13 / 60
L Y R I C O P E R A O F C H I C A G O
20
|
N O V E M B E R 1 7 - D E C E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 1 4
pieces and new works is absolutely at the heart
of Lyric’s mission.”
The American Musical Theatre Initiative
gives Chicago audiences the opportunity to
see the classic works of Broadway done on a
scale that simply cannot be found anywhere
else. As Freud notes, “At Lyric, we can perform
musicals with a wonderful orchestra and an
operatic chorus. These pieces do have a grand
scenic scale, and in our very large opera house,
we’re able to present musicals in a way that is
impossible commercially.”
Audiences at
The Sound of Music
experienced the depth of Lyric’s resources
when soprano Christine Brewer (as the Mother
Abbess) led the choir of nuns in “Climb Ev’ry
Mountain,” or when the von Trapp mansion
was seen onstage in all of its exquisite period
detail. In
Oklahoma!,
the expansive set gave
plenty of room for the performers to move,
whether in the exuberant square dance or the
dramatic dream ballet. The music of every
production has been anchored by the marvelous
Lyric Opera Orchestra, an ensemble whose
size is unprecedented for most contemporary
Broadway musicals. Essentially, Lyric’s
productions are an experience that can’t be
replicated, and Freud’s hope is that “we’re
recapturing the excitement these great works
generated when they were new.”
The two musicals presented to date as part
of Lyric’s initiative have generated incredible
excitement and record-setting audiences. More
than 36,000 people saw
Oklahoma!
and half
of that audience had never been to a Lyric
performance before. Attendance achieved even
greater heights for
The Sound of Music
, currently
the best-selling production in the company’s
history with almost 72,000 tickets sold and 58%
of the audience new to Lyric.
As Renée Fleming summarizes, “The
overwhelming, positive response to these
productions is proof that our audiences
embrace the idea, and that they enjoy seeing
the impressive resources of a great opera
company like Lyric give new life to these shows
we all love so much.”
It is still too early to know whether the new
audiences who came to see
The Sound of Music
and
Oklahoma!
will come back to hear
Tosca
or
Tannhäuser
. Still, Lyric has already seen success
in encouraging its opera audience to hear the
musicals and other new projects, such as the
mariachi opera
Cruzar la Cara de la Luna
(2013)
– about half of that production’s audience was
new to Lyric.
“The purpose of the American Musical
Theater Initiative is to both bring in new
audiences, and to provide exciting, entertaining,
thought-provoking experiences for our existing
opera audiences,” says Freud. “I’m just as
enthusiastic about the fact that half of the
audience was our traditional operagoers as I
am that we attracted so many people who were
new to Lyric.”
Ultimately, Lyric’s work with musical theater
will always be a work in progress. “Inevitably,
each year, we have to take stock,” says Freud. “If
an experiment is not working, you don’t maintain
it. So far, it’s working – and each year we’ll try to
do better than the previous year.”
Looking ahead to
Carousel
With two popular and successful productions
completed, the American Musical Theater
Initiative now turns to Rodgers and
Hammerstein’s
Carousel
for its third offering,
opening in April 2015.
In many ways,
Carousel
is an outlier in the
Rodgers and Hammerstein canon. At its 1945
Broadway premiere it proved an immediate hit
with critics and audiences, and
Time
magazine
named it the best musical of all time in 1999. It
boasts some incredibly famous songs, including
the beautiful “If I Loved You” and the anthemic
“You’ll Never Walk Alone.” At the same time,
Carousel
is often called the most operatic of
all Rodgers and Hammerstein musicals, and
Anthony Freud deems it “the most sophisticated,
the most ambiguous, the least straightforward” of
all their works. “The characters are complex, the
sympathies of the audience change constantly
through the piece, and the conclusion asks as
Lyric inaugurated its Musical Theater Initiative in 2012-13 with
Oklahoma!
Pictured are Ashley Brown as Laurey and John Cudia as Curly;
and Curtis Holbrook as Will with dancers Teanna Zarro (left) and Christine Smith (right)
DANREST
DANREST