Cincinnati's May Queen Holds Court 87th Time

James Conlon

   Edition 87 of the 135 year-old May Festival begins at 8 p.m. May 16 at Music Hall with a concert performance of Verdi's "La Forza del Destino."  Music director James Conlon will lead the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, May Festival Chorus and a cast headed by soprano Angela Brown as Leonora and tenor Salvatore Lecitra as Don Alvaro.  (The May Festival was biennial rather than annual until 1967. accounting for the disparity in numbers above.)

   The Cincinnati May Festival is the oldest continuing choral festival in the Western Hemisphere.  The event grew out of the saengerfests brought to Cincinnati by German immigrants in the early 19th century.  Music Hall was built to house the festival in 1877, when Reuben Springer, a local businessman, was disturbed by the sound of rain on the tin roof of the existing Saengerfest Hall and pledged half of the funds to build a new hall if the citizens of Cincinnati would put up the other half (which added up to a $125,000 matching grant).

     Music Hall, with its 3,500+ seats has housed the May Festival proudly and grandly ever since.  (Founded in 1895, the Cincinnati Symphony took up residence there much later.  Even then, there was an interim period, 1909-36, when the CSO performed in its own hall, Emery Auditorium on Walnut Street.)

   Set in 18th-century Spain and Italy, "La Forza del Destino" ("The Force of Destiny") is all about revenge.  You can tell right away, from the tense, dramatic Overture.

    Here’s the yarn:  Leonora tries to elope with Don Alvaro but they are caught by her father, who is killed when Alvaro’s pistol accidentally discharges.  The lovers flee but are separated. Leonora’s brother Don Carlo swears revenge on them both. Leonora secludes herself in a monastery while Don Carlo and Alvaro, unknown to each other, enlist in the army.  Alvaro is wounded and gives Don Carlo a box, to be destroyed unopened upon his death.  Carlo opens it anyway and find his sister’s portrait inside.  Alvaro recovers.  Knowing that he has found his prey, Don Carlo challenges him to a duel, which coincidentally takes place outside Leonora’s cell at the monastery.  Alvaro mortally wounds Carlo.  Leonora rushes to her brother’s side, but he exacts revenge by stabbing her.

   Singing Leonora is Metropolitan Opera soprano Angela Brown, well known to Cincinnati audiences for her roles as Cilla in Richard Danielpour’s "Margaret Garner" in 2006.  Tenor Salvatore Licitra is Don Alvaro, with baritone Marco Caria as Don Carlos, bass Morris Robinson as Padre Guardiano, mezzo-sprano Catherine Keen as the gypsy Preziosilla and the May Festival Chorus.  The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra performs for all May Festival concerts.  All works are sung in the original languages with English supertitles.

   Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony dominates the second night of the festival, May 17, also at 8 p.m. at Music Hall.  Conduct conducts the CSO with the May Festival Chorus, soprano Ellie Dehn, mezzo-soprano Keen, tenor Rodrick Dixon and bass Robinson.

   The concert opens with a May Festival premiere, Austrian composer Eric Zeisl’s "Requiem Ebraico."  Best known for his movie scores ("The Postman Always Rings Twice," "Lassie Come Home").  Zeisl wrote his Requiem in 1944-45 in in memory of his father who died in the Treblinka concentration camp and all other victims of the Holocaust.

   The annual non-subscription concert in the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington is 8 p.m. May 18 and features the May Festival Chorus and May Festival Youth Chorus.  Hear excerpts from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers, plus works by Scarlatti, Josquin des Prez, Palestrina, Faure, William Duckworth, Schubert, Vaughan Williams, Randall Thompson and the spiritual "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel" arranged by William Dawson.  Conlon and Youth Chorus director James Bagwell conduct.

   The festival’s second weekend opens at 8 p.m. May 23 at Music Hall with Faure’s Requiem, Vivaldi’s Gloria and J.S. Bach’s Cantata No. 191 ("Gloria in excelsis Deo").  Conducting will be May Festival Chorus director Robert Porco.  Soloists include sopranos Maghan Stewart and Yulia Van Doren, mezzo-soprano Julie Ane Miller, tenor John Aler, and baritone Donnie Ray Albert.

   The festival finale is 8 p.m. May 24 at Music Hall, a multi-media presentation of Berlioz’ "Romeo et Juliette" with thematically related artwork projected above the stage.  Curator is the Cincinnati Art Museum.   The event encores last season’s highly successful "L’Enfance du Christ," also by Berlioz, which also utilized thematic projections.

   Three of the four Music Hall concerts will be preceded by recitals, which begin at 7 p.m. in the Music Hall auditorium (free to May Festival ticket holders).  Soprano Ellie Dehn performs: May 16, with John Aler May 17, Donnie Ray Albert May 23 and Catherine Keen May 24.  Accompanist will be pianist Michael Chertock.

   The May Festival is always accompanied by pageantry and tradition and this year should be no exception.  There will be pre-concert dinners in Music Hall’s Corbett Tower (5:45-7:30 p.m. May 17, 23 and 24), flowers (everywhere), a Maypole dance, brass fanfares and people in their best spring (often period) finery.  Oh yes, the last festival concert always concludes with the "Hallelujah" chorus from Handel’s "Messiah."

   Subscriptions are available for all four Music Hall concerts, weekend I or II, two Fridays or two Saturdays. Prices range from $32 for two Saturdays (lowest price gallery seating) to $305 for all four concerts (highest priced orchestra seating).  Flexible vouchers, good for any four concerts, are $143 (gallery) and $185 (orchestra/balcony).  Single tickets are $16-$84 for all Music Hall concerts except May 17, which is $21-$89.  Tickets for the May 18 Cathedral concert (non-subscription) are $30.

   Call (513) 381-3300, or order online at www.mayfestival.com.