Category Archives: Uncategorized

Michelle Bradley is Lyric Opera’s AIDA, Chicago’s Favorite Opera

Not long after Aida premiered in Cairo on Christmas Eve of 1871, Verdi’s opera was playing in Chicago, first in April 0f 1885 and then in December 0f 1886. The first Chicago Grand Opera Festival under the sponsorship of the Chicago Opera Festival Organization, J.H. Mapleson manager, was billed as “Music for the People! The […]

VERDI’S THE FORCE OF DESTINY AT THE METROPOLITAN OPERA

The Force of Destiny was a Verdi opera unknown to me. I began my usual pre-performance routine. I read about Verdi’s life as he began writing the Force of Destiny . I read the play upon which the libretto is based. I then read the libretto and listened to a few audio recordings. I would […]

FINE ARTS BUILDING IN AMERICAN THEATRE HISTORY

The City of Chicago proclaimed Friday, October 13, as “Fine Arts Building Day” in recognition of its 125th anniversary year. The Fine Arts Building also played a significant role in the history of the American theater by hosting the landmark Chicago Little Theatre. When the Fine Arts Building opened in 1885 as a Studebaker automobile […]

DIRECTOR RE-WRITES FLYING DUTCHMAN

Director Terry McCabe has written brilliantly about the director’s historical obligation to a dramatic  text: “I believe the director’s job is to tell the playwright’s story as clearly and as interestingly as possible.”[i] The operas of Richard Wagner debuted in Chicago with Leonard B. Grover (1833-1926) whose company first performed a Wagnerian opera in the […]

IT’S MAHLER TIME !!

In 2016, the  British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) invited 150 of the world’s leading conductors to vote for what they considered the greatest symphonies ever written. Beethoven and Brahms — not surprisingly— had two each in the top ten. But three of those places were occupied by Gustav Mahler. Chicago seems to be experiencing  the  year […]