Reviews/Previews
| 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 |
2009
Opera Theater, Mozart get serious
-Chicago Tribune
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Chicago Opera Theater unveils three-work season for '09
-Chicago Sun-Times
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2008
Choose your own (operatic) adventure
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“In the end, the complexity of war clashes with the personal connections we all struggle to make, and without resolution, we are left with compelling drama.”
—Edge Chicago
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“We are bathed in beautiful music skillfully played by the COT orchestra under Leppard's leadership.”
—Chicago Sun-Times
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“Attractive and spirited. It was worth waiting for.”
-Chicago Tribune
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Orlando' takes the Harris Theater stage
-Northwest Indiana and Illinois Times
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“This is an accessible work that should appeal to those familiar with Adams' music and also intrigue those who have yet to discover it.”
—Seen and Heard
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“Chicago is a world class musical city and with Chicago Opera Theater’s “A Flowering Tree” we have been treated to a sampling of the very best the town has to offer.”
—Opera Today
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“Adams and Sellars adapt a thousand-year-old tale to the opera, casting aside political relevance in favor of simplicity, color, and beauty. The results are, in a word, enchanting.”
-Chicago Maroon
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“The transformation scenes are at first hypnotic visual poetry. And choreographer Renato Zanella has found wonderful ways to animate Adams' score onstage with nine gifted dancers.”
-Chicago Sun-Times
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John Adams conducts his brilliant 'Tree' at Harris Theatre
-Chicago Tribune
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'Flowering' magical: Chicago Opera premiere weaves beautiful magic
-Daily Herald
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A Flowering Tree At Chicago Opera Theater
-chicagocritic.com
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For John Adams, a tree grows in Chicago
-Chicago Sun-Times
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Lyrical 'Flowering Tree'
-Northwest Indiana and Illinois Times
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Composer goes from bombs, darkness to blooms, hope
-Chicago Tribune
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Don Giovanni
Brian Dickie talks about Don Giovanni and the 2008 Spring Season
-Talk!Theatre in Chicago
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Video Mozart warms cold Millennium Park crowd
-Chicago Tribune
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Review: Outdoor Opera
-chicagoist
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Don Giovanni
-Windy City Media Group
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Andrew Patner: The Dark Side
-WFMT
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COT infuses modern detail into classics
-Chicago Tribune
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Glover-Paulus team creates a superb 'Don Giovanni' for Chicago Opera Theater
-Chicago Sun-Times
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COT's 'Giovanni' is moody about Mozart
-Chicago Tribune
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Season
Chicago Opera Theater spans the dawn of opera
-NewCity Chicago
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Chicago Opera Theater makes growing its base a priority
-Chicago Tribune
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A contemporary 'Don Giovanni'
-Chicago Sun-Times
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Singing a new tune
-Time Out Chicago
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Updated 'Don Giovanni'
-Northwest Indiana and Illinois Times
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Chicago Opera Theater: Something Old, Something New
-Windy City Times
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Adams' 'Flowering' will bloom at Chicago Opera Theater.
-Chicago Tribune
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Chicago Opera Theater: No. 2 but trying harder for 2008
-Chicago Sun-Times
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Live Millennium Park Simulcast
Straight-to-video opera at Millennium Park: CHICAGO OPERA THEATER Free 'Don Giovanni' simulcast airs May 9
-Chicago Sun-Times
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The People’s Opera
Occasionally, arts hear voice of people
-Rocky Mountain News
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Fans can vote for opera
-Daily Herald
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COT urges early and frequent voting for 2010 opera season
-Chicago Tribune
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2007
Béatrice et Bénédict
Tip of the Week
-New City Chicago
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“Kaiser and Eddy were marvelous together. Jan Latham-Koenig conducts a luminous reading of the score”
-Chicago Tribune
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“As the lovers, tenor Joseph Kaiser and mezzo Sandra Piques Eddy seem born to their lyrical parts and to their stage feuding-loving as well. Here (Brian Dickie) has found a cast that acts the theatrical portions as well and as believably as they handle their musical assignments."
-Chicago Sun-Times
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Duke Bluebeard's Castle and Erwartung
“The alienation and psychological devastation on display at the Harris Theater don’t provide the normal night at the opera…but it is unnerving, spellbinding and, it might as well be said, more fulfilling.”
-Time Out Chicago
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“Chicago Opera Theater’s double bill of one-act operas is a stunner, plain and simple.”
-Windy City Times
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“(Both operas) are given lush musical treatment coupled with minimal, inky-dim visuals that never let you forget how powerful the dark side of love can be.”
-Hyde Park Herald
“This season they offered the rare treat to see a pairing of two operas that are not often performed in Chicago, and, as an added bonus, they cast two of the opera world’s superstars.”
-OperaOnline.us
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“You owe it to yourself to catch this absorbing twin bill.”
-Chicago Tribune
These works grip and chill the soul with a brilliant and passionate force."
-Chicago Sun-Times
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"They are must-see operas, and these stunning performances will leave an impact whether you have not yet seen them or have seen them a dozen times."
-ChicagoCritic.com
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The Return of Ulysses
Jane Glove talks about The Return of Ulysses on WBEZ's Hello Beautiful!
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“Once again, Chicago Opera Theater has assembled an almost iron-clad cast for a rarely seen opera requiring the services of, and budget, of a major company and succeeded.”
-Time Out Chicago
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“Ulysses is positively Shakespearean in its fusion of heroic, tragic and broadly comic elements. Paulus has made the highly stylized conceits of early Italian Baroque opera feel as fresh to modern ears as the tangy, colorful continuity of sounds Glover, working from her own edition of the score, elicits from her fine period-instruments orchestra. (A) living breathing drama that speaks with a contemporary voice.”
-Chicago Tribune
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“Highly recommended. The music, haunting, unfamiliar, yet immediate and completely natural, builds towards the inevitable yet thrilling reunion of man and wife. It carries us to a world where ancient people are tested dramatically in ways that are like a magnifying glass held over the smaller triumphs and failures of our own lives.”
-Chicago Sun-Times
“COT’s involving Ulysses once again shows that the company is a leader of creating innovative operatic theater.”
-Daily Herald
"COT's production is visually, aurally, and dramatically stunning; it brings together a story from Antiquity, music from the Baroque, and contemporary direction to create a sense of timeless drama."
-ChicagoCritic.com
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“Opera is a theatrical form that is not very approachable for young people of today, but COT is making an effort to kindle interest within all ages.”
-Northeastern Illinois University Independent
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2006
Nixon in China
Brian Dickie talks on WBEZ's 848 about Nixon in China (.mp3)
"Raise a toast to Chicago Opera Theater for bringing to the city's attention one of the great operas of recent years and doing it so brilliantly."
- Chicago Tribune
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"A rewarding night at the theater."
-Chicago Sun-Times
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"Stunning…must not be missed."
-WFMT
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"Richard Nixon lives again - in the opera world"
-Reuters
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"Chicago Opera Theater's production is spectacular"
-Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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"A superb gift, a confirmation of the living arts"
- Windy City Times
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"A truly memorable marriage of music and drama that is not to be missed."
- New City
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Abduction from the Seraglio
"The work has had to wait 22 years to be mounted by a major Chicago company. It was worth the wait."
-Chicago Tribune
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"It has a sparkling overture, a justly famous blustery bass aria and some beguiling arias and ensembles, all deftly performed by the fine ensemble Chicago Opera Theater has gathered for its new production."
-Chicago Sun-Times
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"I just know my first 'Opera!' was thoroughly enjoyable . . . that's certainly an inadequate term! It was just wonderful, and I never expected that."
-Audience Member & First Time Opera Attendee, Valerie Mockaitis
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The Padlock & Dido and Aeneas
"Susanne Mentzer is a marvelous Dido singing with an urgency and a warmth that energizes everyone around her. Don't miss Mentzer."
-Time Out Chicago
"Opera can, in the right hands, deliver a bracing shock of the new."
-Chicago Tribune
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"Dido and Aeneas has style to spare. (Maestro) Leppard brought an ironic, contemporary ear to Dibdin's tale (The Padlock)."
-Chicago Sun-Times
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"Chicago Opera Theater under Brian Dickie is carving out a niche by mounting unusual productions. The glory of the production is the brilliant way director Lillian Groag has woven the two disparate pieces together."
-Classical 96.3 Toronto
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"International opera star Susanne Mentzer was in every way a dazzling Dido… (a) radiant presence and glowing voice (and) an actress of considerable skill."
-Pioneer Press
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"Dibdin's music is rollicking fun and showcases seven superb singers and Lillian Groag's masterful direction."
-Chicago Free Press
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"COT is opening its 2006 season Wednesday at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance at Millennium Park with several notable Chicago firsts..."
- Chicago Tribune
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"Chicago Opera Theater is not only a place to hear impeccably produced, gorgeously sung opera. Since the arrival of general director Brian Dickie in 1999, it is also one of the cutting-edge arts organizations in town."
- Chicago Sun-Times
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