{"id":7282,"date":"2012-08-05T15:57:16","date_gmt":"2012-08-05T19:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=7282"},"modified":"2015-06-27T14:44:30","modified_gmt":"2015-06-27T18:44:30","slug":"what-we-did-last-weekend-3-operettas-at-the-ohio-light-opera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2012\/08\/05\/what-we-did-last-weekend-3-operettas-at-the-ohio-light-opera\/","title":{"rendered":"What we did last weekend: 3 operettas at the Ohio Light Opera"},"content":{"rendered":"

Irene and I were in Wooster, Ohio last weekend attending three operettas put on as part of the Ohio Light Opera<\/a>‘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<\/em>\u2014I mean, I’m sure they did an excellent job, but if you have a hankering to see The Mikado<\/em>, it’s not that difficult a thing to do wherever you happen to be\u2014but in lesser performed shows, such as Emerich K\u00e1lm\u00e1n’s Miss Springtime<\/em>, which I believe hasn’t been performed anywhere in the world since the mid-’90s.<\/p>\n

One thing I’ve got to say about attending performances of old-timey operettas\u2014doing 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!<\/p>\n

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<\/em> they were such major hits.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Chocolate Soldier<\/strong><\/p>\n

When George Bernard Shaw gave permission for his 1894 play Arms and the Man<\/em> to be adapted into an operetta, he made three conditions<\/a>: “None of Shaw’s dialogue, nor any of the character’s names, could be used; the libretto must be advertised as a parody; and Shaw would accept no monetary compensation.” When the operetta opened on November 14, 1908, the song “My Hero” became an immediate hit. Here it is performed by Beverly Sills and Sherrill Milnes.<\/p>\n