Although the Cincinnati Opera 2021 Summer Festival isn’t over yet, I was lucky enough to attend all three opera productions, as well as the concert, “Opera in the Park.” As you know, the company mounted its 101st season outdoors at Summit Park, Blue Ash.
Musica Sacra in a recording session for a livestream during Covid last season. The chorus will return to in-person performances.
As the nation reopens from a year of lockdowns, more choruses are announcing that they will be returning to live performances. Of course, during the pandemic, vocal music was considered the most deadly form of spreading the Covid-19 virus.
Musica Sacra, a 60-member chorus founded in 1965, joyfully returns for its 56th season, live and in person. This year, the chorus will also collaborate with the CCM Chorale in Patricia Corbett Theater on the UC campus.
After a year of virtual programming, this season will be emotional, said director Brett Scott.
“The selections across this season present a range of emotions that may echo what many experienced in the past year,” Scott said. “From the terrifying trumpets at the opening of our first selection, the Lord Nelson Mass, to the poignant chorales of the Christmas Oratorio that are contrasted with grand, exuberant chorus movements, to the exquisitely tender consolation that envelops you throughout the German Requiem, each of these masterworks speaks to the heart of the human experience. They are audience-pleasing works in the best sense of the word and we are thrilled that our audiences will be able to experience them with us this year.”Read More »
The gifted Cincinnati pianist Kasey Shao, 17, received an artist grant of $5,000 from the Cincinnati MacDowell Society earlier this summer. For 108 years, the local chapter of the MacDowell Society has awarded artist grants in various disciplines.
The 2021 Presidential Scholar and Young Steinway Artist began piano at the age of 6 and is currently studying with Ran Dank, faculty member at CCM. When she was 12, she made her concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nezet Seguin as the first place winner of the Albert M. Greenfield Concerto Competition.
Kasey has won numerous awards, and this year was a finalist in the prestigious Gina Bachauer Piano Competition. She has performed with the Blue Ash Montgomery Symphony Orchestra under Michael Chertok and the Louisville Orchestra under Teddy Abrams. Kasey has appeared in Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, and Whitney Hall of the Kentucky Center.
Locally, she was also a 2021 and 2020 Matinee Musicale Nancy F. Walker Memorial Scholarship winner. A cum laude graduate from Walnut Hills High School, Kasey will attend Princeton University in the fall. She plans to study composition and piano.
The Cincinnati MacDowell Society was founded in 1913. It had significant ties with the MacDowell Colony, an artist residency in New Hampshire founded by American composer Edward MacDowell and his wife, Marian MacDowell. It was Marian’s friendship with Cincinnati philanthropist Mary Emery as well as Clara Baur and her niece Bertha Baur, — the founders of the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music — that resulted in the society being formed here. For more about the society’s history and current activities, click here.
J’Nai Bridges performed a sizzling rendition of the Habanera from “Carmen”
The weather gods were smiling on Cincinnati Opera last night. The company managed to squeak past a turbulent day of downpours to mount its Opera in the Park concert last night at Summit Park in Blue Ash. The crowds turned out, and from all reports, a good time was had by all.
Audiences arriving at Summit Park, searching for their personal pods
Due to Covid, Cincinnati Opera is holding its 101st season outdoors in the park. We all sat in distanced “pods,” and the orchestra and cast performed on a specially erected, massive outdoor stage. We were treated to operatic chestnuts performed by some of the terrific cast members who will be appearing soon in “Carmen,” “Tosca” and “The Barber of Seville.”
One of the towers flanking the stage
I was pleasantly impressed by the sound quality, too. (You’ll read more about all that in this Friday’s Cincinnati Business Courier.)
Those who stayed home were treated by a live broadcast over WGUC-FM (90.9), hosted by Suzanne Bona and Cincinnati Opera artistic director Evans Mirageas. After more than a year away from the stage, Mirageas was visibly moved by the experience. He put it this way:
“Tonight is proof positive of the resilience of our staff, the steadfast devotion of our board and patrons, the dedication of all our artists onstage and backstage, and, most of all, the transcendent power of this art form of opera.”
The operas will be fully costumed and staged. Stay tuned for opera reviews and more at bizjournals.com. And remember, you can read for free, but you may be asked to register.
The College-Conservatory of Music at UC has been busy adding faculty members recently. Dean Stanley Romanstein announced these prominent new profs this week:
Kristin Lee has been appointed Assistant Professor of Violin beginning Aug. 15, 2021. She is a recipient of the 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant, as well as a top prizewinner of the 2012 Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists’ 2010 National Auditions.
Pene Pati performing as Romeo in San Francisco Opera’s production of Gounod’s Romeo et Juliette. Cory Weaver/provided by Matinée Musicale.
Matinée Musicale has announced that the renowned Samoan tenor Pene Pati is returning to the Memorial Hall stage, with pianist Ronny Michael Greenberg, for not one, but two, long-awaited live performances: 7:30 p.m. Friday, June 4 and 2 p.m. Sunday, June 6.
Local fans are still talking about his Cincinnati debut in March of 2019. His trip from his home in Auckland, New Zealand, to Cincinnati took two full days, and was complicated by last-minute visa problems and a spring snowstorm in Cincinnati. Pati’s impressive performance resulted in standing ovations, encore after encore, and an outcry for his rapid return.
However, due to Covid, his return engagement had to be postponed.
Pati will be performing the same program for both performances (to be announced). If his last recital is any indication, audiences are in for a rare treat. Here’s the review from that concert.
After recent debuts as Roméo in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette at San Francisco Opera — with Cincinnati favorite Nadine Sierra as Juliet — and Alfredo in Verdi’s La traviata at Moscow’s historic Bolshoi Theatre, Pati has been hailed “the most exceptional tenor discovery of the last decade” (Opéra-Online). In the upcoming seasons, Pati will make debuts at Staatsoper Berlin, Wiener Staatsoper, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli and Opéra National de Paris.
Here’s what I wrote after I was privileged to hear Pati and Nadine Sierra in San Francisco:
“Pati’s singing was the picture of elegance, and he remained fresh until his dying breath in Act V. Romeo’s famous cavatina, “Ah! Lève-toi, soleil” (“Arise, oh sun”) was deeply felt, a feat that combined both beauty of line and ardent, exciting top notes.”
This marks the return of live recitals presented by Matinée Musicale after more than a year. The 107-year-old music series is one of the first small performing arts organizations in our city to return to live, in-person performances.
Covid safety measures at Memorial Hall include wearing of masks and social distancing.
CSO audiences and musicians have been greatly socially distanced for this spring’s in-person shows.
I am one of the lucky people who has been able to see live, in-person concerts at Music Hall as organizations have begun opening up now that Covid appears to be waning.
Cincinnati is one of the first cities in the nation to welcome people back into the concert hall, albeit with plenty of Covid mitigation. I have to admit, for my first visit back to Music Hall — even before the vaccine became available to most people — I had some trepidation. But the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, as well CAA, which oversees Music Hall, have taken excellent precautions. With all of the social distancing in a 2200+ seat hall, an audience of 300 seemed pretty sparse. And with 90-minute concerts and no intermission, I barely encountered anyone at all. Just parked the car, donned a mask, saw the concert and left.
I loved this concert featuring Mahler’s “Das Lied von der Erde.” And how great that the orchestra made it available free for streaming a few weeks later.
Mandy Gaines
Now that the state is allowing 30% of hall capacity to be seated, it is nice to see up to 500 people. It really does make a difference, and I’m sure it does to the musicians, as well. Here’s my review of the Pops last weekend with Cincinnati treasure Mandy Gaines and that terrific singer Darius de Haas.
Melissa White made her subscription debut in Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3, “Strasbourg.”
And here’s my report of Louis Langrée’s Mozart festival with the CSO, the first time nearly 500 were allowed attend.
Thankfully, we have had our art museums to visit over the pandemic. Now, we can look forward to the May Festival — a slimmed-down version of that massive choral experience, of course. Read about it here.
And Cincinnati Opera will return as well, although not in Music Hall but at Summit Park, on land that was formerly the Blue Ash Airport. (Years ago, I met a relative there, who was delivering us a cello on his private plane… ) Here’s the story.
And yes, theater is returning too. Playhouse in the Park will seat reduced audiences for two productions this spring, and also offers some outdoor events. Here’s the announcement.
Cincinnati Ballet will begin moving into its new, $30.8 million home in Walnut Hills this June. (Click here to read about it.) The company has done an admiral job presenting both outdoor and indoor performances during the pandemic.
All of these organizations have had to toss out their planned seasons and re-imagine them with new productions and concert programs.
I admire CCM for putting together an imaginative performance series online. I have enjoyed myriad virtual shows over the past year. But there is nothing like experiencing a performance live and in person.
We’ve all missed all of it, terribly. I feel grateful to live in a city where arts leaders are creatively and safely reopening to allow in-person experiences.
Opera Fusion: New Works, the forward-looking collaboration of Cincinnati Opera and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music to develop new opera, is hosting a livestreamed workshop on Monday for a new opera that is to be premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2022-23 season.
“The Hours” is written by the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts and librettist Greg Pierce, both of whose works have been performed by Cincinnati Opera in recent seasons. Puts is the composer of “Silent Night,” which was mounted here in 2014; Pierce was the librettist for “Fellow Travelers,” which premiered in 2016.
A free public livestream of excerpts can be viewed on Monday, March 15, 5 p.m.-6 p.m., at cincinnatiopera.org.
Greg Pierce
The composer and librettist will collaborate in real time with the artists to shape the work, which is receiving its first workshop in Music Hall’s Ballroom. Click here to see the cast.
Cincinnati Opera artistic director Evans Mirageas will also host a conversation with the creators during the hour.
“The Hours” is a commission of the Metropolitan Opera and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The opera, which tells the story of three women whose lives have a literary connection, is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Michael Cunningham, as well as the Paramount Pictures film. Click here to read about the film, which starred Meryl Streep, Julianne Moore and Nicole Kidman.
Opera Fusion: New Works is funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The historic Austin Pipe Organ at Covenant-First Presbyterian Church
Covenant-First Presbyterian Church downtown is hosting its third annual organ festival this Sunday and Monday, March 7 and 8.
Todd Wilson, organist at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Cleveland, and head of the organ department at Cleveland Institute of Music, will be presenting a free recital at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 7. His program will include J.S. Bach’s Passacaglia in C minor, Three Cincinnati Impressions by Gerre Hancock, Soliloquy by David Conte; and Sonata on the 94th Psalm by Julius Reubke (1834-58).
Todd Wilson/photo by Sam Hubish
Wilson will conclude with his own “Improvisations on a submitted theme,” always a showstopper.
The church hasn’t been able to hold its series since exactly one year ago, when Alan Morrison was the guest artist one week before the nation shut down due to Covid-19.
I’m told they are ready with all the Covid safety protocols—masks, fresh air flowing, social distancing. The historic and beautiful sanctuary is very large, so it works for live music at a safe distance.
On Monday, Wilson will stay in town for a master class at the church, and some of Michael Unger’s CCM students will be participating.
The concert is free and open to the public.
Details: Covenant-First Presbyterian Church, 717 Elm Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202
In recent years, Cincinnati Opera has kicked off its season with a free Opera in the Park in Washington Park, OTR. Details on this and other events will be announced in late March.
Cincinnati Opera has made this announcement on its website today:
Last fall, when we declared our intention to return to live performances at Music Hall and SCPA this summer, we shared that we would continue planning on two tracks: the traditional season we’d announced, as well as a “Plan B” season in the event COVID-related challenges persist into the new year. While there have been many positive developments in combatting COVID since that time, the pandemic continues to limit the number of patrons who can safely gather for performances indoors.
So, we’ve made the difficult decision to set aside our original plans and move forward with “Plan B.” For the past several months, we’ve been investigating performance venues throughout the region that can accommodate both socially-distanced seating outside and beautiful, high-quality opera performances onstage. We have two primary goals: to keep everyone safe and to present a must-see summer opera festival. We could not be more excited to share our plan with you as soon as it’s complete; we anticipate doing so the last week in March.
Though it’s not what we’d originally planned, the 2021 Summer Festival will offer a thrilling, one-of-a-kind opera experience. This summer, we’ll be writing another unique chapter in Cincinnati Opera’s celebrated history. Thank you for being part of the story. Stay tuned for more information very soon.
Note: Watch for updates later in March about new opera titles, venues and ticket info.
To read about the season that was announced last Sept. and now canceled, click here.
