Category: events

The Marriage of Figaro in Lyric

That’s a very long opera!!! Even though we took an Uber back home, it was 11-30 PM when I entered my apartment, and I went to bed after midnight. This morning, I thought I wouldn’t survive the workday and a meetup afterward, but somehow I am alive :).

The performance was perfect!!! Totally worth some sleep deprivation :).

Beautiful voices, great acting, and each performer was a perfect fit for their role. The whole production was put together exactly how Mozart should be performed: joyful, a little bit silly, funny, a little bit naughty, but just a little bit, without being vulgar.

Zoolights!

I can’t recall the last time I visited Lincoln Zoo! It was never convenient, and the funny story is that even after I moved way closer to it than we used to live, it continued to be inconvenient to get there. My friend suggested we go to the Zoolights on Saturday, and I immediately said it was a great idea and asked Igor whether he was interested. My friend ended up not going, but Igor and I still went, and it was great! I took tons of pictures and videos, and here are some – also, showcasing the works of my new iPhone 16 Pro!

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Cards And Cookies

It’s that time of the year again! If I know you, IRL or virtually, this post is for you!

Do you want a Christmas card from me? Please let me know!

Do you want a box of my cookies? – Let me know!

Do you live in Chicagoland and want to bake and decorate with me? I will have an Open Cookie House on December 6, 7, and 8; please come!

You do not have to send me a card or cookies as a reciprocation unless you want!

I am ready to share the joy of the season:)

The Secret Garden in Theo

On Sunday, I went to see The Secret Garden at Theo Ubique. I love their Sunday scheduling – they start at 6 PM, so it’s not a matinerr which completely breaks your day, but also not too late (for me, all days of the week are the same in term of bedtime, so I always prefer the earlier start).

My friend with whom I went told me earlier that that was the only show she wanted to attend this season. I liked others as well, but I understand why she said so – it’s a lovely music and a beautiful story. And the production is perfect! As usual, I hope that they will post some videos from the show later, and I will be happy to share them!

“Some Like It Hot”

This musical was on stage for only two weeks, and it was a primary reason I returned to Chicago one day earlier: it was part of our subscription and the only chance to see it!

The musical significantly differs from the 1959 movie, and the most important difference is the image of Daphne. The ending of the movie (“Nobody is perfect”) leaves the question of “what happened next” open-ended. In the 2022 musical, everything is more logical and there is no room for doubt, which makes the ending really perfect!

Joffrey Ballet: Atonement

Going to see a ballet the night before my departure was a little bit tight, even if I wasn’t as busy as I ended up, but having all I had this week, it was a crazy idea. I think that if I wasn’t going with my neighbor, I would just stay at home and pack, but I didn’t want to let her down. And OMG, how glad I am that I went! The batter is brilliant! The more Joffrey performances I attend, the more I like them!

I didn’t know that this ballet was based on a novel; I only learned about it from the program notes. I still had the right days to read it, so I got an audiobook and listened nonstop, even when I usually listened to the news. I listened to it almost to the end by Thursday evening so I could follow the plot (and I shared it with my neighbor because otherwise, it would be almost impossible to figure out what was going on on stage).

The epilogue was quite unexpected, and I was eager to find out how the book ended. It turned out that the book ends… well, unexpectedly, but I am not going to put any spoilers here. I loved it! Some comments on Goodreads say that Part One is too slow and not engaging, but I can’t imagine it to be different. I loved the novel, the ballet, and the endings of both.

Women At War Exhibit

A speaker whom I invited to present at Chicago PUG on October 15 came to Chicago for the first time in his life. That meant that I had to show him the city, at least for a little bit.

I booked the Chicago Architectural Cruise, and we agreed to walk around after that. Fortunately, the weather was not bad, although not as gorgeous as last weekend. Also, the docent on the tour was really good. You never know; it’s always hit or miss, but this was really good!

As usual, when I have very little time, I try to show some non-obvious places, so when we disembarked, I walked my guest directly to the Chicago Cultural Center. There, on the first floor, i saw an exhibit that I had no idea about:

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Archeopteryx In The Field Museum

The archaeopteryx acquired by the Field Museum in 2022 is only the 13th ever found – I didn’t know they were so rare! And there were tons of other things about archeopteryx that I didn’t know; I learned them yesterday during the discussion in the Field Museum. It was the opening night for Chicago archeopteryx – it took two years for scientists to prepare this fossil for the exhibition. Two lead scientists answered the audience’s questions. They were visibly excited about the new research prospects and said a book was in the works.

Other things I learned:

  • All archeopteryxes found so far didn’t reach their maturity and were still going, so we do not know the size of an adult.
  • It’s close to impossible to tell the gender of the species.
  • We do not know what they ate, but most likely insects (judging by the teeth enamel)
  • All birds lost their teeth in the process of evolution, and scientists are unsure why. All birds swallow small stones to grind the food in their stomachs (anyone who ever butchered a chicken would agree :))
  • The feathered were not for flying originally, but rather for temperature preservation, and the ability to fly was an extra bonus 🙂

The Pawnbroker

In between the two operas, I watched The Pawnbroker, a 1964 film directed by Sidney Lumet. I learned about this movie from one of the kino-websites advertisements related to Lumet’s 100 anniversary. Then it was my usual movie story: I need to find time; the movie is so captivating that I can’t watch it as a background to anything, etc. Actually, after the first ten minutes of watching, I realized that I won’t be able to hit the stop button….

How many Holocaust movies did I watch? Many! How many books? How many photos? A lot, but still, this movie was unbearable to watch even though it shows very little of actual Nazi atrocities. We do not even know the whole story of Sol Nazerman. We only see flashbacks of past events triggered by something happening in the present. Still, it’s striking evidence of unmendable damage done to a human. When I was watching the movie, I physically felt Mr. Naserman’s suffering. I just do not have the right words to describe how I felt. A naked truth. Immense sorrow.

Rigoletto

On Tuesday, my neighbor and I went to our second opera of that season: Verdi’s Rigoletto. In contrast to Fidelio, it was a very traditional production, and it was astonishing.

I saw Rigoletto multiple times back in Russia, but like with many operas that I thought I knew, it turned out that we had a severely reduced version of it. My first eye-opener was Carmen, and Boris told me that he had a similar revelation with Faust, and now Rigoletto.

Beautiful. More tragic than I ever thought.