Shostakovich’s absurdist opera marks Maestra Lidiya Yankovskaya’s last time on the rostrum, making it serious business.

Two brand new opera productions—one about a brilliant technician, the other technically theatrically brilliant.

Whether earnest or tongue-in-cheek, these two productions seemed apt fits for the Valentine's Day season.

Stalwart staples and a rarity make for a plum pre-Christmas treat.

Call Chicago Opera Theater’s La Hija de Rappaccini making the best of a last-minute change of program; call it community outreach in the midst of a pandemic; call it testing the waters for future site-specific productions. At least call it what it is: a dang good showing.

For a one-act of such obviously colossal scope and ambition — for a composer’s operatic debut, at that — Everest is freakishly assured, and, as it transpires, justifiably so.

So a lot of firsts, but for what cause? What can we in the here-and-now take away from a retrograde fairy tale about a reclusive blind princess and her restrictive father — so restrictive, in fact, he forbids any mention of sight or light in her presence?

The most obvious model for Cree is SWEENEY TODD; it’s just as grimly glib, but somehow nihilistic where the latter was at most merely cynical. It’s a must for anyone who likes their opera unforgiving.