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FULL MIDSUMMER DREAM (various composers) Oak Park IL 2025 Bellissima Opera
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: MIDSUMMER DREAM Magical Works, Fairies and Fables, Last Sorcerer
- Composer: various
- Libretto: various Libretto Text, Libretto Index
- Venue & Opera Company: 19th Century Club Grand Ballroom, Oak Park, Illinois, Bellissima Opera
- Recorded: July 18, 2025
- Type: Staged Opera Live
- Singers: Katie Rub-Villegas, Lauren Lassen, Norah Lougachi, Carl Ratner, Christine Steyer, Simon Kyung Lee, Lauren Sutherland, Aaron Wardell, Elizabeth Fisher, Barbara Landis, Jasmine Doll, Maria Molter, Hannah Cummins, Miranda Flanagan, Judy Gaietto-Grace, Hannah Kennedy, Kelci Kosin, Kunying Li
- Conductor: Paul Lindblad
- Orchestra: Peter Stigdon, PIANO
- Choreographer: Nina Brewer-Davis
- Stage Director: Carl Ratner, Christine Steyer
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Jeffrey Skender
- Date Published: 2025
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: yessubs, ensubs, gensubs
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
The evening features the Chicago premiere of The Last Sorcerer by rediscovered Romantic French composer Pauline Viardot Garcia (libretto by Ivan Turgenev), alongside highlights from Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and other magical works.
Performances are presented in both English and French, with English supertitles.
Though now largely unfamiliar to the public, composer Viardot Garcia hailed from one of Europe’s most renowned musical families. Her father, Manuel Garcia, was a famed vocal teacher, and her sister, Maria Malibran, an opera star. Viardot Garcia inspired Gounod, Berlioz, Meyerbeer, and Saint-Saëns-who dedicated Samson and Delilah to her-and composed five operas, piano works, and numerous songs.
The Last Sorcerer tells of a once-powerful sorcerer bested by clever forest fairies and elves. When his daughter falls for a visiting suitor, he resists-until the suitor’s true identity is revealed. The music is ethereal, moving, comic, and always melodic.