CIM Opera Theater Shines Lights On Comedic Gifts With Chabrier's L'ETOILE At Playhouse Square

While you're getting a kick out of Chabrier's L'Étoile, CIM Opera Theater will be getting a workout. 

That is to say, while guests are laughing, smiling, and humming along to the school's zany opera season opener Nov. 16 and 17, CIM's opera students will be doing everything possible to make it all look easy. 

“I have to keep reminding myself that there are no ‘off' moments,” said soprano Shira Ziv, the student who plays Aloès. “It's been really challenging but also really helpful.” 

The reason there are no ‘off' moments is that this L'Étoile takes place not in CIM's own Kulas Hall, which is currently undergoing renovation, but – for the first time – in Westfield Studio Theater, a 150-seat black box in Cleveland's Playhouse Square. 

There, in a space within the nation's second-largest performing arts complex, actors will have no place to hide. Everything they do will be plain for all to see, even when they're not singing or in the spotlight. 

In a venue like Westfield, “The audience is right there with you,” said tenor Nicholas Schneider, the student who plays King Ouf. “There's no disconnect. It's the most wonderful feeling in the world.” 

“We have to centralize our energy and learn to communicate with an audience,” added student mezzo-soprano Caroline Friend, who plays Lazuli.  

Much of that communication entails comedy – an art in itself, and one that can make some young singers uneasy. 

Not this crew. JJ Hudson, interim artistic director of CIM Opera Theater, said he selected L'Étoile this season in part to give these particular “etoiles” (“stars”) a chance to shine in a setting for which they are uniquely well suited. 

In this 1877 tale about a lovestruck peddler and a mad king looking to celebrate his birthday with an execution, they're perfectly happy being silly. They're comfortable switching back and forth between the opera's original French (with supertitles) and English, if doing so helps the comedy land effectively and wins over opera skeptics. 

“When you have such theatrical actors, as we do now, the opportunity to do this work is ripe," Hudson said. “This is a really great opportunity to reach a different audience.” 

It's an opportunity they plan to seize in every way. 

To complement their performance in a professional venue, CIM Opera Theater will also take a professional, unified approach to costume and set design, employing a confectioner's color palette to underscore the king's delusions and stunted development.

The production features a scenic design by Jerome Wills, lighting design by Dave Brooks, and costumes by Esther Haberlen, costume director of Great Lakes Theater.   

“Every scene, every entr'acte, it's so delicious,” Friend said.

Later this season, on April 23 and 25, CIM Opera Theater returns to Playhouse Square with a much different work, one that will pose a whole other set of musical and theatrical demands: Mozart's Don Giovanni. It also will take place in a larger space, the 1,300-seat Mimi Ohio Theatre.  

In the meantime, the company can hardly wait for L'Étoile. From this special, uniquely challenging production, students expect to learn a great deal and, in the process, recruit a few new fans. 

“I feel 100-percent comfortable telling people that they will enjoy this show,” Ziv said. “It's the kind of work that might start someone's journey in opera. They should be laughing and really enjoying it.”

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Saturday, November 16

7pm | Westfield Studio Theatre, Playhouse Square

Sunday, November 17

3pm | Westfield Studio Theatre, Playhouse Square

CIM Opera Theater

JJ Hudson, director

Harry Davidson, conductor 

CIM Orchestra

CHABRIER  L'Étoile

Tickets: $30

Playhouse Square Box Office: playhousesquare.org or 216.241.6000.

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