Orchestra's Opera & Humanities Festival focuses on reconciliation
Why it matters: The Cleveland Orchestra's annual Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival is the celebrated ensemble's signature spring event.
It features various performances, art exhibitions and public forums in partnership with other local cultural institutions, starting Friday and running through May 25.
The intrigue: The theme of this year's festival is "Reconciliation," inspired by the early 20th-century opera "Jenůfa" and its themes of trauma, forgiveness and redemption.
The Cleveland Orchestra, led by conductor Franz Welser-Möst, will perform the opera three times at Severance Music Center on May 17, 22 and 25.
State of play: The full lineup of festivities begins at 8:30am Friday with a symposium on immigration at Severance.
Other highlights include performances by Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet and pianist Michelle Cann, as well as forums and exhibitions hosted by the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ideastream and The City Club of Cleveland.
Flashback: The Opera & Humanities Festival began in 2023 as the brainchild of André Gremillet, president and CEO of the Cleveland Orchestra.
The inaugural theme was "The American Dream" followed by "Power" in 2024.
What they're saying:"The goal was to use our annual opera performances to feature not just the Cleveland Orchestra but the incredible cultural scene we have in Cleveland," Gremillet tells Axios.
"The festival is based on music first and foremost, but we also want to stimulate some interesting conversations on topics that are timely and important to the community."
If you go: The festival features a mix of ticketed and free events.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
7 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Gilda Cruz-Romo, soprano celebrated for her power, dies at 85
Critics focused on the natural way she used her voice to inject character into her roles. From a 1962 debut in her native Mexico, opposite Jon Vickers in Richard Wagner's 'Die Walkure,' to her final performances, 30 years later, in Manuel de Falla's 'El Amor Brujo' in Guadalajara, where she was born, she was celebrated for a big voice -- she could hit high Cs with perfect accuracy -- that was also capable of singing quite softly. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up At the Met, she sang alongside stars Sherrill Milnes in 'I Pagliacci,' Robert Merrill in 'La Forza del Destino,' and Plácido Domingo in 'Tosca,' under James Levine. Advertisement A 1974 performance in Turin in the title role of Giuseppe Verdi's 'Luisa Miller' was 'the aural equivalent of a Caravaggio painting,' critic Scott Barnes wrote in a 2008 profile in Opera magazine. He praised her 'masterful use of light and shadow to etch an indelibly unique human being,' wroting that she had a sound 'perfect for Verdi and Puccini.' Advertisement The daughter of a train conductor, Ms. Cruz-Romo came from 'humble beginnings,' her niece Guerra said in an interview. Quoted in the 2008 Opera profile, Ms. Cruz-Romo appeared slightly amazed in looking back at a career that had led her from the Mexican provinces to the operatic stage in New York, Milan, London, and Vienna. 'I mean, my God! Who has such luck? There was really no struggle in my career,' she told Barnes. 'I worked hard and prepared well, but the engagements came easily.' Ms. Cruz-Romo was Cio-Cio San in "Madama Butterfly" at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1981. METROPOLITAN OPERA/NYT Gilda Cruz was born Feb. 12, 1940, one of four children of Feliciano Cruz and Maria del Rosario Diaz. As a child, she 'loved to dress up and make believe all the time,' she told Barnes in 2008, recalling that she infuriated her mother by taking her antique bedspread so she could 'swirl that around me and pretend to be a queen.' She studied at the Mexico City Conservatory, sang with the choir of the Ballet Folklorico de Mexico, and made her debut under the composer-conductor Carlos Chavez with the Mexican National Symphony Orchestra in Heitor Villa-Lobos' 'Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5.' She immediately impressed critics in her native land. 'A young debutante with a very beautiful voice, and to whom we wish a brilliant future,' critic Rafael Solana wrote in Siempre! magazine in September 1962, after her debut in 'Die Walkure.' In 1968, after some six years with the National Opera of Mexico, she was hired to sing in Gaetano Donizetti's 'Anna Bolena' at the Dallas Opera (her husband, Roberto, was singing in the opera's choir). Advertisement From the beginning, the texture of Cruz-Romo's voice and its exceptional richness aroused critical enthusiasm. She made her New York debut at City Opera in October 1969, in the dual role of Margherita and Elena in Arrigo Boito's 'Mefistofele,' under Julius Rudel. For critic Peter G. Davis of The New York Times, she was 'a major discovery.' 'In soft passages, she produces a pianissimo of delicate, whispery beauty, and when the voice blooms up on top the effect is thrillingly brilliant,' Davis wrote -- although he did note a few 'technical flaws' in her voice production. In 1970, she won the top prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council's regional audition and was immediately offered a contract by the company's general manager, Rudolf Bing. Later that year, Davis found her Butterfly to be 'a fascinating creation and potentially a great one,' adding that 'her voice is a thrilling instrument in itself, with a powerful thrust in the top register and an individual, bronzen timbre that communicates drama as well as the notes.' After retiring from the stage in 1990, Ms. Cruz-Romo became a voice professor at the University of Texas Austin. She held that position for about a decade, earning the gratitude of dozens of students. 'She was an encyclopedia of musical knowledge and lived experience,' her student Benjamin Watts wrote in a post on LinkedIn after her death, 'fundamentally devoted to the libretto of every masterpiece she performed.' Ms. Cruz-Romo leaves a sister, Sylvia Winter. Her husband, who had been her manager, died in 2018. Advertisement This article originally appeared in
New York Times
a day ago
- New York Times
Gilda Cruz-Romo, Soprano Celebrated for Her Power, Dies at 85
Gilda Cruz-Romo, a singer whose soaring, penetrating lyric soprano in dozens of Metropolitan Opera performances drew the admiration of critics and fans throughout the 1970s and into the '80s, died on June 30 in San Antonio. She was 85. Her death, in a hospital, was confirmed by her niece Sandra Guerra. Ms. Cruz-Romo's powerful voice was ideal for Tosca, Aida and Cio-Cio San in 'Madama Butterfly,' and she was cast over and over in those roles. She sang 163 times with the Met, on tour and in New York, until her last performance with the company in 1984, as Tosca. She also sang at the major European opera houses — Covent Garden in London in 1972, and the Vienna State Opera and La Scala in Milan the next year. Critics focused on the natural way Ms. Cruz-Romo used her voice to inject character into her roles. From a 1962 debut in her native Mexico, opposite Jon Vickers in Wagner's 'Die Walkure,' to her final performances, 30 years later, in Falla's 'El Amor Brujo' in Guadalajara, where she was born, she was celebrated for a big voice — she could hit high Cs with perfect accuracy — that was also capable of singing quite softly. At the Met, she sang alongside stars like Sherrill Milnes in 'I Pagliacci,' Robert Merrill in 'La Forza del Destino' and Plácido Domingo in 'Tosca,' under James Levine. A 1974 performance in Turin in the title role of Verdi's 'Luisa Miller' was 'the aural equivalent of a Caravaggio painting,' the critic Scott Barnes wrote in a 2008 profile in Opera magazine. He praised her 'masterful use of light and shadow to etch an indelibly unique human being' and wrote that she had a sound 'perfect for Verdi and Puccini.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
House Republicans vote to rename Kennedy Center opera house after Melania Trump
Congressional Republicans are moving forward with a plan to rename the Kennedy Center opera house after Melania Trump. Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson added an amendment to the Interior-Environment spending bill that most of the center's funding for the 2026 fiscal year would be contingent on changing the name to the 'First Lady Melania Trump Opera House.' The Appropriations Committee voted 33-25 to approve the amendment. The bill will still need to go to a vote in the House and pass in the Senate before a Sept. 30 deadline. 'As Chairman of the House Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee — which oversees federal funding for capital repairs and operations and maintenance at the Kennedy Center — I am proud to honor (Melania Trump's) support and commitment in promoting the arts and humanities,' Simpson said in a statement. ADVERTISEMENT President Trump took over as the center's chair in February, ousting longtime board members and installing allies on the board and as trustees. The Trumps both attended the opening night performance of 'Les Misérables' at the Kennedy Center last month, where they were met by boos from the audience. The opera house, the second-largest venue at the Kennedy Center, is the site of the annual Kennedy Center Honors, the nation's highest award for lifetime achievement in the arts. The Trumps did not attend the Kennedy Center Honors during his first term. _____
