finale "Don Carlo" act III, Cincinnati Opera, June, 2009 (photos by Philip Groshong)

Cincinnati Opera's "Don Carlo," which opened June 25 at Music Hall in Cincinnati, was what grand opera is all about:  great singing, stunning visuals and an epic story with a human dimension.  Heading the strong cast was bass James Morris in a powerful and affecting portrayal of King Philip II.
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The Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra has won a deserved reputation as a source of first rate concert opera, going back to former music director Gerhard Samuel.  Working in collaboration the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, whose graduates filled the show, the CCO led by music director Mischa Santora closed its 2008-09 season and "Spanish Legends" mini-series with an over-the-top performance of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in CCM's intimate Patricia Corbett Theater June 20.
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Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati, Ohio

When it comes to Americana and everything American, nobody does it better than Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel.  Kunzel was joined June 18 by 360 other American icons, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, plus the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Riverbend, summer home of the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestras on the Ohio River.  From "When the Saints Come Marching In" to "God Bless America," it was a red-white-and-blue evening well in advance of the Fourth of July.
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Nicole Cabell as the Countess in "The Marriage of Figaro," Cincinnati Opera, Music Hall, June, 2009

Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" was the hit of 1786.  It remains so 223 years later, including this opening production of Cincinnati Opera's 2009 summer festival at Music Hall.  With Sir Roger Norrington in the pit, baritone Teddy Tahu Rhodes and soprano Nicole Cabell as the Count and Countess and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as pure luxury casting, success was assured.
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The Boy, the Don and Master Peter (Madcap Puppet Theater, Cincinnati)

Spanish is the flavor of the month in Cincinnati this summer, with festivals devoted to Spanish and Spanish-themed music by both Cincinnati Opera and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra.  The CCO led by music director Mischa Santora led off June 7 with the piece de resistance of the lot, Manuel de Falla's "Master Peter's Puppet Show" in a masterful collaboration with Madcap Puppet Theater and the theater department of Bowling Green University.  The 30-minute puppet opera is based on an episode from Cervantes' "Don Quixote."
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Cincinnati's annual May Festival thrives in Music Hall, the landmark, Neo-Gothic structure built to accommodate it in 1878.  Nothing does it better than Mahler's Symphony No. 8 ("Symphony of a Thousand") given a  performance that felt right at home May 30 in the 3,516-seat hall.  With nearly 500 performers, it also made a fitting climax to the 30th anniversary season of May Festival music director James Conlon.
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The fourth concert of the 2009 Cincinnati May Festival (May 29 in Music Hall) was a beauty.   The May Festival Chorus and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, led by May Festival music director James Conlon, were joined by five engaging soloists in music reflecting the pagan origin of May festivities, along with "Hallelujahs" by Handel and Beethoven and Bach's Magnificat.
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St. Mary's Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington, Kentucky

The Cincinnati May Festival's annual "twilight" concert in the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Covington, Kentucky featured an engaging mix of the sacred and secular May 24.  Moved up an hour from its usual 7 p.m. starting time, the Cathedral's magnificent setting nevertheless availed itself of the season's abundant daylight.
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Patty LuPone

James Conlon, who is observing his 30th anniversary at music director of the Cincinnati May Festival, gave it a two-way taste of Broadway May 23 at Music Hall.  Starring in Kurt Weill's 1933 "The Seven Deadly Sins," a precursor of the composer's own stellar Broadway career, was Broadway diva Patti LuPone.  Balancing the program and highlighting the May Festival Chorus and Youth Chorus, was Mozart's Requiem.
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Katerine Giaquinto as Alice Ford and Jonathan Lasch as Falstaff (photo by Mark Lyons)

Verdi's "Falstaff" made a boffo finale for the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music's main stage opera season May 14 in Corbett Auditorium.  Youthful, energetic and with pratfalls to spare, it was also the main stage directing debut of CCM's new opera department chair Robin Guarino. 
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Sandi Patty

As a child, Sandi Patty dreamed of singing on Broadway.  Her life took a different course, into gospel and fame as the most honored vocalist in contemporary music.  In "Sandi Patty's Broadway," a revue traversing the Great White Way, she finally has her chance.  The show, led by Cincinnati Pops conductor Erich Kunzel, came to Music Hall May 8-10 to close the Pops' 2008-09 season.  Giving the program a poignant note, Patty sang "You'll Never Walk Alone," bringing tears to the eyes of many in the crowd who learned earlier this week that Kunzel is suffering from pancreatic cancer.
(first published at www.cincinnati.com May 9, 2009)
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Sergei Polusmiak

Pianist Sergei Polusmiak, distinguished artist-in-residence at Northern Kentucky University, gave a recital May 7 in NKU's Greaves Hall that was both heat and light, topped off with an incendiary Sonata No. 7 by Prokofiev.
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Violinist Hilary Hahn premiered Jennifer Higdon's Violin Concerto Feb. 7, 2009 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra led by music director Mario Venzago at Hilbert Circle Theater in Indianapolis.  The meaning of "1726," the concerto's first movement, remained a mystery, with an autographed copy of the score to the first six people to guess its meaning.  Could it have something to do with Philadelphia?  Also on the program was Schumann's Symphony No. 4 in Venzago's highly personal, "pianistic" interpretation, which has helped earn him the designation "Robert Schumann Guest Conductor" with the Dusseldorf Symphony during the Schumann bicentennial in 2010. (first published in American Record Guide, May-June, 2010)
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Nicholas Angelich

Paavo Järvi closed the 2008-09 Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra season at Music Hall with plenty of feeling, both in his choice of repertoire and the way he conducted it.  There was a warm reception, too, for returning Cincinnatian Nicholas Angelich, "guest" artist in Brahms' ardent Piano Concerto No. 1.  There were more complex feelings in Prokofiev's Symphony No. 6, composed just six years before his death and ultimately rejected by the Soviet authorities.  Benjamin Britten's jolly "American Overture," a CSO premiere, seems to say that the expatriate (temporarily) Briton had good feelings about the U.S.A.
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photo by Timothy Greenfield Sanders

Spring brought out the best in the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra April 24 at Music Hall.  Led by music director Paavo Järvi, the concert featured violinist Midori's intimate look at Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto and works by two French masters, Camille Saint-Saens (SymphonyNo. 3) and Olivier Messiaen's "Les offrandes oubliées" in its CSO premiere.
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