A plenitude of sweet music was in the air Saturday night at the Civic Opera House. It arrived long before Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “Serenade to Music,” its Shakespearean text a paean to “sweet music,’’ that closed the concert by members of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.
LYRIC OPERA CENTER FOR AMERICAN ARTISTS ENSEMBLE, 2004-2005 (Photo: Dan Rest)
Opera's strong future shines at show
BY WYNNE DELACOMA [Chicago Sun-Times, 2 May 05]
A plenitude of sweet music was in the air Saturday night at the Civic Opera House. It arrived long before Ralph Vaughan Williams' "Serenade to Music," its Shakespearean text a paean to "sweet music,'' that closed the concert by members of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists.
There is something both sweet and bracing about Lyric's annual recital showcasing the dozen young singers who are finishing a year of hard work in the company's training program. Every year since 1974, young singers dreaming of careers in opera have come to Chicago bringing major competition prizes, diplomas from prestigious conservatories and, frequently, some respectable professional stage experience with them. They watch rehearsals and they perform, staying in the program for two, sometimes three years.