Cincinnati Opera closed its 90th anniversary season on a well-loved high note, Puccini's "La Boheme," July 21 at Music Hall.  The co-production with English National Opera, directed by Jonathan Miller, was updated to Paris during the 1930s, which ultimately made little difference in the impact of the performance.  What gave it real chemistry was the pairing of husband-and-wife Stephen Costello and Ailyn Perez as Rodolfo and Mimi.  Preceding the opera, board of trustees president announced that artistic director Evans Mirageas and general director Patty Beggs had renewed their contracts through 2015 and that the Opera expected to end its 2010 season with a balanced budget.  The season lineup for 2011 was announced, too: Verdi's "Rigoletto," John Adams' "A Flowering Tree," Tchaikovsky's "Eugene Onegin" and Mozart's "The Magic Flute."
  - [Read more]

Antonello Palombi

Cincinnati Opera's 2010 season has seen its share of difficulties.  The latest involved Verdi's "Otello," when tenor Antonello Palombi came down with tracheitis opening night.  Palombi agreed to continue singing despite an announcement that he was ill following the second act.  After three days of rest and consultation with doctors, he returned for the repeat performance July 10 which showed him considerably on the mend, as were other aspects of the performance.
  - [Read more]

Tenor John Horton Murray as Walther von Stolzing singing for the Mastersingers in act one

It's been a long, dry spell, but Richard Wagner returned to Cincinnati Opera June 23 at Music Hall.  Nothing could have been more fitting for this very German city than "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg."  The Opera's last performance of "Meistersinger" was in June, 1982.  In all, it was only the 12th performance of "Meistersinger" in Cincinnati Opera's 90-year history.  The production, by Günther Schneider-Siemssen, acquired at a bargain price from Düsseldorf Opera, replaced a previously planned production set in Cincinnati's Over-the-Rhine neighborhood that fell victim to the recession last fall.  It was a dream cast (mostly new to Cincinnati), headed by bass-baritone James Johnson as Hans Sachs.  John Keenan replaced Cincinnati native James Levine, who was scheduled to conduct until he canceled in April to undergo back surgery, followed in seemingly domino fashion by all of the leading singers.  Still, it was a "Cinderella" outcome, a magical production with an ensemble cast to match.
  - [Read more]

"Jamming Talent" dancer on the steps of Music Hall following Cincinnati Opera 90th anniversary gala, June 19, 2010 (photo by Mary Ellyn Hutton)

Cincinnati Opera's 90th anniversary season has been plagued by recessionary woes, cancellations and just plain bad luck, it seems.  The company's opening gala June 19 at Music Hall, an evening of opera arias and choruses, displayed the Opera at its pluckiest, even if much ballyhooed "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest was on and off in five minutes or less.  Co-hosts Sherrill Milnes and Carol Neblett did a splendid job making introductions, sharing anecdotes, etc. and the cast of 15 singers included some real standouts, including soprano Maria Luigia Borsi and tenor Russell Thomas.  The Opera's commitment to diversity and inclusion was handsomely represented by the Allen Temple A.M.E. Combined Choir led by Robert Gazaway.  Cincinnati arts patroness Louise Nippert received a heartfelt standing ovation for her recent sustaining gift of $85 million to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Opera, May Festival and Cincinnati Ballet.  All of these groups took part in the grand finale, the Triumphal Scene from Verdi's "Aida." The CSO was led by Edoardo Mueller primarily, with New York Pops conductor Steven Reinke and Opera Chorus Master Henri Venanzi stepping in for three numbers.
  - [Read more]

Mischa Santora

On the face of it, you might think George Gershwin and Arnold Schoenberg had nothing in common.  Perhaps they didn't musically, with one staking out Tin Pan Alley and the other the future of classical music.  The composers were friends, however, and shared a hobby, painting (they even painted each other).  The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra led by music director Mischa Santora made that the link between their music June 6 at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.  Pianist Michael Chertock captured all the tints in Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue."  Santora and members of the CCO found a multitude of colors in Schoenberg's "Verklärte Nacht" and Five Pieces for Orchestra. Tying them together were projections of their paintings and those by Wassily Kandinsky, Gustav Klimt and James McNeill Whistler.  (first published in the Cincinnati Enquirer June 7, 2010)
  - [Read more]

Swan at Cincinnati's Spring Grove Cemetery (photo by Mary Ellyn Hutton)

Cincinnati's experimental chamber group concert:nova scored a bullseye with its "Carnival of the Animals" May 23 in the studios of Cincinnati Ballet on Central Parkway in Over-the-Rhine.  The multi-media work interleaves Saint-Saens' beloved classic with newly composed pieces by 15 composers.  Conducted by Annunziata Tomaro, it was performed in collaboration with members of Cincinnati Ballet, including retiring principal dancer Kristi Capps.  Composers who contributed to the project: Juan Campoverde, Danny Clay, Charles Coleman, George Flynn, Ellen Harrison, Mara Helmuth, Joel Hoffman, Jennifer Jolley, Douglas Knehans, Inez McComas, Douglas Pew, Jeff Silva, Jerod Sommerfeldt, Kurt Westerberg and Wenhui Xie.
  - [Read more]

James Conlon

"Slava" ("Glory"), "Hallelujah" or what you will, the 2010 Cincinnati May Festival ended on a  note of triumph May 22 at Music Hall.  The program, led by long-time music director James Conlon, was all-Russian, comprising Rachmaninoff's one-act opera "Aleko," the Prologue and Coronation Scene from Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" and the "1812" Overture by Tchaikovsky.  Conlon led the 125-voice May Festival Chorus and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with a cast of outstanding vocal soloists.
  - [Read more]

Andrea Mantegna, "Calvary"

The Cincinnati May Festival made Bach's "St. Matthew Passion" an event May 15 at Music Hall.  Not only was it the oratorio's first appearance on a May Festival program in a quarter-century, but it had a multi-media aspect.  Images of great art works dealing with the Passion story were projected onto a screen above the stage during the performance.  May Festival music director James Conlon conducted the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and May Festival Chorus, with tenor John Aler (Evangelist), bass-baritone William McGraw (Jesus), soprano Rebekah Camm, mezzo-soprano Erica Brookhyser, tenor Paul Appleby, bass James Creswell and the Cincinnati Boychoir.   - [Read more]

Bugs Bunny in "Baton Bunny" (1959)

The Kentucky Symphony Orchestra led by music director James R. Cassidy took the cartoon music theme further May 14 at the Frances K. Carlisle Performing Arts Center in Covington, Kentucky.  With the help of author, cartoon music expert Daniel Goldmark, composers Steve and Julie Bernstein and voice actor Rob Paulsen, they showed how it is done.  To illustrate, they screened classic cartoons and cartoon clips, from Bugs Bunny to Freakazoid.  Merry melodies indeed!
  - [Read more]

John Christopher Adams as Lennie and Noel Bouley as George in Carlisle Floyd's "Of Mice and Men" at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Carlisle Floyd's opera "Of Mice and Men" is as touching as the poem by Robert Burns from which its title comes ("To a Mouse").  ("The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, Gang aft agley," i.e. "often go awry.")  The opera department of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music gave it a production to match May 14 in CCM's Corbett Auditorium.  Directed by Nicholas Muni and conducted by Mark Gibson with a cast of remarkable singing actors, it aimed straight for the heart.
  - [Read more]

Paavo Järvi

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director Paavo Järvi ended his ninth and next-to-last season with the orchestra May 6 and 8 at Music Hall.  It was a splendid journey for an almost full house and with selections from Wagner's "Ring" cycle on the program, took listeners over the rainbow bndge.  Guest artist in an uncommon performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 was Alexander Toradze.
(first published in the Cincinnati Enquirer May 8, 2010)
  - [Read more]

Ken Lam

The Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra looks forward each year to making music with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.  The annual "side by side" concert matches the young musicians stand by stand with their CSO counterparts and also presents the winner of the CSYO's annual concerto competition in a solo performance with the combined orchestras.  This year's winner, CSYO principal cellist Ben Stoehr, made an impressive debut in the first movement of Elgar's Cello Concerto.  CSYO conductor/CSO assistant conductor Ken Lam and CSO music director Paavo Jarvi led excerpts from Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet" and the finale of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, respectively. 
  - [Read more]

James MacMillan

You don't know what hit you when you hear Scotsman James MacMillan's "Seven Last Words from the Cross."  That's how it felt in Immaculate Heart of Mary Chapel at Summit Country Day School in Cincinnati May 2.   Making it happen were Cincinnati's Vocal Arts Ensemble and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, led by VAE music director Donald Nally.  Also on the program were Brahms' "Nänie," Bo Holten's "Tallis Variations" and John Tavener's "The Bridegroom."
  - [Read more]

John Storgårds

Finnish conductor John Storgårds put himself in the running for music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra with Sibelius' Symphony No. 2 April 30 at Music Hall.  Audience response was enthusiastic and Storgårds joins the string of guest conductors and possible candidates slated to appear before the orchestra in the months ahead.  CSO music director Paavo Järvi will leave the post at the end of the 2010-11 season.  Guest artists on the concert were violinist Baiba Skride, cellist Jan Vogler and pianist Lauma Skride in Beethoven's Triple Concerto.
  - [Read more]

Belcea Quartet

England's award-winning Belcea Quartet ended Chamber Music Cincinnati's 2009-2010 season April 27 at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory on a high note.  As high, you might say, as first violinist Corina Belcea-Fisher's left hand on her Stradivarius violin.  Heard on the choice program were Beethoven's Quartet Op. 18, No. 6 ("Malinconia"); Karol Szymanowski's Quartet No. 1 in C Major, Op. 37; and Bartok's Quartet No. 1, Sz. 40, Op. 7.
  - [Read more]