Haymarket Opera Company

Description

Haymarket Opera Company is a nationally acclaimed early music ensemble featuring an orchestra of period instruments and employing staging conventions of the 17th and 18th centuries. The ensemble has been lauded in the New York Times, Italy's L'Opera, the Washington Post, Early Music America, Musical America, and the Chicago Tribune. 

Work Sample

This is an excerpt reel from Haymarket's film production of Handel's "Orlando" starring Bejun Mehta.

This reel is of an intimate holiday concert performed by Artistic Director Craig Trompeter and lutenist Brandon Acker in 2021. The program was music for viola da gamba by French baroque composer Marin Marais.

This is a highlight reel from Haymarket's production of John Frederick Lampe's opera "The Dragon of Wantley." "Dragon" is a lampoon of 18th-century operatic traditions with an English libretto and an extremely accessible musical score.

The three examples show Haymarket's breadth from intimate chamber music concerts to fully-staged operatic performances.

History

Since 2011 Haymarket Opera Company has advanced a culturally vibrant community, diversifying the artistic landscape of Chicago and the Midwest through the historically-inspired presentation of opera and oratorio from the Age of Enlightenment. HOC implements historical performance practices such as period musical instruments, costuming, lighting, staging conventions, acting styles, and dance traditions. HOC has received glowing reviews in the Chicago Tribune, Italy’s L’Opera, Opera News, and Early Music America. The New York Times praised HOC’s “finely played, carefully sung, lovingly detailed period performance.” In 2017, HOC made its international festival debut at the Valletta Baroque Festival in Malta. HOC has collaborated with Chicago Opera Theater, Chicago Chorale, Elements Contemporary Ballet, and in 2020 began a partnership with DePaul University.

Artistic Vision

HOC implements historical performance practices such as period musical instruments, costuming, lighting, staging conventions, acting styles, and dance traditions. Haymarket is committed to providing transformational educational opportunities to emerging professionals in historical performance, musicology, and arts administration. We believe the rich, unexplored repertoire of the 17th and 18th centuries belongs to humanity at large.