Brian Dickie

No I didn't!

No, I provoked nothing today.  So all is calm in the mid-west!  The CSO has nothing but "Welcome Yule!";  the Lyric Opera is closed now until they resume with more Zauberflöte performances from January 4; we at COT are hibernating.

But come the new year we have Mark Elder in town for a couple of programs at the CSO, as well as a stint with the Civic Orchestra;  and Lyric is contending with Aida, Showboat and Rinaldo.  And we also see the rest of the Zauberflöte performances with the super Alek Shrader taking on Tamino.  That will be worth a detour. 

For most of the period December 24 - January 3 I will be away in the beautiful county of Somerset, England - home to Cheddar, Bath and Glastonbury.  My elder daughter lives there and we will have a rousing family Christmas.  You will see a pictorial record here no doubt.

My routine life.........

This blog, as I feel I have to remind you occasionally, is subtitled "Life as General Director of Chicago Opera Theater".  So from time to time I have to admit that I have had a boring routine day.  It is sometimes a relief,  at other times a confession of failure.  But I think that it is ok, at this time of seasonal good cheer, to admit that it is something of a treat to just relax and be calm.

That said, I had an invigorating, and enjoyable, 75 minutes this evening with two of my many favorite board members - my President Greg O'Leary, and Suzanne Wagner (no relation).  They are two members of the three person "transition committee" overseeing the smooth accession of Andreas Mitisech to my position here in September 2012.  The third is Henry Fogel who is out of town.

And now I am home and will chill out again..........I will try to be more exciting tomorrow.  Maybe I can provoke some excitement. 

Bright chilly Sunday

I avoided downtown on this last Sunday before Christmas - probably a good idea.  So I did my last Christmas shopping in the warm comfort of home but ventured out in the late afternoon for fresh, extremely cool, air and a little exercise if you can call brisk walking that.  I made my way along the west side of North Pond (above) in Lincoln Park, up to Fullerton then to the lakeshore.  It was bleak and deserted and extremely peaceful.

After our rather hectic time last week we can look forward to these quiet last few days before the holidays - the year end fund raising effort will have one last push and we hope to begin 2012 in good shape.  But do consider a year end contribution to COT.  Every little bit helps to ensure that we can continue to produce the excellence for which we have become known.  It is an easy online process.  Go on - do it!!

Chicago skyline from the north at Fullerton Avenue 4 pm Sunday December 18 2011

The perfect solution for music lovers in the 21st century

When I first fell in love it was the age of the 78 rpm shellac gramophone record which played maybe six minutes per side.  We then graduated, about 1951, to the LP - the "Long Playing Record".  That was perhaps 25-30 minutes per side though they later stretched it to cope with Beethoven's 9th symphony - rather more than an hour on a single disc, considered at the time to be a technological marvel.  I had a copy of Jascha Horenstein's recording on Vox - an ancient forgotten record label.  And then we went Stereo around 1959. 

Please don't take my vague guesses at dates to be historically authoritative.  Please fact check before citing!

The next step was around 1980.  This was the introduction of the Compact Disc (CD).  It was a Sony and Philips invention totally rejected by EMI - they are now bust - we don't meed to wonder why........but at least they had the imagination to belatedly get it, and issue the first complete opera on CD (at my urging!) - the  Don Giovanni from Glyndebourne conducted by Bernard Haitink.

But enough of that - fast forward...........we now have the magic combination of Sonos and Spotify.  I am not going to attempt to describe the miracles out there exemplified by these two amazing organizations of whom I am an enthusiastic customer.  Judge for yourselves - go to the links.  It is well worth thinking about and if you are as obsessed with music as I am I am sure you will find rewards here.  But you will have to work and pay for them - (contrary to the publicity to get the full deal you must pay - and that's a good thing)  But it's the bargain of a lifetime.  (Unless of course you don't really care one way or the other).

Just in case you are wondering - I have no connection with either of these companies - I am just a very satisfied customer.  But it would be nice itf they were to "compensate" me for saying these things - in which case I would tell you!

We had snow here in Chicago today.  And I went down to Michigan Avenue to shop.  Big mistake - it was  a nightmare crowd.  One never learns..........

PS - who has heard of Joseph Joachim Raff?  His overture to the opera "Dame Kobold" is on Radio Svizzera Classica as I write this.  Lovely stuff - wonderful discovery.  Thanks entirely to Sonos!

PS - And now we have Pleyel's Op 66 symphony - marvellous!!  Pleyel was born in 1757, the year afer Mozart  - thank you Radio Svizzera!  Wonders never cease!

Happy Christmas!

We had our Christmas party this afternoon - no turkey, but chicken tikka masala!  It was pot luck - and everyone brought something delicious - but Colleen and I imposed the extremely delicious curry on our colleagues, fresh and hot from Chutney Joe's.  This was the group early on in the proceedings.  It got a little rowdier as we went on to a bingo session!  All in the spirit of the season...........

We have another week to go before we disperse to our families.  And now for a quiet weekend with some last minute shopping.

Some week!

We have had a busy time since last Friday - having had the creative teams of all three 2012 productions in town. In particular our production manager Brad Vernatter, and our director of artistic operations Jerry Tietz,  have been on their toes and hopping all over town...........but what fun we have had with these great people.  Fortunately they have all embraced the creative minimalism approach that is the norm for COT.  Necessity being the mother.....making a virtue of necessity......etc etc.  In the posts of the last few days below you can see all the characters who have been involved, so I am not going to repeat myself (much).

Anyway I think that we have all ended up happy and satisfied that the mission has been accomplished.  So we are looking forward with excitement to the two Spring productions.  We have some stunning singers to add to the mix - so its all looking good.  And if you have not booked yet delay no further or you may miss the boat!

Having got over this burst of activity we can now get through to the holiday period quietly.  Well relatively - we have our office party tomorrow including Secret Santa!  Yay!!

The best of the best

During my 12 years here in Chicago I have made annual visits to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.  I have observed over the years the consistently remarkable level of the singers - and many of them have subsequently appeared with Chicago Opera Theater - and there are to come.....

Philadelphia is rightly proud of this superlative organisation, tucked away comparatively unostentatiously on the corner of Locust and Rittenhouse Square in the city of brotherly love. And now their quality newspaper, the Philadelphia Enquirer, has devoted a huge amount of space to recording the remarkable achievements of Curtis, and emphasising its world wide significance as a very rare centre of extreme excellence.  

 “What makes this ultra-selective conservatory so special?” That is the question posed by the Inquirer, as it explores the extraordinary success of the Curtis Institute of Music. As well as a series of three front-page feature stories on consecutive days, the newspaper published a photo-spread in its Arts and Entertainment section and offers an unprecedented wealth of multimedia coverage. It’s all contained in The Curtis Factor: a dedicated micro-site boasting numerous interactive web features, including four exclusive online video documentaries.

This is a fantastic bit of serious dedication by a publisher in the 21st Century.  But it is all very understandable - the Curtis Institute was originally endowed by money from the Curtis Publishing Company whose two chief money spinners were the Saturday Evening Post and the Ladies Home Journal - the most widely read magazines in the world during their hay-day.  The noble work continues!

Teseo

François-Pierre Couture and James Darragh sharing a joke

No, Teseo is no laughing matter - unlike the first of the "Medea themed" operas in our three year project, Cavalli's Giasone.   This is undoubtedly the darkest one - and a remarkable achievement by the 28 year old Handel, clearly emerging as a master of music theater.  The director of our Spring 2012 production  James Darrah and designer François-Pierre Couture gave a splendid presentation this afternoon.  With an extraordinarily talented cast, including some budding major stars I venture to say, this will be another show from COT not to be missed.  

I am delighted to be having my monthly dinner with my Board chairman this evening - always a pleasure.

Two busy days.....

I had the full Moskva Cheryomushki team to dinner last night.  And they survived the experience to make a brilliant presentation this morning - Mike Donahue walked us through the convoluted story.....its going to be a wonderful show.  Above is Anya Klepikov showing off the colorful design side of things.  We then grabbed a hurried sandwich lunch. 

This afternoon we have the same event for a much darker piece - Handel's Teseo - with the same team we had for Médée last season, James Darrah and François-Pierre Couture.  More later.......

The wonders of the internet

Just a short comment - this Sunday evening in Chicago I am enjoying, thanks to the wonders of the internet and Sonos, a broadcast from Radio Svizzera of a wonderful performance of Mozart's Piano concerto K 413  played by Geza Anda, a forgotten genius of the 20th century's list of remarkable pianists.  He died of cancer at the age of 55 in 1976.

What musical pleasures there are out there if you keep your eyes and ears open!