COSI FAN TUTTE and More Set for Transgressive Theatre-Opera's 2016-17 Season

Transgressive Theatre-Opera announces its third season, beginning with a concert dedicated to the operatically misrepresented mezzo-soprano voice, The Maligned Mezzo.

From the very beginnings of opera and on through the ages, classical composers have given the alto roles to the Fiends: Humperdinck made her a child-eating witch.
Verdi made her a child-burning witch. Bizet gave her evil flower power, and even Sondheim insisted that you should never, ever, ever mess around with her magic beans.

From girls dressed as boys dressed as girls, from handmaidens to spinsters, from harridan to the second nun from the left, altos have always played second fiddle to their squeaky soprano sisters.

Chicago's finest mezzo-sopranos will sing famous also arias written for the disadvantaged, maniacal, and breast-bound, aided by the hysterical and historical narration of Producing Artistic Director Aaron Hunt.

Transgressive Theatre-Opera will continue their season with an April Fools full production of Mozart's masterpiece, Cosi Fan Tutte, or All Women Are Like That.

Since there are five types of fools: The Simple, The Silly, The Sensual, The Scorning, and The Steadfast, are we not all fools then, at different times, in different ways, and in varying combinations of each of the five fools?

In defense of the sudden bursting into song in the lyric theatre cannon, it has been said that the music begins when speech is not enough, when the elevated level of the character's emotions can no longer be conveyed by mere speech. What if it was the other way around? If the soundtrack must be silenced for whispered moments of resounding truth?

Transgressive Theatre-Opera will take Mozart's foolhardy characters from long-ago to modern day, from coloratura bravado to quietly spoken veracity.

Tickets for The Maligned Mezzo are already on sale at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2597069, or by calling (800) 838-3006. With singing witches aplenty, The Maligned Mezzo will play just in time for Halloween on October 29 in the sanctuary of Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W Foster Ave, with musical direction and accompaniment by Sarah Jenks.

Cosi Fan Tutte will play in the theatre of Ebenezer Lutheran Church during April Fool's Weekend, March 31, April 1, and April 2, directed by Producing Artistic Director Aaron Hunt with musical direction and accompaniment by Sarah Jenks.

Music that is as spoken as it is sung. Spoken text so evocative and lyrical that it sings. These are the tools for the type of storytelling that Transgressive Theatre-Opera offers, as envisioned and executed by artists from multiple disciplines: the soul-painters who can imagine and create the productions, and the performers who can inhabit the characters with fulsome artistic sensibilities. As the line between theatre and music theatre continues to blur, a new lyric theatre is emerging, unhampered by labels and preconceived notions of ownership. Transgressive Theatre-Opera is excited to be part of the change.

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