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You have everything you need. Then you double it. Then you lose it all. How do you get it back? Where do you end up?

Chicago Fringe Opera is proud to take part in Decameron Opera Coalition’s inaugural series “Tales from a Safe Distance.”

October 9 through October 30 new episodes from the series will be released from companies all over the country. Each episode includes two to three works, creating a total of 10 unique tales. Fringe will be featured in Episode 4: “The Bolts of Fortune ” with our piece “Corsair.” “Corsair” is one man’s journey from greed to humility, from isolation to community, all told through the epic form of hip-hopera.

This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

Cast

"Man" / Composer / Librettist

K. F. Jacques

K. F. Jacques

"Man" / Composer / Librettist

K. F. Jacques [pronounced k. f. Żak] is a classical singer and hip hop producer. He has been featured on the Rosie Show (Oprah Winfrey Network), various Polish Television and radio networks, and has toured the US, Poland, and several other countries! Currently he is the head composer of, and plays the role of Figaro in, “The Rosina Project”, a hip-hopera version of The Barber of Seville with a cast of talented rappers, dancers, a beatboxer, dj, and singers. The Rosina Project was recently included in The Pivot Arts Festival two years in a row, featured on ABC 7 News, Chicago SunTimes, and The Chicago Tribune, and was also featured in a citywide summer tour of Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks. Shortly after completing his Masters in opera performance, bass-baritone Khary Laurent took to producing his own material and creating a brand-new genre on the forefront of hip-hop and opera music under the pseudonym K. F. Jacques. Mr. Laurent has advanced from a chauffeur day job to captivating audiences worldwide with his exceptional fusion of rap, opera, and pop; dubbed OperaTronic. He’s performed multiple times as a headliner at House of Blues Chicago, and has performed his classic solo rendition of the national anthem at United Center, U. S. Cellular Field, and Soldier Field.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Corsair Man / Composer / Librettist 2020
The Rosina Project Figaro / Composers / Producer 2019

"Woman"

Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas

Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas

"Woman"

Singer and actress, Mrs. Takesha Meshé Kizart-Thomas, is being praised by critics worldwide for her visually, and vocally, compelling performances. Select stage and screen credits include Random Acts of Flyness (HBO), The Verdian Voice (ARTE), Spicks and Specks (ABC TV), Intimate Apparel (Lincoln Center Theater), Tosca (Opera Australia, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Dallas Opera, Colorado Symphony), La bohème (Metropolitan Opera of NY, Opera Australia, Deutsche Oper Berlin), Madama Butterfly (Deutsche Oper Berlin, Slovenian National Theatre), Cassandra / Elektra (Deutsche Oper Berlin), Mefistofele (Opera Montpellier), Marie Victoire (Deutsche Oper Berlin), La forza del destino (Caramoor Music Festival), Il trovatore (Oper Stuttgart, National Theatre Tokyo), Norma (Opera North UK), L’isola disabitata (Gotham Chamber Opera), Bluebeard’s Castle (Oper Köln), Othello and Macbeth (Altamura Center for the Arts). A versatile Classical, Jazz, Soul, and Pop Vocal Soloist, she has also appeared with Yo-Yo Ma and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Philadelphia Orchestra, Kimmel Center, African American Museum of Philadelphia, Winspear Opera House, Fort Worth Opera & Symphony, Dallas Arts District Tuesday Nite Jazz, Aspen Music Festival, Palm Beach Opera Orchestra, Knoxville Museum of Art, France Musique, MIDEM Festival, Palais des Festivals Cannes, and Broadway In Chicago, including nominations for Germany’s Opernwelt Award for “Female Singer of the Year. With a strong belief in education, creation, and community as evidenced by her recent partnerships with Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas as the first Vocal Artist In-Residence, and with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra as the Inaugural Purpose Over Pain Artist, Arranger, and Producer. A performer since the age of two, the Chicago native and alumnae of the lauded University of North Texas and Philadelphia’s storied Academy of Vocal Arts counts music legends McKinley “Muddy Waters” Morganfield and Tina Turner among her relations.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Corsair Woman 2020

Artistic Team

Creative Director
George Cederquist

George Cederquist

Creative Director

George is the Producing Artistic Director of Chicago Fringe Opera, called “the city’s alt-opera company” by the Chicago Tribune. Recent directing credits for the company include LA JETEÉ and CORSAIR, as well as the company’s long-running hit show THE ROSINA PROJECT, a Hip-Hop adaptation of THE BARBER OF SEVILLE.
In addition, George has directed new productions and workshops of operas, musicals, and plays with Opera Festival of Chicago, Chicago Dramatists, the Chicago Sinfonietta, Pittsburgh Opera, the Bay View Music Festival and Chicago Folks Operetta.
An inspiring mentor, George is the Producing Artistic Director of Opera and Theatre at North Park University.

Now in its ninth season, George hosts OPERA BOX SCORE [America’s Talk Radio Show About Opera] on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and WNUR 89.3 FM Chicago.

To learn more about George, visit gjcederquist.com. He proudly uses zero social media platforms.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

The Heroes Project – The Widow’s Will Director 2021
A City of Works Artistic Director 2021
Corsair Creative Director 2020
The Rosina Project Fall 2021 (NOITP) Concept & Stage Direction 2021
Arts in the Dark Director 2019
Woyzeck Director 2019
The Rosina Project Director 2019
The Long Christmas Dinner Director 2019
The Rossini Project Director 2018
The Great God Pan Director 2018
Lucrezia Director 2017
In the Penal Colony Director 2016
The Turn of the Screw Director 2015
Voices in the Dark, Jazz & Trouble in Tahiti Director 2015
The Rape of Lucretia Director 2014
Creative Director
Catherine O'Shaughnessy

Catherine O'Shaughnessy

Creative Director

Catherine O’Shaughnessy is a rising orchestral and opera conductor in the United States and abroad. Her performances have earned rave reviews from the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Classical Review (“great skill, alertness and sensitivity”), and Vocal Arts Chicago (“resourcefulness…scrappiness and…fierce concentration”). Avidly committed to Chicago’s dynamic musical scene, she is currently the music director of Chicago Fringe Opera, and Principal Conductor of the 5th Wave Collective. In 2020, she proudly helped produce Fringe’s contribution to the Decameron Opera Coalition’s Tales From a Safe Distance—winner of the “Best Collaboration” award from 360° of Opera—which makes innovative use of technology to reimagine this art for challenging new circumstances.

A semi-finalist in the 2016 Spazio Musica International Conducting Competition, Catherine made her New York debut conducting Antonio Salieri’s La Cifra with the dell’Arte Opera Ensemble. She has also music directed Pyramus and Thisbe in Freiberg (Mittelsächsisches Theater) and conducted Don Giovanni and La Traviata in Orvieto (Teatro Mancinelli). In 2013 she conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra at a sold-out performance in Tchaikovsky Hall, and in 2017 she guest-conducted the Piccadilly Symphony Orchestra (Manchester, UK). Catherine holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in orchestral and opera conducting from Arizona State University, where she was a student of William Reber and Timothy Russell.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Two Remain Music Director 2022
Woyzeck Music Director 2019
Love Wounds Music Director 2019
The Long Christmas Dinner Music Director 2019
The Great God Pan Music Director 2018
Lucrezia Music Director 2017
Song from the Uproar Conductor 2016
In the Penal Colony Conductor 2016
Composer / Librettist
K. F. Jacques

K. F. Jacques

Composer / Librettist

K. F. Jacques [pronounced k. f. Żak] is a classical singer and hip hop producer. He has been featured on the Rosie Show (Oprah Winfrey Network), various Polish Television and radio networks, and has toured the US, Poland, and several other countries! Currently he is the head composer of, and plays the role of Figaro in, “The Rosina Project”, a hip-hopera version of The Barber of Seville with a cast of talented rappers, dancers, a beatboxer, dj, and singers. The Rosina Project was recently included in The Pivot Arts Festival two years in a row, featured on ABC 7 News, Chicago SunTimes, and The Chicago Tribune, and was also featured in a citywide summer tour of Chicago Park District’s Night Out in the Parks. Shortly after completing his Masters in opera performance, bass-baritone Khary Laurent took to producing his own material and creating a brand-new genre on the forefront of hip-hop and opera music under the pseudonym K. F. Jacques. Mr. Laurent has advanced from a chauffeur day job to captivating audiences worldwide with his exceptional fusion of rap, opera, and pop; dubbed OperaTronic. He’s performed multiple times as a headliner at House of Blues Chicago, and has performed his classic solo rendition of the national anthem at United Center, U. S. Cellular Field, and Soldier Field.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Corsair Man / Composer / Librettist 2020
The Rosina Project Figaro / Composers / Producer 2019
Production Design / Effects
Brad Caleb Lee

Brad Caleb Lee

Production Design / Effects

Brad Caleb Lee is a UK based visual dramaturge. With CFO he designed Lucrezia, The Long Christmas Dinner, Woyzeck, Corsair and co-conceived A City of Works. Other collaborators include East Riding Theatre, Opera’r Ddraig, Summer Theatre of New Cannon, Richard Burton Theatre Company, Elan Frontoio, Welsh National Opera, Opera Sonic, Music Theatre Wales, Prague Shakespeare Company, Theatre Tuscaloosa, Hell in a Handbag, and Filament Theatre.

Brad curated and designed YOUR VOICE!, an immersive community-driven exhibition reopening the Wales Millennium Centre, was the Curatorial Producer of Prague Quadrennial 2019, was featured in World Stage Design 2017, and co-designed the award-winning British pavilion, MAKE/BELIEVE for PQ2015 / Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Brad is the founding editor of Ascending and has previously edited other publications on theatre design. He holds an MA from the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama and both a BA and a BS of Commerce from The University of Alabama.

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

Two Remain Production Designer 2022
A City of Works Co-concept / Designer 2021
Corsair Production Designer 2020
Woyzeck Production Designer 2019
The Long Christmas Dinner Set Designer 2019
Lucrezia Production Designer 2017
Song from the Uproar Assistant Director & Stage Manager 2016
Lighting Director
Ted Nazarowski

Ted Nazarowski

Lighting Director

Ted Nazarowski has worked in many facets of theater throughout his career. In addition to his day job as a music and theater teacher in the Chicago Public Schools, Mr. Nazarowski has worked as a director, musician, and designer throughout the Chicago area. Recent lighting design credits include A Fool’s Journey (Misfit Circus), Lucrezia and Songs from the Uproar (Chicago Fringe Opera), The Violet Hour (South Shore Opera) and The Consul (Main Street Opera). He is thrilled to be working with such an amazingly talented cast and crew!

Productions with Chicago Fringe Opera

The Long Christmas Dinner Lighting Designer 2019
The Great God Pan Technical Director 2018
Lucrezia Lighting Designer 2017
Song from the Uproar Lighting Designer 2016
Director of Photography / Editor
Rick Schuler

Media

Tales from a Safe Distance: Episodes

Episode 1

Both Gladsome and Grievous

Oct 9, 2020, 7:00pm (CT)

DECAMERON OPERA COALITION

The Happy Hour

Introduction

LYRIC OPERA OF THE NORTH

Everything Comes to a Head

BARE OPERA

The Late Walk

Episode 2

Prompted by Appetite

Oct 16, 2020, 7:00pm (CT)

FARGO-MOORHEAD OPERA

Dinner 4 3

URBANARIAS

The Roost

Episode 3

So Noble a Heart

Oct 23, 2020, 7:00pm (CT)

MILWAUKEE OPERA THEATRE

Orsa Ibernata

OPERA IN THE HEIGHTS

Seven Spells

AN OPERA THEATRE

The Sky Where You Are

Episode 4

The Bolts of Fortune

Oct 30, 2020, 7:00pm (CT)

RESONANCE WORKS

Sourdough: Rise Up

CHICAGO FRINGE OPERA

Corsair

DECAMERON OPERA COALITION

The Happy Hour

Finale

Supported by The MacArthur Funds for Arts and Culture at The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, The CityArts Grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs & Special Events, & the Illinois Arts Council Agency. Chicago Fringe Opera is an Opera America Partner.

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