It’s been a busy few days on the local opera beat, starting with a little shocker: over the weekend, Chicago Opera Theater announced that its innovative, high-profile artistic director, Andreas Mitisek, will leave the company when his contract expires at end of August.
Mitisek will have an ongoing relationship with COT as a guest conductor and director. And, according to Clayton, the company “will continue to discuss coproductions with Long Beach Opera,” which Mitisek also heads. (Clayton was managing director at Long Beach Opera before he joined COT in June 2015.)
Fogel expects the company to save some money, however, by hiring a music director who’s “primarily a conductor.” Clayton has significant stage-directing experience, Fogel said, so the music director will primarily be needed to help plan the season and to conduct “two out of three, or three out of four” of the operas that make up the season roster.
Highlights of the upcoming season begin with the opening production— a first-time collaboration with the Joffrey Ballet on Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice, choreographed and directed by Hamburg Ballet head (and Milwaukee native) John Neumeier.
Lyric conducted its most extensive audience research ever over the last 18 months, and one of the main things they learned is that people like to see operas they’ve seen before, but in new productions. Ergo: the upcoming season offers three brand-new main-stage productions, and three that are new to Chicago.
