The season at Chicago Opera Theater will begin with a double-bill of Chicago premieres: “Everest,” by Joby Talbot with a libretto by Gene Scheer, and “Aleko” by Sergei Rachmaninov with a libretto by Vladimir Nemirovech Danchenko. “Everest” is a 2015 work based on the same expedition that inspired Jon Krakauer’s best-selling book “Into Thin Air.” It tells the harrowing story of a 1996 three-man Mount Everest expedition in which the climbers were trapped by a sudden storm.
In “Aleko,” a man abandons Russian society to join a free-spirited camp of Romani travelers, where he falls for Zemfira, a fiercely independent woman with a young lover of her own. Adapted from the poem “The Gypsies” by Alexander Pushkin, the production is the second opera in Russian presented by COT following the 2018 staging of Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta.” The opera, Rachmaninov’s first, written when he was 19, was first performed at Bolshoi Theatre in 1893, and will feature partnerships with A&A Ballet and Apollo Chorus. The double-bill will feature, Andrew Bidlack, Aleksey Bogdanov, and Michelle Johnson, and will be performed at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance November 16 and 17, 2019.
“Everest” Music by Joby Talbot and Libretto by Gene Scheer and “Aleko” Music by Sergei Rachmaninov and Libretto by Vladimir Nemirovech Danchenko
November 16 & 17, 2019 Harris Theater for Music and Dance Conducted by COT Staley Music Director Lidiya Yankovskaya Directed by Dylan Evans Partners: A&A Ballet and Apollo Chorus