Music by Giuseppe Verdi

Libretto by Antonio Ghidlanzoni

Conductor Renato Palumbo

Director Matthew Lata

Choreographer Kenneth Von Heidecke

At the Lyric Opera Chicago

Dazzling spectacle with exotic dance inhabits Verdi’s  masterpiece

I have only seen Aida once many years ago and I must say that the production now playing at the Lyric Opera of Chicago not only sings great and sounds terrific but it contains fabulous dancing (choreographed by Kenneth Von Heidecke).  Verdi was commissioned by the Egyptian King to write an opera that premiered at the Cairo opera house in 1871.  Contrary to popular belief, the opera was not written to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869.

Aida is an amazing spectacle containing a long victorious scene complete with lavish colorful costumes, exotic dances and a haunting march. But as much as Aida is spectacle it also is an intimate four characters  opera focusing on Aida (Sondra Radvanovsky) – an Ethiopian slave and her father Amonasro (Gordon Hawkins) – the King of Ethopia and a prisoner of war; Amneris (Jill Grove) – the daughter of the Egyptian King and Radames (Marcello Giordan) – an Egyptian warrior.  Verdi uses melodious duets to tell the story of forbidden love, heartache and betrayal. The result is a evening of grandeur, eye-popping visuals and grand performances.

Besides Verdi brilliant score,  the voices sing with passionate emotions. Tenor Marcello Giordani commands the stage and soars to the heavens while Sondra Radvanovsky – a Chicago native- raises to the demanding role of Aida. She triumphs in her first time as Aida at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. The audience cheered her performance!  Jill Grove’s mezzo effectively demonstrated Amneris’ heartache and Gordon Hwkins strong baritone rules his scenes.

Add the sensually vivid  dance and the splendid chorus work and the Lyric Opera’s Aida becomes an overwhelming thrilling evening of opera. I’ll have to move up Aida on to my list of all-time favorites. See this stunning production and you’ll agree.

Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast

Date Reviewed: January 25, 2012

For more info checkout the Aida page on theatreinchicago.com

The Magic Flute by Mozart at the Lyric Opera of Chicago

Composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder

and Carl Ludwig Giesecke

Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis

Directed by Matthew Lata

“Without music, life would be a mistake.”

Die Zauberflöte is easily one of the most-performed and most-beloved of all operas.  It is instantly recognizable and often serves as a “gateway opera”: the first opera one sees before getting into the more “hardcore” operas, the white ponies and nose-candy operas like Carmen and Tristan; The Magic Flute leaves you with that euphoric, mellow high that leaves you wanting more, wondering what else is out there and why you haven’t tried it yet.

And for such a purpose the Lyric has served up a choice bag.  Charles Castronovo is fantastic as the lead, Tamino, the lovesick, noble Prince who seeks wisdom and his beloved Pamina (Nicole Cabell, also wonderful).  Papageno, played excellently by Stéphane Degout, stands in as Mozart’s playful clown, the commoner who is unable to obtain wisdom and wants only food and drink, but whose charisma is unparalleled.  Rodell Rosel, whom we recently saw playing the three butlers in Tales of Hoffman, here is Monostatos, the slavish overseer of the monolithically just Sarastro (Günther Groissböck), head of the order who worship Isis and Osiris.

Both put in admirable performances.  The three ladies under the Queen’s command, Elisabeth Meister, Cecelia Hall and Katherine Lerner were all spot-on comediennes with impeccable voices, and the three boys, Anna Stephan, Benjamin Hoppe and Nicole Horio were both impressive and adorable.  The Queen of the Night, Audrey Luna, put in a solid performance as well, hitting all the notes of one of opera’s most notoriously difficult arias – though she was not perfect and occasionally felt a bit shrill.

And the production is very impressive.  The sets are gorgeous, the costumes beautiful (although the animal costumes were apparently reused from the Lyric’s ’86-’87 season – which means they’re about as old as I am and show considerably less wear).  That said, this is at times a very difficult opera, musically, and there were moments when the chorus and the orchestra were not in sync.  I hope, though, that things like this will be corrected in future performances.  I imagine words are had when something like that occurs.

For those of us either unfamiliar or who hold only cursory knowledge of the opera, it’s sort of Mozart’s musical comedy.  Overall it’s quite light and the morality of it is somewhat ham-handed, if classic: typical Sun vs. Moon, Light vs. Dark, Wisdom vs. Ignorance sort of stuff.  Maybe (though not necessarily) some references to Free Masonry in there.

This is Mozart’s opera for das Volk.  It’s meant to have something in it for everybody: spectacle and humor for the commoners, elegance and a strong moral compass for the elite; as such, it truly is a wonderful opera for neophytes.  It has both relatively simple music (much of Papageno’s fare) as well as some truly breathtaking virtuosic moments (the aforementioned aria of the Queen, “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen”).  And as Mozart is truly the master of melody and countermelody, everything is a joy to listen to.  So, if you’re a grizzled opera veteran, it will be fun to go back to the tried-and-true basics; and if you’re trying to get someone hooked on one of the most enjoyable and most expensive drugs du jour, this would be an excellent place to start.

Highly Recommended

Will Fink

Date Reviewed: December 8, 2011

For more info, checkout The Magic Flute page on Theatreinchicago.com

Spring Awakening

Book and Lyrics by Steven Sater

Music by Duncan Sheik

Based on the play by Frank Wedekind

Directed by Jonathan Berry

Musical direction by Allison Kane

Choreography by Nicole Pellegrino

Produced by Griffin Theater Company

Whatever is done from love occurs always beyond good and evil
– Friedrich Nietzsche

My feelings about this play are fairly well-documented.  To put it succinctly: I’m not a huge fan of the material.  That said, this production was far more endearing – and overall successful – than the previous Broadway in Chicago venture.  They made the material work better for them than their touring counterparts.  And to a surprising degree.  This troupe really found the comic moments between the words; they had great timing and used space very well.

These characters were more fleshed- and thought-out, more flesh and blood.  Melchior (Josh Salt), the smooth-talker, the seducer, the smart, handsome, godless grinner may know a lot about women, may be the only one in his class who really knows the nuts and bolts of sex; but that doesn’t stop him from being horrendously nervous around a girl he actually likes.  This lends him an innocence and a naiveté – and a lack of malice.  He is not scheming, he is not simply trying to get into Wendla’s (Aja Wiltshire) pants: his goal is not merely sexual gratification.  This is diametrically opposed, I believe, to what BiC did with his decisions regarding Wendla, and it makes the play so much more whole this way.  Melchior says that he doesn’t believe in love, but his actions betray him.  This is altogether a much more well-thought-out production of the play.  I barely noticed my main critique of the musical – i.e. the hayloft scene between Melchior and Wendla; indeed, though the words still weren’t there, the acting and emotion stood in for them.  That is something I greatly appreciated.

You might notice that I’m focusing on Melchior and Wendla a lot; it’s not just because they’re the two largest roles.  They were also stand-out actors.  And though Salt’s voice could have been stronger, I really had no problem with him because he could act so well – and sing well enough, anyway.  Almost the entire ensemble is very strong.  Some were better than others – Vanessa Greenway, Larry Baldacci (as the adults in the piece), Paige Collins, Adam Fane, and Harter Clingman (Martha, Hänschen and Georg, respectively) all put in absolutely sturdy performances.  Indeed, the only person with whom I was somewhat disappointed was Matthew Fletcher’s Moritz: his was a very high-energy performance, but it seemed like he didn’t know how to channel that well, so it ended up largely diffused.  But god knows it was enthusiastic.

The costumes and lighting are also really great.  The adults’ costumes are all very austere and period-appropriate, whereas the kids have a mishmash of Victorian and modern elements – including Converse and dyed hair.  But since they’re singing into a microphone anyway, it really works.  It enhances the divide between the generations.  The sound left something to be desired – but the mixing will get better with time.  The band is great, very tight.  The set was nice, as well, consisting mostly of scaffolding, giving the stage a stifling, industrial, yet wide-open feel.  This isn’t a pitch-perfect production; there are awkward moments, some slightly shoddy acting (but really only a little), and I have a couple reservations (for instance, I’m not sure bringing the entire cast out in white at the end of the play diminishes the achieved purity of the now-dead Moritz and Wendla); but overall it’s a great production.  It’s still not my favorite piece of theatre, but Griffin does it very well, and they deserve recognition for that.

Recommended

Will Fink

Reviewed on 12.4.11

For full show information, visit TheatreInChicago.

At Theater Wit, 1229 W Belmont Ave., Chicago, IL; for tickets visit www.theaterwit.org or call 773-975-8150; tickets $28-38; performances Thu.-Sat. at 7:30, Sun. at 3pm through Jan. 8; running time 2hrs 20min.

Ariadne auf Naxos

Composed by Richard Strauss

Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal

Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis

Directed by John Cox

At the Lyric Opera, Chicago

O, you boy, you child, you almighty god!

Ariadne auf Naxos is anything but a typical opera.  It is in one act with a prologue and is relatively on the short side.  The prologue is actually set back stage of the opera in a Viennese noble’s house; it is he who is patronizing the opera, putting it on in his house after dinner, to be followed by an Italian opera buffo troupe and then fireworks.

Really what this opera is, is Richard Strauss showing off: he is demonstrating his handle of the history of opera, his handle of the various styles of opera and his ability to imitate them, as well as his general compositional virtuosity – which he always does.  The “opera proper,” so to speak – that is, the Ariadne auf Naxos that is to be performed in the noble’s home – is very serious, filled with moralizing and tragedy and emotion; which is to say, rather Wagnerian.  And the Italian opera troupe is to perform “Zerbinetta and her Four Lovers,” a typical buffo with stock characters; that is, very Italian, but also with a nod to Mozart.  Well, the noble has decided – as the uncultured superrich so often do – to change things at the last minute to suit his whims, and has come up with something wholly unreasonable: both pieces are to be performed simultaneously, and perfectly timed to end coinciding with the beginning of the fireworks (at 9:30, precisely).  This sends the Composer (Alice Coote) into a tizzy, but he is calmed down by the clever Zerbinetta (Anna Christy), who assures him all art goes through trials like this, and whose comic troupe is used to improvising.  The Composer – all too late – has also been inspired and composed a new line, a beautiful, soaring melody: “O du Knabe, du Kind, du allmächtiger Gott!” (which is really just Strauss showing off).  And so, after an intermission, the opera begins.

Ariadne is stranded on an island, wishing only for death.  Three Nymphs try to protect her and cheer her, but they are unable; despair and desolation are sinking in.  It is at this time that Zerbinetta and her four lovers land on the island, determined to cheer Ariadne up – to no avail.  Zerbinetta, in a classic and absolutely magnificent tour de force aria, Großmächtige Prinzessin, attempts to enliven Ariadne by pointing out that all women suffer the same fate under men, and so one must simply allow several to pursue you at once, thereby undermining the game they play.  It is amazing the depths of sorrow she expresses, and how she transforms that into great joy.  She, too, is unsuccessful, however, at moving Ariadne; and so she instead begins her own story of the Four Lovers, a very light piece yet very studied – that is, Strauss composes in the style of the comic opera exactly.  Afterwards, Bacchus arrives, having escaped Circe, and falls in love with Ariadne.  He realizes the extent of his deific powers because of her, and they sail off together, happy.

The story of Ariadne mirrors the theme of the overall play: namely, that when comedy is set side-by-side with tragedy, it will win; if Mozart were to face Wagner, Mozart would triumph simply by default; and Dionysus will prevail.  Strauss surely had the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy in mind when he wrote this piece – after all, he is the composer of Also Sprach Zarathustra – and it shows.  There is such interplay between comedy and tragedy – two sides of the same Dionysian coin – and between Apollonian form and structure and Dionysian chaos.  Strauss’ Ariadne is far from a typical opera, and far from typical Strauss: it has a fairly small orchestra, closer to what Mozart would use than Wagner.  It is light and airy and jokey, but it is also an intellectual piece, a satire that makes fun of overserious opera, of the very wealthy, of the self-absorbed composer.  It is a rich and wonderful work, and the Lyric presents it with deft direction, beautiful sets and costumes, and excellent execution.

Highly Recommended

Will Fink

Reviewed on 11.22

For full show information, visit TheatreInChicago.

At the Lyric Opera, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL; call 312-332-2244, www.lyricopera.org; tickets $34-$239, through Dec. 11, 2011.  Running time is 2 1/2 hours.

Lykke Li

At the Vic Theatre, Chicago

Music that makes you fall in love with the pain love brings

About midway through Lykke Li’s set, when the cocaine starts to wear off, when your buzz is leaving you because you can’t afford the stupid amount it costs to buy a Bud Light and you forgot your flask, when you start to be able to see through the marijuana haze in your head again, you are left intoxicated only by her music.  And, really, that’s all you ever needed.  Lykke Li’s dark, ambient folk-pop cradles you in a loving, mournful embrace.  It’s music that makes you want to hold someone.  Just hold them in the dark with your eyes closed, losing yourself in the music and in the warmth of their body.

She walked onto the stage swathed in sheer black, with matching black drapes hanging from the rafters, drifting through the smoke and light like a raven: cunning, cocksure, alluring.  Immediately the deep thundering of bass toms filled the room, as if Glasvegas were playing a rave in Detroit.  The sound of electric organ floated through the air and an acoustic guitar brought an earthiness that grounded the otherwise largely electronic aesthetic.  Then Lykke Li opened her mouth and it sounded as if Fiona Apple met Joan of Arc on the stake.  Her pain isn’t the deeply damaged and broken pain of Apple; it’s the pain of constant disappointment, of hope and love being trampled by loss and lust.  She’s distilled the ambience of The Cure and Joy Division and combined it with the stadium sensibilities of the aforementioned Glasvegas, but kept her own pop sensibilities and self-identity.  Her songs may have a passing resemblance to other groups, but they sound like Lykke Li – make no mistake.

At one point the rest of the band walked offstage, leaving Li alone with an autoharp.  She started a song softly, immediately creating an intimacy with the audience; slowly, one by one, the rest of the band joined her, each adding their own presence in the soundscape.  By the end there was a conviviality that captured the entire venue.  The group followed this up with a fantastic, melancholy cover of “Unchained Melody,” made famous by The Righteous Brothers.  She held the entire room in the palm of her hand.  Indeed, it’s an apt cover: Phil Spector produced that song, using his ingenious Wall of Sound technique; Spector was clearly an influence on Li, as she creates that same Wall so well in each of her songs.  After that classic, everything but the drums dropped out and she danced animalistically, overwhelmed by primordial urgency.  The beat transitioned into a barnburner - pounding bass, immense, dance-floor convulsions, sex dripping from the ceiling.  “Like a shotgun needs an outcome,” she growls from a place so deep it seems to come from her loins, “I’m your prostitute, you gon’ get some.”  This is the most obviously salacious track, and comes closer than anything else to the sheer sexuality of Jeff Buckley – though in an utterly different way.  The juxtaposition of the intense sensuality of this piece to the mournful sentimentality of the tune that preceded it makes each song all the more striking.

Another part of her music that is absolutely arresting is the harmonies.  They are all beautiful, with some very much grounded in the pop vocabulary.  But far more often they ring out like Gregorian chants, resonating through the room like hooded figures reaching for the heavens. They are harmonies felt in your chest, augmented by the deep, full sounds from the drums and bass and organ.  These pious harmonies make one feel holy, enwrapped and enraptured by the sound of God.

At some point the band thanks the audience and walks off stage.  After much applause and aplomb, they slowly ease back in sight of the spectators.  “I don’t want to get the reputation of being easy,” Lykke Li bashfully grins.  “I love you, Chicago!  Do you love me?” she implores.  Cheers ring out.  “I know the perfect song for this,” and she launches into “Unrequited Love.”  “Oh, our love has been divided / Oh, my love is unrequited,” she mourns, the band offering harmonies that would make grown men weep, melodies learned from the saddest of country and bluegrass songs – and few songs are sadder.  Thanking the audience sincerely once again, the band float off, leaving their laments ringing through the air.

Highly recommended

For upcoming tour information, go to her site.

Futher Information:
Online-Colleges.org is a great resource for finding music courses.

Boris Godunov

Composed by Modest Mussorgsky

Libretto by the composer, based on Alexander Pushkin’s play

Conducted by Sir Andrew Davis

Directed by Julia Pevzner

It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls (Not an opera about Moose and Squirrel)

Modest Mussorgky’s only completed opera is not for the faint of heart; it is not for those who like the Italians and nothing else, the lyrical, the symphonic, the easy ones.  Boris Godunov is a difficult piece, at once crass and deep, with, on the one hand, somewhat technically amateurish composition, and, on the other, incredible insight into not only how to musically convey the moods of the characters but how to convey the chaos and horror around them.  The music is cacophonous.  And yet brilliant in its cacophony.  And certainly the music was novel and anticipates composers from the Eastern Bloc such as Igor Stravinsky (whose father was one of the conductors of the opera) and Dmitri Shostakovich (who retooled the orchestration of the opera himself).

Boris tells the story, based on Pushkin’s play, of the Russian Czar Boris Fyodorovich Godunov, who ruled from 1598-1605 after the murder of the prince under mysterious circumstances.  Indeed, we ourselves are never sure – really, truly sure – that it was Boris who ordered the child to be killed.  Which is to say, there is some small room for doubt.  And he did want to be a great ruler for his people: his empathy for them is unwavering.  As is his cluelessness: the opera opens with peasants being forced by bardiche-bearing men to cry out, pleading for Boris to take the throne.  He later laments that, though he has treated his people well, they think all of their ills are his fault.  Yet his people are still unutterably poor and starving.  He believes he has treated them better than they have actually been treated – partially because of the police officers and boyars.

And some of the players are outstanding.  First and foremost, everyone is talking about Ferruccio Furlanetto’s performance as Boris; and rightfully so: it seems cliché to say at this point, but he captures the role beautifully.  His descent into madness is saddening, but his retained humanity touching.  And the expressiveness of his voice is simply remarkable.  Also enjoyed Erik Nelson Werner’s portrayal of Grigori, the young monk who decides to usurp Boris’ rule, as well as the only real moment of levity in the piece granted by the fallen monk Varlaam, playfully portrayed by Raymond Aceto.  And Edward Mout’s Holy Fool is haunting.

The production is very good, as well.  The costumes are beautiful, particularly Boris’ (although at one point I didn’t care for a particular shirt), and the set’s highly raked stage extending into the rafters is exactly the kind of ingenuity I like to see.  The Holy Fool’s costume and makeup design are also notable, reminiscent of Death from The Seventh Seal.  Although I admit that I myself did not find Boris as compelling as the previous two operas I had seen at the Lyric, it is also a piece that, it seems to me, would do well with further fermentation and revisitings.  Indeed, I’ve little doubt that I would enjoy it more the second time round.

Highly recommended

Will Fink

Reviewed on 11.11.11

At the Lyric Opera, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL; call 312-332-2244, www.lyricopera.org; tickets $33-$194, through November 29, 2011.  Running time is 2 1/2 hours.

Eye Inside: The Rock-n-Roll Allegory of Vance Barrett

Written & Composed by Sam Quinn

Directed by Amelia Turner

Produced by BioPhiliac Productions

At the Viaduct Theatre, Chicago

Oh, I’ll be a good boy / Please make me well / I’ll promise you anything / Get me out of this hell

Eye Inside is a blatantly great concept.  It’s – okay, it kind of sounds chintzy at first glance – it’s about an evil agent who takes uniformly good-spirited and magnanimous actors and turns them into fame-whores and coke-fiends.  He is a corrupter of the pure.  But, honestly, making a rock opera out of the subject – and I’m selling it short, it’s far trippier than that sound-bite summation – well, it just makes sense.  Really, the agent may or may not have sold his soul to the devil, and delivers the souls of the pure to him; he seems to have some power over others’ dreams (both literal dreams and, naturally, their aspirations) and the frame of the story takes place in the mental asylum he’s now locked in.  The cast of characters include a struggling actress, an actor who wants to change the world through the silver screen, a sort-of-adopted daughter, a clown who’s always on the brown horse, and three nightmarish figures roaming the scenery.  And that’s just for starters.

The lead character is the agent, Vance Barrett, played by writer and co-creator Sam Quinn, who nabs his name from Syd of Pink Floyd but more closely resembles the Sid of Sid ‘n’ Nancy.  The story of the play is really his fall from grace: he goes from being the top agent in Hollywood to bound in a straightjacket, tortured by his own inner demons and his past.  He takes Jeremiah Humble (Ethan Link), a talented actor and son of Barrett’s former partner James as a client.  James, we find out, died a few years back, under quite sad circumstances.  Brandy Barrett, Vance’s adopted daughter, reels Jeremiah in, but also genuinely likes him.

But let’s not get too bogged down in the story.  Not that it’s not important, it’s just that there’s so much more to this piece.  The design, for one, done by Amelia Turner and Joe Sanchez, which is properly dark and distorted; Joey Brennan’s lights are also decidedly effective; and the costumes by Nevena Todorovic are fantastic – particularly Vance’s, but the costumes all around are well thought-out and sometimes exceedingly clever.  This is also a multi-media presentation, with a few scenes using cinema, and quite effectively.  Whether it’s a scene in a dark office between Vance and partner James or simply atmospheric, the screen in the corner of the set is used very effectively.

The musicians (i.e. The Pawns) are fantastic, too, with, firstly, a very, very solid rhythm section comprising of Cole Burns on the drums and Adam Gross playing bass.  That’s rounded out by Jeffrey Levin on the keys, Kara Poe playing violin, Noah Appelbaum on the guitar, and Andrew Taylor on guitar and blues harp.  The music is good, too.  It sometimes wears its influences on its sleeve, but mostly it’s solid American alt.rock / pop.  The lyrics are sometimes a little lost in the mix, though – and sometimes they’re not that great.  Sort of a little too obvious, occasionally.  This may be a personal problem: I like my rock lyricists of the Dylan / Morrissey / Doherty variety, so maybe a musical just needs more literal lyrics to lead it along.  But I still think they could do better.

In fact, I think that’s basically the case for the whole show.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s clearly a labor of love, and it’s wonderfully conceived; but I think it could use more work.  Honestly, if they hammer the hell out of this thing, if they work really hard, I could see this being a very big musical someday.  But it’s not there yet.  And I’m not saying that to disparage or tear down; I’m saying that because I believe in the work they’re doing.  It’s good.  But if they want to really succeed, they’re going to have to buckle down a little more.

Which is far from saying that this show isn’t worth seeing.  Honestly, Andrew Taylor’s almost makes the show worth a trip in and of itself.  He’s incredibly expressive and perfectly minimalist – not unlike, and part of me can’t believe I’m going to draw this comparison, Bill Murray in his Lost in Translation / Broken Flowers / etc. phase.  Plenty of other people are compelling: Brian Barber gives a great performance in his role as one of the Voices (the ones inside Vance’s head), and both Ethan Link and Aileen May provide solid performances, with the latter also owning a hell of a voice.

This is a highly conceptualized show.  The ideas are very, very big.  And this production does a good job reaching for them.  But it does need a lot of nuts-and-bolts work.  That said, if you want to see an innovative and interesting work in its infancy first production – of what will surely be many more, after a sharp rewriting – this is a great opportunity.  Going to this would be like seeing the original Grease: there are some kinks to work out, but the basis and ideas are there.  And someday, it’s liable to hit.

Somewhat recommended

Will Fink

Reviewed on 10.23.11

For full show information, visit TheatreInChicago.

At the Viaduct Theatre, 3111 N. Western Avenue Chicago; for tickets visit go here, $12-$20; performances Thursday-Saturday at 8:30, Sunday at 7pm; through Nov. 6.

Lucia di Lammermoor

Composed by Gaetano Donizetti

Libretto by Salvatore Cammarano

Based on Sir Walter Scott’s The Bride of Lammermoor

Conducted by Massimo Zanetti

Directed by Catherine Malfitano

At the Lyric Opera, Chicago in a New Production

And thou art dead, as young and fair as aught of mortal birth

British Romanticism was contagious in the 19^th Century, infecting the whole of Europe with the bug of Byron.  Italy was no exception, as the interest in the far-off and mystical land of Scotland shows.  Lucia di Lammermoor, based on a novel by Sir Walter Scott, presents a fantastical story of ghostly visions and deception and love and madness.  And Gaetano Donizetti delivers a masterful work of not only beautiful but moving and interesting music as well.  True, much of the music is not exactly cerebral – it is somewhat tried and true; but there are some brilliant developments and the “mad scene” contains some of the most cerebral music I have ever heard.

As mentioned above, the tale of the opera is based, roughly, on The Bride of Lammermoor; with some adjustment: instead of a deceitful mother, Lucy (Italianized Lucia and sung by soprano Susanna Phillips) has the whims and ambitions of her brother Enrico (baritone Brian Mulligan) to contend with; who, in order to save the family name, has betrothed her to Arturo Bucklaw (René Barbera), a nobleman with enough clout to drag the family out of the mire it’s sunken into.  However, Lucia has fallen in love with Edgardo (tenor Giuseppe Filianoti); Edgar’s family was killed and forced out of their home by Lucy’s, and he has sworn to have vengeance on her brother.  As one would imagine, this makes for a difficult familial situation.

The story is a beautiful, romantic tragedy of doomed ardor and society’s restraints on the unbridled nature of love.  The music matches this.  Donizetti’s score is superb; he expresses the emotions of the characters with great dexterity.  The duet between the lovers, Verranno a te sull’aure, in which they promise themselves to each other eternally, is lush and lovely yet veers into the melancholy and vitriolic when Edgardo proposes to bring their love into the open and ask Enrico for Lucia’s hand in marriage. She pleads with him not to.  Her brother still holds intemperate hate for Edgardo’s family, which in turn sets Edgardo into a rage in which he tells Lucia that he has left his vow of vengeance unfulfilled, but that could change at any time.  The famous sextet when Edgardo crashes the wedding between Lucia and Arturo, Chi mi frena in tal momento?, is rich with countermelody and contrappunto, the polyphony not just musical but emotional, with six people expressing themselves deeply and strikingly.  When Lucia loses her mind, Il dolce suono…Ardon gli incensi is an absolutely astounding representation of madness in music.  Pardon the plebeian expression, but it is mind blowing.  And Susanna Phillips absolutely brings it home.  A superlative performance, to any eyes.  The tenor’s closing number, Tu che a Dio spiegasti l’ali is also remarkable, not only musically but in its restraint.  Opera is known for extravagant death scenes where a character is stabbed and then sings for ten minutes; Donizetti uses this expectation to his advantage, making the cabaletta mirror a true death more closely – a solo cello does much of the melodic work as the piece goes on, Edgardo’s breath and life slowly slipping away.  This may seem stilted on paper, but it actually translates to the stage.  It’s remarkable.

The sets are generally simple, but that’s anything but a criticism.  They are beautifully painted, and elegant in their minimalism.  With one exception: Wolf’s Crag, the castle around and in which several scenes take place, is intricate, beautiful, functional, and overall masterfully designed.  The costumes are excellent, with the subtle colors in the designs playing important roles.  My only complaint is the supertitles, which, from time to time, were left wanting.  For example, in the sextet, only two voices were actually translated.  This does not affect the enjoyment of the music itself, but leaves the story slightly less fleshed-out than it could be.  Still, that is a fairly minor caveat.  Generally, this is the Lyric Opera doing a classic at their best.

Highly Recommended

Will Fink

Reviewed on 10.13.11

For full show information, visit TheatreInChicago.

At the Lyric Opera, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL; call 312-332-2244, www.lyricopera.org; tickets $33-$194, through November 5, 2011.  Running time is 3 hours.

Music by Richard Rodgers

Lyrics by Lorenz Hart

Concept by Richard Lewine & John Fearnley

Directed & Choreographed by Rudy Hogenmiller

Produced by Light Opera Works

At  Light Opera works Second Stage, Evanston

Wonderful night of fabulous songs sung well awaits

The Rodgers & Hart collaboration added 550 tunes and 28 musicals to the American songbook since their initial offering in 1919 that ended in 1943. They wrote for Broadway, for film and for Tin Pan Ally. Larry Hart was know for his sophisticated, melancholy, cleverness with a most “New York” “Broadway” feel. Songs like “Manhattan” – “”The great big city’s a wondrous toy/Just made for a girl and boy” and later – reprises: “The city’s glamor can never spoil/The dreams of a boy and goil.”

While Rodgers’ music is lush, varied and melodic, I believe that it was Larry Hart’s often sad yet smart lyrics that made tunes like “Falling in Love with Love”, “Little Girl Blue”, “My Funny Valentin,” “Blue Moon,” “I Could Write a Book” and “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” American classics.

Richard Rodgers and Larry Hart in 1936

The cast of six non-Equity performers handled the R & H songbook well with Bethany Thomas nailing “The Lady is A Tramp” while Amy Brophy, Tiffany Desmond, David Geinosky, Jon Landvick and Rob Riddle each took tuns with smart solos or terrific harmonies that made songs from shows such as Pal Joey, Babes in Arms, The Boys from Syracuse, By Jupiter,” and I Married an Angel come to life.

We hear a rich assort of sad, cute, haunting and comic songs that Rodgers & Hart penned that are seldom performed these days. I’m a believer that theses terrific songbooks need to be showcased so each generation can expedience the genius of major talents from the past.  Audiences hear parts of over 50 songs from R & H as they receive a master lesson in lyric writing and melodic composition. We hear an assortment of moods, emotions and attitudes about love, relationships, fears and hopes from these slick and complex tunes.

The cast of six work hard and essentially deliver the R & H songbook with skill and loads of heart! (sorry). A fine night of a rich blend of songs by tow masters awaits your call at Light Opera Works Second Stage in Evanston. See this show to hear enchanting songs.

Highly Recommended

Tom Williams

Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast

Date Reviewed: October 8, 2011

For more info checkout The Rodgers & Hart: A Celebration page on www.theatreinchicago.com

At Light Opers Works Second Stage, 1420 Maple Ave., Evanston, IL, call 847-869-6300, www.lightoperaworks.com, tickets $27 – $34 – $42,  Fridays & Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 3 pm, running time is 2 hours, 10 minutes with intermission, through November 6, 2011

The Tales of Hoffmann

Composed by Jacques Offenbach

Libretto by Jules Barbier

Based on stories by E. T. A. Hoffmann

Directed by Stéphane Roche

Conducted by Emmanuel Villaume

At the Lyric Opera, Chicago

The Eternal-Feminine draws us onward.

Unsurprisingly, the Lyric has done it again.  They have created a truly enjoyable (if wholly traditional) production of a great (and very eccentric) opera.  Les Contes D’Hoffmann is widely considered Jacques Offenbach’s masterpiece; and, like Mozart’s (the Mass in C minor), he left it unfinished at his death.  It is based on a play by Jules Barbier, who also wrote the libretto, and Michel Carré, which is in turn based on short stories written by E. T. A. Hoffmann himself (he of the title).  Offenbach decided this would be the perfect vehicle for his as-yet-unwritten “great opera,” the piece that would ensure the carriage of his name through the ages.  It is unnecessary to say, but it worked.

Hoffmann (tenor Matthew Polenzani) is a lovelorn, hopeless poet inspired by the Muse of Poetry (Emily Fons), losing his loves to Evil, always played by the same man (bass/baritone James Morris).  Really, Hoffmann says, though he relates three tales of love through the opera, it is the story of one girl, the prima donna Stella (Emily Birsan); but it is three different aspects of his love for her: the naïve, early love; the love of her as an artist; and the lust for her beauty.  Each time Hoffmann is thwarted by the same evil force, again presented as different aspects of the same power.  The piece opens at a tavern next to the opera house where Stella is performing.  Hoffmann and his best friend Nicklausse (who is also the Muse of Poetry) enter and entertain the patrons with a song; but Hoffmann wanders into fancy, talking of his love.  Councillor Lindorf (the incarnation of evil in the story frame) convinces Hoffmann to regale the crowd with the stories of his three loves.

The first is an automaton (Anna Christy) created by a scientist, Spalanzani (David Cangelosi), and his companion, the evil Coppélius.  Hoffmann is clueless as to the girl’s reality, and only becomes aware of what a joke his love is when Coppélius destroys her in the end.  The second love is the singer Antonia (Erin Wall), who has been blessed with an exceptional voice, but cursed with an affliction that grows worse when she sings.   Her father has taken her away from Hoffmann, who encourages her musical career, thus unwittingly endangering her.  However, when Dr. Miracle (this story’s incarnation of evil) arrives, he tricks Antonia into singing, thus killing her.  Lastly, we meet the beautiful courtesan Giulietta (Alyson Cambridge), whose love for material wealth causes her to fall under the spell of the magician Dapertutto, who wants Hoffmann’s reflection.  She snatches it from him, and runs off with another man, leaving Hoffmann desolate.  At which point we rejoin Hoffmann and the revelers in the tavern.

That is a facile rundown of the story; there are myriad subtleties, clever jokes, songs which bring laughter and sadness, which plumb the depths of despair and flutter in the heights of love and wonder.  The score is beautiful.  And so well-crafted!  Offenbach is in complete control, making each song affect exactly how he wants it to.  There is the comic chanson about the dwarf Kleinzach, Il était une fois à la cour d’Eisenach, which is a light-hearted, call-and-respond affair until Hoffmann becomes distracted by a daydream of his love Stella, at which point the demeanor of the song is transformed into a beautiful, soaring, romantic thing.  It is because of this that Hoffmann is pressured into telling the tales of his previous loves.  There is also the ridiculous couplets by the servant Frantz (Rodell Rosel), Jour et nuit, in which a man sings to us that he is no good at singing.  Indeed, the second act is something like a comedy masquerading as a tragedy: after all, it is absurd on its face, the idea that, in an opera, one has vowed not to sing.  The story is sad – Antonia is ultimately killed by her desire to be a great artist – but Offenbach always throws in elements of the absurd.

And yet, although the overall effect of The Tales of Hoffmann is comic, Offenbach is a deft manipulator of emotions, and the very end of the piece is profoundly and deeply affecting.  At the very end, Offenbach brings true, devastating weight to the opera, and leaves the audience with exactly the feeling he wishes.

And the production at the Lyric is beautiful.  The sets are properly grandiose for opera, at once simple, expansive, and intricate; in a word, brilliant.  The costumes are impeccable, the lighting design really excellent.  All of the performers are marvelous, the pit is spot-on.  It’s simply a wonderful experience.

Highly recommended

Will Fink

Reviewed on 10.5.11

For full show information, visit TheatreInChicago.

At the Lyric Opera, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL; call 312-332-2244, www.lyricopera.org; tickets $33-$194, through October 29, 2011.  Running time is 3 ½ hours.