Opera Cleveland Opera Cleveland Cleveland Opera was incorporated by David Bamberger, Carola Bamberger, and John D. Heavenrich in March 1976 and presented its first season in October and November of that year with sold-out productions of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" and Rossini's "The Barber of Seville". By 1984, it had become the resident opera company at Playhouse Square, with performances at the State Theater. The company played an integral part in the revitalization of Cleveland's historic Cleveland Theater District and was a leader in the movement to make theaters accessible to the physically challenged. There was considerable overlap between the orchestra personnel of
Benjamin Barber at Albert Schweitzer College (1959) and the London School of Economics (1957). Barber's father, Philip W. Barber, directed the New York City unit of the Federal Theatre Project, which produced plays including "Macbeth" and the Living Newspaper. His mother, Doris Frankel, was a playwright and wrote for television. Barber was also active as a playwright, lyricist (libretto for George Quincy's opera "Home and the River") and film-maker ("The Struggle for Democracy", with Patrick Watson, and "Music Inn", with Ben Barenholtz). Barber died on April 24, 2017, after a four-month battle with cancer. Barber was a Senior Research Scholar at The