Catching up on my blog reading, I came across some good news from Chicago Opera Theater–the audience choice has been announced and the winner is Shostakovich’s 1959 opera Moscow Cheryomuschki! The bad news is we have to wait until 2011 to see it. Sigh.
This past spring, during their most recent season, COT had a very clever fundraising effort going on that allowed audience members to choose the third production in their 2011 season. Choices were Capriccio (Strauss), The Magic Flute (Mozart) and the Shostakovich; one dollar, one vote.
My first reaction was, “God no, not The Magic Flute again!” I was ready to stuff the voting box with dollar bills just to avoid another production of Flute, one of my least favorite operas of all time. When I saw that Shostakovich was one of the alternatives, I happily placed multiple votes over the course of my three visits to COT this year. (I’ve already seen Capriccio at Lyric, and Strauss, well, I can take it or leave it.)
Had I ever heard of Moscow Cheryomuschki before? Nope, but attending multiple performances of CSO’s Shostakovich Festival back in ’99 made me a Shostakovich fan and I knew that an opera by the composer would be a must see.
2 Things @ Once 
It’s sort of like here with the Virgina Symphony. If they want my money they have got to stop playing:
A) All Mozart All the Time!
B) Anything and everything by Mahler
c) Whatever Buffalo Philharmonic rejects that Joanne Falletta can dig up!
And don’t even get me started on Virginia Opera. La Boheme? Again? Really, dude!