A LITERAL MARRIAGE OF FIGARO

Opera Cleveland: entertainer, educator... INADVERTENT MATCHMAKER!

I just got word that singers Jason Hardy and Carrie Kahl are getting married, which is awesome. Even better: they met during our production of The Marriage of Figaro in September 2008. Jason played Figaro and Carrie donned the pants as Cherubino.

Jason recently proposed onstage in front of 2,000 people on opening night of another production of The Marriage of Figaro, in which they shared the stage. (see above)

If you think their story is as cute as I do, you can vote for them in Crate and Barrell's Ultimate Wedding contest here.

I feel warm and squishy inside.

(Ed.: Jason just called ME directly to give me the low-down. Turns out his proposal was just a week ago, so they are freshly minted fiances. And he was pretty sly about the proposal, arranging for Carrie to play the role of Barbarina at the last minute. She usually plays Cherubino. They don't have a date set yet, but are hoping the Ultimate Wedding contest can help two "starving artists" with that. There's only five days left to vote!)
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SEPARATED AT BIRTH?

Renee Fleming as Thais

and

The Celtic Woman?
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SOMETHING TO CROW ABOUT

Please excuse this interruption to my irregularly scheduled opera prattle for a glimpse at my little trip to lovely Milwaukee. Ok, ok, the only glimpse you actually get is of the Harley-Davidson Museum, but, really, what more do you need?

Our Board President Pauline giving me the what-for.


Will has found a new mode of commuting to the office. (I believe the correct term is "crotch rocket.")



Ha--chickens are everywhere! The opera...Harley-Davidson museums. (Watch out, we're coming for your children next.)
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FROM THE ARCHIVES

Ah, more relics from operas of yore. In our Great Warehouse Clean-out 2010, we snagged a box of old Cleveland Opera posters. (One of our predecessor companies.) Thought I'd share some:

Look! Hell's fiery hand has arthritis!



The opera has a vast prop collection of daggers, but I'm fairly certain we don't have a dagger adorned with a clown. It's like those pencils with cumbersome toppers, such as trolls, feathers and pom-poms. I like my pencils and daggers plain and simple, thank you very much.


I love this poster--but when was the opera? Sometimes you have to sacrifice art for content.
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ITCHING FOR OPERA

I have got an itch. The sort of itch Gold Bond just can't handle. (And, no, it's not from the wanton company I keep.) It's the itch for the opera season to begin. Perhaps it's the glimpses of spring we have been privy to lately, but I'm just like "c'mon, already! Get this show going!"

Alas, we've got two more months until Lucia di Lammermoor opens. So I must busy myself with other operatic goings-on in the area. Here's the scoop:

• Tonight & this weekend: Oberlin Opera Theatre presents Candide.
  
  
• Sunday, March 21: GO!, Generation Opera, heads to the Cedar Lee to see the HD broadcast of Il Trovatore.
  
  
• Monday, March 22: Cleveland Institute of Music Opera Theater reprises highlights from its production of Ariadne auf Naxos through the Operatic Adventures program at 7 pm at Beachwood Library.
  
  
• Saturday, March 27: Check your local movie theaters for showing of The Met's HD broadcast of Hamlet, featuring Simon Keenlyside.

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ECO-CARL:

It pays to be an eavesdropper. I'd do it just for the gossip, but occasionally I learn things. (Imagine that.) Such was the case a few weeks ago when I overheard the meeting between Lisa and Beau, the Business Recycling Specialist from the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District.

While the office is fairly hip to recycling (as I mentioned in a previous post), there's always more we can do. And Beau gave us the what's what.

First of all, the county website has a bevy of information to help with your solid waste needs. (Don't go there--you know what I mean.) But here's some tidbits I overheard that are helpful for businesses and individuals:

• In the city of Cleveland, you can recycle plastics #1-7. Unless you are a business with a recycling program, you do have to drop off recyclables.
  
  
• There is no company in the region that recycles incandescent light bulbs. But you can--and should--recycle fluorescent bulbs because they contain mercury. You can bring them to Home Depot to do so.
  
  
• There's also no company in Cuyahoga county that recycles styrofoam--because there's no end market for the material. Avoid it! (And, hence, avoid that awful sound styrofoam makes when it brushes against something. Eek.)
  
  
• Aveda stores take bottle caps (from any bottles) to recycle. (These are a #5 plastic that many cities don't collect.)
  
  
• Compost! So much of what gets trashed can easily go back into the earth--a win-win situation.
  
  
• Before you considering tossing something you don't think can be recycled, think again. There may indeed be a business that accepts it in Cuyahoga County. Check out the numerous publications, detailing all of the options. We used the Recycling Directory for Business and Industry to find a company that would pick up a literal ton of paper at our warehouse to recycle.

It should go without saying--but I'm a verbose little chicken, so I'm going to say it anyway--that recycling is the last step in the life cycle of an item. Reduce your consumption first!
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PUNTING TO THE LUCIAS

So much opera, so little time. Lately, that's been my mantra. And by "opera," I don't just mean the music, I mean all the work that goes into opera--which we're in thick of here.

So forgive me as I punt this post to some madness on YouTube. Take your pick of your favorite Lucia:





I know which one I prefer.
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VINTAGE OPERA

When we cleaned out the files in our old warehouse (see previous post), we found many treasures--along with a LOT of manila folders. I thought perhaps you wouldn't be so compelled by photos of said folders (don't hate on me, all you manila fetishists out there!) But I found the old issues of Opera News interesting--we found ones from the 1940s and 1950s, some of which feature cool illustrations on the covers.


I love how instead of generic headshots, the cast page features the singers in character. Cheesily in character, I might add.



Ah, patriotism--the greatest marketing tool, even for opera:



In the bowels of our warehouse, I discovered old programs from when the Met performed in Cleveland. While the company sporadically came to town since 1899, it regularly performed at Cleveland Public Auditorium starting in 1924. These programs are early on in that tenure--they're from 1925 and 1926, respectively.

One of the performances in 1926 was Lucia di Lammermoor:


(I have been inspired by The Sterling & Welch Co. ad above to create my own "Bureau of Suggestion." I think I have enough suggestions and opinions to fill a bureau, heh heh.)
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FILE AWAY, YOUNG CHICKEN

What does an opera staff want to do most on a cold February day? Sort through 20-year old files in a cold warehouse, of course!

It was a requisite of Warehouse Move 2010 (aka Kish's Headache 2010) to assess all the archived files from the opera's history. The options: save, recycle or shred. LOTS will be recycled, but I made sure to keep a few interesting pieces that I will share with you guys.


This photo shows only about a third of all the boxes. Why, yes, the staff looks like they are about to go camping! (We would have had plenty of kindling, let me tell you.)


William: I'm the luckiest guy in the world! I get paid to sit among empty paint cans and sift through 30 years of audit papers!


Sarah: This memo from 1983 is utterly fascinating. Should I keep it? It's such a toss up to keep it or the invoice for 35 pounds of cookies in 1994.


Either Lisa is recycling with super speed (entirely possible) or I blurred the photo because she made a naughty gesture at me (also, entirely possible).



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DON'T GET THE WRONG IDEA

There's perfectly good reasons why the opera office has a gallon of vegetable oil, a box of knee pads, a bunch of stethoscopes, a bevy of undergarments and a boar's head. But you'll just have to figure it out yourself. Thoughts?
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GOODNESS GRATIS!

Turns out people like really like free theater props, costumes and stage sets. Really.

I mentioned that, in the midst of moving our warehouse, we were putting a bunch of these items up for grabs. And grabbed they were. It was so cool that we got to both recycle and help out other theater organizations and people, which include the following (not an exhaustive list--it's just what Kish could recall off the top of her pretty little head.):

• Lakewood High School
• Avon Lake High School
• Hudson High School
• St. Ignatius High School
• John Adams High School
• The Cap Academy
• Opera Western Reserve
• Youngstown Opera Guild
• Youngtown Playhouse
• Toledo Opera
• Erie Street Theatrical
• Cleveland Play House
• Oberlin College
• Near West Theatre
• PlayhouseSquare
• Hebrew Academy of Cleveland
• Cleveland State University
• and a weird-arse carnie guy

Awesome.
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ECO-CARL: Watch and learn

People have different learning styles. Some are better at reading, some at listening, some at watching. (And some people...well, that's why there's reality television.)

To explain our Green Opera Initiative, we've written about it and now we have a video for you aural and visual learners. (Warning: you may find this video dull for the sheer fact that I do not make an appearance in it. Maybe next time.)