George and Ira Gershwin and Dubose Hayward’s “Porgy and Bess” is both a spectacle and a love story. It portrays a tight-knit community and a doomed couple, its focus careening back and forth between those opposite poles. Lyric Opera of Chicago brought that tale of African Americans on Catfish Row in South Carolina to pulsating […]
Take a break from your Thanksgiving preparations with these fun events. If you can believe it, it’s already time for another Christkindlmarket. Looking to shop closer to home? Don’t miss the Woman’s Club of Evanston’s Cornucopia Holiday Gift Show. You can also get in the holiday spirit with a mini road trip to see Illumination […]
On Nov. 1, celebrities like Jane Lynch, Renée Flemingand Ramsey Lewis convened in Chicago to celebrate 60 years of the Lyric Opera. But the party isn’t over. Northwestern’s Alice Millar Chapel will host the Lyric Opera Chorus on Nov. 22 for “A Wondrous Sound,” a concert filled with highlights from the company’s 60th anniversary season, […]
Vengeance! Passion! Kidnapping! Death! All this and more are on stage at the Lyric Opera of Chicago in its searing production of Giuseppe Verdi’s masterpiece “Il Trovatore,” which opened at the Civic Opera House the evening of Oct. 29. Never mind that the story is unbelievable; the drama is unmistakable. From the first drum rolls […]
Happy Halloween! Whether you’ve been planning your costume for months or got creative at the last minute with whatever was in your house, show off your work at Pinstripes’ costume contest. You can also satisfy your Halloween hunger at DMK Burger & Fish with their milkshake loaded with sweet treats. Although this weekend starts off […]
Voices make the opera, and “Don Giovanni,” Lyric Opera of Chicago’s opening production of its 60th season, had stellar vocal artists to spare. The title role in this Mozart masterpiece is sung by Polish baritone Mariusz Kwiecien, not only a powerful singer, but a formidable embodiment of the aristocrat whose womanizing ways lead to his […]
At a youthful 88, Lester Crown, chairman of Henry Crown & Company, proves that good guys really can finish first. He inherited an industrial empire from his up-by-the-bootstraps father, along with fine personal values like hard work and a love of family, community, religion and philanthropy. Crown gained enormous civic respect as he expanded […]
Opera is a terrific entertainment for all ages. Brilliant vocalism is the centerpiece, of course—opera is famous for its solo and ensemble singing—but it also incorporates thrilling choral and orchestral music, plus the visual stimulation of fabulous scenery and costumes, and the theatrical excitement of great acting, dancing, even sword-fighting. It’s all performed live, almost […]
Despite all the religious language in Richard Wagner’s final opera, “Parsifal” is about sex, or the renunciation thereof.
It’s hard to imagine a finer performance of “Oklahoma!” Lyric Opera of Chicago uses its world-class resources to give this production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway musical a perfect 70th anniversary presentation. It has solo voices that won’t quit, Lyric musicians in the pit and chorus members on the stage, a set that […]
