Summer means free music in Chicago

One of the joys of summer for the Lakeshore East neighborhood is the Grant Park Music Festival. It is completely free, conveniently located, and replete with quality performances.

Upcoming concerts include works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Berlioz. The Great Lawn is a five minute walk from Columbus and Randolph and it’s a great spot to picnic with friends while being serenaded under the geometric spider web of speakers.

As the sun goes down and the city lights emerge, you are immersed in an experience that you could never have in a concert hall.

If crowds aren’t your preference, you can always show up for the far less attended rehearsals, which typically occur around lunch time.

I once stood on the serpentine BP Pedestrian Bridge watching a Joffrey Ballet performance. During one of the solo dances, the music suddenly cut out, leaving the entire park in utter silence.

Unperturbed, the dancer continued his movements, leaping gracefully around the stage as thousands of onlookers held their collective breath. A few minutes later, the speakers flared back to life, revealing that the dancer hadn’t missed a beat, and as he finished his awe-inspiring number, the audience stood and cheered. They knew they had witnessed something very special.

In 2008, the Chicago Opera Theater staged a unique performance of Don Giovanni. The opera was performed in the nearby Harris Theater, and it was projected live onto a large screen at the Pritzker Pavilion.

It was a chilly evening in late April, but the production was so engrossing that we stayed until the end.

For the bows, the company saluted the Harris Theater audience, then ran thru a connecting tunnel to emerge in person on the Pritzker Pavilion stage.

They deservedly received two standing ovations. Afterward, my group went to the Gage for a drink; a few minutes later, in walked the cast of Don Giovanni. We told them that we had watched them from the Great Lawn and bought them a drink.

The events of the entire evening served to make the arts more accessible to the citizens of Chicago, a worthy legacy for the Grant Park Music Festival.

— Matthew Reiss