Review: Chicago Opera Theater’s Quamino’s Map Pulls the Curtain Back on Black Life in the Georgian Era
Quamino’s Map is the 22nd opera by the Belizean-born composer Errollyn Wallen who trained at the University of London and…
Dialogs: “Talking Race at the Opera” by the Chicago Humanities Festival
I gave high praise to Terence Blanchard’s opera Fire Shut Up in My Bones. The opening night performance at the…
Review: The Peculiar Grace of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones at Lyric Opera
My first opera was at age 10 when our parish priest took us to see La Boheme at the Lyric…
Review: Love Hurts So Good in Lyric’s Tosca
The voices! Soprano Michelle Bradley, making her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in the title role of Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca,…
Review: Lyric Opera’s The Magic Flute Is a Contemporary, Inventive Adaptation That Lets the Music Shine
The Magic Flute, a German opera by Mozart, first premiered in Vienna in 1791; Mozart himself conducted the orchestra that…
Review: Opera and Nas Mix with Hearing in Color’sUndying Love
Hearing in Color, a Fractured Atlas organization in collaboration with WFMT 98.7 FM, presented the chamber opera Undying Love on…
Review: Lyric Uncorks the Charm with The Elixir of Love
The two works that began Lyric Opera of Chicago’s 2021-22 season could hardly contrast more. The first opening, on September 17, was Giuseppe…
Review: Lyric’s Macbeth Delivers the Sound and Fury in Return to Live Performance
Lyric Opera of Chicago opened its 2021-22 comeback season September 17 with Giuseppe Verdi’s 1847 interpretation of William Shakespeare’s 1606…
Review: NU’s Virtual Opera Orfeo, Tie-Dyed-in-the-Wool Creativity
A young student approaches Northwestern University’s arts center at the beginning of Orfeo Remote, a thoroughly modernized, virtual interpretation of…
Review: Lyric’s The Queen of Spades, Tchaikovsky’s Punk Rock Opera
There are performances that play exactly to your sensibilities and provide you with thorough delight. There are others that may…
Review: Lyric Opera Revisits a Timeless, Thrilling Classic in Madama Butterfly
The Lyric Opera of Chicago first presented Puccini’s Madama Butterfly in 1955 (it made its world premiere in 1904); the version…
Review: Fall in Love in Italy This Holiday with The Light in the Piazza at Lyric Opera
“Mother, what happened here?” The innocent question that opens The Light in the Piazza has a loaded answer. Clara Johnson…
