After five days, four nights, 1,128 miles, three hotels, four states, four theatrical performances, six ancient Native American earthworks, and more … we’re home from our mini-vacation. The catalyst for the trip was our third visit to the Ohio Light Opera Company in Wooster, Ohio, which we decided to bookend with stops at archeological sites such as Serpent Mound and Newark Earthworks.

We first went to the Ohio Light Opera in 2012, and after skipping a year, returned in 2014. What brings us back whenever our schedules and finances will allow isn’t just the professionalism of the productions, but the rarity of the shows they choose to mount. One year, for example, they put on a 1912 operetta which hadn’t been staged anywhere in the world since a 1921 Hungarian-language production in Manhattan!

Here are the four shows we managed to catch out of the seven they put on this season, which I share in the event you’d like to head out to Wooster yourself, as the 2015 season doesn’t end until August 8. (more…)

A friend who’d spotted all the sharing I was doing on social media this weekend about the sights in Wooster, Ohio wondered what the heck had brought me there, and the answer is—why, the Ohio Light Opera, of course!

Back in 2012, we saw three of their performances, and this year, we decided to make it four. The reason it’s worth driving hundreds of miles to Wooster (or in the case of other audience members, flying in from far greater distances) is that the OLO is dedicated to staging not just excellent productions of Gilbert and Sullivan classics, but also lesser-known operettas which can be seen no where else.

For example, Emmerich Kálmán (with whose daughter I can be seen above) was considered one of the masters of the operetta early last century, yet his works are now rarely performed. Except at the Ohio Light Opera, which this year launched its eleventh Kálmán production. And while the OLO also did a Pirates of Penzance this year—and I’m sure the production was wonderful—the world has no shortage of G&S, so what drew us to Wooster were the once popular but now mostly forgotten operettas which make OLO unique.

Here’s what we saw (with a few photos smurched from the OLO Facebook page) … (more…)

Irene and I were in Wooster, Ohio last weekend attending three operettas put on as part of the Ohio Light Opera‘s 2012 season. Irene’s been wanting to go for years, and this year we finally made it happen. The company’s appeal to us isn’t its productions of such shows as The Mikado—I mean, I’m sure they did an excellent job, but if you have a hankering to see The Mikado, it’s not that difficult a thing to do wherever you happen to be—but in lesser performed shows, such as Emerich Kálmán’s Miss Springtime, which I believe hasn’t been performed anywhere in the world since the mid-’90s.

One thing I’ve got to say about attending performances of old-timey operettas—doing so sure made me feel young! I was one of the few guys in the audience who was neither bald nor wearing a toupee. Plus, I didn’t need a cane or walker to make it to my seat. I was a kid again!

Mentioning all the geezers who were there probably isn’t the best way to convince you to also head to the Ohio Light Opera, but still, you should. There’s a reason these were such smashes in their day, which means not only will you be able to enjoy some stellar performances, you can also try to figure out why they were such major hits.

I wish I could share recordings of the Ohio Light Opera productions, but since those don’t exist, here are some other singers performing numbers from the three shows we saw. (more…)