© Michael Brosilow
First thing first - Chicago Opera Theater has turned a corner with a transforming change of leadership. And the evidence was there for all to see yesterday afternoon on the stage of the Harris Theater - a magnificent performance of Jake Heggie's Moby Dick.
The company is now led by an exceptional trio of women - Susan Irion as Board President, Ashley Magnus as General Director, and Lidiya Yankovskaya, the charismatic new Music Director who effectively defines and leads the whole creative process, the heart of what COT is all about. Th omens are good and they are making the transition after a few difficult years. But they have the skills that are needed and are that rare thing, a leadership team clearly working in total harmony with each other. The future of COT is in the best possible hands.
It is almost exactly 20 years since I was appointed to lead the company in April 1999. We did, if I may say so, do remarkable things during my 13 years thanks to my wonderful team and the clearly defined artistic goals. It was great to be with some of that team during the last few days - Roger Weitz who is now General Director of Opera Omaha, Colleen Flanigan now Chief Marketing Officer at the Auditorium Theater, Dorothy Osborn, who was my board president and remains on the COT board as a valuable source of accumulated wisdom, and the last remaining member of my team still at COT, Linden Christ, who has achieved so much in education and outreach.
Back to Moby Dick - one of the extraordinary things about the performance was the fact that the role of Captain Ahab, a huge role and extremely taxing vocally (it was first sung by Ben Heppner) was sung at the last minute by Alex Boyer, a tenor voice of almost Helden size, and most certainly heroic in every other respect. It is true that he has been the cover for Ahab in other productions of Moby Dick during the last 8 years, but here he was at a few hours notice singing the role for the first time without any orchestral rehearsal. You would never have guessed.
Starbuck was taken on by baritone Aleksey Bogdanov - definitely someone to watch - and Greenhorn by tenor Andrew Bidlack, an exceptionally accomplished young artist. The strength of the casting demonstrates so clearly the ability of Yankovskaya to assemble top class people - and this was demonstrated again and again by the choices made down to the smallest roles. That is so important in a company of limited financial resources - discover them before they become too expensive!!
The chorus, male only, is one of the principal characters as well, and the 35 strong chorus was impeccably prepared by the chorus master A J Keller. This was top notch!
Chicago's finest free lance musicians, clearly hand picked, made up the large orchestra and Lidiya Yankovskaya drove the whole enterprise with huge authority and skill. She is destined for great things.
The really excellent production by Kristine McIntyre (another valuable name to watch) must have given composer and librettist, Jake Heggie and Gene Sheer huge satisfaction. They were there on Sunday, also for the fundraiser afterwards at the Blackstone Hotel.
So as you may have gathered I have had a wonderful time in my dear Chicago these last few days. I spent yesterday catching up with old colleagues and friends, and the same today. I leave for London on the day flight tomorrow, Wednesday, and remain in London for a couple of weeks before resuming Neue Stimmen activity.
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