By Janelle Gelfand
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati's Music Hall turns 125 today. (Philip Groshong photo) | ZOOM |

I never tire of sitting in Music Hall's grand space. My favorite place to sit is in the gallery, long believed to be the best seat acoustically in the house, with its huge crystal chandelier gently swirling at near-eyeball level.

Today, Music Hall will turn 125 with a gala celebration, including a Cincinnati-style food fest and performances by some of the city's most talented young musicians. Its stage has brought the world to Cincinnati - everyone from opera's Enrico Caruso to crooner Frank Sinatra, from maestro Fritz Reiner to violin whiz Josh Bell. We've asked a few of the people who have starred in Music Hall to tell us their most memorable moments.

My favorite Music Hall moment has nothing to do with music. It was the day in 1994 that I had a tour from the basement to the rafters - for a Halloween story.

My guide and I started downstairs, a jungle of dirt floor passageways, bricked-up windows and coal chutes. Music Hall sits directly on an old Potters Field, and there are stories still floating that the place is haunted.

The basement was dark, dry and dusty. I'll never forget rounding a corner and bumping into - a coffin. Imagine my relief when I found out it was the prop Erich Kunzel uses to make his "grand entrance" in his Pops Halloween show.

Next, my guide led me up and up, far beyond the gallery. As we climbed what was basically a ladder to the attic, I tried not to look down. When we arrived at the top, I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a step back in time, with century-old soot from when Music Hall was heated with coal, and old pipes from the original Hook and Hastings organ. I could almost hear strains of Phantom of the Opera.

MORE MEMORIES

• Performers, patrons recall history • Architect helped build Cincinnati • Heavy rains led to building of city's 'cathedral of music'

IF YOU GO

What: Music Hall's 125th Anniversary Celebration When: 5-6:30 p.m. today Food Fest; 7 p.m. concert Where: Music Hall; Food Fest in Ballroom; concert in auditorium Tickets: $1.25 to enter Food Fest (and each food item costs $1.25); $1.25 admission to concert. 977-4190 or Web site.

Beyond a rickety landscape of ancient dust, the glorious rose window floated like a full moon. I peeped through it at the rooftops of Over-the-Rhine, wondering if anyone knew I was behind that window, several stories up.

One of the highlights of my "student" years at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music was joining the May Festival Chorus to sing Beethoven's Ninth, an electrifying concert under CSO music director Thomas Schippers in 1973.

Reviewing highlights are too numerous to count. The CSO's 100th anniversary concert in 1995, a world-class event with violinist Itzhak Perlman, cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and four current and former CSO conductors, was one that made the front page of the paper. In 1998, Cincinnati native James Levine brought his Met Orchestra for the May Festival's 125th anniversary, a rare occasion to hear another great orchestra on Music Hall's stage.

Backstage, unforgettable moments include: interviewing soprano Barbara Daniels and bass-baritone James Morris in July 1996 as they wolfed down box lunches, exchanged barbs and fought over who got the tuna fish between rehearsals for Cincinnati Opera's The Flying Dutchman (hysterically funny); interviewing Keith Lockhart over his open suitcases on the floor of the conductor's suite, as he packed to leave for Boston (he looked nervous and happy); sitting on a sofa with crooner Mel Torme for one of his last interviews before he had a stroke and eventually died; and sitting on the front steps (at different times) with opera stars Tom Fox and Deborah Polaski to talk about their favorite roles.

At 3,417 seats, Music Hall is the largest concert hall in the country. Despite its size, performers and listeners have always praised its acoustics, as well as its beauty.

"The hall has a kind of mystique and aura, that is very exciting for a couple reasons," says May Festival Chorus director Robert Porco. "One is just the beauty of it as you stand on the stage and look out. The other is the knowledge of the history, and who has conducted there, the first performances that have taken place there. So when you combine the physical beauty of the hall with everything you know about it, it is really awesome."

E-mail jgelfand@enquirer.com