15-05-2025
Orchestra's Opera & Humanities Festival focuses on reconciliation
Opera, art and community dialogue take center stage in Cleveland over the next 10 days.
Why it matters: The Cleveland Orchestra's annual Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival is the celebrated ensemble's signature spring event.
It features various performances, art exhibitions and public forums in partnership with other local cultural institutions, starting Friday and running through May 25.
The intrigue: The theme of this year's festival is "Reconciliation," inspired by the early 20th-century opera "Jenůfa" and its themes of trauma, forgiveness and redemption.
The Cleveland Orchestra, led by conductor Franz Welser-Möst, will perform the opera three times at Severance Music Center on May 17, 22 and 25.
State of play: The full lineup of festivities begins at 8:30am Friday with a symposium on immigration at Severance.
Other highlights include performances by Chucho Valdés Royal Quartet and pianist Michelle Cann, as well as forums and exhibitions hosted by the Cleveland Museum of Art, Ideastream and The City Club of Cleveland.
Flashback: The Opera & Humanities Festival began in 2023 as the brainchild of André Gremillet, president and CEO of the Cleveland Orchestra.
The inaugural theme was "The American Dream" followed by "Power" in 2024.
What they're saying:"The goal was to use our annual opera performances to feature not just the Cleveland Orchestra but the incredible cultural scene we have in Cleveland," Gremillet tells Axios.
"The festival is based on music first and foremost, but we also want to stimulate some interesting conversations on topics that are timely and important to the community."
If you go: The festival features a mix of ticketed and free events.
