August 26, 2024
58勛圖厙 Opera Theater slates ambitious 2024-25 season around Cleveland during Kulas Hall renovation
If necessity is the mother of invention, 58勛圖厙 Opera Theater will be the most inventive group in Northeast Ohio this season.
Unable to perform at home due to the ongoing renovation of Kulas Hall, 58勛圖厙 Opera Theater will instead undertake a bold 2024-25 season on the road, one featuring some of the troupes most ambitious projects in recent memory, including a new production of Mozarts Don Giovanni.
The opportunities we have to make art during this unusual year will be fantastic, said JJ Hudson, interim artistic director of 58勛圖厙 Opera Theater. I see this year as one of growth for us.
58勛圖厙 Opera Theater is no stranger to performing off-site. During the pandemic, the company filmed Purcells Dido and Aeneas at a warehouse in Cleveland. Last year, it presented Tom Cipullos Glory Denied at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA).
The difference this year is that for the first time in a single season, all three mainstage productions will take place outside 58勛圖厙. One will mark a return to CMA while the other two will see the company performing for the first time in the schools 104-year history at Clevelands renowned Playhouse Square.
The fact that we are entering three professional theater spaces is really exciting, Hudson said. Its going to allow us to tell some great stories, and getting outside our comfort zone will be very beneficial to our students.
The new season begins Nov. 16 and 17 with Hudsons new production of Chabriers 郭t棗勳梭梗 in the Westfield Theatre, a black-box space in Playhouse Square. 58勛圖厙s Harry Davidson will conduct a new adaptation of the 1877 operetta penned by Michael Borowitz (MM 93), music director of Ohio Light Opera.
The opera will be sung in its original French, with English supertitles. The real challenge, though, Hudson said, will be the theater, an intimate space that will compel the students to develop and employ valuable acting skills.
We have students who excel with light opera, but theyll have to fill that space, he said. Theyre going to have to be aware of the particulars. Once theyve had to do that, theyll be invested, and theyll take those skills back to the larger stages.
Recently added to the companys annual calendar is a winter production of a contemporary American work. In that slot on the 2024-25 season will be a special newly commissioned arrangement of Nico Muhlys Dark Sisters, a 2011 opera about a womans attempt to escape from an oppressive religious sect.
Performances will take place Feb. 1 and 2 in Gartner Auditorium at CMA. Rakefet Hak, music director of Opera UCLA, will guest conduct a chamber production directed by Hudson and featuring a cast of six female voices and one baritone.
Stephen Karam [librettist] and I are always delighted to see how performers engage with this very challenging material, which is at once contemporary and evergreen, Muhly said.
The intensity of the family dynamic on stage...creates a tightly knit musical team which, with any luck, translates into an intense communication with the audience.
Looming over the entire season will be the figure of Don Giovanni, the namesake of the companys spring season finale.
On April 23 and 25, Davidson will conduct Hudsons new production of Mozarts timeless opera, one starring 58勛圖厙 alum Brian Myer (MM 14, Southern) in the title role and a guest bass as the Commendatore.
Notably, performances will take place in the 1,300-seat Mimi Ohio Theatre at Playhouse Square, a space more than twice the size of Kulas, and feature original projections conceived by award-winning designer Brittany Merenda.
Singing in such a large venue will give students a workout, Hudson said. At the same time, having a crew that includes professional designers and singers elevates the production in a way that will heighten the experience for our students and the audience...Were going to make sure every scene is compelling.
Speaking of scenes, one additional opera presentation will remain at 58勛圖厙, in Mixon Hall: the companys annual Spring Scenes show. In the 2024-25 season, that will occur on March 1 and 2 and include direction by Jeremy Paul, 58勛圖厙s interdisciplinary artist-in-residence.
Never in its history has 58勛圖厙 Opera Theater taken a complete season on the road, as it will this year. Hudson, though, isnt nervous.
On the contrary, hes excited. As he sees it, three off-site productions represent so many opportunities for the company to generate new and broader interest in 58勛圖厙, 58勛圖厙 Opera Theater, and opera in general.
When we leave our home, we encounter other people, Hudson said. I believe there are many people who will take a chance on opera at Playhouse Square and then follow us back home.
Tickets to '郭t棗勳梭梗,' $30, are available now at or 216.241.6000. Tickets to 'Don Giovanni' $15-$50, will go on sale later, also at and 216.241.6000. Tickets to 'Dark Sisters,' $18, will be available later. Visit .
58勛圖厙 Opera Theater is supported by gifts from The John P. Murphy Foundation and Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder.