A Night at COT: Iolanta
Just returned from Chicago Opera Theater's (COT) moving and intimate production of Tchaikovsky’s “Iolanta” at the Studebaker. I find Russian to be one of the most beautiful languages on Earth, and a Russian opera is a veritable feast for my ears. This feast was all the more delightful because it was the Chicago premiere run of “Iolanta”, an opera very rarely performed on American stages (to really grasp that: The Met didn’t perform it until 2015). It’s only the second time I’ve seen it, and it was my introduction to COT (5 out of 5, highly recommend).
Tchaikovsky is one of my favourite composers, one reason being because he always gives truly meaty music to his basses and baritones. Bass Mikhail Svetlov (King Rene) was a revelation in the King’s Prayer, his voice warm and thick and earnest; nobody comprehends the beauty of suffering quite like the Russians, and you could feel it in every note Svetlov delivered. And when bass-baritone Bill McMurray (Ibn-Hakia) came out for “Two Worlds”, I was beyond mesmerized; as the Moorish doctor who promises he can give blind Iolanta sight, if only the King would permit her to be aware of her blindness, McMurray was seductive, terrifying, imposing, otherworldly, and, yet, comforting (I am serious, this character needs a prequel). The blacklight make-up and costuming FX for the character were cool, but McMurray has the kind of stage presence and vocal command where they could’ve put him in a potato sack and you’d still believe this is a man walking between the corporeal and spiritual worlds. He’s like Faust but less of a dick.
I think I’ll be subscribing to COT, as I also learned tonight that they are in the business of commissioning and developing new operatic works, and I want to support that. This season, under their Vanguard Initiative, they’ll be giving a full concert performance of new work “The Life and Death(s) of Alan Turing” and, well, come on, that title alone!
One last note: the Studebaker is a…difficult theatre to love. Its seating is crowded and cramped and despite a renovation she’s still a little rough if the lighting isn’t flattering. That being said, there is possibly not a better space in Chicago to experience opera on a truly intimate level. When the music swells and the voices crescendo, you can feel it moving through the bones of the theatre and reverberating in yours. Catch a show there some time, just don’t sit in balcony row A (no leg room), and if you’re over 5’3”, you need to either sit in the orchestra or balcony row C, so you aren’t sitting with your knees folded up into your sternum. Just a bit of advice.
Photo: Michael Brosil
