Leisure News

Riccardo Muti marks his 13th and final season as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s music director in 2022-23. Once his tenure is complete, he and the orchestra will have performed more than 500 concerts together at Symphony Center, across the U.S. and around the world. Muti will lead nine programs in 2022/23, including Mussorgsky’s “Pictures From an Exhibition” from Oct. 6-8 and Respighi’s “Pines of Rome” from May 25-27, 2023. (cso.org) A live recording of Muti directing the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Mascagni’s “Cavalleria rusticana” will soon be available. To learn more, click here.  

Thirty-One Days of Italians had released its 2021-22 List with a notable Italian American selected for every day in October. On this year’s list are explorers Eusebio Francesco Chini and Enrico de Tonti, ice-rink surfacing machine inventor Frank Zamboni, best-selling author Angelo Siringo, and Francis Rogallo, known as the father of modern hang gliding, For the complete list, click here.

Singer/songwriter Iliana Incandela was all set to marry music producer Nomad Saint when the pandemic struck, postponing the event. Turning her attention inward, Incandela decided to sort out a toxic relationship through the song “Bad Company.” “Nomad made the track, and I wrote the lyrics. Then we recorded the vocals in my closet!” she explains. Produced in English and Italian, “It’s based on an Italian proverb my mother would always say to me: ‘Meglio sola che male accompagnata’ (Better alone than in bad company).” Iliana is the daughter of local singing and dining legend Enzo Incandela. Her music is available …

When retired Circuit Court Judge Gloria Coco isn’t teaching classes at the IIT-Chicago Kent College of Law, she’s on the hunt for her next acting opportunity. A member of the Screen Actors Guild, she recently landed a role in Amazon Prime’s sci-fi thriller “Utopia.” The eight-episode series stars Chicago native John Cusack and Rainn Wilson of “The Office.” The show follows a group of internet pen pals who band together to save the world. When a pandemic strikes, the characters played by Cusack and Wilson must oversee competing vaccine proposals from Tomi Tambler, a by-the-books FDA agent played by Coco, …

Entertainer Tony Ocean has launched a daily program on the “Tony Ocean Show” Facebook page. Billed as “the little show about big things,” “Ocean’s Pit” airs Mondays through Fridays at noon. Ocean brings in guests from all walks of life to discuss movies, TV shows and a variety of other topics, including the host’s impersonation of Dean Martin in the long-running show “The Rat Pack is Back.” On Tuesdays, he takes his microphone to visit local restaurants, and on Thursdays, he co-hosts with his wife, Laura.  

The Lyric Opera of Chicago will showcase lesser-known gems by beloved Italian composers in a virtual concert curated and hosted by Lyric’s Music Director Designate Enrique Mazzola and presented by the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. With Maestro Mazzola at the piano, members of the Ryan Opera Center 2020-21 ensemble will perform songs by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi, Puccini and Mascagni, all lovingly selected by Mazzola. The ensemble includes sopranos Maria Novella Malfatti and Denis Vélez; mezzo-sopranos Katherine Beck, Katherine DeYoung and Kathleen Felty; tenors Martin Luther Clark and Lunga Eric Hallam; baritones Leroy Davis and Ricardo …

Anyone who has attended a presentation by Lyric Opera Music Director Designate Enrique Mazzola knows what a dynamic speaker he is. Now the whole world can bask in his unique presence via an original and engaging web series dubbed “Breaking Down the Score: Attila.” Each of the 12 episodes in this series features a personal interpretation and reading by Maestro Mazzola of a musical number from Verdi’s early opera “Attila.” Launched in October and running through mid-December, the entire series can be viewed by subscribing to the Lyric’s YouTube channel. To view current and previous episodes, click here.  

This fall, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra is offering access its best free and premium content on demand and in high definition on CSOtv. Premiering Oct. 1, the CSO will release several new digital collections on its new online channel, including CSO Sessions, a series of chamber music performances with CSO musicians filmed on stage in Orchestra Hall. Also premiering on CSOtv will be archival CSO concerts, programs for children, jazz performances, piano recitals and more. Episodes go on sale Sept. 17, with paid programming starting at $15. To sign up, click, here.      

Thirty-One Days of Italians has released its 2021 listing. The list provides a person of Italian heritage to learn about and celebrate for each day in October, Italian American Heritage Month. Thirty-One Days of Italians was established in 2006 by educator and researcher Janice Mancuso to promote the significant contributions that those of Italian heritage have made to America. The website features 74 names in total, with some appearing on the annual list each year and others rotating in and out. The first day in October honors the Italian immigrant and the last day is set aside to honor someone …

Local artist Cosima Aryee has had a busy summer, with works on display at no fewer than four locations across the Chicago area. Her oil-on-canvas paintings can be viewed through September as part of a group exhibit at the Elmhurst Art Museum Guild Gallery and at a solo show at Overland Gallery in Harvard. A solo exhibit at Prairie Title in Oak Park and a nationally juried show at the Old Court House Arts Center in Woodstock wrapped up in August. Born in Taranto, Italy, Aryee moved to Chicago when she was 12 years old. She served in the U.S. …