From Music in Cincinnati

James Conlon Turns 30: The Cincinnati May Festival

Posted in: 2009

By Mary Ellyn Hutton
May 20, 2009 - 3:18:49 PM

It's May time again and in Cincinnati that means the May Festival.

The 136-year-old choral festival, housed in 131-year-old Music Hall, revisits the queen of seasons with Mozart and Mahler, Handel and Hindemith, Bach and Brahms, Vaughan Williams and Verdi.

It is the 30th anniversary season for music director James Conlon, who will pull out all the stops with Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand"), also a concert performance of Verdi's "Luisa Miller," and to open the festival May 22 at Music Hall, Kurt Weill's "The Seven Deadly Sins" with Broadway diva Patti LuPone.

The Weill underscores Conlon's recent Grammy win for Weill's "Fall of the House of Mahagonny," also featuring LaPone, which won not only "Best Opera Recording" of 2008 but "Best Classical Album." Complementing Weill's devil-made-me-do-it "Sins" will be Mozart's Requiem.

The second night, May 23, will be devoted to Verdi's middle period "Luisa Miller" with soprano Annalisa Raspagliosi and tenor Stefano Secco as the ill-fated lovers Luisa and Rodolfo. The choice of one of Verdi's less frequented works highlights Conlon's commitment to such endeavors, a thrust throughout his career that has won him honors from, among others, the Anti-Defamation League (for championing composers silenced by the Nazis) and the American Liszt Society.

The May 24 concert at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky is an annual event begun by Conlon. This year's program comprises a capella works of the 16th and 20th centuries, Vaughan Williams' Mass in G Minor and Brahms' "Zigeunerlieder." The May Festival Chorus and Youth Chorus will be led by their directors Robert Porco and James Bagwell, respectively.

The second weekend of the festival opens May 29 with "Hallelujah" choruses by Handel and Beethoven, Bach's Magnificat and some delightfully "pagan" music by Mendelssohn, including his cantata "The First Walpurgis Night" and selections from "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

Mahler's mighty Eighth May 30 features the May Festival Chorus, the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus (also directed by Porco), the Cincinnati Children's Choir directed by Robyn Lana, a raft of soloists including soprano Bridgett Hooks, alto Catherine Keen, tenor Rodrick Dixon and baritone James Johnson, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. As always, Handel's "Hallelujah" Chorus, with the audience singing along, will close the festival.

The CSO is the official orchestra of the Cincinnati May Festival.

Each of the four Music Hall concerts will be preceded by a free half-hour recital, beginning one hour before the concert, by one of the festival guest artists accompanied by Michael Chertock on piano.

The 2009 Cincinnati May Festival.

May 22. Weill, "The Seven Deadly Sins." Mozart, Requiem. James Conlon, conductor. May Festival Chorus directed by Robert Porco. May Festival Youth Chorus directed by James Bagwell. Vocalist Patti LuPone. Soprano Rebekah Camm, mezzo-soprano Lauren McNeese, tenor John Aler, tenor Rodrick Dixon, baritone William McGraw, bass James Creswell, bass Kristinn Sigmundsson. Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Pre-concert recital, tenor Rodrick Dixon, pianist Michael Chertock.

May 23. Verdi, "Luisa Miller." Conlon. May Festival Chorus. Soprano Annalisa Raspagliosi (Luisa), tenor Stefano Secco (Rodolfo), baritone Stephen Powell (Miller), bass James Creswell (Wurm), bass Kristinn Sigmundsson (Count Walter), mezzo-soprano Catherine Keen (Federica), soprano Rebekah Camm (Laura), tenor Rodrick Dixon (Peasant). CSO. Pre-concert recital, soprano Rebekah Camm, pianist Chertock.

May 24. Thomas Morley, "Fire! Fire! My Heart." Randall Thompson, "The Paper Reeds by the Brooks" from "The Peaceable Kingdom." Hindemith, Puisque tout passe ("Since everything passes") and "Verger" ("Orchard") from Six Chansons. William Dawson (arr.), "Soon Ah Will Be Done." James Bagwell, conductor. May Festival Youth Chorus directed by Bagwell. Vaughan Williams, Mass in G Minor. Brahms, "Zigeunerlieder" ("Gypsy Songs"). Robert Porco, conductor. May Festival Chorus directed by Porco, pianist Heather MacPhail.

May 29. Handel, "Hallelujah" choruses from "Athalia," "Judas Maccabaeus" and "Messiah." Beethoven, "Hallelujah" from "Christ on the Mount of Olives." Bach, Magnificat. Schubert, "Shepherd's Chorus and Huntsmen's Chorus from "Rosamunde." Mendelssohn, selections from "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Mendelssohn, "The First Walpurgis Night." Conlon. May Festival Chorus directed by Porco. Soprano Ellie Dehn, mezzo-soprano Jill Grove, soprano Hana Park, tenor Rodrick Dixon, baritone William McGraw, bass James Creswell. CSO. Pre-concert recital, mezzo-soprano Lauren McNeese, pianist Chertock.

May 30. Mahler, Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand"). Conlon. May Festival Chorus directed by Porco Cleveland Orchestra Chorus directed by Porco, Cincinnati Children's Choir directed by Robyn Lana. Soprano I Bridgett Hooks (Magna Peccatrix), soprano II Ellie Dehn (Una Poenitentium), soprano III Hana Park (Mater Gloriosa), alto I Catherine Keen (Mulier Samaritana), alto II Jill Grove (Maria Aegyptica), tenor Rodrick Dixon (Doctor Marianus), bass-baritone James Johnson (Pater Ecstaticus), bass James Creswell (Pater Profundus). CSO. Pre-concert recital, tenor John Aler, pianist Chertock.

   All concerts are at 8 p.m. at Music Hall except May 24, which is at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky. Pre-concert recitals begin at 7 p.m. in the Music Hall auditorium.

   Tickets are $17-$95. Call (513) 381-3300, or order online at www.mayfestival.com