Here is the press release from Chicago Opera Theater:
CHICAGO OPERA THEATER ANNOUNCES THEIR
2010 SPRING FESTIVAL SEASON
Featuring Frederica von Stade in the Chicago premiere of Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers, the 2008 People’s Opera winner Rossini’s Mosè in Egitto, and the Chicago professional premiere of Cavalli’s Giasone! Read the rest of this entry »
Matthew Polenzani and Erin Wall/Photo: Dan Rest
Once upon a time, the principal responsibility of the director of an operatic production was to make sure that the singers didn’t bump into one another or the scenery on stage. Then, came the idea of the “concept” director where a novel idea—whether inspired or not, whether logical or not—ruled the day. It became increasingly commonplace for stage directors to add operas to their resumes, even if said director was not particularly musical and even if the staging had nothing whatsoever to do with the music. Oh well, at least the drama of the piece would be served, or so it was reasoned. Very, very rarely, you end up with operatic direction that somehow misses the point of both the music and the drama, no small feat, given the odds of some aspect of one or the other working out even with a clueless director. Such is the case with Lyric Opera’s new production of Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio.” Read the rest of this entry »
By William Scott
For quite some time if you have wanted legit opera in Chicago you have had two choices. Lyric Opera of Chicago and Chicago Opera Theater are the big boys in town and they hold quite the monopoly. Though both companies produce acclaimed work, if you are looking for something contemporary, options dry up. Oh sure, you will see the occasional Benjamin Britten or John Adams opera by one company or the other, but both primarily present in traditional formats. Enter Eric Reda and Chicago Opera Vanguard.
“I am excited to present a whole new experience for Chicago lovers of music, theater and opera,” explains artistic director Reda. COV’s mission is to create a Midwest home for engaging opera and music theater with contemporary resonance. Reda’s philosophies are simple: be open to anything, start with good text and deliver a musical experience that resonates with an audience. To be sure, he understands that the quality of the music experience will largely be the stick by which the company is measured.
“My collaborators and I talk a lot about what is it that we can do to make opera more viable,” Reda says. He goes on, “Why does it have to be a museum piece? It’s time to start revitalizing this form. Funding is going down for it and it’s like looking at a pretty picture that looks really great in a gallery but it has no immediate impact.”
The company got its feet off the ground with several minor productions and concerts, most notably, the recent evening of art songs (most of them newly commissioned) called “The Chicago AIDS Quilt Songbook” at the Court Theatre. The concert went to support Seasons of Concern, the Chicago theater community’s fundraising effort to fight against AIDS. Now the young company embarks on an important milestone for any organization, its first full season.
Season zero for COV will bring two productions. In May they will produce “GREEK,” a modern Oedipus myth set in a Britain afflicted by “a plague of racism, violence and mass unemployment” written by Mark-Anthony Turnage and Jonathan Moore. The show promises plenty of bad language and a sixteen-piece orchestra. But first, this week COV will open with a piece that has been making the rounds to major producing institutions nationwide, Ricky Ian Gordon’s “Orpheus and Euridice.”
Gordon’s song cycle is written for a soprano voice (Euridice), a clarinet (Orpheus) and a piano. Rebecca Prescott and Patrick Rehker will perform the title roles respectively. Two dancers, Logan Vaughn and Matthew Prescott, will accompany the piece, embodying the emotional journey of the title lovers.
Although based on an ancient myth, if the piece feels intensely personal that is because it is. Gordon wrote the piece as a tribute to his lover, who died of AIDS in 1996. The libretto poured out of him one night during a particularly rough period in his partner’s sickness. The writer knew this was something large and special.
“I didn’t quite realize what I was doing. It was born out of my need to tell my own story at the time,” Gordon recounts. ”Pretty soon I realized I had not only written about the birth of love but I had written about the birth of art through suffering. It was so intense.”
Reda is counting on that innate intensity to create a loud and visible start for COV. Gordon’s work is largely accepted by more traditional opera goers—in fact the writer did a residency at the Lyric—but he works within a new school of composers who are struggling to keep the operatic form living in the often rigid confines of the established industry.
COV will need the support of non-traditional opera goers. An alternative warehouse venue like the AV-Aerie may help. Costumes by local design celebrity and “Project Runway” contestant Steven Rosengard may also go a long way to reaching out. But Reda also sees the economic climate as a possible advantage.
“Part of what we have been saying all along is in making new work accessible, it is important to also make them economically accessible,” Reda says. Good seats to the bigger houses can cost upward of $100. COV memberships are $50 for both shows.
“I feel like right now in economically tough times people are still starved for cultural entertainment. I feel we are a viable alternative,” Reda says. “Why not make a home where you can be one of a hundred people in a hall listening to really great music theater.”
“Orpheus and Euridice” plays the AV-Aerie, 2000 W. Fulton, January 29-February 9, chicagovanguard.org
What makes Chicago’s theater world special? We picked up the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly for clues. In the cover story, “CSI” star William Petersen explains his decision to leave his role as one of the top paid actors in television, earning a rumored $600,000 an episode, to move back to Chicago and Chicago theater: “It was too safe for me at this point. So I needed to try and break that, and the way to do that, for me, is the theater.” EW went on to credit Petersen for much of the show’s success, notably bringing a theatrical ensemble philosophy to play in its production. Or consider the runaway success of Steppenwolf’s “August: Osage County,” which transferred to Broadway, receiving critical acclaim and multiple Tony Awards, not by shaking it up with Broadway “names” but instead by virtually transferring the Steppenwolf production intact, with the addition of lead producer and fellow Chicagoan Steve Traxler. What makes Chicago theater—or for that matter, Chicago dance or any other form of performance practiced on our stages—special? We’d contend it’s the power of the ensemble, the spirit of collaboration that champions artistic risk-taking and subordinates the commercial. And so, in that spirit, the critical ensemble responsible for Newcity’s ongoing stage coverage presents our take on the most influential people on and offstage in Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »
RECOMMENDED
For the first decades of its existence, Ravinia was the summer opera capital of the United States and concert opera was a significant element of the 22-year music directorship of James Levine, who was also music director of the Metropolitan Opera. That tradition stopped under Christoph Eschenbach but has continued on under James Conlon, who is also music director of the Los Angeles Opera and the Cincinnati May Festival, where this semi-staged version of Mozart’s “The Abduction From the Seraglio” originated in 2006 conceived around Michael York narrating the spoken portions with a script by Marie Therese Squerciati that streamlines much of the action as well as wryly interpolates the proceedings for a modern audience with an Anglo sensibility that perfectly suits York’s narration. But make no mistake: it is the singing and the music that are the clear stars of this production, from Morris Robinson’s velvet-smooth deep bass and terrifying yet comical portrayal of the sadistic Osmin to Hanan Alattar’s stunning ease through the soprano stratosphere as Konstanze to James Conlon’s lively tempos and brilliant shaping of a chamber ensemble made up of non-vacationing Chicago Symphony members. What a rare treat it is to hear a Mozart opera in Ravinia’s Martin Theatre, with its 800-plus seats, close to the size of the theaters that Mozart had in mind when he wrote these works rather than the too large Harris Theater (Chicago Opera Theater) or the cavernous Civic Opera House (Lyric Opera) where nuance and subtlety are lost. The experience is nothing short of revelatory and long may this glorious tradition continue. But next time around, please, Ravinia, keep the standards consistent and hire a professional chorus, preferably members of the CSO’s own unparalleled ensemble rather than a volunteer chorus. For this work a chorus is only heard twice, but they are crucial and climactic moments that mar what precedes them, kind of like baking a cake from scratch and using canned frosting to top it off. (Dennis Polkow)
Mozart’s “The Abduction From the Seraglio” plays through August 16 at Ravinia’s Martin Theatre, Lake-Cook at Green Bay Rds., Highland Park, (847)266-5100.
RECOMMENDED
Chicago Opera Theater had its say, now James Conlon and the Chicago Symphony have their turn at the work that many consider the most perfect of all operas. Ildebrando D’Arcangelo stars as the Don and longtime Giovanni of yesteryear and Chicagoan Samuel Ramey sings the role of his servant Leporello in these semi-staged Martin Theatre performances. Ramey, the most recorded bass in history who was so loyal to Lyric Opera and such a mainstay there for so many years that he moved to Chicago (it helped that he married a member of the chorus), is no longer engaged by Lyric now that he’s at the twilight of his long and wonderful career, but unlike his close friend and tenor Jerry Hadley, who was so despondent about roles drying up that he committed suicide last year, Ramey has taken a far more optimistic attitude and could well end up stealing the show from the Don as several notable Leporellos have done over the years. The woman seduced by the Don but faithfully cataloged in song by Leporello include Ellie Dehn as Donna Anna, Soile Isokoski as Donna Elvira and Heidi Grant Murphy as Zerlina. (Dennis Polkow)
At Ravinia Festival’s Martin Theatre, Lake-Cook & Green Bay Rds., Highland Park, 847)266-5100, 7pm August 15, 2pm August 17. $10-$75.
RECOMMENDED
In an effort to find suitable vehicles for superstar mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne late in her career, Lyric Opera gave her a couple of male roles that in the eighteenth century were sung by superstar castratos, i.e., male singers whose testicles were removed before puberty to preserve a high voice but who developed an adult technique to propel their sound. (Talk about the high price of fame, but I digress.) One was Rossini’s “Tancredi,” the other was Handel’s “Orlando,” but both were jealous military conquerors, well, you get the general idea. That 1986 production also featured countertenor Jeffrey Gall and sopranos June Anderson and Gianna Rolandi (today Mrs. Sir Andrew Davis and director of Lyric’s Ryan Center) in a hopelessly mismatched vocal affair that left Handel the real loser. These days, it’s possible to assemble not one, but two countertenors for a production, as Chicago Opera Theater has done for its current production (Tim Mead and David Trudgen) and two sopranos who have range, power and even some eighteenth-century technique (Kate Mangiameli and Andriana Chuchman). The problem comes in when a seasoned Handel singer such as Mead who can sing trills and ornaments in an authentic style, shares the stage with cast members who simply do not have the vocal technique needed to sing this music. Twenty years ago, glossing over Handel’s rapid and florid passages like a car engine was deemed acceptable, but no longer. This is the kind of singing that gave Handel a bad reputation in modern times to begin with, and the music is not well served when the notes are blurred. Even so, there is much to recommend this production, especially director Justin Way’s film-noir conception, which at one point had Orlando choking an enemy in rhythm to his own trills and which manages to streamline the complex storyline. Raymond Leppard, one of the genre’s earliest early music pioneers, kept things moving along from the pit with grace and balance, and his own innovative harpsichord playing—sometimes augmented by organ along with the continuo—was some of the most original Handel accompaniment we have heard here. (Dennis Polkow)
At the Harris Theater for Music & Dance, 205 E. Randolph, (312)334-7777. This production is now closed.
RECOMMENDED
For those like myself who found “Doctor Atomic” an insufferably confused and convoluted enterprise, John Adams’ “A Flowering Tree” should be an effective antidote. Though its lacks the wit of a work such as “Nixon in China” or the gravitas of “Death of Klinghoffer,” Adams’ adaptation of an Indian folktale based on a translation by Indian scholar, poet and longtime University of Chicago professor A. K. Ramanujan has charms of its own, even if it sometimes takes political correctness to absurdities by, for instance, setting chorales of a work set in India in Spanish. The story is a rather static one, dealing with a young woman (Natasha Jouhl) who has the ability to transform herself to a tree and the prince (Noah Stewart) who falls in love with her, which isn’t helped by the presence of a storyteller (Sanford Sylvan) who has to explain things, but the music, particularly in the transformation scenes, is anything but static. Drawing heavily from Wagner’s “Ring” cycle, Adams’ music conveys magic and transformation using compact Wagnerian orchestration and Adams’ own effective leitmotivs, reminding us, for instance, of how many moments of Wagner could be interpreted as “Minimalist,” especially the prologue to “Das Rheingold” and the repeated arpeggios that represent the Rhine River. Though this Chicago Opera Theater production is obviously one of meager means, but unlike say, last year’s “Bluebeard’s Castle,” never looks cheap, which is no small accomplishment in these lean times. (Dennis Polkow)
At the Harris Theater for Music & Dance, 205 E. Randolph, (312)334-7777. This production is now closed.
RECOMMENDED
When Don Giovanni goes to hell in the current Chicago Opera Theater production directed by Diane Paulus, it is a hell of scantily clad women overpowering him. Though this would probably be heaven to most men, it would seem especially so for Giovanni, who went after each and every woman that he met, to quote the potential future first-husband, “because I could.” But in case there was any doubt what happened to him, a bloody and decomposing Don is shown hanging from a meat-hook to Mozart’s life-affirming finale. Hm. Well, that doesn’t work, to be sure, but so much else does in this production that you won’t want to miss it. The concept is that Giovanni is a ruthless, gun-toting club owner (a precursor to “Phil Spector: The Musical” perhaps?) surrounded by ruthless women (Donna Elvira knees him in the groin at one point) in a colorful though very macabre world that for the most part brilliantly reflects the narcissism of the lead character. But Giovanni has to be a charmer, as well, and if the characters—and most importantly, the audience—don’t feel something for him, the true magic of the work gets lost in the shuffle. None of that matters much, though, when Mozart’s music is as fabulously served up as it is here. Conductor Jane Glover, one the great Mozart interpreters anywhere, keeps things lively and spirited in the pit at all times, and guides the young cast to heights and into a true ensemble where balance is, above all, the top priority. (Dennis Polkow)
At the Harris Theater for Music & Dance, 205 E. Randolph, (312)334-7777. This production is now closed.
When it comes to opera in Chicago, opera-goers have two choices: go with the crowd over to big-budget Lyric Opera and its La Scala West repertoire centered on Italian operatic warhorses, or go with the opera cognoscente over to the smaller Chicago Opera Theater, the more innovative, discerning and adventurous of the two companies whose broader repertoire not only extends well beyond Lyric’s Italian base but spans the dawn of opera up through the twenty-first century.
From its inception thirty-four years ago, COT founder Alan Stone wanted to make sure that the company would not be perceived as a “little Lyric” but as a distinct company with its own identity and approach. Works that were too intimate for the cavernous Civic Opera House or that were either too old or too new for Lyric’s conservative subscriber base became the mainstay repertoire of COT and achieved such extraordinary success that late Lyric general manager Ardis Krainik tried some COT-inspired innovations, including the “Towards the 21st Century” initiative, which featured one contemporary American and contemporary European opera each season leading up to the new century, though Krainik’s successor William Mason ended up abandoning the program and now feels that Lyric’s seasons should have only two unknown (in Lyricspeak, unknown is synonymous with “unpopular,” which equals donor poison) operas out of eight per season, whatever century they may come from. While doing a Handel opera is conservative for Chicago Opera Theater, since Lyric has only discovered Handel in the last decade (unless you count such sideshows as Jon Vickers singing the oratorio “Samson” and Marilyn Horne singing “Orlando”), Handel repertoire is considered “new” and unfamiliar at Lyric.
And this year, though there bizarrely wasn’t a single Mozart opera to be heard all season long over at Lyric, COT is presenting the one Mozart opera to be heard in Chicago this year by opening its season this week with “Don Giovanni” (April 30-May 11) and further beats Lyric to the punch with the first ever live Chicago television broadcast of an opera free to Millennium Park’s Pritzker Pavilion at 7:30pm May 9. “‘Don Giovanni’ is the culmination of the triptych of the three Mozart-DaPonte operas that we inaugurated some years ago with the same creative team [conductor Jane Glover and director Diane Paulus], and something we are all looking forward to,” assesses COT general manager Brian Dickie. “The setting is a high-end New York nightclub where Don Giovanni is the proprietor and we hope that the broadcast will give a larger number of people a chance not only to see some great opera, but to see what this company is all about.”
True, Lyric did John Adams’ “Doctor Atomic” this season, but COT brought Adams’ most celebrated opera, “Nixon in China,” to Chicago two years earlier with a production that so impressed its composer that he agreed to come back to COT—not Lyric, mind you—to conduct the Chicago premiere of his latest work, “A Flowering Tree” (May 14-25), based on an Indian folktale which the composer describes as his own take on Mozart’s “The Magic Flute.” “John was enthusiastic with what the company did with ‘Nixon’ and audiences so embraced it that this seemed a natural follow-up,” Dickie says. “He wanted very much to conduct with us, but could only do the first two performances because he has another conducting engagement in Europe, but we have his very talented assistant coming in to do the remaining performances who knows the piece inside and out.”
And though Lyric did do Handel’s “Orlando” twenty years ago in a very stodgy and bombastic manner with Marilyn Horne sporting armor in a role written for a male castrato, this year’s COT production (May 28-June 
will be the first performed by a countertenor (Tim Mead) that is giving attention to eighteenth-century performance practice with British conductor and early music specialist Raymond Leppard at the podium but with a contemporary update done in 1940s film-noir style.
The company’s thirty-fifth anniversary season has already been announced and the once-struggling COT looks to have a bright future ahead of itself, but Dickie is always looking ahead, even beyond the time that he will be running the company. “I’m 67,” says Dickie, “and there are so many opera voids in this town that I will not get a chance to fill, which will fall to my successor. And I’m still struggling with how to get all those core Lyric subscribers to try us out. Once they come, they subscribe, but getting them here is half the battle.” (Dennis Polkow)
Chicago Opera Theater’s season runs through June 8 at the Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph, (312)704-8414.