Chicago Fringe Opera has unveiled its 2025-26 season. First up is the Chicago Fringe Opera x The Ear Taxi Festival at The Kehrein Center for the Performing Arts. The event will feature over 500 arts and over 5o hours of programming. Chicago Fringe Opera will showcase excerpts from three operas, including “Here Be Sirens,” “On My Mind,” and “No One’s {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera has announced Caitlin McKechney as its new Executive Director. In her new position, McKechney will work with George Cederquist and Cathy O’Shaughnessy. McKechney has performed at Operapalooza as “Head Cowgirl” of The Opera Cowgirls and also served as co-producer of the festival. She is a graduate of the Beth Morrison Project Producers Academy and served as Associate {…}
The Ear Taxi Festival’s “The Composer’s Voice,” has announced that it will return to Chicago in fall 2025. This article only features classical voice events. The chamber vocal ensemble, Bella Voce opens the 2025 Festival with the oratorio, “Lost Objects.” The work by Bang on a Can combines choir, electronics, and modern themes. Hannah De Priest, Ryan Belongie, and Luke {…}
Chicago Fringe Opera will present a new improv show, “Op*erratic” starting on May 28, 2025. Set to take place at Borelli’s Pizzeria until July 2, the showcase will feature a cast of six rotating performers from a roster of 18 as they improvise a 33-minute opera based on a single audience suggestion. Everything will be invented in real time. The {…}
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 {…}
