Henson Keys (AKA “actfive”) is a Chicago-based actor and director who fell in love with opera while working for the Met Ticket Service in NYC in the early 80’s. An Equity actor since 1974, he has performed in over 130 roles in New York and regional repertory including 46 productions of Shakespeare. From 1999-2015 he was Chair of Acting Programs at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, having previously led programs at Ohio University and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival. He also writes opera CD/DVD reviews for Opera News.
The woes of last week’s Polar Vortex event in Chicago extended all the way to Lyric Opera, forced to cancel dress rehearsal for Elektra. So, Saturday night’s opening performance was the first time in decades that Lyric had presented an opera sans Dress. 
Jules Massenet’s version of the Cinderella fairy tale, Cendrillon, seems to be back in vogue after many years of obscurity, and the major reason for the revival of interest is the spectacularly inventive Laurent Pelly production already a hit in Santa Fe, London, Brussels, Lille, Barcelona, the Met, and now running in its first performances at Lyric Opera of Chicago. 
The first thing I noticed when I entered the Lyric Opera House for Anna Netrebko’s recital “Day and Night” was the amount of Russian being spoken in the lobby—Anna’s fans from Chicago’s Russian community were out in force, and in all the audience there was a frisson of expectation for the day’s event. 
Cher Public