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Mar 22, 2024 – 1:55 pm

Interview: With Anthony Freud’s announcement that he will depart the Lyric Opera of Chicago as its general director in July of this year, a significant transition in one of the Windy City’s leading arts institutions is upon us. “I feel great about the company, the strength of the institution from which I’m retiring,” said Freud at a recent sit-down interview in his office on the fourth floor of the Lyric Opera House. “I’m proud of the way we have evolved through challenging times. I think the work that we do is exciting, thought-provoking, innovative, and surprising in many ways.”

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Writers Theatre highlights 13th MLK Project with performance at Chicago History Museum

Jan 7, 2019 – 4:42 pm
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This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to and edited by Chicago On the Aisle.
Writers Theatre opens its 13th annual tour of The MLK Project: The Fight for Civil …

‘Year of Chicago Theatre’ celebrates enticing array of shows on area stages large and small

Jan 7, 2019 – 3:57 pm
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This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to and edited by Chicago On the Aisle.
The Chicago theatre community will ring in 2019 with major events, getting the …

TimeLine buys Uptown building for new home; $20 million project targets opening in fall 2021

Jan 4, 2019 – 3:18 pm
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This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to and edited by Chicago On the Aisle.
TimeLine Theatre has announced the purchase of a new home, the first step …

Old friend MTT leads CSO in a Russian thrilla, and an impressive Brit makes podium debut

Dec 15, 2018 – 10:41 pm
MTT CSO Todd Rosenberg 2018

Review: A banner in the rotunda of Symphony Center proclaims coming concerts of “HOLIDAY CHEER,” in just such sizable letters, but the last two weeks of the Chicago Symphony’s classical subscription concerts – first under British conductor Edward Gardner and then Michael Tilson Thomas – have exuded a festive air of their own.

‘Il trovatore’ at the Lyric Opera of Chicago: Vital foursome re-energizes a Verdi classic

Nov 21, 2018 – 2:28 pm
Il trovatore feature image (Lyric Opera of Chicago)

Review: When people talk about high-energy spectacle and romantic intensity in Italian opera, “Il Trovatore” is the classic Exhibit A. An instant hit when it opened in Rome, it’s still a winner. Lyric’s three-way production with the San Francisco Opera and the Met is a concept that remains dynamic and fresh, from the flash and wham of gypsy smithies hammering away at their swords in the extravagant Anvil Chorus, to the tragic love triangle that complicates a civil war unfolding. ★★★★

Maestro, father, grandfather: Muti dedicates CSO’s Verdi Requiem to massacre victims

Nov 10, 2018 – 2:00 pm
CSO181108_192 Feature image (Todd Rosenberg)

Review: In the aftermath of a California gunman’s rampage, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus delivered heart-stirring performance, resplendent with awe and penitence, delicately threaded with human doubt, and led by the world’s finest living interpreter of this work.

‘Siegfried’ at Lyric Opera: Amid witty optics, short-pants hero meets gravitas of Eric Owens

Nov 6, 2018 – 2:14 pm
Siegfried Lyric Chicago 2018 (Todd Rosenberg)

Review: The first sign of the enemy in “Siegfried” was a shiny-red three-toed claw, beckoning from under Lyric Opera curtain, as if to say, “I’m Fafner the Dragon, and I’m ready to rumble.” The crowd rippled with mirth and stayed on top of the details in Wagner’s lively saga about the great god Wotan, played by bass-baritone Eric Owens, and the brash young Siegfried, whose help is needed if Wotan’s plan to save the gods has half a chance. ★★★

After 12-year absence from CSO, Barenboim returns with ‘My Homeland’ – but not his own

Nov 3, 2018 – 1:52 pm

Review: No living conductor, not even music director Riccardo Muti, enjoys a longer association with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra than Daniel Barenboim. It was 48 years ago this month that the Israeli musical polymath, then all of 28, led the CSO for the first time. Barenboim would become the CSO’s music director in 1991 and hold that post until 2006. On Nov. 1, for the first time in the 12 years since he stepped down, Barenboim returned to conduct the CSO in the six symphonic poems of Smetana’s “Má vlast” (My Homeland), a reading more attuned to virtuosic effect than to the work’s essential Bohemian nationalism.

‘Radio Culture’ at TUTA Theatre: Conjuring day in the ‘normal life’ of a young Berlarusian

Oct 27, 2018 – 9:26 pm
Radio Culture TUTA US Premiere (Austin D. Oie)

Review: TUTA Theatre Company has forged its reputation by introducing audiences to unusual theatrical fare drawn largely from Eastern and Western European playwrights. The company has been more or less itinerant. But for the next month or so, if you venture into its newest, tiny (25-seat) storefront in a hidden corner of the Ravenswood neighborhood, you will spend 70 absolutely riveting minutes experiencing the U.S. premiere of Maxim Dosko’s “Radio Culture.” ★★★★

Haitink takes a misstep on the CSO podium, but not in grand turn through Bruckner Sixth

Oct 26, 2018 – 1:43 pm
Bernard Haitink (Clive Barda)

Review: Amid a roaring ovation for his eloquent account of Bruckner’s Sixth Symphony with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 89-year-old Bernard Haitink lost his footing on the step at the side of the podium and doubled over onto the Orchestra Hall stage. In an instant, the audience’s elation turned to a mass gasp of horror. But minutes later, the venerable maestro was gesturing to the relieved players and cheering public to assure them that all was well.

Premiere of Mantovani’s eclectic ‘Threnos’ accents CSO memorial fare with Marin Alsop

Oct 21, 2018 – 9:34 pm
10/18/18 8:20:39 PM
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Marin Alsop conductor
Daniil Trifonov piano
Bruno Mantovani composer



Mantovani Threnos [World Premiere, CSO Commission]
Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3
Bridge Lament
Copland Symphony No. 3

© Todd Rosenberg Photography 2018

Review: Years, anniversaries, and commemorations arguably form the backbone of contemporary classical concert programming, and this year’s centenary of the end of the First World War is exemplary. Conductor Marin Alsop’s program with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on Oct. 19 at Orchestra Hall featured works by American, Russian, and British musicians written in response to the First and Second World Wars and their aftermath, plus a major world premiere from the French composer Bruno Mantovani, commissioned by the CSO and Jennifer Pritzker, founder of Chicago’s Pritzker Military Museum & Library.

‘Idomeneo’ at Lyric Opera: Strike gives way to stellar Mozart and new reign of euphoria

Oct 19, 2018 – 6:35 pm
Feat IDOMENEO_0V8A6337-Cropped_c.Kyle Flubacker

Review: Neptune scowled, but grand opera is back on the boards at the Lyric Opera House, and you could all but taste relief in the torrent of applause as the curtain went up on the season’s first post-strike performance of Mozart’s early masterpiece “Idomeneo.” Jean-Pierre Ponelle’s iconic production greeted the crowd. ★★★★

In annual report, CSO notes high renewal rate for subscribers and popularity of film concerts

Oct 16, 2018 – 10:18 pm
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This Just In: The following is a news release written by an arts organization, submitted to and edited by Chicago On the Aisle.
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) released the results of fiscal year 2018 …

Strike settled, Lyric Opera set to raise curtain on Mozart’s ‘Idomeneo’ and Part 3 of ‘Ring’

Oct 15, 2018 – 4:20 pm
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Report: After the brief, harrowing intermission of a strike by its orchestra, the Lyric Opera of Chicago is back in business. Members of the Chicago Federation of Musicians ratified a new contract Oct. 14, ending a five-day walkout and clearing the way for the Lyric to declare Oct. 18 as the deferred opening night of Mozart’s “Idomeneo.” The Lyric Opera House actually re-opens its doors Oct. 17 with a performance of Puccini’s “La bohème,” which launched the current season.

Orozco-Estrada leads CSO through nature’s realm in pageant of Mahler Third Symphony

Oct 13, 2018 – 4:45 pm
CSO Orozco-Estrada_Andres_feature image (Werner_Kmetitsch)

Review: While the sounds of birds chirping and animals flitting can be heard in the Symphony No. 3 in D minor, the work is much more than a mere evocation of an idyll. Indeed, the composer takes listeners on an extraordinary musical, philosophical and auto-biographical journey. Colombian-born Andrés Orozco-Estrada guided the Chicago Symphony in a performance that captured the full richness, variety and scope of Mahler’s odyssey.

Healthy and ambitious, Joffrey Ballet plans epic storytelling as core of 2018-19 season

Oct 10, 2018 – 8:36 pm
'Swan Lake' returns to the Joffrey in 2018-29 season (Cheryl Mann) featured image

Preview: Three grand narratives headline the Joffrey’s new season opening October 17 at the Auditorium Theatre: Remounts of Christopher Wheeldon’s ingenious ballet-within-a-ballet version of “Swan Lake” and his Chicago-oriented “Nutcracker,” plus the world premiere of Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina” choreographed by fellow Russian Yuri Possokhov.

‘La bohème’ at Lyric Opera: Splendid voices, squandered in an unsentimental tool shed

Oct 7, 2018 – 3:31 pm
La Boheme Lyric Opera 2018

Review: Despite a superior musical performance by a fine international cast, and firmly idiomatic orchestral playing and choral work from the promising Venezuelan-Swiss conductor Domingo Hindoyan, in his Lyric debut, the new-to-Chicago “La bohème” by director Richard Jones is a major letdown, a misconceived case of too much here and too little there.★★★

New Mazzoli cycle sparkles amid vocal gems as Collaborative Arts honors the art of song

Oct 5, 2018 – 1:12 pm
Feature 1 Elliot Mandel

Review: The Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago is on a mission. Now in its ninth season, the Institute has dedicated its considerable energy to the preservation of art song as a germane form for contemporary audiences. The Institute kicked off its 2018 Collaborative Works Festival on Sept. 5 with diverse repertoire that included the Midwest premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s new cycle “Songs from the Operas.” Next up, on Oct. 28, the Institute will observe the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day with Mahler’s “Des Knaben Wunderhorn.”

With CSO blazing, Riccardo Muti brings back Hindemith masterpiece ‘Mathis der Maler’

Oct 5, 2018 – 1:11 pm
Feature img Detail from portrait of Paul_Hindemith 1931 (Rudolf_Heinisch via wiki)

Review: After an absence of more than 20 years from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra repertoire, Muti and the CSO have brought back Hindemith’s magnum opus in a brilliant, deeply considered performance. French pianist David Fray was the cool, unconvincing soloist in Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto.

Opulence of ‘Scheherazade,’ Mozart writ large: Who can resist sound of Muti’s Chicago band?

Sep 28, 2018 – 4:28 pm
Muti CSO

Review: Music director Riccardo Muti’s second week of concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra was notably conservative – Mozart’s Overture to “Don Giovanni” and his Symphony No. 40 in G minor, together with Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade” – but even curmudgeonly critics had to acknowledge the consistently high level of performance the maestro drew from his remarkable ensemble in a program Sept. 27 at a packed and enthusiastic Orchestra Hall.

‘Curve of Departure’ at Northlight Theatre: Nussbaum at 94, etching old age with mastery

Sep 23, 2018 – 5:24 pm
Mike Nussbaum400 Curve of Departure Northlight (Credit - Michael Brosilow)

Review: Actor Mike Nussbaum will turn 95 in December (no, that is not a typo), and he is now delivering such a towering performance in the Northlight Theatre production of Rachel Bonds’ play, “Curve of Departure,” that you might easily be persuaded he is simply a supremely talented actor impersonating an old man.★★★

Muti, CSO open with Shostakovich monument ‘Babi Yar’; composer’s widow attends concert

Sep 22, 2018 – 1:03 pm

Review: Music director Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra opened their 2018-19 season Sept. 21 with an eloquent and gripping performance of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 (“Babi Yar”) on verses of Yevgeny Yevtushenko memorializing the massacre of Jews by German soldiers near Kiev in 1941. The composer’s widow, Irina Shostakovich, joined Muti on stage at Orchestra Hall for a post-performance conversation.

Theater 2018-19: In three philosophical plays, Shattered Globe probes issues intimate, epic

Aug 23, 2018 – 4:21 pm
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Fifth in a series of season previews: It’s easy to pick five shows for a season, says Shattered Globe Theater artistic director Sandy Shinner. But settling on just three plays, which is a full plate for this plucky little company: That, says Shinner, is tricky. The trio of plays in view at Shattered Globe this season bears a collective stamp of philosophical discourse in dramatic form.

Theater 2018-19: Redtwist celebrates 15th year by raising monument in tiny space: ‘King Lear’

Aug 22, 2018 – 3:45 pm
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Fourth in a series of season previews: Fifteen years into its venture of creating high-voltage drama in a really small space, Redtwist Theatre will roll out its first production ever by the Bard of Avon. And what else would you choose for a first leap into Shakespeare on a postage-stamp stage but “King Lear”?

Theater 2018-19: Court maps world premiere and last play in the Wilson cycle: ‘Radio Golf’

Aug 21, 2018 – 9:25 am
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Third in a series of season previews: Court Theatre will cap its 64th season – and artistic director Charles Newell’s 24th year at the helm — with the world premiere adaptation of Saul Bellow’s novel “The Adventures of Augie March,” and kick it off with August Wilson’s “Radio Golf,” the tenth and final installment in his chronicle of the African American experience.

Theater 2018-19: TimeLine cues four dramas, collaborates with feminist venture Firebrand

Aug 20, 2018 – 3:28 pm
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Second in a series of season previews: TimeLine Theatre launches its 22nd season from the company’s familiar, Janus-faced perspective on historical events: seeing human events of the past in the mirror of the continuing present. “We are, first and foremost, theater makers,” says artistic director PJ Powers. “But we use the lens of history to provide social context.” TimeLine opens its season with Barbara Lebow’s post-Holocaust drama “A Shayna Maidel.”

Theater 2018-19: Getting a real sense of home, Writers plans far-ranging season in new house

Aug 17, 2018 – 2:49 pm
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First in a series of season previews: Michael Halberstam, founding artistic director of the 27-year-old Writers Theatre, looks back on the company’s first two full seasons in its new Glencoe home as “a very exciting journey, and with this season we feel we’ve really found the right mix for both of our versatile spaces.”

‘Exit the King’ at American Players Theatre: Why would an absolute ruler accede to death?

Aug 16, 2018 – 11:46 am
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Review: Eugêne Ionesco’s play about dying, “Exit the King,” generally comes under the rubric of absurdist drama. But that tag doesn’t really fit the play. If a label is required, perhaps “figurative” – certainly, existential. An absorbing and quite affecting account at American Players Theatre rings with truth about that juncture in life where few arrive gladly: its end. ★★★★

‘As You Like It’ at American Players Theatre: Romp in the woods with the Bard, and a twist

Aug 14, 2018 – 11:33 am
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Review: It’s a trifecta for women, two in traditional roles and another in a first for me: Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” at American Players Theatre in Spring Green, Wis. Melisa Pereyra and Andrea San Miguel portray BFF Rosalind and Celia – and, in a stunning gender shift, Tracy Michelle Arnold appears as the cynical philosopher Jaques. ★★★★

Role Playing: Zachary Stevenson elevated his Buddy Holly from hiccups to the rockin’ truth

Aug 11, 2018 – 6:25 pm
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Interview: Zachary Stevenson slips into the persona of Buddy Holly like the early rocker’s doppelgänger in American Blues Theatre’s extended run of the musical “Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story,” by Alan Janes. Stevenson says he feels that identity – now. But back when he first landed the part, more than a decade and some 12 productions ago in Toronto, it was a different story.