CityBeat’s coverage of the local arts scene has always tilted more toward new and emerging ideas than the traditional (see “1997” on page 9). We’ve devoted thousands of words and photos to fresh concepts like Fringe Festival, MusicNOW and FotoFocus, showcasing still-evolving artists in theater, music and photography, respectively.
Still, we all know the traditional arts built the foundation on which these emerging concepts are now sprouting. Cincinnati was known as an important American arts center long before CityBeat and most of you were born — Cincinnati Symphony, Opera, Ballet and Art Museum are among the oldest, most influential institutions anywhere, and they’ve continued to experiment and stretch in order to stay relevant.
A prime example was Cincinnati Opera’s world premiere, Margaret Garner, which Rick Pender previewed before the 2005 summer season at Music Hall. Co-commissioned with opera companies in Detroit and Philadelphia, the work featured lyrics and book by Toni Morrison and was based on her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved.
The story focused on a slave in 1850s Northern Kentucky who tried to escape by crossing the Ohio River. Cincinnati Opera promoted the show as a celebration of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, which had opened a year earlier.
Theater director Kenny Leon was hired to lead Margaret Garner, his first experience with opera. International star Denyce Graves sang the title role.
Leon wondered how local audiences would embrace an English-language opera sung by a predominantly African-American cast about the horrors of slavery. He thought the musical score would be the main attraction.
“I was taken away with the music,” Leon said. “I was expecting it to be like overly Classical … (but) I could feel the Gospel, the Jazz beneath it. I had never felt that in Classical music. This felt so right — I could hear the history of America in the music.”
Excerpt:
“Kenny Leon earned his credentials as an actor and a theater director, but opera is a new realm for him. Nevertheless, he points out, ‘It is entertainment. But the first part of the word “entertainment” is “enter,” so you want that to be a door that all people can enter through.’ ”
Today:
The risk paid off, as Margaret Garner drew more than 10,000 for its three Music Hall performances, making it the best-attended Cincinnati Opera show in 2005 and one of the best of the decade.
For at least a decade now, Cincinnati Opera’s seasons have included more nontraditional shows, including work by John Adams, Philip Glass and Kevin Puts. One opera each season is now performed at the School for Creative & Performing Arts.
CityBeat has continued to cover the traditional organizations’ successful against-the-grain efforts, from the Art Museum’s Cincinnati Wing focus on important local artists to Cincinnati Ballet’s live music/dance collaborations with Peter Frampton and Over the Rhine to Cincinnati Symphony’s incredible free LumenoCity programs at Washington Park.
In Cincinnati arts, everything old can be new again.
This article appears in Nov 12-18, 2014.
