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The February production of the contemporary comic opera "Speed Dating Tonight," staged at the Cleveland Museum of Art, earned yet another national recognition for BW's program.
In a story previewing Baldwin Wallace University Opera's Cleveland premiere of composer Michael Ching's hilarious one-act opera, "Speed Dating Tonight," Scott Skiba, director of opera studies at BW and the show's director and producer, predicted his student cast would take the production to new heights.
"It's a piece that I feel like we're going to do it great justice," Skiba told The Exponent. "And I told the cast, 'I want to do the best version of this piece that's ever been done. … We're going to put our own stamp on this.'"
Now, the National Opera Association has chosen the production with a unique BW stamp for a First Place Division I prize in the 2024-2025 Opera Production Competition.
Cast member Charles Shaun Bohrer '27 knew BW was producing something special, too. "The excitement and energy our cast brought to this unique production was unparalleled to any other opera I have been in. There is something so exciting about tackling a newer work, especially with a team of people who are incredibly supportive, hard-working, and devoted to their craft. It means a lot to be recognized for our artistry and bold choices."
BW brought Michael Ching and Dean Anthony's story to life at the Cleveland Museum of Art's Gartner Auditorium over the Valentine's Day weekend. The opera, which is in English, "explores five-minute 'dates' that give us a glimpse into the lives, loves, passions, quirks, and fantasies of the colorful cast of characters" and is designed to allow for improvisation.
For BW, the production was staged so that the speed dates could be mixed and matched at each performance based on which performers were available. Each of 19 BW cast members performed an aria that discloses something about themselves, which Skiba described as "funny," "poignant," "realism-based" or "existential." Ching even composed two new "dates" for BW's version.
Voice performance major Leah Kania '26 noted, "I think part of what made this show so unique was how every character got their own featured solo and/or scene. The show was so fun to perform, and the cast brought high-energy to all our performances; One of my favorite performances here at BW!"
According to the NOA website, "the goal of the NOA Opera Production Competition is to further the organization's mission by encouraging and rewarding creative, high quality opera productions at academic institutions and music conservatories."
For the 2024-2025 competition, 99 entrants were divided into multiple divisions so that competitors were fairly judged against similarly cast and budgeted productions. Three-judge panels, comprised of artists who have worked at the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden and Royal Danish Opera, among others, judged the entries on musicianship; quality of singing; diction; dramatic credibility and characterization; production concept, staging and execution; and quality of the production.
It's not the first time BW has been recognized. Among a host of past honors, the NOA previously bestowed a first-place prize for BW's 2023 production of "We've Got Our Eye On You."
BW also took first place in OPERA America's "Awards for Digital Excellence in Opera" in the University/Conservatory Projects category for the Operas [in Place] festival, produced in collaboration with Cleveland Opera Theater and On Site Opera (NYC), a creative pivot born during the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Skiba, a pioneer in producing interdisciplinary collaborations in alternative venues and a proponent of new opera, says, "Students deserve recognition for their excellent, ongoing work, especially their involvement with new opera, which is essential to their Conservatory training. BW student artists are leading the future of operatic storytelling by actively developing, workshopping, and performing new repertoire."
Since 2016, BW students have collaborated on exciting new opera projects with premier composers and librettists, including nine award-winning micro-opera world premieres, one full-scale world premiere, five regional premieres, the workshop/development of over a dozen new operas and three collegiate premieres.
Skiba says students are now hard at work preparing for winter and spring mainstage operas.
"We're excited to return to the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) in January to present two new operas: 'Rise,' Kamala Sankaram, composer, and A.M. Homes, librettist, along with 'A.E. Reverie,' Kamala Sankaram, composer, Jerre Dye, librettist," Skiba says. "The Collegiate and Midwest premiere of these two operas will feature the world premiere of a new chamber orchestration commissioned for this Baldwin Wallace Opera production."
Following that CMA co-production, in collaboration with the Girl Scouts of North East Ohio, the 2026 Spring Opera will be Mozart and Da Ponte's comedic masterpiece, "Le nozze di Figaro" (The Marriage of Figaro). Plans for that production include what Skiba describes as a "vibrant, spectacular Art Deco design, an aesthetic and style that complement the opera's revolutionary themes."
