This season’s festival presents three thrilling performances featuring the music of Rossini, Puccini, and Verdi. Ticket prices range from $20 – $85.
Opera Festival of Chicago returns for its second season. The three-week festival will feature fully staged productions of Gioachino Rossini’s L’Inganno Felice and Giuseppe Verdi’s Il Corsaro – the first time each has been performed professionally in Chicago in modern history. We also pay tribute to the legendary Italian soprano Renata Tebaldi, honoring the 100th anniversary of her birth with a recital featuring many of the famous arias she premiered in Chicago in the mid-20th century.
Rossini’s one act opera was an instant success after its premiere in 1812, creating a worldwide sensation thanks to the beauty of its music from overture to finale. The work was so popular that it was the third most often performed of Rossini’s operas during the composer’s lifetime.
Cast: Kenneth Tarver | Katherine Beck | Matthew Ciuffitelli | Alexander Adams-Leytes | Frank De Vincentis
For one night only, Festival artists present this moving tribute to one of opera’s greatest singers, Renata Tebaldi. Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Italian soprano, this recital will feature arias, duets, and ensemble pieces for which she is most known.
Featuring: Heather Hjelle | Angel Azzarra | Reuben Lillie | Franco Pomponi
Verdi’s bombastic 1848 opera plunges us into the dashing world of seafaring pirates. While its popularity was overshadowed by his next operas: Rigoletto, Il Travatore, and La Traviata, this thrilling work is filled with Verdi’s characteristic melodies, rhythms, virtuosic vocal lines, choruses, and large orchestral score.
Cast: Jose Simerilla Romero | Christine Arand | Franco Pomponi | Alejandra Sandoval
Opera Festival of Chicago is dedicated to presenting fully staged productions of Italian opera masterworks that rarely grace the stage in the United States, making this work accessible to American audiences and artists alike.