Brian Dickie

A soft day......

.....as they say in Ireland, home to the last 10 generations of my family.  This means that it has been damp and drizzly, but somehow very agreeable.  Fresh without being cold, and really quite bright in spite of the misty moistyness.  Lovely really!  And its a rare condition in Chicago so I am sure that all our many Irish friends here will appreciate it.

Other than that I have been in the office with our wonderful team although there was an interlude as we were entertained by an ubiquitous and extremel enthusiastic London Artists Manager, a colleague who goes back some time.  I am not sure that this itinerant life, far far worse than being one of his opera singer clients, would be possible for me.  But it is irrelevant anyway - I hire singers rather than selling them.  So whilst I am always out on the hunt for the next great thing I actually try to be a stay at home person and wait for them to come to me!  But my readers know that I get about a bit nevertheless.

On the way home this evening I had a small shopping list which I dealt with at the Trader Joe on Ontario. As I came out I thought it would be nice for you all to see the restaurant opposite, an unusual piece of downtown Chicago, just paces from Michigan Avenue, the Sloane Street of the Mid West.  So there you have it below - Avocado Alley and all!

A week to deal with......

There is a lot on my plate this week.  We are building up to the final determination of our 2011 budget. 

Our staff is totally devoted to achieving a successful outcome for our big fundraiser on Saturday. 

We have a board meeting on Monday which always demands a degree of preparation.

Meanwhile, in case anyone thought we were a fund-raising organization rather than a producer of opera, we are doing all we can to prepare for the beginning of a rehearsal period which will show the world what we can do.

And we also have to do our taxes..........due April 15  but lets just do it!

Now for the fun bits!  The party on Saturday is long awaited and is sure to be a great event with Danielle de Niese displaying the delights of music making at the highest level.  We have a 300+ turn out of the great and the good, and the shoppers who will bid on our silent auction items.  And there will will good company, and good wine and food - what is not to like about that?  It is not to late to sign up!

I am looking forward to the Lyric's Schools' Matinee of L'elisir d'amore on Thursday - Ryan Center artists make up the cast and my goodness it is a good group this year.  I will be reporting on that.

It was a misty moisty Chicago today - foggy and forty something.  Acceptable but not able to put a spring into our feet.  That will come.......

Comfort ye!

Memories of Philip Langridge

There are so many comments about Philip on my blog, as well as on Facebook.  His life has produced so many indelible memories for thousands of music and opera lovers. 

For me it began forty six years ago when the 24 year old Philip Langridge joined the Glyndebourne Chorus.  It was a vintage year - they are always vintage years really for this cradle for so many years of the finest British singers.  But this year was the year that Luciano Pavarotti sang Idamante at Glyndebourne - and the chorus had an array of youngsters who were to go on the great careers.  In addition to Philip there was Richard van Allan, Ryland Davies, Anne Howells, and Stafford Dean.

And Philip was a permanent fixture for all of us in the British opera world, and more widely, as we saw this remarkable artists magical powers develop and broaden over his 46 year career. Excelling as he did in an extraordinarily wide repertoire of opera, oratorio, and song, and works of every century, he was a huge influence on generations of artists, conductors, and directors.  

Obituaries will be appearing in the press and online over the coming days and weeks.  This early one yesterday captures a good deal of Philip - no one can get it all!

Lesser Puccini - but well worth the occasional outing

La rondine has always seemed to be the Cinderella of Puccini's operas.  It has some oddities about it.  It was first performed in Monte Carlo rather than Milan - neutral territory!  It was surely good to have it on the Côte d'Azur, setting of the last act.  It could have been my old villa in Villefranche-sur-Mer where I lived for three years 1994-97!  Here you see the view I had!

And it was NOT published by Tito Ricordi (who was not interested), but by the rival house publishing house of Sonzogno.

It has always been regarded as something of a lightweight although it has some passionate music and some wonderfully evocative sultry sexy Parisian atmospherics - some charming stuff indeed.  I have done it twice in my previous incarnations, firstly at Wexford in 1970 in a beautiful production by Anthony Besch, and then in 1990 in Toronto with Sheri Greenawald, now director of the San Francisco Opera Center, in the title role.

It needs special protaganists  for Magda and Ruggero, and there is no doubt that the renowned couple of Angela Georghiu and Roberto Alagna did the piece a service by performing it widely in recent years.  They have now lived out the story of the opera and separated, so that is that until another magic pair comes along!

Last night two of the very best of the COT young artists, both in the diploma program at CCPA took on these crucial roles in the production up at North Eastern Illinois University.  And they were just right. These were our greatly loved Catalina Cuervo and Jorge Prego.  Good for them - they were really splendid and we were proud of them.

We have a lovely day here in Chicago - a quiet Sunday with a dear old friend for lunch, and then the Oscars this evening.  I think a walk along the lake this afternoon is called for.

Philip Langridge 1939-2010

It is with great sadness that we note the passing yesterday evening in London of Philip Langridge, singer,  musician, artist, and truly wonderful man.

Much will be written, but nothing can recapture adequately the warmth of his smile, the gaiety of his laughter;  he was held in enormous respect and affection by all that knew him and worked with him.

Weekend?

Nichols Bridgeway from the Modern Wing 11.45 am Friday March 5 2010

You might think that we were done for this week - no chance I am afraid.  We have a five hour Board mini-retreat tomorrow to examine the myriad issues surrounding the workings of a not for profit board.  It will be conducted by our new Board member Henry Fogel who has 43 years experience of working with volunteer boards since his days in Syracuse, NY.  That was 1967.  By a happy coincidence I also have been around such boards since much the same time.  I was appointed Artistic Director of the Wexford Festival that same year - in fact in January of 1967.  So between us we should know what we are talking about.  But actually I am not doing much talking tomorrow.  I will be an interested spectator, less than completely independent of course given my position at COT. But no doubt I will have something to say if invited to speak!

And tomorrow evening I will be at the CCPA La rondine at North Eastern Illinois University.  More about that after the event.  But if you can get there, do please try.  It is free open seating so be there in good time to grab your favorite seats!  And leave plenty of time to get there - directions via the web are sketchy to zero.  It will require perseverance but it will be worthwhile!  Check back here tomorrow in case I can find precise instructions........PS I am told it is at the Fine Arts Center Auditorium at Northeastern Illinois University, 5500 N. Saint Louis Ave. in Chicago (Use campus entrance located at 3701 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.)

And so earlier this bright crisp day, while our computer system in the office was down, I popped into the Art Institute to see the William Eggleston exhibition which opened last Saturday.  It is a fine show in the Modern Wing, occupying all the galleries off the Griffin Court.  I took advantage of the little 45 minute tour at 12 noon conducted by an extremely informative curator.  That was a good start - I will be back to spend some quiet time later before it closes in May. 

Conversation

The recording of the conversation that Henry Fogel and I had in the WFMT studios the other week was broadcast for the first time this afternoon.  We covered the 2010 season and you can hear it here or go to the COT website.  Its about an hour long so brace yourselves!  It will be aired at least once more before our season opens - and I hope that it will help us to sell lots of tickets.  I hate listening to myself on the radio but plucked up my courage this afternoon.  Its not bad really - we got into a good conversational rhythm rather than it being a prepared question and answer session.  Henry is a terrific broadcasting pro - and that really made a huge difference.

Anyway see what you think.......

Is Spring coming?

I hesitate to even think such a thing might be possible. But it may be in the air......we are going up to 46 degrees F by the end of the weekend.  The first relief for months. 

The clock on the Wrigley Building tells you when I arrived downtown this morning. (Click pic to enlarge). I was here for a nice breakfast date with Evamaria Wieser, a late morning birthday celebration for our Development Director, and this afternoon more budget discussions for 2011. And I signed another 20 contracts for the 2010 season this morning - in triplicate of course!

This evening we will be at Erwin's to sample their "First of the season seafood".  Another harbinger of Spring?  

Lovely retro day

One of the few good things about the passage of time is the wonderful bank of generous hearts that one has encountered over the years, that come to the rescue, if rescue is needed, at the drop of an invitation!

Well no rescue is needed here - but it was great to have lunch with Jane Glover today, finished here for the time being after her concert last night, but back in a mere three weeks for a little concert with a big work with the Rembrandt Chamber Players. They have a Mahler project and it is Das Lied von der Erde of all things.

We were at the old standby of the Park Grill - and I went straight from there for the pleasure of showing Glyndebourne's Chairman, Gus Christie, around the Harris Theater.  When he was in Chicago in  2002 I showed him the hole in the ground.  This time he was accompanied by his wonderful wife Danielle de Niese who sang Poppea when we opened our first season there with Poppea in February 2004.

The passage of time is what it is - but I remember well the day that Gus was born.  I was sitting at my desk in the very good old days when Glyndebourne had a London office.  It was at 23 Baker Street, just down the road from Sherlock Holmes..........I wont tell you the year but it was a different time.

And it was a time to celebrate.  And we continue to rejoice as the great institution created by his grandparents, John and Audrey Christie, continues to flourish, and remains a beacon for the pursuit of excellence at a time when such things are at best not understood and at worst despised.

21 days to go

It is just three weeks today until we begin the longish haul of our short season.  Meanwhile after a rather hectic time last week we have some calm again though there are undercurrents....!

Between now and then there is a lot of good stuff around town to keep us out of mischief.  This coming weekend the CCPA will be producing Puccini's charming almost operetta La rondine  with a good many COT young singers from our joint diploma program. 

Coming up for the CSO is Charles Dutoit with Shostakovich 11,  the St John Passion with Bernard Labadie,  and Mitsuko Uchida with Mozart. 

And the Art Institute opens its great Matisse exhibition.  This is just a sampling of what is in store in the next three weeks. 

Meanwhile Lyric keeps going with Figaro alternating with Damnation de Faust.  This is actually all quite typical of any three week period in this city.

But this evening it is Music of the Baroque at the Harris - some great Handel.

Lovely Figaro

Photo © Dan Rest 2010

We just got back from the opening performance of the Lyric's revival of the Hall production of Le nozze di Figaro.  What to say?  The old production stands up remarkably well after 37 years - and the Lyric cast was what will in the future be regarded as a vintage one.  Susanna is always the lynch pin of a Figaro cast - she is rarely off the stage and is one of opera's most lovable creations.  And Danielle de Niese was magic.  With the Yankee Diva herself also in the cast as Cherubino, and with two gloriously voiced baritones, Mariusz Kwiecien and Kyle Ketelson, as the Count and Figaro, we were treated to some pretty lovely stuff.

We were happy to be there (an understatement) and our six year old was riveted for the full three and three quarter hours.  Good upbringing! But a pity about the fireworks - there weren't any.  Have the fire department really brought us to this?

Do not miss Music of the Baroque at the Harris tomorrow evening.  "Handel and the Royals" is the name of the program.  Jane Glover and her team will surely give us a treat.

Food and music weekend

 Pastoral at the French Market Chicago 12.30 pm Saturday February 27 2010

I took advantage of having some time this weekend to have a look at the new "French Market" that opened shortly before Christmas at the Ogilvie Metra station just across the river from the Lyric Opera.  It has been warmly welcomed and much praised so I thought I should catch up with it.  And our favorite cheese shop, Pastoral (above), opened up there.  In fact so busy was it this morning that I could not get a word in to buy any cheese there so I contented myself with a couple of excellent New York strips from the butcher.

This is an excellent new addition for those West Loop residents and commuters who use the Metra train service from the suburbs.

Tomorrow we will be at the Lyric the opening performance of Le nozze di Figaro, unusually a 2pm afternoon performance instead of the usual Saturday evening.  This was a particularly good move as far as we are concerned since we can bring our opera loving child for whom an evening performance is impossible.  And we will be sitting near the front where we can get a really good look at the cast (and vice-versa)!

To prepare for this we spent some time this afternoon going through the story with the help of the wonderful 1987 Glyndebourne recording of the opera, conducted by Bernard Haitink with two Chicago singers in leading roles - Gianna Rolandi, now director of the Ryan Center, and Richard Stilwell, a distinguished member of the CCPA faculty.  How good to be reminded of the outstanding gifts of these two singers - and the whole performance gave such a pleasurable reminder of the Haitink Mozart era at Glyndebourne.  We recorded Cosi and Don Giovanni with Haitink as well with the cream of the casts of the 1980s.  All these were made in the legendary Abbey Road Studios of EMI. Their availability is pretty sketchy but well worth seeking out.

Now for a quiet Saturday evening.......

Sneak Peek Party

Our annual opportunity to preview our season provided to contributors and other friends was last evening. And there was a great turnout of more than 100 enthusiasts! Phil Gossett and Jane Glover brought authoritative words to their brief talks about Rossini and Cavalli;  the set and costume designs were on display and gave lively color to the proceedings in the already somewhat exotic (and/or funky) Mars Gallery.

Seen in the photo grabbed by our development director are left to right Leonardo Vordoni (Conductor of Mose in Egitto) David Holloway, Jane Glover, Phillip Gossett and Andrew Eggert (Director of Mose)

This afternoon is the dress rehearsal at Lyric of  Le nozze di Figaro in Peter Hall's celebrated production which originated at Glyndebourne in 1973.  I will be there dreaming of happy memories of that great event with the stunning cast of Ileana Cotrubas, Kiri te Kanawa, and Frederica von Stade.  The Lyric Opera has a fabulous trio of ladies too in Danielle de Niese, Joyce DiDonato and Anne Schwanewilms.  So we should be in for a great show, and with Andrew Davis in the pit Mozart will be very content.

CSO 2010-2011

This is the season for season announcements!  I just got back from Orchestra Hall where a large assemblage of the great and the good, and some of the not so good no doubt, of Chicago's music community gathered to hang on the magical and inspiring words of Riccardo Muti.  This was the occasion of the announcement of the CSO's next season.  Full details are already available on the CSO's excellent web site.  It is going to be a cracker!

Muti is of course a total winner, charming, funny, fiercely intelligent, and totally disdaining of anything but the best.  And quite right too.  He seems to be eternally youthful (actually he is five days younger than me!) Chicago is in for another golden period - long may it last.  We should all be grateful to the CSO's management for its patience, tenacity, and clear sightedness.

Meanwhile we have our current season preview this evening. It should be the usual fun affair.  It appears that we will have a record turnout to the party at the Mars Gallery in the West Loop area.  More later.....

The Met

The recently announced Metropolitan Opera 2010-2011 season is mightily impressive.  For one thing there are no less than 29 different operas on offer.  Secondly the range of the repertoire and the truly exciting titles must make any opera lover pretty happy. The highlights for me, if I were living in New York, in alphabetical order would be: Armida (Rossini) Boris Godunov, Capriccio (R Strauss) Le Comte Ory (Rossini) Don Carlo, Fanciulla del West, Iphigenie en Tauride, Nixon in China, Pelleas et Melisande, Rheingold, Simon Boccanegra, Die Walkure and Wozzeck.  For me these dozen would be unmissable.  

Go to the Met link and think about your top dozen.

Now the Met needs a theater suitable for the performance of Monteverdi, Cavalli, Handel and Mozart.  1,300 seats would  be just right.........is that Peter Gelb's next big thing?  It would be wonderful if it were.

Divo and the Scholars!

Yes, the event to mark Phil Gossett's retirement and celebrate his career at the University of Chicago was a grand affair which it was such a treat to be involved with.  Phil's influence as a teacher, scholar, mentor and agitator has always spread around the world, so it was no surprise to find scholars from Britain and Europe, as well as a galaxy of US star musicologists, gathering together to express their affection for the great man!  This was all put together by the U of C's Anne Robertson.  Terrific job.

I was asked to be the chair of the first session entitled "The Uses of Convention" which in the context of a symposium subtitled "Ottocento Opera - Between Theory and Practice" made some sense.  Being the chair was not such an daunting and nerve wracking task as expected.  These august scholars were kind to me and in truth all I had to do was introduce them.

The four in my session were Stefano Castelvecchi from Cambridge University, Mark Everest of the University of Southampton, Hilary Poriss of Northeastern University, and the Director of the Caramoor Festival, Will Crutchfield.

There was the usual mixture of scholarly analysis and academic banter, wit and wisdom, and a continuous thread of respect for, and gratitude to, Phil running through the proceedings.  There was the odd rock tossed into the pool, in particular some adverse remarks about Regietheater from Will - robustly rebutted by Ellen Harris from MIT.  And a charming moment from Hilary Poriss, whose paper was about the altruism of certain Prima Donnas, when she conceded that "men can be generous too"!

There was an excellent second session devoted matters textual entitled "Knowing the Score" and the proceedings were wrapped up with brilliant closing remarks from Don Michael Randel, former President of the U of C, now President of the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, and himself a distinguished musicologist.

We then adjourned for a reception at the Quadrangle Club, more tributes to Phil and the presentation of a Rossini letter as a leaving present - wow!

Next up I was on parade again to introduce a wonderful recital by Joyce DiDonato and Vivica Genaux, truly the Colbran and Malibran of the day, in a program put together by Will Crutchfield who also played - very well.  It pushed all the Gossett buttons including his passion for Gilbert and Sullivan!

And so to dinner, more speeches of an informal affectionate kind, and some singing by us all.  It was over soon before 11pm.  A wonderful day!

Amazing day

The Quadrangle, University of Chicago, Noon February 22 2010

Today was the virtually all day retirement party at the University of Chicago for the great and good Philip Gossett, colleague, mentor, and friend to so many.  I am back from there now at 11pm.  We started out at noon.  I will write at greater length tomorrow. After this long day and yesterday's shenanigans I'm done!

Home!

Yes, but not until well after midnight!  Thats another story.

Now for a busy week with some lovely things happening this afternoon and evening.  I will not be posting until late tonight. You will understand when you wake up tomorrow!

On the way home

Here we are at Cancun Airport - lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.  Enough food for a week......apparently there is one of these places in Chicago, on Navy Pier.  I might have guessed.  We don't go to Navy Pier much - except to the Shakespeare Theater or to WBEZ....

We have to fly via Miami and wont be home until after 9pm.  Long tiring day.

When it rains all day in Cancun......

Its pretty safe to say that some people go shopping.  And there is lots of junk to buy.  As you can see a pretty dismal scene.  We normally go to Florida for this school break.  The temperature there this week has been in the 50s.  So we made a smart choice - its in the 70s here. 

There has been a good deal of to and fro by email with the office today.  We are approaching budget approval time - always a drama!  And there is lots of fun fundraising activity in the works.  Our season preview is next Thursday - always a happy event and an opportunity for our keenest supporters to take a look at what is in the works for the spring.  And we are only three weeks away from our March 13 blockbuster event.  Remember, any of you can come - if you pay the freight.  Its a bargain.........sign up on our website.  No chance of purchaser remorse I promise.

Meanwhile back in soaking Mexico, we did indeed go shopping this morning.  And found some really nice things for our child..........no purchasers remorse there either. This expedition included a visit to the Isla Shopping Village - another world entirely seen below.  Click the pics to enlarge. 

Lets hope for some sun tomorrow - our last day.

The other side of Cancun

El Shrimp Bucket, Bite Me, and MacDonalds

As regular readers know we are on a short vacation.  The weather has been variable - for which read pretty disappointing - but its warm and there are always ways to have fun!  One of these might be a look at the other side of this very made to measure resort town.  Above is what one might call "the other side of the tracks".  We had no idea it was there until this morning - our first excursion from the comfort of our hotel.

If the weather remains miserable we may venture further afield to see some of the ancient glories of this part of the world.  But adult sight/site seeing with a six year old is never a picnic and needs to be carefully judged as any parent knows.

I am more or less keeping up with business back home.  And preparing for a very busy week ahead. Thank goodness for modern technology.  To think that 30 years ago I received packages by mail on a regular basis when on vacation, once a week, to ensure that I was up to date.  That was before we were using fax.  Telegrams or telex were the urgent way of communicating in writing.  Oh for those slow moving days!

Some vacation reading.......

I just finished Freakonomics yesterday evening having read its sequel Superfreakonomics first last month. Anyone who is sure of everything needs to read these two books.  It wont take long - both are "rollicking good reads". But you will surely end up either very angry that the conventional wisdoms that have guided your thinking for so long have been not only questioned but proved to be nonsense - or rather pleased.  

I for one am pleased - particularly at the discovery that Roe v Wade was the reason for the drop in crime in NYC, not the actions of Mayor Giuliani and his police department.  That is just a sample.  Buy the books and start questioning everything!  You will irritate so many people - what fun!

The prime thinker behind all this is a University of Chicago possibly politically incorrect economics professor Steven Levitt.  I like his thinking - I wonder if he likes opera..........

That's better!

This is more like it - 5 hours of sunshine today!  Considering that another gray day was forecast we feel good!  Spirits are up - Margaritas are down!