The opera stars (no pun intended) have aligned early in the year to provide a bounty of choice for local fans who usually have to wait for summertime and the Cincinnati Opera to satisfy their needs. If you think opera can only be immense and expansive, you might want to head to UC's COLLEGE-CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC this weekend for a production in the intimate Cohen Family Studio Theater of Robert Kurka's THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK. It's an ironic story of a dutiful, simple-minded soldier who follows orders and finds himself in a variety of scrapes before he becomes a hero. Based on a classic Czech novel, the hilarious piece lampoons the military with a Jazz-inflected score. Performances (8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday); tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for non-UC students. Reservations for limited seating: 513-556-4183. And if you can't be there, Saturday evening's performance will be Web-cast live at streaming.uc.edu/ccm/schweik/index.html; the performance will also be archived after Saturday at the same Web address.
If you prefer your opera a bit more familiar — not to mention grander — then NKU's Greaves Concert Hall on Friday evening is where you'll want to be when the KENTUCKY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA teams up with the University of Kentucky's Opera Theatre for Verdi's OTELLO, based on Shakespeare's classic tale of jealousy and betrayal.
The opera stars (no pun intended) have aligned early in the year to provide a bounty of choice for local fans who usually have to wait for summertime and the Cincinnati Opera to satisfy their needs. If you think opera can only be immense and expansive, you might want to head to UC's COLLEGE-CONSERVATORY OF MUSIC this weekend for a production in the intimate Cohen Family Studio Theater of Robert Kurka's THE GOOD SOLDIER SCHWEIK. It's an ironic story of a dutiful, simple-minded soldier who follows orders and finds himself in a variety of scrapes before he becomes a hero. Based on a classic Czech novel, the hilarious piece lampoons the military with a Jazz-inflected score. Performances (8 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday); tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for non-UC students. Reservations for limited seating: 513-556-4183. And if you can't be there, Saturday evening's performance will be Web-cast live at streaming.uc.edu/ccm/schweik/index.html; the performance will also be archived after Saturday at the same Web address. ...
If you prefer your opera a bit more familiar — not to mention grander — then NKU's Greaves Concert Hall on Friday evening is where you'll want to be when the KENTUCKY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA teams up with the University of Kentucky's Opera Theatre for Verdi's OTELLO, based on Shakespeare's classic tale of jealousy and betrayal. This will be a concert production (meaning no sets or costumes), but the teaming of the two organizations means a full orchestra and a 60-voice chorus (the KSO Chorale) to back up three professional singers — Jeffrey Springer (Otello), Kelly Anderson (Iago) and Nicolle Foland (Desdemona). The concert, sung in Italian with projected English translations, will repeat on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Lexington's Singletary Center on the UK campus. Tickets for the local performance: 859-431-6216 ...
Friday-Sunday the DAYTON OPERA presents Gilbert & Sullivan's classic THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE at the intimate Victoria Theatre; it's back on Jan. 20-21. Look for a review by Kate Brauer-Bell in next week's issue of CityBeat. Tickets: 937-228-3630 ...
The Dayton Opera just announced its 2004-2005 season: Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro (October 2004), Puccini's Tosca (February 2005) and Mark Adamo's Little Women (April 2005). Info: www.daytonopera.org ...
If you think opera tickets are out of your price range (don't assume that — some of these are quite affordable), you have the option of tuning your radio to WGUC (FM 90.9) on Saturday afternoons for METROPOLITAN OPERA broadcasts. The nice folks at the Annenberg Foundation donated $3.5 million to the Met to keep the 63-year-old tradition on the air for another season (longtime sponsor Chevron Texaco withdrew its support at the end of last season) enjoyed by approximately 10 million listeners in 42 countries. Saturday's live broadcast at 1:30 p.m. is Lehar's The Merry Widow; on Jan. 24 it's Puccini's Madama Butterfly; and the following week it's Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov. Info: www.wguc.org or www.metopera.org ...
WGUC is a marvelous community resource, by the way. The NPR station is also airing recorded concerts by the CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA on Sunday evenings at 8 p.m. This week you can hear the program from Sept. 19-20 featuring pianist Yundi Li in Chopin's First Piano Concerto; on Jan. 25, the Oct. 3-4 program will be aired with music by Berlioz, Corigliano and Rach-maninoff. ...
Other programs of note this weekend include the CINCINNATI CHAMBER ORCHESTRA performing works by Mozart and Haydn on Sunday and Monday (see Onstage listings), and Paavo J#228rvi's debut with the Linton Music Series. (See Another Venue.)
