Wed 5/15 @ 7PM
From Wednesday May 15 through Sunday May 26, the Cleveland Orchestra will be hosting its second Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival, taking place at Severance Music Center and other locations. This year’s theme is “Power,” which will be reflected in a series of concerts, exhibitions and conversations. The centerpiece is four fully staged performances of Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, directed by Nikolaus Habjan with Franz Welser-Möst leading the Cleveland Orchestra.
The festival opens with a keynote talk by author/journalist Kai Bird, who has written extensively about the U.S. bombings of Japan at the end of World War II and U.S./Middle East relations. He co-wrote the 2006 Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer, using physicist Oppenheimer as a pivot to tell the story of the development of the atomic bomb, in which he was a key figure, and the ethics of its use. He’s also the author of a biography of Jimmy Carter.
The program will also feature violinist and associate concertmaster Jung-Min Amy Lee, pianists Christina Dahl and Miloš Repický, and bass-baritone Dashon Burton performing pieces connected to the festival theme including Sarasate’s Fantasy on The Magic Flute and John Adams’ “Batter my Heart” from his opera Doctor Atomic. It takes place in the Mandel Concert Hall at Severance Music Center.
Go here for tickets and information. Get a full festival schedule here.
Cleveland, OH 44106