Ravinia-PattiLuPone________
In case you didn't notice, it was warm last week—very warm. And that can mean only one thing within the cosmos of serious music: the Grant Park and Ravinia festivals are soon to begin. This article highlights concerts at each festival according to our personal tastes. However, our selections don't begin to offer a comprehensive view of the extensive programming at each festival, ranging throughout the classical repertory and also featuring numerous jazz and popular music events, dance, musical theatre, recitals and opera. We urge you to go online to the Grant Park and Ravinia Web sites for complete information, schedules and ticket prices: www.grantparkmusicfestival.com and www.ravinia.org .
Grant Park Music Festival, June 13-Aug. 18
This will be the 73rd annual season for Chicago's unique, free, outdoor music series, now headquartered in Frank Gehry's alien spaceship in Millennium Park—otherwise called the Pritzker Pavilion—where the sightlines are so atrocious that the majority of folks sitting on the Great Lawn can't see the orchestra. But you can hear them, 'cause the sound system is very good, no thanks to Gehry.
Of course, if you feel that actually seeing the orchestra and soloists is important, you can pay to join the Grant Park Concert Society. Principal Conductor Carlos Kalmar and Chorus Director Christopher Bell return to lead the Grant Park Orchestra and Chorus on Wednesday and Friday nights at 6:30 p.m. and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.. Here are some highlights:
June 13—The season kicks off with Kalmar conducting Beethoven Symphony No. 8 and Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 2 with piano soloist Marc-Andre Hamelin.
June 22 and 23—Latin nights at Grant Park, featuring works by Villa Lobos, Brouwer, Estevez and Lecuona. Guitar soloist Eduardo Fernandez joins the GPO.
June 26 ( Tuesday ) and 27—A Grant Park Chorus program dubbed American Icons also could be dubbed American gay composers night, with works by Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber and Leonard Bernstein among the offerings. Presented off-site at Holy Family Church ( 1019 S. May ) , the evening has a spiritual bent to it with several quasi-liturgical works.
July 20-21—Broadway baby Lenny B. is back for Bernstein's Broadway, featuring the GPO and Chorus and staged by our own Gary Griffin ( director of The Color Purple ) . Bernstein's Broadway shows include On the Town, Wonderful Town, Candide, Peter Pan, West Side Story and the late-career failure 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a disaster about the White House ( not to be confused with the disaster in the White House ) .
July 25, 27—It's Ravel's Bolero, everyone's favorite fuck music ( c'mon, admit it ) . The all-French program also features works by Debussy and tres gay Francis Poulenc.
Aug. 3-4—A single Spanish work has snuck into an otherwise all-Russian program of Rimsky Korsakov, Shostakovich and Stravinsky, featuring Igor's The Firebird Suite, and piano soloist Valentina Lisitsa. Another off-site concert, at Orchestra Hall ( 220 S. Michigan ) .
Aug. 10-11—Gustav Mahler, Symphony No. 5. 'Nuff said.
Aug. 17-18—Closing concerts, under the title Grant Us Peace, feature works by 20th-century composers John Adams, Ralph Vaughan Williams and gay icon Benjamin Britten ( his Sinfonia da Requiem ) . Carlos Kalmar conducts the GPO and Chorus with soloists Jonita Lattimore and the dashing Nathan Gunn.
Ravinia Festival, May 30-Sept. 17
The numerous pleasures of Ravinia include the park-like setting; the elegant picnickers; several dining and snacking options; and diverse musical fare. Ravinia's heart remains the summer residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under music director James Conlon. However, much of Ravinia's programming is made up of recitals and chamber music performances, jazz, pop, musical theater and the fab cabaret-style Martinis at the Martin concerts. Below, we highlight only classical music attractions.
June 5-6—Broadway diva Patti LuPone and Isabel Bayrakdarian solo with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra in a contemporary chamber music work, To Hell and Back, by Jake Heggie, who takes the classical Greek tale of Persephone and sets it in Appalachia. It's in the Martin Theatre, which only seats 900, so think ahead.
June 12-13—Composer Phillip Glass is 70, and Ravinia celebrates by presenting the Phillip Glass Ensemble in the Chicago premiere of his Book of Longing. Martin Theatre.
July 7, 11—The Chicago Symphony Orchestra ( CSO ) and James Conlon, in separate programs, feature works by Alexander von Zemlinsky. What? You never heard of Zemlinsky? That's just what the Nazis wanted. These concerts are part of Conlon's innovative Breaking the Silence series, featuring works by composers suppressed by Hitler. The concerts feature outstanding soloists as Christine Brewer, Bo Skovhus and Misha Dichter. Main pavilion.
July 17—Sexy pianist Lang Lang plays both Mozart and the passionately kitschy Yellow River Concerto, written by a committee in China under the patronage of Madame Mao Zedong. Conductor Long Yu leads the CSO. Main pavilion.
July 18—The wonderful baritone Jubilant Sykes teams with guitarist Christopher Parkening in an evening of strumming and song heavy on Latin and traditional American. A Martin Theatre treat.
July 22, 24—If you haven't seen flutist James Galway in concert, you don't know what delight is. Sir James—as he is known now—is joined by his flutist wife, Lady Jeanne Galway. They appear in a Main Pavilion concert with the CSO July 22, and in recital at the Martin Theatre July 24. If you can choose only one, choose the recital.
July 27—Sexy Tzimon Barto, muscleboy pianist, joins the CSO under Barto's longtime mentor, Christoph Eschenbach, in an all-French program of Dalbavie, Saint-Saens and Ravel ( yeah, The Bolero ) . Main pavilion.
Aug. 11—Puccini's Madama Butterfly in concert with the CSO, Conlon, the Apollo Chorus, the dazzling Patricia Recette, tenor Frank Lopardo, baritone Fred Buchinal and mezzo Ning Liang. Main pavilion.
Aug. 23—Songs by Mozart, Verdi, Richard Strauss, Respighi, Beach and Bernstein as sung by the mighty Deborah Voight. Martin Theatre.
