Verdi opens Detroit Opera season with traditional option

As the Toledo Opera rolls out its new season with a traditional performance of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca , about 60 miles up I-75 North, the Detroit Opera opens its season.

And for fans who like a traditional take, says Jennifer Melick , the Detroit Opera’s communications and media relations manager, they should travel to the Motor City to see its version of Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata before the other productions take a few liberties with Georg Friedrich Handel’s Rinaldo , or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte . The season ends with Central Park Five , which made its debut in 2019.

“For the people that want something a little more traditional, this is the show for them, for sure,” Melick said. “The winter and spring opera season will be more of what you might expect from the company, our identity.”

That means the Detroit Opera isn’t afraid to shake the dust off the oldies, those mainstream productions of Verdi, Puccini, Mozart, Gaetano Donizetti, and Vincenzo Bellini.

La Traviata , the timeless tale of scandalous love and loss, is usually set in the 1850s. Detroit moved the timeline up to the 1920s, which is not quite the same as putting the action in the dystopian future.

But Rinaldo and Cosi Fan Tutte have more of a surreal approach.

“ Rinaldo is originally set during the First Crusade in the 11th century,” Melick said. This production is set in a hospital pediatric ward.

“These kids are in the midst of these difficult medical procedures and playing make-believe is how they're getting through it,” Melick said. “And the characters in the opera, that's their make-believe.” Of Mozart’s Cosi in April, Melick said, “A theme of artificial intelligence and robots, that'll be pretty wild.”

In this production of Mozart’s controversial comedy, “Don Alfonso’s manipulations of the ‘emotions’ of his robotic inventions (the lovers) become an obsessive quest to develop spiritual machines, the opera’s website states.

The last opera, Central Park Five , is one of the few to have a former and possibly future president in an opera figure into the tale.

“Regardless of the outcome of this fall's election, the character of Donald Trump will be on our stage,” Melick said.

It’s not as if the distance is prohibitive.

“We do have audiences who come to our performances from northwest Ohio,” she said in an email. “Some stay in hotels and make a weekend out of it, and others just do an out-and-back that day.”

Melick scoffs at the excuse that the traffic is troublesome in Detroit, especially for drivers used to Toledo traffic. After all, she said, “I moved here from the East Coast.”

If downtown is busy, it only means there’s a lot to do in the area.

“Everything is very compact in the downtown area. It's really busy on the weekends, and there's so much to choose from. It's almost like too much sometimes,” Melick said.

“If you're going to spend a weekend, you can see a lot of things. You can go to the Public Theater and see a serious play, and there are a lot more restaurants than there were when I moved here two years ago.”

So if you have a serious appetite for opera, you’re being offered a feast without having to choose only one main course.

La Traviata premieres 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Tosca in Toledo is 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday. La Traviata repeats 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 25 and again at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 27. Cast includes rising soprano Emily Pogorelc as Violetta Valery; tenor Galeano Salas as Alfredo Germont; and baritone Joo Won Kang as Giorgio Germont. For tickets, visit detroitopera.org or call 313-237-SING [7464].

There’s simply no excuse to miss either one of them.

Coming up:

■ The Summit Center, 23 N. Summit St., Toledo. 6:30 p.m. Saturday. 8:45 p.m. Oct. 27. A Haunted Evening of Halloween Classics. Spooky music by the sinister glow of candles will send icy fingers of delight up your spine! Mwhahaha. Program includes “Thriller,” Michael Jackson; “Funeral March of a Marionette,” Charles Gounod; “Tubular Bells (Theme from The Exorcist ),” Mike Oldfield. Tickets: $42.50, $53, $59.50. Visit feverup.com .

■ UToledo Center for Performing Arts: University of Toledo, 2801 W. Bancroft St. 7 p.m. Wednesday. Jon Hendricks Memorial Jazz Scholarship Concert featuring guest jazz vocalist Kate McGarry with the UToledo jazz faculty trio and vocal jazz ensemble. Tickets: $10. Visit tix.com . Parking payment and details, ParkUToledo.com .

Doermann Theater, 7 p.m. Oct. 24. Choirs.

■ Moore Musical Arts Center: Bowling Green State University, 420 Willard Dr., Bowling Green. 45th annual New Music Festival Thursday through Saturday. Free but tickets for the final concert are $10. Visit bgsu.edu/the-arts/tickets .

Bryan Recital Hall, 8 p.m. Monday, Guest Artist: Alessandra Feris , piano recital. Free; Bryan Recital Hall, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Tuba-Euphonium Ensemble. Free; Bryan Recital Hall, 8 p.m. Thursday. Student Chamber Jazz Ensembles perform. Free.

■ Michigan Theater, 603 E. Liberty St., Ann Arbor. 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 p.m. 3 p.m. Sunday. Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra. The symphony opens its Pops season by celebrating the music of John Williams. Composer of Star Wars , Harry Potter , Jaws, Jurassic Park , and more. Damon Gupton , guest conductor. Tickets begin at $26.25, students and youths under 18 are $13.13. Visit purchase.a2so.org .

■ 2|42 Community Church, 925 S. Telegraph Rd., Monroe. 6:30 p.m. Friday. Live concert fund-raiser with local legends Nate Jones , Julia Rose , Sammy Gonzalez , and The Meat Guys BBQ Shack food truck. Fund-raiser for Nate Jones, locally grown musician Nate Jones who is recording his upcoming album Nashville. Tickets $30. For more information visit: NateJonesMusic.com .

■ Bittersweet Farms, 12660 Archbold-Whitehouse Rd., Whitehouse. Music Vine Concert Series. 11:30 a.m. Friday. Noah Nelson. Free.

■ Terra State Community College, the Neeley Center, 2830 Napoleon Rd., Fremont. 3 p.m. Sunday. Performances by the Terra State Orchestra, Concert Choir, and Symphonic Band. Free.

■ Hill Auditorium: 825 N. University Ave., Ann Arbor. 7:30 p.m. Friday. University Musical Society. London Philharmonic. Benjamin Britten, Sinfonia da Requiem , Op. 20 ; Dmitri Shostakovich, Violin Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, Op. 77 ; Tania Leon, Raices (Origins) ; Jean Sibelius, Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82. Violinist, Patricia Kopatchinskaja; conductor, Edward Gardner . Tickets: $71 to $148. Visit ums.org or call 734-764-2538.

■ La-Z-Boy Center-Meyer Theater: Monroe County Community College, 1555 S. Raisinville Rd., Monroe.  ​7:30 p.m. Monday. College/Community Symphony Band and Agora Chorale Concert. Free.

■ The Ritz Theatre, 30 S. Washington St., Tiffin, Ohio. 7:30 p.m. Oct. 26. The Righteous Brothers Lovin’ Feelin’ Farewell Tour.  The Righteous Brothers, Bill Medley, and Bucky Heard perform their greatest hits. Tickets are selling quickly Cost is $60, $70, $80, and $90. Visit ritztheatre.org or call 419-448-8544 during normal box office hours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. or one hour before the performance.

Send news of music to hdenniss@theblade.com at least 10 days before your event.