Mixing art, conversation and music, the Cleveland Orchestra’s humanities festival asks people to consider the American dream.
It’s centered on Puccini’s opera “La fanciulla del West” (“The Girl of the West”) exploring the sense of possibility with the American dream that drew millions of people to the California Gold Rush of the mid-1800s.
Tenor Limmie Pulliam will perform this month with the Cleveland Orchestra as Dick Johnson – the role originated by Enrico Caruso – in the opera written more than a century ago.
“It’s different from any of the other Puccini's operas,” he said. “The setting is… American, but the music is quintessentially Italian through and through. So, you get the best of a storyline that's easy to follow with the quintessential Italian operatic sound.”
Pulliam said audiences will likely recognize melodies and motifs which have been borrowed by other composers in the 113 years since the piece premiered.
Cleveland Orchestra President André Gremillet is hoping they also discover the meaning of the American dream for themselves through the festival’s additional programs.
Karamu House presents the humorous coming-of-age story, "The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin," through May 14. The Cleveland Cinematheque screens a documentary about the making of another opera, telling the stories of women of color during the Gold Rush, on May 16. Through August, the Cleveland Museum of Art is hosting an American dream exhibit as part of its Community Voices series. Other programing includes a keynote address from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson and panel discussions on different political and social views of the American dream.
This festival particularly resonates for Gremillet, an immigrant himself, from Quebec.
“I'm a great example of how this American dream can play out,” he said. “I’ve been given incredible opportunities that would not have been given to me in most other countries. At the same time, we know that sometimes people haven't had access to this same American Dream, people born here.”
Pulliam said he sees it similarly.
“For me, it's having the freedom to pursue a better life for one’s family, for oneself, and to leave the world in a much better place than I found it,” he said. “The American dream is not as small an umbrella as many people like to think. There's so many ways that one can pursue the American Dream that don’t involve riches or fame or glory or anything of that nature.”
