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Canadian tenor Joseph Kaiser considers himself a Chicagoan, given that he cut his operatic teeth, as it were, during his 2005 summer residency at Ravinia Festival’s Steans Institute and even sang in Verdi’s “Otello,” as well as sang the Beethoven Ninth Symphony at the summer music festival before his three years at Lyric Opera’s Ryan Center (where he also sang in many productions as well as took the lead in Chicago Opera Theater’s “Béatrice et Bénédict”). The handsome and golden-voiced tenor is on the fast track to a major career and has also made his Metropolitan Opera, Broadway and Salzburg debuts, among others, but most “life-altering,” to use Kaiser’s own description, is his appearance as Tamino in Kenneth Branagh’s film version of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” sung in English, which has another Chicago connection in that Ravinia music director James Conlon conducted the score and which is slowly but surely popping up one country at a time, having already played in France, Italy, Germany, Japan, England and gradually making its way to North America. Kaiser returns to Ravinia for an appearance on its “Rising Stars” series joined by pianist Craig Rutenberg for his area recital debut in a program that will include Liszt’s “Tre sonetti di Petrarca,” Britten’s “Winter Words” and Beaudoin’s “Romanzero” Lieder. $20. (Dennis Polkow)
Friday, March 28 at Ravinia Festival’s Bennett-Gordon Hall, Green Bay and Lake Cook, Highland Park, (847)266-5100. 8pm.
