Commentary: How rich, how embracing and inviting, are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s newly bruited plans for the 2025-26 season? I went through the detailed chronology of subscription programs to highlight a dozen. Then, after making some hard choices, I counted my picks. There were 20. Music director-designate Klaus Mäkelä will lead four programs and take the orchestra on an eastern tour. I’ve been reporting on orchestra seasons for half a century. I don’t recall a horizon more enticing than the CSO’s lineup for the season ahead.
Read the full story »Chicago Sinfonietta scores two more seasons with music director Mei-Ann Chen thru 2018-19
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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CHICAGO SINFONIETTA SCORES TWO ADDITIONAL SEASONS WITH MUSIC DIRECTOR MEI-ANN CHEN
CHICAGO (May 18, 2016)—Chicago Sinfonietta, the nation’s most diverse orchestra dedicated to pushing artistic boundaries, is proud to announce Music Director Mei-Ann Chen will continue leading the orchestra through its 2018-2019 Season, adding two years to her current contract and insuring her place on the podium for the upcoming 30th Anniversary season, 2017-2018. Chen will continue to conduct four out of five subscription concerts each season, as well as special added concerts. Recently named among Music America’s 2015 Top 30 Influencers, she has …
‘Jerusalem’ at Profiles: Retreating from life’s troubles in a camper, striking a careless pose
Review: He’s Peter Pan to a collection of lost boys in the Neverland of an English woods, the Wizard of Oz beguiling these Munchkins with an endless supply of drugs and booze and empty intimations that this is as good as a happy home gets. Meet Johnny “Rooster” Byron, detached soul and intractable, irreducible anti-hero of Jez Butterworth’s play “Jerusalem.” His wholly credible embodiment by Darrell W. Cox at Profiles Theatre stands among the high points of the Chicago season. ★★★★
Old friend of the CSO, Charles Dutoit returns, this time amid shades of Stravinsky and Falla
Interview: Conductor Charles Dutoit’s relationship with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is old and close. But even more deeply rooted in the Swiss-born maestro’s artistic persona is the music, by Manuel de Falla and Igor Stravinsky, that he leads on consecutive May weekends back at the helm of the CSO. In a chat with Chicago On the Aisle, Dutoit recalls vividly the special circumstances of his early experiences involving both composers.
‘Mary Page Marlowe’ at Steppenwolf: In Letts’ new play, woman adrift searches for an anchor
Review: It was a happy announcement for a theater company, but happier still for any theater buff within driving distance of Chicago: Steppenwolf’s decision to extend the run of Tracy Letts’ psychologically incisive and finely crafted new play “Mary Page Marlowe.” This brilliant existential portrait of a woman out of touch with herself, lost to the world, and seemingly condemned to her lot from birth, bears a qualitative stamp worthy of “August: Osage County,” which brought Letts the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. ★★★★★
Muti to lead CSO Europe tour in January 2017; stops include new Hamburg hall, historic La Scala
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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Stops include grand opening week of Hamburg’s state-of-the art Elbphilharmonie and CSO’s first visit to Milan’s La Scala since 1981. More …
In three recipes for novel sounds, MusicNOW serves up appetizing concert-as-smorgasbord
Review: At its May 9 program at the Harris Theater titled “. . . Spring, Or Some Such Thing,” MusicNOW bundled three works for ensembles of fewer than 20 musicians — capped by Christopher Trapani’s flood- and hurricane-inspired song cycle “Waterlines” — into a nicely balanced, easy-to-digest dose of musical contemporaneity.
Haymarket Opera digs into Baroque treasury and finds sparkling Cavalli gem ‘La Calisto’
Review: Thanks to the adventurous Haymarket Opera Company, Chicago audiences experienced one of the jewels of early Baroque opera, Francesco Cavalli’s “La Calisto,” on May 6 and 8 in their own back yard. It was a pure, glistening delight. With a larger stage at their disposal after the move to the spacious Athenaeum Theatre, the company’s seasoned creative team offered a historically informed re-invention of sets and costumes inspired in part by surviving production books from the opera’s 1651 premiere.
Runnicles leads CSO in 2 probing reflections on death (and variations on another enigma)
Review: Rather than grand musical statements or virtuosic solo vehicles, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra program May 5 put the focus on quiet introspection, emotional nuance and both the glory and poetry of symphonic sound. All three of the featured works by Britten, Strauss and Elgar were mainstays of the standard repertoire, but guest conductor Donald Runnicles made sure they came off as more than merely routine.
Role Playing: Danny McCarthy, pushing broom in ‘The Flick,’ finds vital pulse in long silences
Interview: Danny McCarthy calls it a sweeping-dance, the closely choreographed stretches of, well, sweeping that often – and silently – occupy the two men at the center of Annie Baker’s play “The Flick,” winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, at Steppenwolf Theatre. “Actually, you try to stay mentally active while you’re out there,” says McCarthy, who plays Sam, a quiet man in his mid-thirties who works on the cleanup crew at a small movie house, clearing away the night’s detritus, and grapples with the haunting malaise in his life.
‘The King and I’ at Lyric Opera: Royal treat, princely delight, courtly jewel, etc., etc., etc.
Review: Even amid the multi-year run of successes the Lyric Opera of Chicago has enjoyed in its annual spring offerings of great American musicals, the current production of Rogers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I” is exceptional, a theatrical experience as visually and musically resplendent as it is emotionally true. ★★★★★
Pianist Yefim Bronfman delivers a grand tour of fire and poetry in Prokofiev ‘war sonatas’
Review: Pianist Yefim Bronfman brought his traveling cycle of Prokofiev’s three so-called “war sonatas” to Orchestra Hall on May 1, and a mesmerizing, virtuosic portrait of the composer in wartime it was. The sonatas represent not so much a sequence of tone paintings of a shattered world as they do states of mind of a keenly attuned composer – one who had, with profound yearning, returned to the bosom of his mother country in the early 1930s after years of wandering in the West.
Bella Voce choristers, and an organ virtuoso, illuminate path back through choral history
Review: Chicago’s intimate chamber choir Bella Voce closed its 2015-16 season April 24 with an intriguing performance of Anglican choral works encompassing six centuries. One needed only to note the enthusiasm of the capacity audience gathered in Evanston’s St. Luke’s Episcopal Church to understand why Bella Voce has established itself as one of the pleasures of Chicago’s burgeoning choral music scene.
In concert, Muti and a well-rounded Falstaff bathe Verdi’s bittersweet opera in telling light
Review: Amid all its other virtues, and those are manifold, there is a refreshing, illuminating transparency and uncluttered purity in the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert presentation of Verdi’s opera “Falstaff.” Its co-stars are baritone Ambroglio Maestri in the title role, at the head of a splendid cast, and CSO music director Riccardo Muti on the podium.
In ‘Bullets Over Broadway,’ that rat-a-tat-tat could be tommy gun or sound of tap shoes
Interview: Cheech is just a garden variety thug, a gangster, a hit man – who proves to be the creative genius behind a hapless playwright in the musical “Bullets Over Broadway.” And Jeffrey Brooks, who plays this heavy with the fine dramatic touch, says Cheech is also “the most real character of them all, the one with the most heart.”
‘Arcadia’ at Writers: Stoppard’s fine-spun play proves ideal opener for Glencoe’s new house
Review: If a play, off the shelf as it were, could be tailor-made for the unveiling of a distinctive new theater, Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia,” an intellectual romp with a touch of tragedy, is the perfect inaugural raiment for Writers’ splendid new home in Glencoe. ★★★★★
Cuban vocal legend Omara Portuondo to open 2016-17 Jazz at Symphony Center; full details
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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SYMPHONY CENTER PRESENTS JAZZ SERIES 2016/17 PROGRAMS ANNOUNCED
Legendary Cuban Vocalist Omara Portuondo Opens 16/17 Series
New Orleans …
Court 2016-17 brings world premiere of ‘Man in the Ring’ and new Stoppard for Chicago
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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COURT THEATRE ANNOUNCES 62nd SEASON
COURT THEATRE’S 2016/17 SEASON WILL FEATURE THE WORLD PREMIERE OF MICHAEL CRISTOFER’S …
Joffrey’s ‘Nutcracker’ to gird Christopher Wheeldon with Broadway-savvy team
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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THE JOFFREY BALLET ANNOUNCES AWARD-WINNING ARTISTIC TEAM FOR THE WORLD PREMIERE OF CHRISTOPHER WHEELDON’S THE NUTCRACKER
Artistic …
Chicago’s Joffrey, Cleveland Orchestra pair in scary matchup of Bartók’s psycho thrillers
Review: A metal and glass cage hovered behind the conductor’s podium for the Cleveland Orchestra’s newest collaboration with Chicago’s Joffrey Ballet, a pair of works by Bartók staged with the intensity of Poe and Hitchcock. Nine Joffrey dancers and two fine singers shared space with the musicians at Cleveland’s Severance Hall, where music director Franz Welser-Möst and choreographer Yuri Possokhov presented their combined vision.
April highlights around Shakespeare’s birthday and anniversary of his death April 23
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
Chicago–March 24, 2016–All eyes are on Shakespeare in 2016 as the world celebrates 400 years of …
Chicago Shakes announces ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and lots more of the bard in 2016-17
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
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CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER ANNOUNCES 2016-17 30TH ANNIVERSARY SEASON
Chicago—April 7, 2016—On the heels of announcing the Theater’s …
Minnesota Orchestra, led by Osmo Vänskä, to embark on four-country Europe tour in August
This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to Chicago On the Aisle.
MINNESOTA ORCHESTRA EMBARKS ON FOUR-COUNTRY EUROPEAN TOUR, AUGUST 18-27
Led by Music Director Osmo Vänskä, the Minnesota Orchestra …
In music and movement, Mark Morris troupe touches tangled hearts of ‘Dido and Aeneas’
Review: Mark Morris ranks among this country’s greatest living choreographers. And one of the works that helped him achieve that standing is “Dido and Aeneas,” an unusual adaptation of English composer Henry Purcell’s celebrated 17th-century opera, which the Mark Morris Dance Group presented April 5 at the Harris Theater in a spellbinding visual tableaux of nuanced emotional power and hushed intensity.
CSO Chorus joins city salute to Shakespeare with tragedy, comedy from Berlioz and Verdi
Preview: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus help to observe the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in April with performances of two major works under the baton of CSO music director Riccard Muti – Berlioz’s dramatic symphony “Roméo et Juliette” and a concert version of Verdi’s last opera, “Falstaff.” The demands the two works place on the chorus, says director Duain Wolfe, could hardly be more different.
‘The Matchmaker’ at Goodman: A (very) funny thing happens when sly widow decides to wed
Review: It’s Dolly’s world, the charming milieu and crazy circumstances of Thornton Wilder’s perdurable farce “The Matchmaker.” All the other characters on stage just live in it. So say hello to a delightful Dolly whose world is well worth a visit in the Goodman Theatre production starring — with a capital S — Kristine Nielsen. ★★★★
Tenor Javier Camarena gives a debut of note, make that a generous bouquet of high C’s
Review: He premiered in 2004 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes in his native Mexico, popping off Tonio’s nine high C’s in Donizetti’s “La fille du régiment.” Ten years later, onstage at the Met in Rossini’s “Cenerentola,” he rocked as the third singer since 1942 to be granted an encore. Thus Javier Camarena’s appearance at the Harris Theater was hotly anticipated.
Mälkki’s return to Chicago Symphony podium shows why Finnish conductor’s star is on rise
Review: Expectations were running high for the Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki on her return March 30 to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which she first guest conducted in 2011. And put simply, she delivered. She led a fresh, enthralling interpretation of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” infused with apt doses of wonderment and exoticism.
‘Othello’ at Chicago Shakespeare: Evil cedes center stage to a figure tragic and splendid
Review: What is so striking about the current, altogether marvelous production of “Othello” at Chicago Shakespeare Theater is that the beleaguered Moor is no mere catalyst in the very events of which he is the object, but rather presents himself as a man – a great military general — worthy of his reputation. In the person of James Vincent Meredith’s Othello, and in the care of British director Jonathan Munby, Shakespeare’s play for once does not seem to be first and foremost about Iago. ★★★★★
‘Long Day’s Journey Into Night’ at Court: Dissembling, denial and a family on the edge
Review: The Court Theatre’s production of Eugene O’Neill’s brutal masterpiece “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” is the blazing star of Chicago’s stage season. Here, with a magnificent cast directed by David Auburn, is a close-up photograph of the human condition at its most vulnerable, unretouched and utterly devastating. ★★★★★
Role Playing: Mierka Girten, actor with MS, knows wound behind her character’s scars
Interview: In the most intimate and empathic way, Mierka Girten connects with Trinket Dugan, the character she plays with disarming honesty in Tennessee Williams’ “The Mutilated” at A Red Orchid Theatre. Actor and character share deep, physical, albeit invisible, wounds.The big difference is that while Trinket conceals her mastectomy – her mutilation — in sorrow and shame, Girten talks openly about the multiple sclerosis she has struggled with since her days as a drama student at DePaul University.
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