Chicago Opera Theater is finally saying good-bye to the Athenaeum. The double production of World War II-era operas Brundibar and Comedy on the Bridge, opening there next week, will be COT’s last fling at the venerable theater that’s been its home for most of its 29 years. For the last three seasons, since Brian Dickie took over as general director, the pairing has made for an extraordinary experience. Patrons have climbed the stairs of the more or less decrepit Lakeview venue (built in 1911 as an appendage to Saint Alphonsus Church), paid $35 to $75 for tickets (half that for students), settled into backbreaking seats in the cozy old auditorium, and had their socks knocked off by world-class productions of Baroque and modern work, some of it pretty obscure. At Dickie’s COT, opera is neither stately nor quaint: it’s sexy, smart, edgy, luscious looking, in-your-face, and–oh yes, musically superb. Coming upon it in this funky, small-scale neighborhood environment has been known to produce a frisson in the patron akin to the one Steppenwolf generated so long ago in its Highland Park church basement. Years from now, people who were at the Athenaeum for COT’s 2001 Orfeo or last year’s Cosi fan tutte or this year’s Agrippina will be talking about the glory of being there. But circumstances like these tend to be temporary. Next season, COT will take up residence in the slick new Music and Dance Theater still under construction in Millennium Park.
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The company ran a surplus of about $50,000 last year and is expected to break even or show a similar surplus this year. But like most nonprofits in this economy, “we’ve encountered some [fund-raising] difficulties,” Dickie says. “There’s been an upsurge in people giving $1,000 or less”–he likes to have a broad base of smaller donors–“but no one should think it’s easy. We can control our costs, and we can forecast our revenue from ticket sales, but tickets only account for 25 percent [of the budget]. The other 75 percent–those last hundreds of thousands of dollars–you’ve just got to get it in by the end of the financial year.” He believes the relationship between COT and its new home will be synergistic, their futures intimately linked. “We’ve got tremendous affection for the Athenaeum, but the business model here doesn’t really work for us. Music and Dance is crucial to our success, and we’ll play an important part there. It’s going to be transforming.” That’ll be great. But these are the good old days.
