My (radio) guest tonight: Francesca Zambello on her Lyric Opera staging of 'Show Boat,' Wagner, etc., et al.

Francesca Zambello -- Illustration by Tom Bachtell for The New Yorker.

Tonight from 10 to 11 p.m. CST on Critical Thinking on 98.7WFMT Chicago -- and via free streaming anywhere at wfmt.com -- I talk with acclaimed opera director and Glimerglass Festival artistic director Francesca Zambello.  

Zambello's excellent new production of Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Show Boat is running now at Lyric Opera of Chicago through March 17. (You can read my Sun-Times "Highly Recommended" review here.) Among many other projects, Zambello's "American" Ring Cycle was a huge hit at San Francisco Opera last June (and you can listen to my WFMT "Critic's Choice" commentary on it here).  Her fall 2008 Porgy and Bess was that American classic's first staging by Lyric. (My Sun-Times preview of that whirlwind of a production is here.)

We discuss Show Boat as well as Wagner, Porgy, and Glimmerglass 2012 and we listen to music from the late John McGlinn's landmark 1988 recording of his reconstruction of the 1927 musical theatre work.

The program will then be available anytime for free podcast/download/streaming at wfmt.com/criticalthinking.

See you on the radio!