The Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: Reconciliation

Severance Music Center (The Cleveland Orchestra)

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• Date Friday, May 16, 2025 - Sunday, May 25, 2025
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Long considered one of America’s great orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra stands today among the world’s most-revered symphonic ensembles. In concerts at home in University Circle's Severance Music Center, at Blossom Music Center, and on tour, The Cleveland Orchestra continues to... more

The Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival: Reconciliation is a series of concerts, exhibitions, and conversations created for the greater Cleveland community and headlined by three concert performances of Leoš Janáček’s opera Jenůfa, led by Music Director Franz Welser-Möst at Severance Music Center.

Reconciliation is both a deeply personal journey and a societal imperative—a process of healing, reckoning, and transformation. The third Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Opera & Humanities Festival explores this theme through music, art, and conversation, creating a space for reflection, dialogue, and renewal.

Far beyond mere forgiveness, reconciliation is a complex process that acknowledges pain while pursuing truth, justice, and understanding. It provides a path to rebuilding trust, fostering fairness, and uniting divided communities. Through performances, discussions, and exhibitions, this year’s festival examines how reconciliation shapes relationships, societies, and cultures—highlighting its challenges, triumphs, and enduring relevance in a fractured world.

Anchored by three Cleveland Orchestra concert performances of Leoš Janáček’s opera Jenůfa under the direction of Franz Welser-Möst, the festival runs from May 16 to May 25, 2025, bringing together luminaries from around the world and community partners from across Greater Cleveland.