Lyric Opera event set at Friendship Botanic Gardens
Although the Chicago Lyric Opera’s season opening has been postponed due to COVID-19, music lovers will get a taste of the upcoming season, as the annual Lyric in the Gardens event will go on as planned.
This is the 14th consecutive year of Lyric in the Gardens, which will be from 3 to 6 p.m. Aug. 30 at the Friendship Botanic Gardens in Michigan City. All proceeds contribute to the continued restoration and maintenance of Friendship Botanic Gardens.
The first hour is a cocktail hour with light appetizers and a cash bar with beer and wine available. The performance begins at 4 p.m., said Rima Binder, vice president of the board and chairwoman of the Lyric in the Gardens event.
“The Lyric in the Gardens is the preview of the
Lyric season,” she said. “This year … due to the COVID, the Lyric has canceled the first part of their season. What our soloists have selected are selections that the Lyric has listed for the second half of the season.”
Five operas will be featured in the first half of the program. The second half will consist of songs from Broadway, including the musical “Singin’ in the Rain.”
The soloists are fan favorites, she said, under the leadership of Kimberly
Jones, a member of the voice faculty at Columbia College and Merit School of Music in Chicago. “She is an accomplished soloist and she organizes this group,” Binder said.
Other soloists include Cornelius Johnson, Maia Surace and Aaron Wardell; along with narrator Gary Alexander and keyboardist Paul Dykstra.
“All of them are very accomplished performers,” Binder said. “We offer a very professional performance for our preseason Lyric Opera and people absolutely love it. What’s new this year, is that we will offer this event in our newest venue, which is our Celebration Pavilion. We rebuilt from an old stage a pavilion that looks a little bit like a Frank Lloyd Wright design.”
The soloist selects the opera and the arias, she said. In the first half of the program, Surace will perform pieces from “The
Marriage of Figaro” and “Samson and Delilah” and Jones will also sing an aria from “The Marriage of Figaro,” Binder said. Wardell and Johnson will perform songs from “The Elixir of Love,” she added.
Pianist Paul Dykstra will perform the famous instrumental, “Intermezzo” from “Cavalleria Rusticana.”
“The last opera that will be presented is ‘Tosca,’ an extremely popular Puccini opera that’s been performed all over the world for years,” she said. “There are two arias that will come from that. One by Cornelius Johnson and the other by Aaron Wardell. That will end the first half.”
Jones will open the second half of the program with songs from “Jesus Christ Superstar,” “Grease,” “Les Miserables” and “Dreamgirls.”
Surace will sing “How Could I Ever Know” from “The Secret Garden” as well as “There is a Garden” from Leonard Bernstein’s “Trouble in Tahiti.”
Wardell will duet with Jones on “All I Ask of You” from “Phantom of the Opera” as well as perform “Impossible Dream” from “Man of La Mancha.”
Johnson will sing “Make Them Hear You” from “Ragtime” and will duet with Jones on “Wheels of a Dream,” also from “Ragtime,” she said.
Finally, Wardell will perform “You Were Meant for Me” from “Singin’ in the Rain” and all of the soloists will come out and finish the show with “Singin’ in the Rain,” Binder said.
“Usually, they are asked back and back again for encores and encores, which they are happy to provide the audience,” she said.
Premium seating is limited, but due to the size of the meadow, general admission tickets won’t be limited. Bring your own chairs or blankets. Masks will be required until guests are properly distanced from other parties, she said.
There is plenty of room on the lawns to safely social distance and enjoy a wonderful performance, she said. And if people don’t make it to the opera as often as you like, this is a fantastic opportunity to experience the Lyric, she said.
“It’s the end of the summer. It’s a wonderful way to end a vacation. It’s such a treat to get a preview of the Lyric season,” she said. “People enjoy the outdoors; they enjoy walking the gardens. Many of them are awestruck at the beauty of the gardens. Some stay afterwards and bring a picnic supper after it’s over. It’s been a very, very successful piece in the gardens.”