ROCKTOPIA Coming to WVIZ and Playhouse Square

What musical genre is created when you blend Led Zeppelin with Puccini, or The Who and Styx or Mozart and Strauss... ROCKTOPIA!

ROCKTOPIA Live In Budapest will be kicking off a national tour in spring 2017, making Cleveland one of its stops at Playhouse Square's State Theatre, Thursday April 13th, 2017 at 7:30 pm. Rocktopia will be accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra featuring musicians from Cleveland's own Contemporary Youth Orchestra sitting side by side with select master musicians from a number of formidable local performing orchestras including the Cleveland Pops Orchestra.

By pledging during WVIZ/PBS's ideastream' fundraising campaign this Saturday, Sept. 24, theatergoers will be able to purchase tickets before the general public on-sale date of Monday, December 5 at 11 am at playhousesquare.org, the Playhouse Square Ticket Office or at 216-241-6000. (Ticket prices will range from $37.50 - $99.)

ROCKTOPIA is a live concert event that celebrates the fusion of Classical Music, Classic Rock, and Opera with original and one-of-a-kind musical arrangements delivered by world-class vocalists and musicians. Enhanced by fully immersive video, ROCKTOPIA tells the universal story of the Human Condition. Composers and rock bands represented during the performance include: Queen, Mozart, Journey, Stravinsky, Jimi Hendrix, Puccini, Led Zeppelin, Heart, Beethoven, Styx, Foreigner, Rachmaninoff, Pink Floyd, Copland, The Who, and many more!

ROCKTOPIA Live In Budapest was recorded in front of a live audience at the world famous Hungarian State Opera House in Budapest in June. The unique musical blend is performed by the 65-piece Orchestra of the Hungarian State Opera along with six world-class vocalists, a five-piece rock band, Hungarian State Opera Chorus and the Jazz and More Choir.

The show was filmed specifically for public television and will be featured nationally on public television channels during their upcoming national fundraising campaigns and will also be released on CD and DVD.

Composer (and Canton, OH native) Randall Craig Fleischer said: "The concept of ROCKTOPIA has been brewing in my heart since I was a kid. The original version was entitled "Rock Fusion" and featured Rob Evan as soloist. Vastly enlarged, expanded and perfected and now entitled "ROCKTOPIA" the show had its proof of concept premiere in September of 2012 in Youngstown OH. The reaction from both musicians and audience was utterly explosive! What an unspeakable thrill it was to make this concept a complete reality in a venue like the opera house in Budapest and bring it to public television! Tears and chills!"

For more information go to: www.rocktopia.com .

To post a comment, you must register and login.