Barnaby Hughes

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)….

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…

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…

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….

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…

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…

CARMEN FOR THE WOKE Like many organizations coming to grips with structural racism in American society, Lyric Opera has been making tremendous efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). Lyric has done this above all by casting more performers of color, especially African-Americans, and by incubating a world-premiere opera by and about African-Americans —…