New to COT: Opera COT Style
What to Expect
Did you know that every production at Chicago Opera Theater is brand new? COT assembles a brilliant artistic staff for every show to create a new production – a new set, costumes, lighting, stage direction, musical interpretation – utilizing fresh voices found by Brian Dickie and the COT artistic staff just for the Harris Theater at Millennium Park. So, if you’ve seen this opera before, we can guarantee, you haven’t seen our opera before.
And if you’re wondering where our production goes when we’re done – parts of it might be found at salvage shops or thrift stores in your very own neighborhood. We recycle as much as possible.
COT’s artistic staff scours the world for artists that are taking the opera world by storm. Often times we can claim that you heard her/him here first. Expect to be impressed with fresh voices and fresh faces that will capture your ears, eyes and hearts.
What to Wear
COT’s audience is as fresh and vibrant as its productions. Some of our audience members get dressed to the nines (suit, dress) while others wear business or snappy casual.
What to Do
Enjoy yourself, clap, cheer, give us a standing ovation if you’d like. Typically the audience waits until an aria (duet, trio…), overture or chorus has ended before they begin their applause in order to not interrupt the action. However, once that is done, we encourage you to express your feelings. During intermission grab a drink, people watch and talk about what you just saw.
What to Know
You can just show up to our productions not knowing anything about the piece, its composer, or the artists, and be thoroughly delighted. For all productions sung in a language other than English, we do project super titles with a virtual word-for-word translation in English. However, when one travels to a new destination, some people like to read a travel guide to find out more about its culture, history and what it has to offer. This mindset also applies to opera. If you want to experience opera like a “local” tap into our resource center. For live commentary and the scoop on our productions, hear it directly from our conductors, directors, artistic staff and singers at our Opera Insight events.
