The Chicago Opera Theater has announced that Ashley Magnus will be the new Stefan Edlis and Gael Neeson General Director, effective immediately. Prior to this appointment, Magnus was the company’s General Manager of Strategy and Development and her appointment makes her the second major female leader of the company following Lidiya Yankovskaya’s appointment as the Bill Staley Music Director. Magnus {…}
November means a lot of opera. And a lot of opera means almost endless choices. So in picking this week’s major selections, we recommended a mix of new and old works across the States and Canada. Otello – Austin Opera Verdi’s great masterpiece gets a concert production at the Austin Opera with Marina Costa-Jackson headlining the cast as Desdemona. She {…}
Tchaikovsky’s final opera, “Iolanta,” sung in Russian with English supertitles, received a heartfelt and naturalistic production by the Chicago Opera Theater on November 11, 2018, at the Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building, Chicago. With a libretto by the composer’s brother, Modest, “Iolanta” is a 85-minute opera with four scenes presented seamlessly in one act. It explores themes of {…}
The Chicago Opera Theater has announced its 2018-19 season featuring exciting and rarely performed operatic gems. Here is a look at what the season will offer. Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta” makes its Chicago premiere with direction by internationally acclaimed and award-winning director Paul Curran and under the baton of COT’s own Staley Music Director, Maestro Lidiya Yankovskaya. Katherine Weber sings the title {…}
Seasoned operagoers are very familiar with Gaetano Donizetti, although most have only seen a paltry number of his works including the likes of “Lucia di Lammermoor,” “Anna Bolena” and “La Fille du Régiment.” Donizetti is known as opera’s most prolific popular composer with over 70 operas to his name with many providing fertile unexplored territory. The innovative Chicago Opera Theater has forged {…}
Editor’s Note: You may notice that we previously published a review on this double bill recently. This is another perspective on the same production for your enjoyment and Insight. The Chicago Opera Theater’s April 14, 20, and 22 double-bill presentation at the Studebaker Theater of “Il Pigmalione” and “Rita,” Donizetti’s first and last operas gave the listener a masterclass in {…}
With more and more companies opening up new productions and performances, this week’s selections feature mainly classic repertory works from a wide range of unique companies. Here are the operas we want you to see this weekend! Carmen – Sarasota Opera Lisa Chavez stars as the famed gypsy with Cody Austin as Don José and Hanna Brammer as Micaëla. Steven {…}
Murder, mystery, and mayhem are on offer in “Elizabeth Cree” when it opens this Saturday, Feb. 10 at the Chicago Opera Theater. Set in 1880s Victorian London, the opera begins with the hanging of Elizabeth Cree for the murder of her husband, John. The story then circles back to the trial for that murder and Elizabeth’s own narrative of her {…}
Opera America has announced the recipients for the 2018 National Opera Trustee Recognition. The recipients are “Carol F. Henry, Los Angeles Opera; R. Jamison Williams, Michigan Opera Theatre; Henry Fogel, Chicago Opera Theater; and John Serrage, Opera Maine.” The award is in its 11th year and its intention is to honor “U.S. opera companies for their exemplary leadership, generosity and audience-building efforts on behalf of their respective {…}
The Chicago Opera Theater mounted a harrowing production of Gian Carlo Menotti’s “The Consul” November 4, 2017, at the Studebaker Theater in Chicago’s Fine Arts Building. A co-production with Long Beach Opera, “The Consul will continue its Chicago run November 10 and 12. “The Consul” had a Philadelphia premiere in 1950 (when the post-WWII cold war was chilling the international {…}
Lidiya Yankovskaya, the new Music Director of Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is a musical unifier and explorer. Her goals for the future at COT include presenting a variety of underrepresented repertoire, supporting and promoting the best of new operatic works being created in our current “golden age of American opera,” and bolstering COT’s current education and community engagement initiatives. Yankovskaya {…}