Transgressive Theatre-Opera Announces Spring Series

Transgressive Theatre-Opera continues its fourth season with a double header of operatic intrigue and passion.

The plot of Rossini's comedy Count Ory (Le comte ory) is pure opera buffa. The titular count, a notorious libertine and scoundrel, and his crew of n'er-do-wells spend most of the opera trying to take advantage of the fact that most of the men in their area are away at war, leaving the ladies alone and, presumably, lonely for male company. He meets his match in the clever Countess Adele and the ladies in her castle, who rebuff his advances and outsmart him at every turn.

Tenor Max Hosmer is the Count, with mezzo-soprano Brittany Jeffries, last season's Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, as his erstwhile page Isolier. Baritone Noah Gartner, Guglielmo in 2018's Cosi, and bass Kota Terrace round out the Count's posse, as his drinking buddy Raimbaud and his long-suffering tutor respectively. TT-O favorite, soprano Mary Lutz-Govertsen, is Countess Adele, and Angela Torres is her confidante Ragonde. Elizabeth Rudolph sings the role of Alice. TT-O will examine what the piece might have been if Rossini composed within the opera comique-genre that his opening night audience was expecting, which negatively affected its initial reception. Some of the grandest musical moments will be pared back (but all of the most famous sections left intact), and while the opera will be sung in French (with English subtitles) the recitatives will be re-created as dialogue, and spoken in English. A secondary love-couple will be added, Jacqueline and Jack, who will sing duets interpolated from other, lesser-known Rossini operas. Soprano Teaira Burge and tenor Alex Carey essay these new characters, involved in a more traditionally recognizable lyric theatre-relationship.

Whether it be by letter, telegraph, email, or text, written communication is one of the perpetual glories and frustrations of humanity, and it is no different in opera. Letters of Love and Subterfuge is an evening focusing on letters and documents in opera. The program features both favorite artists from past productions and new voices performing a wide-ranging array of works from both opera and musical theater, including The Consul, Sweeney Todd, A Little Night Music, Andrea Chenier, Falstaff, Il barbiere di siviglia, and more. Several of the artists from Count Ory do double-duty in the program's second half, Act II from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro, performed in the original Italian.

Featuring sopranos Teaira Burge, Emily Cox, Claire DiVizio, Karen Hunt, Rachael Long, Jessie Lyons, Mary Lutz-Govertsen, and Elizabeth Rudolph; mezzo-sopranos Brittany Jeffries, Jori Jennings, Denise Knowlton, Angela Torres, and Pamela Torrey; countertenor Bruno Rivera; tenors Erich Buchholz, Alex Carey, Stan DeCwikiel, Ryan Frenk, Brian Pember, and Paul W. Thompson; baritones Steven Arvanites, Noah Gartner, Stephen Hobe, Nathan James Kistler, Robert Potsic, and Artega Wright; and bass Kota Terrace, this will prove to be a concert to remember, with all the music delivered in the original languages. The arias and ensembles will be presented lightly staged, as in the context of a opera scenes concert, and the Le Nozze section will be fully staged and conducted by musical director Sarah Jenks.

All performances take place in the auditorium space of Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 North Foster Avenue, in Chicago. Curtain is at 7:30pm. The auditorium is wheelchair accessible.

For the first time, TT-O will offer a Spring Season Ticket, or a Pass to as many of the four listed events as a subscriber may want to attend, one person per pass. These can be purchased online through Brown Paper Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4071254. The Spring Pass entitles a single attendee to one, two, or ALL of the four concerts for $30.00.

Single tickets for each of the four events can be purchased for $20.00.

Here is the link for tickets for the Count Ory Concert:

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4071320

Here is the link for tickets to the Letters of Love and Subterfuge Concert:

https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4071325