“For Chicago’s classical and jazz scenes, rays of hope amid the despair of music in 2020”
By Howard Reich
Chicago Tribune | Dec 07, 2020 at 1:20pm
Header image by Sean Su for Chicago Opera Theater
For music lovers, this was a year of monumental losses and occasional triumphs, vast silences and sorely needed bursts of sound.
Though there’s no way to claw back the music and musicians stolen from us by the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no denying the resilience Chicago’s jazz and classical musicians showed in the face of disaster. Whole seasons were canceled, clubs and concert halls stood empty, audiences disappeared. Yet Chicago’s musicians found new ways to reach listeners in a venue where few had ventured before: cyberspace. […]
[W]e saw Chicago Opera Theater dare to give the first performance of The Transformation of Jane Doe… notable for its soaring score, ingenious libretto and inspired musical performances.
As we flipped on our computer screens, we saw Chicago Opera Theater dare to give the first performance of Stacy Garrop and Jerre Dye’s The Transformation of Jane Doe in a livestreamed concert reading. This was tempting fate, considering all the moving parts involved in the Studebaker Theater production: vocalists, instrumentalists, technical crew and rolling subtitles. But fate did not dare interrupt this venture, which was more notable for its soaring score, ingenious libretto and inspired musical performances than for minor flaws in lighting and camera angles. […]
True, some clubs will not survive; some ensembles will disappear; and, alas, some musicians will turn to other professions.
But if the Chicago scene has proved nothing else in the past nine months, it showed that it will not be stopped.
When the music-making returns for real, surely listeners will flock to it again.