125 stories by "Barnaby Hughes"
A ROYAL PRODUCTION The King and I is a rather curious bundle of contradictions and opposites. First, it's based on a true story, but plays out more like a fairy tale. In fact, it doesn't see…
UNEVEN PRODUCTION COMBINES CARNIVAL AND ROMANCE As part of Chicago's yearlong celebrations marking the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death, Lyric Opera has mounted a production …
MAJESKI'S MAJESTIC MARSCHALLIN Lyric Opera's new production of Der Rosenkavalier is beautiful, charming, and magnificent. It delightfully exceeded my expectations and gave me a new appreciat…
A DAMNED GOOD PAIRING What could be a more appropriate title for an opera than La Voix Humaine? What better source material for an opera than Dante's Divina Commedia? Chicago Opera Theatre c…
IF BREVITY WAS THE SOUL OF ETHICS… One of the advantages of one-act plays is that if they're bad, you don't have to wait long for them to be over. (I can't ever remember wishing a good pla…
STAGNANT STAGING AND CRAZY COSTUMES, BUT THEÂ CAST AND CHORUS CAPTIVATE There's a good reason why Verdi's operas are typically described as "grand opera." They're big and bold, requiring m…
DISAPPOINTING DEBUT DELIVERS DAMAGED GOODS Lyric Opera's world premiere production of Bel Canto fails to live up to its name (translation: beautiful singing). While first-time opera composer…
A MERRY WIDOW MAKES FOR A MERRY AUDIENCE After the unbearable ugliness of Berg's Wozzeck, Lyric Opera's beautiful production of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow (Die Lustige Witwe) comes as …
HURRAH FOR HAYMARKET'S HANDELIAN HERO Appropriately enough, Haymarket Opera Company (HOC) is kicking off its fifth season with a Handel opera that premiered on London's Haymarket Street 300 …
WHAT'S UP WITH WOZZECK? Alban Berg's Wozzeck must have been quite shocking in 1925 at its first public performance in Berlin. Why? Musically, it's regarded as the first opera in the 20th-cen…
A MARRIAGE MADE IN CHICAGO Lyric Opera's season-opening production of Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro celebrates love and beauty with vibrant colors, light-hearted laughter and sublime music…
A CINDERELLA FOR ALL AGES You might think you know the story if you've seen Disney's animated version, but Rossini's Cinderella (or La Cenerentola, literally "little girl of the cinders") is…
WHAT'S GOOD FOR OTTO ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR GIFT Seldom have I sat through such a long-winded play (nearly three hours!) that said so little. I struggled in vain to find some deeper meaning i…
LUCIO SILLA REVELS IN YOUTH'S BEAUTY Mozart's early chamber opera Lucio Silla, written at the precocious age of sixteen, is an excellent example of the bel canto style. Not only is the singi…
SISTERS AND SOLDIERS Following their rather loose and unconventional takes on Greek tragedy and Gilbert and Sullivan, The Hypocrites return to a more classic approach with Anton Chekhov's Th…
GOOD BOOKS? The world premiere production of a new play about the Bible by Denis O'Hare and Lisa Peterson, The Good Book is impressive, complex, informative, and entertaining, perhaps even p…
HAYMARKET TRIUMPHS WITH TELEMANN RARITY Closing out their fourth season with Georg Philipp Telemann's Don Quichotte auf der Hochzeit des Camacho (Don Quixote at the Wedding of Camacho), Haym…
BETRAYED BY THE KISS OF BROADWAY In the small confines of the No Exit Café in Rogers Park, one might have expected a more intimate, low-key version of Jesus Christ Superstar, especially con…
GRASP THIS HAMMER WHILE THE IRON IS HOT! Considering the popularity of fantasy epics The Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones, it is a wonder that more theaters aren't performing them. Whil…
SMART DRAMA REVEALS POLAR ATTRACTION A world premiere production, Mat Smart's The Royal Society of Antarctica at The Gift Theatre is easily one of the year's best new plays. Smart, who worke…
YANKEE DOODLE DUD Of all the plays inspired by the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Yankee Tavern has got to be one of the worst. Steven Dietz's play, which takes place in New York C…
A REALLY REALLY TIMELY PLAY 29-year old playwright Paul Downs Colaizzo's Really Really premiered at Virginia's Signature Theatre in 2012 before heading to Off-Broadway, where it was helmed b…
EVERYTHING A FIRST DATE SHOULD BE First Date, an enjoyable new musical comedy that opened on Broadway in 2013, should really be called Blind Date. Its two principal protagonists, awkward Aar…
TANNHÄUSER TIES TOSCA IN TERMS OF SIMILARLY SHODDY DIRECTION From the highpoint of Mozart's Don Giovanni, Lyric Opera's 60th anniversary season has been on a slow downward arc. That i…
BECKETT'S RIDDLE CONTINUES TO CONFOUND Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot is not an easy play to write about, let alone produce, act, or even watch. It's challenging, opaque, and ambiguous. …
