Opera legend Sherrill Milnes and soprano Carol Neblett, who sang in Boito’s “Mefistofele” opposite Norman Treigle when the Opera moved from the Cincinnati Zoo to Music Hall in 1972, will share hosting with Secrest.

The June 19 Gala will be Seacrest’s first time hosting an opera event.   “I am excited by the opportunity and honored to have been asked,” he said in a prepared statement.  “I look forward to being a part of the celebration.”

Tickets are $35 to $135.  Call (513) 241-2742 or order online at www.cincinnatiopera.org

An optional black tie dinner will precede the concert in the Music Hall Ballroom, beginning at 5 p.m.   Tickets are $500 (Patron) and $750 (Grand Patron) and include dinner, premium seating at the concert and a post-concert celebration.  Information and tickets are available at (513) 768-5520 or creed@cincinnatiopera.org