By: Ernesto Oppicelli

Ernesto Oppicelli — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 15:20:16 +0000

Dear Kevin or Dear Mr. Klarke,
don’t be angry with me if I say I did like Olo’s CLOCLO and I’ll be happy to watch it again and again.
I like the music even if it is not to be compared with EVA or DIE BLAUE MAZUR. Oh yes! Lehar was always a composer who never failed to offer pleasant music and what’s more important to offer wonderful orchestrations. I do NOT love operettas when certain assassins change the original orchestrations. I think the Komische Oper Berlin should not exist – their PERLEN VON CLEOPATRA is so far from the Straus operetta that puts the world of operetta to shame. But the public applauds (the television has taught such a way).
Mr. Chamberlin says right words in his comments.
May I say that you are – dear Mr. Clarke – kind of evil with regard to OLO. Their CLOCLO is so pleasant and does not look ‘old’, it’s also kinda Broadway musical (as in the old good days … I stopped to see what happens there; my last joys were the Jule Styne’s musicals) – the interpreters are alive and sincere, and – oh yes – Steven Faulk and Nathan Brian use – as always – their intelligence, providing ‘something more’ but it is also inexcusable Sara Best’s laughing1 I believe this OLO’s CLOCLO is even better that THE MERRY WIDOW at the Met … and what about DIE LUSTIGE WITWE at the Staatsoper in Wien? Disgusting. So OLO never offend the operetta, as it often happens here in Europe.
I have now to wait till next summer to enjoy DIE JUXHEIRAT, another forgotten Lehar’s work … there will be another opportunity to discover how Lehar had always his magic way of offering pleasant work even if not so ‘perfect’ as his WITWE.
I repeat that operettas for me (am I wrong?) are great musical works because of their original orchestrations and to change that original sound is to betray them. DIE LUSTIGE WITWE or DER RASTELBINDER or …. the list may indeed be very long … are works that may stay perfectly well together with LA BOHEME, ERNANI, BILLY BUDD, CARMEN …
Smile at me, Kevin, and here a handshake.
Ernesto

By: Dann Chamberlin

Dann Chamberlin — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:44:03 +0000

My reaction to this is that the main “problem” with OLO’s CloClo is one beyond the power of OLO or any company to correct.

To put it quite directly, CloClo is simply not a memorable show. I attended one of the 2018 performances in Wooster and came away with just three favorable impressions from the whole work: a graceful waltz, a spirited mazurka, and absolutely beautiful orchestrations. The plot, the lyrics, the dialogue and yes, the music: all quite unmemorable. (Much) lesser Lehar indeed. I’m glad to have seen it once, but I would really not be interested in seeing it again.

Audiences don’t always get it right; witness the decades it took for Fledermaus to be appreciated in the USA. However, in the case of CloClo, my reaction to the show is supported by public reaction when the show was new. As soon as the novelty wore off, the show died. And when CloClo was staged in London, Lehar’s music for Act III was jettisoned in favor of music by a couple of total unknowns. There is a message there, loud and clear.

OLO has never done Eva or Wiener Frauen, both of which contain considerable music right out of Lehar’s top drawer. And they have not staged Guiditta or Gypsy Love since the 1990s. Why they thought CloClo deserved preference over these four musically superior works is known only to them.

That said, I’ll always be grateful to OLO for the opportunity to see operettas I never thought would be staged in this country. Putting on seven shows of varying styles over a period of seven weeks is a herculean accomplishment. If some of the critics tried it themselves, I doubt most or all of them would do anywhere nearly as well.

Comments on: Daddy Issues At Ohio Light Opera: How Could “Constructive” Critcism Work With Lehár’s “Cloclo”?

By: Ernesto Oppicelli

By: Dann Chamberlin