Keith Conant: Longtime violist with Lyric Opera Orchestra
September 21, 2011
His many friends and colleagues in the Chicago musical community remember Keith Conant as a superb and dedicated musician whose gentle soul shone through his performances.
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Ludwig rocks! Inaugural fest a barrier-blasting banquet of Beethoven (and others)
September 20, 2011
The music of Ludwig van Beethoven has been inextricably woven into the standard classical repertory for so long that it's easy to take that music for granted. Indeed, Beethoven cycles and festivals built around his music have become commonplace in an era when the German master's very name strikes joy in the hearts of beleaguered marketing directors.
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Sinfonietta's new maestra makes diversity her mantra
September 20, 2011
In early August, just days into her first week on the job, Mei-Ann Chen was doing a breathless listening tour around Chicago.
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From Muti to Mussorgsky, an eventful season
September 16, 2011
Autumn is when Chicago's classical music organizations put some of their fanciest wares on the market. More presenters are doing so than ever, leaving audience members to face an ever more bewildering array of choices. Which events you opt to attend will, of course, depend on your artistic tastes, time, budget and other factors. May the following, admittedly personal, selection of fall classical highlights guide you in the right directions.
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Classical recording is alive and well – just ask Chicago musicians
September 14, 2011
With the major classical labels having virtually ceased making recordings in Chicago, it's good to see local classical musicians taking charge of their own destinies on disc, with a little help from their friends at several small, indie recording companies. Several worthy new CD releases suggest the prognosticators of gloom and doom were wrong.
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Lyric, Merit School partnership aims to foster new voices
September 12, 2011
Nine months ago, when Lyric Opera named Renee Fleming to its newly created post of creative consultant, the superstar soprano excitedly outlined a broad agenda of plans she had for the company, including creating new projects, expanding the Lyric's education program and collaborating with other Chicago arts organizations and music schools.
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Passion's in the mantra, music at Lyric sampler
September 12, 2011
It's a new era and a whole new ballgame at Lyric Opera of Chicago. And passion is Lyric's big pitch.
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Haymarket Opera Company makes stylish debut with Handel rarity
September 11, 2011
Many opera-goers know Handel's delightful pastoral, "Acis and Galatea," composed for an outdoor performance in England in 1718. But how many also know its precursor, "Aci, Galatea e Polifemo" ("Acis, Galatea and Polyphemus"), a lengthy serenade cum cantata Handel wrote for a wedding in Naples 10 years earlier?
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Lyric's new ads reach out to the wary
September 8, 2011
Lyric Opera of Chicago is pumping more passion into its sales pitches.
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For Paul Winberg, taking up executive post at Grant Park is a homecoming
September 6, 2011
Given the inert economy, nonprofit performing arts organizations looking to fill top leadership positions are honing in ever more zealously on candidates with exceptional track records in marketing and development. Lyric Opera's recent appointment of Anthony Freud of the Houston Grand Opera as its new general director is one example. The Grant Park Music Festival's appointment of Paul Winberg as its new executive director is another.
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Muti bids arrivederci to opera in Salzburg with superior Verdi 'Macbeth'
August 30, 2011
SALZBURG, Austria – The Salzburg Festival, the toniest of the big European summer arts festivals, has long traded on the world's top starpower. No more gleaming stars of classical music illuminated Mozart's town this month than Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, although opera, theater and many concerts and recitals also packed the season, which ended on Tuesday.
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Conquering Continent a proud CSO tradition
August 19, 2011
For decades, overseas touring has been a strategic element for American symphony orchestras seeking to fortify their international reputations and strengthen their support bases back home.
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Lyric Opera musicians contract accord
August 18, 2011
Lyric Opera of Chicago and the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) reached tentative agreement Tuesday night on a contract for the 2011-12 season. No details of the settlement were forthcoming.
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Haymarket Opera to address need for a 'period' opera company in Chicago
August 16, 2011
How does it happen that a city now widely recognized as the Midwest hub for historically informed performances by period instrumentalists has done next to nothing on behalf of "period" opera?
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Union threatens Lyric Opera with strike
August 13, 2011
The union representing the principal singers, chorus members, dancers, actors and production staff at Lyric Opera of Chicago has sent a letter to its members warning them to "be prepared for an opening night strike" on Oct. 1, when the company is scheduled to open its season with a gala performance of Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann."
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Philharmonia Baroque handles 'Orlando'
August 13, 2011
Despite ongoing, well-meaning efforts, Chicago has yet to establish a period instruments orchestra that can rival the best national and international brands. So visits here by such ensembles as the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra can be inspirational, showing local musicians what can be done with applied talent and perseverance.
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Five-pianist concerto makes an enjoyable premiere at Ravinia
August 11, 2011
This is the week when the Ravinia incarnation of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra gets down with the worlds of pop and crossover.
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Conductor McGegan brings Handel's Orlando to Ravinia
August 10, 2011
Of the conductors who bestride the realms of modern and period orchestral performance, Nicholas McGegan may truly be said to command the best of both worlds. Players in modern orchestras welcome his refreshingly nondogmatic approach to obtaining the results he wants, while members of the period-instrument ensembles he directs appreciate the many insights into the Baroque and Classical styles he brings to their collaborations.
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Tweets, texts not for everyone in arts world
August 8, 2011
Like performing arts organizations everywhere else, the heavy hitters of classical music in Chicago are desperately seeking new ways to connect with wired younger audiences and lure them into concert halls and opera houses to fill vacant seats.
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For Ryan Center diva and divo wannabes, it's 'Lyric-palooza'
August 8, 2011
The Grant Park Orchestra went underground over the weekend when it presented its annual vocal showcase for members of Lyric Opera's professional artist development program, the Ryan Opera Center. A large, enthusiastic audience Friday at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance was treated to a classical alternative to Lollapalooza just across the way. Call it Lyric-palooza.
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Mahler cycle gets choral kick in finale
August 6, 2011
For his contribution to the worldwide observance of the centenary of Gustav Mahler's death, James Conlon ended at the beginning. Which is to say the music director wrapped up his Ravinia cycle of the Mahler symphonies Thursday night with a vividly dramatic account of "Das klagende Lied" ("The Song of Lamentation"), the first Mahler score the composer found worthy of preservation.
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Bryn Terfel's artful song recital captivates at Ravinia
August 4, 2011
Bryn Terfel can command a stage whether he's thundering as Wotan, king of the Wagnerian gods, in "Die Walkure," or singing a lullaby from his native Wales.
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He's the hottest young composer around. But catching Nico Muhly isn't easy.
August 2, 2011
Nico Muhly apologized for missing our phone interview. By an entire day, as it turned out.
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Singers, CSO deliver thrilling 'Tosca'
August 1, 2011
Riccardo Muti may claim the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as his prized operatic "pit band" during the downtown season, but the privilege of employing the orchestra in concert guise during the Ravinia season reverts to its summer music director, James Conlon. These Conlon-led opera performances are invariably among the highlights of the hot-weather months here, giving the CSO a chance to kick back in repertory it doesn't get to play very often.
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Epic 'Kullervo' brings bracing gust of icy Nordic air to Grant Park
July 30, 2011
"Kullervo" represents a side of Jean Sibelius' output few American listeners know. Completed in 1892 and based on the Finnish mythology known as the Kalevala (a source of inspiration throughout his life), this early, five-movement work is less a symphony than a series of symphonic poems, with a cantata embedded in the middle. Because Sibelius forbade performances during his lifetime, the piece had to wait until 1958, the year after his death, to receive its premiere.
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Muti book a compelling saga of a rich life lived in music
July 27, 2011
As he approaches his 70th birthday on Thursday, Riccardo Muti is entering a phase of his international career in which consolidation is the keynote. After a half-century in music, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director feels the time has come to focus on priorities.
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Conlon, CSO rock Ravinia with Rachmaninov rarities
July 23, 2011
Rachmaninov can always be relied upon to lure warm bodies into concert venues, especially in the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. True to that formula, James Conlon trotted out one of the composer's greatest hits, the "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini," to provide a glittering finish to his concert with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Thursday night at Ravinia.
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For Grant Park chorus master Bell, it's 10 productive years -- and counting
July 19, 2011
Amid a hectic transatlantic schedule that has Christopher Bell shuttling each season between engagements in the United Kingdom and Chicago, he looks forward to the balm of summers spent working with his Grant Park Chorus. This year he is celebrating his 10th year as its director, and the milestone finds him brimming with all the enthusiasm of a proud parent.
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Voigt bows out of Lyric's 'Ariadne'
July 18, 2011
Soprano Deborah Voigt has withdrawn from the title role in Lyric Opera's revival of Richard Strauss' "Ariadne auf Naxos" and will be replaced by Amber Wagner for all six performances beginning Nov. 19 at the Civic Opera House.
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Obscure operetta a Turkish delight
July 17, 2011
Chicago Folks Operetta has never met a forgotten operetta it doesn't like. Or so it would seem. Last summer the enterprising troupe treated "Arizona Lady," a singing-cowboy rarity by Hungarian composer Emmerich Kalman, to its belated American premiere.
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Dohnanyi, Ax and the CSO produce Brahmsian splendor at Ravinia concerts
July 17, 2011
With a couple of exceptions, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's residency weeks at Ravinia this summer are not notable for blockbuster events. Even so, festival audiences heard two really extraordinary concerts over the weekend, when Christoph von Dohnanyi returned to the Highland Park pleasure dome to conduct the CSO in two all-Brahms programs.
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Lisztomania: Bicentenary calls for celebration but also shucking of prejudices
July 12, 2011
Will the real Franz Liszt please stand up?
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At Ravinia, Voigt falls short of past vocal glories
July 10, 2011
One of the inalienable rights of being an operatic diva is being able to call your musical shots just about anywhere. Take Deborah Voigt, for example.
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It's 'Liszt Vegas' as superstar Lang Lang wows Ravinia crowd at CSO summer opener
July 9, 2011
It seemed only fitting that Ravinia's summer-long celebration of the bicentennial of the birth of the 19th century's most eminent showman of the piano, Franz Liszt, should get its orchestral baptism by today's most eminent showman of the piano, Lang Lang.
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Glass ceiling not a barrier to rising young conductor Alondra de la Parra
July 5, 2011
With so many gifted women conductors of almost every nationality shattering the glass ceiling in recent decades, it's no longer a novelty for female musicians to hold major leadership positions with symphony orchestras, opera companies and schools of music, here and around the world.
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Bell fiddles up a storm at Ravinia; Mahler soars at Grant Park
July 3, 2011
By happy coincidence, Chicago's two major summer classical music festivals were celebrating 100th anniversaries over the weekend. For the Grant Park Music Festival, it was the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler's death. For Ravinia, it was the centenary of the founding of Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, which sent its Summer Festival Orchestra and one of its star alumni, violinist Joshua Bell, to Highland Park.
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Wagner's mighty 'Ring' comes full cycle in San Francisco
June 28, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO – The everlasting work is done, to quote Wotan, the power-hungry king of the gods, in Richard Wagner's "Der Ring des Nibelungen" ("The Ring of the Nibelung").