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Articles tagged with: Anthony Freud

In a grand flourish, Lyric will match Wagner ‘Ring’ launch with Berlioz spectacle ‘Troyens’

Jan 19, 2016 – 4:57 pm
'Das Rheingold'  maquette (LyricOpera.org)

Season Preview: Not many people can put a ten-year life plan on a single piece of paper. But Anthony Freud, general director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, has got his drill down when it comes to the properly balanced life of a grand opera company. Merrily goaded on Jan. 14 by music director Andrew Davis, who was clearly amused, Freud pulled from his pocket, in a tantalizingly brief “reveal,” a carefully folded, well-worn document crammed with the titles of dozens of operas on a grid. Here are the highlights.

Berg’s high-intensity opera ‘Wozzeck’ dual firsts for veteran conductor Davis, director McVicar

Oct 30, 2015 – 9:54 am
Wozzeck preview feature image

Preview: He could be talking about Puccini’s “La boheme” or Verdi’s “La traviata” or Bizet’s “Carmen,” but when Anthony Freud, general director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, says, “I would encourage anyone who has never experienced opera to give it a try,” he’s referring to none of the above. Freud means Alban Berg’s harrowing Expressionist music-drama “Wozzeck.”

Klezmer opera ‘The Property’ melds nostalgia, renewal in music awash with Old-World charm

Mar 1, 2015 – 12:19 pm
Regina (Jill Grove) sits alone in Warsaw,  contemplates making contact with someone from the past in The Property. (Robert Kusel)

Feature Review: “The Property,” a new vest-pocket opera that burst onto the Chicago scene Feb. 25, is the sweet-spirited musical brainchild of a 28-year-old Minsk-born Polish composer Wlad Marhulets, who makes a living these days tooling music for films in L.A. Marhuletz came to the Lyric Opera by way of klezmer madness — not a disease, rather an exhilarating state of mind. Through March 5.★★★

From ‘Romeo’ to ‘Figaro,’ love rules as Lyric plans eight operas, ‘King and I’ for 2015-16

Feb 11, 2015 – 10:34 am
Thomas Hampson and Renee Fleming to star at Chicago Lyric Opera in Nov. -Dec. 2015.

Report: You know that Valentine’s Day is just around the corner when the romantic couplings planned for the Lyric Opera’s 2015-16 season are the stuff of headlines. The game of love becomes a delicious frenzy when lots of money and a very attractive widow are at stake: Soprano Renée Fleming will be playing her “Merry Widow” title role to the hilt with baritone Thomas Hampson beginning Nov. 14 and into the holiday season. We provide details.

Lyric Opera’s diamond anniversary will spotlight Fleming and Serjan amid stellar cast of singers

Jan 27, 2014 – 3:09 pm
Tatiana Serjan, soprano

Report: Russian dramatic soprano Tatiana Serjan, who riveted audiences as Riccardo Muti’s Lady Macbeth with the Chicago Symphony in 2013, will return to the Windy City next January at the Lyric Opera of Chicago to sing another knife-wielder, Floria Tosca, the tempestuous diva who tries to outwit a tyrant and foil her lover’s assassination. The Lyric’s 60th anniversary season, announced Jan. 27, also will feature soprano and Lyric creative consultant Renée Fleming in a signature role as Countess Madeleine in Richard Strauss’ final opera, “Capriccio.”

Joining revival of Soviet composer Weinberg, Lyric plans Holocaust opera ‘The Passenger’

Jan 20, 2014 – 6:45 pm
'The Passenger,' by Mieczysław Weinberg, Bregenz production, coming to Lyric Opera Chicago in 2015

Report: Mieczysław Weinberg, perhaps the best Soviet composer you never heard of, was the “other story” at a Lyric Opera of Chicago press conference Jan. 17 when a new Wagner “Ring” Cycle was announced. But Weinberg’s recently revived opera, “The Passenger,” inspired by a Holocaust novel, is making the international rounds and will arrive at the Chicago Lyric in early 2015, as excitement grows for this prolific composer and esteemed friend of Shostakovich.

Showing 2020 vision, Lyric Opera reveals plan for new production of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ Cycle

Jan 17, 2014 – 11:08 am

Report: With headliners Christine Goerke and Eric Owens — two breakthrough American Wagner singers that everyone is seeking – Lyric Opera of Chicago announced Friday that it will embark on a new David Pountney production of the “Ring” Cycle starring Owens as the great god Wotan and Goerke as Brünnhilde, his beloved Valkyrie daughter. The cycle’s four operas are to be unveiled one by one in consecutive seasons beginning in 2016-17, and then in total-immersion festival form, over the course of three weeks in April 2020.

Lyric Opera prepares an untrimmed ‘Traviata,’ and star soprano says payoff is dramatic truth

Nov 19, 2013 – 10:51 am
Latvian soprano Marina Rebeka makes her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as Violetta in Verdi's 'La traviata.'

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.

Laughter storms the high C’s as Second City, Fleming and Stewart skewer opera at the Lyric

Jan 7, 2013 – 8:41 pm

Update: Show inspires June spin-off

Lyric Opera’s gingerly, droll ‘Hänsel & Gretel’ offers dreamy – and scary – fun for families

Dec 17, 2012 – 5:00 pm
Elizabeth DeShong as Hansel, Jill Grove as Witch and Maria Kanyova as Gretel in HANSEL & GRETEL Lyric Opera Chicago 2012 credit Dan Rest

Review: ★★★★

Lyric to present first opera in mariachi style, tale of the Mexican experience in America

Oct 23, 2012 – 2:57 pm

“To Cross the Face of the Moon”

‘Meistersinger’ to ‘Streetcar,’ Lyric Opera’s new season offers scenic route with 9 stops

Feb 27, 2012 – 3:55 pm
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The Chicago Lyric Opera’s new season begins and ends with shows that should attract aficionados of opera and theater: “Elektra” and “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Here’s the show-by-show breakdown.