Author Archives: George Grass

Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg Chicago Symphony Orchestra, September 23 and 24 Xerxes Lyric Opera, through October 21 H.L. Mencken thought Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg was Western civilization’s single greatest work of art. English critic Ernest Newman described it as “the greatest of all comedies in music.” And Georg Solti in his introductory note to […]

Simon Boccanegra Lyric Opera Lyric Opera opens its 41st season with Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra, a middle-period work that’s been seen here four times before: in 1959 (with general director Ardis Krainik singing the role of Amelia’s servant), ’65, ’74, and ’79. That’s not bad exposure for an opera that was a flop at its premiere […]

Siegfried Lyric Opera, January 24, through February 18 Lyric Opera’s Siegfried, Wagner’s mighty essay on the youthful Volsung hero, continues in the manner of the earlier productions in this Ring cycle, Das Rheingold and Die Walkure: vocally impressive and visually pedestrian. This is only the second time in Lyric’s 40-year history that Siegfried has been […]

BORIS GODUNOV at Lyric Opera This is Lyric Opera’s 40th anniversary, and presumably the company wanted to pull out all the stops for its season opener, Modest Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov. On paper the production looks almost bulletproof: big-name opera with a decent Chicago track record and big-name bass Samuel Ramey. Even a simply competent performance […]

BEATRICE AND BENEDICT Chicago Opera Theater at the Athenaeum Chicago Opera Theater has apparently returned from the grave. After last year’s financial difficulties–the final production of the season, Mozart’s Don Giovanni, was canceled–it seemed unlikely that a COT production would ever again see the light of day. However, a number of angels (including COT board […]

WOZZECK at Lyric Opera, through February 19 “Die Welt ist schlecht.” The world is bad. So says the repulsive character of the Doctor in Alban Berg’s Wozzeck. The observation of the Doctor is profound, not because it gives an insight about the world (it doesn’t), but because it gives us an insight about Wozzeck and […]

DAS RHEINGOLD at Lyric Opera After 21 years Chicago operagoers have a chance to see Lyric mount its second Ring cycle, presented over four years like the first (1971-1974). “Der Ring des Nibelungen” has always been so intimidating to audiences that there are whole volumes devoted to acquainting the novice listener with this monumental work. […]

UN BALLO IN MASCHERA at Lyric Opera When Giuseppe Verdi and his librettist Antonio Somma set out to make an opera about the assassination of Gustav III of Sweden they ran straight into censorship. Italy of the 1850s was a turbulent place where corrupt old sovereignties, relics of the Middle Ages, were tottering toward extinction. […]

PELLEAS ET MELISANDE at Lyric Opera The idea that Debussy was rebelling against Wagnerian domination of music has been uttered so many times that it seems almost a mantra of music commentators. Yet an examination of his masterwork and only opera, Pelleas et Melisande, seems to indicate that his rebellion was futile. This work adheres […]

MCTEAGUE at Lyric Opera Before about 1925 opera was a living art, and reviewers were called upon to give opinions of new works they knew had a serious chance of entering the repertory. It’s difficult now to imagine what it would have been like to attend a performance of Aida, Die Meistersinger, or Der Rosenkavalier […]

ELEKTRA Lyric Opera Though he lived until 1949, Richard Strauss is generally regarded as a relic of the 19th century. Grounds for this view are found in his sumptuous musical idiom for Der Rosenkavalier and his various tone poems. Strauss retained his distinctive and emphatically tonal mode of expression until the end of his life, […]

A WATER BIRD TALK and THE MEDIUM Chicago Opera Theater at Rosary College Four hundred years ago the Florentine Camerata attempted to raise ancient Greek drama from the dead. They gathered the items that had belonged to Greek drama–music, drama, verse, chorus–and reassembled them. But when they connected the dead parts, what they got was […]

COUNT ORY Chicago Opera Theater at the Athenaeum Chicago Opera Theater’s financial troubles nearly killed the company last year. But loyal subscribers and contributors saved the day, and during the course of the year a million dollars was raised, enough for the company to survive and even pay down some of its accumulated debt. Perhaps […]

TURANDOT Lyric Opera A conundrum lies at the center of the operatic form: What is more important, the ideas contained in the libretto or the beauty and richness of the musical invention? Salieri decided it was Prima la musica, poi le parole (first the music, then the words). With its new production of Giacomo Puccini’s […]