Review: Lyric’s Carmen Features Strong Performances, But the Plot Can Be Troubling
Georges Bizet produced some of opera’s most memorable music for Carmen, his 1875 composition, set in Spain and sung in…
Review: Lyric Opera’s Hip-Hopera The Factotum Is a Cut Above
Barbershops and beauty salons are important cultural hubs for communities of color. “In my day, a barber was more than…
Review: Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel Is a Feast for the Senses at Lyric Opera
What do you get when you mix Englebert Humperdinck, a visual homage to German expressionism, Weimar decadence, and gorgeous singing?…
Review: Wonder of Wonders—Fiddler on the Roof at the Lyric Opera
Last year, the Lyric Opera presented a dazzling production of The Magic Flute originally conceived for Berlin’s Komische Oper by…
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’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…
2019 in Review: Our Favorite Nights at the Theater
This isn’t a “best theater of the year” list. As we’ve noted about past lists, we don’t see everything. Most…
Review: Fresh Talent and Palpable Energy Deliver a Can’t Miss West Side Story
At a typical (however one defines that) performance at Lyric Opera of Chicago, the accompanying program includes in each cast…
Review: Lyric’s La Traviata Offers Familiarity Through First-Rate Performances
As operas go, La Traviata is perhaps among the best known. Giuseppe Verdi’s adaptation (with a libretto by Francesco Maria Piave) of…
Review: Lyric’s Cendrillon Is a Fairy Tale That Dazzles and Delights
Whether it’s Rogers & Hammerstein, Disney, the Brothers Grimm or Charles Perrault, the story of Cinderella, her fairy godmother, the…
Review: La Divina Tells Her Own Story in Maria By Callas
I’ve attended more opera in the last year than I have in all my years of attending theater (and that’s…
