Lyric Opera of Chicago - 2013/2014 Season

This year's Lyric Opera of Chicago 2013/2014 season will be an exciting one, featuring many operas written by Giuseppe Verdi beginning with Otello on Thursday, September 26 in the Mutilpurpose Room at 7:00 p.m.  Our facilitators will be from the Lyric Opera Education Corps.  Our opera display can be found in the Audiovisual Room.  

Otello by Giuseppe Verdi - Thursday, September 26 First performed in La Scala, Milan in 1887, Otello is based on Shakespeare's tale of the Moorish general and his fatal jealousy.  It is widely accepted as one of Verdi's finest operas.  It includes a Storm scene, a Drinking Song where the evil Iago gets Cassio drunk. It also has a Heroic Aria where the heroine bids good night to her maid in a single line which can be a Mad Scene, a Farewell Aria and suicide Aria all rolled into one.  It also includes an Oath Duet for tenor and baritone.

In the film Serenade, Mario Lanza plays an operatic tenor who is singing Otello for the first time.

Madama Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini - Thursday, October 30

Premiered at La Scala on February 17, 1904, it was badly received.  During the first performance, the crowd booed and jeered.  Puccini, suffering from a car accident leg injury, stood in the wings saying, "Louder, louder you beasts!  You'll see who's right - this is the best opera I've ever written!"  It was first performed in two acts and later the second act was split in half.  It was shown three months later to great acclaim.

"The story of Madama Butterfly is based on an actual incident involving a young Japanese girl who became pregnant by an Englishman and attempted suicide." (Lyric Opera Season Companion 3013/2014)

The Broadway and West End musical Miss Saigon (1989) was, in part, based on Madama Butterfly.  The location was moved to Vietnam and Thailand during the Vietnam War and the Fall of Saigon.

Parsifal by Richard Wagner - Wednesday, October 30

Parsifal was first performed in Bayreuth in 1882.  It was a religious drama and Wagner's last opera.  He died in Venice six months after the premier of Parsifal.  "Parsifal is a tale of a "young fool," an innocent who must learn of life's sorrow before he can fulfill his destiny as the king of the knights of the Holy Grail." (NPR)  The Third Reich banned it in 1940 and was not performed in Russia until 1993.

Wagner learned that the scenery was moving too slowly and had to add a few bars between the Transformation Music and the Grail Scene.  "They always said my music was too long!" Wagner raged.  "Now it is too short!" 

Parsifal was a sacred art and one was supposed to be reverent.  August Forster said, "Just wait - Wagner's not long for this world!  A man who is capable of producing a thing of that order cannot have much time left on earth.  His work is finished!"

La Traviata by Giuseppe Verdi - Wednesday, November 13

La Traviata premiered in Teatro la Fenice, Venice in 1853.  It is a romantic tragedy where a high-priced prostitute gives up the only man she loves and then dies of TB.  This is based on a true story.

It was a failure on opening night because modern-day clothing rather than the period garb was used.  The leading tenor lost his voice and the soprano did not look like a woman dying of tuberculosis.  A year later, the opera was produced again in the same city and was a success. (Opera for Dummies)

Verdi took interest in this story because he himself was living with the soprano Giuseppina Strepponi.  He was a widower since 1840, but because they were not married, the residents of Busseto in Italy were appalled.