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Articles tagged with: David Pountney

‘Das Rheingold’ at Lyric Opera: A new ‘Ring’ venture begins with sly winks, great singing

Oct 4, 2016 – 11:19 pm
9/28/16 2:03:18 PM - Lyric Opera Chicago's dress rehearsal of Das Rheingold by Richard Wagner  

Featuring 

Eric Owens
Wotan

Samuel Youn
Alberich

Stefan Margita
Loge

Tanja Ariane Baumgartner
Fricka

© Todd Rosenberg Photography 2016

Review: If the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s enchanting production of “Das Rheingold” proves to be, like the opera itself, an augury of things to come, we’re in for a magical ride across the company’s four-year project to re-create Wagner’s epic tetralogy “The Ring of the Nibelung.” ★★★★

As Lyric prepares to launch its ‘Ring’ cycle, maestro pledges characters as gold standard

Sep 29, 2016 – 10:40 pm
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Review: Andrew Davis, music director of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and conductor of the company’s new four-year “Ring” cycle, which gets underway Oct. 1 with “Das Rheingold,” speaks with resolute pride about the focus of this prodigious enterprise. “We all wanted very much to make sure the characters were the most important thing,” says the maestro.

Lyric Opera staging of Weinberg’s ‘Passenger’ casts intimate light on life, death at Auschwitz

Feb 26, 2015 – 1:22 pm
Amanda Majeski and Daveda Karanas in 'The Passenger,' by Mieczyslaw Weinberg, at Chicago Lyric Opera Feb. 2014. (Robert Kusel)

Review: The first impression of “The Passenger” by the Soviet composer Mieczysław Weinberg, whose Holocaust-inspired 1968 opera has been circulating the globe since its belated 2010 world premiere, is that of a major composer in his prime. Conducted with searing authority by Andrew Davis, the illuminating Lyric Opera of Chicago presentation of “The Passenger” seemed familiar right away. Weinberg was typically referred to as a lesser-known member of Shostakovich’s inner circle, but in fact he was on top of his world. ★★★★

Snatched from oblivion, post-Holocaust opera ‘The Passenger’ makes a rescue stop at Lyric

Feb 23, 2015 – 6:40 pm
The Passenger, Lyric Opera Chicago 2015 (Robert Kusel)

Report: “The Passenger,” a late-blooming 1968 opera by the Polish-born Soviet composer Mieczysław Weinberg, will have its Chicago Lyric Opera premiere as part of a whirlwind of introduction in Austria, Poland, England, the U.S. and Spain. Director David Pountney and author Zofia Posmysz talk about why. 

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.