CIM Opera Theater shines lights on comedic gifts with Chabrier’s ‘L’Étoile’

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 you’re 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, 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 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 have no place to hide. Everything they do is 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, 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 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 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.  

They’re perfectly happy making fools of themselves, comfortable switching back and forth between the original French 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,  the company is also taking 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, 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.   

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, make some new fans.  

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

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 

CIM Opera Theater is supported through gifts from the John P. Murphy Foundation and Michael Frank and the late Pat Snyder.