From the Ledge

OK, the blog post title is a little cute-sy and Marx Brother-ish.  On Friday night, I attended the opening night of the Lyric Opera’s “Dr. Atomic” , John Adams and Peter Sellars’ modern opera about Robert Oppenheimer and the frenzied, heady days leading up to the first atomic bomb test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, with my friend Erik (who luckily procured free main floor tickets for us- thanks buddy!).  Chicago is only the third city to see this major artistic work, after it’s 2005 San Francisco Opera premiere, and the revised and updated staging at the De Nederlandse Opera this year.  It is a stunning, important work, full of challenging themes around moral conscience, scientific purpose, and individual and collective accountability, which demands days of reflection and introspection.  I cannot say enough great things about it and encourage my avid blog readers to run and scoop up tickets as soon as possible.  I will be posting my own reaction to the opera in the next few days, but I wanted to share this except from John Van Rhein’s Chicago Tribune review that was published today:  “Don’t go to “Doctor Atomic” expecting a comforting night at the opera. It’s not that kind of work. It’s not that kind of world. The opera allows you to make up your own mind as to what the issues it raises mean for the future of life on this planet. Be prepared to be moved to tears, not by easy operatic sentiment but by tough artistic truth.”   There are hundreds of artistic events in the city this season, but “Dr. Atomic”, masterfully and undeniably proving the transcendence of great art, is, in my mind, the best use of that disposable, left-over-from-Christmas-shopping, dollar.  It’s going to be a shame if you opt for “The Nutcracker” instead. (Picture:  Intermission at the Lyric’s Grand Foyer, still breathless after tenor Gerald Finley’s-who plays Oppenheimer-show stopping Act One aria, with Erik, looking crisp in a suit and tie, banishing any thoughts of his Suduku puzzle costume!)

Share This

It was cold, icy, and grey last weekend in Chicago and I could have just curled up indoors and watched “Project Runaway” over and over again (plus it was the first weekend right after the 30-xxx birthday, which was cause enough for a solitary meditation on one’s inevitable need for Botox injections and tummy tucks all in itself).  However, between Edward Albee, taiko drumming, and a Sunday dinner club dinner (not to mention the incomprehensible, and frankly alarming, sight of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s bare derriere on film), there was absolutely no reason to stay home and stew.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share This

I seem to be on the mailing list of all arts organizations in Chicago, so I get a lot of invitations to benefits and special events, subscription offers, ticket discount codes, donation and gift-giving requests, solicitations to be on a kidney donor list, etc. etc.  Both my mailbox at home and my email inbox are filled to the brim with mailings from a variety of arts groups, which is terrific since I get to see what are coming up in the very dynamic, very busy Chicago cultural calendar.   I was particularly thrilled to get the attractive glossy brochures for the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre’s World Stage Series, beginning November 21 and Chicago Opera Theater’s 2008 spring season, beginning April 30, 2008.  These two companies have delivered knock-out, brilliant, world-class productions in the past so that I was reaching for the phone and my credit card even as I was thumbing through the marketing materials.

Read the rest of this entry »

Share This

I’ve been trying to go to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNow series for a while, and I especially wanted to see Dawn Upshaw’s soldout, acclaimed performance of Oswaldo Golijov’s song cycle “Ayre” last spring. I finally made it last Monday for the 10th anniversary season opener, and I have been kicking myself for waiting this long. I think MusicNow is one of those precious gems that make Chicago truly an indisputable world-class cultural community - it promotes new work by exceptional musical artists performed by the acclaimed CSO members, makes these performances available to a wider range of audiences by pricing tickets at a reasonable level (who can beat 20 bucks for the symphony, 15 if you have the TimeOut Chicago discount), and provides a channel for social interaction among the audience members after the concert with its beer-and-pizza reception (think a really cultured frat party where people are talking about the Nietzschean undertones of Philip Glass’s oeuvre instead of say college basketball).

Read the rest of this entry »

Share This