Brian Dickie

Leyla Gencer

A remarkable soprano died on May 10 - an enchanting personality with a huge temperament who had a good deal of influence on me as I began my opera career in 1962.  Leyla Gencer was the Countess in Figaro at Glyndebourne that year, and as the young rehearsal scheduling assistant I got to know her very well and had a great affection for her.  Her partnership with Mirella Freni's Susanna was unforgettable - what a way to start out in the business with such larger than life people!  And I had first encountered her in performance at Salzburg the previous summer when she sang Amelia to Tito Gobbi's Boccanegra.  She returned to Glyndebourne for Figaro again in 1963 and in 1965 for Anna Bolena.  The bel canto repertoire was her forte - but her Donna Anna at Covent Garden, also in 1962, as well as her Countess showed her great distinction in Mozart as well. 

Monday miscellany

Off we go again - another week of diverse activity with more to cram in than there is space available in the calendar! 

I was delighted this morning to catch up with our former highly valued Artistic Administrator Roger Weitz, here for the weekend from Washington where he is a Kennedy Center Fellow.  We had a healthy breakfast at Baci on Michigan Avenue before he went off for visits with old friends and colleagues.  He is at the Flowering Tree dress rehearsal this evening before returning to DC tomorrow at dawn.  It was so good to see him back in Chicago - he was with the company for seven years and is one of the best.

Then I had lunch with Michael MacLeod, the relatively new General and Artistic Director of Glimmerglass Opera.  I introduced him to the Park Grill, that convenient eatery under the Anish Kapoor bean, otherwise known as Cloud Gate.  He has been here these two days to see Don Giovanni yesterday afternoon, and Flowering Tree this evening.

Otherwise much of the usual routine including the signing of many checks - a Monday routine since our Finance Director is in.  It always pains me - but it has to be done!  And then a lengthy Development Committee via conference call.  And now off to the Harris where we have Opera Bites preceding the dress rehearsal.  Home by 10.30 with a bit of luck.

It's all over

So we have one down - two to go.  My goodness how sad it is to see a carefully planned, lovingly prepared, production come to an end.  We (kind of) planned this all of seven years ago when I invited Jane Glover and Diane Paulus do a Cosi fan tutte for us.  It was expected that we would proceed to the other two Mozart/da Ponte operas - and so we did with Figaro in 2005 and now this Don Giovanni.  So now its all over and we go into a period of mourning.  These ephemeral things.......

We have been widely acclaimed for the exceptional quality of the cast, the bold, daring, intellectually impeccable approach to the production (notwithstanding fierce and sometimes angry reactions) and the wonderful warm mature conducting and orchestral playing.  And we have also been complimented on the youth and beauty of our chorus - just what we need for Don Giovanni of course.

This afternoon for the last performance we had a distinguished line up of audience members - it would be indiscreet of me to mention names.  (Now there is a first!)  The fact is that COT is commanding some attention around the country, indeed around the world.  We just have to ensure that this also happens in Chicago which is something of an intellectual powerhouse.  But there is a connection it seems between high intelligence and a reactionary, indeed hostile, response to serious exploration of classical works and questioning of conventional approaches to them.  Very odd that I think.

We had the hope that this production might go to that city where exceptional brightness is reputed to rule - Boston, home of Harvard and MIT to name but two.  But no, they were frightened off by the boldness of the approach.  So Chicago is the only city that will see this brilliant piece of work which has got people talking even if a few of them didn't much care for it.  But I am glad to say that most of them did!

And on tomorrow to another intense week.  First off tomorrow is a breakfast meeting at 8.30 - and I finish my day once A Flowering Tree Dress rehearsal is over at around 10pm.

Pre Dress

This beautiful opera is really a wonderful musical team effort with the contributions from the Orchestra and Chorus way beyond the usual musical demands.  This should not in any way be taken as a suggestion that the three principals are of less importance - nothing could be further from the truth.  But the challenges faced by the chorus and orchestra, if not met supremely well, could do damage to the final result.  And we have, in our chorus (seen above), a magnificent group of young people singing and acting, and indeed sometimes dancing, their hearts out with an effect that is pretty stunning any day of the week.  And it is well known that Chicago musicians are pretty well the gold standard - so it no surprise that they do a bang up job with this wonderful score.  And they are naturally receiving great tributes from the composer for their virtuosity.

And we also have a group of dancers whose contribution is critical too.  Our choreographer is Renato Zanella - and what a huge difference he makes with his commanding presence not to mention the beauty of what he has created for this important dance component.

So anyway we had our four hour Pre Dress which proceeded reasonably smoothly although there are still some technical matters to iron out.  But we will get there no doubt.  Just some tiresome extra work to be accomplished before the curtain goes up on the Dress rehearsal on Monday at 7.30.

I am about to pop a few more pictures onto the picture site.  But what we now have covers it all pretty well.  So there you have it.  Now on to Orlando!

Simulcast

Chilly or not some 2,000 turned up in the park last night and the stunning effect of the large screen together with the Pritzker Pavilion's remarkable sound system blew everyone away.  Apart from losing the first two minutes of subtitles there were no technical glitches.  All in all a terrific success and all credit to the director Bruce Bryant, and John Scheuruch who assembled the technical team. 

The cast took their bows on the Pritzker stage to wild enthusiasm - and this time did not get stuck in the elevator on their way up from the Harris stage as they had during the dry run on Tuesday!  I do so hope we do this on an annual basis.  Everyone learned a great deal from this - the only disappointment was the weather.  That we can not control.

And afterwards we all repaired to the Gage on Michigan Avenue.  Not home until well past midnight......

Today is the Pre Dress of Flowering Tree - a four hour rehearsal 1.30 - 5.30.  That should get it done.

Back to Orlando

Yesterday provided a chance to have a short look at Orlando rehearsals.  They are blocking away and I assume are on schedule.  Here you see a little musical interlude with Raymond Leppard (right) and Tim Mead (Orlando) Kate Mangiameli (Angelica) Justin Way (Director) with Michael Beattie at the piano. (Click pic to enlarge)

Meanwhile back at the Harris John Adams had six valuable hours with the orchestra and stage but without costume etc to divert attention from musical matters.  Another long but productive day. 

This evening we have the Simulcast, a live transmission of this evening's Don Giovanni performance onto a huge screen in Millennium Park.  This is a Chicago first.  How many people will show up?  The weather is cool which is not promising.  But we expect thousands nevertheless.

And this noontime we are off to the Gleacher Center of the University of Chicago for Stories Psychoanalyzed: A Flowering of Opera and the Mind - part of our India Blooms in Chicago series of activities connected with A Flowering Tree.  Here is an opportunity to see John Adams in person - and its all free.  Go here for details.  And try to make it downtown at noon - the Gleacher Center is behind the NBC building which in turn is behind the Tribune Building!

Now you can see more.......

I have put a sample up on the picture site this morning.  And now I have to get to the office for another long day.  We are getting there!

Piano Dress

So we have had a long day and I am not writing too much this evening - but there are a few photos on the picture site.  There will be more in the next 24 hours if I can get to them.  The production is ravishing as you may discern from these quick and dirty photos.  No time tonight to polish them up!

We have an exceptional chorus and nine great dancers - and just three principal singers.  So this is a fine company effort - and John Adams was providing the extra inspiration today.  Tomorrow we are with orchestra for another six hours.  This work needs the stamina of these youthful people to get it on at all.  Above you have Natasha Jouhl in the title role, and left her Prince Noah Stewart and our Narrator/Storyteller Sanford Sylvan - the only veteran on the stage.   And veteran indeed - he was the first Chou en Lai in Nixon in China in 1987. 

So that's all for tonight.

More AFT pictures

I have put a handful of more pictures from yesterday's Sitzprobe on the picture site.  There should be lots of nice things from the Piano Dress rehearsal this afternoon.  I hope to get a sample up by midnight.  A long day ahead for all.

Meanwhile today pop down to the Cultural Center at 12.15 to hear a recital in the Myra Hess series given by our Masetto, Ben Wager - one of the gifted young singers emerging into the profession via COT.  Ben comes from the Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia.  Should be worth the trip.

The composer is here

John Adams (seen here with Nicola Raab this morning) is with us now and had his first rehearsals with our already excellently prepared cast and orchestra.  We had a Sitzprobe this morning (the principals are seen seated below) and got through the whole opera comfortably in the three hour session.  So we are in good shape and John is relaxed and all set to see Don Giovanni this evening.  But it is a long day tomorrow with Piano Dress starting at 1.45 and continuing until 9.45 with a two hour break between sessions.

It is of course a huge thrill to hear the orchestra and singers together at last.  And I am more than ever convinced that we have a stunningly beautiful new opera to enjoy when it opens next week.  It is indeed a major delight to be responsible for bringing this moving piece to Chicago.  It sure does make ones job worthwhile!

This evening we have the third Don Giovanni.  I will be roving around backstage to see how the Simulcast Director, Bruce Bryant, is getting on making the necessary adjustments to make this bold production reasonably acceptable to a family audience.  And I will also be monitoring the cameras to see that they do not interfere in any way with the paying public's enjoyment.  This first Simulcast in Chicago is a wonderful pilot project and we hope so much that it can be a regular event.  All Chicagoans who are not in the house on Friday should be out in Millennium Park to enjoy Don Giovanni on the big screen!

Hell week again

This is as bad as it gets.  We have three performances of Don Giovanni - all a pleasure I am sure I hasten to add.  We have the first "Simulcast" from the Harris, the first such thing for opera in Chicago - that is on Friday.  We have our last week of Flowering Tree rehearsals - and a bunch of committee meetings of our Board.  All in all its a 85 hour week!  Meanwhile Orlando is also in rehearsal.

So A Flowering Tree has been on stage all day.  I am afraid I left early - at 8.30.  My 12 hour day was over.  But I am still at it bringing you some hastily cobbled together pictures.  They are now on our picture site.  Those of you who can not find it can click this.  And I will add others as and when I can so check back from time to time.  Above you have a glimpse of the all important elephant getting his parts sorted out this evening.

But the real excitement will be the Piano Dress on Wednesday.  Then you will see the full beauty of this production by Nicola Raab in George Souglides' ravishing sets and costumes.  And those of you near enough to Chicago need to make the journey to see a performance the first of which is Wednesday May 14.

John Adams is in town and will be in charge of the Sitzprobe tomorrow, and most of the rehearsals from now on.  However there is no doubt that the great man will defer to his outstandingly gifted alter ego Joana Carneiro from time to time.  She has been preparing things up to now and will conduct the last three performances.  We are indeed fortunate.

Some Sunday notes

We had the second performance of Don Giovanni last night - another full house and ecstatic applause.  Once again rather experienced people saying that it was the best Don Giovanni they had ever seen.  Well we can make allowances for some exaggeration - but it is gratifying to hear that!

Much of yesterday afternoon was spent in Felicity Lott's masterclass where she put five of our great young sopranos through their paces.  It has been such a treat to have her here on her way from San Francisco to the east coast on her recital tour which is also taking in Washington and New York.  Anyone in either of those two cities in the coming week would do well to try to get to hear this quite wonderful artist. 

It was a great privilege for these young people to spend an afternoon with her.  And I have to report that she was thrilled with them too.  And she was at Don Giovanni as well of course - and was bowled by it.  She was a pretty distinguished Elvira (you can get her recording here) - and she loved every minute of this one! 

We are about to start another hard week - A Flowering Tree will be dominating our days and evenings.  All the news fit to print will appear here!  Meanwhile if you go to the picture site you will see a few more informal pictures of life at Flowering Tree rehearsals.

A quick one

Just a quick appetizer from this morning's stage rehearsal - we look forward to more lovely images from A Flowering Tree in the coming days!

Running to keep up

Yesterday was crazy, compounded by my two early morning starts preceded by late nights which managed to reduce my energy level somewhat.  And the monsoon-like rain dampened, indeed soaked, us all.  It was a day for umbrellas and there was a pretty picture outside the Art Institute yesterday morning as the crowds  with a colorful assortment of them lined up Michigan avenue and around the corner into Monroe Street. Too wet to jump off the bus to get a photo!  I was on my way down to the Orlando rehearsal which are proceeding nicely in Curtiss Hall. 

At noon yesterday I was at the Pianoforte Salon Series/WFMT event in the Fine Arts Building to join Peter Whorf with two of our very best young company members Greer Davis-Brown and Jin Hin Yap who delivered a terrific program live to WFMT listeners.  It was a big omission by me not to alert you to this so that you could tune in to an enjoyable program reflected huge credit on the young singers and COT.  And in particular on our Director of Musical Studies Scott Gilmore who prepared them and who presided at the piano with great brilliance.  I was proud of them all!

I tried to have a short break in the afternoon but that was wrecked by another crisis about which more perhaps later, depending on how it all turns out.  And then to the Harris for A Flowering Tree, on the stage for the first time.  It looks great and we are on track.

And the evening was spent at Symphony Center with the CSO under the magisterial Bernard Haitink.  There was an extraordinary performance of Peter Lieberson's Neruda Songs by a glorious mezzo Kelley O'Connor.  Remarkable young woman.  And Mahler 1 by a master conducting a great orchestra in top form.  Where do we go from here?

I will have to catch the blog up tomorrow.  Today is crazy again but full of pleasures.  More Flowering Tree rehearsals in the Harris, Felicity Lott gives a masterclass this afternoon, and we have the second Don Giovanni this evening.  So little time for hunching over my blogging machinery!

Can't object to this!

Here is the Sun-Times review of Don Giovanni.

Pelleas, Pelleas

This opera has a very special place in my mind and my life for purely random reasons.  It was the first new production in my first season at Glyndebourne, my first "proper job" in 1962.  The director was Carl Ebert, one of the founding fathers of Glyndebourne, the conductor Vittorio Gui who had known Debussy, and the Melisande Denise Duval who had created the roles of Therese in Poulencs's Les Mamelles de Tiresias, Blanche in The Carmelites, and the Woman in La voix humaine (seen here right).  A piece of history indeed.  And this last production at Glyndebourne by Ebert, so ravishingly designed by a young man from Verona, Beni Montresor, later to become a celebrated painter and illustrator as well as a much loved theater designer, had an indelible impact on me.  So of course I love this opera, often derided as intolerably tedious......

This evening I was at one of the later rehearsals at the Canadian Opera Company's beautiful opera house in Toronto of a production that can be discussed (by Nicholas Muni) but with an assumption of the role of Pelleas more perfect than one could dream of - the extraordinary Russell Braun.  He had been a member of the COC chorus when I was General Director of the company in 1989.

And the rest of the cast was not shabby.  Isabel Bayrakdarian was there taking on the role of Melisande for the first time, and Pavlo Hunka was a powerful and convincing Golaud.  And controlling all this in the pit was Jan Latham Koenig who had conducted our Beatrice and Benedict at COT in 2007.

Earlier in the day I was at the farewell recital of the 2008 graduating members of the COC's "Ensemble" - essentially the company's training program for young singers which has produced such wonderful talent over the years.  We have two of its less recent graduates, Michael Colvin and Krisztina Szabo, in our COT Don Giovanni which opened last night.  May the current crop do as well!

I will be back at O'Hare tomorrow at 8.30 am with a full day ending with the infinite pleasure of Mahler at the CSO conducted by our beloved Bernard Haitink.  Can you imagine better than that?  There are other good things too - including getting Flowering Tree on the Harris stage for the first time.  More in due course - but enough for tonight!

Opening report

What a wonderful evening we had yesterday.  The full house stood and cheered a really good performance, everyone was well and on top form, the wrinkles were all ironed out, and the animation in the house was a great thrill after all these weeks of preparation.  We had a celebration in the Fairmont afterwards - so the 2008 season is off to a great start. And at last I have a photo of one of the more jolly parts of my job - partying with the girls who finally gave the Don his comeuppance.

I will be in Canada today just for 24 hours.  My 7 am flight was canceled but my very kind and helpful airline rebooked me on an Air Canada flight so I should not be delayed at all.  Sigh of relief having awoken by force at 4.30.  Bravo American Airlines!

More reports later.

Opening Night

There seems to be a more than usual buzz around on our opening night this year, not to mention a virtually full house.  I think that the positioning of our season as a quasi Festival season makes a difference.  And a Mozart opera is always a good kick off event to be sure.  We have a pretty glittering cast in the audience as well as on stage with visitors from far and wide including a good many who took the Air India cheapo flight from London yesterday!  So this is the beginning of an exciting run I feel sure.

At lunchtime today we had another of those very successful and enjoyable events at the Arts Club - this time a conversation with Diane Paulus and our lighting designer Aaron Black on the subject of new productions and the process involved.  The "audience" of members of the arts Club were lively and inquisitive.  I hope that we gave them some insights, as well as some information on what IS a new production.  There appears to be some difference of opinion around about that.  In my book it must new sets, costumes, and all physical elements.  They must not just be new to Chicago, nor can a new "staging" within sets and costumes bought or rented from another company qualify for this description.  No, it has to be new from the bottom up - nor can it be a copy of an existing physical production newly fabricated......

So now that we have got that straight we can say that COT does new productions almost exclusively.  The most recent exception was Nixon in China which was a co-production with the Opera Theatre of St Louis but by the time it came here in 2006 it had already been seen in the theaters of two of the other co-producers.  I hope we made that clear at the time!

All is reasonably quiet as we wait for this evening.  But Flowering Tree and Orlando are hard at it.  It will be a long day.  It started for me with a breakfast meeting at 8.30.  If I am home by midnight I will be surprised.  And I have a 7am flight tomorrow........oh dear!

Orlando begins

So we are on to the third opera.  Raymond Leppard is at it with this small but perfect cast.  He arrived fresh from a week in Bilbao and a week in Geneva.  That's a nice prelude to six weeks in Chicago.  And in Bilbao he had the pleasure of a program of John Adams and Dvorak.  How American can you get?

Anyway you see here the first rehearsal on the little rehearsal room at the Harris Theater which is just perfect for the initial musical ensemble rehearsals.  Here we have Raymond with the delightful Dorinda, Andriana Chuchman, together with her colleagues Kate Mangiameli and David Trudgen.  We are there for two days and then in Curtiss Hall for the rest of time until Orlando moves into the theater after the opening of Flowering Tree.  So we are talking another 18 days or so.

Last night

The Dress rehearsal went splendidly - enough still to do for Wednesday but not so much that it can not get done.  So we remain on track.

There was a nice nugget of information that came out of my conversation with the team at Opera Bites.  Our set designer Riccardo Hernandez was born in Cuba.  His father was a singer - and sang Masetto in the Havana Opera (left)to Cesare Siepi's Don.  Well how about that?!  It certainly pleased the older opera fans who often cite Siepi as the finest Don they ever saw.  So there was naturally an intake of breath and a ripple of applause.

It will be good to see whether, when Cuba returns to the old normal, the Opera House regains its international status.  Certainly a gig in Havana would be attractive!

A propos Siepi - yes I saw him as the Don at Covent Garden in the then new Zefirelli production in 1962.  The Zerlina was the twenty something Mirella Freni and Georg Solti, the recently appointed Music Director of the Royal Opera, conducted.

Freezing rain!

Where are we?  Its brutal out there. 

But anyway I tripped off this early afternoon to the Flowering Tree rehearsal.  I was glad to see them all and when I received a rash of compliments on my haircut I realised that I had not seen them for a week. This last week of Don Giovanni rehearsals has been all consuming; but it all comes to an end this evening with the Final Dress preceded by Opera Bites - our board and donor get together before the rehearsal.  Diane Paulus and Jane Glover will show up to answer questions, as will our two designers for sets and costumes, Riccardo Hernandez and David Woolard.

So we are in for a long evening.  But it should be something special.

I said I would keep you posted.......

Regular readers may remember this post from March 18th.  Well it arrived, I used it for the first time this morning, and it worked!  If you want to know what I am talking about you have to click the link above.  So now I am a true Chicagoan with my Permanent Resident's Card, my Costco card, and now this!

More DG pictures

I added a dozen or more this afternoon to the picture site and there may be others later.  I have also removed the old ones from the rehearsal room but requests for copies from company members will be responded to.  And there will be CD's available with a selection of all the best pictures for those who would like to have them for their own websites, cvs etc or any other non commercial use.

Meanwhile it is Sunday and a day of rest - well sort of.  We went for a family walk to the Lincoln Park Zoo and back on this cloudy morning.  But the peace of a Chicago Sunday is evident above.

Pre Dress

I am home after the Pre Dress and really not up to doing too much about the blog!  But over the coming 24 hours I will add photos to the picture site.  Meanwhile be content that we had a wonderful last rehearsal before the Final Rehearsal (!) - and here above you can get a sense of the enjoyment being shared by everyone at COT!  And a huge audience on Wednesday?  We hope so anyway.....