Anyone who’s ever tried to sing or play an instrument knows that hard work and practice are essential to make a performance successful. But performing music from memory presents another challenge. The repetitions Glass uses make memorizing his music particularly difficult.

Chicago Opera Theater announced its 2017-18 season: three operas, including a world-premiere co-production with Opera Philadelphia, to be staged at the newly-renovated Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building.

“Music and worship started out together…” composer and conductor Victoria Bond explains. “In Jewish worship, prayers are not spoken, they are sung.”

National Opera Week 2016 is from October 28 to November 6. Why not celebrate by experiencing the Chicago premiere of a contemporary opera? You can see not one, not two, but three new-to-Chicago operas.

At 79 years old, Philip Glass has composed 27 operas. Yet, only a handful have been performed in Chicago, though the composer spent formative years in the Windy City as a student.

Pulitzer-winning composer Paul Moravec: “A supernatural story makes total sense for an opera…”

Growing up, composer Jonathan Berger reflects, “there was an enormous amount of talk in my house about what really constitutes patriotism, what is a right war and a wrong war…”

Opera has always been important to composer Rufus Wainwright, though many know him as the man behind the piano crooning confessional songs.

“I’ve been working towards this my whole career,” Lopez said excitedly as he observed summer technical rehearsals for Bel Canto.