Join us for a special performance of an abridged version of one of the 17th century's most performed operas. This performance will feature a cast of the next generation of Baroque Opera superstars after a week long intensive study on the work with the Summer Opera Course faculty. This semi-staged concert will introduce you to this exceptional work in anticipation of our 2018 fully staged production of this work. 

Giacinto Andrea Cicognini’s artful libretto tells of the Egyptian Queen Orontea who decrees that she will never fall in love. No sooner has she made this proclamation than the humble painter Alidoro arrives at her court fleeing the assassins of the Queen of Phoenicia. Orontea falls for him instantly, as does one of the ladies of the court, Silandra. Jealousy, passion, and deception ensue with a cast of kidnappers, drunken servants, and pirates all accompanied by some of the most effortlessly ravishing music of the 17th century.

Drew Minter, Stage Director
Craig Trompeter, Musical Director
Cast: Summer Opera Course Young Artists TBA

Roosevelt University’s Ganz Hall
430 S Michigan Ave, Chicago
June 3rd, 3:00pm

Drew Minter debuted nearly four decades ago in both Europe and New York and has been regarded as one of the world's most renowned countertenors ever since.  He appeared in leading roles with the opera companies of Brussels, Toulouse, Boston, Washington, Santa Fe, Wolf Trap, Glimmerglass, and Nice, among others.  A recognized specialist in the works of Handel, he has performed frequently at the Handel festivals of Göttingen, Halle, Karlsruhe, Maryland and sung with many of the world's leading baroque orchestras, including Les Arts Florissants, the Handel and Haydn Society, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Freiburger Barockorchester, and as a guest at festivals such as Tanglewood, Ravinia, Regensburg, BAM's Next Wave, Edinburgh, Spoleto, and Boston Early Music; other orchestra credits include the Philadelphia Orchestra, the San Francisco Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.  Mr. Minter was a founding member of the Newberry Consort and My Lord Chamberlain’s Consort, and has sung and played early harps often with ARTEK, the Folger Consort, and Trefoil, the medieval trio he co-founded in 2000.  He teaches voice, choir and the opera workshop at Vassar College. For over two decades, Mr. Minter has directed much opera in America and Europe, and was founding artistic director of Boston Midsummer Opera from 2006-2011. His production of The Play of Daniel, premiered at the Cloisters in 2008, has been an annual event of the New York Christmas season as part of the Twelfth Night Festival at Trinity Church Wall Street. 

Artistic Director Craig Trompeter has been a musical presence in Chicago for more than twenty years. As an acclaimed cellist and violist da gamba he has performed in concert and over the airwaves with Second City Musick, Music of the Baroque, the Chicago Symphony, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Chicago Opera Theater, the Cal Players, the Oberlin Consort of Viols, and Great Lakes Baroque. He has performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Glimmerglass Festival, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Valletta International Baroque Festival in Malta. He has appeared as soloist at the Ravinia Festival, the annual conference of the American Bach Society, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and with Music of the Baroque. Trompeter has recorded works of Mozart, Biber, Boismortier, Marais, Handel, Greene, Henry Eccles, and a potpourri of Elizabethan composers on the Harmonia Mundi, Cedille, and Centaur labels. As a modern cellist, he was a founding member of the Fry Street String Quartet. He premiered several chamber operas by MacArthur Fellow John Eaton, performing as actor, singer and cellist. Most recently he served as Music Director for Francesca Caccini's opera La liberazione di Ruggiero dall'isola d'Alcina at Utah State University. He has taught master classes at his alma mater, the Cleveland Institute of Music, Grinnell College, and the Chicago Musical College. In 2003 he founded the Feldenkrais® Center of Chicago where he teaches Awareness Through Movement® andFunctional Integration®. He has given Feldenkrais workshops throughout the nation in universities, music conservatories, and dance studios.