Displaying items by tag: CAROUSEL

Roger and Hammerstein’s “Carousel” is always a treat, and that holds true especially with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s current production at the Civic Opera House. A true spectacle of colorful sets, scenic backdrops and larger than life dancing choreography envelope brilliant vocal performances in the fun classic. Of course, the carousel itself is eye candy in itself.

Set in 1873 Maine, the story begins when two young females, Carrie and Julie, visit the carousel where they meet barker, Billy Bigelow. As a “barker”, Billy’s job is to convince crowd members to take a ride on the carousel and does so by shouting out catchy sell phrases and flirting with nearby girls. After Billy puts his arm around Julie for the duration of a ride, Mrs. Mullin, the widowed owner of the carousel ride, lets him go and tells him never to return. Out of work, Billy runs into Julie where a romance blooms and a relationship develops. As sweet and simple as Julie is, Billy’s exterior is tough and carefree. It’s not long after the two are married that Julie surprises Billy with the news that she is pregnant. Billy, already struggling with raising money for he and his wife, is approached by his ex-con, ne'er-do-well whaler friend, Jigger, who presents the idea of robbing Julie’s former boss- and killing him. Billy refuses but has to rethink the idea as he becomes more and more desperate.

There is an overabundance of musical talent in this fifty-plus member cast that provides one beautiful performance after another. In supporting roles, Jenn Gamatese is simply terrific as “Carrie Pepperidge” as is Matthew Hydzik as her love interest “Enoch Snow”. The two are particularly enjoyable when performing together in the numbers “Mr. Snow” and “When the Children Are Asleep”. Charlotte D’Amboise is sensational as “Mrs. Mullin” and gets to really show off her dancing chops in the show’s later afterlife scene – a surreal display put together just dazzlingly by the production team. Also contributing to the show’s beauty and elegance is Denyce Graves whose stunning vocals can be appreciated in “June Is Bustin’ Out All Over”. Laura Osnes plays “Julie Jordan” and delivers several breathtaking singing performances, most notably in her solo number “What’s the Use of Wondrin’”.

Taking the lead is Steven Pasquale as our conflicted, good hearted but troubled “Billy Bigelow”. Pasquale’s performance is just magnificent. From the show’s early duet that has Billy and Julie singing “If I Loved You” to each other, it was apparent this would be one special production. Pasquale leads this gifted cast with his amazing vocal prowess, heartfelt passion and just the right amount of bravado. Pasquale melts the audience with his finessed vocals, “The Highest Judge of All” being the perfect example.

Directed and choreographed by Rob Ashford and conducted by David Chase, Carousel is a classic that should be seen by everyone young, old and in between.

Carousel is being performed at the Civic Opera House through May 3^rd. For tickets and/or more show information, visit www.lyricopera.org/carousel or call 312-827-5600. 

Lyric Opera of Chicago is proud to present the all-new exhibition “Creating Carousel” at the Civic Opera House. It opens on Friday, April 10, coinciding with the preview matinee performance of Lyric’s new production of Carousel. The exhibition, on the lower level of the Civic Opera House, will be open for all performances of Carousel through May 3. It is free to performance ticketholders.

“Creating Carousel”features the work of Italian visual artist and set designer Paolo Ventura. When Carousel director/choreographer Rob Ashford saw Ventura’s Winter Stories exhibition about six years ago, he “just fell in love with it,” Ashford recalled. “Part of it was set around a circus, a carnival. It was so moving and so beautiful and I was so captivated by it. I said, ‘If I ever do Carousel, that is the person who must design it.’ Then when Anthony [Freud, Lyric’s general director] approached me about it I said, ‘Can you get this guy?’ We made an all-out effort and we succeeded. We’re very excited to work together, to have Paolo make his theater and opera debut with Carousel in Chicago.”

Ventura accepted the invitation enthusiastically. “My work was already theatrical,” noted the artist. “I was just making theater on my table, so to have the chance to work on a much bigger scale really excited me. I immediately built the caravan, which became the key for the entire show.” That piece will be part of the Opera Club exhibition at Lyric.

“Creating Carousel” features eight set-design paintings, several mid-scale scenic elements that were part of the original design presentation, and a video interview with Ventura. The video element explores Ventura’s photo series Winter Stories, scenes he created as de facto set models and then photographed.

Additionally, the exhibition includes 28 costume-design drawings from the production by Catherine Zuber. Also on view will be vintage objéts on loan from Architectural Artifacts: an illuminated rounding board (the top of a carousel) and three antique carousel horses. Eight 40 x 60” rehearsal photos will be on display in the bar area of the Opera Club.

Carousel ticket holders can visit the “Creating Carousel” exhibition before curtain and during intermission of all performances.  It is co-curated by Michael Schoenig, Lyric’s technical finance manager, and Scott Marr, Lyric’s production design director PAOLO VENTURA is an internationally acclaimed artist who makes his theatrical debut with Carousel. A native of Milan, his work has been exhibited at the Forma International Center for Photography (Milan), Rencontres de la Photographie (Arles), and Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris). In 2012 he created a series of works for the Italian national pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale. His works have been acquired by prominent public collections, including Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Library of Congress, and Miami’s Martin Margulies Collection. Four monographs of his work have been published: War Souvenir (Contrasto, 2006), Winter Stories (Aperture and Contrasto, 2009), The Automaton (Peliti Asociati, 2011), and Lo Zuavo Scomparso (Punctum Press, 2012). Ventura was raised by a celebrated Italian children’s book illustrator, and a sense of childlike wonder pervades all of his work, which often features images of street performers, theaters, and cinemas, evoking the fanciful compositions of Toulouse-Lautrec. But Ventura’s work is also imbued with a disquiet that is all the more jarring for the superficially playful nature of his subjects, perhaps reflecting his unease about our changing, increasingly technological world.

CATHERINE ZUBER debuted at Lyric Opera in 2013-14 with costume designs for The Barber of Seville. Her successes in opera include six Metropolitan Opera productions (all seen in HD transmissions), as well as La forza del destino (Washington), Faust (Baden-Baden),Carmen and Nico Muhly’s Two Boys (English National Opera), Roméo et Juliette (Salzburg), and the Ring cycle (Washington, San Francisco). Zuber has been equally acclaimed on Broadway in musical theater (The King and I, Gigi, The Bridges of Madison County, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, Cry-Baby, Dracula, Little Women, Triumph of Love, The Sound of Music, The Red Shoes), comedy (Born Yesterday, The Royal Family, Dinner at Eight, Twelfth Night), and drama (Golden Boy, Seascape, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, Oleanna, A Man for All Seasons, Mauritius, Doubt, Little Women, Dracula, Frozen, Ivanov). The eleven- time Tony Award nominee has won for South Pacific, The Coast of Utopia, Awake and Sing!, The Light in the Piazza, and The Royal Family. Her costumes were seen by a vast television audience in NBC/Universal’s broadcasts of The Sound of Music and Peter Pan.

Lyric’s new production of Carousel stars Steven Pasquale as carousel barker Billy Bigelow; Laura Osnes as his true love, millworker Julie Jordan; Jenn Gambatese as Carrie Pipperidge; Matthew Hydzik as Enoch Snow; Denyce Graves as Nettie Fowler; Jarrod Emickas Jigger Craigin; Charlotte d’Amboise as Mrs. Mullin; and Tony Roberts as the Starkeeper. 

Carouselis the third Rodgers and Hammerstein musical to be presented as part of Lyric’s American Musical Theater Initiative. The King and I and South Pacific follow in the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, respectively. Past productions were Oklahoma! in the 2012-13 season and The Sound of Music in the 2013-14 season.

Lyric’s new production of Carousel and the exhibition “Creating Carousel”honor the 70th anniversary of this iconic American musical, which premiered on April 19,1945.

Carousel runs Friday, April 10 through Sunday, May 3, 2015 (26 performances, including one preview matinee and one student matinee) at the Civic Opera House, 20 N. Wacker Dr., Chicago. Tickets start at $29, and are available at lyricopera.org/carousel or at 312-827-5600.  The official press opening for Carousel is Saturday, April 11 at 7pm.

The opening-night performance of Carousel will be broadcast on 98.7WFMT and streamed on wfmt.com on Sunday, April 12 at 7:15pm.