The more you know about opera, the more you’ll enjoy “The Second City Guide to the Opera,” now running at the Civic Opera House, through June 30. The show, presented by Lyric Unlimited, is so clever that even a passing acquaintance with the art form will have you laughing until it hurts. Four men and […]
How long is too long for an opera? Looking from the outside in at the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger Von Nurnberg,” even the most devoted fan might tremble at the thought of committing about five-and-a-half hours to one opera. Fear not. In every aspect, the singers, the musicians, the set […]
It is impossible to not fall under the spell of the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of “La Boheme” at the Civic Opera House.
Do not, I implore you, take younger children to see Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Humperdinck’s “Hansel und Gretel.” Perhaps middle schoolers upwards, but not the little ones. It is a frightening, occasionally grotesque staging of this fairy tale, which, full disclosure, I could never read to my own children because in the original […]
Full of comic characters enmeshed in concealed identities, secret trysts in the garden and one disastrous (fake) marriage, “Pasquale” plays out at the Civic Opera House with broad humor delivered in elegant taste. The title character is well into his 70s and wants Ernesto, his nephew and only heir, to wed a wealthy woman of […]
The deep, sad chords of the overture to Massenet’s “Werther” at Lyric Opera of Chicago were all we needed to hear. This opera, based on “The Sorrows of Young Werther” by Goethe, was going to be a tragedy. Lyric’s new production, however, is nothing of the sort. Yes, lives are lost and ruined in this […]
Lyric Opera of Chicago’s production of Giuseppe Verdi’s “Simon Boccanegra” is a masterpiece for the ages. It opened the evening of Monday, Oct. 16 and the Civic Opera House exploded with a house full of male voices of the highest caliber. The cast is a lineup of men at the top of their game. Led […]
“Elektra” seems a strange choice to open the season at Lyric Opera of Chicago. No arias, no beautiful costumes, no comic relief, just the intense suffering of this title character from the ancient Greek tragedy by Sophocles. Yet the company’s new production of Richard Strauss’s powerful 90-minute theater piece proves a stunning success. Opening night […]
Who would imagine that a Handel opera could be such fun? Lyric Opera opened a new production of the composer’s “Rinaldo” at the Civic Opera House, and the final opera in its 57th season is an extravaganza of music, drama, and plenty of side-splitting comedy! The story is slight. Crusader Rinaldo, sung gloriously by American […]
The Mississippi riverboat named the Cotton Blossom has docked on the stage of the Civic Opera House. “Show Boat,” the wonderful, ground-breaking 1927 American musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II, deserves a first-class presentation, and Lyric has given it just that with this lavish production, conducted by John DeMain. All the characters, under […]
