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Barnaby Hughes

  • Chicago Opera Review: COSÌ FAN TUTTE (Lyric Opera)

    By Barnaby Hughes | February 4, 2026
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    COSÌ FANTASTIC This was my third time seeing Mozart’s Così Fan Tutte. The second was Lyric’s 2018 production. While I was concerned about the three-and-a-half-hour runtime on a Sunday afternoon, I need not have worried. I had an absolute blast! The cast was outstanding, both as to their gorgeous singing and their laugh out loud…

  • Chicago Opera Review: SALOME (Lyric Opera)

    By Barnaby Hughes | January 30, 2026
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    THIS SALOME IS NO FEMME FATALE Like its source material (Oscar Wilde’s play Salomé), Richard Strauss’ opera Salome has a reputation for being scandalous, decadent, and daring. Unfortunately, Lyric Opera’s new-to-Chicago production is none of the above. This is partly because some elements of the play (premiered in 1896) and opera (premiered in 1905) that…

  • Opera Review: CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA and PAGLIACCI (Lyric Chicago)

    By Barnaby Hughes | December 8, 2025
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    THE GODFATHER AND FELLINI MEET VERISMO Opera’s most famous double bill is back… again Hundreds of one-act operas have been produced, but few have attained the popularity of Pietro Mascagni’s Cavalleria rusticana and Ruggero Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci. Premiering in 1890 and 1892, respectively, they have been commonly performed as a double bill since 1893. Interestingly, this…

  • Opera Review: FALSTAFF, OSSIA LE TRE BURLE (Chicago Opera Theater)

    By Barnaby Hughes | December 5, 2025
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    A COMIC REVIVAL OF FALSTAFFIAN PROPORTION ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Chicago Opera Theater (COT) has given Antonio Salieri’s unjustly neglected Falstaff, ossia Le tre burle its outstanding Chicago premiere. Similarly, Lyric Opera just gave Cherubini’s Medea its Chicago premiere. These operas were first staged in 1799 and 1797, respectively….

  • Opera Review: EURIDICE (Haymarket Opera and The Newberry Consort in Chicago)

    By Barnaby Hughes | October 29, 2025
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    THE FIRST OPERA GETS NEW LIFE FROM HAYMARKET AND NEWBERRY CONSORT The origins of opera are somewhat obscure and not well-known. Haymarket Opera and The Newberry Consort, two of Chicago’s finest early music ensembles, aim to change that with this delightful concert performance of the first surviving opera. Written and performed for the marriage of…

  • Opera Review: MEDEA (Lyric Opera Chicago)

    A woman in a black dress performs on stage in a dramatic scene from Medea.
    By Barnaby Hughes | October 14, 2025
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    MOVE OVER TYLER PERRY; HERE COMES CHERUBINI’S MEDEA Lyric Opera rarely stages anything written before the nineteenth century, apart from Mozart and the occasional Handel and Gluck, so it is a true treat to have Cherubini’s Medea open the new season. Never before produced at Lyric, Medea has been surprisingly slow to enter the operatic…

  • Opera Review: THE LISTENERS (Lyric Opera of Chicago)

    Cover art for "The Listeners" by Mazzou/Vavrek featuring a futuristic figure and vibrant patterns.
    By Barnaby Hughes | April 2, 2025
    in

    LISTEN TO THE LISTENERS. DO YOU HEAR THE HUM? Perhaps the most contemporary opera ever to grace the Lyric stage, Missy Mazzoli’s The Listeners borrows heavily from reality television, social media, conspiracy theories and science fiction. Liberally sprinkled with f-bombs, Royce Vavrek’s edgy libretto is based on an original story by Jordan Tannahill (b. 1988)….

  • Opera Review: LA BOHÈME (Lyric Opera of Chicago)

    Poster for Puccini's opera La Bohème featuring main characters.
    By Barnaby Hughes | March 19, 2025
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    BACALING’S BOHÈME CAPTURED MY HEART The operas of Giacomo Puccini are ever-present on the Lyric Opera stage. Only a month ago, Sondra Radvanovsky sang a whole program of Puccini arias, including one from La Bohème, Now audiences have the opportunity to hear the entire opera in all its beloved glory. If Lyric’s last production of…

  • Concert Review: LEONIDAS KAVAKOS AND DANIIL TRIFONOV (CSO at Symphony Center)

    Black and white image of two musicians in deep conversation.
    By Barnaby Hughes | March 13, 2025
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    KAVAKOS AND TRIFONOV USHER IN SPRING FOR INTIMATE CHAMBER PROGRAM On an unseasonably warm late spring afternoon, Symphony Center buzzed with anticipation as the crowd waited for Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov and Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos to begin their scheduled performance. The two men, dressed all in black, unceremoniously walked onstage and began playing Beethoven’s…

  • Opera Review: THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (Lyric Opera)

    A performer in a colorful costume at a Marriage Figaro event.
    By Barnaby Hughes | November 22, 2024
    in

    THE FRESH FUN OF FIGARO Lyric Opera repurposes and surpasses its wonderful and whimsical 2015 production of Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro with an entirely new cast and conductor—many making their Lyric debut. Among the latter is German-born conductor Erina Yashima, whose sensitivity and quiet competence bring out the beauty and complexity in Mozart’s scintillating…

  • Chicago Opera Review: RIGOLETTO (Lyric Opera)

    Poster for Verdi's opera 'Rigoletto' featuring a dramatic, shadowed figure.
    By Barnaby Hughes | September 17, 2024
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    LYRIC BRINGS FRESH VOICES TO RIGOLETTO Verdi’s sixteenth opera, Rigoletto has been much performed in its nearly two-hundred year history, including a dozen productions at Lyric Opera. Although the current production uses traditionally-styled sets and costumes from nineteen years ago, it boasts a fresh roster of outstanding musical and directorial talent, including some long-awaited debuts….

  • Theater Review: DON’T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS! THE MUSICAL! (Marriott Theatre in Lincolnshire)

    Colorful promotional image for 'Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! The Musical!'.
    By Barnaby Hughes | July 22, 2024
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    THIS PIGEON ADAPTATION IS NOT FOR THE BIRDS My kids love Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!, the popular children’s book by Mo Willems. It’s a simple, comic story about a pigeon that wants to be a bus driver, but whose dreams are thwarted by reality. An incredibly expressive and somewhat sympathetic character, the…

  • Opera Review: AIDA (Lyric Opera Chicago)

    Theater scene with actors in historical costumes under 'JULIUS CAESAR' title.
    By Barnaby Hughes | March 24, 2024
    in

    THOMAS AND BRADLEY AIDA LEADS LACKLUSTER One of Verdi’s most beloved operas, Aida has all of the elements one would expect in a grand opera: rousing choruses, dramatic arias and duets, military marches, ballet dancing, massive spectacles, and exotic settings. This production delivers on all of these, but is unsatisfactory, nevertheless. And the dissatisfaction is…

  • Theater Review: GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY (North American Tour)

    Tour poster for 'Girl from the North Country' featuring Conor McPherson and Bob Dylan.
    By Barnaby Hughes | February 18, 2024
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    MCPHERSON EXPLOITS DYLAN IN GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY Girl from the North Country is one of those shows that sounds promising in the abstract: a musical incorporating songs by Bob Dylan. Whatever you think of Dylan’s singing voice, it’s undeniable that he wrote some great songs–and a few of them are used in this…

  • Highly Recommended Theater: MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN (Trap Door Theatre)

    A woman in red stands amid skulls, holding a sword with a fierce expression.
    By Barnaby Hughes | January 6, 2024
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    One of Chicago’s most thrilling companies, Trap Door Theatre, continues its 30th anniversary season with Bertolt Brecht’s boisterous musical Mother Courage and her Children, translated by Eric Bentley. Resident Director Max Truax returns to direct this epic play, having previously tackled Brecht’s iconic work with his adaptations of Round Heads and Pointed Heads and The…

  • Theater Review: BOOP! THE BETTY BOOP MUSICAL (Pre-Broadway World Premiere at CIBC Theatre in Chicago)

    Poster for the musical 'Boop!' featuring a stylized Betty Boop character.
    By Barnaby Hughes | December 9, 2023
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    BOOP! BOPS, HOPS, AND PLOPS Light-hearted, rather silly, and occasionally preachy, BOOP! The Betty Boop Musical could have been so much more. Betty Boop seems an unlikely candidate for revival considering that her fame is almost entirely confined to cartoons animated by Max Fleischer in the 1930s. Although she has gained new fans through merchandising,…

  • Opera Review: JENŮFA (Lyric Opera of Chicago)

    Black and white eerie forest with bare tree branches and text overlay.
    By Barnaby Hughes | November 19, 2023
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    A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO SEE JANÁČEK’S FIRST OPERA Jenůfa is now the third opera in a row this season whose plot features a woman with two suitors. Yet each opera puts its own spin on this common trope. In Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa, the titular heroine loves the carousing Števa, but not his half-brother Laca. Both…

  • Chicago Opera Review: THE DAUGHTER OF THE REGIMENT (Lyric Opera)

    Group of men in uniforms posing under a neon-lit sign.
    By Barnaby Hughes | November 15, 2023
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    THIS FILLE IS TRÉS TRÉS FUNNY It is hard to go wrong with Lawrence Brownlee: his sensuous and soaring tenor, knack for comedy, winsome smile and infectious energy warm every production he appears in. This Lyric production of Donizetti’s The Daughter of the Regiment (La Fille du Régiment) is no exception. Alongside Brownlee is the…

  • Chicago Opera Review: THE FLYING DUTCHMAN (Lyric Opera)

    A fiery ghost ship sails through a stormy, lightning-filled sky.
    By Barnaby Hughes | October 3, 2023
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    HAUNTED DUTCHMAN HERALDS HALLOWEEN SEASON A bold choice with which to open the opera and Halloween seasons, Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman hits all the right notes and sets a spooky tone. From the composer’s magnificent and moody overture to the opera’s mythological subject (inspired by the Wandering Jew of legend), this Lyric production packs a…

  • Theater Review: WEST SIDE STORY (Lyric Opera)

    A dancer in a red dress leaps gracefully on stage during a performance.
    By Barnaby Hughes | June 7, 2023
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    WEST SIDE STORY HAPPILY REMAINS CLASSICAL AND SADLY REMAINS CONTEMPORARY Lyric Opera’s 2022-2023 season has been a challenging one, especially for audiences. The season began with the seldom-performed Verdi opera Don Carlos that had a run time of nearly four hours; it was followed by yet another obscure Verdi opera. The world premiere of The…

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