Brian Dickie

Orlando 2

We had a lovely free day today with maybe a real indication of summer around the corner.  We are now up in the 70s for the rest of the next week so maybe winter is really over.  But we still had a winter problem this evening as poor Tim Mead, our Orlando, was suffering.  But he got through the performance magnificently in spite of a heavy cold.  We extended the pause between Acts 2 and 3 by a few minutes to give him some respite.  Another fantastically enthusiastic audience.  This show gets better and better.

Do not expect much from me tomorrow.  We are calming down.

Friday casual

We really do not do weekends as I remarked two months ago when I foresaw no respite until June.  And so it is - but not really a burden.  That's what we do - and we are happy doing it.  Tomorrow there is the second performance of Orlando, and on Sunday we have a lunch party for one of our most delightful as well as generous sponsors.

But today was quiet although it was hot and intermittent downpours made getting out a risky business.  But I made my way over to the Fairmont for lunch with my board president.  We tend to get together once a week for breakfast but the season's irregularities are such that the odd variation is needed.  Lunch at Aria is always delicious - I am a fan of their oriental flavors and they know us there which is always a bonus.

Otherwise most agreeable family things this evening and an early night once I post this.

How intriguing!

I spotted this story in the New York Times this morning.  Click the link to read of course.  What somewhat surprised me was that my old friend Tom Graham, who retired from IMG a few years ago now,  is coming out of retirement to go into business with Universal.  Well of course nothing Tom might do would really surprise one.  But he seemed so content playing golf and reading at his place in Naples, FL and at home in London with his wife and family - and now he is going back into the cut throat world of the music business again.  Yikes - I must find out more!  (There is also a piece in Musical America today)

And the first review of Orlando is available online at the Chicago Tribune. 

Last First Night

So our season is now fully revealed with the last first night last night - of Orlando.  If the audience reaction is anything to go by its a huge hit.  And I have had great feedback of a totally unsolicited kind today.  So that is encouraging.  Now we wait for the judgment of the "experts".  Well the audience are experts too so a standing ovation and cheers are about as good as one can get.

So today has been the morning after as we tidy up our affairs for the end of the season just ten days away.  And I had a little wander after lunch and thought that it was long overdue to bring you an update on the Trump Tower (left) around the corner from the COT offices.  I have not been in this still to completed building which reaches higher into the sky every week.  But it seems that the hotel is open.  It is, I think, going to be a splendid new landmark for Chicago whatever ones prejudices might be.  Lets leave it at that!

I think that we are all reeling from the effort of getting these three shows on.  But it has in the end been satisfying and invigorating that we have produced this broad repertory with such a variety of approaches and such an array of really fine singers.  This is all I have to say for today.  I am looking forward to a quiet evening at home and maybe a look at the Cubs hoping to remain perched on the top of the Central Division of the National League. Such are the joys of living in Chicago.  And we are particularly well positioned since we can hear the roar from Wrigley Field less than a mile away whenever the Cubs score.

Opening Orlando

I feel a certain uneasiness, even guilt, about the way I have been dealing with the blog these last weeks.  I have not been giving as much time to it as I would have liked.  Getting these three productions on in the last six weeks has been somewhat draining for everyone concerned and, contrary to popular conception, I have not been exempted!  So forgive me please if I have been skimming the surface.  But I hope that nevertheless you have got something out of it.  (pause for compliments.......)

So we open Orlando this evening.  I so wish that all the audience had been at the Newberry Library yesterday evening for that really illuminating event, a discussion between three very different "experts" - the delightful Italian professor from Urbana/Champaign Eleonora Stoppino (what a great name!) and Wendy Heller the infectiously enthusiastic musicologist from Princeton, together with our own Justin Way.  I think everyone went away with a heightened understanding of what this piece is all about.  I did anyway!

Opening nights should always be something of a social as well as a professional event so I look forward this evening to seeing friends from all over the country.  The cast have lots of local connections so there will be little claques cheering them on.  I can foresee that the final bows will be a noisy affair!  That's show biz - and certainly that's opera.  And the noise will all be greatly merited.  We have some fine singing this evening and a most glamorous and fetching cast.  What more do you want?

So we are in for a fun evening.  Meanwhile lots of boring stuff to get done..............

Orlando furioso

We had the dress rehearsal this afternoon (with Orlando above furioso as ever) - a somewhat scrappy affair with everyone more interested in tomorrow, the opening, than today!  Well that is natural and the old superstition about a good dress rehearsal leading to a disappointing opening will not come into play here.  So all in all we go into tomorrow satisfied that we have a great show which has all the fundamentals in place.  There were more leaps forward since Saturday anyway......

And our star director, Justin Way, excelled and exceeded his own high standards at the event at the Newberry Library this evening.  There was a fine turnout - a full house in fact.  The excellent speakers, named in the post below, did an eloquent and persuasive job, and Justin produced his usual charm offensive as well as a model intellectual exposition of the opera production issues surrounding Orlando.

Memorial Day

Memorial day is considered by many to be the beginning of summer here in Chicago.  And right on cue the temperature rose to a cozy 80 degrees.  We had a lovely day out in Oak Park - home to a fine collection of Frank Lloyd Wright houses including his own of course.  And the example above is from 1902 - 18 Forest Avenue,

This evening we have our Memorial Day rib feast - a fine preparation for the Dress rehearsal of Orlando tomorrow.  It will be  long day starting with an early breakfast meeting and ending, after the dress rehearsal, with an event at the Newberry Library in our Opera Insights series.  This promises to be a fascinating discussion providing genuine insights director Justin Way, musicaologist Wendy Heller from Princeton and Eleonora Stoppino from the University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana.  Not ot be missed for serious students!

Over

Just a short reflection.  A Flowering Tree is over.  This has been one of the highlights of my opera life - a tremendous production of a beautiful work.  And that is it for the time being.  We will not do it again.  But our production will go to Italy in November 2009.  So all the thousands of so called opera lovers who did not get round to seeing it here will have a chance to make amends - but they will have to go to the expense of travelling to Bolzano.  But its pretty depressing frankly that so many people missed out here in Chicago.  Including those who should have known better and just didn't take the trouble.  If those who are supposed to care about opera as a going concern are so idle then what hope is there?

Tomorrow is Memorial Day holiday and we are going to Oak Park en famille to the Frank Lloyd Wright house.  Not for the first time of course but it will be a treat for us to take our guest from England there.  And then we are doing ribs for the Orlando team tomorrow evening - these three Australians will get the full treatment!

Pre Dress day

So we are almost there with Orlando.  A four hour rehearsal this afternoon got us way further along so we will be ready for the Dress on Tuesday and the opening on Wednesday.  It is looking and sounding very handsome.  Click the photo of our Orlando, Tim Mead, to enlarge.

This morning was spent with our young artists who were auditioning for a number of visitors, some from out of town.  This is something that we hope is valuable for them.  And indeed it often proves to be as my colleagues in other companies are always on the lookout for new talent.  And I am glad to say that they showed off very well indeed this morning.

Then there was a lovely opportunity for a short lunch break with Harry Bicket, here in town for concerts with the CSO this week.  And Harry then popped into the Orlando rehearsal for a bit.  It is a work he knows well having conducted it at Covent Garden in 2003.

It is time for an evening off.  And this is it!

Guests

Today is a day of welcoming old friends and colleagues.  The National Endowment of the Arts supports COT on a regular basis and sensibly every other year does a "site visit" with a respected member of the field of opera coming to assess us.  Today we have had Christopher Hahn, Artistic Director of the Pittsburgh Opera. He has seen all the senior members of the COT staff as well as our Board president.  And then we two ended up at the Park Grill for lunch.  He will be here this evening for the performance of A Flowering Tree which is the object of the NEA's support this time round.  

Of course support from the government here is nowhere on the scale of that in Europe, or of the UK, or even of Canada.  But a few dollars of the US taxpayer's cash is useful.  And the favorable treatment of donors by the tax authorities means that in effect the US government is massively supportive of the arts.  Let that equation not be overlooked.

Other guests at the performance this evening include Jeremy Sutcliffe, our old friend, now retired, from the Royal Opera House where he was boss of the staff directors.  One of his many distinguished proteges was Justin Way, director of our new Orlando which opens next week (in case you didn't know!).  And our colleagues from the other side of the loop, Bill Mason, General Director of the Lyric Opera, and Gianna Rolandi, Director of the Ryan Center at Lyric, are also in the house. And no doubt as always many more besides.  Performances are a pleasure for all kinds of reasons.............

This afternoon we have the Flowering Tree understudies doing their "performance".  It is such a treat for them to have our Flowering Tree conductor Joana Carneiro in charge of this - and how generous of her to do this on a performance day.

The holiday weekend will not be a holiday for us.  We have the Pre-Dress of Orlando tomorrow afternoon preceded by our "Company Day" auditions tomorrow morning.  And Sunday will be the last Flowering Tree performance.  Time to mourn again!  But Memorial day will be off.