But wait there’s more…

Kazem Abdullah

Aria bandwagon
There’s nothing like a dark ’n’ stormy dose of sadism, sex and murder to capture the attention of opera lovers. The Lyric Opera of Chicago opens its doors in September with one of the greatest variations on the theme, Giacomo Puccini’s enduring Tosca (Sept 26–Jan 29, $46–$207). Riddled with the cat-and-mouse games of prima donna Tosca and Baron Scarpia, this ever-popular opera captures Puccini at the height of his radiant melodrama.

Soprano Renée Fleming hits up Symphony Center for its Opening Night Gala (Oct 3 at 7pm, $55–$185), where she’ll sing Richard Strauss’s “Freundliche Vision,” “Zueignung,” “Winterweihe” and “Verführung,” as well as “Knoxville: Summer of 1915” by Samuel Barber.

An October dilemma
The Chicago Sinfonietta celebrates wonderful Indonesian gamelan when the Northern Illinois University Gamelan Ensemble teams up with local virtuoso pianist Jeremy Jordan and erhu player Betti Xiang for its West Meets East program (Oct 5 at 7:30pm, Symphony Center, $26–$96).

That same night, farther north on Michigan Avenue, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s MusicNOW series (Oct 5 at 8pm, Harris Theater) gets rolling with unconventional works by American composer Frederic Rzewski and Hungarian György Kurtág—an unusual but brilliant pairing. Rzewski’s Pocket Symphony requires a trash-can lid, mouth harp and rain stick in the percussion section, while Kurtág’s deeply beautiful Messages of the Late Miss R.V. Troussova is based on hallucinatory texts by the Russian poet Rimma Dalos.

Drumming up support
One of the many highlights of the Harris Theater’s fall season includes the Chicago premiere of the magnificent Orquestra de São Paulo (Oct 12 at 7:30pm, $45–$75). Scottish virtuoso Dame Evelyn Glennie pounds with the orchestra, led by 29-year-old conductor Kazem Abdullah. The Latin-themed program includes the local premiere of a new percussion concerto by Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre, as well as significant works by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Béla Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin.

Party of five
The 17th season of Chicago’s Orion Ensemble opens with the series “Musical Connections,” in which the quintet performs original works, rarities and favorites (Oct 11 at 3pm, Nichols Hall at the Music Institute of Chicago; Oct 21 at 7:30pm, Fine Arts Building). The first performances feature Franz Schubert’s Trio in B Flat Major for Violin, Cello, and Piano, Op. 99, along with two masterful but lesser-known 20th-century works: the Sonatina in C Major for Clarinet and Piano (1957) by Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu and the 1992 Suite for Clarinet, Violin and Piano by Armenian composer Alexander Arutiunian.

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