History improves Music Hall experience
Music Hall has been a link to Cincinnati's history for me. My grandfather, John J. Behle, was manager of Music Hall in the 1920s and early 1930s, and I grew up hearing how Music Hall was Cincinnati's first convention center.
I loved the stories he would tell me about the range of events he helped put on. There were home shows in which an actual house would be constructed inside Music Hall. There were boxing matches, car shows, and the huge Municipal and Industrial Exposition of 1935, a virtual world's fair of science, art and commerce. The program I have states: "Exhibiting every phase of city, county, state and federal government and public institutions."
He also had stories from the old-timers of his day telling of the national political conventions of the late 1800s and of Cincinnati hosting the presidential nominating conventions several times at Music Hall. There were people who still remembered the canal running behind the back of the building (where Central Parkway is now) and the smell of the stagnant water.
When I walk across the paving stones of Elm Street into Washington Park, seeing the front edifice of this landmark conjures up the horse-and-carriage elegance of 125 years ago. When I attend the opera and symphony, the music is made better by the poignancy of the history.
John W. Behle, Union
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Ushering jobs led couple to wedding aisle
In the early '60s, we University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music students would go down to Music Hall an hour before symphony time and usher. For our efforts, we could take any unoccupied seat in the house.
It happened one evening that some young gentlemen from Xavier University and UC's College of Medicine were ushering also. After passing each other in the aisle many times, one of the boys asked to take me home after the concert. Our interest in music and each other matched very well, and for two more years, our dates usually were ushering and enjoying a symphony concert.
Thirty-five years ago we were married and, needless to say, we have been subscribers to the opera, CSO and Pops for more than 25 years. Recently, we have enjoyed having our son, a UC medical student, join us for the symphony concerts.
Mary E. Bramlage, Indian Hill
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Screams prepped her for big performance
After having sung in the Opera Auxiliary Chorus for Aida (1995 and 2000), I was thrilled to be invited back in 2001 for the production of Nabucco.
On dress rehearsal night, the chorus was offstage during a scene change, waiting to take our places when we heard a blood-curdling scream. I could only think someone was being killed. In actuality, it was one of the stage crew having caught his hand in the hydraulic lift. Later, we learned that while it was certainly a serious injury, he would heal, but at the time it was terrifying. Mentally, we felt duly prepped for the sacrificial Va Pensiero scene which followed.
Sherry Brigger, Landen
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Speaker collapse made concert-goers take note
My favorite of many memories at Music Hall took place in the late 1970s.
Jimmy Buffett, who had just started garnering attention with his platinum and gold releases, came to Cincinnati to perform on the venerable Music Hall stage.
His band was center stage, Jimmy was up front, and on both sides of the stage were speakers piled on top of one another. Suddenly, one of the speaker towers came tumbling down (luckily no one on stage or in the audience was hurt). However, it certainly made one to sit up and take notice.
Jerri Roberts, Wyoming
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Sir Bing was right; Music Hall best venue
Many years ago, I heard Sir Rudolph Bing, the general manager of the New York Metropolitan Opera from 1950 to 1972, lecture at Chautauqua Institution's huge amphitheater. After the lecture, he answered questions from the audience. One of the questions was, "If you had to choose the world's finest orchestra, conductor, music hall, which would you choose?
After a long pause he answered, "The world's finest orchestra? It's difficult to pick a favorite. Maybe I could narrow it down to three. The world's finest conductor? There are so many great conductors it's impossible to choose just one. The world's finest music hall? That's easy, without a doubt, it's Music Hall in Cincinnati."
We moved to Cincinnati 12 years ago and couldn't wait to visit Music Hall. We agree with Sir Rudolph Bing.
Ruth Levinson, Wyoming
