People's Opera

Chicago Opera Theater is letting you, the people, decide one of our operas in 2010!

Cast your vote(s) for merely a dollar and the opera that receives the most “votes” is the one Chicago Opera Theater will produce in their 2010 Spring Festival Season!

First $16,000 will be matched by an anonymous donor, doubling your voting power!*

Simply enter a dollar amount below next to your favorite opera and then just click submit! Not sure which one you like? Vote for 2! Or all 3!

You may vote anytime between April 15 and June 15, 2008 right here.

The opera “winner” will be announced this summer!

	Paul Bunyan by Benjamin Britten Chicago Opera Theater has a history of performing riveting productions of Britten’s works and this would be yet another to add to that list. Paul Bunyan was Britten’s first opera, premiered at Columbia University New York in 1941. The story of the mythic American giant lumberjack is told in a libretto by W.H. Auden. If selected, this would be a Chicago Premiere. [Synopsis] [Listen to excerpt] $ Amount
	Mosè in Egitto (Moses in Egypt) by Gioachino Rossini Although Rossini is often considered a comic composer his serious works are just as remarkable. This opera starts with the darkness of the plague in Ancient Egypt and ends with the Red Sea crashing down on the Pharaoh’s multitude. If selected, Chicago Opera Theater would be the first Chicago company in 145 years to present Mosè in Egitto. [Synopsis] [Listen to excerpt] $ Amount
	La finta giardiniera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart composed this opera when he was only 18 years old! A betrayal, false identity and a kidnapping all mix together in a lover’s quarrel that grows almost completely out of control. Chicago Opera Theater performed an English version of this comic opera in 1989 and if selected it will be the first time La finta giardiniera has been performed in Chicago in its original Italian. [Synopsis] [Listen to excerpt] $ Amount

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