Review: Officially, conductor Riccardo Muti holds the distinction of music director emeritus for life with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. But after the 83-year-old maestro’s two-week season debut concerts at Orchestra Hall, it seems more apt to acknowledge him as the band’s artistic patriarch. When Muti’s on the podium, the CSO rises to its proper level. It glistens.
Read the full story »Seanachai’s ‘Seafarer’ taps into human comedy with earthy charm and touch of grace
Review: It’s hard to imagine a sweeter greeting for the New Year than Seanachai Theatre’s announcement that it will extend its luminous production of Conor McPherson’s “The Seafarer” – originally scheduled to close Jan. 5 – for another four weeks. Lovely, lads, lovely. ★★★★★
Bernard Rands work inspired by Beckett poetry renews composer’s time-honored link to CSO
Interview: For many, “…where the murmurs die…” will constitute a first Rands encounter. Indeed, this intimate marvel from 1993 is the perfect piece for it, whether one hears it shimmer in the live acoustical space of Orchestra Hall or through a pair of earphones.
Goodman’s ‘Christmas Carol’ brings Yuletide treasure in magical form of Yando’s Scrooge
Review: The sixth time is a charm for Larry Yando as that grasping, covetous old sinner Ebenezer Scrooge in the Goodman Theatre production of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Or I should say, a charm again — just like Yando’s previous five outings in the part. His irascible but salvageable and very funny misanthrope remains a Scrooge for the young in heart and imagination. ★★★★
CSO president Deborah F. Rutter lands top post at Washington’s Kennedy Center for the Arts
Report: Deborah F. Rutter, president of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, has been named president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., effective Sept. 1, 2014.
Denève, Chicago Symphony master madness, catch magic of Berlioz’ fantastic dreamscape
Review: It was the nightmare you thought you could only wish for, conductor Stéphane Denève’s hallucinogenic, careening, brilliant turn through Berlioz’ “Symphonie fantastique” with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Dec. 5 at Orchestra Hall. ★★★★★
‘Detroit ’67’ at Northlight: When the dream turns into nightmare, hope’s song keeps its groove
Review: A piece of the American dream. That’s really all the ambitious, optimistic Lank wants for himself and his sister Chelle in Dominique Morisseau’s blistering – and touchingly funny – drama “Detroit ’67,” currently illuminating the stage at Northlight Theatre. ★★★★
‘Clybourne Park’ at Redtwist: In a tight space, prejudice runs riot and hurt explodes in rage
Review: There’s garden variety theatrical intimacy, and then there’s the astonishing, welcome-to-the-family tumult of Bruce Norris’ “Clybourne Park” in the living room space that is Redtwist Theatre. ★★★★★
Mahlerite Michael Tilson Thomas brings newly sharpened Ninth to Chicago Symphony podium
Interview: Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is what G.B. Shaw might have called the perfect Mahlerite. Not only his baton but his heart as well beats to the subtle impulses of yearning, angst and mockery that permeate and shape Gustav Mahler’s epic creations. Newly refocused on the subject, this Mahler maestro leads the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in four performances of the Ninth Symphony Nov. 21-24 at Orchestra Hall.
Lyric Opera prepares an untrimmed ‘Traviata,’ and star soprano says payoff is dramatic truth
Preview: For its second tribute in this Verdi year, the Lyric Opera of Chicago will present, so to speak, the whole truth about “La traviata.” And Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka, a young but well-tested Violetta making her Lyric debut, is wholly on board with that.
Theater 2013-14: Victory Gardens, predictably unpredictable, gets rolling with two premieres
17th in a series of season previews: Victory Gardens is a theater company built on new plays, says artistic director Chay Yew: “Our audiences comes expecting to see the unexpected.” Thus the 2013-14 season opens Nov. 15 with the “co-world premiere” of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ “Appropriate,” about three adult siblings circling – and colliding – over the division of their deceased father’s estate. And that’s followed by the world premiere of Marcus Gardley’s “The Gospel of Lovingkindness.”
Venue is cool, the guitarist a blazing new star when classical meets pop at the City Winery
Preview: When the Montenegrin virtuoso guitarist Miloš Karadaglić performs Nov. 11 at the City Winery of Chicago, he’ll be there under the aegis of a bold, off-beat international project to present major classical artists in club settings. Dubbed Yellow Lounge, the worldwide series is the creation of Universal Music Classics – parent of the celebrated recording labels Decca and Deutsche Grammophon — and named for DG’s distinctive yellow label.
Bernard Haitink, master builder of Bruckner, leads Chicago Symphony in glorious Fourth
Review: Upon thoughtful examination, the outwardly splendid edifice that is Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony reveals a no less magnificent interior. Articulating the one aspect without losing sight of the other might even define the work’s core interpretive challenge. Inside and out, front to back, conductor Bernard Haitink led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in a performance of consummate completeness Thursday night at Orchestra Hall. ★★★★★
Pianists Schiff and Denk offer distinctive views of Bach in Partita and ‘Goldberg’ programs
Review: The mind-blowing early treat this piano recital season has been successive Bach concerts that would have left the composer himself impressed by the feats of memory and endurance on display — Hungarian pianist András Schiff performing all six Partitas and American pianist Jeremy Denk performing the 30 “Goldberg” Variations at Symphony Center.
‘Motortown’ at Steep: Danny comes marching home, but the emotional shelling doesn’t stop
Review: Danny has no visible scars, no missing limbs, but this former British soldier bears deep wounds from his tour of duty in Iraq. He is the tormented, dangerous antihero of playwright Simon Stephens’ “Motortown,” now in a riveting North American premiere run at Steep Theatre. ★★★★
Lyric’s snake-bitten ‘Otello’ loses its star tenor when ailing Botha cancels final 2 performances
Report: First, the German bass-baritone Falk Struckmann, singing the role of the evil Iago in Verdi’s “Otello,” lost his voice suddenly to an allergy flare-up during opening night of the Lyric Opera’s 59th season, causing a frantic search for the understudy. Now it’s the Otello’s turn. Johan Botha has dropped out of the production’s remaining performances. The South African heldentenor, plagued by severe back pain, has returned to Vienna for treatment. American heldentenor Clifton Forbis replaces him for performances Oct. 29 and Nov. 2.
‘We Will Rock You’ wraps Queen in sweet vibe for supercharged romp back to bohemian roots
Review: The first rule regarding “We Will Rock You,” winding up a whistle-stop week at Chicago’s Cadillac Palace at the beginning of an eight-month U.S. tour: If you’re not a Queen fan, you need to bone up. Not that this is difficult. ★★★
Pianist Kirill Gerstein lavishes virtuosity and wit on a glittering Prokofiev concerto with the CSO
Review: This weekend’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra program is a curiously mixed affair. At intermission, I was exhilarated at having witnessed Kirill Gerstein’s virtuosic and sly performance of Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. On the other hand, by the time conductor Semyon Bychkov had made it to the end of a solidly fashioned performance of William Walton’s sturdily made Symphony No. 1, I was wondering why, some 80 years along, are American orchestras still dusting this off?
Chicago Symphony sets sales and gift records, inaugurates gallery honoring its donors
Report: The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association set records in fiscal 2013 with $23.2 million in ticket sales and $29.8 million in contributed income. The 2013 fiscal tally, presented Oct. 23 at the Association’s annual meeting, also showed a slight operating deficit of 0.2 percent, or $169,000 on expenses totaling $73.8 million. The CSOA reported a healthy 44 percent of fiscal 2013 revenue was earned, through ticket sales and other sources.
‘Smokefall’ at Goodman: Behind worldly veil, tears and contentment fuse into force of life
Review: Life sucks, and then you die. If that dark existential view sometimes can seem like the only certainty, taxes being at least negotiable, it is repudiated – with gentleness and magical wit — in Noah Haidle’s new play “Smokefall,” presented in its “co-world premiere” at Goodman Theatre. ★★★★★
Composers’ imaginative new worlds of sound infuse MusicNOW concert with energy, flair
Review: This just in from Chicago Symphony’s new music series: Benedict Mason’s multimedia “Delta River” with odd-lot Far East film, Donnacha Dennehy’s “Stainless Staining” for pianos of special resonance, and Anders Hillborg’s “Vaporized Tivoli,” which hints at a circus gone bad. ★★★★
In conductor Susanna Mälkki’s return to CSO, her place with the world’s elite is confirmed
Review: In her debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in 2011, the Finnish conductor Susanna Mälkki was impressive. In her return, Oct. 19 at Orchestra Hall, she looked like the woman who could crack the exclusive men’s club of music directors with the world’s top orchestras. ★★★★★
Theater 2013-14: Premieres and new vitality energize the intimate stage at A Red Orchid
16th in a series of season previews: New faces, new energy, new generation. Kirsten Fitzgerald, artistic director of A Red Orchid Theatre, says the company’s 2013-14 season – consisting of three plays all new to Chicago – reflects the forward-looking spirit of its 21st anniversary on the theme of coming of age.
Musical ‘We Will Rock You’ to test the embrace of Queen’s charm beyond adoring British home
Preview: To the British, the rock band Queen is a lifelong friend. To most Americans, it’s a group from the 1970’s that put out a few good songs back in the day. It remains to be seen how this differing perception will affect “We Will Rock You,” the touring musical featuring Queen’s songs that runs Oct. 22-27 at the Cadillac Palace Theatre under the aegis of Broadway in Chicago.
Lyric Opera’s ‘Butterfly’ displays a fine frame, but the musical drama is a different picture
Review: To behold the grand, airy set for “Madama Butterfly” at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, with its curvaceous walkway and layered, mat-like proscenium framing – on display even as the audience assembled — was to sense one’s expectations peak toward something special, uncommon, fine. What ensued was largely unremarkable, even unattractive in various aspects from conducting and singing to basic on-stage movement. ★★
Role Playing: Karen Woditsch shapes vowels, flings arms to perfect portrait of Julia Child
Interview: “Terror is a good place to start,” Karen Janes Woditsch was saying about her beguiling performance as cooking icon Julia Child in “To Master the Art.” “And I started there. I added the ingredients of her character very slowly.”
Theater 2013-14: Next’s season of premieres starts with Chicago link to Anne Frank story
15th in a series of season previews: Next Theatre explores the elusive stuff of secrets and lies in a season of Midwest and Chicago premieres that opens Oct. 15 with Rinne Groff’s “Compulsion,” based on the story of a Chicagoan who spent three decades pursuing the real story of Anne Frank.
‘4000 Miles’ at Northlight: To Grandmother’s house he goes, and she’s worth the long ride
Review: Leo crashes Vera’s apartment in the middle of the night, a sort of grown up waif, lost to the world, clutching the bicycle he has just ridden cross-country from the Northwest to New York’s East Village. They’re a lot alike, Leo and Vera, rebels with or without cause – except that she’s his grandma. Mary Ann Thebus’ savvy, frank, altogether delightful performance provides something real and lasting to take away from Amy Herzog’s semi-developed play “4000 Miles” at Northlight Theatre. ★★
Riccardo Muti and stellar CSO cast honor Verdi bicentennial with a majestic view of Requiem
Review: It’s hardly surprising that anyone familiar with Verdi’s operas would associate his Requiem with that imposing body of music-dramas. The musical language of the one informs the rhetoric of the other. But the difference between Verdi’s stage works and great spiritual drama of the Requiem was the distinguishing feature of conductor Riccardo Muti’s account with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 10, the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth.
Relive Chicago Symphony’s Verdi Requiem: Chicago On the Aisle offers clickable concert
UPDATE: Get your finest audio headphones ready: A video on demand is now available here of the CSO’s first-ever simulcast — Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem with Riccardo Muti conducting the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, soprano Tatiana Serjan, mezzo-soprano Daniela Barcellona, tenor Mario Zeffiri and bass Ildar Abdrazakov.
Lyric Opera’s storm-tossed ‘Otello’ weathers sudden cast change not even Iago could plot
Review: Villainous Iago’s creed, which holds that man is the sport of unjust fate, must be on the minds of impresarios everywhere when opening night emergencies befall. So it was at the Lyric Opera’s gala opener Oct. 6, when the Iago of Verdi’s “Otello,” Falk Struckmann, made it only through Act 1. Valiant standby Todd Thomas made the save. The Lyric announced that Struckmann will sing Oct. 9. ★★★
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