Brian Dickie

A full weekend......

This weekend has been a lovely mixture of stuff.  Yesterday (Saturday) was the wedding of our dear friends Bud Dobbins and my first wonderful Board president Dorothy Walton - a true board star who bore the burden of the chairmanship of COT for ten years.  She brought me here in 1999 and her laying down the reins in 2006 was very difficult for us both.

Above you see the view (thanks to my iPhone) from the Cliff Dwellers Club on Chicago's South Michigan Avenue, next door to the CSO, where the beautiful ceremony and accompanying dinner took place yesterday evening. And what a gorgeous evening it was as we crammed on the terrace on the 22nd floor of the Borg-Warner building.

And of course we had music - two of COT's prized possessions, Leila Bowie and Matthew Newlin, with Scott Gilmore the impeccable accompanist, delivering three very different love songs by Bach, Grieg, and Lehar.  Altogether a lovely evening.

Today was the long awaited final round of the process the settle the 2012-13 Lyric Opera Ryan Center members.  There were just four new additions to join the existing ranks. In voice order the lucky ones are Tracy Cantin, J'nai Bridges, John Irvin, and Will Liverman. 

John and Will were both apprentices at Santa Fe this past summer.  This is a good solid path for them to pursue.  The Ryan Center, under Gianna Rolandi's leadership, has a fabulous record in developing young professional singers. 

Tracy is another of the seemingly endless stream of Canadian singers who are making their mark on the international opera scene.  Tracy is from Montreal and has been studying at McGill. 

J'nai has been known to us all as one of the most striking of up and comers.  This is a great breakthrough for her - she is going to be a big personality in the Ryan Center and a huge vocal asset.

So it has been a good day and we look forward to seeing these young people develop over the next three years.

Amongst the singers today was Cecelia Hall, a current member of the Center.  She sang an aria from Clemenza di Tito quite stunningly - I was delighted......she will be singing the title role in our production of Handel's Teseo next Spring.  Indeed we have no fewer than five current or immediate past members of the Ryan Center with COT next season.  They are the best!

Now for a quiet Sunday evening.......

RIP - RB McDowell

All Alums of Trinity College, Dublin of my generation will have known only too wonderfully well the JD - the Junior Dean, RB McDowell, who died recently at the age of 97.  We are thankful to have encountered a legendary eccentric who was an ornament to our youthful excesses at TCD.  It was a very long time ago - the affectionate obituary in tomorrow's Independent decribes perfectly the unique magic of this unforgettable figure.  They don't come like that anymore...........

I am so looking forward to being back in Ireland in October for the Wexford Festival.  There will be many there with whom we can celebrate his life in the only way possible!  I will no doubt be reporting on that as well of course as the three extremely rare operas I am looking forward to seeing there.  But that is five weeks away...........

Photo: John Searle

Cool September day

Smurfit-Stone Building, Chicago - 2 pm  September 15 2011

This is the first day of sweater weather - people complaining that they are cold although we are in the 60s and it is just delicious!  I had to pop down Michigan Avenue this afternoon and nipped into Millennium Park which is looking gorgeous in the bright crisp sunlight.  How handsome Chicago is!

We at COT are having a pretty quiet time of it.  I can not help thinking that this time next year it will be a very different matter indeed. We will be opening our new production of The Magic Flute on September 15, exactly 12 months away.  I think that this will be very good for us indeed.  Theoretically I will no longer be here but I am certainly determined to stay around to see this last production of 2012 through to the end.  I ponder the end of my happy 13 year stint here with some misgivings.........but we have a truly wonderful season coming up.  Handel, Shostakovich and Mozart - not a shabby trio!  And I believe that we have an array of singers that would be the envy of any company anywhere on this continent.  It is going to be a winner, mark my words!

I am sitting here in my little office at home tuned in to WQXR  listening to Brahms' 2nd piano concerto playing throughout my apartment courtesy of the magical Sonos system.  This is one of the many mini miracles of the 21st century.  It only gets better!  Of course even better is a symphony orchestra live.  Only a week to go.....

Tomorrow I am having a tooth out!  Ugh!!  For now Brahms will sooth me, and Mahler 2 later this evening!

Music in Chicago

www.chicagoclassicalmusic.org

Chicago has a long impressive history of fine music making.  The CSO has been around for 120 years, and while the Lyric as a company has only been operating "only" since 1954, Chicago's operatic history goes back at least to 1850, as is superbly documented in Robert C Marsh's indispensable volume which covers the 150 years to 2005. 

So this city is mature to say the least.  And musical activity continues with a rich variety of programming to give pleasure to Chicacoans and visitors alike.  And you can find out how exciting our musical life is by regularly going to the Chicago Classical Music website which is developing into a valuable way for music lovers to engage with the companies and each other.

We had a meeting of members this noon time.  I have been on the executive committee more or less since its foundation five years ago but am now just a simple interested party.  The efforts are spearheaded by Jim Hirsch of the Chicago Sinfonietta, and Amy Iwano of the Chicago Chamber Musicians, most ably supported by a graduate of the Chicago Opera Theater marketing department the ingenious and energetic, and fiercely committed, Daniel Jackman. 

Some recent exciting developments include the arrival on the scene of a fresh young voice in the shape of a student cellist at the Chicago College of the Performing Arts, the perfectly named Allegra Montanari. With enthusiasm and eloquent advocacy of this quality the future of classical music is in good hands!

I believe that there is huge further potential in developing the site to feed the passionate engagement of music lovers - but there is work to be done.  I am looking forward to the next six months as renewed energy is directed towards building the site into the go to place for one stop information about all that is happening in the Chicago music scene.

It is cooloing down here.........I think that we are happy that the summer heat is over.

Five stars!

It is not so often that one seen an opera review, or a review of any kind, which gives 5 out of 5 stars.  So I thought it was worthy of mention!

This was for the Royal Opera's new production by the brilliant and wonderfully unporedictable Richard Jones - one of the most interesting opera directors of the day.  This time he has once again hit the jackpot - with Puccini's Trittico of all things!  Well done him - and if you are in London it seems that you must all rush to see it if you take the review in The Independent seriously.  You should - Edward Seckerson is one of the best.  Richard Fairman gives it five too - in the Financial Times.  I've never seen anything like it!

I am mortified I can not get to it.

Last of the summer heat?

It was a glorious hot day in Chicago today - but this seems likely to be the end of the 80s, back to more gentle warmth as usual in the coming weeks as we march towards autumn.  This is the loveliest time of the year. 

We had a memorable month of rehearsal for our Orfeo which opened in October of 2000, my first full season in charge here at COT.  And as I enter my last season here I am looking forward to another blissful few weeks.  I will be in Chicago now for the next five weeks before going off to Germany for the final stages of Neue Stimmen.

As you can see from the Neue Stimmen website linked to above, we have 42 finalists with us having had to make some very hard decisions about whom to leave out.  You may find it interesting to review the candidates.  They come from eighteen different countries (by my calculation). 

We have as usual a preponderance of sopranos in different self styled forms, mostly plain vanilla and some claiming lyric and coloratura rights - 16 in total I think.  And then we have a good little band of mezzos making a total of 24 young women altogether.  We have no less than seven basses amongst the 18 men - then five tenors and six baritones.  

I think that we are in for an exciting shoot out.  The whole process is rather cruel since we sacrifice more than half in the first round.  That is tough, and will be the most difficult p/art of the whole judging process.  After all, this is a competition between winners - but just as in the Olympic games, another competition of champions, someone has to come last!  But there is no shame in that - getting to the final stage is already a huge achievement.  So many truly excellent young singers missed by a mere whisker. 

I have a quite busy week in Chicago ahead.  We are tidying up our books at the end of the recently completed fiscal year, we have a board meeting on September 26 with a heavy agenda, there are many loose ends for the 2012 season to be tidied up and work to be done to get 2013 settled. 

But we are all looking forward to the CSO and Lyric starting their seasons.  My first outing will be to Ricardo Muti's first program at the end of next week - and then to the Lyric's opening production, The Tales of Hoffmann on October 1.

Did you all book your COT tickets (well those of you who live within striking distance)?  If not it may not be too late if you hurry to www.chicagooperatheater.org

Home!

Another long day - arrived at O'Hare at 7:40 and home by 8:30.  But its good to be back......weary though! So back to work tomorrow.  I will leave it at that for now!

Last evening in London

Noel Coward Theatre, St Martin's Lane, 8:30 pm September 10 2011

I am back in Chicago tomorrow evening.  And spending a quiet evening and having an early night after five evenings of hyper activity.  I popped down St Martin's Lane from the Garrick to have a quick supper in one of the really surprisingly excellent restaurants of the chain Côte Brasserie, a three year old phenomenon which is redefining the notion of value for money and high quality. 

Of course this is the heart of the West End with the New Theatre (subsequently named the Albery and now the Noel Coward) being a typical representative of the rich heritage of London theatre. And so the theatre public are appreciative of good food and wine, and value for money.  But this chain appears to repeat its magnificent performance around the country irrespective of the presence of the entertainment business.  They might do well in the US (as has another European phenom Le Pain Quotidien) - but I am not sure that the proprietors would be prepared to put iced tea on the menu.  They are far too fastidious in their attention to detail to do such a thing........so what would the customers drink at lunchtime?

I am running out of steam now.  My very late night last night is catching up with me.  As happens, I ran into an old friend and colleague David Pountney, and one thing led to another.  It was so good to see him.  He is in London preparing the production of Mieczysław Weinberg's The Passenger, which opens at the Coliseum on September 19.  I hope to get to see it when I am in London at the end of October. 

A morning hour at Tate Modern

St Paul's and the Millennium Bridge from Tate Modern

I popped over to the south of the river this morning, over the Millennium Bridge from St Paul's Cathedral, to Tate Modern.  It has been another grey day - but surprisingly warm.  I wanted to see the two photo shows they have on, and the Miro exhibition, a massive affair which ends on Sunday.  Just in time!

I greatly enjoyed the little Diane Arbus show - lots of weird and wonderful people sharply observed by Miss Arbus as usual!  It is there at Tate Modern through to the end of March next year, so look for it on level 3 if you happen to be in this massive place!

Otherwise it has been a family day - my little daughter's 8th birthday.

Grey London day

We have a somewhat typical grey London day today - but there is always plenty to do - so...........I had a nice walk down to Trafalgar Square where of course the church of St Martin in the Fields presides over the tourist dominated square.  And Nelson is also there on his column, as is the National Gallery which takes up the whole of the north side of the square. 

But my favorite place to visit is the National Portrait Gallery - full of such unexpected riches.  This is a thoroughly modern museum which has adapted to the 21st century superbly whilst retaining the integrity of its 1856 foundation.

The highlights this month are the splendid BP Portrait Awards of 2011, and a dazzling exhibition of Hollywood photography which fully lives up to its name - Glamour of the Gods.

If you are in London try to make it to these two shows, and if you have never been to the gallery before an extended look around the permanent collection will be very rewarding.  It wont take that long - this is not the Louvre or the Uffizzi!

This afternoon I hope to catch up with some work.......