Ashkenazy

Can hardly wait for Ashkenazy who I saw once before and still remember as being so wonderfully expressive. Have never seen theatrical staging at Severance before.
Am so excited. We have tickets for Saturday, Sept. 29.

Grieg
Peer Gynt

The Cleveland Orchestra
Vladimir Ashkenazy, conductor
Inger Dam-Jensen, soprano, Cleveland Orchestra debut
Joshua Hopkins, baritone -Cleveland Orchestra debut
John de Lancie, narrator -Cleveland Orchestra debut
Oberlin College Choir Hugh Floyd, director

Grieg: Peer Gynt (complete)
Vladimir Ashkenazy returns to lead The Cleveland Orchestra and soloists with the Oberlin College Choir in a rare performance of Grieg’s incidental music to Ibsen’s fanciful play Peer Gynt, complete with theatrical staging. Tracing the life, loves, and learning of the Norwegian anti-hero Peer around the world, this fantastical and fun-filled story explores modern understandings of choice, identity, and self.

Grieg’s exquisite music, written for the play’s stage debut in 1876 at Ibsen’s request, amplifies the play’s scenic and action-packed adventures — from the well-known “In the Hall of the Mountain King” to an unforgettable dawn masterfully painted in music across the African desert sky.

John de Lancie, well known for his portrayal of “Q” in Star Trek, provides well-tuned English narration for these performances.