Acrobats twist, symphony soars in thrilling show
When you go to the symphony, you might expect to compliment the conductor or sing the praises of the string section.
It is unlikely, however, that you would normally enthuse about the acrobats or laud the strongmen.
That is, until you see “Cirque de la Symphonie.”
The touring show pairs cirque (circus) performers with symphonies: As contortionists twist and aerial artists dangle from above, musicians provide a soaring soundtrack.
On Saturday, the Columbus Symphony partnered with Cirque de la Symphonie at the Ohio Theatre.
Under the crisp, confident baton of Associate Conductor Peter Stafford Wilson, the symphony opened in expected fashion with an up-tempo performance of Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Festive Overture.” Though no cirque performers were yet present, the piece established an appropriately mirthful, circus-like mood.
When a stagehand emerged to attach a length of green and blue silk to a hook onstage, it was clear the concert was about to become more kinetic.
Sure enough, a gymnast emerged and shimmied up the silk. As she spun, twirled and unfurled herself, the symphony performed a selection from Johannes Brahms’ Symphony No. 3.
This was high-wire stuff: At one point, to audible gasps from the audience, a performer briefly lost control of a frame that he’d been whirling in the air. He quickly recovered the prop and resumed. And the symphony did not miss a beat while performing Aram Khachaturian’s “Lezghinka.”
Other highlights included a man scaling a rope to Richard Wagner’s “The Ride of the Valkyries”; a female performer, dressed to resemble Raggedy Ann, stretched, pulled and swaying like a rag doll to Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 6”; and a pair of performers enacting a scene from “Swan Lake” while aloft in red silk. Surprisingly, the cirque artists never blotted out the symphony’s playing, but only enhanced it.
Throughout, Wilson — clearly having a ball — conducted with the verve of a circus master of ceremonies.
Waiver request still in limbo
Obhof mystified many listeners Tuesday night when he referred to a waiver request the legislature included in the state budget passed in June 2015. The little-noticed provision required the state Department of Insurance to ask the federal government to exempt Ohio from Obamacare’s mandates for individuals to buy health insurance and for larger employers to offer health insurance.
But Friday, Christopher Brock, director of stakeholder and media engagement at the insurance department, told Dispatch Reporter Marty Schladen: