Joanna Gustafson

A conference room in the Hard Rock Hotel is transformed into an "American Idol"-esque scene, filled with audience members, judges and performers. A black curtain cloaks the stage and a live piano player provides the music. The only difference? The aspiring pop stars have been replaced with aspiring opera stars, and the name is "Opera Idol." The forty competitors range in age from 12 to over 50, and all are dressed somberly, trading in the crop tops and sparkle of "American Idol" for fancy dresses and shirts and ties.

As the three judges--all lacking the nastiness of Simon Cowell--give the contestants constructive criticism, others who have yet to perform quell their nerves in the hallway outside, downing water and trilling scales. One such contestant is Morton Grove's Melanie Davis. Studying opera at the Chicago Studio of Professional Singers since 2001, Davis remembers running around her house at age three singing arias from "Carmen." "My grandma was an opera singer and I used to play the violin and viola," she explains. "I've always had a love for the classical--there is such deep sound, so much to listen to."

The Chicago Loop Alliance and the Chicago Opera Theater created the competition to promote May 11's Looptopia (where today's finalists will compete), which celebrates "what the Loop has become," says Ty Tabing, the executive director of the Chicago Loop Alliance.

Explains Tabing, "this is a new and fresh spin on the genre, and we hope to reach a new audience and market." Adds COT marketing director Colleen Flannigan, "opera is not this stuffy, scary thing. We are very contemporary and modernize it."

(2007-03-06)

Also by Joanna Gustafson

Acting Up Again
The event, at the Bailiwick Theatre and titled "When There Were Heroes: The Life and Times of Daniel Sotomayor," honors the political activist and cartoonist who died of AIDS fifteen years ago, at age 33
(2007-02-06)

Foie Gras Foes
Despite swirling snow and icy temperatures hovering around twenty degrees, a dedicated group of protestors--roughly two dozen--stand their ground outside popular eatery Bin 36. The activists are protesting Bin 36's continued offering of foie gras, which has been banned in Chicago since last April
(2007-01-30)

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