Opera – Gathering Note

Valentine’s Day weekend brings enchanting, intimate Cendrillon to the CheckOut

On Valentine’s Day weekend, Chicago City Opera brought Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon (Cinderella) to the CheckOut in Lakeview, proving that you don’t need a proscenium arch to create magic. The CheckOut is a former 7-Eleven on North Clark Street, now revived by Access Contemporary Music and composer Seth Boustead as a venue for chamber music and new music events.

The experiment succeeded. The February 14 performance was nearly sold out, drawing a varied crowd of younger and older listeners. As the venue’s first opera, it felt like a natural extension of salon culture: exclusive in its scale yet welcoming and unfussy.

Hide the moon! Hide the stars!

Illustration by Aubrey Beardsley for the first English edition of the play

After finally seeing Lyric Opera’s current Salome, I’m convinced more than ever that this isn’t just a fine opera, it’s riveting theater.

For this run, Lyric is using David McVicar’s darkly disturbing 2008 production for the Royal Opera House, and it works. The upstairs/downstairs staging pits Herod’s decadent elite against quarreling religious factions in a way that percolates with tension. My only quibble? “The Dance of the Seven Veils” felt a touch too abstract. But everywhere else—especially in Salome’s mad, final scene—McVicar’s vision hit its mark.

Chicago Opera Theater rediscovers Salieri’s Falstaff one prank at a time

Before Chicago Opera Theater’s recent production of Antonio Salieri’s Falstaff began, the General Director Lawrence Edelson posed a question to the audience in the Windy City’s famed Studebaker Theater: How many people had heard an opera by Antonio Salieri? Fewer than six hands went up. The question was pointedly rhetorical. The Italian-born Viennese composer is opera’s most notorious footnote, a composer whose reputation was tarnished not by his music but by rumor, innuendo, and a playwright’s imagination. Peter Shaffer’s celebrated work for stage, Amadeus, and its subsequent film adaptation cast Salieri as a villain, a mediocre counterpoint to Mozart’s genius.

Proving Up

Missy Mazzoli’s chamber opera Proving Up is being offered at Northwestern University this week. Hannah Edgar’s story for WBEZ is worth a listen or read, as is the opera itself.

Ticket availability is limited.

Medea delivers an unforgettable experience at the Lyric

I had hoped to write something longer about Medea, which opened a week ago at the Lyric Opera. Time and circumstance have conspired against me, but this production demands to be acknowledged, even if briefly. Suffice it to say, the performance and production is not to be missed.

Luigi Cherubini’s Medea remains one of opera’s most unjustly neglected masterworks. A magnificent, proto-Romantic affair that bridges classical restraint with the full-throated passion that would define the nineteenth century. The score crackles with intensity, its dramatic architecture built on a foundation of inexorable tension that tightens with each scene until the inevitable, devastating conclusion. It’s a work that demands everything from its performers, particularly its title role.

Sondra Radvanovsky rises to meet those demands with a performance that can only be described as revelatory. She is one of the most dynamic, emotional singers on stage today, and her portrayal of Medea’s descent from wounded dignity to vengeful fury is nothing short of mesmerizing. Her voice carries the full weight of Medea’s rage and anguish yet never sacrifices beauty for dramatic effect. This is singing that cuts to the bone.

Equally crucial to the evening’s success is the presence of conductor Enrique Mazzola, a committed advocate for this work who understands its every contour. Under his baton, the Lyric Opera Orchestra played with a precision and fervor that matched the intensity unfolding onstage. The production itself serves the opera well, allowing the drama to unfold with clarity and power.

It all adds up to the most memorable opera experience for me of the last five years. If you have any opportunity to see this production before it closes, seize it. Performances of this caliber are rare, and Medea is an opera that deserves to be experienced in the theater, where its full power can be felt. The Lyric has given us something special.

Here is a roundup of critical opinions.

Fall highlights from Chicago’s 25/26 classical music season

Labor Day has passed, taking with it the last illusions of summer leisure. What follows, as reliably as the shortening days, is the arrival of a new classical music and opera season. Chicago’s 2025–26 offerings promise the usual abundance of repertoire and revivals, along with a handful of events that seem more like occasions than routine schedulings.

Conrad Tao and Catalyst Quartet, Nova Linea Musica – September 10; December 3

In its second season, Nova Linea Musica continues to make the case that contemporary music deserves a place not at the margins but at the center of Chicago’s concert life. The opening recital belongs to Conrad Tao, a pianist who has built his career less on institutional endorsements than on his own iconoclastic instincts. Tao programs like someone unwilling to pander: a premiere by the Chicago composer Chris Mercer, a piece of his own, and music by Jürg Frey and Ben Nobuto suggest he’s more interested in probing the present than reassuring the past.

Operas, quartets, and Mahler on the lawn

^{Photo Credit: Cory Weaver and Des Moines Metro Opera Festival. Last year’s production of Salome}

Spring is struggling to take hold here in the Midwest. Just when you think warm temperatures and sunshine are here to stay, a cold spell with rain arrives to dampen the mood. Still, the weather won’t stop the summer classical music season from arriving in mid-June.

Classical music sounds better in the summer, at least to my ears. And it’s not just the music—it’s where it’s played: outdoor bandshells, rural hideouts, rustic auditoriums, and expansive lawns. Freed from the formality of the great concert halls, the music breathes differently, more freely, even when the conditions are less than ideal.

I’ve been fostering a side hustle as a part-time freelance music critic since the late ’90s, when I was slogging through law school. Writing about music in Iowa and the Quad Cities helped me survive those grueling academic years. But when summer arrived, everything changed. I stopped using music as a means of escape and started experiencing it as a source of joy. Completely. Whether it was chamber recitals at the local Unitarian church or evenings at Ravinia in Highland Park, those concerts—and the many that followed—came to define summer for me.

The summer of 2025 will be my first full summer in a new city. Last year was all about settling in, arguably the worst part of any move. But this year, I’m ready to see what the area has to offer classical music lovers like me. Here are a few events I’m especially looking forward to.

“Let the door be shut and bolted”

_{Photo Credit: Chihuly Studios, Terry Rishel}

Esa-Pekka Salonen joins the CSO for a two-week residency focusing on Bartók. In week one, Salonen pairs the Concerto for Orchestra with his own Sinfonia Concertante for organ and orchestra, while in week two Bluebeard’s Castle shares the stage with Beethoven’s Second Symphony. As of this afternoon, there are still ample tickets available for Bluebeard’s Castle, and anyone who can go should.

It is one of the spookier pieces of music out there, and Bartók’s vocal writing is excruciatingly demanding. I’ve seen it staged on a double bill with Schoenberg’s expressionist masterpiece Erwartung. But, it was my first experience with the opera, a semi-staged concert performance in Seattle that is firmly planted in my memory. Gerard Schwarz pulled out all of the stops to make it a memorable evening. Schwarz’s production was unforgettable, partially thanks to Charles Simonyi’s support, which enabled the creation of glass sculptures by Dale Chihuly representing six of the seven doors opened by Judith and Duke Bluebeard. This striking production has since traveled to other venues, undoubtedly thrilling audiences.

While Chicago’s performance won’t feature Chihuly’s vibrant sculptures, it boasts its own impressive draw: Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting, alongside soloists Ekaterina Gubanova and Christian Van Horn.

Omar’s Journey is a new milestone for the Quad City Symphony

_{James Dixon, Himie Voxman, and Dimitri Mitropoulos, 1952. Photo Credit: University of Iowa}

For over a century, the Quad City Symphony Orchestra (QCSO) has stood as a cultural gem nestled between the major Midwestern cities of Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, and St. Louis, just a few blocks from the banks of the Mississippi River. Throughout the 20th century, as musicians, soloists, and orchestras embarked on regional tours, the QCSO often served as a strategic and welcoming stop. It provided a platform for artists en route to more renowned venues, enriching the local cultural scene and solidifying the orchestra’s role as a significant hub in the Midwest’s music circuit. This legacy helped foster a deep tradition, making the QCSO a cherished institution in the region.

One of my most treasured keepsakes from this era with the QCSO is their cookbook titled Standing Ovations. It’s a quintessential Midwest cookbook, filled with hearty recipes and straightforward preparations. What truly makes it a keeper, however, are the contributions from the QCSO’s frequent guest artists, such as baritone Robert Merrill (Cheese Pancakes), cellist Leonard Rose (Steak With a Kick), and the Contiguglia Brothers piano duo (Fusilli with Creamy Zucchini), among others.

Chicago Opera Theater’s Leonora shines light on overlooked masterpiece

Originally published at Seen and Heard International

As the overture of Ferdinando Paër’s Leonora filled the historic Studebaker Theater, the audience for Chicago Opera Theater’s opening opera of the season experienced a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to witness an important – yet sadly overlooked – early 19th century opera. In fact, calling this a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity may understate its rarity. The performances of Leonora that began on October 4th marked the work’s North American premiere. Chicago Opera Theater’s production complements the Lyric Opera’s own run of Beethoven’s Fidelio, not only bringing the story of love and tyranny to life but also showcasing the emotional depth that Paër infused into his music, which stands in contrast to Beethoven’s take on the same story.