An early exit interview —and duet— with Chicago Opera Theater’s Brian Dickie

An early exit interview —and duet— with Chicago Opera Theater’s Brian Dickie

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I don’t know much about opera, but I love it. And I owe that love almost entirely to Brian Dickie and the Chicago Opera Theater. Dickie, the general director of the COT, is charming, passionate and funny. I don’t like to think too much about the fact that this is his last season here.

Here’s a conversation I had with Dickie, plus a wonderful duet from the COT’s first production of the season, Moscow Cheryomushki, Dmitri Shostakovich’s satire about a young couple trying to navigate the absurdities of housing in the Soviet Union. It premieres this Saturday at the Harris Theater.

My in-laws, who grew up in the Soviet Union, in Soviet-era housing, will be there, and afterward they’ll be happy to separate fact from fiction if you buy them a drink.