Name: The Medium/Gianni Schicchi
Start: 2025-07-10T19:30:00-05:00
End: 2025-07-12T22:00:00-05:00
Location: 425 S Wabash Ave

The Medium/Gianni Schicchi

​A Non-Profit Organization with a mission to provide world class training to gifted artists and to offer accessible high quality performances to our community. At Chicago Summer Opera, we offer training in role preparation, vocal technique, dramatic preparation, audition technique, and stage movement. In addition to the main stage productions, the program will offer staged scenes and one act operas with piano. This combination of training helps developing singers grow immensely in a short period of time.

Chicago Summer Opera

425 S Wabash Ave

Ganz Hall at Roosevelt University:Please enter via 425 S Wabash Ave, Chicago, IL 60605 in the evenings. Creative Team:Stage Director: Mark Ross ClarkConductor: Codrut BirsanPianist: Neil MitchellAssistant Conductor: Elle Sunmin LeeAssistant Stage Director: Ruobin HuangStage Manager: Maddie Mathes The MediumIn the parlor of Baba, known to her clients (or victims) as Madame Flora, Monica and Toby play pretend. Monica is Baba’s daughter, and Toby, a mute boy taken in by Baba from the streets of Budapest, is obviously smitten with Monica. Monica, quite aware of Toby’s affections, leads him on, then chastises him; they are not yet ready for tonight’s séance. Baba arrives and they prepare for the charade: they will swindle grieving parents by pretending to communicate with their dead children. First, Monica impersonates the daughter of Mrs. Nolan, a new attendee; then, she and Toby collaborate to imitate the Gobineaus’ boy Mickey, who drowned before he learned to speak. For CSO’s production, The Medium is re-set in Paris in 1939, just before the Nazi occupation. The looming threat of war has left the city steeped in anxiety, with many fearing persecution if the Nazis succeed in invading France (as they ultimately do in June 1940). Among those most at risk are the Romani people—referred to historically as “gypsies”—who, in this production, are represented by the opera’s central characters: Baba, her daughter Monica, and Toby, the mute street urchin she has taken in. Their marginalized status underscores their desperate need for survival, and casts a darker shadow over the emotional and psychological unraveling that follows. All is going according to plan until Baba herself feels a “cold, cold hand” on her throat and abruptly ends the séance over her clients’ objections. Terrified by the possibility that she has somehow meddled with the supernatural, Baba blames Toby—according to her, there is “something uncanny about him.” Monica tries to calm her by singing the (not particularly calming) “Black Swan,” but ghostly voices—and latent guilt—convince Baba that she must put an end to the Madame Flora scam. As the next few days pass, tensions rise as Toby’s silence continues to impact both women. Monica blurs the lines between fact and fiction, imagining what Toby might say to her if he could (with little regard for his own feelings). Baba oscillates between bribery and abuse as she frantically seeks reassurance from Toby that her encounter wasn’t truly supernatural. The ensuing silence is more than she can bear, leading to a dark and chaotic series of events. As the curtain draws to a close, she will never get an answer to her final haunting question. The Medium, inspired by a séance attended by Gian Carlo Menotti, is notable for its short length, expertly wound tension, and verismo style that blurs the lines between opera and musical theater. First performed in 1946, it is also one of the rare operas with a film version (directed by Menotti, who not only composed the music but also wrote the libretto). Gianni SchicchiIt’s a classic inheritance tale, set in Florence—though for CSO’s production, it is re-imagined in 1944, just after the city has been liberated by Allied forces near the end of World War II. At this time, Florence is caught between devastation and hope: the economy is in shambles, most of the city’s bridges have been destroyed (except for the iconic Ponte Vecchio), and there is still much rebuilding to be done. But there is also a sense of profound relief—its great artistic treasures, including Michelangelo’s David, have survived the bombings. In this climate of cautious optimism, we find both desperation and opportunism bubbling just beneath the surface. After the wealthy Buoso Donati dies, his relatives – cousins Zita and Simone, Zita’s nephew Rinuccio, and a poor brother-in-law, Betto – make a show of mourning, but instead want to know how much they stand to gain. However, it is soon discovered that Buoso left all his money to a monastery. Rinuccio suggests that they turn to Gianni Schicchi, a poor man with a reputation for cleverness, to try and change the will. Conveniently, Rinuccio is in love with Schicchi’s daughter Lauretta. However, Zita, who previously agreed to the marriage in hopes of a large inheritance, now backtracks, forbidding her son from marrying the lower-class girl. Despite these objections, the desperate family agrees to consult Schicchi. Initially, Schicchi wants nothing to do with this mess, but after Lauretta pleads with him to let her marry Rinuccio, he agrees to help, developing an ingenious plan. Schicchi is even more clever than the family gives him credit for – and, since forging a will has a steep punishment in this life and the next, he might as well make it worth his while. Puccini’s one-act opera, a fast-paced comedic departure from his overall tragic oeuvre, is beloved for the famous “O mio babbino caro”, an aria synonymous with opera itself in the popular imagination. The opera’s lighthearted tone contrasts with the source material; Gianni Schicchi, a real historical figure, is condemned to hell by Dante in his Inferno for impersonation and fraud. In Puccini’s version, though, it’s all worth it because the two young lovers benefit, the greedy upper class are chastened, and overall, the clever Schicchi triumphs—even if just during his time on earth.

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The Medium/Gianni Schicchi

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