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Fire has always meant a little more in Chicago than nightmares of lapping flames. Here, it evokes rebirth, reinvention, a certain bootstrap-ism even amid daunting circumstances. How fitting, then, that fire welds together the works headlining the inaugural Opera Festival of Chicago, 150 years after that cataclysm stopped the city in its tracks. You...

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Opera Festival of Chicago presents "Dante 700" Wednesday, July 28th at 8pm & Thursday, July 29th at 8pm Artifacts Events4325 N Ravenswood AveChicago, IL Dante Alighieri, Christian philosopher and poet, lived seven hundred years ago. Works such as his Divina Commedia and La Vita Nuovo have inspired operatic composers such as Gaetano Donizetti, Giaco...

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On Monday June 28th at 7:00 PM, Opera Italiana is in the Air returns to Central Park to present a special, one-night only, open-air performance of beloved Italian opera classics under the baton of Maestro Alvise Casellati at the newly reopened Naumburg Bandshell. A summer evening of music that is free and open to the public, the concert will be tit...

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The Opera Festival of Chicago will present its inaugural season this summer. Created by Music Director Emanuele Andrizzi, the festival is dedicated to presenting world-class standard productions of Italian opera masterpieces in Chicago that rarely grace the stage in the United States. The festival opens with performances of Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari’s w...

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Gianna Rolandi, an American soprano who brought effortless coloratura technique, bright sound and a vibrant stage presence to diverse roles over a 20-year international career, died on Sunday in Chicago. She was 68. Her death, in a hospital, was announced by the Lyric Opera of Chicago. Rolandi had earlier been the director of the company’s Ryan Ope...

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The end of opera season always competes with outdoor activities that can feel more appealing as the winter gray finally gives way to summer weather. And as we emerge from pandemic restrictions, a June opera stream is a particularly hard sell. Even so, it’s worth blocking out two hours to watch Seattle Opera’s “Tosca,” streaming June 25-27.  You’ve...

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Jader Bignamini was onstage with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in May, conducting a brand-new piece as its composer watched from her seat. She promptly spotted something unusual: Bignamini had no music stand. He didn't have her score. He was conducting the world premiere of her work … from memory. For DSO vice president and general manager Erik Ro...

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THE great Italian tenor, Beniamino Gigli, made a farewell tour of Britain in 1955, entertaining his Scottish fans with a concert at St Andrew’s Halls on March 2. His last concert was in Manchester on March 21, the day after his 65th birthday. Ill-health then prevented him embarking on a planned farewell tour of Italian concert venues. He died, aged...

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South Philly native Mario Lanza will always be known as one of the best tenors the world has ever seen. And a continuous effort forges forward to make sure he won’t be forgotten. Now in its fifth home in Philadelphia, the Mario Lanza Institute and Museum is open for business at its new location at 1214 Reed St. in Passyunk Square. Photos, movie pos...

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The Verona Opera Festival 2021 has become an ambassador for Italian culture and beauty, thanks to a close collaboration by the Verona Arena Foundation with some of the top museums and exhibition spaces in the country, from the Uffizi to the Vatican Library, in the most significant development for this year's opera season in the iconic Veneto city....

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