All the News that's Fit to Print
Praise for A Gilbert and Sullivan Jewelry Box: The Best of The Worst, The Finest Music from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Grand Duke and Utopia Limited, and Cox and Box, November 2017:
"An evening of Gilbert & Sullivan deep cuts in two parts, this is the maiden voyage for Transgressive Theatre-Opera in collaboration with the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company of Hyde Park. The double bill opens with a tedious sort of tribute to two works from the tail end of the Savoy opera duo’s canon, The Grand Duke (1896) and Utopia Limited (1893). Adapter Aaron Hunt, also the company’s artistic director, salvages a decent 90-minute concert from what he describes, in his additional capacity as the show’s narrator, as a pair of flops. But Cox and Box (1847) is another story. To see sopranos Teaira Burge and Celeste Peake go to work on this one-act farce as two gents renting a single apartment, unbeknownst to one another, is simply to fall in love with them. Susan Gosdick plays Bouncer, their landlord."
Max Maller, The Chicago Reader
Praise for A CHEKHOV TRIO, June 2016:
"The newly-minted Transgressive Theatre-Opera is riding the wave of curiosity for bizarro chamber opera that favors story-telling over melodies you have heard on America's Got Talent. They have an impressive roster of singers featured in their Chekhov Trio of operas , notably Chicago's favorite bass-baritone and Ryan Center alum David Govertsen, who just returned from performances of Salome with Detroit Symphony Orchestra; and Mary Lutz-Govertsen who recently made a very strong impression in John Musto's song cycle Penelope with VOX 3 Collective."
Praise for The Seduction of a Lady, June 2016:
"UPDATE: Richard Wargo's The Seduction of a Lady, the third part of A CHEKHOV TRIO: "The Boor," "A Few Words about Chekhov," and "The Seduction of a Lady" is a delightful romp. It is a rom-com lyrical drama that traverses the boundaries between music theater and opera. Transgressive Theatre-Opera formerly Chicago Theatre-Opera has cast the perfect singing actors in Anne Slovin, Jonathan Wilson, Steven Arvanites, and Paul W. Thompson. Accompanied by pianist Sarah Jenks, violinist Shaleah Feinstein, and cellist Benjamin Rogers, they bring this work to life with all of its comic, romantic, and musical potential, allowing the audience to forget that they are in the lounge of a Metra station, a tiny space that seats 30."
Oliver Camacho, Editor, Chicago Vocal Arts
Praise for The Telephone & Hello Out There, June 2015:
"Mary Lutz-Govertsen and David Govertsen were very good as Lucy and Ben. Both are excellent comedians who provoked continual laughter...Hunt did a fine job of coaching the Govertsens into sympathetic down-and-outers. Saroyan’s sentimental solidarity with proletarian squalor, 'warmth,' and bad luck did not keep the time from flying by. A thoroughly enjoyable evening."
-Bill Sweetland, New City Stage Review
Click here for the full review
"An evening of Gilbert & Sullivan deep cuts in two parts, this is the maiden voyage for Transgressive Theatre-Opera in collaboration with the Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company of Hyde Park. The double bill opens with a tedious sort of tribute to two works from the tail end of the Savoy opera duo’s canon, The Grand Duke (1896) and Utopia Limited (1893). Adapter Aaron Hunt, also the company’s artistic director, salvages a decent 90-minute concert from what he describes, in his additional capacity as the show’s narrator, as a pair of flops. But Cox and Box (1847) is another story. To see sopranos Teaira Burge and Celeste Peake go to work on this one-act farce as two gents renting a single apartment, unbeknownst to one another, is simply to fall in love with them. Susan Gosdick plays Bouncer, their landlord."
Max Maller, The Chicago Reader
Praise for A CHEKHOV TRIO, June 2016:
"The newly-minted Transgressive Theatre-Opera is riding the wave of curiosity for bizarro chamber opera that favors story-telling over melodies you have heard on America's Got Talent. They have an impressive roster of singers featured in their Chekhov Trio of operas , notably Chicago's favorite bass-baritone and Ryan Center alum David Govertsen, who just returned from performances of Salome with Detroit Symphony Orchestra; and Mary Lutz-Govertsen who recently made a very strong impression in John Musto's song cycle Penelope with VOX 3 Collective."
Praise for The Seduction of a Lady, June 2016:
"UPDATE: Richard Wargo's The Seduction of a Lady, the third part of A CHEKHOV TRIO: "The Boor," "A Few Words about Chekhov," and "The Seduction of a Lady" is a delightful romp. It is a rom-com lyrical drama that traverses the boundaries between music theater and opera. Transgressive Theatre-Opera formerly Chicago Theatre-Opera has cast the perfect singing actors in Anne Slovin, Jonathan Wilson, Steven Arvanites, and Paul W. Thompson. Accompanied by pianist Sarah Jenks, violinist Shaleah Feinstein, and cellist Benjamin Rogers, they bring this work to life with all of its comic, romantic, and musical potential, allowing the audience to forget that they are in the lounge of a Metra station, a tiny space that seats 30."
Oliver Camacho, Editor, Chicago Vocal Arts
Praise for The Telephone & Hello Out There, June 2015:
"Mary Lutz-Govertsen and David Govertsen were very good as Lucy and Ben. Both are excellent comedians who provoked continual laughter...Hunt did a fine job of coaching the Govertsens into sympathetic down-and-outers. Saroyan’s sentimental solidarity with proletarian squalor, 'warmth,' and bad luck did not keep the time from flying by. A thoroughly enjoyable evening."
-Bill Sweetland, New City Stage Review
Click here for the full review