From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Chicago Opera Theater (COT) is an opera
company that was founded as the Chicago Opera Studio in 1974 by Alan Stone[1]
to give vocal students performance experience, although it has
grown into a professional opera company.[2]
The stated mission of the COT is to provide first class productions
of operatic repertoire that include the greatest works of the 17th
through 20th centuries,[3]
and in the past it has had an emphasis on American composers and
performers who sing in English.[4]
Currently, the COT extends the Chicago opera season by scheduling
its performances after the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s season
ends in spring.[5]
Chicago Opera Theater logo
The company's home is the 1,525-seat Harris Theater for Music and
Dance in Chicago's Millennium Park, built in 2003 as a
mostly underground-located state-of-the-art downtown performance
facility.[6]
Prior to the 2004 season, the COT was most recently at the
Athenaeum Theatre on the city’s north side.[7]
Brian Dickie is the current General Director of the COT, a
position he has held since September 1999.[8]
Alexander Platt is the COT's resident conductor and music advisor.
His work with COT has included leading the Chicago premiere of Benjamin
Britten's Death in Venice, and
directing the Maurice Sendak/Tony Kushner version of Hans Krása's Brundibar and an adaptation of Tchaikovsky's Iolanta. Additionally, in
2006, he led the Chicago premiere of John Adams'
Nixon in China,[9]
and in May 2007 conducted the dual Chicago premieres of Béla Bartók's
Duke
Bluebeard's Castle and Arnold Schoenberg's Erwartung (in English,
Expectation).
COT's 2008 Season offered Mozart's Don Giovanni: April 30, May 3,6,9,11
2008; John Adams's
A
Flowering Tree: May 14,17,20,23,25 2008; and Handel's
Orlando: May 28,31, June 3,6,8
2008.
The 2009 season from April 18 through May 26, 2009, will feature
Britten's Owen Wingrave, Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito, and La
Tragedie de Carmen by Bizet and adapted by Marius
Constant.
The company invites votes for one of three operas to be
performed in 2010. Through June 15, 2008, the donation of a dollar
equals a vote for either La Finta Giardiniera by Mozart,
Paul Bunyan
by Britten, or Mose in Egitto
by Rossini.
External
links
References
- ^ Marsh, Robert C.. "The Fox Years". in
Pellegrini, Norman (ed.). 150 Years of Opera in Chicago.
DeKalb,
Illinois: Northern Illinois
University Press. p. 167. ISBN 0-87580-353-9.
"In April 1974 Alan Stone, who had learned from missteps with the
offerings of this Pilot Knob company the previous year, was back on
the operatic scene, this time in the five-hundred-seat auditorium
of Jones Commercial High School (which remained his company's
mainstage location through 1976) with a workshop group he called
Chicago Opera Studio and a production of Così fan
tutte that had excellent young singers and genuine charm.
Six performances cost $8,000 to produce."
- ^ Marsh, Robert C.. "Author's Preface". in
Pellegrini, Norman (ed.). 150 Years of Opera in Chicago.
DeKalb,
Illinois: Northern Illinois
University Press. xii. ISBN 0-87580-353-9.
"It should be said that Chicago has always had a number of smaller
opera groups, some ethnically oriented, some essentially opera
workshops to give vocal students performance experience. The
Chicago Opera Theater began in 1974 as an organization of this type
but was transformed into an important professional production
group."
- ^ "Chicago Opera Theater -
History (About Us page)". Chicago Opera Theater. http://www.chicagooperatheater.org/about/about-history.shtml. Retrieved
2006-09-04.
- ^ Blackwell, Elizabeth Canning (2005-12-05). "Chicago Opera Theater -
Bar/Club Review - Chicago - Frommers.com". Frommer's
Chicago 2006. Wiley Publishing. http://www.frommers.com/destinations/chicago/N20297.html. Retrieved
2006-09-04.
- ^ "Chicago Nightlife & the
Arts - Fodor's Online Travel Guide". Fodor's Travel, a division
of Random House. http://www.fodors.com/miniguides/mgresults.cfm?destination=chicago@49&cur_section=nig&showover=yes. Retrieved
2006-09-04.
- ^ "Harris Theatre History".
Harris Theater for Music and Dance. http://www.harristheaterchicago.org/history.shtml. Retrieved
2006-09-04.
- ^ "Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago
- metromix.com". Metromix.com. Tribune
Interactive. http://metromix.chicagotribune.com/search/28996,0,3243675.venue. Retrieved
2006-09-04.
- ^ "Bloggers - Chicago Classical
Music". Backstage (Chicago Classical Music blog). Arts
& Business Council of Chicago. http://www.chicagoclassicalmusic.org/bloggers. Retrieved
2006-09-04.
- ^ Delacoma, Wynne (2006-05-14). "Nixon before the fall".
Chicago Sun-Times (Digital Chicago). http://www.suntimes.com/output/delacoma/sho-sunday-fine14.html. Retrieved
2006-09-04.