Chicago Opera Theater is thrilled to bring Ferdinando Paër’s Leonora to Chicago for its North American premiere in October 2024. Leonora is based on the deeply moving true story of a woman in 18th century France who disguised herself as a man to rescue her wrongfully imprisoned husband. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, four different operas were written based on this story - the most famous of which is Beethoven's Fidelio. But Paër's Leonora, which premiered a year before Beethoven's opera, is not only a remarkable and beautiful work in its own right - it also influenced Beethoven's writing.

Close-Up with Leonora

Harold Washington Library Center

This world premiere, commissioned and produced by Music of Remembrance, is based on the true story reported by Chicago Tribune columnist Howard Reich about an ailing Vietnam war veteran who learns he is the heir to a priceless art collection stolen by Nazis. His arduous voyage to Prague in search of his inheritance leads him to embrace an identity that had been hidden from him, and through art he discovers a deeper truth in his life.

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Before It All Goes Dark

Studebaker Theater

COT premieres its fifth full-length opera developed and commissioned as part of its industry-leading Vanguard Initiative. When a child inherits a magical ability which allows them to speak with objects, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities. Their mother, who shares the same ability, does not see it as a gift but as a source of shame. Both child and parent learn to navigate their powers and the responsibilities that come with them in this heartwarming original coming-of-age story.

The Weight of Light

Epiphany Center for the Arts

Join us for COT's 50th Anniversary Gala, Fifty & Fabulous: A Golden Night of Song and Celebration! Celebrate 50 years of innovation and toast to the future of opera on Friday, April 5, 2024.

COT's 50th Anniversary Gala

Venue West

Set in a world devoid of color and inspired by the imagery of surrealist painter Remedios Varo, a lone tree holds within its rings the memory and possibility of music, poetry, and art. An herbalist struggles to heal a community afflicted by a siege of maladies, and a homesick boarding-school student dreams of escape. An ancient medicinal, written in Spanish (one of countless forbidden languages), just may hold the key — to transcendence, or complete obliteration. This searing new opera looks at a culture rapidly strip-mining itself of its riches, and embraces the realm of the imagination as fertile ground for regeneration. 

Remedios Varios Para las Aflicciones del Cuerpo y el Espíritu

Athenaeum Center for Thought & Culture

Presented in partnership with the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, Book of Mountains and Seas examines our modern-day relationship with the natural world. Four fables centered around the creation and destruction of the earth are uniquely told by a company of 12 singers, two percussionists, and six puppeteers with staging by celebrated puppeteer Basil Twist. Huang Ruo’s vibrant and inventive score, which draws inspiration from Chinese folk music, breathes new life into the ancient stories. This is a powerful and extraordinary work that will challenge the way you interact with nature and the environment.

Book of Mountains and Seas

Shostakovich’s absurdist masterpiece makes its long anticipated Chicago debut in a new production by legendary director Francesca Zambello. Kovalyov wakes up one morning to discover his nose has not only taken on a life of its own, but is a high-ranking government official. Kovalyov chases his nose around the streets of St. Petersburg in a hilarious series of events, encountering many quirky characters along the way. With an electrifying avant-garde score by legendary Russian composer Dmitiri Shostakovich, it is sure to appeal to your scents of humor.

The Nose

Harris Theater

Drawing from recorded conversations with veterans, David T. Little’s Soldier Songs combines classical music and heavy metal in a theatrical cantata that follows the life of a soldier in three phases: Youth, Warrior, and Elder. The highly-charged monodrama, with its driving music and unflinching libretto, offers a compelling and honest description of the psychological impact of war. Renowned baritone David Adam Moore stars in this powerful and haunting piece.

Soldier Songs

Leonora is based on a deeply moving, true story that took place in France in the 18th century that revolves around a young woman who disguises herself as a man and under the name of Fidelio to rescue her wrongfully imprisoned husband. One of four operas inspired by the 1798 libretto Léonore by Jean Nicolas Bouilly,  which was originally set to music by Pierre Gaveaux, the politically infused plot subsequently inspired not only Paër, but also composers Simon Mayr and, of course, Ludwig van Beethoven, whose opera Fidelio is frequently performed. Chicago audiences will have the extremely rare opportunity to see Paër and Beethoven’s operas side by side, as Chicago Opera Theater’s three performances of LEONORA, have been scheduled to complement the fall run of Fidelio at Lyric Opera.  

Leonora 

Fine Arts Building Chicago

As companies around the globe celebrate the centennial of Giacomo Puccini’s death in 2024,  COT  presents a unique concert that highlights how Puccini’s work impacted the evolution of opera and musical theater. This special event will feature beloved arias and ensembles from Puccini’s operas alongside a variety of scenes from operas and musicals by composers who were influenced by the great Italian composer, including Franz Lehár, Leoš Janacek, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Gian Carlo Menotti, Daniel Catán, Richard Rodgers, Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Jonathan Larson.  Featured guest artists will be announced this summer.

Bohème & Beyond

DePaul University Welcome Center

Set in a world devoid of color and inspired by the imagery of surrealist painter Remedios Varo, a lone tree holds within its rings the memory and possibility of music, poetry, and art. An herbalist struggles to heal a community afflicted by a siege of maladies, and a homesick boarding-school student dreams of escape. An ancient medicinal, written in Spanish (one of countless forbidden languages), just may hold the key — to transcendence, or complete obliteration. This searing new opera looks at a culture rapidly strip-mining itself of its riches, and embraces the realm of the imagination as fertile ground for regeneration.

Remedios Varios

Everyone has heard of Rosa Parks, but she wasn’t the first to refuse to move. She Who Dared recenters the spotlight on the courageous women who helped desegregate the Montgomery bus system in the 1950s. These Civil Rights pioneers pay homage to the quiet struggle for justice that has often gone unknown – further amplifying the effects of the historic case of Browder V Gayle. While often riotous and sometimes hilarious, these women demonstrate how everyday people have the power to challenge the systems around them and affect tangible change – if only they dare. 

Chicago Opera Theater (CANTERBURY OAST TRUST)

1 - 6 Oct, 2024

Leonora

Dec 7, 2024

Bohème & Beyond

Apr 5, 2025

Remedios Varios Para las Aflicciones del Cuerpo y el Espíritu

Apr 5, 2025

Remedios Varios

3 - 8 Jun, 2025

She Who Dared

Sep 12, 2024

Close-Up with Leonora

25 - 26 May, 2024

Before It All Goes Dark

Chicago Opera Theater (CANTERBURY OAST TRUST)