Chicago Opera Theater

The Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is an opera company that was founded as the Chicago Opera Studio in 1974 by Alan Stone[1] to give vocal students performance experience, although it has grown into a professional opera company.[2] The stated mission of COT is to provide first class productions of operatic repertoire that include the greatest works of the 17th through 20th centuries,[3] and in the past it has had an emphasis on American composers and performers who sing in English.[4] Currently, COT extends the Chicago opera season by scheduling its performances after the Lyric Opera of Chicago's season ends in spring.[5]

The company's home is the 1,525-seat Harris Theater for Music and Dance in Chicago's Millennium Park. The Harris Theater was built in 2003 as a mostly underground, state-of-the-art downtown performance facility, and is also home to the Hubbard Street Dance Company.[6] Prior to the 2004 season, COT was most recently at the Athenaeum Theatre on the city's north side.[7]

Brian Dickie is the current General Director of COT, a position he has held since September 1999.[8] His first season with COT in 2000 was met with such acclaim that he was honored by the Chicago Tribune as a Chicagoan of the Year. This honor was repeated in 2002. He was recently named by New City Chicago as one of "The Players—50 people who really perform for Chicago."

Alexander Platt is COT's resident conductor and music advisor. His work with COT has included leading the Chicago premiere of Benjamin Britten's Death in Venice, and directing the Maurice Sendak/Tony Kushner version of Hans Krása's Brundibár and an adaptation of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. Additionally, in 2006, he led the Chicago premiere of John Adams' Nixon in China,[9] and in May 2007 conducted the dual Chicago premieres of Béla Bartók's Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Arnold Schoenberg's Erwartung (Expectation).

COT's 2008 season offered Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Don Giovanni in April/May; John Adams's A Flowering Tree in May; and George Frideric Handel's Orlando in May and June.

The 2009 season, from April 18 through May 26, featured Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave, Mozart's La clemenza di Tito, and Carmen by Georges Bizet and adapted by Marius Constant.

The 2010 season, from April 17 to May 16, offered Jake Heggie's Three Decembers, Gioachino Rossini's Mosè in Egitto, and the Chicago professional premiere of Francesco Cavalli's Giasone.

The 2011 season, opening April 2 and closing May 8, featured Tod Machover's Death and the Powers, Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Médée, and He/She – a combination of the song cycles The Diary of One Who Disappeared by Leoš Janáček, and "Frauenliebe und -leben" by Robert Schumann.

External links

References

  1. ^ Marsh, Robert C.. "The Fox Years". In Pellegrini, Norman (ed.). 150 Years of Opera in Chicago. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press. p. 167. ISBN 0-87580-353-9. "In April 1974 Alan Stone, who had learned from missteps with the offerings of this Pilot Knob company the previous year, was back on the operatic scene, this time in the five-hundred-seat auditorium of Jones Commercial High School (which remained his company's mainstage location through 1976) with a workshop group he called Chicago Opera Studio and a production of Così fan tutte that had excellent young singers and genuine charm. Six performances cost $8,000 to produce." 
  2. ^ Marsh, Robert C.. "Author's Preface". In Pellegrini, Norman (ed.). 150 Years of Opera in Chicago. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press. xii. ISBN 0-87580-353-9. "It should be said that Chicago has always had a number of smaller opera groups, some ethnically oriented, some essentially opera workshops to give vocal students performance experience. The Chicago Opera Theater began in 1974 as an organization of this type but was transformed into an important professional production group." 
  3. ^ "Chicago Opera Theater - History (About Us page)". Chicago Opera Theater. http://www.chicagooperatheater.org/about/about-history.shtml. Retrieved 2006-09-04. 
  4. ^ Blackwell, Elizabeth Canning (2005-12-05). "Chicago Opera Theater – Bar/Club Review". Frommer's Chicago 2006. Wiley Publishing. http://www.frommers.com/destinations/chicago/N20297.html. Retrieved 2006-09-04. 
  5. ^ "Chicago Nightlife & the Arts". Fodor's Travel, a division of Random House. http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=chicago@49&cur_section=nig&showover=yes. Retrieved 2006-09-04. 
  6. ^ "Harris Theatre History". Harris Theater for Music and Dance. Archived from the original on May 14, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060514011653/http://www.harristheaterchicago.org/history.shtml. Retrieved 2006-09-04. 
  7. ^ "Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago". Metromix.com (Tribune Interactive). Archived from the original on 2006-04-27. http://web.archive.org/web/20060427130343/http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/search/28996,0,3243675.venue. Retrieved 2006-09-04. 
  8. ^ "Bloggers". Backstage (Chicago Classical Music blog). Arts & Business Council of Chicago. http://www.chicagoclassicalmusic.org/bloggers. Retrieved 2006-09-04. 
  9. ^ Delacoma, Wynne (2006-05-14). "Nixon before the fall". Chicago Sun-Times (Digital Chicago). http://www.suntimes.com/output/delacoma/sho-sunday-fine14.html. Retrieved 2006-09-04. 
  • Category
  • Portal
  • WikiProject