Comte Ory News Today

The Chicago areas 50th annual Bach Week Festival will present five distinctly different Baroque concert programs in Chicago and Evanston, Illinois, April 28 to May 14, 2023, with internationally renowned classical musicians from Chicagos northern suburbs taking the spotlight May 12.

Fresh takes on Mozart, Dvorak and Debussy, and newer works by Dewa Alit, Kate Soper and Caroline Shaw are among our favorite recordings this year.

"Le Comte Ory" stands out as a bubbly delight, enjoyed because its uplifting, energetic, and joyous melodies are a contrasting tonic for today’s tough times.

Ménages à trois are rare sights at the Lyric, but one makes an appearance in this rather ribald comic opera from Gioachino Rossini.

The next to last of Rossini’s 39 operas, the piece has long been overshadowed by the composer’s better-known masterpieces like “The Barber of Seville.”

On Sunday evening, in the wake of a thunderous few days of the Chicago Air and Water Show, Enrique Mazzola, Lyric Opera’s Music Director (along with Donald Lee III, the inaugural Ryan Opera Center conductor/pianist), led the Lyric Opera Orchestra and singers from the Ryan Opera Center’s esteemed training center on the same stage of the Pritzker Pavillion.

The Spanish mezzo-soprano was internationally acclaimed for her dramatic performances in the works of Mozart, Rossini and Bizet.