Vanessa

Saturday, October 11, 2008, 7:30pm
Friday, October 17, 7:30pm
Sunday, October 19, 3:00pm

FREE pre-performance lectures by Richard Covello, NIB Foundation and Opera Canada Critic, one half hour
before each show!

Performance Location:
Athenaeum Theatre
2936 N. Southport, Chicago, IL
Please click here for directions/parking information.

Celebrate the Chicago premiere of Samuel Barber’s Pulitzer prize-winning American masterpiece, Vanessa, on the 50th anniversary of its first performance! Chamber Opera Chicago’s production will be directed by Francis Menotti, son of the librettist and director of the original 1958 Metropolitan Opera production, Gian Carlo Menotti. Featuring Marcy Stonikas, Sarah Gartshore, Barbara Landis, Frederick Joseph and Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Philip Kraus.

“This is the story of two women, Vanessa and Erika, caught in the central dilemma which faces every human being: whether to fight for one’s ideals to the point of shutting oneself off from reality, or compromise with what life has to offer, even lying to oneself for the mere sake of living.” – Original Librettist, Gian Carlo Menotti

“[Vanessa] packs an emotional charge…that would be a credit to any composer anywhere today.” New York Times"

The very real merits of Barber’s lush, bittersweet Vanessa are in the score itself. The music is ornate, vivid, tinged with modernism yet rooted in lyrical tradition...written beautifully for the human voice.” Washington Post

CAST:

Marcy Stonikas - Vanessa
Barbara Landis - Erika
Frederick J. Joseph III - Anatol
Philip Kraus - The Doctor
Sarah Holman - Baroness
Regina Webster - Baroness
Jonathan R. Green - Nicholas, the Major Domo
Dave Govertsen - Footman