Adults: Opera Insights

OPERA FOCUS
Special Opera Focus events shedding light on each of the season’s operas are held every spring. Often members from the artist team offer insight into the innovative and fresh productions they have assembled. Meet the people that make COT’s productions “unnerving”, “spellbinding”, “stunning”, “passionate” and “not to be missed”.

Don Giovanni

The Trilogy Completed – Mozart and DaPonte
Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 6pm
Goethe-Institut 150 N Michigan Ave Suite 200 Chicago, IL 60601
FREE, but reservations requested with Lisa Lux (312.263.0472 or lux@chicago.goethe.org)

Conductor Jane Glover, director Diane Paulus and Don Giovanni himself, Iain Paterson, in conversation as COT completes the Mozart/DaPonte opera trilogy. (Presented in partnership with the Goethe-Institut and in collaboration with the Austrian Consulate General and Istituto Italiano di Cultura.)

Orlando

In Conversation
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 at 6pm
Goethe-Institut 150 N Michigan Ave Suite 200 Chicago, IL 60601
FREE, but reservations requested with Lisa Lux (312.263.0472 or lux@chicago.goethe.org)

German composer George Frideric Handel spent the better part of his adult life living and working in London. COT artists explore how the British musical scene was influenced by this German, and how the British influenced Handel’s works. Join a conversation with famed British conductor, Raymond Leppard, in his fifth decade on the podium, the exceptional British counter-tenor portraying Orlando, Tim Mead, and revered General Director, Brian Dickie as they shed light on opera by Handel and reveal insights into COT’s new production of Orlando. Joined by Young Artists singing excerpts from this new production. (Presented in partnership with the Goethe-Institut and in collaboration with the British Consulate General.)

Origins of Orlando
Tuesday, May 27, 2008 at 6:30pm
Newberry Library, 60 W Walton Street, Chicago, IL 60601
FREE, but reservations requested (312.704.8420 x23 or education@chicagooperatheater.org)

Orlando, written in 1732 by George Frideric Handel, is based upon a poem of epic proportions, Orlando furioso by Ludovico Ariosto. Orlando furioso influenced countless literary works and numerous pieces of music including three operas by Handel alone. Come discover Orlando’s origins with Director Justin Way, Princeton University musicologist Wendy Heller, and Italian literary historian Eleonora Stoppino from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign as they explore Handel’s music and Ariosto’s epic poem. (Co-sponsored by Istituto Italiano di Cultura and the Department of French & Italian at Northwestern University.)

A Flowering Tree

Stories Told: Through the Voices of South Indian Women
Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 6:00pm
University of Chicago Gleacher Center, 450 North Cityfront Plaza Drive Chicago, IL 60611
FREE, but reservations requested (312.704.8420 x23 or education@chicagooperatheater.org)

Renowned for his geo-political operas, John Adams’ newest work turns away from contemporary events toward stories from long ago. A Flowering Tree is based upon an ancient folk tale from Southern India translated by A.K. Ramanujan, a famous poet, brilliant folklorist and faculty member at the University of Chicago for 30 years before his passing in 1993. Ramanujan had an eye for the best stories, a sympathy for women’s points of view, and the ability to transform folk tales into universal stories. Esteemed scholar Wendy Doniger, a colleague of Ramanujan’s at the University, takes us on a journey by recounting the original tale and delving into the folk traditions that inspired Adams’ newest masterpiece. (Co-sponsored by the University of Chicago Graham School of General Studies and South Asia Language & Area Center.)

View all other events celebrating A Flowering Tree as part of India Blooms in Chicago.

View our 2008 calendar of events

Hear podcasts of prior events