Ravinia opens for the summer season this weekend
A picnic on the lawn, an admission price freeze and a typically wide-ranging menu of music by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and leading artists. It can mean only one thing: The 2009 Ravinia Festival is here.
The festival will open at 8 p.m. today, June 5, with Lerner and Loewe's "Camelot," as Paul Gemignani conducts director Marc Robin's original concert production of the classic Broadway show, starring George Hearn, Sylvia McNair and Rod Gilfry, with the Ravinia Festival Orchestra.
"Camelot" reunites most of the principals from Ravinia's 2007 production of "The Most Happy Fella," with McNair portraying Guenevere, Hearn as King Arthur and Gilfry as Sir Lancelot in this one-night revival.
Gemignani replaces conductor Erich Kunzel, who withdrew last month to undergo cancer treatment in Cincinnati. Gemignani, who last conducted at Ravinia in 2006 when Patti LuPone starred as Mama Rose in "Gypsy," is a longtime collaborator of Stephen Sondheim. This is his fourth appearance at Ravinia.
Of course, "Camelot" is just the start of a busy summer on the North Shore, as Ravinia is helping Illinois celebrate the Lincoln Bicentennial. The festival has already this spring presented chamber-music recitals throughout the state and is continuing with several Lincoln-themed concerts this summer.
The first will take place at 8 p.m. next Friday, June 12, with the world premiere of Chicago jazz legend Ramsey Lewis' "Proclamation of Hope: A Symphonic Poem," a multimedia tribute to Lincoln through jazz, vocal music and spoken word. Closing the festival Sept. 17 and 19 will be Tony Award-winning choreographer Bill T. Jones' "Fondly Do We Hope - Fervently Do We Pray," another Ravinia-Lincoln Bicentennial commission that will feature The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company. The preparations for and premiere of this special event are being filmed as a future PBS documentary by Chicago-based Kartemquin Films, producers of the acclaimed sports documentary "Hoop Dreams."
Pavilion concerts this summer will introduce audiences to large video screens set up on each side of the stage, including the entire Chicago Symphony Orchestra residency July 7 through Aug. 15.
"This enhancement is in direct response to our surveying of patrons, who said they would like to see the entire orchestra in action," said Ravinia President and CEO Welz Kauffman. "Now, every seat is the best seat in the house."
Also, as part of Ravinia's 2009 ticket-price initiative, four selected CSO concerts, on July 12, 15, 19 and Aug. 5, will have a special admission price of $25 under the festival's "Full House" promotion. As mentioned, all other admission prices have been held at 2008 levels, including $10 lawn admission for most events. If you are a lawn "regular," Ravinia's popular "Classical Grass" discount punch passes are back, offering 10 shows for $80. As in recent years, Ravinia will cut off admission to the lawn for many of the most popular classical and pop music events, so you are advised to call (847) 266-5100 or visit ravinia.org to see if the lawn is already sold out for that night.
Ravinia is offering its traditional mix of popular-music stars, including two nights of Tony Bennett (Aug. 28-29), the Beach Boys (July 14), The Temptations and The Four Tops (Aug. 7), Indigo Girls (June 26), Joe Cocker (June 28), Steve Miller Band (July 17) and numerous others.
Classical-music guest artists making special recital appearances in the Martin Theatre include mezzo-soprano Susan Graham (July 13), bass-baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky (Aug. 18), pianist Jonathan Biss (Aug. 6) and the Eroica Trio (Aug. 24). Guest artists joining the CSO in the Pavilion include pianist Lang Lang (July 26 and 28, celebrating the 10th anniversary of his Ravinia debut), cellist Yo-Yo Ma (Aug. 14) and violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg (Aug. 1).
Former Ravinia music director Christoph Eschenbach will return to conduct several CSO concerts, including the July 26 Lang Lang concert, in which the pianist will play Serge Prokofiev's Concerto No. 3. Eschenbach will also appear in the Martin Theatre as pianist with baritone Matthias Goerne in three recitals (July 27, 29 and 31) featuring the song cycles of Franz Schubert.
Music director James Conlon will continue his "Breaking the Silence" series, this summer concentrating on the music of German composer Kurt Weill, who fled the Third Reich in the 1930s and established a new career in New York as a theater composer. Ravinia favorite Patti LuPone will join Conlon and the CSO on Aug. 8 in a concert featuring Weill's "The Seven Deadly Sins" and a selection of the composer's Broadway music.
Conlon will conduct Ravinia's annual "Gala Benefit Evening" on July 18, the music including Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" (narrated by soprano Jessye Norman) and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Conlon will wrap up the CSO's summer season Aug. 15 with a complete concert performance of Giuseppe Verdi's "Rigoletto," starring Dmitri Hvorostovsky in the title role.
Ravinia Festival
Location: 200 Ravinia Park Road, Highland Park
Prices: Ticket prices and parking fees vary according to performance.
Information and tickets: For a complete schedule, or to order tickets online, visit ravinia.org. Tickets are also on sale by phone at (847) 266-5100, or in person at the box office at the park's main west gate, open daily at 10 a.m. (1 p.m. Sundays).