Spotlight

Giorgio Berrugi was making a name for himself as a concert clarinetist until an impromptu serenade sent him on a completely different career trajectory. Giorgio Berrugi’s unlikely career as one of opera’s most electrifying upstarts is proof that second acts aren’t just for the stage. The 41-year-old tenor, whose voice has been celebrated by opera critics and fans for its bright and full-bodied Italian sound, has ascended into rarefied air in little more than a decade. Berrugi has performed for some of opera’s most esteemed houses — including the Royal Opera House in London, Lincoln Center in New York City …

Fueled by her affinity for Italian opera’s great tragic heroines, Maria Agresta recently returned to Chicago to play the role that launched her flourishing career. With a candle in hand, a poor seamstress searching for a light enters the life of a poet in 19th century Paris. They fall in love, they spar, they reconcile, and finally they mourn a shared flame extinguished far too soon. It’s beautiful. It’s heartbreaking. It’s quintessential opera. Giacomo Puccini’s “La bohème,” which first premiered in 1896, initially received tepid reviews. But the critics didn’t do much to halt the opera’s meteoric rise, and more …

Despite ascending to a comedic pantheon that includes the likes of Seinfeld and Chappelle, he remains rooted thanks to his Sicilian-American upbringing. When talking about ace standup Sebastian Maniscalco, Jerry Seinfeld once lovingly quipped, “Has anybody in the history of comedy had more syllables in their name?” That’s how you know Maniscalco, a comedian who has spent the last 20 years building a career up from scratch, has finally reached rock-star standup status. Here was Seinfeld, the reigning king of comedians who reportedly earned $69 million last year alone for his own standup, inviting Maniscalco on his streaming show, “Comedians …