Dennis Polkow

Hector Berlioz, the most imaginative and innovative French composer who reinvented orchestration and wrote the grandest of grand operas, gets few hearings in Chicago apart from his iconic "Symphonie fantasique." Lyric Opera was to have presented his "Benvenuto Cellini" for the Berlioz bicentennial but swapped it instead for far less expensive warhorse fare after the economic downturn following 9/11. With the news this week that Lyric has exceeded its sales and fundraising goals, hopefully it will get back on track and reschedule, but meanwhile, it falls to the more adventurous Chicago Opera Theater to present a Berlioz opera that Lyric has never presented in its long history, Berlioz’s glorious setting of Shakespeare’s "Much Ado About Nothing" that he named after its star lovers, "Béatice et Bénédict." No, it doesn’t work to have opera singers recite Shakespeare in English and sing Berlioz’s music in French as they do in this production, not just because the singers do not have the acting chops to pull it off, but also because Shakespeare and Berlioz really are on two different roads. Shakespeare is going for rhythm and language, Berlioz is going straight to the heart of the matter, literally, by concentrating on the emotions of the relationship itself. The young lovers are exquisitely sung by mezzo soprano Sandra Piques Eddy, who sang Cherubino in Mozart’s "Marriage of Figaro" at COT two seasons ago and has since gone on to do so at the Met, and tenor Joseph Kaiser, fresh off of Lyric’s "Dialogues of the Carmelites" and the Tamino in the upcoming Kenneth Branagh film adaptation of Mozart’s "The Magic Flute." Not only do the lovers sound great, but they have charismatic chemistry portraying a couple passionate about one another even when they are sparring. The COT and chorus never sounded better under the direction of British conductor Jan Lathum-Koenig, who really allows Berlioz’ music to sparkle.

"Beatrice et Benedict" runs at Millennium Park’s Harris Theater, 205 East Randolph, (312)704-8414.

(2007-05-29)

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