Sunday’s matinee at Lyric Opera of Chicago was my first experience of Heggie and McNally’s 2000 opera Dead Man Walking. It certainly won’t be my last.
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It’s an old chestnut of a joke that applies even more to opera than to the theatre: A veteran actor is on his deathbed.
In our current political climate with issues of immigration, tribalism, and white nationalists, the 1957 musical West Side Story has a distinctly contemporary feel.
Sunday’s “Rising Stars in Concert”, featuring the Ryan Opera Center ensemble and members of the Lyric Opera Orchestra, was a stirring and entertainingly musical afternoon.
Saturday night, Lyric Opera of Chicago gave us a wonderful evening of vocalism in honoring Renée Fleming’s 25th anniversary at Lyric.
It’s been a rough winter in Chicago, and an especially rough one for lead singers at Lyric Opera of Chicago
Those of us who were hoping for “a star is born” performance were, alas, disappointed.
Of course, Stemme had the character’s frenzied fury at her father’s murderers in hand, but she had far more nuance—at times this Elektra was seductive, sympathetic, loving, even humorous in her bitterness.
Sondra Radvanovsky in a “Three Queens” concert and The Queen of Spades, plus three cycles of the Ring (senza Sondra) highlight Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2019-2020 season.
San Francisco Opera continues its competition with Lyric Opera of Chicago for the title of “World’s Dullest Opera Company.”
“We’ve realized that, actually, the status quo is not an option if we want to survive, let alone thrive.”
Jules Massenet’s version of the Cinderella fairy tale, Cendrillon, seems to be back in vogue after many years of obscurity.
If sheer clarion vocalism is what draws you to the opera, then hie thee to Lyric Opera of Chicago’s rousing revival Of Verdi’s Il Trovatore, the oddly plotted but musically sublime opera that opened last night in the David McVicar production, originally seen in 2006.
Director David Pountney and his splendid designers have brought Lyric Opera of Chicago a visually spectacular Siegfried full of daring ideas.
“Renée Fleming herself will sing, of course…”
Those readers who know my musical tastes will not be shocked to find that I have a somewhat conflicted view of Mozart’s operatic works.
Lyric Opera of Chicago resumed its season on Wednesday evening with the new-to-Chicago production of Puccini’s perennial audience pleaser La bohème.
The Chicago Federation of Musicians (CFM) Local #10-208 is striking against Lyric Opera of Chicago.
The Stars of Lyric Opera weren’t under the stars last night, prevented by a persistent cloud bank, but they nonetheless provided a stirring evening of music in Chicago’s Millennium Park.
Just a few years back it would have been seen as ridiculous to put “Lyric Opera of Chicago” and “Jesus Christ Superstar” in the same sentence.
I found Fellow Travelers intellectually and politically riveting, musically thrilling, and profoundly moving. It was a triumph.
The production is at all times visually arresting, but it’s also extremely distracting.
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