Displaying items by tag: Chicago opera

Opera Festival of Chicago continues its season with two mainstage productions - La Bohème and Adriana Lecouvreur - each featuring the Opera Festival of Chicago Orchestra and Chorus and performed at the George Van Dusen Theatre at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. 

I had the chance to see Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème, directed by Festival General Director Sasha Gerritson and conducted by Sir Emanuele Adrizzi, and it proved to be an outstanding, deeply felt evening of music and drama.

Giacomo Puccini’s La Bohème unfolds in the chilly garrets and bustling cafés of 1830s Paris, where a group of young artists survive on charm, wit, and the fragile hope that beauty might be enough to sustain them. The opera begins in a drafty attic shared by the poet Rodolfo and the painter Marcello, whose playful banter masks the hunger and hardship of their bohemian life. Everything shifts when Mimì, a shy, dreamy seamstress with a failing candle and failing health, knocks on their door. Her tender connection with Rodolfo ignites instantly, carrying them into the vibrant chaos of Café Momus, where Marcello’s fiery former lover Musetta steals the spotlight with her flirtations and razor‑sharp instincts.

But as winter settles in, the opera’s warmth gives way to harsher truths. Only the rich are safe and well fed in this cold bleak landscape of artistic poverty. Mimì’s illness worsens, and Rodolfo’s fear of losing her fractures their love, even as they cling to moments of sweetness. Both Mimì and Rodolfo are swept up in the sudden, poetic rush of feeling that sparks between them during their first meeting over her extinguished candle, a moment Puccini shapes with irresistible warmth. Their ensuing duet, “O soave fanciulla,” is written as a rush of idealized, almost dreamlike love - sung here with such radiance that it feels too perfect to endure, and tragically it doesn’t, as the briefness of their time together becomes one of the opera’s most heartbreaking truths. 

By the final act, the bohemians reunite in their attic, trying to conjure laughter out of scarcity, until Musetta arrives with the gravely weakened Mimì. What follows is one of opera’s most devastating endings: a quiet, intimate vigil as Rodolfo realizes too late that the love he tried to protect has slipped beyond saving. Puccini shapes this world with music that aches, soars, and ultimately reminds us how fiercely we hold on to joy, even as life insists on its fragility. Puccini also paints a world in which artists of every stripe are routinely exploited by the comfortable classes - the dull rich, who commission work and then pay only sporadically, as if deprivation were somehow a necessary ingredient of genius. In reality, it is the indifference of these wealthy patrons that forces the bohemians into constant hardship, driving them to beg, borrow, and even steal simply to keep food on the table and have their housing bills covered.  

(L to R) Alexandra Razskazoff, “Mimi” and Nathan Granner, “Rodolfo” in LA BOHÈME. Photos by A.Deran Photography.

This La Bohème features a cast whose vocal and dramatic instincts sharpen Puccini’s world into something immediate and deeply felt. Alexandra Razskazoff’s Mimì is nothing short of luminous - her soprano glowing with warmth yet edged with delicacy, embodying a young woman whose softness hides a life lived perilously close to the margins. A rising artist with an increasingly international footprint, Razskazoff traces Mimì’s arc with such emotional transparency that her final moments land with quiet, devastating force. Opposite her, tenor Nathan Granner brings a beautifully burnished tone and an instinctive musicality to Rodolfo. Long admired for his expressive phrasing and crossover versatility, Granner sings with a poet’s sensitivity; his Rodolfo is impulsive, romantic, and heartbreakingly human, especially as love and fear begin to pull him apart.

Catherine Antonia Samartin lights up the stage as Musetta, her bright, agile soprano and irresistible charisma making every entrance feel like a spark catching fire. Musetta is also the victim of this us versus them world where her beauty and charms are commodified on the older wealthy man she is forced to keep company with in order to receive her beautiful wardrobe and warm home to live in. Her scenes with Kenneth Stavert’s Marcello are especially electric. Stavert, with his rich, grounded baritone and wonderfully lived‑in ease, brings both humor and heart to the painter whose bravado barely conceals his vulnerability. Anthony Reed’s Colline provides a beautifully resonant counterweight to the lovers’ volatility - his “Vecchia zimarra” delivered with a quiet, dignified ache that speaks volumes about loyalty and sacrifice. Jonathan Wilson brings quicksilver energy and crisp comedic timing to Schaunard, shaping the role with warmth and buoyancy, while veteran bass William Powers steals scenes with effortless charm as both Benoit and Alcindoro, reminding audiences why he remains one of American opera’s most reliable character treasures. David Greene adds a welcome burst of color as Parpignol, enriching the Act II bustle with a touch of whimsy. This ensemble shapes a Bohème that feels vividly inhabited and emotionally true, a testament to what Puccini’s world becomes when every performer contributes with such specificity, generosity, and heart.

One of the production’s most striking assets is its massive, 50‑plus‑member chorus, whose sheer presence reshapes the entire world of La Bohème. Their sound adds a thrilling sweep to Puccini’s score, amplifying the emotional stakes and giving the bustling Parisian scenes a vivid, lived‑in texture. In Act II especially, the sheer size and vocal richness of the ensemble create a sense of overwhelming festivity, making the Christmas Eve Café Momus tableau feel like a city bursting with life. But the chorus also deepens the opera’s more intimate moments, surrounding the central lovers with a sonic landscape that underscores both the joy and the fragility of their world. It’s a rare gift to hear a chorus of this scale in a production of Bohème, and here it elevates the performance into something grander, more immersive, and undeniably unforgettable.

(L to R) Kenneth Stavert, “Marcello;” Anthony Reed, “Colline;” William Powers, “Benoit;” Nathan Granner, “Rodolfo” and Jonathan Wilson, “Schaunard” in LA BOHÈME from Opera Festival of Chicago. Photos by A.Deran Photography.

The set itself is perfectly workable and the large video boards truly animate the space, supplying shifting imagery of snowfall and other atmospheric touches throughout the evening. Because the opera is sung in Italian, overhead supertitles - crisply projected and easy to follow - add a modern presentational layer that supports the storytelling without ever competing with Puccini’s world. 

This La Bohème resonates with honesty, heart, and thrilling musicality, carried by a cast and chorus performing at the height of their powers. It’s a standout achievement for Opera Festival of Chicago - and a compelling reason to experience not only this production but also their Adriana Lecouvreur, by Francesco Cilea, directed by Shifra Werch and also conducted by Sir Emanuele Andrizzi, which promises its own dramatic and musical rewards.

Recommended.

Performances are held at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts in Skokie. 

La Bohème - Friday, June 26 at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 1 at 7:30 p.m., and Sunday, July 5 at 2 p.m. 

Adriana Lecouvreur - Sunday, June 28 at 2 p.m. and Friday, July 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets range from $25 to $150 and are available at  www.OperaFestivalChicago.org.

Created in 1904, Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly has become one of the world’s greatest and most popular operas.  New York’s Metropolitan Opera alone had performed it 902 times prior to the beginning of its 2023-24 season.  Renowned for his gifts for melody, Puccini’s musical component is ravishingly beautiful.  His manner of intermixing cultural references into his orchestration also makes it exquisitely complex.  Enhanced with a gripping story about the power of trust and the fragility of love, Madama Butterfly qualifies as an irrefutable masterpiece. Throughout its existence though, the opera has also been an artistic triumph with issues.

An adaptation of a one-act play written in 1900, which itself was based on a short story by an American author, John Luther Long two years earlier, it’s been criticized as being a flawed fantasy.  One created by white men about the essence of another culture.  In this case, Japan.  In Madama Butterfly, an American, Lt. B. F. Pinkerton, arrives in the island country and soon begins a quest for love.  A love that he never plans to be lasting.  Once he returns state side, he’ll re-enter the mainstream and marry traditionally.

Since its origin, issues of perception and portrayal have always haunted Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.  He composed it in partnership with Giuseppe Giacosa and Luigi Illica who wrote the text or libretto.  For most of the opera’s existence, the way Japanese culture and its people were projected robbed them of dimension and ultimately diminished their humanity.  In both early productions of the opera and in virtually all that followed, Japanese men saw their virility erased while Japanese women watched their deference be reduced to an exaggerated docility.  As intrinsically lovely Madama Butterfly is as a creative jewel, for the Japanese people and many others of color, it has also been deeply problematic.

For Matthew Ozawa, Director and Chief Artistic Officer of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, it was as well.  As a Japanese-American director of operatic works, his relationship with Puccini’s masterpiece has been fraught.   He knew intrinsically as a director he could never present it in a conventional way.  If he were ever to take on the challenge of staging the piece, he would do it through more enlightened eyes.  The current production of Madama Butterfly he directs at the Lyric, running through April 12^th, shows how spectacular a 122-year-old classic can look and feel with a total makeover by a gifted artisan.

Ozawa’s Madama Butterfly, co-produced by the Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburg Opera, Detroit Opera and the Utah Opera, dismantles the old format and completely rebuilds it in a contemporary context.  The overhaul was so comprehensive, keeping the original orchestration and libretto unaltered and intact was a condition for greenlighting his vision.   

The Company of Madama Butterfly.

Like many men of his generation, Ozawa loved playing video games growing up.  It wasn’t a leap for him to envision Madama Butterfly taking on the features of a machine generated video game offering a portal to an alternate reality.  Pinkerton (tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson) would travel to Japan through his headset and begin a journey that would lead to the devastating consequences we all know will follow.

But first, like any talented leader, Ozawa needed to assemble a team to bring his concept to fruition.  Based on opening night’s performance at the Lyric, a better dream team probably doesn’t exist.  Recruiting all females as his key collaborators, who were either Japanese or Japanese-American, cultural accuracy and agency would no longer be a concern.  Each of them a heavy hitter in her respective craft, the composite experience they created was so remarkable it could easily be considered revelatory.  The superb impact of Kimie Nishikawa’s set designs and Yuki Nakase Link’s lighting talents made on the production’s visual potency and dynamism can’t be overstated. 

A muted background would suddenly blaze in dramatic color and fill with subtly ornate splendor when Pinkerton donned the goggles that would transport him to Japan. There, Maiko Matsushima’s costume designs bowled you away with their texture, imagination, sophistication and beauty.

Even when we first finally meet Cio-Cio-San, Butterfly, played by Karah Son, we’re visited with the unexpected.  She’s as small and delicate as butterflies are, but in her words and carriage you sense the steel in her spine.  At 15, she may have become a geisha to support herself, but she’s clearly proud of the fact that she’s also “well-bred”.   That inner dignity is an ever-present element of her character. 

Son has played this crucial character in houses around the globe; in her native Korea, Warsaw, Berlin, Bologna, Los Angeles and San Francisco just to list a few.  This production marks her Lyric debut.  She knows this part.  From the excellence of her soprano Saturday night, and the flawlessness of her acting abilities, she is this part.   

Johnson, a wonderful tenor who’s also making his debut at the Lyric, makes a compelling Pinkerton.  He doesn’t quite comprehend the import of his words when Sharpless (Zachary Nelson) tells him to “Be Careful, she trusts you”, until it’s too late.  Finally realizing what that trust has cost releases his humanity.  But it can’t stop the payment deception exacts.

In the final scene, where only pathos is expected, this presentation all but blinds you with the complex beauty of real life through the fiction of a story.  Ozawa’s brilliant directing, Son’s gifts as a marvelous actress/vocalist and Puccini’s stunning score converge to cause the soul to quake.  

Puccini’s Madama Butterfly now truly soars.

Madama Butterfly

Through April 12, 2026

Lyric Opera of Chicago

20 N. Wacker Drive

Chicago, IL  60606

For more information and tickets:   https://www.lyricopera.org

Highly Recommended

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