Fri 1/17 @ 7:30PM
Sat 1/18 @ 11AM
Sat 1/18 @ 2PM
Sat 1/18 @ 4PM
Sat 1/18 @ 7PM
Cleveland Opera Theater and Baldwin Wallace University’s {NOW} Fest 2020 is the latest edition of its developmental festival for new opera, presenting operas in various stages of completion.
On Fri 1/17, the first of a series of events at Baldwin Wallace takes place in Gamble Auditorium with Bernarda Alba, based on the 1936 play, The House of Bernarda Alba, by the great Spanish writer Federico Garcia Lorca. The play deals with the repressive, claustrophobic atmosphere the title character creates for her five daughters; it’s a melodramatic work well suited for the opera stage. The work, with music by Griffen Candey and a Spanish/English libretto by Caridad Svich, is in the fourth year of its five-year development process. The free performance is followed by an audience talkback session.
On Sat 1/18, there’ll be four discussions/readings taking place at Fynes Hall at BW Conservatory. At 11am, there’s a discussion to launch the first year of the development process of an opera based on The Green Book, a guide for black travelers published from 1936-1963, advising them where they were welcome to eat, stay and get gas. Author/playwright Calvin A. Ramsey will talk about the topics covered in his children’s book Ruth and the Green Book and how they might translate into opera.
At 2pm, Dawn Sontag’s Coal Creek, an opera in the second year of development will be the topic of workshop discussion, followed at 4pm by a libretto reading of The Woman in the Wall by composer Griffen Candey and librettist Sabino Balsamo. Then at 7pm, Mike Telin of ClevelandClassical.com will moderate an interactive discussion about the creation, development and performance of new opera, with audience questions and input welcomed.
All four events are free.
Baldwin Wallace College, Berea, OH 44017