Chicago Fringe Opera joins forces with The Opera Cowgirls to present “Operapalooza” Music Festival. Set for May 10, 2025, at The Color Club in Chicago, the festival will also feature The Rosina Project and The Tapestry, showcasing a wide-ranging crossover between opera and pop music. In sum, there will be four opera-fusion acts. The Opera Cowgirls’ performance is being described {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera has announced its 2024-25 season. The company will present a season launch party before the opening production. Performance Dates: Oct. 13, 2024 The first production of the season is “Hindsight.” The opera is composed by Felix Jarrar and features a libretto by Bea Goodwin. The work will be conducted by Catherine O’Shaughnessy and directed by Johanna Moffitt. Performance {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera will kick off its new season with a production of “Hindsight.” Presented in collaboration with /kor/ productions, the work explores the Leopold and Loeb murder in Chicago. Audiences will be able to check out the work on Nov. 1 – 9 at Chicago Dramatists. The opera is composed by Felix Jarrar and features a libretto by Bea {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera has announced its 2023-24 season. The season kicks off with “Sing, Sip, and Support,” the company’s season launch fundraiser. Performance Date: Nov. 12, 2023 Next up is Iain Bell and Simon Callow’s “A Christmas Carol.” Based on the famed Charles Dickens work, the opera is written for tenor, piano, and percussion. Performance Dates: Nov. 29 – Dec. 3, {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera has announced that Catherine O’Shaughnessy is the company’s Interim Executive Director. She takes over for Laura Smalley, who stepped down at the end of June 2023. O’Shaughnessy joined the company as Creative Director and Conductor in Spring 2016, with a production of “In the Penal Colony.” O’Shaughnessy has also performed with such companies as the Chicago Opera {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera is set to present “Chicago Currents: A Celebration of Chicago” starting on March 19, 2023. The production is a full-length, staged art song concert for five singers, piano, and violin. Audiences will hear soprano Kirsten C. Kunkle, who is also a composer and dramaturg for the work, soprano Dana Campbell, mezzo-soprano Bridget Skaggs, tenor Aaron Short, and {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera has unveiled its fall 2022 season. The season kicks off with “Corsair,” the company’s contribution to the Decameron Opera Coalition’s 2022 film series “Tales from a Safe Distance.” The opera film will be screened as part of Opera Philadelphia’s Festival O22. Screening Date: Sept. 28, 2022 Next up is “La Jetée,” a collaboration with Access Contemporary Music {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera has announced its summer season. Kicking things off, the company will present “The Rosina Project,” a contemporary adaptation of Rossini’s comedy “The Barber of Seville” mixed by hip-hop and opera artists. Performance Date: June 17 & 18, 2022 Next up is “Sounds of Pride,” a short musical program composed and performed by members of the LGBTQ community, including {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera has announced that it will present “Two Remain (Out of Darkness)” starting on March 26, 2022. The opera by Jake Heggie and Gene Scheer is based on the journals of Krystyna Zywulska and Gad Beck, two Holocaust survivors. It will be directed by Derek Van Barham with Catherine O’Shaughnessy conducting. Taking on the role of Krystyna is {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera (CFO) has announced its 2021-22 season, featuring a mix of in-person and virtual productions. Here’s what audiences have to look forward to this coming season. First up is a hip-hop twist on Rossini’s comedic masterpiece, “The Barber of Seville.” For the third straight year, “The Rosina Project” will feature hip-hop and opera artists performing an original, female-driven {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera (CFO) has announced the first half of its spring season, entitled “City of Works.” Crafted with pandemic safety protocols top-of-mind, “City of Works” takes audiences on a journey through Chicago as they travel from one landmark to another. Upon arrival at their destination, audiences unlock digital content using a QR code. The approach allows individuals to share {…}