Lollapalooza for Intellectuals

 In Chicago, fall means turning leaves, crisp days, pumpkin spice lattes at Starbucks, and the Chicago Humanities Festvial...or, as it is now trying to bill itself, Lollapalooza for Intellectuals.  While I know plenty of intellectuals who enjoy the real Lolla, NS Magazine and CHF have a point: the festival is always a glorious smorgasbord of fascinating people doing amazing work in all fields of study.  (Fun fact: my friend Dara's husband, James McLurkin was one of those fascinating people doing amazing work in robotics last year!  Check out his work!)

This year, crazy busy schedules prevented us from taking advantage of as many of the presentations as we'd have liked, but we did make a point to make it to the evening with Renee Fleming, presented at the University of Chicago and hosted by Chicago Lyric Opera's dramaturg, Colin Ure.

Michel:  Strangely enough, Renee Fleming was also there to discuss her work in robotics.  She predicts the humanity will be fully cyborg within the next 8-14 months.  I think she might not be very good at robotics.

 Elizabeth: Besides her work in robotics, she also discussed her career as an international opera star and her work with Chicago Lyric on bringing and keeping arts education in the schools.  It was a really great talk, I thought.

Michel:  We also learned that she had a pet monkey for a weekend growing up.  Apparently, people used to buy monkeys at department stores.  But it was an interesting, well-curated discussion. 

Elizabeth:  The next weekend we had the opportunity to see Renee again, this time as part of the Chicago Lyric Opera's 60th Anniversary Concert.  That's me all dressed up because we found out last minute that it was technically black tie...

Michel:  Although in our section, I saw a number of people wearing jeans.

Elizabeth: It was fun getting all gussied up, though.  Fun and cold. 

The Civic Opera House is a gorgeous example of art deco architecture, and it was all done up for the event.  Although even not done up, it's a beautiful building.

 Lobby level

 The lobby from above

 The lobby ceiling

 Non-black tie riff raff

Elizabeth: The inside of the theatre itself was gorgeous, too.  To the left is the ceiling right near us.  We were the second to last row from the top.  It's actually not a bad view, but the sound has a difficult time getting past the tiers of ceiling to the nose-bleeds.

Michel:  Except for Stephanie Blythe who may as well have been sitting next to us when she sang.  She could be heard through 8 feet of concrete.  And I mean that in the most complementary way possible.

Elizabeth: Yeah, she's got some lungs on her.  Plus her voice is gorgeous...like buttuh.  She was probably my favorite singer of the night. 

Michel: But Eric Owens, Christine Goerke, and Quinn Kelsey were also pretty great. 

 Elizabeth: The evening presented several international opera singers, including the four above mentioned as well as Renee, Ana Maria Martinez, Johan Botha, and mybestfriendSusanGraham, singing some of their favorite pieces, supplemented by the Ryan Opera Center's young artists.

Michel:  In addition to the singers, Jane Lynch was the very funny emcee, and in between songs were sketches by some of The Second City's main stage performers.  It's probably the only environment where they can make Pinkerton jokes that kill.

 Elizabeth:  We were thisclose to Jane Lynch before the show because she was hanging out in a hallway right next to the sidewalk where we walked in.  It was super exciting.  You'll be seeing us both on Hollywood Game Night since we're now close personal friends with Jane Lynch.

Michel:  As celebrities, of course.

Elizabeth:  Even though some of the aria selections were...weird, it was a pretty incredible evening of comedy and opera!

Michel:  The true star of the evening was the butterscotch mousse from Fork.  It came complete with chocolate dipping cookies.  

Elizabeth:  I don't know.  My apple crisp with homemade maple ice cream was pretty tasty, too.  Fork, we discovered, is one of the few places city open late enough to do an after-show dessert date.  Fortunately, the desserts are delicious, plus it's basically on the way home.  

Thus ends our week with Renee.  We had an excellent time, and hope she did, too.