53 stories by "John Von Rhein"
For many of us, the holiday season would not be the holiday season without the spiritual comfort and joy of live musical performances. Fortunately, festive seasonal sounds are perhaps more a…
For many of us, the holiday season would not be the holiday season without the spiritual comfort and joy of live musical performances. Fortunately, festive seasonal sounds are perhaps more a…
Lyric Opera probably didn't need another new production of "The Merry Widow" so soon after its 2009 Gary Griffin staging of the beloved Franz Lehar operetta. Still, with a lavish, relatively…
"Wozzeck"
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Four stars (out of four)
Like a grim, silent sentry, a monument to the victims of World War I looms upstage in Scottish director David McVicar's stark and…
"Wozzeck" Lyric Opera of Chicago Four stars (out of four) Like a grim, silent sentry, a monument to the victims of World War I looms upstage in Scottish director David McVicar's stark and wr…
Barbara Gaines was giving me a peek at the luminous set and sumptuous costumes that grace her new production of "The Marriage of Figaro," which will open the Lyric Opera season Saturday nigh…
Barbara Gaines was giving me a peek at the luminous set and sumptuous costumes that grace her new production of "The Marriage of Figaro," which will open the Lyric Opera season Saturday nigh…
With his scraggly beard, tousle of curly brown hair, dark jeans and well-worn T-shirt, Matthew Aucoin could easily pass for your average rumpled college freshman.
Performing in an alluring aerie of an amphitheater atop a mesa in the Sangre de Cristo mountains of northern New Mexico, Santa Fe Opera stands practically alone among major American summer f…
Once again Chicago Folks Operetta has taken a Fall - that's Leo Fall - on behalf of an unjustly neglected Viennese operetta from the early years of the 20th century.
When you occupy as specialized a niche in the area's classical scene as Chicago Folks Operetta, you just naturally try harder.
The season also will mark the 75th anniversary of George Gershwin's sole Ravinia appearance in 1936, when audience members reportedly climbed trees to catch a glimpse of the musical legend. …
David T. Ormesher, a Lyric Opera of Chicago board member since 2012 who serves on several board committees, has been named the company's president-elect, effective immediately.
Few opera greats of a certain age have been privileged to be granted quite the career coda Frederica von Stade has been enjoying in recent years. The beloved American mezzo-soprano was coaxe…
In its four seasons, Chicago's Haymarket Opera Company has staked out an enviable corner of the period-performance turf and, in the process, built an avid following, eager to experience the …
Arts critic and broadcaster had a wide followingArts critic and broadcaster had a wide following
Andrew Patner, a critic and interviewer on WFMT-FM 98.7 and a lifelong observer of the arts in his native Chicago, died Tuesday. Patner was 55 and died at St. Joseph's Hospital in Chicago.
Lyric Opera's imperishable love affair with Puccini's "Tosca" goes back as far as the company's inaugural season in 1954. Some of the greatest sopranos of their day have loved, killed and le…
Renee Fleming has taken her time bringing one of her most celebrated operatic roles, Countess Madeleine in Richard Strauss' "Capriccio," to the company for which she serves as creative consu…
It's easy to see what attracted Robert Falls to staging Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at Lyric Opera of Chicago.
It's easy to see what attracted Robert Falls to staging Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at…
As far as most operatic buffs are concerned, there is only one musical setting of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" " the revised 1865 version of Giuseppe Verdi's masterpiece.
OPERA REVIEW: "Acteon" and "Le Jugement de Pan" at Haymarket Opera Company
OPERA REVIEW: "Acteon" and "Le Jugement de Pan" at Haymarket Opera Company. The urge to breathe fresh contemporary…
OPERA REVIEW: 'La Clemenza di Tito' at Lyric Opera of Chicago ★★★½
OPERA REVIEW: 'La Clemenza di Tito' at Lyric Opera of Chicago ★★★½ Mozart's penu…
OPERA REVIEW: 'Rusalka' at Lyric Opera of Chicago ★★★★ The belated entry of Antonin Dvorak's "Rusalka" into the Lyric Opera repertory is an event to be celebrated.&nb…
The final new production of the current Lyric Opera season is a work few audience members have ever encountered in live performance: Antonin Dvorak's "Rusalka."
