ECO-CARL: On Broadway

They say the neon lights are bright going LED on Broadway.

Opera Cleveland is certainly not the only arts organization looking on the green side of things. The mecca for musical theater junkies everywhere--Broadway--has its own "green team." More accurately, it's the Broadway Green Alliance. They are busy identifying and promoting better (i.e. more sustainable and eco-friendly) practices in the theater community.

What's cool and oh-so-helpful (and sorta makes me forgive whoever it was that allowed Katie Holmes on Broadway) are the lists and resources for better practices for theater professionals available online.

Opera Cleveland had started to compile our own lists of everything we could possibly think to consider in improving our sustainability, and BGA's lists are a great reference.

For theater shops and warehouses, there's an excellent score card, created by Mo' Olelo Performing Arts Company. It essentially rates all varieties of materials like paints, adhesives, textiles, plastics, and woods on their respective levels of toxicity and eco-friendliness. Frankly, it's a also great resource for people who are doing home improvement sorts of projects.
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GONE TO THE DOGS

It's very seldom that I get mail at the office. And I mean that kind with a postage stamp on it (how quaint!) But yesterday, something arrived that went straight into my mailbox.

This:


Can you see that track list? Classic.

• Barker of Seville
• Toreadog
• Nessun Dogma
• Donna Immobile..eh?

I have to say, I was a little bummed when I popped in the CD, because it featured actual singing, not skillfully inflected barking. It's no Pavarotti. It's not even Andrea Bocelli. BUT--and I'm clearly biased here--how wrong can you go with something that embraces both opera and animals?
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ALL THE SINGLE LADIES...and guys

Valentine's Day...meh! It's just that it's so...limiting. How can I narrow it down to just one person I'd like to spend the day with? Ridiculous.

Thankfully, I don't have to choose. GO!, Generation Opera is hosting Aphrodisiac: A Rousing Evening for the Senses on Feb. 12. And I shall be lording over hosting the Singles Table.

A four-course dinner with three wine pairings (yes, please!), chocolate and a performance by one of the area's finest singers. All at the new restaurant Chocolate Bar in downtown.

Click here for the deets and to register.

FOR EMILY, WHEREVER I MAY FIND HER

It's a Friday Salute to Interns!

Emily has joined us for January as an intern, helping with tasks like creating education materials, sending out mailings and cleaning my coop. (Just kidding...or not.)


She is a voice student at Oberlin's Conservatory, but she's originally from Florida. This is her first winter driving in snow. (She doesn't know how lucky she is that the wintry explosions from the sky have been rather modest this season...so far.)

Thanks for helping, Emily!
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ECO-CARL: I like to move it, move it

Have you ever wondered what it's like to move 30 years of opera history? Short answer: NOT easy.

I'm not talking about moving piles of yellowing scrapbooks or boxes of photographs. Our 30 years of opera history includes entire sets, a huge paint deck, and an abundance of props, costumes, set pieces and tools. This is an entire warehouse. We are moving a WAREHOUSE.

This endeavor does not involve promising your burliest friends free beer and pizza in exchange for a day of lifting and transporting. This is an eight-week planned operation, my friends.

It's tempting to rely heavily on the dumpster when doing a move, and, unfortunately, there are items that just have no other destiny or way to be recycled. But we're accessing everything and finding uses and homes for things that would otherwise share the remainder of their life with dirty diapers and banana peels.

One of the things Kish is doing is inviting her theater cronies over to loot adopt from our prop and set pieces we no longer need. (Theater storage is like GoodWill--but with an abundance of fake food and daggers.)

As we ready our new warehouse space, we're salvaging old sets for building materials. Our walls have had former lives as pieces of Hansel and Gretel or Fidelio.

(see the outline of the stove from Hansel and Gretel?)

Reusing sets is really nothing new in the theater world, but it was a great starting point for our Green Opera Initiative. With the philosophy or re-use already in place, it's easier to expand it to other areas and see how creative we can get.

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FROM POP STAR TO TRAIN WRECK

We love a good train wreck, don't we? If we didn't, reality television would not have us so in its thrall. I admit that I am itching, just itching to see the new British reality show Pop Star to Opera Star.

Of course, there's the opera component. "No doubt the usual tosh about 'bringing opera to the masses' will be wheeled out in justification of this exercise," writes Rupert Christiansen of the Telegraph. I really don't mind that, but Christiansen makes a valid point: "All the programme offers (as I understand it) is the rehearsal of a few familiar arias, removed from the dramatic context which makes opera the theatrical art-form that it fundamentally is. Real opera singers don’t just sing the highlights, they have to get through the whole show, in character."

An ad for the show:



We all really know that the show has less to do with opera than with eliciting grimaces, unrestrained OMGs and loyal viewing from TV watchers.
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ECO-CARL: Office Space

Forget spring cleaning. The advent of the new year always seems to inspire the staff to clean out the office. And there's always stuff to clean out. (Theater seating charts from 1995, um, yeah.)

Now here's where I get all After School Special-y on you. (Much as Scott Baio does in The Boy Who Drank Too Much.)

[Cue swelling instrumental music] I've learned that when you're purging your office of files of head shots from 1980s opera singers and such, you can do so responsibly. Unbelievable!


First, of course, there's paper recycling. Don't send 1980s head shots to the landfill--let them live a second life as toilet paper! Hopefully, your office or building has at least paper recycling. I really can't understand that some cities or businesses don't offer this basic service. Recycling should be as ubiquitous as trash pick up.

But if it's not, paper recycling--and aluminum and glass recycling--should not be difficult to find in your city. There's drop off sites and scrap yards. I found out about Earth 911, which is a great resource to use to find out where to recycle various items near your zipcode.



The digital age may reduce our reliance on paper, but its accessories can be a pain in the arse to recycle. Thankfully, as the nation is seeming to catch on to the idea that we got to take care of this planet we call home, recycling options are growing. In Cleveland, for instance, I found out about E-Scrap Solutions, where residents and businesses can recycle computers, computer parts, office machines, etc.

Perhaps more convenient, Best Buy accepts used CDs, batteries and inkjet cartridges at their stores.


What did people do before plastic, seriously? Not sayin' it's a good thing; it's just...everywhere, including in the office. If you're not using cloth bags (and WHY AREN'T YOU?!!), there are recycling options for all those plastic bags. Northeast Ohio grocery store chain Giant Eagle collects them, as does *whispering* Wal-Mart. I heard someone say that Tar-jay Target collects them as well.


These are just some of the little things we're doing, but you know what they say about little things. [Insert proverb. I'm too lazy to google one.]

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Introducing ECO-CARL

How did you spend your holiday break? Lolling in front of the TV's reruns of Gilmore Girls? Avoiding toxic family gatherings? Imbibing and then imbibing some more? Nice. Go tell it to your blog because this chicken was not so lucky.

Half of the office was gone, so Sarah and Lisa (our resident "green team") thought it would be a good time for Eco Boot Camp for me. (And, really?! What do calisthenics have to do with the environment?)

The ladies were none too happy with my indiscriminate tossing of beer cans into the trash instead of the recycling bin, especially in light of our announcing the Green Opera Initiative. (See, I thought this initiative was for the company, not ME personally. Wrong.) I was schooled, son.

Now I know more about carbon calculators and LED lights and bisphenol A than you can shake an organic stick of butter at. Hence, they have also assigned me to write a periodic Eco Carl column here to share our progress with the Green Opera Initiative and about sustainability in the arts in general.

Dare I say I'm sorta excited about imparting my newly acquired green wisdom with you? Later this week: my titillating adventures in recycling at the office. (Hold onto your hats, kids.)

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JUMPING ON THE END-OF-YEAR CLICHE BANDWAGON

At this time of year, you really don't expect to visit a blog and read new content, do you? Late December is all about recycling. (Or, if you want to be quixotic, it's all about reflection and meditation on another year past.) I hate to disappoint by not posting a review fo 2009, so here, dear readers, it is:

January

- Major drama in the office: Who will do the dishes now that Angela no longer works here?

- I introduce the What DODAD? feature, exploring what each Opera Cleveland employee does.

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February
- I got to go to Florida in winter! To help oversee the installation of our Turandot set at Opera Jacksonville

-The stage managers arrive for The Barber of Seville!

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March

-Lots of behind-the-scenes goodness about The Barber of Seville.

- Great reviews of Barber: "Sheer joy." - Opera Now; "The production...grabs ear and funny bone with equal vibrancy." - Plain Dealer

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April

-An operatic ending for Peeps

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May

-We announce our 2010-11 season!

- The Falstaff cast arrives for rehearsals!

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June

- I get to wear a Falstaff fat suit, complete with moobs.

- We feel the love for Falstaff, with great reviews--critics and audience alike.

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July

- In homage to tabloid magazines and entertainment shows everywhere, we post a few "Where Are They Now" on some recent Opera Cleveland singers.

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August

- It was a somewhat slow month, okay?!

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September

- We announce our new affiliate group for those age 25-50 called GO! Generation Opera

- Oh, and I travel to Branson, Missouri. For fun--or something like that.

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October

- Yay! Lots to do and talk about with the arrival of our Don Giovanni cast.

- You can't forget my tour of the classic Don Giovanni artwork in the office.

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November

- We're grateful for our patrons and for their kind words on our recent online survey.

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December

- I'm STILL WAITING for the gifts I asked for on my Holiday Wishlist. Hmpfh.

- Of course, there's was my whirlwind visit to Seattle with Dean. (I'm still recovering.)



I hope your 2009 was just as eventful and that 2010 proves to be marvelous, darlings.

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RESOLVE TO ADD MORE OPERA TO YOUR LIFE

You can start tonight! PBS is showing a film adaptation of La boheme, starring Anna Netrebko and Rolando Villazon. In Cleveland, it's on at 9 pm on WVIZ.

What do you possibly have to do on the day after Christmas, other than laze around the house in holiday food-induced fashion wear (i.e. sweatpants)? Check out the Met's "controversial" Tosca, also on PBS, 8 pm on WVIZ.

In January, the Cedar Lee features two HD broadcast of La Scala operas . On Jan. 6 at 7 pm, see Massenet's Thais. See how La Scala's Falstaff stacks up to ours (heh heh heh) on Jan. 20 at 7 pm.

There's ample opportunity to get your Met fix this winter. EVERY Saturday, you can listen to the Met Saturday matinee broadcast on WCLV, 104.9. (The Station has run the broadcasts for 40 years!) Click here for the list of upcoming broadcasts, which include Hansel and Gretel, Carmen, Ariadne auf Naxos, and a 1958 archived broadcast of Vanessa.

Then there's The Met on the big screen, through its HD broadcasts at area movie theaters. Catch La Fleming in Der Rosenkavalier on Jan. 9. Carmen is Jan. 16 and Placido Domingo stars in Simon Boccanegra on Feb. 6. Click here for the complete list.

Of course, you will want to make sure to get your Opera Cleveland subscription to our 2010-11 season. Lucia di Lammermoor in May is only four and a half months away. (Granted, January and February will feel like FIVE LONG COLD MONTHS, but still.)

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VACATION, ALL I EVER WANTED

My time in Seattle is coming to a close. *Sob*

Maestro! I want a double tall no foam extra hot macchiato! I have to admit I'm hooked now. There's no turning back.


Another Cleveland connection in Seattle! Singer Jennifer Bromagen is from the Cleve and sang with the Opera Cleveland chorus for several years. She came over to Dean's house for some coaching. (And some chicken love.)


Honestly, I had it coming. I kept calling Dean's dog Grady "Eddie," as in dog on Fraiser. Incidentally, Grady is named for the Cleveland Indians' Grady Sizemore. (A Seattle native, natch.)


A visit to Jimi Hendrix's final resting place. Peace out, dude.

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HOME AWAY FROM HOME

While I enjoyed all the Pacific Northwest sightseeing, I was homesick for opera. So Dean decided to take me to visit Seattle Opera.

On my way... (I feel like I need a theme song here, maybe something with whistling.)


The venerable Speight Jenkins, General Director of Seattle Opera. My homesickness for the Opera Cleveland offices was such that I offered to fetch Speight coffee and make copies, just to feel more at home. (He took me up on those offers but not the offer to rub his feet.)


A former Clevelander! Kelly Tweeddale is the Executive Director of Seattle Opera.


And here I am outside the opera's performance hall.
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