Opera and Dance Reviews

**** Highly Recommended  "Golden Hour" is a demonstration of all that makes the Joffrey such a leader in contemporary ballet.  The performance included two recent pieces from the Joffrey repertoire and two world premiere pieces.  The Joffrey’s classically trained, incredibly talented dancers execute the most complicated choreography with flawless technique and timing – and they make it look easy!  4 BIG Spotlights

***** Highly Recommended ***** The Joffrey Ballet’s “Chicago-centric” version of The Nutcracker, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon, is quite simply magnificent.  By setting The Nutcracker amidst Chicago’s Columbian Exposition of 1893, Wheeldon gave the city a unique gift.  It’s become a holiday tradition at my house!  No matter how many times I see The Nutcracker, I never get tired of the feeling of anticipation and excitement before a performance, waiting for that first chord of Tchaikovsky’s glorious music! The Nutcracker is absolutely perfect in every way.  4 BIG Spotlights

This season’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” one of Wolfgang Mozart’s most beloved operas and a masterpiece of music and the joy of life and love, surpasses all of Lyric Opera’s past incarnations of the last several decades.

In this production, Barbara Gaines, the now-retired founder and longtime director of Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, once more brings to Lyric her inimitable ability to imbue centuries-old characters with believable humanity and vibrancy – and make them feel like real people, despite the opera’s purposely contrived plot and the characters’ absurd hijinks.

****HIGHLY RECOMMENDED****  Lyric Opera of Chicago's ongoing commitment to presenting at least one contemporary opera per season has an added bonus in the programming of their current 2024/2025 season -- not just one but two of the six fully-staged operas that Lyric is producing are company premieres of operas written by living composers and featuring librettos which are sung in English. The first of these operas is "Blue," an emotionally riveting and profoundly powerful work from composer Jeanine Tesori and librettist Tazewell Thompson, who also serves as the director of this finely crafted production. The second, Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek's "The Listeners" will conclude Lyric's season when it opens in March of 2025. 4 SPOTLIGHTS