EVENINGS OUT

Story of forbidden love hits home for tenor

by Richard Berrong Cleveland-For its final production of the season, Cleveland Opera is offering Gilbert and Sullivan's English-language comedy The Mikado, about a man who pursues a forbidden love even at the risk of death. The performer who assumes that role here in Cleveland, tenor Nicholas Wuehrmann, finds the part particularly appropriate for a gay man such as himself.

"Who would know better about the risks

Nicholas Wuehrmann

of a forbidden love," Wuehrmann laughed, when I interviewed him the other day

The Mikado looks at such issues with a humorous eye, however, and Wuehrmann was quick to point out that the show, which he promises will have a "brilliant production" here, is in the best tradition of English humor. It combines the silliness carried on today by Monty Python with a lot of music that will be familiar to people who do not know the work itself.

In addition, the director, Dorothy Danner, has filled the show with a lot of dance, giving it plenty of movement and not allowing it to become stationary. As she did last year with Cleveland Opera's powerful pro-

M

duction of Man of La Mancha, she is treating the characters not as cardboard figures but as real people, making them come alive in ways not always encountered with Gilbert and Sullivan.

It is also appropriate that Wuehrmann is playing a "wand'ring minstrel," however, since his varied interests and talents have already led him at a relatively early age to become involved in many aspects of theater. He first came to Ohio after college, at which time he did several seasons of operetta with the Ohio Light Opera Company in Wooster. That, in turn, led him to pursue a masters degree at Kent State under Ohio Light Opera's director, James Stewart.

Since then he has done a wide range not only of opera, operetta, and musicals, but also of legitimate theater, throughout the country. He has even appeared in soap opera, on The Guiding Light, in the role-ofcourse!-of an opera singer.

At this stage in his career, however, he finds himself more and more drawn to the legitimate theater, since, after much soul searching, he has decided that acting is his real interest. He has already tried a wide range of roles, from experimental theater with La Mama to Shakespeare. The bard of Avon holds a particular attraction for him, moreover, and he would very much like to take on more of Shakespeare's comedic roles.

That does not mean that he intends to give up singing, however. Wuehrmann noted the recent rise in popularity on Broadway of shows that have well-developed, interesting characters, such as Rent, the new musical based on Puccini's La Boheme. He hopes to be able to move in that direction as well, so that he can combine his musical talent with his interest in acting.

For the moment, however, he is concentrating on The Mikado's Nanki-Poo, and what he, as a gay man, can bring to the role of this outsider who has to hide his own identity in his pursuit of a forbidden love.

Anyone who enjoys English comedy at its best can join him and the rest of the cast when Cleveland Opera brings The Mikado to the State Theater, March 21 and 22 at 8:00 p.m., March 23 at 2:00 p.m.; call 216-2416000 or 800-766-6048 for tickets. ✓

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