Ravinia 2022, Issue 3

ANDREW CIOFFI ( TURANDOT ); KYLE FLUBACKER ( IDOMENEO ); PATRICK GIPSON ( FLUTE ) Clockwise from left: Brugger in her Metropolitan Opera (2012) and Lyric Opera of Chicago (2018, pictured) debut role of Liù in Puccini’s Turandot ; in her most recent starring role at the Lyric, the Trojan princess Ilia in Mozart’s Idomeneo , with Angela Brower as Idamante (right); as the First Lady in Mozart’s The Magic Flute , flanked by René Barbera as Tamino (left) and Nathan Gunn as Papageno (right), in her 2012 theatrical-debut season at Ravinia with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the background bring to the table. It helps me. I feel like a student because I am always learning.” As a hometown girl, Brugger’s Windy City successes have held spe- cial significance. Chicago Symphony audiences recently heard her in Bee- thoven’s Ninth Symphony under Ric- cardo Muti. “That was an incredible experience!” she enthuses. “I was so excited to work with the legend that is Muti. He is a genius. He is kind and gets the very best out of his musicians. It was extra special because the text is all about coming together in broth- erhood, and we performed it just as the war in Ukraine began. Muti gave an incredibly powerful speech about it, and you could feel the energy from the audience flowing through all of us onstage. That’s what music is about. Another special performance was my debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago [as Puccini’s Liù, which also introduced Brugger to the Met]. I don’t think I had ever felt the kind of reception I received when I came out for my bow that night. It was so special to be home, on that stage, to sing a role that I love and have people respond as they did. It will never leave me.” Brugger recently won notoriety beyond the opera house with her heartrending rendition of Laura Karpman’s mini-requiem “Tulsa, 1921: Catch the Fire” on HBO’s Lovecraft County. Written as a sort of lamenta- tion to underscore the series’ treat- ment of the horrendous 1921 Tulsa race massacre, the piece became a runaway hit. “I loved it! I knew the piece was going to be in, but didn’t know exactly how it would be used. I watched along with everybody else. By the time it came on, I was crying. Not because of me singing, but the gravity of what happened in our histo- ry. Just knowing how devastating that event was and hearing how they put the music with it—I was so blessed that I got to be a part of that. I had to wait an hour and watch it again, just to take it all in.” And how did it feel to enter American pop culture? Brugger chuckles mischievously, “It was pretty frickin’ cool.” Ravinia’s audience can sample Brugger’s artistry twice this season. In August, as part of James Conlon’s revived Mozart in the Martin series, she essays the role of Servilia in La clemenza di Tito , an assignment she recently sang under Conlon in Los Angeles. “I am thrilled to work with James again, especially in this role I only just did with him three years ago.” On July 30 she takes on Bern- stein’s Kaddish Symphony, which she has never sung before. “The biggest difficulty is getting the language down, because I have never sung in Hebrew. But it is just so beautiful. The narrator’s text relates so much to our culture today—asking God about the failures of mankind, and feeling such hopelessness, yet then finding faith and strength. It is uniquely beautiful.” “I am very down to earth,” Brugger reflects. “I try to be humble. All the opportunities I have been given, the great places I have seen—none of this is taken for granted. I have enormous gratitude to be able to do what I do, and for my family. My family comes first. My son means the world to me. I’m really just a homebody. I’m pretty chill.” Mark Thomas Ketterson is the Chicago correspondent for Opera News . He has also written for the Chicago Tribune , Playbill , Chicago magazine, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center. RAVINIA MAGAZINE • JULY 18 – JULY 31, 2022 16