The Cleveland Opera

Reviews

• “Six down. Four to go. That’s where things stand in Opera Circle’s survey of Vincenzo Bellini’s 10 operas. Whether the journey continues isn’t important. The achievement already is impressive… The beauty of Bellini’s music often came soaring through…

  Next up for Opera Circle in April is Mozart’s Il sogno di Scipione, an allegorical opera the composer wrote when he was 16. Leave it to this resourceful company to reach out in unusual and surprising ways.”

  Donald Rosenberg The Plain Dealer

• “Why Bellini? Even opera companies with vastly more financial resources rarely present the composer’s works, for two basic reasons: the bel canto demands call for a special brand of vocalist who can blend ‘beautiful singing’ with intense passion; and the dramatic aspects of Bellini’s operas are infinitely less interesting than their musical features… Opera Circle has nurtured a Bellini tradition that suits its intimate character. The company doesn’t fuss with fancy sets or concepts. Sobieski and Sobieska use simple costumes and props to create atmosphere. The emphasis is almost entirely on the music.

  Which is a good thing. Bellini’s music is often so ravishing in melodic design and so emotionally true that all other matters pale by comparison. And because the composer’s operas aren’t exactly founts of theatricality, Opera Circle’s spare approach honors the works…

  No one else hereabouts is likely to have the enterprise to present those works. Opera Circle deserves accolades for keeping the Bellinian fires burning.”

  Donald Rosenberg The Plain Dealer

• “The seldom-performed opera, written by a youthful genius in furtherance of his amazing and all-too-brief career, was a refreshing bright spot in Cleveland’s performing arts scene.”

  Northern Ohio Live on Zaide

• “the glorious music that this production rescued from obscurity”

  Robert Finn on Zaide American Record Guide

• “admirable and honest.”

  Donald Rosenberg on Norma The Plain Dealer

• “The first, second and third elements this composer needs are voices, voices and voices. Opera Circle came up with a marvelous cast that honored Bellini’s rapturous writing: the opera has virtually nothing in the way of dramatic action. The theater is in the voices—how the singers phrase and inflect to convey the emotional intrigues... Once again, Opera Circle demonstrated how a small-scale production can be a grand success.”

  Donald Rosenberg The Plain Dealer

• “The range of [Moniuszko’s] art was apparent at this occasion... We should hear more of his music, not only in a chamber-music setting but in the concert hall and opera house... The audience... seemed entranced.”

  Donald Rosenberg The Plain Dealer

• “Bellini is not known for the sophistication or complexity of his staging. Rather, scenes succeed on the basis of musical tapestry created by interweaving the soloists with the choral and orchestral texture. It was in this sense especially that the Opera Circle performance was praiseworthy, because all components struggled nobly to create the drama.”

  “Opera Circle, established by Dorota and Jacek Sobieski in 1995, has shown itself to be a fine addition to Ohio operatic companies. Ohio patrons should continue to augment their needed financial support.”

  Robert Rollin The Vindicator

• “[Opera Circle Directors’] aim seems primarily to bring terrific singing, and their performers delivered very well... The singing, which was done in Italian with projected supertitles, was rich, hearty, and well-inflected across the cast.”

  Martha Hancock Akron Beacon Journal

• “I watched the premier of Verbum Nobile presented by Opera Circle with great enthusiasm... A Polish spirit lives in Stanislaw Moniuszko’s music. We owe tribute to Dorota and Jacek Sobieski for acquainting us with this Polish opera, which they prepared with perfection, both musically and dramatically.”

  Andrzej Mirecki The Alliancer

• “a winsome production of Stanislaw Moniuszko's 1861 romantic comedy Verbum Nobile... As conducted from the piano by Sobieski, the score sounded vibrant. The fine instrumental ensemble was careful to balance its efforts with the singers, and most of Moniuszko's colorful ideas were set forth with bright precision... Thanks, then, for something different, Opera Circle. Considering the fact that Polish operas in the United States appear to be as common as Halley's Comet, the production was welcome and enchanting.”

  Donald Rosenberg The Plain Dealer

• “Opera Circle has won high praise for its productions since the company's founding four years ago.”

  Wilma Salisbury The Plain Dealer

• “The chamber reduction suited the score well and never overbalanced the singers. Once again, the company demonstrated that opera in miniature can be smart, sensitive and sweet. This was Hansel and Gretel not as Wagner, but as Mozart.”

  Donald Rosenberg The Plain Dealer

• “The fairy-tale opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (libretto: Adelheid Wette) produced by Opera Circle was superbly colorful and effective. With great pleasure, I watched it... remembering the same fairy-tale opera in The Grand Theater of Opera and Ballet in Warsaw many years ago. The spectacle Hansel and Gretel most certainly belongs to indisputable successes of Opera Circle.”

  Andrzej Mirecki The Alliancer

• “Opera Circle's vest-pocket version of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio was a Turkish delight... stage director Dorota Sobieska wisely took the action into the auditorium. Excursions down the center aisle not only gave the singers extra space but involved the audience in the plot... Transformed by turbans, tunics and harem pants, the fresh faced-singers sounded like the youthful voices of thousands in the small-scale production... The audience got the message of forgiveness, laughed at the jokes and rewarded the cast with a standing ovation.”

  Wilma Salisbury The Plain Dealer

• “Those who enjoy opera but are unable to attend performances by professional companies must enjoy their hobby indirectly. Ever-increasing ticket prices are significantly to blame for this. Thankfully, there are talented, quality groups out there making this art more widely accessible.”

  Zachary Lewis Sun Post

• “Opera Circle's I Pagliacci brought warmth to a wintry night.”

  Jerry Stephens The Vindicator

• “Delusions of grandeur have nothing to do with Opera Circle, the plucky new local troupe run by Jacek Sobieski and Dorota Sobieska. The company is aiming to make opera affordable and accessible to people who otherwise might not have contact with the genre. On the basis of its Cleveland debut Sunday with a bare-bones production of Leoncavallo's I Pagliacci, the troupe is onto something.”

  Donald Rosenberg The Plain Dealer