“Strike Up the Band”: Gershwin Mixed with Gilbert & Sullivan
Director/conductor Ted Sperling has again done George and Ira Gershwin proud with his one-night performance of the first of the
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Ohio Light Opera: The 2024 Saison in Wooster
In the decade or so that I’ve been attending Ohio Light Opera’s summer season of operettas and musicals, I continue
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“Babes in Toyland” Revived by Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live!
I approached this resurrection of The Little Orchestra Society’s 1990s-era Babes in Toyland with some trepidation. Admirable champion of Herbert’s work
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“They Haven’t Lost Their Mojo”: The Ohio Light Opera Festival 2023
For the first time in four years, Ohio Light Opera has returned for a full indoor season of shows (though
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“Iolanthe”: Betting Dollars to Donuts on These Fairies At Carnegie Hall
It’s only May, but I’m betting dollars to donuts that this starry production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s seventh comic opera
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Victor Herbert’s “Cyrano de Bergerac”: Live in New York
“You’re about to see a flop,” VHRP Artistic Director Alyce Mott impishly teased the packed house a few moments before
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Bringing Victor Herbert’s “Mlle. Modiste” (1905) Back to New York
The ever-enterprising Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live! concluded its shortened season with one of Herbert’s most popular titles, the 1905
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Opening in New York: Barry Manilow’s “Harmony” About the Comedian Harmonists
The story of the six-member close harmony group known as Comedian Harmonists – the toast of Germany and elsewhere in
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A Farcical Comedy: Victor Herbert’s “The Only Girl” Returns to New York
For a work that, for all its cherishable qualities, can hardly be said to rate as one of Victor Herbert’s
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The Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live! Presents “Heart O’Mine” Online
Over the last several months, the beloved New York institution dedicated to all things Victor Herbert, has been streaming video
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Victor Herbert’s Tune-Free Opera “Madeleine” (1914) Revived
Alyce Mott’s enterprising company Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live! dedicated to all things Victor Herbert risked alienating the operetta regulars
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Gershwin’s Political Satire “Let ‘Em Eat Cake” At MasterVoices
Artistic Director Ted Sperling conducted a splendid concert reading of George and Ira Gershwin’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1933 musical Of Thee
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Victor Herbert’s “The Debutante” (1914) Resurrected In New York
When Victor Herbert’s musical comedy The Debutante premiered in New York in 1914, it had the misfortune to occur the
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The New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players Give “Iolanthe” A Top Notch Performance
New York’s longest running professional Gilbert & Sullivan company returned to the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College (near Lexington Avenue)
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Ohio Light Opera: Offering Rarities From Kálmán’s “Teufelsreiter” to Novello’s “Perchance to Dream”
Fans of musical theater and operetta will not find a richer, more concentrated banquet of their favorite entertainment than that
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“Sweethearts” (1913) Performed By The Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live!
This admirable young company finished its fifth season with Victor Herbert’s hit, Sweethearts, which opened at the New Amsterdam Theatre
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Kurt Weill’s “Lady in the Dark” Revived At City Center in New York
Gertrude Lawrence’s 1941 megahit, Lady in the Dark, groundbreaking in its day for its then novel use of psychoanalysis in
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New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players: “Ages Ago” & “Mr. Jericho”
New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players’s inspired pairing of two Victorian one-act comic operas – Ages Ago and Mr. Jericho
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Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live: “Falling in Love For 160 Years”
VHRP Live’s love-themed concert may have been the company’s best yet, not forgetting such earlier gems as Son of Dublin
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Victor Herbert’s Last Operetta “Orange Blossoms” Returns To New York
Four years after Light Opera of New York exhumed Victor Herbert’s last operetta Orange Blossoms (more accurately, a “comedy with
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‘Authentic’ Operetta Productions At Ohio Light Opera? Plus A Festival Symposium
Enterprising Ohio Light Opera, ever devoted to ‘authentic’ productions from the world of musical comedy and operetta, seems to go
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“Carmen Jones” Revived By Classic Stage Company
The revival of Oscar Hammerstein II’s very clever 1943 updating of Bizet’s Carmen – a big hit in its day
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Victor Herbert’s “The Enchantress” In New York City
Hot on the heels of LOONY’s Naughty Marietta only one week before, along came yet another Victor Herbert work, but
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Captain “Dick” Meets “Naughty” Marietta. Or: Victor Herbert at LOONY
This most famous of Victor Herbert’s operettas, and arguably his best, received a classy salon concert performance the other night
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“Ladies First”: A Victor Herbert Concert in New York City
The enterprising VHRP Live! company has come up with something delightfully different on this occasion. Not a revival of a
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Victor Herbert’s “The Red Mill”: Holland Mania Sweeps New York Once Again
The third major Manhattan outing in recent years of Victor Herbert’s once hugely popular Broadway operetta The Red Mill proved
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Trying To Avoid The Same Old Superlatives: The 2017 Ohio Light Opera Season
Writing these annual roundups of Ohio Light Opera’s summer festival – run with consistent panache by Artistic Director Steven Daigle
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Offenbach’s Gender-Bending “L’ile de Tulipatan” From New York
The Light Opera of New York (LOONY) shifted gears this spring from its annual early American operetta – usually by
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“Eileen” At The Victor Herbert Renaissance Projekt Live!
The third time was most definitely the charm for VHRP’s Artistic Director Alyce Mott’s revision of Victor Herbert and lyricist/book
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Kelli O’Hara Stars In “Babes In Toyland” Performance At Carnegie Hall
MasterVoices’ semi-staged concert version of Victor Herbert’s 1903 extravaganza Babes in Toyland – written originally as a follow-up to the
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“Son Of Ireland”: Victor Herbert Concert In New York
St. Patrick’s Day came a little early this year, courtesy of the always rewarding Victor Herbert Renaissance Project Live! Anyone
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Victor Herbert’s “Princess Pat” (1915) Revived In New York
Victor Herbert’s 1915 charmer The Princess Pat was lovingly resurrected by Alyce Mott’s intrepid group as the opener of their
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Second-Rate “American Idol” Superficiality: “Cats” Returns To Broadway
Apart from the disorienting novelty of Cats taking up residence at the Neil Simon Theatre when, for a record-breaking 7485
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Light Opera of New York: Jerome Kern’s “Sally”
Charm was in abundance at Light Opera of New York’s semi-staged concert reading of Jerome Kern’s 1920 musical smash Sally,
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“Shuffle Along”: The Making of the 1921 Musical Sensation
Deep among the indelible memories of my theatergoing life are singer Lynnie Godfrey sprawled on a piano suggestively growling “Daddy”
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“American Psycho”: Benjamin Walker Stars As Patrick Bateman
Bret Easton Ellis’ once – and perhaps still – notorious novel about an affluent Wall Street investment banker/serial killer, the
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