Chicago Tribune - Recommended
"...While the coincidence of reality and fiction was striking, it was incidental to the fact the enthusiastic audience (which included a hefty representation of national and international press) got a gripping performance and a thought-provoking production worthy of a world-class opera company. "Bel Canto" may be dramatically flawed, but, then, so is the book on which it is based and which it is actually superior to."
Chicago Sun Times - Recommended
"...Without question, this is an ambitious, handsomely designed work with an unusually diverse cast. Based on Ann Patchett's 2001 novel of the same name - which drew its inspiration from the 1996 "Lima crisis," when a group of left-wing terrorists held hostage the guests at a high-profile embassy party for a Japanese official for four months in the Peruvian capital - it marks the operatic debuts of both the young composer, Jimmy Lopez, and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz."
Windy City Times - Recommended
"...Bel Canto features the most multicultural company Lyric Opera ever has assembled-and kudos for that, as well as a rich visual production relying heavily on Greg Emetaz's sumptuous projections. Director Kevin Newbury and conductor Sir Andrew Davis have distinguished themselves, as have the singers from chorus on up. Would there was time and space to discuss Bel Canto at greater length. It is beautiful singing, although it isn't traditional singing."
Chicago On the Aisle - Highly Recommended
"...The true measure of Peruvian composer Jimmy López’s new opera “Bel Canto,” which received its world premiere Dec. 7 by the commissioning Lyric Opera of Chicago, transcends its check-list of merits as a skillfully wrought and thoroughly engaging work. It is a compelling tragedy expressive of humanity at its best and most aspiring, and at its most grievously imperfect."
Stage and Cinema - Somewhat Recommended
"...Bel Canto is undoubtedly an impressive production that packs plenty of drama into its intense three hour run time, and while there is much to praise in this brand new opera, it cannot be considered an unqualified success. As an adaptation, it departs too much from the enchanting mood of the original. As an opera, there simply isn't enough beauty in Lopez's rather brash and atonal score."
ChicagoCritic - Highly Recommended
"...Bel Canto is terrific theatre and wonderful opera. It is a refreshing reminder that modern operas need not be dull noisy affairs but, under talented artists, the best of traditional opera can blend with the ideas and techniques of contemporary artists. Jimmy Lopez sure fills that niche. Bel Canto is a stunning new work that deserves an audience. At the second performance om December 10, 2015, the enthusiasm of the audience was genuine as 99.9 % stayed until the end - A good sign for a modern opera! The creatives at the Lyric Opera of Chicago have winner. Kudos to Renee Fleming for curating this fine opera!"
Classical Voice America - Highly Recommended
"...If the timing of Bel Canto's Dec. 7 premiere was almost too painful in terms of its plot, then the quiet message of Ann Patchett's novel of the same name was balancing - that human connections are inevitable once a person looks into another's eyes, no matter how hopeless the overall tragic arc. By the opera's end, as the lights came up on the gilded deco splendor of the Civic Opera House, where the bloody shambles of a hostage crisis had made a wreck of the palatial unit set, it was evident that an important new collaboration had announced itself."
The Fourth Walsh - Highly Recommended
"...With all the hostility the world is experiencing both domestic and foreign, BEL CANTO is this timely beacon. It shares perspectives from all sides of the revolution. Experiencing the evolution of thought and action is profound."
