Past Performances
Iolanta
Chicago Opera Theater
Opera by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Based on the Danish play King René’s Daughter by Henrik Hertz
Libretto by Modest Tchaikovsky
A lush and beautifully crafted modern coming-of-age fantasy about love in all its forms. Iolanta is Tchaikovsky’s final opera, and features the composer at the height of his compositional prowess. It makes its Chicago premiere with direction by internationally acclaimed and award-winning director Paul Curran and under the baton of COT’s own Staley Music Director, Maestro Lidiya Yankovskaya.
A lesser known work than Tchaikovsky’s famous ballets or his opera house staple Eugene Onegin,Iolanta shares in Tchaikovsky’s rich tradition of lush orchestrations and glorious, lyrical melodies. Based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter (King René’s Daughter) by Henrik Hertz, Iolanta is a fairytale of love and enlightenment.
Performance dates: Sat. November 10th at 7:30PM; Thu. November 15th at 7:30PM; and Sun. November 18th at 3PM. Runs 100 minutes, no intermission (subject to change).
Performed in Russian with English supertitles.
The Perfect American
Chicago Opera Theater
Opera by Philip Glass
Based on the Book by Peter Stephan Jungk
Libretto by Rudolph Wurlitzer
Chicago Opera Theater presents The Perfect American, which takes us to the last three months of the legendary Walt Disney's life. Shuffling between the dreary present and memories of his iconic, American upbringing, Philip Glass fills in the spaces where the facts we know end. Disney is haunted by his own mortality, boundless ambition, and visionary empire. There is more to this icon than simply making dreams come true. With appearances by Abraham Lincoln, Andy Warhol, and Disney's family this whirlwind opera is a poetic and tragic story of the American Dream.
Performances on April 22nd at 7:30PM and April 30th at 3:00PM at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance. The Harris Theater is located in downtown Chicago at 205 East Randolph Street.
The Grapes of Wrath
Sugar Creek Opera Illinois - July 2016
An American Opera By Ricky Ian Gordon
Libretto by Michael Korie
Performed in English
By arrangement with Theodore Presser Company, representative for Carl Fischer LLC, publisher and copyright owner.
The Grapes of Wrath celebrates the strength, endurance and resilience of the American farm family. Set during the Great Depression, the story focuses on the Joads, a family of poor tenant farmers who are driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Finding themselves in a hopeless situation, the Joads set out for California, seeking jobs, land, dignity and a future.
Curlew River
Melbourne Opera’s second Culture Project, connecting opera with stories of social justice and humanitarian issues of our time, takes a Benjamin Britten Church Parable loosely based on a medieval Japanese Noh play and moulds to tell a modern tale, of a hypocritical, selfish society. Confronting the ill-treatment, abduction and death of a child, and reactions to grief-induced madness, to an exquisitely beautiful, gripping score for small chamber ensemble, we call into question society’s methods of coping with profound loss – loss of family, of house, of mind – and how we as a group treat those who think, act, or react to tragedy, differently from us.
An Afternoon at the Opera
The ML Orchestra and Gertrude Opera bring you an afternoon of selections from your favorite operas including La Traviata, Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville and Orpheus in the Underworld.
The Magic Flute
Gertrude Opera's new production of The Magic Flute may be a compact 80 minutes, but its makers come from far and wide. American mezzo-soprano Alissa Andraski plays Papagena in her Australian debut as part of a US-Australian international fellowship, while Sweden-based conductor Warwick Stengards will direct. The cast also includes performers born in Ukraine, Romania, Mexico and Australia. Gertrude Opera was named after the founder of Melbourne's first opera school in 1936, Gertrude Johnson, OBE, founded the Australian National Theatre Movement. The Magic Flute plays this November at The Athenaeum Theatre.
Royal Melbourne Philharmonic
Royal Melbourne Philharmonic Finalists - Aria Competition
“Expect to hear some of the most beautiful concert arias ever composed, performed by some of Australia’s emerging music stars. A gala evening not to be missed, which just gets better every year…” ARTSHUB
SUNDAY 10 AUGUST 2014 7pm Deakin Edge, Federation Square
Figatroll
Figatroll is a fun operatic experience for children and their families, loosely based on the Three Billy Goats Gruff, set to music from Bugs Bunny.
There is sibling quibbling in the Gruff household. Silly, Willy and Milly need to get to the Opera House on the other side of the bridge for an audition, but they are afraid of the 'dreadful' troll who lives underneath it. But the Figatroll might not actually be mean at all, if anyone bothered to get to know him. Learning the pitfalls of ill-informed opinions and pre-judgment, the Gruffs discover that they can depend on each other – and on their new friend.
The Consul
Written in 1950, The Consul is about a callous and indifferent bureaucracy whose refusal to treat like human beings the people desperately seeking visas is pointedly and disturbingly reminiscent of Australia’s refugee policy.
A young mother whose husband is fleeing the secret police needs a visa for the family to leave. Her mother and baby die, her husband is captured and she kills herself. Through it all, the consul’s secretary carries on, indifferent.
