Opera Columbus announces its 2024-25 season schedule
In the world of opera, high passion and tragic romance are pretty much the norm.
But, for its upcoming season, Opera Columbus is focused on affairs of the heart to an unusual degree.
For the 2024-25 season, the company chose as a unifying theme “love is a battlefield.”
Each of its three main productions will somehow revolve around love and its social, political or logistical complications. Details about each show follow.
‘The Threepenny Opera’
On Nov. 22 and 24 in the Southern Theatre, the company will kick off the season with “The Threepenny Opera,” a 1928 work with words by Bertolt Brecht and music by Kurt Weill.
Although a marriage is at the center of the Victorian-era story — the union between dyed-in-the-wool criminal Macheath and Polly Peachum — Brecht and Weill use the plot as a vessel to explore social and political topics.
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For Opera Columbus General Director and CEO Julia Noulin-Merat, the latter qualities made it a natural to program the same month as the U.S. presidential election.
“This is going to be right after the election,” said Noulin-Merat. “For me, I wanted (an opera) that didn’t sweep under the rug everything that is happening politically. I thought, ‘Let’s be cheeky.’”
Newly appointed principal guest conductor Everett McCorvey will lead orchestral musicians accompanying the singers in “The Threepenny Opera.” In the just-established role, the Kentucky-based conductor will conduct at least one Opera Columbus production per season and will be involved in programming and other artistic decisions throughout the year.
‘West Side Story’
Next, in a major collaboration in the Columbus performing-arts scene, the opera will team with the Columbus Symphony, BalletMet and the Columbus Association for the Performing Arts (CAPA) to produce Leonard Bernstein’s “West Side Story” on Feb. 13-16, 2025, in the Ohio Theatre.
With lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by Arthur Laurents, the Broadway classic repurposes the storyline of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” to tell a tale about young people pursuing love at a time of gang warfare in 1950s-era New York City. The show was turned into movies directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins in 1961; and by Steven Spielberg in 2021.
“This is the ultimate dream come true for me,” Noulin-Merat said of the production. “One of the reasons why I was so excited to come to Opera Columbus is because this town just loves to collaborate.”
In recent seasons, Opera Columbus has partnered with the Columbus Symphony on several large-scale productions in the Ohio Theatre; during the “Twisted” programs of the 2010s, the two groups also joined with BalletMet. Next year’s production will represent a reunion of the three groups on a grand scale.
For “West Side Story,” singers hired by Opera Columbus will perform the lead roles in English and in Spanish, the symphony will perform Bernstein’s score and the dancers will execute Robbins’ choreography.
“What I love about this is it’s really pulling on each of these (organizations’) strengths to tell a story together,” Noulin-Merat said. “CAPA does Broadway so well, the symphony plays incredibly, we sing beautifully and the ballet dances gorgeously.”
‘The Marriage of Figaro’
Finally, the company will conclude its season on April 25 and 27, 2025, in the Southern Theatre with Mozart’s 1786 masterpiece “The Marriage of Figaro.”
In the plot, the servant Figaro and the maid Susanna intend to become a couple, but their path to marriage is complicated by assorted scheming — all of it comic, of course.
If “The Threepenny Opera” offers contemporary political resonance, and “West Side Story” aims to please musical-theater fans, Opera Columbus’ production of “Figaro” is tailored to old-time opera lovers.
“This is going to be a sweet valentine to the historical piece that is ‘Marriage of Figaro,’” Noulin-Merat said. “For this one, you can expect . . . the beautiful operatic costumes.”
The Columbus Symphony will accompany the performances.
“People are going to be blown away by how beautiful (the opera) is,” Noulin-Merat said.
At a glance
Subscriptions for Opera Columbus’ 2024-25 season will go on sale April 29. Tickets to individual shows will go on sale June 3. For more information, visit www.operacolumbus.org.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Opera Columbus announces three productions for 2024-25 season
