"Butterfly" to Close Cincinnati Opera Season
Cincinnati Opera has framed its 94th season with
two of the most popular operas ever written, Bizet’s “Carmen,” which opened the
season June 12 at Music Hall, and Puccini’s “Madame Butterfly,” which will ring
down the curtain July 24 and 26. To be sung in Italian with English
surpertitles, performances are at 7:30 p.m., also at Music Hall.
Starring as the young geisha Cio-Cio-San, who falls prey to ”love-em-and-leave-em” Lt. B.F. Pinkerton, is Italian soprano Maria Luigia Borsi (Desdemona in Cincinnati Opera’s “Otello” in 2010). The production, with a romantic/realistic set designed by Paul Shortt, was last seen at Cincinnati Opera in 1996. Singing Pinkerton will be tenor Shawn Mathey, with mezzo-soprano Kelley O’Connor as Cio-Cio-San’s servant Suzuki, baritone Roberto de Candia as the U.S. consul Sharpless, and tenor Steven Cole as the marriage broker Goro. Spanish conductor Ramón Tebar will lead the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
For tickets, call (513) 241-2742, or order online at www.cincinnatiopera.org
In other news:
- The CSO and Christian Moerlein Brewing Company have teamed up to make a special beer, dubbed LumenoCity Pale Ale, for the orchestra’s LumenoCity light and sound show Aug. 1-3 in Washington Park.
- Inspired by LumenoCity, the Cincinnati Museum Center is considering creating its own light show at Union Terminal. It would have a Hall of Justice theme, a concept suggested by the use of Union Terminal as a model for DC Comics’ Hall of Justice, headquarters for superheroes Superman, Batman, Wonder Women and others. The event, which needs sponsors to go forward, would take place coincident with the annual Cincinnati Comic Expo and Cincy ComiCon, held in September.
- Public hearings about saving Cincinnati icons Music Hall and Union Terminal and how the $331 million project should be funded (including a proposed increase in the Hamilton County sales tax) will be held July 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Rd., and July 28 at 11 a.m. at the Hamilton County Administration Building, 138 E. Court St., Room 603, downtown.
- Congratulations to Stephen Goist and Cole Guillien, just-announced winners of scholarships awarded by the Cincinnati early music ensemble Catacoustic Consort. Both Goist and Guillien, residents of Greater Cincinnati, play the viola da gamba. Their scholarships will go to further their studies of early music and to purchase their own instruments.