“Two months seem to have flown by in a smooth and successful summer season of the Grant Park Music Festival,” writes Andrew Patner in Sunday’s (8/19) Chicago Sun-Times. “With a devoted following—attendance rarely falls below 7,000 and usually exceeds 10,000—and a committed and fast on its fingers orchestra, Grant Park management continued its tradition of unusual and exciting programming in its 78th season.… This was also the first season with full advance planning by principal conductor Carlos Kalmar in his added role of artistic director and with Paul Winberg as executive director.… Much of this summer showcased the festival’s outstanding chorus, at least the equal of those at the Chicago Symphony and Lyric Opera, marking its 50th anniversary.… For this final weekend, Kalmar pulled out a true rarity, an 1884 dramatic cantata by Antonin Dvorák written for Britain’s great 19th century Birmingham triennial oratorio festival…. Called either ‘The Bride’s Nightgown’ or, traditionally in English, ‘The Spectre’s Bride,’ it’s a hard work to fit in to Dvorák’s larger accomplishments. Even as his Op. 69, it comes years before his late symphonies, the masterworks of his American period and his last and most enduring opera, ‘Rusalka.’ Its origins hold the clues, however. Unlike Berlioz or even Liszt, this is a much lighter setting of a story of a loyal young woman avoiding Hell’s torments. It’s a very British work for its time, far from Dvorák’s frequent use of folk inspiration from Bohemia or Moravia.… But Kalmar and guest chorus director William Jon Gray made the best possible case for the 80-minute work.”
Posted August 20, 2012
