UPDATE (March 3, 2020): The Cincinnati Opera no longer will show Triptych (Eyes of One on Another) in April 2020 for their 100th anniversary season. CO's Interim Communications Director Katie Syroney says that the opera has been postponed to a future season, though a new performance date has not yet been set.
Cincinnati Opera will hit their 100th anniversary in 2020, making it the second oldest opera company in America. Highlights include the regional premiere of Bryce Dessner's Triptych (Eyes of One Another), a presentation of new work Fierce Grace: Jeannette Rankin and a staging of Dvorak's most-performed opera, Rusalka.
The festivities kick-off Sept. 18 this year via a partnership with the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden for the 10th annual Back to the Zoo concert in the Wings of Wonder Theater.
The upcoming season also coincides with the retirement of Patricia K. Beggs, the CEO and general director of CO, who will step down after 35 years of leadership. (She’ll be honored at the company’s annual opera gala on Nov. 23.)
Here’s the lowdown on other performances in the lineup:
Stephen Costello in Recital // Oct. 29 at Memorial Hall
CO regulars might recall Costello when he stared in the company’s 2010 La Bohème and 2012 La Traviata. The evening will feature bel canto opera arias in concert.
In Harmony Community Chorus // April 2020
Made up of 100 participants — with 10 members each hailing from 10 organizations from across the city — In Harmony will launch in April 2020. But the initiative is an extension of what’s already been planted in the company’s “Opera Goes to Church” series, which has collaborated with local churches since 2006 in bringing their choirs onstage with CO’s opera singers. The hope for both is, according to a release, “to create social bridges across the city.”
The participants — all from a mix of churches — will commit to a half-day weekend retreat, six rehearsals and six performances over two weekends. The program will culminate with performances at community centers, churches and at Cincinnati Music Hall. In Harmony is supported by a $75,000 Innovation Grant from Opera America.
Triptych (Eyes of One Another) // April 2020, Taft Theatre
As written about by CityBeat's Steven Rosen earlier this year, Triptych (Eyes of One Another) hones in on the late Robert Mapplethorpe’s Contemporary Arts Center exhibition The Perfect Moment in 1990, which included work that depicted several images of men engaged in sadomasochistic acts. The show was contested and, as Rosen explained, “Led by a stern sheriff, conservatives from the city and Hamilton County were not just hunting for pornography in their pursuit of the CAC and its director, but also — so it seemed — trying to posthumously punish Mapplethorpe for being openly homosexual and the art world for accepting it.”
The case was taken to court and, in the end, a jury sided with the CAC's right to show the art. Dessner — a member of Rock group The National — grew up in Cincinnati as the events were unfolding. In this new work, he collaborated with librettist Korde Arrington Tuttle and vocal ensemble group Roomful of Teeth to explore the impact of Mapplethorpe’s work. The 2020 presentation is in collaboration with Contemporary Arts Center, will feature the poetry of Essex Hemphill and Patti Smith and marks the work’s regional premiere.
Barber of Seville // June 18-20, 2020, Music Hall
The CO will present Gioachino Rossini’s comedy Barber of Seville featuring Grammy-winning mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard. This will mark her CO debut as Rosina, having previously starred as Tamino and Papageno in their 2017 production of Magic Flute. She’ll be joined by tenor Aaron Blake and baritone Rodion Pogossov as Count Almaviva and Figaro, respectively. Renato Balsadonna will return as conductor.
Fierce // June 24-28, 2020 (location TBA)
A world premiere, Fierce is inspired by the stories of teenage girls’ lives, who helped create the piece. It will be presented as part of both the Championing Women’s Voices initiative and CO Next: Diverse Voices and is in collaboration with WordPlay Cincy, The Music Resource Center and i.imagine. Local novelist Sheila Williams wrote the libretto, working alongside WordPlay Cincy’s programs. The music is composed by William Menefield, who worked with participants in The Music Resource Center’s programs. D. Lynn Meyers — the producing artistic director of Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati — will make her CO debut.
Rusalka // July 9-11, Music Hall
For the first time, CO will present Antonín Dvořák’s Rusalka, the tragic modern fairy tale that tells the story of a lovestruck mermaid. Sung in Czech, Swiss soprano Kim-Lillian Strebel will star in the title role. And Daniela Candillari, a Slovenian conductor, will make her CO debut as she leads the CSO.
Castor and Patience // July 16-26, School for Creative and Performing Arts
Castor and Patience — with music by Gregory Spears and an original libretto by U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith — this story follows two members in an African-American family who struggle with the fate of a piece of historic land they’ve inherited in the South. As a release states, it speaks to “America’s warring tensions between reckoning with the hard facts of history and racing blindly forward toward the dream of progress.”
Fierce Grace: Jeannette Rankin // July 17, 2020 (location TBA)
In 1916, Jeannette Rankin became the first woman elected to the U.S. Congress as a representative of Montana. Now her story will be told via a new opera written by composers Kitty Brazelton, Laura Kaminsky, Laura Karpman and Ellen Reid, the latter of whom just won a Pulitzer Prize in Music for her debut opera p r i s m.
Aida // July 25-Aug. 1, Music Hall
As the closure to CO’s 100th season, Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida will feature soprano Mary Elizabeth Williams in the title role, marking her debut with the company. Italian tenor Marco Berti and mezzo-soprano Ronnita Miller will also make their CO debuts singing the parts of Radamès and princess Amneris, respectively. Baritone Reginald Smith, Jr. will return to sing the part of Amonasro Ramfis, alongside bass Morris Robinson — who also is the company’s artistic advisor — as Ramfis. At the helm is returning conductor Christopher Allen.
More info: cincinnatiopera.org.
