Few writers have inspired composers as irresistibly as Oscar Wilde. His dazzling wit, provocative ideas, haunting stories, and lyrical poetry have found their way into operas, art songs, and musicals for more than a century. Created as a companion to COT’s Chicago premiere of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco’s The Importance of Being Earnest, On the Wilde Side journeys through this remarkable musical legacy.

The program offers the rare opportunity to hear scenes from operas inspired by Wilde that have never been performed in Chicago, including Alexander Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg (The Dwarf), Antoine Mariotte’s Salomé, and Lowell Liebermann’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. Audiences will also enjoy a preview of COT’s upcoming production of The Importance of Being Earnest, along with a charming aria from The Selfish Giant by Chicago-based composer Clarice Assad.

The concert also uncovers a fascinating piece of Chicago opera history: an aria from Jane Van Etten’s Guido Ferranti, based on Wilde’s The Duchess of Padua. Premiered by Chicago’s Century Opera Company in 1914, Van Etten’s opera was among the first works written by a woman composer presented by an American opera company.

Wilde’s poetry takes center stage as well, in evocative songs by Erwin Schulhoff, Charles Tomlinson Griffes, Borys Lyatoshynsky, and Ned Rorem, while selections from the musicals Earnest in Love and After the Ball reveal yet another side of Wilde’s extraordinary theatrical impact.

Pianist and music director Michael Banwarth makes his COT debut leading a stellar ensemble featuring soprano Elizabeth Novella, mezzo-soprano Emily Treigle, tenors Ian Koziara and Jerek Fernandez, and baritone Sankara Harouna.

From the sparkling to the seductive, the romantic to the macabre, On the Wilde Side celebrates Oscar Wilde’s irresistible worlds and the extraordinary music they have inspired.